I got it

I got the internship at PrintFresh, and am totally fired up to come to work everyday right outside old city and make pretty fabric designs. Though I will miss Abby not going to asheville.

Donna and I celebrated with some fantastic chocolate cake, and I'm pumped to spend an entire month with her.

I bailed on Snowboarding because it is about 60 degrees outside and slush does not sound like fun.

Find your power song

I have an interview for an internship tomorrow in Philly with a textile designer. I have no hopes or expectations, but I am totally nervous about showing her my work. It's such a vulnerable position to be put in, to show someone the product of nearly 4 years of your life, and things you really think are cool and care about...and then for the possibility of someone to reject that is somewhat gut wrenching.

But not to fear because I found the solution while waiting for my tires to be changed at walmart for three hours today (shoot me in the face). I picked up a "real simple" magazine and read this sweet article by one of their life coaches. It said that in situations such as these you must have a power song. The woman who wrote the article preferred one by Barbara Steissand and sung it aloud while marching to a publishing interview. She insists that it builds the confidence needed to make an impression.

I searched long and hard and I'm pretty sure mine's that freaking De'sree song "You Gotta Be".

Wish me luck navigating Philly, finding Schwartz and Craig, and that I don't break my neck snow boarding with the rest of the cool kids.

wedding invites

Maarten asked me a few months ago to design his wedding invitations. I was totally flattered and sort of scared. I decided to use it as an excuse to learn how to use the letterpress. With Melissa's help they turned out great. Here are some pics from the process.

the press

set type


all done

It was a marathon of printing yesterday, but now they just need to be cut. It's kind of cool to handle all of the lead type and get ink all over you. You get such an appreciation of letters by setting them individually and looking for little quirks and damaged type. You have to pay serious attention. I have no idea how people set entire books on these things. I will never look at my keyboard the same way again.

I'm going to Asheville

This January I will be chillin in the mountains of Asheville North Carolina, land of hippies, amazing thai food, and my best friend Abby Sadler. I will be spending my days working at a letterpress studio. That means using a printing press and carving woodblocks to make some beautiful artwork.

+

= an incredible january

I've been e-mailing with this awesome guy Lance from the letterpress place and he concluded his last e-mail with these words:
Well, if you end up in Asheville, drop a line and
we'll either put you to work or hand you a beer,
probably both.
Best luck,
Lance

I think this is going to be a beautiful friendship.

opposites attract

Carolyn, Donna and I were talking about how ridiculously different we are to be such good friends. We made our own little profiles which I promised to post online. You can tell our exam week has been ridiculously slow, so here's to procrastination.

Carolyn
Most requested movie: Harry Potter
Future career: guidance counsler
Is: clean
"Type":short redheads
Wants:4 kids
Music: anything but country
Food: she's the Baker....icecream
Sport: cheerleader
Escape: procrastinating, gift giving
Accessory: ribbons
What catches her attention in guys: humor, dancing
Dream store: J-Crew
Happy place: snowboarding, watching the stars
Board game: guess who
Her husband: wears cologne and a suit everyday
Wants: Someone who likes her, makes her laugh and listens
Scent: mom- clinique happy, soft- vanilla, date- pink
Wants to Live: Colorado
House: modest but homey
Show: Oprah
Downfall show: 20/20
Dream car: BMW Z3


Donna
Most requested movie: Pride & Prejudice
Future career: History and English teacher
Is: excessively clean/OCD
"Type": hairy testosterone-y "lumber jacks"
Wants:2 maybe 3
Music: classic rock & dirty rap
Food: frozen vegetables and anything involving buffalo sauce and bleu cheese
Sport: basketball & softball
Escape: scrapbooking
Accessory: stilettos
What catches her attention in guys: facial hair and great hands
Dream store: Banana Republic, Neiman Marcus
Happy place: beach and historical spots
Board game: settlers & Risk
Her husband: teaches and travels with me during the summer
Wants: considerate realist
Scent: Miracle by Lancome
Wants to Live: DE or NJ
House: big old restored historical house
Show: Grey's
Downfall show: Flavor of Love
Dream car: anything Jeep


Haley
Most requested movie: Fight Club
Future career: Artist-designer
Is: contained mess
"Type": dirty artsy boys
Wants: a ton of foster kids
Music: indie folk, socially concious rap
Food: cheese and eggs
Sport: swimming, lax, alt sports longboarding-surfing
Escape: sleep and biking
Accessory: wierd jewelry, old t-shirts
What catches her attention in guys: emo glasses
Dream store: Anthropologie and Marc Jacobs
Happy place: coffee shops, outside, local desserted places (jetty)
Board game: scrabble
Her husband: architect
Wants: grounded idealist
Scent: not vanilla
Wants to Live: beach or mountains
House: big farm house
Show: Oprah
Downfall show: Flavor of Love
Dream car: old and cool- oldschool woody wagon, comet

the potato incident

Me and Wally trying to catch claire's mashed potatos.

I made up a new phrase today

I was thinking today in the shower, where most good thinking goes on. I was thinking about all the talk I've heard lately about idealism about dating the oak tree or the romantic and about saving the world. I came up with this cool new phrase that will be a part of your vocabulary in a year.

The grounded idealist...perfect right? It's the person that wants to save the world, but knows that changing the world doesn't come with grand gestures, but rather small revolutions. Deniene told me the key to life was finding something you love and doing it, and finding people to love and invest in. I told her she was crushing my dreams, but she's right. Grounded idealist it is.

nice little animation

I tried so hard to fail

I failed my independent study today, well I tried to fail in it. 4 studio arts classes are kind of overwhelming, so I wrote my professor a letter of accpetance of my grade so that he didn't have to feel so bad failing the student who he awarded the Craig Cutler award to last year (don't you love irony?). Here's a copy of the letter:

Dear Bill,

I have always thrived on positive reinforcement, gold stars, and those cute little check marks you receive on exams. I have worn them as badges of validation my entire life.

This semester I took on too much. I thought I could do everything. I had the best intentions of being awesome. My photos this semester have sucked because I didn’t take the time to make them good, and the contact sheets void of creativity were just too stifling. I gave up. I thought I could throw something together, but half assessed is not what we are taught to do here.

I have never failed a class before. Actually it used to terrify me. Through this independent study I have learned that failure is an opportunity to do something ballsy, and unexpected. Something like this. This grade reflects more things learned than most of the As I have received. It is hard to own failure, to accept that you did not even come close to doing good enough. Now I’ve never been more excited to earn a grade. I’ll probably hang it on the refridgerator once I get it.

Bill you love giving As and you love giving Fs. I proudly accept my failing grade for this semester.

Haley


To this he replied that he would not let me off that easily and that I must make up the class over wintersession. I have failed at failing.