Mom and Dad

If I haven't mentioned before that I love my family and that I think they're the best, well, I should have. My family is the best! I love them!

On my family's blog, there was a little post about me winning the competition. Thanks Mom and Dad. You are so sweet and I love you very much. Cheers to the best parents!

I'm a winner!

I won first place in the NKBA student design competition for the bath category! That includes a trip to Las Vegas to attend KBIS (and I will be staying here) and a $2,500 scholarship. I will also be published in NKBA's quarterly magazine. My school even interviewed me about it, and you can read the short article here.

It's has been quite exciting, but mostly surreal. I am very grateful for this award and all of the recognition that comes with it. I'm especially grateful to my family who encourgaged me to do it and who supported me even when I never called because I was too busy working on this project. One last shout out to Dornbracht, the amazing kitchen and bath fixture company. Their Supernova line, as well as their overall design genius, greatly influenced my project.

Now, enough with the talk. Here's a sampling of my project!

Lego My Movie!

In order to stay informed on world events, I have MSNBC as my home page. But today, instead of clicking on the articles about Rahm Emanuel or Egypt's "day of rage," I clicked on this: "Classic movies get Lego treatment." It was truly inspiring...unlike the depressing world events.

And now, for your viewing pleasure...

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Back to the Future

Psycho
(complete with a creepy silhouette!)

Since we're on the topic, what is your favorite classic movie?

Ugly Sweater Contest

I just discovered a post on my interior design program's blog about our Christmas social from last semester. Here's the story behind our winning garment:

It was nearing the end of the semester and the Interior Design Christmas social was coming up. Some of my friends and I decided that we would come up with a spectacular design to blow away the competition for the ugly sweater contest. We spent an entire Saturday cutting, gluing, and hand sewing this massive, three person sweater. It was hot and itchy, but totally worth it because we won! As a prize, we were presented with a singing wreath.

Jumping for Joy

A few days ago I got a call from the NKBA (the National Kitchen and Bath Association). They told me I was one of the finalists for a bath competition I entered last fall! I was so excited that when they asked me to identify my bath, all I could think of saying was, "Well it has a bathtub, and a shower, and a toilet..." Okay, it wasn't quite that bad but it sure felt like it.

Even after the shock, and slight embarrassment, I still felt like this...

The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be announced the Friday the 28th. No matter where I place, I will win some amount of scholarship ($$$!) and a trip to Las Vegas to stay here. Friday can't come soon enough!

Snow.

Follow me on a walk to class...Coming out of my apartment and seeing the six feet of fresh snow from just yesterday. Well, it was more like two feet, but it felt like six. You'll see...

An apartment across the street. Notice the wall of snow in the middle of the road.

Previously mentioned wall of snow being loaded into a truck. There was so much snow being moved around and not enough room to move it, hence the truck carrying it some place else. This picture was taken behind another snow wall that separated the side walk from the street.

More snow walls, but at least the sidewalks are cleared.

The Spori building. This pictures reminds me that snow really is quite beautiful and peaceful if you take the time to see it that way. And you're bundled up when you do it.

Here's a question: what do you love about snow?

Cakes by the Month

This post is dedicated to my sister Eliza. We made this cake together for my other sister's wedding in June.

We think it turned out pretty well. At least the kids liked it!

Eliza, and any of you aspiring cake decorators, you should have this as your New Years Resolution. I would be more than happy to support you in your efforts by being a taste tester.

Vivian Maier

A friend shared this video about the discovery of a nanny named Vivian Maier. On her off days, she would wander through the streets of Chicago with her camera, snapping photos. Her photographs are stunning, mysterious, and inspiring. This blog dedicated to her has some of her work.

Inspiration...and a little bit of jealousy.

This is the dorm room of Maximilian Stinsteden. His dorm room! This made me want to buy antique oriental rugs, hang framed artwork, and paint my apartment walls. Alas, I'm trying to save up to live in New York this summer and I'm pretty sure painting walls is not allowed. But one can dream.

Go here to see more pictures of Maximilian's dorm.

I am a rhinoceros.

After reading Rhinoceros Success, my life has changed. I am a rhinoceros. I am big (6,000 pounds or so). I have two-inch thick skin. I have not one, but two massive horns. Watch out lazy cows and scared sheep--I know what I want and I'm charging at it!!!

Nativity

Welcome to the New Year

It's a new year (in case you didn't know already) and like most everyone I have some resolutions. One of them is to get some hobbies so I am not constantly doing interior design homework. And so I've chosen to try my hand and camera at photography. A caveat: my camera is a Canon point-and-shoot. Nothing fancy.

On this blog I'm going to start posting my photography experiments along with my interior design projects and anything else that makes my heart skip a beat.