Life Update – September 2013

Oh, hey! Guess who’s alive!? It was touch-and-go there for a minute but I managed to pull through. I really can’t remember the last time I was SO busy in my entire life. Thankfully, I managed to survive the last few weeks of school and have had a few minutes to come up for air over the past couple days. So I think an inclusive (but brief… my brain is garbage after all of the nonsense of this past month) update is in order. Let’s do this.

SCHOOL:  This was the craziest quarter ever. I pulled more all-nighters this quarter (including a few back-to-back doozies) than I ever did in my entire four year college experience, thanks, in most part, to Chairing Styles. The class was an amazing experience, but it was NO joke work-wise. The class is really designed to push you to make great progress in a short amount of time. I was very happy with my final design, but due to the confidential nature of the scholarship contest, I can’t actually share it with you until it makes its runway debut in the spring. I will say, though, that my final pitch to the manufacturers went really well, and I got chosen by on of my top picks! :)  We being working on my chair in the next few weeks. My other classes were fine… I barely remember how I was able to give them any attention, but obviously I did because I pulled off all A’s. Woo! To be honest, this semester totally burned me out. Usually, I try and plan productive things during my two week break. NOT THIS TIME. I am going to nap with Bo and read blogs in bed. :)

I did manage to sneak in a couple fun school-related activities this quarter, so I thought they would be fun to share with you. Please be kind… I am by no means a professional so these were just for fun. I will not pretend that I had any clue what I was doing! ;)

First of all, I was featured in an issue of Ragged Magazine (page 10), talking about how I style a pair of jeans and how that relates to my overall style as a designer.

Secondly, I was also featured on an episode of The Nick Fix with Nick Verreos. You may recognize this awesome man from Project Runway, among many other fashion television shows! Nick was a blast to work with and we did a lot of laughing! :)

So, I did manage to find some time to have a little fun among all of the work madness! Speaking of fun…

WEDDING: We got a bit of a slower start planning the wedding for two reasons. First, I was drowning in school so it was tough to find time for research. Secondly, because Walker is from Nebraska and I am from New York (and we both live in California!), we were having a hard time deciding where to have the wedding! If you think it is tough to plan a wedding in one town, try doing the research for THREE! Thankfully, after several weeks of exploring a million scenarios that might make things easiest for the guests, Walker and I sat down and had a heart-to-heart about what we both truly wanted out of our special day. I took us only a few minutes to realize that we both had the same vision of our dream wedding in our heads.

We both want to get married in the California wine country where we first traveled as a couple, first said I love you, and got engaged. A casual but elegant BBQ wedding on a vineyard is the dream. We know it makes it tougher for the guests, but the location is such a sentimental piece of our lives that we want to share with everyone. We can’t imagine having our special day anywhere else, so we finally jumped into the planning this past week.

Since we want to get the Save the Dates out as soon as possible (since we are leaning toward next summer and most people will have to plan flights), we have done exhaustive venue research and even drove up to wine country on Saturday to see a few in person. We haven’t quite decided on the final spot (we are still waiting on info from a few vineyards), but we have a couple great contenders. For those who are wondering… no, Shoestring Vineyard, where we got engaged, is not doing weddings for two years while the work on the buildings. Boo. They would have been a perfect fit.

It’s impossible to pick a bad venue when you are dealing with these views…

Walker and I are feeling great about the wedding plans, and I will of course share details soon when we make some final decisions. :)

BO: Broke another toenail. Got a little fat. Cute as ever. Happy as ever. Not much else to say! Oh and no, he won’t be in the wedding… he likes to be underfoot too much to stick in the middle of a crowd.

APARTMENT: It looks the same as it did a month ago, so nothing to report. The heater came on (how was the thermostat still set?) for the first time this morning, which means the temperature in the house was lower than 70. Hallelujah! The temp is supposed to shoot up into the 90’s again soon, but at least the nights are starting to cool down. It is FINALLY starting to feel like fall. Football helps. So do pumpkin beverages.

What am I missing? Does that about cover the gap? What else would you like to know about the activities around the cubbyhole?