It's been a busy last few days!
Thursday, after feeling restless and having been awake since four a.m., I made plans with Danielle meet up at a great lunch at a favorite local breakfast/lunch place in town. After venting to her about my recent dilemma over my future career path (among other things), we set out to DSW, Nordstrom Rack, etc. We even took a break out of the heat (feels like summer already!) at B&N to read some magazines and cool off. It was actually just what I needed to take my mind off things!
My friends got together later that night for the opening day premiere of Sex and the City 2. Now I'll be perfectly honest, I was never a religious watcher (sadly, no HBO growing up), but since the first movie came out- which I loved, I have more or less caught myself up in the show, so I was realllly looking forward to it! And loved it! Samantha was by far left me laughing, and frankly, I thought Carrie was somewhat needy and too dramatic. But overall, the bizarre plot seemed like a fitting thread to tie together hot guys, beautiful clothes, and AMAZING scenery!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Next Best Thing:: JPK Nylon Bucket Handbags
I feel somewhat obligated to now share my new obsession with these bags after seeing it on the shoulder of a girl on Lookville.com (Thanks for the invite Danielle!).
Okay so here they are! JPK Handbags
My fave is definitely the Nylon Bucket Bags with Gold Hardware, a part of their "permanent" collection
A mid-weight bag (at 12x12.5x4), there is the perfect amount of room to sling over your shoulder, which is perfect for us shoppers! The magnetic gold purse snap closes automatically, and a beautiful floral lining has several zippered pockets on the interior sides of the bag. The outside of the bag is a durable, yet luxurious nylon- and like a kid in a candy store, you'll LOVE the 41 color choices!! The heafty gold hardware carabiners the wide black leather strap to the bag- it truly takes a campy feel to one with a more refined and simply elegant twist. LOVE THIS BAG!
I love the cutesy Spring/Summer 2010 looks too, also featuring the same fun, bright colors!
Okay so here they are! JPK Handbags
My fave is definitely the Nylon Bucket Bags with Gold Hardware, a part of their "permanent" collection
A mid-weight bag (at 12x12.5x4), there is the perfect amount of room to sling over your shoulder, which is perfect for us shoppers! The magnetic gold purse snap closes automatically, and a beautiful floral lining has several zippered pockets on the interior sides of the bag. The outside of the bag is a durable, yet luxurious nylon- and like a kid in a candy store, you'll LOVE the 41 color choices!! The heafty gold hardware carabiners the wide black leather strap to the bag- it truly takes a campy feel to one with a more refined and simply elegant twist. LOVE THIS BAG!
I love the cutesy Spring/Summer 2010 looks too, also featuring the same fun, bright colors!
Maireann croi eadrom i bhfad:: A Light Heart Lives Longest
It being my beautiful sister Kelly's last day of high school (her graduation just around the corner!), I thought I'd honor you by borrowing your senior quote as today's blog title. Congratulations! I love you!
Tree Dwellers:: Epiphany in my Dreams?
Somehow, I knew that once I started consciously thinking about a potential thesis ideas, I would start having crazy dreams about wild ideas and potential possibilities. I'm guessing this never happens to me at school because I sleep so little- thus, dreaming is but a blissful afterthought as my brain simply tries to recover what little energy it can muster before my alarm decides to pull the "plug".
But I awoke this morning to a fascinating idea. To briefly describe the premise of the dream: I was visiting a friend's lake house (lake unknown, it had a name in the dream, however). After sneaking out onto a small motorboat with a few friends during the early morning, we took an unusual path, meandering in and out of the riverbanks away from the more residential side of the lake, which was home to the vacationer's and clearly more affluent and pricey properties.
What began to appear above our heads were these vibrant tree-dwelling neighborhoods. I believe I conceived the dwellers as illegal squatters / shelters of the homeless. But in a sense, these people were not 'homeless' at all. Through the branches (which they sought refuge from seasonal flooding season - thank you Prof. Sho & ARC 500 Goats + Cell Phones...), were makeshift tree houses, complete with ropes linking branches, crude wooden bridges, recycled trash used to construct pulley systems for water, cooking mechanisms, safety precautions, and more. They were draped in colorful linens, sheets, clothing, etc. and other drying laundry (or perhaps this served as their dresser?!) articles.
Some bungalows were more exposed, revealing sleeping people burrowed under dirty comforters, cardboard, etc. Others were more concealed behind branches and dense leaves. It seemed to be an endless community, however, just occupying the world above us, just as birds and squirrels and really numerous species far more foreign to us. This was not your average Swiss Family Robinson construction, however, but a brilliant collage of recycled life amid the canopy of the forest meant for the outcast of society. What a novel concept!
Needless to say, I awoke curious if this type of squatter living existed somewhere in the world. My cursory findings revealed two 'tree dwelling' typologies: the designer tree house (ironically- or not so- featured in Above Magazine I discovered just the other day), and the dinosaur-age-esque Korowai and Kombai tribes of New Guinea. These tribes live in trees mainly for protection (they are apparently enemies of fellow cannibalistic tribes). Mosquitoes are also apparently a reason for the at times 40m lofted abodes.
But I awoke this morning to a fascinating idea. To briefly describe the premise of the dream: I was visiting a friend's lake house (lake unknown, it had a name in the dream, however). After sneaking out onto a small motorboat with a few friends during the early morning, we took an unusual path, meandering in and out of the riverbanks away from the more residential side of the lake, which was home to the vacationer's and clearly more affluent and pricey properties.
What began to appear above our heads were these vibrant tree-dwelling neighborhoods. I believe I conceived the dwellers as illegal squatters / shelters of the homeless. But in a sense, these people were not 'homeless' at all. Through the branches (which they sought refuge from seasonal flooding season - thank you Prof. Sho & ARC 500 Goats + Cell Phones...), were makeshift tree houses, complete with ropes linking branches, crude wooden bridges, recycled trash used to construct pulley systems for water, cooking mechanisms, safety precautions, and more. They were draped in colorful linens, sheets, clothing, etc. and other drying laundry (or perhaps this served as their dresser?!) articles.
Some bungalows were more exposed, revealing sleeping people burrowed under dirty comforters, cardboard, etc. Others were more concealed behind branches and dense leaves. It seemed to be an endless community, however, just occupying the world above us, just as birds and squirrels and really numerous species far more foreign to us. This was not your average Swiss Family Robinson construction, however, but a brilliant collage of recycled life amid the canopy of the forest meant for the outcast of society. What a novel concept!
Needless to say, I awoke curious if this type of squatter living existed somewhere in the world. My cursory findings revealed two 'tree dwelling' typologies: the designer tree house (ironically- or not so- featured in Above Magazine I discovered just the other day), and the dinosaur-age-esque Korowai and Kombai tribes of New Guinea. These tribes live in trees mainly for protection (they are apparently enemies of fellow cannibalistic tribes). Mosquitoes are also apparently a reason for the at times 40m lofted abodes.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Above Magazine:: a new bible?
It never ceases to amaze me when I come across truly sublime things. Okay yeah sunsets, rainbows, etc. Today at B&N I stumbled across this fantastic magazine that is worth choking the $10/issue price (hello Mom- birthday gift idea!), and revealed the most blissfully casual yet
intellectually stimulating read in a very long time.
I couldn't resist a tag line that reads "beautywill save the earth" as I googled the zine when I got home. And more than that, the awesomely user-friendly site lets you flip through the zine page by page! And the articles were just pure COOL, featuring fabulously divine industrial designers such as Stuart Heygarth and his chandeliers made out of recycled eyeglass lenses (left) and toys (right).
Other articles that peaked my interest were designs by Gary Harvey- couture dresses made of newspaper and recycled "green" bags. Another was a five-page spread with glorious photos of the Everglades, and an article filled with history, passion, and a cry for our help.
I was almost disappointed to come to the last page!
Searching for Passion Between the Pages
I have a dilemma. I am embarking on my fifth year as an architecture student at Syracuse University. And I'm officially stumped. As part of the intensive 5-year B.ARCH degree, the summation of our education reaches its pinnacle at the fifth year thesis. And I just have NO idea what I want to spend the next year (hypothetically) developing and designing.
The fall semester is dedicated to a project proposal in which we conduct thorough, on-site research in order to develop an intellectual design problem. Ideally, the research and design problem will evolve into a project, filled with site and design strategies, comprehensive drawings, gripping renderings, and phases of final exquisite models. Ugh. My head hurts just to think about it.
So, in an effort to get a jump on it (something, in theory love doing, I just never seems to follow through to see the fruits of my early labor at the end of such endeavors), I set out on possibly the hottest day this year (thus far, and in my non-AC, broken radio antenna 1980 Accord) to Barnes and Nobles.
B&N is like the holy grail to me. I feel more intellectual just walking down the sacred aisles. On a typical trip, I'd aimlessly grab books off of the shelves, sometimes feigning interest in a book I likely skimmed at best in 9th grade English/Lit, and nonchalantly return them to their perch.
But today, I was on a mission to find a social ill. A dilemma in our world that I could care about enough. Something that could provide me enough fodder to sustain me for research and inevitable project. Well, I didn't find it today. Instead, I was exposed to dozens of new magazines that I had never seen before!
Here's my new favorite: Above Magazine
Monday, May 24, 2010
Breaking in the beach
Today I ventured out early with three of my good friends from home. All of us are blissfully unemployed, amidst in varying degrees of grad-school, job-hunting and undergrad. The other night I was out with my friend Lauren, who has just embarked on her first MBA class tonight, and we decided that this summer we'd create a bucket list of things that we want to do.
First on that list was to trek out at 9:30 this morning to Crane's Beach in Ipswich Mass. I'm kicking myself for forgetting my camera- it was a spectacular day. As the four of us crossed over the wood pedestrian bridge, I knew that we were not in any kind of competition for peace, quiet, and sand space. Just a morning crew of moms and young kids, but even they were few and far between.
A long stretch of low-tide beach invoked conversations about current relationships, ideologies (Danielle's business transaction analogy comes to mind), and catching up on Grey's Anatomy, hometown, and current event drama.
I should have known that my one-time application of Neutrogena SPF 30 wasn't enough... The entire front of my body is healthy tomato red. Ahh. The smell of Aloe brings back such sweet (and painful!) memories...
First on that list was to trek out at 9:30 this morning to Crane's Beach in Ipswich Mass. I'm kicking myself for forgetting my camera- it was a spectacular day. As the four of us crossed over the wood pedestrian bridge, I knew that we were not in any kind of competition for peace, quiet, and sand space. Just a morning crew of moms and young kids, but even they were few and far between.
A long stretch of low-tide beach invoked conversations about current relationships, ideologies (Danielle's business transaction analogy comes to mind), and catching up on Grey's Anatomy, hometown, and current event drama.
I should have known that my one-time application of Neutrogena SPF 30 wasn't enough... The entire front of my body is healthy tomato red. Ahh. The smell of Aloe brings back such sweet (and painful!) memories...
Parental Advice?
I was home alone with my parents for the first time in... hmm I guess I can't really even remember when both of my sisters weren't home, but it was a while, and the three of us went out to a restaurant that my sister couldn't eat at (her stubborn pickiness finally not deterring our cravings). Of course, I have been at school for the last four months, so it's probably more of a regular occurrence than I realize, but it was nice to catch up.
I kick myself sometimes for forgetting that they have a totally separete life going on while I'm at school. Some kids I know talk to their parents EVERY DAY. That's not us. I guess I am made aware that they're there- My mom will never cease the Facebook 'poke' war, and my dad usually drops in with an e-mail or some brief message about watching my spending or something to that effect. No matter what it's about, though, it's always signed "Love, Dad".
Other than that, my world needs to completely be falling apart for me to call home. Or something really great happened. My last phone call home while I was at school was more of both. I had recently started seeing this really great guy- and amazingly enough, I think he liked me enough that he thought it was a good idea for me to meet the fam when they came up his graduation. Of course, I knew I wanted to but it's always a little nerve-wracking. So, naturally, I pick up the phone, dial My mom's cell, and for the next 10-15 minutes, she's calming me down. Not with motherly supportive words, mind you. Just to remind me to speak slowly and to not talk with my mouth full. It's a miracle I have a social life at all if this is the advice I get!
But it was fine. I usally get along really well with older men and women, like 80+, for some reason. So, that's what I did. By then end of the really great dinner that I had four bites of, me and Nanna were best friends. I learned more about his family heritage than I think he knows, and all these really interesting tid-bits about her life. All in all, no advice was need, I was fine.
My only concern was that on the way out to the car prior to dinner, my mom calls me back in a hurry and proclaims, "You know, your father came to MY graduation dinner..." I think I said " I love you" just as I hung up on her and slid into his car...Awesome.
I kick myself sometimes for forgetting that they have a totally separete life going on while I'm at school. Some kids I know talk to their parents EVERY DAY. That's not us. I guess I am made aware that they're there- My mom will never cease the Facebook 'poke' war, and my dad usually drops in with an e-mail or some brief message about watching my spending or something to that effect. No matter what it's about, though, it's always signed "Love, Dad".
Other than that, my world needs to completely be falling apart for me to call home. Or something really great happened. My last phone call home while I was at school was more of both. I had recently started seeing this really great guy- and amazingly enough, I think he liked me enough that he thought it was a good idea for me to meet the fam when they came up his graduation. Of course, I knew I wanted to but it's always a little nerve-wracking. So, naturally, I pick up the phone, dial My mom's cell, and for the next 10-15 minutes, she's calming me down. Not with motherly supportive words, mind you. Just to remind me to speak slowly and to not talk with my mouth full. It's a miracle I have a social life at all if this is the advice I get!
But it was fine. I usally get along really well with older men and women, like 80+, for some reason. So, that's what I did. By then end of the really great dinner that I had four bites of, me and Nanna were best friends. I learned more about his family heritage than I think he knows, and all these really interesting tid-bits about her life. All in all, no advice was need, I was fine.
My only concern was that on the way out to the car prior to dinner, my mom calls me back in a hurry and proclaims, "You know, your father came to MY graduation dinner..." I think I said " I love you" just as I hung up on her and slid into his car...Awesome.
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