Have you been to California, seen the sites and people there? Walked the streets of sleepy sea towns, tasted salty ocean air?

Well last week concluded my adventures in LA. It was a very busy week, I ordered furniture and materials for Judy’s master bedroom. I worked really hard in getting everything all ready to be installed so I hope that all goes well and that she really likes her room. Also this week at work everyone was getting everything ready for the opening of our show room in Las Vegas in the World Market Center on the 2nd. I’ve seen the floor plans and what we’re displaying and it is going to be really cool. I’m sad that I’ll miss it but I am happy to be home.
Tuesday night after work I picked up my friend Amy and went downtown to see the Walt Disney Concert Hall designed my famous architect, Frank Gehry. It was so awesome! Probably the hottest building that I’ve ever seen! I am a sucker for great architecture and it did not disappoint! Every angle was so fascinating and the curvy lines make your eyes look upward, while you wonder how in the world it was built and how is it standing!? I have such a respect for artists and designers who really push the limits and make the impossible possible. We were only there for a short time because we parked at a meter but it really was incredible to see.

Amy and I feeling reflective

Thursday I went into work for about an hour and then headed to LAX to pick up Kate and Adam. After picking them up they had a “surprise” for me… tickets to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno! It was so awesome! We were even in the front row, so if you happened to watch the show on the 29th you probably saw me and didn’t even know it! It was a fantastic show with Jennifer Aniston and singer Christina Perry. Before they started filming the show they had people pumping up the audience before for the show. This one really funny guy came out and was giving out free t-shirts for the loudest fan and he picked me! He told me to come on stage. He put his hands behind his back and told me to be his arms and hands while he told a story, it was hilarious! I’m sure I looked like a fool up there but I was just having a good time, I’d do it for a free t-shirt! :) Too bad they didn’t film that!

After the show we went and got Subway and ate it at the beach. It was a great way to end an awesome day!

Adam and Kate

Friday was my last day at H Studio. I can’t believe my 7 week journey is at an end. I’ve learned so much in so many different ways. Here are just a few:
• I know more than I thought I did.
• Don’t be afraid to exploit yourself, you snooze you lose!
• Promptness shows respect.
• Keeping perspective is the key to happiness. From a distance, even a bumpy road looks smooth.
• Designing makes me happy.
• Be teachable.
• There is really nothing that I can’t conquer.
• Never leave the house without your GPS.
• The beach never gets old.
• The three P’s to a successful business is; the People, the Product, then the Profit.
I’ve been very blessed and fortunate to have had such a great experience. It’s been awesome to see and recognize the Lord’s hand in my life. It’s easy to get cynical about life and I consider it a blessing to be able to recognize the good. How have you been blessed?
At the end of the day Shlomi came up to me and asked, “What can I give you to thank you for all that you did?” and I said, “A letter of recommendation?” and he said, “No recommendation needed just come back in a year…no really… what can I give you?” my response was, “I don’t know?”, then Shlomi said to me, “Come to the showroom and pick out anything you want.” SAY WHAT!? Yeah, that’s right… I got to pick out anything I wanted! So I picked out this sweet, one of a kind sculpture! It would definitely pay for what I would have made over the summer if I got paid. Its super cool, it’s made out of dyed blue acrylic, the same material they use on their furniture.

Me with Ellen McAlister and Shlomi Haziza

H Studio showroom in LA

Jesse and I
After work, Kate, Adam, and I went to Hollywood Blvd. and walked down the Hollywood Walk of Fame for a while and took some sweet pics.

Look I'm famous!

Saturday morning we picked up Amy and rode the bus to Santa Monica Beach. The beach seriously doesn’t get old! It was kind of overcast and chilly when we got there but the sun soon came out. I forgot to put on sunscreen and I got fried! I looked like a freakin lobster! I never forget to put on sunscreen but I did and this time I paid!
Nice fany Adam!

California Beach Bums!

After the beach we went and got sushi and of course Ditty Riese. I’m going to miss it so much, good thing it’s not in Logan or else I would be in big trouble!

It has ruined me but I love it so much!

After dinner we headed to the Griffeth Observatory. It has awesome views of all of LA and Hollywood, we were there just in time for the sunset which was pretty sweet! The Observatory was a great way to spend my last night in California.

Hollywoooood!

Sunday morning came and it was time to make the 11 hour drive back to Utah. I had a chance to say good-bye to my awesome roommate Marge. I love Marge! I really got lucky to be with such an awesome person. I learned a lot from her as well, and she was so kind to let me stay in her humble abode. It was hard saying good-bye to her. I think we were both an answer to each other’s prayers.
Meet Marge, truely and amazing person!
I’m so glad to be home but so grateful for the opportunity to grow and learn new things. Chances are in all that we make them, and all I need! On to the next adventure, one more year at school! Can’t wait to start… until then peace out!!Home sweet home!

Can someone tell me what the heck Malibu Chic is?

Oh gee… where do I start? It has been such a busy and slow week all at the same time! Earlier this week was pretty slow, everyone was trying to recover from last weekend’s opening of our showroom downtown, so I organized part of the Las Vegas inventory list on excel and also designed some of my own furniture that Shlomi may be interested in producing. By mid-week it went from slow to busy again, Jesse (one of my co-workers) and I were in charge of getting everything ready for the Malibu party on that coming Saturday. Luckily it wasn’t too involved, we just had to get all the furniture together and show up at the party. The Malibu party was put on by CC Skye, who is famous for her awesome and trendy jewelry and hand bags. Lots of celebrities and rich people buy her stuff. So what does this have to do with H Studio? Well CC Skye loves our furniture and asked if we would furnish the furniture for her party. During the week Jesse emailed CC Skye and asked her what kind of dress should we wear to the party and they responded with Malibu Chic. What in the heck is Malibu Chic!? Someone please enlighten me! No one in the office even knew what Malibu Chic was either. Efff! So I went to Ross and tried to do my best to find something that resembled Malibu Chic. I did end up finding something and I think that it worked, basically it’s a sophisticated beach/ hippy/ loosie goosie look… did you get that? Me neither! The party finally came and our furniture looked awesome! The party was pretty cool too, I felt a little awkward but good thing Jesse was there so I at least knew somebody. I haven’t got the slightest clue what it’s like to be rich and famous, I don’t know if I can handle all that attention from everyone, I definitely could handle the money though! Ha! The Best part of the party was that we got free jewelry and makeup! Sweet Nibblets!

Do we look Malibu Chic?

If I was a billionaire I would…
1. Pay off all of my school debt.
2. Pay off both of my sister’s school debt and their cars... or just buy them new ones.
3. Buy my parents a house and take care of them for the rest of their lives, let’s be honest… I owe it to them!
4. Travel the world with my friends.
5. Rent Disneyland for a week and only invite my closest friends and family to enjoy a crowd free vacation!
6. Help fund the church’s Humanitarian Aid and the Perpetual Education Fund.
7. Randomly go to a restaurant and pay everyone’s bill.
8. Purchase my own island.
9. Hire my own personal chef and hair and makeup stylist because I hate cooking and getting ready in the morning.
10. Own an original painting by Vincent van Gogh.

The list can go on for a while shamefully. What would you do/buy if you were a billionaire?

On my way home from the party I was driving along the Pacific Coast Highway and look what my view was! I'm really going to miss the ocean!

On Wednesday after work, Marge (my awesome and sweet roommate) and I went to the LA Temple! I’ve been here in LA for 6 weeks now and still have not made it to the temple so I was pretty excited to finally make it out there. The LA Temple is so big! I hear that it’s the biggest temple that the church has, and of course it was gorgeous inside. For my awesome friends that may not know about Mormon temples click here to find out more! I had such a wonderful time, I’m pretty sure it’s the only quiet place in all of LA! I so needed that time to disconnect with the world, it was so refreshing.

So do you remember me telling you about Judy? She was a client that I designed her master bedroom for? Well I finally got a hold of her this week! So she still wants to do her room. Well unfortunately I won’t be able to see it all finished sense I’m leaving this weekend. In the meantime, I’m going to be ordering everything and getting the room all prepped up so they know exactly how everything is supposed to go. I wished that I could have seen it all finished but I’ll do everything I can until then.
Before the party on Saturday my friend Amy and I tried to go see some Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry buildings but it was kind of a bust. We missed the tour for the Hollyhock House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright so we just took a few pictures. We also went to the Hollywood Library that supposedly was designed my Fank Gehry, not going to lie…it was kind of disappointing, it was run down and didn’t really look like anything that he would design. The rest of the day we were of course stuck in retarded traffic, but we did manage to make it to Ditty Riese, mmm… so good! I’m addicted!

We love Queen!

The Hollyhock House

Cant get enough of the PDC!
It was my last Sunday yesterday. I’m going to really miss the great people I’ve met through the church. They’ve been so kind and welcoming, who knows… maybe I’ll find a job out here in a year? We’ll see!
This week is my last week, I can’t believe it! It’s flown by so quickly, I’ve learned so much in such a short amount of time.
I’m so excited for Thursday, you wanna know why?! Because my awesome, beautiful cousin Kate, and my awesome macho friend Adam are coming to LA! They will be joining me on the long drive back to Utah early Sunday morning as well! Thursday can’t come soon enough! Until then… peace out!

Can you name anything more annoying? I bet you can't!

I was driving on the 405 this week and right in front of me was a nice car that had one of those Nike stickers that said ‘Just Do It’… so I hit him… knocked the phone right out of his hand! Ha! There are three truths about this statement. The first being is that I really didn’t hit anyone; the second is that I really, really, hate the 405 freeway with every fiber of my being! And thirdly, LA traffic really makes me want to ram someone! It brings out the worst in me and it’s a good thing that I’m driving by myself most of the time because at times I’m ashamed at the things that come out of my mouth.
Week five is done and gone, now onto week six. It’s crazy to think that in less than two weeks I will be back in Utah. It’s gone by so fast! I feel like I’ve learned a lot already! This past week was a busy one! We’ve all been frantically trying to get everything ready for the grand opening of our showroom in LA that we had on Saturday. We had a few glitches and setbacks but we managed to pull through and it turned out really nice! The showroom looked glorious! We ended up painting the floors and walls all white at the last minute and it turned out so nice! I think we had a pretty good turn out too. The space was filled with people, loud music, and delicious food! My friend Amy came with me, these events can tend to be a little awkward so it was nice to have a friend there with me.

Last week I also started putting together a design for a party that H Studio is furnishing in Malibu. On Wednesday I drove to the house in Malibu where the party is going to be at and took pictures and measurements. It’s 40 miles away so it took about an hour and a half to get there. The party is this Saturday so I have a lot to do to get everything ready.
So as I was heading back from Malibu and it took me 3 hours to get home! Again reiterating my loathing of LA traffic! Mind you that it’s only 40 miles away! I was so ticked! LA traffic is the biggest gas loafer of all time! I’m so annoyed! To make it even worse it’s been over 100 all week. Stuck in traffic with a hot sun beating down on you is no bueno!
Friday night Amy and I went to the movie Inception. It was so good! I loved it! The whole concept of controlling your dreams and being able to know what is real and what is reality is mind boggling. I can’t quite wrap my brain around it but it was so interesting!
Saturday before the party Amy and I found Frank Gehry’s house! It’s definitely a Gehry house. Fence, metal, and glass protruding in every direction. It was way cool to see it. After the party we were hungry so we went to this really good sushi restaurant in Westwood and Ditty Riese for desert…mmmm so good! I can't get enough of it!

Sunday after church we of course headed to the beach. I love that place, it doesn’t get old for me. I can't resist it! It’s a great way to end my week and start a new one…until then…peace out!

Ketchup?

I can’t believe that I’ve been here a whole month! Just 3 more weeks to go! This week I’ve been busy doing final renderings of the lobby of the Watermark Tower building in downtown LA. I think they turned out pretty good, it’s going to look pretty sweet when it’s all done and put together. Next this Saturday is THE day we open up our showroom to the public. We’re having a big party that night with lots a booze, but I’ll be going for the networking!

This girl at work was trying to convince me that Sketchup is better than CAD! Ha! Don’t make me laugh! Are you kidding me?! Sketchup isn’t even comparable to what you can do on CAD, it’s so much more professional and accurate! If you’re looking to muck around use Sketchup, if you're making real plans use AutoCAD…so there!
One of the many other projects going on here at H Studio is we’re remodeling our showroom in Las Vegas, and will be reopening on the 2nd of August. This week I went through the entire inventory in Vegas and organized everything into categories on Excel, then pasted pictures of each product next to their corresponding description. I am so bad at Excel so I guess this will be good for me!
On Wednesday, I went to the Ketchup Restaurant in West Hollywood with Kylee and Amy. Kylee went back to Utah on Friday so we wanted to have one last get together before she headed back. Ketchup is a way cool and trendy restaurant! The food was pretty good, they have all sorts of funky ketchup flavors for you to try like; chocolate, banana, ranch, BBQ, and just regular ketchup. It was fun to try all the flavors, who would have thought to put chocolate and ketchup together? It was pretty interesting!

Finally the weekend came and I headed over to Amy’s place to take the bus to the Getty! Riding the bus is so much cheaper than parking and it saves on gas so I think we’re going to try and ride the bus everywhere we can! I like the bus, I feel like I can actually enjoy LA because I’m not driving in it! Plus the TV on the bus asks you fun useless knowledge questions like; what is the largest cat in the world? –Tiger, and what determines the gender of a baby crocodile? – Temperature. I bet you didn’t know that! I didn’t! Good thing I was on the bus so we all can be that much smarter? Ha!
The Getty was really neat and is one of my favorite places that I’ve been to in LA. I love seeing great architecture and the Getty does not disappoint! A beautiful work of art made of travertine and aluminum. Richard Meier is the master mind architect. Inside the museum housed paintings from some of my favorite artists like Vincent Van Gough and Claude Monet. The collection also included pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, decorative arts, and 19th- and 20th-century American and European photographs. By the end of the day I felt pretty cultured.

After the Getty we rode the bus back to Westwood (where Amy lives) and went to this awesome place called Ditty Riese, which has the best homemade ice-cream sandwiches! You can pick the cookie and ice-cream, it is so good and the price is right too! Only $1.50!
I really like the Westwood area, the UCLA campus is there so it’s a fun college town feel, lots of fun places to hang out, really nice and friendly people, cool places to eat, and really close to the beach!
Sunday I went to church, I really like the singles ward here, the people are really nice. I’m sad that I’m leaving so soon I was just starting to get to know the people.
After church I met up with Amy and we took the bus to the Santa Monica Beach. It was another great day at the beach. We caught some sweet waves and built a real interesting sand castle and watched it wash away by the waves. It was a good day!
Well that finishes another crazy week in LA. Until next week…peace out!

Freedom!

Week 3 is done… check! Three down four to go! This week at H Studio was pretty good; I was busy all week working on the renderings for the lobby in the Watermark Building downtown. Watermark is a super cool building! It’s a huge skyscraper that has high end apartments and penthouses. Also inside there is a gym, swimming pool, an indoor park for dogs, and our H Studio showroom. The cost to rent such a place costs as much as a new car a month, $15,000 a month! Who does that?! It’s going to be sweet when it’s all finished.
I tried to get a hold of Judy (my client) this week to get things started on her room but she’s been really busy at work. I hope I can get a hold of her soon, there isn’t much time left. Four weeks to completely install a room isn’t much time especially if you have to order fabrics and furniture.
This week Kylee and I attempted FHE on Monday; it was a multi stake activity at Dockwieler Beach where there was a big bonfire with marshmallows and stuff to make s’mores with. There were so many people so it was a bit intimidating but the people that we talked to were really nice. I was just proud of myself for even going!
The 4th of July weekend was so fun and jam packed of good old American fun! I even had Monday off too!
Saturday Kylee and I headed to Venice Beach. I heart Venice Beach! When I think of a California beach I think of a beach like Venice Beach. The beach is lined with gorgeous beach houses, street performers, tons of shops, people riding bikes, and of course muscle beach. If your neck is the same width of your head… take a day off!! It’s supposed to go in a little!
It was so nice just to lay out on the warm sand and feel the warm sun on my skin. The weather was perfect; it wasn’t too hot with a nice breeze to cool you off. After basking in the sun we did a little sand sculpting. I was made into a mermaid, and Kylee was a beautiful octopus! We played in the water for a bit, it was so fun to jump in the waves. I got a little creeped out by the seaweed and whatever else was lurking in the water so we got out of the water and changed our clothes. We decided it would be fun to rent bikes and ride them along the coast. We rode all the way up to the Santa Monica Pier. It was so much fun! I’ve always wanted to ride bikes on the beach! There was so much to see, music coming from all directions, crazy hippies, and street venders everywhere. It kind of reminded me of Portobello Rd. in London minus the beach of course.
We rode our bikes back and did a little shopping. I’ve seen a lot of things in my travels but the people in California are crazy! One of the great things (or some people think is great) about California is that medical marijuana is completely legal, so there were crazy reefer men trying to get people to come in and get a free health exam to see if you qualify for medical marijuana, this is absolutely crazy to me! No thanks! I like the system I’ve got! Try getting high on life, it’s awesome!

While walking back to the car we spotted Frank Gehry's Veince Beach House! So cool! It was just right in the middle of the big line of beach houses. It's always great to see things that you see in text books!
After the beach we headed back to Ky’s place and we had ourselves a little BBQ. We cut up so much fruit!! It was more like can I have some BBQ with my fruit! Ha! It was so good!
For the 4th of July we decided to go to the Aquarium in Long Beach and watch the fireworks. The Aquarium was really cool! It was like a mini Sea World, they had animals you can touch and there was so much to do and see. I had more fun admiring the design and architecture. The animals were just a bonus, I’m such a nerd! When we bought our tickets we got the 4th of July package, it came with admission to the aquarium and a dinner. The dinner was so good! We piled our plates full of food and dessert, it was quiet the American meal!
Later on that night we watched the fireworks from the Queen Mary. It was a great way to end the day. Thank you for being born America!
5 reasons why I love America:
1. I can pursue my dreams
2. I can obtain an education in anything I choose
3. The opportunities here are endless
4. I can have a car and go anywhere
5. I have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
There are so many other reasons why I love America, I feel very fortunate to be in this great land.
Monday I had the day off so Kylee and I went to Olvera St., which is the birth place of Los Angeles. It is a tiny street full of Mexican food and street venders. The atmosphere was really fun and so was the food!
Later on that night we went to a movie in Glendale. We saw Knight and Day. It was ok, kind of cheesy but at least it had good action in it.
It’s been a good week. I’ve done and seen a lot! Until next week… peace out!