The Monthly Woman Week

Today, there was no hope of me getting the motivation to use these:

However, the extra 30lbs I'm lugging around, had no problem finding the motivation to make these:

And then immediately devouring two. Of course, we had to have just enough ingredients for me to actually accomplish this. I didn't have chopped walnuts but I did have a bag of toffee bits to use instead. Delicious. That extra 30lbs may become an extra 35lbs once I'm done with this pan. 

Must haves.

Everyone has there things that make their day easier. Here are 5 things that I can't get through a day without.

Number one:

Water. I drink a lot of water. At home, I always have a glass of water next to me. I have water bottles in my school bag. I can't get through a shift at work without a water bottle. There's nothing better than an ice cold drink of water. I love water.

Number two:

Chapstick. I hate when my lips feel dry. I've gone to only using Burt's Bees since it's natural and doesn't get you addicted. My favorite is the one with mango. It's fantastic. Again, I have chapstick everywhere. Purse, nightstand and work. I get super frustrated when I lose one.

Number three:

Kleenex. I blow my nose a lot. It's quite annoying really. I don't know if it's an allergy thing or if my sniffer just hates me. I also hate the feeling of anything in my nose. So I'll blow my nose with kleenex, toilet paper, napkins, whatever tissue type thing is the easiest to get to. 

Number four:

Lotion. Just like I hate dry lips, I hate dry skin. Especially if my hands feel dry. I carry travel lotions with me. Keep them at work and in my car. Lotion next to my bed and in my bathroom. People tell me how great my skin is, well I'm sure a lot of it is genetics but the rest is probably lotion and all the water I drink. So get to lathering and drinking.

Number five:

Perfume. I thought about taking a picture of my 14 perfume bottles but that sounded like too much effort at the moment. I love perfume. I have hundreds of dollars worth plus about 4 bottles I recently threw out because they were old. Some people feel naked without makeup or jewelry, I feel naked without perfume. I love when people tell me I smell good. I have multiple travel roll on perfumes and samples I carry with me or have in my car as back ups. Even when I worked in a warehouse, I wore perfume every single day. 

Of course, there are many other things that help me get through my days but I feel like I would go crazy without these five. There are things I should probably be more worried about. Like flossing, washing my face at night, or deodorant. Don't worry, I wear it. But every once and awhile I forget and I'll be honest, it doesn't bother me. Luckily, I don't really sweat. 

Now, I have to refill my water and find my chapstick. 

Homework. Lots of Homework.

My summer semester ended last Tuesday. This was my second semester of Interior Design classes. I know I'm in the right program because I don't hate my homework or dread going to class. I may not want to take the time to do my homework, but I do enjoy while I'm doing it. Weird isn't it?! That's how I know that I enjoy what I'm going to school for. I wish I hadn't waited so long, but I think I appreciate it more now than I would have if I went right after high school.

This summer I took a Drafting class and Perspective Drawing/Rendering class. Really, it was a fairly easy semester. Since both classes were drawing classes I didn't have studying or tests, just drawing assignments. The down side, drawing assignments can be quite time consuming. The last two weeks of the semester I was basically always doing homework. I barely saw Jason and even gave away some of my shifts at work.

This is what my room looked like for those two weeks.

While I worked on these projects.

This is actually from the middle of the semester. It was for my Perspective class. We had to create a line drawing and then turn it into a value study. The end result was made up of only shadows, no lines at all. 

This is the final for that class. 

Again it started with a line drawing and went from there. It's hard to see the details from a picture, but I spent quite a few hours on this piece. There are some things that I know could have been better but I'm still happy with it. 

I also had to keep a sketch book for this class. Most of it was full of sad sketches, but I'll show you some of the things I'm not totally embarrassed by.

Trees. I found out I'm good at doing quick trees. They are also fun to do.

This was just a chair I drew quickly and decided it would be fun to color. It's not perfect but a sketch book doesn't need to be right?

Now for Drafting. I love drafting. I did a lot of little projects throughout the semester but I won't bore you with those. For the final, my teacher just gave us the outside walls of a building and we had to go from there. It was a two story building that had a commercial 1st floor that we got to choose what kind of space we wanted to design. My sister Alison has talked about wanting a cupcake bakery for a few years so I decided to make that my commercial space. 

It's hard to really see everything in the pictures, but you get the idea. This first page also got a little crinkled in my car, but my teacher had us hand in copies not the originals.

The space planning for the bakery.

This is a Reflected Ceiling plan showing anything that connects to the ceiling including light fixtures.

The second floor of the building was a residential space. I made it an apartment for Alison. 

 This is the electrical plan for the apartment. Some of it is kinda hard to see. 

The last page of the assignment were Elevations. We had to do an exterior elevation to show what the building looked like and one interior elevation of our choice.

The outside of "Sugar Lips" bakery and Alison's apartment. Brick and stucco exterior. 

This is the interior elevation of the wall with bench seating in the bakery. Wall of windows with pendant lights above the tables. 

So, there you have it. That's how I've spent my summer. I received A's in my classes and currently have a 4.0 GPA. I'm hoping to keep it that way for as long as I can. I now have a couple weeks to relax before the fall semester starts. I have three more classes to look forward to. I feel like it's going to be a busy Fall, but I'm excited to continue the program.