JACK SQUAT!

"You'll find that as you go out there, you're going to amount to JACK SQUAT!!"

Thats what I've learned this week! Ha! It was a good week but I definatly know my place, I have so much to learn. There is so many things that go into designing a room. Designing is the fun part, but figuring out prices (which I know nothing about, so thats been real fun to figure out), having accurate measurements, and your design having to be changed because of the price. Kind of a bummer.

One of the many things that I had to do this week was build three perspectives of the master bedroom in 3D on CAD and render all three in the space of three days! Basically I didn't sleep at all last week. I honestly don't know how I got all of it done, but I did and I have to say that they weren't that bad. Shlomi was impressed with them so I was happy with it.

I met with my client (Judy) for the first time on friday night to present to her my design. I was so nervous and had no idea what I was going to say but luckly Shlomi was there to help me out. It went really well and for the most part she really liked the design. Shlomi is puttng me in charge of the whole thing now. He wants the bedroom all done and installed by the time I leave in 5 weeks! Yikes! I have so much to do and I don't even know were to start! By the time Judy and her husband left that night it was almost 9! I was so exhausted! A 12 hour day with no sleep and no pay is a long day!

H Studio is building a new showroom in downtown LA so Shlomi and Ellen (my other supervisor) wants me to do some of the renderings for that too, should be fun.

During the week I ran a ton of arrends to the PDC and other really random places, along my travels I ran into the the famous Hollywood sign. It was so weird I sort of just stumbled apon it, I looked up and there it was! So I had to stop and take pictures of this iconic piece of California.

LA so far has been so fun, there is so much to do and see! I was happy to find out that my friends Kylee and Amy are still in town so its been nice to actually know somebody and do stuff with. This Saturday we went to the LA Zoo, we played some sweet bowling off of Hollywood Blvd., and watched a really weird movie outside at the Hollywood Forever Cemetary. West Hollywood is crazy, it's full of interesting individuals! What happens in West Hollywood, stays in West Hollywood! If there is anyone that is from or knows West Hollywood knows what I'm talking about!

On Sunday I went to the Singles Ward, the members are so nice, it should be a really fun ward! I met this guy named Harmen and he's in "showbiz", he found out that I'm a interior designer and asked if I wanted to help design a set for a shoe commercial on friday. That would be so awesome! I have to work so we'll see if I will be able to help out!

After church I picked up Kylee and Amy and headed to the beach. By the time we got there it was super cloudy and chilly so it wasn't too relaxing, but it was fun to play in the water for a bit and take some pictures. We also got to drive along the Pacific Coast Highway, it's so pretty! I could drive along that for hours!

This week I have to get a hold of Judy so we can get things going on her room, its going to be cool to see how it turns out! Should be a good week, until then...peace out!

Bouncin' California

Inside the PDC


The PDC!

The Tornado Sculpture

The Oliver Chair

Yellow everyone!
This post is coming to you all from the land of fun in the sun, where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer...LA! Ha!

Why am I in such a place? For the next 6 to 7 weeks I am interning for a fabulous firm in Sun Valley, California called, H Studio by Shlomi Haziza. Its crazy to think that just a year ago I was touring europe studying abroad...oh the places we'll go! I'm excited and oh so nervous to take on this next big adventure!

I just finished my first week at H Studio and its been an interesting one! My first day was actually pretty slow, I'm the only intern and everyone was super busy so I put folders together that they give to clients and the press. Towards the end of the day I got to meet Mr. Shlomi Haziza himself! In the flesh, thee master mind of incredible art, furniture, and fashion. He is so cool and charming...not to mention, pretty handsom for an older guy! If you've ever watched the show Chuck, he looks like a 50 year old Chuck Bartowsky...I know right?! Anyways, Shlomi was asking me all sorts of questions...where are you from, how old are you, how long have you been going to school, what do you want from this experience? Those type of questions. After chit-chatting with him for a bit, he decided to put me incharge of designing a master bedroom for one of their biggest clients...all by myself! What the hell!? This is so cool and oh so scary at the same time!

So during this week I went to the clients house, which is on top of the freaking mountain overlooking all of Hollywood and LA! Gorgeous house, almost everything she owns is from H Studio. I thought I was walking through an H Studio gallery! While there I took tons of measurements and pictures of the room. Shlomi and I are thinking of doing the room in turquoise and charcoal, its going to be sweet! The other day I found this awesome turquoise wall covering and Shlomi loved it! He kept saying "Yeah thats what I'm talking about! Don't go back to school, don't go back to school!" It was such a relief to me because half of the time I feel like I don't know what I'm doing!

The basketball playoffs were this week too so Shlomi wanted to deck out the studio, play loud music, and have an open house. You should have seen the place! The studio that we work at is so cool! Its very modern and contemporary. White floors, walls, and ceilings. Tons of open space to display our products and of course, also to have fabulous parties! Pretty sure he made a lot of money that night!

On Wednesday I got to go to the PDC (Pacific Design Center)!!! Ellen (one of my supervisors) wanted me to return some fabric samples there. Freaking huge building! Very modern architecture, glass everywhere, super cool building! I'm sure I'll get to go back, hopefully soon!

Yesterday I got to go see Amy and Kaitlyn at Disneyland and spend the night with them in their hotel! They've been in Anahiem all this week so I'm glad that I got to see them before they headed back to Utah. I freaking love Disneyland! It really is one of the happiest places on earth for me!

One other fun but not so fun thing that happend this week was my laptop hard drive decided to have a $300 fail! So I took it to the Geek Squad and they replaced it but in the process I've lost all of my programs that I've installed, everything is gone! Music, pictures, everything! Lucky I had most of it saved on my external hard drive. Its been the biggest pain to get things back on it, not to mention I'm out $300 and thats a lot when I'm getting 'paid' in experience this summer! I am so ticked! Oh well, it is what it is!

Its been a crazy week and I'm poo-poo-pooped! Until next time...peace out!

Some of my sketches of the Grand Tour

Italy

Top 5 reasons to visit Italy
5. The people. Italy has some of the nicest people that I’ve ever met in my life. They are so friendly and lax in everything they do. Coffee break anyone?
4. The language. Just the language alone is in and of itself artistic, poetic, beautiful, and so much fun to learn.
3. Mosaics. Every cathedral and every building is covered floor to ceiling in beautiful mosaics. Sometimes you have to look hard to make sure that it’s not a painting.
2. Gondola. A trip to Italy would not be complete without a gondola ride. There is something so magical about a really attractive Italian man taking you through the alley ways of Venice at sunset while singing “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie that’s amore!” Mmm… Yes please!
1. Gelato. There is no limit of how much gelato one can consume in one day! For me in Italy it was an essential ritual of getting through the very hot and humid summer days of wonderful Italy.
Let’s be honest, what is there not to love about Italy? Every nook and cranny is covered in ancient ruins, which is surrounded by the crazy hustle and bustle of modern day living. I found myself soaking up the culture and really enjoying my time spent there.

Aug 4th

Today was our last day of this wonderful tour. I'm a littles sad about it, I've learned so much about design and archicture and also about myself. Tomorrow is a 16 hour plan ride and its back to reality, facing the fact that I'm completely broke and school starts in two weeks! Yikes!! It was so worth it though! Late last night Beccah and Malory came back from their trip to Scotland, I'm so glad that their back. I've missed them, but I'm glad that they got to go and that they had a good time. This morning Darrin took all of us to Buckingham Palace for our last group activity! What a great way to end our tour. I've seen a lot of Palaces in the last 5 weeks and this one is my favorite! Its gorgeous inside, there was stuff from all over the world that have been given to Kings and queens over the years. It was pretty neat to learn about the history of the palace and the british history. After the palace Darrin gave us the rest of the day to do what we wanted so a group of us went to this really cool restraunt called Ask. It was really good, they had really yummy pasta and soup. Then we decided to to last minute shopping on Portobello Road. We did that for awhile and then it was time for Wicked! I was so exicted! Oh my! It was the coolest play that I've ever seen in my life! Its such a good story, good music, awesome set and design, way cool costumes, and great seats! It was really incredible! I'm so glad that I got to go! After wicked we wanted to get fish and chips one last time so we found some restruant, it was the only one that was open because it was pretty late. We got back to our flat around midnight and now we are all franticly packing and cleaning, I don't think we're going to make it to bed tonight, we all have to meet at the metro station at 5 AM! Yuck! Oh well, I'll sleep when I'm dead right!? It has been such a wonderful trip, wonderful is not even the word but its been amazing and life changing and I'm so blest to be able to have gone. It was a rough road preparing to go, but my experience here made it all worth it, a hundred times over!

Aug 3rd

Today was our last free dau before we go home. My friend Ashley and I went to the Imperial War Memorial Musuem this afternoon. It has exhibites of the 1st and 2nd World Wars. It was really cool to learn about these wars on the european side of things. They had a cool exhibit about spies called "Secret War" they had really cool displays of the old devices they used to use. There was also an exhibit about the Holocaust, it was really well done but very graphic and very sad, I definately did not leave with a good feeling but a greater knowledge and respect for those who had to go through such horrible treatment. After the museum we headed back to the flat and I did some more sketching. Bec and Mal should be coming back pretty soon, I'm so excited! I've missed them!

Aug 2nd

Happy Sabbath! It's the last Sunday here in Europe. Today we decided to go to the Single's Ward here in London, it didn't start until 2 30 so a group of us decided to go back to the V & A and see what we didn't get to see sense church was just right around the corner from the museum and its free too so thats always nice. I'm so glad that we went back. There was a section for theature and it was prety sweet, the picture of the rino is actually a life size costume, pretty sweet. We also saw the textile section too. We spent a few hours there and headed to church. I love the Single's Ward here! They are super friendly and there were some pretty good lookin guys too! Yes please! It was a really good sacrament meeting. This really cute girl in her talk talked about how she had the scriptures on her cell phone so she would listen to it while she was on the tube. Well one day when she was on the tube her phone got stolen so she got a new phone and texted her old phone and said " to who ever the new owner is, there is scriptures on my phone so feel free to listen to them." Ha ha! That is awesome! Good for her! After church we went to Hyde Park and walked on the Princess Diana Memorial Walk which led to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, that was pretty cool. Hyde Park is like Centeral Park in New York, its a huge park in the middle of a huge city. While we were walking there was a really cool tree, its branches grew down towards the ground. It's the craziest thing I've ever seen but so cool. After Hyde Park we went to Covent Gardens, Ive already been but the others hadn't so we looked around and enjoyed the street performers. Our favorite was Luca. He was really good and I got some video of him. We watched him for awhile and headed back to the flat. Tomorrow is Monday which means Bec and Mal get back tomorrow night!