Showing posts with label Allergies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Allergies. Show all posts

May 26, 2011

Sneaky Peek - What I’ve been working on.

I think it’s probably pretty obvious, based on the amount of posts I’ve had in the past few months, that I’m busy. I don’t pretend to be any busier than the next girl, but I’m busy for me. I thought I’d share with you all what I’ve been working on at school… especially since next quarter I’m going to have to set-up a website of my work and share it with the world anyway, I might as well try to get over the “OMG people are going to hate it” thing now. You know that feeling when someone “in real life” says they saw/read your blog and you have a mini panic attack in your head? What is it we’re so worried about? Well, in this case it’s the opposite. My people “in real life” have seen my projects, but you? Not so much.

Soooo, this is the work in progress of my Senior Studio project (aka SS1 & SS2 – a two quarter class. I’m in SS2 now). We were given a city (mine is Boston) and a building (we all got the same fictional building) and were told to come up with a use, then space plan, design, etc the project.

My project is “Clean Kitchen”, a food allergy clinic.

CleanKitchen5

It’s a multi-use building (mainly because it had to be) meaning there are different uses for the building, both commercial and residential. In the basement there is an allergy-free food market, tiny bookstore area and a pharmacy. Seriously, I would LOVE to have a market this large to get gluten-free stuff.

051011 BASEMENT A1
On the main floor (aka the first floor) there’s a allergy-free cafe, two temporary residences for visiting speakers & chefs, and two cooking classrooms. The idea is that young families and adults can come here to learn to cook tasty allergy-free food. I wish the places near me, with cooking classes, would have specific allergy-free cooking classes. The cafe then serves the types of food you can expect to learn to make in the different classes.

051011 FIRST FLOOR A2
On the second floor there are two more temporary residences (we were required to have 2 on each of the above ground floors), laundry, storage, a conference room, admin offices and Drs’ offices. I imagine the awesome Dr. who diagnosed my food allergies working here with an amazing view of Boston out her window. Not like the lovely view of Orange County she has now is bad ;-)

051011 SECOND FLOOR A3
Those plans and my branding is the main thing we worked on last quarter. This past Tuesday we turned in our progress boards… basically the furniture, finishes etc that we see being used in the project, displayed in a way similar to the way our final board (yes one, but it.is.HUGE. Like taller than me) will lay out.

A4Board1
I’m not 100% happy with the residence right now. I started out with that first picture (from Crate & Barrel) as inspiration, because I like the art work and sideboard, but I found it difficult to find the other furniture I need to express what I was going for. Honestly, I think I was a little burnt out and I’ll start fresh again next week. Now, that I’ve had time to step back and look at it with a different eye, I know what I need to do.

A4Board2

My teachers really liked where I was headed with this project and that made me really happy and proud of what I’ve accomplished so far. The one compliment that really sticks out in my mind is, one teacher said, “It looks like the 60’s I wish I’d lived in.” Totally what I was going for, YES!

A4Board3

And, that’s what I’ve been working on for the last 4 months. Obviously there is a lot more, we had a few papers, a rough (ROUGH) model and I’m working on a booklet (like Blurb), but this is the gist.

What was/is your Senior project?

September 14, 2010

Would You Cry?

About 2 months ago I got a cough. Nothing to write home about, I just thought it was an infection. Simple run of antibiotics and I’d be good as new, right? Wrong. Two months later, the worst of it is gone, but I still have coughing fits and a tickle. I’ve been told it’s allergies, but the medication I’ve tried doesn’t help.

About 4 years ago I started getting stomach aches all the time. I woke up nauseated but not enough to “get sick”. I lived on Saltines for a good month. I lost weight, but it wasn’t healthy… and it wasn’t fun. We discovered my stomach doesn’t digest at the same speed as “normal” people and the problem escalates when I’m stressed. The medication they gave me doesn’t help, so I just have to eat smaller portions when it’s “acting up”.

Saltines

About a year ago my Mom’s friend couldn’t lose weight, no matter how hard she tried. She wasn’t overweight by any means, but had about 10 lbs she gained and could not lose. She exercised and dieted but nothing worked.

I never really would have imagined all these things could be related. However, recently (like 2 years) I’ve learned and heard about a lot people solving similar health issues by avoiding certain foods. Sure, if you have a cough you shouldn’t be eating tons of dairy. Or, if your having stomach problems try eating BRAT – Bananas, Rice, Applesauce and Toast. Lots of people have heard that.

brat

Would you think these things could be caused and solved based on food allergies? My Mom’s friend had a blood test to determine which foods she was allergic to and lost the extra weight by avoiding those foods. A friend of mine had a similar cough and treated it by avoiding foods.

A couple weeks ago I went to the Dr my Mom’s friend saw and last week I took a blood test to determine my food allergies. I’m hoping (hard) that this test will tell me which foods I should avoid and by avoid those food my cough will get better, my stomach wont bother me as much and, heck, I might loose a little weight.

It takes a couple weeks to get the test results back, so I’ve been compiling a list of foods I think I could and could not give up….

Foods I would cry if I had to give up…

ginger

tomatoes
wineI know some are more obvious and others, like the ginger, not so much… what food would you cry over finding out your were allergic to?

 

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