Heading South

After spending all morning working on my new blog logo (see above!), I am going to make this quick as I need to run a bunch of errands before heading down to Encinitas to hang out with my brother, Eric. The weather should be nice, I'm packing my camera, and a night's stay at the beach sounds like a great way to end my SoCal trip home - 3 weeks are flying by way too quickly!

Here's one of the photos I took up north over Christmas with my new Hasselblad - hopefully I'll have some more great weather today and tomorrow down south.

Reappearing in 2011

I hate to jump on the New Year's Resolution bandwagon, but somehow fall 2010 flew by and all of a sudden it was Christmas and I hadn't made a peep on my blog. Then Friday I turned the Big 3-0, woke up magically transformed into to a sophisticated, graceful and driven woman, and found myself ready to make some resolutions for the new year. Some of them may be more like plans, but as I've started thinking about 2011, I realize it's going to be a busy and incredibly life-changing year.

So, in 2011, I am going to:
1. Graduate Grad school - wow how time flew by. Now I just need to come up with a thesis in the next few months to make that happen, but no big deal (I hope some sarcasm can be sensed in that statement).
2. Taking advantage of my last school travel opportunity - I am taking "Spirit of Place" this spring, and the class designs and builds a project every summer. This summer I'm going to Nepal. Un-frickin-believable. I can't even imagine the impact that is going to have on me - both as an architectural and cultural experience.
3. Find a job - or start looking for one at least. I don't think my dream-job (who am I kidding in this economy, any job!) is going to fall on my lap, or knock on my door, so I need to start the hunt sooner rather than later. Hoping this job could be in San Francisco (wow, big life change again), but I need to keep my mind open to various possibilities...

And for more of the resolutions...
4. Take more time for myself - whether that entails going to the gym, reading a book, going out with friends. Basically, spend more time outside of Crough.
5. Take more photographs. Looking through all of my brother's photography is so inspiring - I really need to make it more of a priority. Especially now that I have a really amazing camera.
6. You knew it was coming - blog more! My goal for 2011 is to write 4 times per week. Even if it's just a quick entry on what I did that day, or something I saw that inspired me. (Phewf, one down, only three more to go this week!)

And to start 2011 with a little bit of design inspiration... This Loft in San Francisco was designed by Edmonds + Lee. I found it through Desire to Inspire, but it was also published in a fall edition of Dwell Magazine. Love the rustic-wood ceiling juxtaposed with the industrial insertions (and oh those Tom Dixon pendants!).

Hotel Update

As most of you know, before starting graduate school at Catholic, I worked for Design360 Unlimited in Los Angeles for a few years.  Most of my time there was spent working on the Rosewood San Miguel de Allende, a new hotel in the artist town of San Miguel, located north of Mexico City.  After putting so much time into this project, I can honestly say I'm still disappointed knowing I was not able to be there to see this project through construction (although crazy how fast time flies, I'm half-way done with my masters degree and the hotel still is not finished).  Along with the help of other D360 staff, I put together the entire (interior) construction document package for the hotel - from guestrooms to public areas.  I was really excited when I discovered Rosewood posted photographs from the model room on their website - it looks really incredible.  I cannot wait to see the public areas unfold.  I know when the hotel is finished (2011?), I'll be making a trip down to San Miguel - the project still holds a really special place in my heart.

All photos from http://rosewoodsanmiguel.com/en/gallery.cfm.  Hopefully I won't get into trouble for posting them!  Kristin Korven from Design360 is responsible for all FF&E.

Projects Underway...

And I'm not referring to school!  I have a laundry list of things I'd like to do for my room at Eddie's (and a few things for our house in general), so I'm hoping by committing them here I'll actually get some of them accomplished in the next few weeks.  


First thing on the list that I did this weekend:  paint my closet doors. Not terribly exciting, but I needed to since last summer and I finally got around to it.  Just white, semi-gloss, clean.  The painting in my room is finally complete.  I want to use a leftover piece of watercolor paper I have from last semester and paint something for above my dresser, and make a shadow-box type frame for it.  Additionally, I'm going to make some planter boxes for our backyard to hopefully grow some plants/herbs and soften up all the hardscape (alright, let's be honest, hide the chain link fence), and finally a shelf for my desk.  Since I have to work in the wood shop for 10 hours a week, I really feel like I have no excuses to not get these things done.  So, stay tuned for pics - as I move down the list, I'll be sure to post my progress!

School!

Oh the anticipation of the first day of school - even now - and I'm pretty old.  Seeing familiar faces, meeting new ones, living at Starbucks, and oh yeah, the actual school part.  Here's to my second year of architecture school - how time flies.

  

Image via Flickr

Back in DC

After a summer spent traipsing through Scandinavia, and a brief stint in SoCal, I'm back in DC.  After having dinner with my aunt Cheryl on Thursday night, I drove back into the city and man, did it feel weird.  I still don't feel like DC is "home" (which I'm sure would make my parents ecstatic), which is probably aided by my still total reliance on using my GPS whenever I wander roughly outside the 3 mile range of Eddie's house.  But rumor has it that 2nd year M.Arch students don't have it quite as rough as first year, so maybe I'll finally have some time to really start living here.


It is nice having a weekend to ease back into being here before starting school.  Yesterday Eddie and I went to Monroe Elementary where they were having the 3rd (?) annual Columbia Heights Day Festival.  I had a delicious peach and ginger popsicle from Petworth Pops, pet a camel, saw some great performances, and found out DC has its own Shorts Film Festival starting mid-September at the E Street threatres, which I'm really excited about.  Should be a good start to another fall in Washington.

Soaking up some sun

Apparently it was an unusually cold, overcast summer in California.  Well, I evidently brought the heat back with me from Finland, because it's been gorgeous (if not a tad bit too hot) here my first week here in SoCal.  I'm easing back into Pacific Standard Time (I really hope this going to bed at 9:30 and waking up at 6 am is a jet-lag thing, not an I'm-getting-old thing), and enjoying what's left of the summer.  Thursday I went to Newport Beach with almost all of the Casciari girls - it definitely reminded me of our annual summer beach house rentals on 64th Street.  By the time I got there, they of course had already befriended half the population, so we ended up playing a few games of volleyball, which was really fun as I haven't played in ages (and oh was I paying for it the next day).


Sara drove down to 12805 today, and we spent the afternoon lounging by the pool, catching up and eating guacamole (which at this point is becoming our ritual).  It was so great to see her, even if for not long enough.  Although, we're already scheming a potential trip for me to visit her in New York, her come to DC in the spring, and (my favorite:) where I should plan to throw a huge party for my BIG 3 - 0.  We're thinking weekend destination, maybe somewhere tropical...


So now, the final chapter to my beaching, I'm headed down to Encinitas with my Dad, to see the beach shack, now complete after months of renovation.  I haven't seen it at all but for pictures my family emailed me while abroad, so I have to admit, I'm pretty excited.  And, of course it will really be great to spend time with my family, and even, gasp, my younger brother, whom I definitely do not see enough.  I'm hoping he'll give me a photography lesson while I'm down there, or maybe even take me out on a board.

Beach house almost finished - so glad I talked my parents into the pop of teal!