i.arc summer 08 thesis critiques

I'm sorry I've not posted anything in about two weeks- my head just wasn't in the game.
HOWEVER : last night I went up to Greensboro to the old alma mater to see the thesis presentation for this year's fifth year summer studio, mainly in support of Whitney :)

The projects looked really, really, really great- I come in to these with a pretty harsh, judgmental attitude- the "in my day we walked up hill both ways..." kind of attitude. But I was actually pretty blown away- especially considering these people only had ten weeks to get the work done. Here are a few pictures of just a few of the 25 projects, and a group photo of everyone involved- students, faculty, etc... Suzanne, of an open sketchbook, was actually one of the faculty this year, and from what people were saying last night, she did an amazing job, so congrats to her, as well :) (suzanne- let me know if you want any of the SIX group photos I have and I'll email them to you!)

proof that things haven't changed : somewhere to sleep within the studio:

rowland and I with our little graduate :)

motivate!

These prints from Orange Beautiful sounded like motivational words of wisdom from my mother. I had to have them. Get them here.

sinfully good....

I just arrived back from Las Vegas late last night. I thought I would do a little recap of things we did when we weren't busting it to finish the black, white and yellow bonanza in time for market.

Here you go:

1. Visited the Hoover Dam

2. Had drinks at the new groovy Sushi Samba at the Palazzo

3. Checked out the model condos for the new LEED accredited CityCenter Las Vegas. They had these rad Chihuly glass sculpture reeds in the fountain outside.

Now I could go on and elaborate about these things but I think a little visual candy will do just fine. You can check out more on my Flickr site.

home sweet....

I am in Vegas right now longing for my own apartment. Or this one....on design*sponge sneak peak from Shauna and Stephen of Something's Hiding in here. If you didn't see it yesterday, you simply must check it out. It is glorious.

FLW

I just got back from Chicago, hence the no posts. Although alot of these trips are all work, no play... we busted it so we could do at least one fun thing while there.

We did the whirlwind tour of Oak Park. Which for those of you who don't know is the Mecca for Frank Lloyd Wright. We barely had enough time (after getting on the wrong train) to go to the Unity temple and FLW home and studio. On the in between, we saw a few houses by FLW on Forest ave.

We saw pure evidence what detail he shows to every project from exterior to interior with the arcitecture to the furniture. Some call this unified fluidity, I call it control freak.

However, no matter what your stance on FLW is, he is a mastermind that gave alot to modern design and he has some truly inspiring design. I absolutely loved the design concept behind the Unity Temple and the experience you got from traveling from the outside into the sanctuary. GENIUS... if you have never been, you must go!

You can check out the rest of my photos of oak park here.

craigslist dresser

If anyone lives close to Charlotte, I think this is a pretty cute little dresser for $60 - it's on craigslist here.

it's wedding season!

Sorry I've been MIA for a little while... besides being preoccupied with this that and the other, it's wedding season and I've been totally absorbed in all of the great photography to be seen from it.

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending one of our sorority sister's weddings in Winston-Salem. It was really cute- a Catholic wedding in a really adorable little church, followed by a reception in an art center, I think. It was a very-much pink + orange color scheme and the reception hall was beautifully decorated- the linens, flowers, accents, and decorations all around matched so well. All of these paper lanterns / lights were apparently hung the night before by a few people, including the mother of the bride who has a broken ankle or something! Such a trooper...



I've pretty-much decided that the second I get engaged I'm calling Mary Kate and scheduling my wedding around her availability... you know I stalk these photographer's blogs, but her photos tug at my heart like no other. Hopefully she'll be doing weddings for a long time because I haven't even found someone to marry, but I would have a wedding just to have her photograph it!

Blackberry Pearl

My new car. 2008 Honda Fit sport... I have pure love for it.

Bessie gets sold and retired... but at least they got to meet.

2 public spaces at its best

I remember in Iarc we watched this video in Anna Marshall-Baker's class about shared public spaces in urban environments. Since this video I have caught myself being way more cognoscente of these spaces.

While in Atlanta, I spotted this pretty groovy designed space near the Target in Atlantic Station. I love the vividly colored sunshades juxtaposed against the very hard lined concrete seats.

Another cool Public space I saw recently was in Aarhus, Denmark in the middle of all the shopping pedestrian streets. It has several different levels of seating spread out on the steps leading down to the canal.

surprise!

I am just getting back to Dallas from another jaunt to Atlanta, but it wasn't all work and no play.

Although it was a work trip, we were graciously given 4th of July off (believe me, this is a BIG deal) so I decided I would surprise my family by driving up to our farmhouse where they were having a big bash (found out later this was on sat. not fri.) but still got my immediate fam visit in.

Rental car keys in hand, I do not recommend the Chevy Aveo, I drove to Charlotte that night and then on to the farmhouse for the day on the 4th then back to Atlanta early saturday morn to work.

The only one who was truly surprised (as I had o give up my plan to dad and the brothers in order to see them) was my mom and aunt. It was good. Here are a few pics of the newly and wonderfully renovated farmhouse.

sandboarding

So ya know I've been checking-in on my Colorado-co-workers that are making their way through Central + South America, blogging about their experiences throughout the trip. I hadn't checked-in on their site in a while and was pleasantly surprised this morning to see that they'd had a couple of adventures to share- this is my 'living vicariously through other people' time in my life as I don't have the same set-up and ability to take off and go...

You should really check out their testimonials of how the trip's been going so far- if for nothing else than to look at some of the pictures, like these of them "sandboarding" down the side of an active volcano... unreal.

lovely color palettes

I read Style Me Pretty almost everyday (thanks to Kelley) . And although I am VERY far from getting married myself I love to read it because it is a style blog after all.

One of my favorite features is the inspiration boards/color palettes and Abby happens to have a contest going on right now for reader inspiration boards. The idea is to take a photo and make an inspiration board for your wedding (event) from it. This one is by far my favorite. Inspiration photo above/ style board below. We'll see if it changes as more entries pop up.

headed north

I'm off to Cleveland (kind of) tomorrow for the 4th with my family- I haven't been 'home' since Christmas time and feel like Jane needs to meet the rest of the fam.

I'm really hoping to get some great photos for work of a few different live-work-play communities in the area that I seem to have been oblivious to until now, and am hoping for some good ol' QT with most of the family- sadly, erin's still in Germany (weird!) showing Deutschland how we celebrate in the US of A.

Have a great fourth, everyone!