Tasty Treats

I find myself in the summer binging on chocolate. I'm talking candy, cookies, cakes, and the great trips to Amelie's French bakery here in Charlotte. But my ultimate indulgence is ice cream. I mean, what's the summer without ice cream!? Now usually I go on a lovely trip down the road to Cold Stone with my boyfriend where I always get the Peanut Butter Cup Perfection, love it size. Because I do love it. But I'm really not one to go to places like that alone (they're reserved for date nights). So since my lovely boyfriend is away all summer at an internship, I've been hanging with my other boyfriends, Ben and Jerry.

Now I took a trip to Harris Teeter today and bought the delightful pint of goodness that is Ben & Jerry's Half Baked.

It hits all the notes I want out of ice cream. Sweet, chocolatey, creamy, with hints of cookie dough and brownies. It's not for the faint of heart. Ben and Jerry really know what they're doing up there in Vermont. I also regularly get Americone Dream (it's good and has Stephen Colbert on it), Cheesecake Brownie, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, and Milk&Cookies, which is only a few from their entire list. Now excuse me while I go finish my whole pint in one sitting....

Growing Up

For the past few weeks I've been figuring out my living situation for the next year. My current roommate decided to get a house with some other girls, and I've had some roommate possibilities fall through, so I'm going to live all on my own. This is a huge financial step for me and I feel like it's pushing me towards truly "growing up," considering both my freshman and sophomore year I spent in on campus housing.

I'm extremely excited now though because I set down my deposit for my new apartment which means it's really officially happening! Luckily, I won't have to buy any furniture and I'll actually be getting some more space (i.e. a walk in closet). What's making this growing up and being on my own situation a little more interesting is I'll be getting my first credit card. Cue some moans and groans from financial people. But I'm smarter than I look! I definitely live by the "if you don't have it don't spend it" motto, and only purchase things when I can pay straight from my checking account. But at my age, I need to start establishing credit so that I'm not screwed when I go to make some big purchases, like a house or car, in the next 5-10 years.

Now I'm starting off easy. This new apartment is giving me a launch for the sheer fact that all the bills will be in my name. The twist, is I do still get financial help from my parents. They do help me pay my bills because I'm not able to work enough to pay them myself. School was always the deal to come first. But since my parents help me, my bills will always be paid, and paid on time. And when they're going through my credit card first, my credit will build up nicely.

Some people may call this not really growing up and that's ok. I think I'm taking advantage of the areas in which I'm blessed to help myself transition into true adulthood. My parents might not have been able to outright pay for my education, but if they can help me out here so when I do move into the big girl world, I think it's a good plan.

Beginning of Summer Reflection...

So normally when I receive my grades for the semester I spend a good deal reflecting on my semester and generally crying over how I should've tried harder, stayed up that one extra hour, and made a few more flash cards. This semester thankfully I got the grades I wanted (2 A's, 2 B's) so I'm getting to spend less time reflecting on how I messed up and more on actual life.

Thanks to the fact that I've recently been reading #GIRLBOSS by Nasty Gal founder Sophie Amoruso, I've been thinking hard on how I want my senior year of college to go. For one thing, how the hell am I a senior already because high school went by slower than molasses. But I digress. This semester left me feeling like I'm still lacking in direction for my future. I have so many interests I want to explore but no time to explore them. Well false, I have plenty of technical time. But when you have 6 months after graduation to start paying student loans you don't really have much time.... So obviously I went to school to become an architect, and I still love architecture. But I'd rather go into interior design. But then I'm also now interested in architectural writing thanks to the class I took this semester. I also would love to just get a jump start into any design field like graphic design. There's so many options that I don't know where to go.

This book has got me thinking on being steadfast and persistent with my future. I want to go in somewhere and get my hands dirty. It's also reminding me that I'm not going to be financially stable overnight, or even good at my job right away. I have to work my way up somewhere in any field, which is a daunting task, especially when every job I've ever had has only been over the summer. But I have a whole year to figure things out, and I also have the slight possibility of continuing on to 5th year of architecture school.

I've also been reflecting on my relationship with my boyfriend, Billy. We've been dating a little over a year and this summer he'll be away in Michigan for an internship. In the past semester I've come to realize that if he isn't my soul mate I don't know who is. He's my best friend, my confidant, and I look to him before anyone else for advice. He's been gone for about 5 days now and I already miss him more than I've missed anyone, even my mom. He has all these plans for his career, and it's been interesting adjusting to someone factoring me into their plans. We talk about things like his desires to move to California and work for Google in terms of both of us doing it. We've already been discussing moving in together in a year and getting married one day.

Really I'm just overly excited for the next school year to start. This summer is full of work and some play, but I'm ready to tackle my life moving forward. I'm so close to officially being on my own and being a real adult.

The Shadow Box

For one of my architecture classes we have a semester long project called the Shadowbox. This project is infamous in the program and utilizes everything we know about construction thus far. We are asked to use certain materials and to show our knowledge of connections in designing a piece. It's called a shadow box because the idea for the project came from an artist who made actual shadowboxes, but we depart very far from it. We begin by researching an artist and architect, have a preliminary design meeting, a review, and now tomorrow the final product is due and will basically be on display in the building.

My project took departure from looking at Banksy, the graffiti artist, and using his element of imagery. My basic design was composed out of the process of screen printing. I took an image and broke it down into 3 colors (shades of grey). Each layer was then rastered into acrylic, then connected together through rods with a rockite (concrete) base.

I failed many times at the base.

This one had incredibly crooked rods, so my acrylic couldn't fit on it.

I got smarter and added support to my rods so that they weren't crooked....

But they were still off enough that my rockite shattered when squeezing on my acrylic.

My said layers of acrylic. I decided finally to put them all together first, then pour the rockite.

The success of knowing it all was together.

And my final product!

Spring Needs

So since Spring is starting to be sprung there's a large list of items I desire. Alas, I have no money (broke college girl problems). But a girl can dream. Some of the big items on my list are:

This dress from  J. Crew Factory. I own a knock-off version in navy, but when I saw this in the store I wanted it so bad. The scallops are precious and dainty and the color screams spring to me.

This peplum top, also from J. Crew Factory. I don't own much peplum, but I like a good tank that can be dressed up for down.

These shorts from Red Dress Boutique. I really want some less structured shorts for this summer. The colors is so cute and the details make them a little fancier.

I also want a maxi skirt in a bright color, some new sandals, and some wedges. I love spring for bright colors but still hints of layers and winter.

On Giving Up

Since this is my first post regarding school, I'll disclose that I'm currently a junior in an architecture program in North Carolina. Architecture in general is an extremely difficult major. It involves a lot of late nights, heartache, hard work, and is really considered a lifestyle. For some background information, I'm working on my Bachelor of Arts in Architecture, with the hopes of being accepted into the 5th year of our program so I can actually graduate with a Bachelor of Architecture (which is the professional degree). I do probably around 20-30 hours of work a week for studio alone, so needless to say this major is not for the lazy or faint of heart.

WITH THAT BEING SAID

We found out the other day that one of our fellow students in our year was deciding to withdraw. Now most people quietly leave because they either weren't cut out for the program or decided architecture wasn't for them. This young man decided to leave us a Facebook post about feeling behind and needing to focus on his other class (as in singular other class, but I won't get to mean about it. It really is none of my business what he decides to do). Now we all work very hard, but we were all confused because he never seemed to put effort into his work, but then tried to come across as a casualty to the difficulty of the program. But in the end he just gave up.

Personally, I've wanted to give up. Multiple times. Nothing will wear you mentally down like working on a project for hours on end, sacrificing sleep and social opportunities, to either not get good feedback or have a bad grade. I got to a point last year where I started to doubt myself and my abilities. But I didn't stop. Like everyone else in the program, I want my career to be in design. I want to love my career and love going to work every day, so I'm not going to settle for something else. What bothered most of us about our fellow student deciding to just give up and try again next year was that he was settling. He isn't in it. We all try to surround ourselves with people who are working hard and bettering their craft, and he came in half done. 

At the end of the day we respect his decisions, and we will never know what really influenced them. Like I said, it's a hard program and a lot of people quit. No one wants to waste their college years on something they don't love. 

What I'm getting at is that when you do love it, never let it go. Argue with that professor, read that suggested book, go to that study session. We're all capable of doing exactly what we want to do, and we shouldn't let little things stop us. 

Now that it's Spring

I can finally wear my new pair of Jack Rogers. I'm obsessed with the brand and got my first pair the summer after my freshman year of college. Most people are fanatics over the Navajos, which is what I own in silver and a fake pair in gold. They're really popular down here in the south, especially among us sorority girls. I mean they go with anything when you have them in a neutral, and they have fun colors to match any outfit. I would say their only down side is they're a little pricey, the Navajos running around $105....

But I love a deal. I got my Navajos on eBay for $60. Some colors and styles can be found on there for even cheaper. The fake pairs, though I heard they will be discontinued because of some lawsuit action, can be found for $15-20. But Jacks come on sale in other places, my recent venture was on Rue La La. Rue La La is a great flash sale website that sells all kinds of things from clothing to shoes to home goods. One cold day I saw that one of the featured items on the sale for that day were Jack Rogers. Now usually I just skim through because I'm a poor college student and even sale items I can't afford sometimes. But I came upon these beauties:

and I had to have them. They're the Lauren sandal and retail on their website for $128, but I got them for $75. Now that's still pretty steep for some sandals, I know. But Jacks are all leather and amazing quality. They last for ages. On the website currently the only colors offered in the Lauren are neutrals, so I jumped at the chance for this lovely shade of blue. I begged my mom for the cash to buy them before they ran out of my size. Now, ironically they arrived and the next day it snowed. But tomorrow it will be 74 degrees and I will happily show these babies off.