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.

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.


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.


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 ;-)


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.


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.

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!

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?

2010 Recapped

I was MIA around the holidays. I kinda stopped posting all the Reverb10 prompts, only doing the ones that really spoke to me and wouldn't repeat something I’d already talked about. I haven’t posted the gluten free dessert I made for Christmas Eve yet… etc. I’ve decided to do a recap post for 2010 a little later than most. Let’s be honest though, it’s only the 3th, so I’m not that behind.

I really liked the way KJPugs did her 2010 review, so I’ve decided to copy her. Don’t worry, I asked… although, I didn’t really wait for her to respond and say it’s cool. Anyway, here we go…

January we upgraded our TV stand and general appearance of our  living room.   

February I discovered two of my favorite “go to” recipes: Dark Chocolate Red Wine Cupcakes with Mascarpone Icing & Enchilada Casserole.
March Hubs and I went to Vegas for meet-up with the Bees and celebrate my bestie from college’s 30th Birthday. Of course, a trip to Vegas would not be complete without eating at Battista's Hole in the Wall.

April Joy from How Joyful redesigned my blog and created those adorable little birdies.

 
May I started making recipe cards for my recipe posts. The first two I made were for the salad I recreated from a local French restaurant & Margarita Cupcakes.

June I made several desserts using fruit from our local CSA, my favorite was the fruit pizza I invented with the help of Amy from Dandelion Paperweight.

 
July I turned 30 and made a kick-ass flag cake!

 
August Hubs and I celebrated our one year Anniversary and played travel roulette with some friends and ended up in Austin, TX.

September was a pretty busy month: I hosted a Giveaway from one of my favorite artists, I discovered  my local food truck meet-up and I took an allergy test and discovered I cannot eat gluten,

 
October I did my first guest post and rattled on about the wonder that is Jazzercise.

 
November I blogged every single day… errr, posted every single day. Let’s be honest sometime we blog more than once a day but schedule those posts out. I also discovered Chipotle,

 
tried Gluten Free Bisquick,

 
hosted a beautiful necklace giveaway from Honey My Heart 

 
and finally finished my wedding recaps.


And lastly, in December, I attempted Reverb10, made Potato Latkes and guest posted for Forty Twenty Four about my on-the-cheap/modern Christmas table setting.

  
Happy New Year everyone! I hope I have even more to recap for you at the end of 2011 :)

Reverb10: Prompt 2 - Writing... er, Design

Am I allowed to change a prompt? Because, I did.


While I find writing this blog important it isn’t so important that I need to eliminate anything to be a better writer. I don’t consider myself a writer, and perhaps that is why I’ll never be Dooce or Barefoot Foodie. I’m okay with that. My blog is just an outlet.

However, I do need to concentrate more on interior design. There are things I do in my breaks between school and even when I’m in school that I should cut back on and re-focus my free time. TV. I know I can’t eliminate TV from my life because it’s my veg time. It helps me relax from everything else going on and de-stress. I do know that I could watch less. When I completely bored and watch TV I could be improving my Sketch-up skills or finding materials and furniture and saving them in organized files.

P.S. As soon as a wrote that first paragraph I remember the book I want to write and the outline I need to get cracking on now that I have a month off from school. Ooops! Okay, bored time will be split between the two until I get that outline done.