Schools Out For Summer!!

Deep breath in...........and hold............and let it out. Ahhhhhhhhh...................

Yes. I can now breathe a tiny bit easier.

My first of five quarters of design school is done and now the fun begins!

Mom outside of Olde Good Things

There is no fun like the fun I have with my Mom! Mom came in town to celebrate the end of my first quarter and give me some much need pampering! As always, we were busy little girls trying to squeeze in everything we wanted to do together.

First on the list was to head to downtown LA and show Mom around The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, my school. But first we were distracted by an Architectural Salvage Warehouse called Olde Good Things. Lots of neat antiques to peruse there!!

Here's me and my school!

Unfortunately, they were all closed up for the break and we couldn't get inside.

This is outside the main building. There are severl other buildings that classes are held in, however, all my classes are in the main building. FIDM (Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising) only has access to certain floors in the other buildings around downtown. I love how it is laid out. I love being downtown in the "big city." It's fun and exciting!!

My school's museum was lucky enough to be able to host the 70th Anniversary Screening of the Wizard of Oz.
They also displayed "Inspirations of Oz" Fine Art.

And a collection of 19 Ruby Slippers designed by some of the world's top designers! The 20th pair was designed by a FIDM student!! How cool is that!!

Me on the Yellow Brick Road!

A stop by the Central Los Angeles Public Library. One of the many stops on our "Urban Walking Tour." This library has such great architectural beauty!

Random downtown building.

Pretty as a Princess.

The Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Designed by the famous architect Frank Gehry. He originally intended for the building to be covered in stone. But he decided to dress the building in stainless steel. Among his reasons, he felt the shiny surface would work well changing and reflecting the bright Southern Ccalifornia sun. Over 30,000 architectural drawings were produced to build the Concert Hall. Now, after looking at my architectural drafting homwork, can you IMAGINE!!!!! 30,000!!!!!

Stainless steel is also good for goofy pictures.

My Beautiful Mom. I love this photo!

Jump for Joy!!

WOW!!!

More WOW!

A view of downtown.

The amazing inside.

The Main Entrance.

A free concert. Enjoy!

(I have no idea what came over me).

Extremely cool and impressive.

Next our Urban Walking Tour lead us to The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. Not sure what to say about this except that it's a hugh freakin' Cathedral. My Dad said I needed to check it out, so I did. I was expecting to come across a very old and traditional style Cathedral. Instead I run into this very modern version of a Cathedral. A beautiful piece of architecture none the less.


The georgous inside.

Begging for mercy on my tainted soul.

El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument is near the site of the early Los Angeles pueblo or town where forty-four settlers of Native American, African and European heritage journeyed more than one-thousand miles across the desert from present-day northern Mexico and established a farming community in September 1781. Since that time, Los Angeles has been under the flags of Spain, Mexico and the United States and has grown into one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas. (I googled that).

Back home in Santa Monica and the end of our "Urban Walking Tour." I pass this tree everytime I walk to the bus stop. I finally decided it was time to have my picture taken with it. I think it's beautiful! After Mom took the picture and I asked her if she got a good one, her response was, "yea, you're kinda just an after-thought though." .......Thanks Mom.

Mom has come to California too many times and NOT had a proper seafood meal. To end our wonderful day we headed up to Malibu to Gladstone's Seafood. An awesome restaurant serving up fresh seafood right on the beach.

Cruisin' in style.

Such a lush....

(If you look closely, you can see the waves crashing in the background).

Day 2: Geocache Day!!

That tiny little black speck on the ledge is the cache we found!

This pole was the home to another cache.

This home in Venice, California is featured in many books.

Jesus Time......and another cache!

Do you see Jesus?

The cache was a fake rock!

A proper geo-cacheing adventure can only be successfully exucated while wearing fake tattoos.

And another cache!

There is suppossed to be another cache out here somewhere, but there were way too many dudes fishing to successfully find the cache without being caught.

So instead of finding the cache, we posed for pictures.

I'm exhausted.

Day 3: Malibu Hike.

This is by far my most favorite hike in Malibu...to date. I'm sure there are many more hikes to discover that could possilbe be more fantastic then this one, but it'd be hard to beat. There are streams to cross, rocks to hop, steep hills to climb and a beautiful waterfall to be rewarded with.

The Waterfall.

Gracie.

Here I'm working up the nerve to actually swing on these tree ropes.

Success. Ha Ha!! I'm such a daredevil!

To be continued....

A Saturday in Silverlake

Long before I started school and many, many, many months ago, Joe and I ventured out to explore our city. Since school has started, such leisurely Saturday trips are no longer in my reality. Hopefully, that will not be a continuing trend. Anyways, the following is what I began writing many moons ago and never got finished.......

Ahhh Saturday. A day off from the 'ole Starbucks gig. Joe and I decided to take advantage of our day and explore our great city. With a map full of endless possibilities, we ended up in a super chic and trendy neighborhood called Silverlake, just east of Hollywood. Home to hipsters, musicians and metropolitan transplants looking for a laid-back way of life. Or, as laid-back as a life in La La Land can be. Naturally, a day does not begin without a cup of coffee. We started our morning off a a quaint little coffee shop called.......... and that is where the story ends. This day is such a distant memory for me I no longer remember the coffee shop or any funny stories to go along with the day. So enjoy the following photos, they are the only memories I have.

Joe.

More Joe.

Me.

Joe.

Pinch a palm, it brings you good luck!!

A super big hill!

Joe's favorite toilet.

he he he.

It nearly killed me, but I survived!!

OH MY GOSH!! I knew design school would be a bit of a challenge, but I had no idea I'd have just as many sleepless nights as I would nights of sleep. I'm exhausted!! I had my last final this week and I'm so thankful I made it through. Between putting in my fair share of hours at Starbucks, 3 hour long classes, travel time to class and back, AND homework, my weeks were a chaotic whirl-wind of madness. I can think of no other time in my 26 years of life that were more challenging then the past 11 weeks were for me. However, I've made it through and with straight A's to boot!!!

Let me tell you how my classes were:

My Design Process class, thankfully, was a bit too easy. I enjoyed the class, but didn't find it challenging enough. I felt the assignments were not graded on a hard enough scale and that our time in class was not spent efficiently. However, with my three other classes, I learned to appreciate it, VERY MUCH.

My Computer Automated Drafting Class, or AutoCAD as they call it in the design world, was fascinating! I began to learn a new computer program that will add immense value to my resume. The best part of it was, I enjoyed it! It was fun! The downfall of the class was that I now feel the need to invest in a gigantic computer monitor and "geek" myself out like a true design nerd.

My Survey of Architecture and Interior Design, or more simply, Art History class was just as you might expect. Three hour long lecture with a power point slide presentation to go along with it. Granted, my previous experiences with Art History classes were quite dreadful. Now, whether it be that I was excited for my first quarter back in school, or that I finally feel I have direction in my life, or possibly a combination of both, but I truly enjoyed this class! I'm now quite familiar with all Greek, Roman and Egyptian architecture and furniture and I think it's so cool! I was able to study Louis the XIV, Louis the XV, and Louis the XVI styles of furniture and be able to distinguish what characteristics make them different. The Louis the XVI style chair is my favorite, by the way!! Along with so many other periods of architecture and furniture. It's fascinating. Now, I didn't care much for all the flash cards I had to make and all the memorization it took to pass the tests, but I surprised myself and did quite well.

Now, my Drafting class.....that was quite the class. Again, like every other class, I loved it. I learned a technical skill that is quickly becoming a lost art. I really excelled at this class also. I grew up seeing my father draft and the rolls and rolls of architectural plans he has laying around his office. I never thought one day I'd be doing the same thing. But here I am, drafting away like the mad-hatter! It was miserable. Seriously miserable. Let me show you why:

Week 1:

Okay, you look at this and say "oh, that's not hard." Okay, sure. I agree with that now. However, when he gave us this assignment and tell us to draw these designs to a 1/2"=1'-0" scale and I have no idea what he means and then he tells us that the radius of the circles are so and so and so on and so on, it was a bit intimidating.

Week 2:

Now he had us going from some silly designs to drafting a fireplace at 1/4"=1'-0". I just learned how to use the 1/2" scale and trying to figure out the 1/4" scale really threw me off! I spent several hours on the phone with my father and shed several tears of frustration over this project. Little did I know, this was just child's play compared to what I was working myself up to.

Week 3:

Tad bit more complex, but again, for only my third week of drafting, this was intense. Up to this point, every assignment was taking me many days and many many hours of work.

Week 4:

What the F#*k! This week was sheer panic in my classmates and myself. WHAT!! We go from drafting this simple rotunda to drafting a bathroom with all four elevations! We panicked!! "This is going to take forever!!" "How are we supposed to get this done in one week!?!" "Look at all that writing!!" ha ha ha!!! Little did we know.....

Week 5:

Our assignments got progressively larger and more difficult at rapid speed. By the time this assignment rolled around my entire life was now being consumed by drafting. I was drafting in the morning, in the evening, and at the most un-godly hours of the day. It was becoming tradition that Tuesday night was my all-nighter night. My friend and class mate, Brooke, would also be pulling an all-nighter and we would text back and forth all night encouraging each other to finish and trying to entertain each other to the best of our abilities. If you reading this and thinking, that doesn't look so tough. You're right, it's not that tough, but it's time consuming. VERY time consuming.

Ice Cream Break!! All work and no play makes for a very sad Kara. Me (above) and my new friend and schoolmate, Jennifer (below).

Week 6:

By this week we are seriously hoping that things start to plateau. At this point, out of only 7 students in the class, one has dropped out, 4 are not completing their work on time, and only Jennifer and I are the only ones who manage to get our assignments fully completed.

Week 7:

Same assignment as above, yes...but no. The "client" wanted her kitchen expanded, so I had to re-do the whole thing, plus add in a lot more detail.

Week 8:

Again, very similar to above drawing, only with all the furniture added in on the drawing to the left.

Detail from above drawing.

Week 9 &10:

This was our final project, and most intense. However, I thought it was the most fun to do. It took my life away from me, with out a doubt, but in a weird way, I liked it. My skills improved greatly from week one till now. My lettering got straighter and more accurate and my confidence in my ability to be draft went from 0 to 10.

Well, I appreciate you making it this far in my blog. As much as I'd like to stick around and tell you more about school, I'm tired of thinking about it. This is my new career path, so please don't hesitate to ask if you ever need any design help!

Peace & Love,

LA Girl

This is Life.

Hello Readers.

It's been a tough last few months. Perhaps, as a loyal reader, you've come to my blog on several occasions and have been sorely disappointed by my lack of new and exciting posts. It is my promise to you that in only a few days, I will have posted if not one, but several new posts. I am also working on improving my blog to make it more user interactive, to be able to receive feedback from my readers on what I write. Exciting changes are right around the corner! Thanks for reading!!

Yours Truly,

La Girl