2013: Half & Half

This year was half and half. Half really bad, and half really good.

January got off to a bad start, when I realized how exhausted I was by a sport I used to love, and my laptop was stolen. That being said, I had a long winter break that resulted in a lot of thinking. I tried to keep my head up and hope for a less stressful semester but that resulted in a big NOPE.

Overall, I was in a bad mental place. I was the most homesick I had been in school, I was struggling holding onto friendships, and just unhappy. In February I had some fun at a concert (where it turns out we set a Guinness World Record for the largest Harlem Shake) and some fun with my hair color. While the semester drug on, I was able to come home for a week and also meet Maggie, who is an amazing individual. She probably doesn't know this but she got me through a lot of stuff  I was dealing with and I cannot thank her enough for that. As March came to a close I started to try and rid myself of all the negativity and embrace change no matter how strange it seems.





However, the semester from hell continued and I attempt to find a new perspective borrowed from the lessons of an English teacher.

Things turn around eventually. I helped a friend out, returned to a job I enjoy, and was able to exhale for the first time in months. My summer was filled with coffee, pie, fantasies of an apartment, and a return to personal style. I spent a week in Hawaii which involved a lot of great food and great weather. I was able to venture into Seattle for various reasons; always an adventure. At one point I convinced some of my friends to do an impromptu photo shoot with me! Most importantly I was able to visit some extraordinarily special people in what we now know as the Awesome Austin Adventure.

I returned to New York and started to get into the swing of things. It was a whole new time for me; I wasn't swimming, I was living in an apartment, and starting my third year of college. The past was behind me and it was time to move forward. And time to spend more time (and money) in New York City.

October rolled around and everything was well, I was content with where I was, even though there were a few more things I'd like to immerse myself in. And then all of a sudden...
I was published in a newspaper. Not just one, but two actually.
Natalie came to visit me!
I turned 21.
I went back to NYC for Thanksgiving and had an amazing time.
I had an amazing 5th semester actually. Only 5 more to go!




A Poem.



Since Christmas has happened,
a few days has passed,
and the things I received ,
are ones that will last.

New luggage, some shirts, a few books and an umbrella,
sure has made me one happy fella'!

Dogs were walked and Elf was seen,
ham was eaten, and Rachel was mean.

I've seen some old friends,
updated my website,
donated blood,
and now I'm ready for New Years night!


Friday the Thirteenth, Wine Tasting, Phuket, and an Interview

That's how I would sum up the past four days.


I flew home on Friday the thirteenth. I didn't think anything of it, until storm advisory warnings started appearing. A delay on ground before we even took off and a delay in air before we landed almost caused me to miss my connecting flight, but it was a good thing that one was delayed slightly too, because I got on with only a few minutes to spare. Even though I left school quite hurriedly -only a day after my last final- I'm glad I did because a winter storm on the east coast dumped snow, which I'm sure affected flights.

And if I didn't make it back, I would have missed picking out a Christmas tree, and the gourmet cookie making and wine tasting with my mom.

And I probably wouldn't have been able to visit with some friends and get great Thai food at a restaurant called Phuket (pronounced poo-kay for those of you who would pronounce it how I pronounced it at first) and then watched the second Hobbit movie afterwards.

I probably would have made it back in time for my 11:00 am interview though. I'm glad I did because I got into the city over an hour early and was able to get my first seasonal Starbucks drink in Seattle, go into Barnes & Noble and browse, and then wander though Pike Place Market while I was waiting. I had my first interview for a job that wasn't at the summer pool near my house. And I think I got the job. I mean, they said that after HR went though my paperwork they would contact me to start training so I'll take that as a good sign.
Ridden of anxiety, I was able to Christmas shop downtown for a while. In the future, I need to go downtown with my goals in mind because I was going to get a holiday bouquet and I forgot about that after passing it, and I was going to go to the Seattle Central Library but somehow that passed my mind too. It's okay though because I picked up some great finds today.

Also, appreciate my new blazer but ignore the fact that these looks like stills from a Twilight movie.

<< quilted jacket by Frank & Oak >> blazer by Topman << button down by J.Crew >> skinny tie by H&M <<
 jeans by Levis >> boots by Florsheim >> not shown: awesome constellation socks from Amy >>

Gobble Gobble


It snowed. Sure it's late November now, but it finally snowed.

I am flooded with nostalgia. The past few weeks have been full of new experiences and  inspiring moments. I went to MASS MoCA - the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art - the other weekend with some friends and one of our professors 'chaperoned' us. Except what I didn't know was that he had work exhibited at the museum, and he knew most of the artists who had exhibitions and was able to describe the thought process behind such contemporary art. One of my favorite exhibits was the collective work of Sol LeWitt. He produces huge paintings by writing a set of instructions for someone else to follow, and the end product are these monolithic wall paintings that are just fantastic to experience.

I have also asked my grandparents if they would be willing to fly me out to visit them during my spring break next year. So guess who is going to Phoenix in March! I'm so excited to see them, and to be able to visit Amy. But, part of the reason I had wanted to visit them was also to visit one of my friends who goes to school in San Diego, and I'll be spending a few days with her too. It's going to be an amazing spring break.

I spent the Thanksgiving Holiday in New York City. It's so kitschy to be there for the holiday but it's also one of those once-in-a-lifetime thing so I tried to experience as much as I could. The Macy's Day Parade, Black Friday on 5th ave, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, the holiday market in Union Square which is basically a street fair dedicated to Christmas. (File under: things I am definitely okay with.) My friends and I did a contemporary take on the traditional Thanksgiving meal by making turkey burgers and fixing them up with stuffing, gravy, and cranberry sauce - which is actually kind of delicious. I'm thankful to have found friends to share the holiday with.

Side note: hibiscus margarita.

Second side note: I vehemently despise Tuxedo, New York. But that's another story. 

The Weekend Came



What a week it has been! Unnecessarily stressful, really.
Over the course of it I have run into some things online that I have been saving and decided to share.

I actually made the image above... Couldn't be possible without this guy and his processing software!

Make your own bagels

Interesting recipe... one pan pasta

And finish off the meal with a chocolate chip cookie kahlua milkshake

While we are discussing alcohol, check out these diagrams explaining wine

This dog is more fashionable than you are

8-Bit Architects make me laugh

How to take photos at parties

After trying an earl grey cookie at the wine bar I want to try and make some...

Thinking about the holidays already? Love Star Wars? You want these

The perfect night alone


Enjoy and have a great weekend!



Saturday.



I woke up at 8:00 am, wide awake, and feeling hungry. Upon getting up and realizing that we didn't have any breakfast food because we haven't gone grocery shopping in approximately three weeks, I immediately showered and decided to make the most of my morning.

Fall has hit upstate New York at full force; brisk winds and piles of leaves galore. So I bundled up and walked downtown, where I got breakfast and coffee at The Daily Grind, one of the handful of awesome coffee shops that are around here. After my egg, bacon and cheese on a croissant I walked over to the hardware store and picked up some electrical tape for my Halloween costume (which was not worn on Halloween, but on Saturday night to the annual architecture party: Creepy Crawl.) I meandered over to the farmers market where I got a giant head of butter lettuce for $3, some cherry tomatoes, and locally made peanut butter that is infused with maple and honey. I ran another errand, and headed back to my apartment.

The entire time I was by myself, but it was one of those mornings that was perfect for being alone. I was able to collect my thoughts and smiled to myself as I walked up the somewhat treacherous hill home.

And then the Halloween party. I went as a Mondrian painting, which I had been planning out for a while now. I used electric tape and duct tape on a pair of white pants and a white tee shirt to mimic his aesthetic, and continued the look up my face just for flair. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to end the week-long celebration of turning 21.


Hope everyone had an awesome Halloween!

Twenty One.

I had what was probably the most low key twenty first birthday of any college student ever and I loved every minute of it. I was thrown a "surprise" birthday party that involved the coolest cake ever that my mom set up for me, and all of my closest friends were there. Halloween + Birthday = Amazing cake. It included black and white stripes that reminded me of beetlejuice, eyeballs all over, and a wine glass covered in gore. Chocolate cake, of course. Delicious.

And to celebrate my new ability to go out to bars, at midnight on the 31st some of my closest friends took me out to one of the iconic bars in our area to celebrate, The Ruck. Then on my birthday I wanted to go to this wine bar called The Confectionery to celebrate because I had heard some great things about it. In the end most of my best architecture friends were there celebrating with me, and as a birthday treat the waiter gave me the most expensive glass of wine on the menu for the cheapest priced one. There was conversation, cheese tasting, and wine drinking that made my night. After that, one of our friends made us sushi while I was served glass after glass of bourbon, and it was truly an enjoyable night.

So thank you guys, all of you, for making my birthday a wonderful one.

In addition, since a year has gone by, consequentially so have another year of goals. In the past year I have achieved a few of my 21 before 21, so I decided to do 21 before 22, because it's one less and I would really like to check everything off this year.

21 Before 22

- Develop a work-out schedule
- Become LEED Accredited
- Have one vegetarian meal a month
- Read/Watch the Game of Throne serires
- Submit an entry for a design competition 
- Travel somewhere new (Canada?)
- Read Subculture
- Go to a winery
- Draw more
- Learn how to use sketch-up and AutoCAD
- Have my grandma show me how to crochet a blanket
- Get an architecture internship
- Go to the Seattle Public Library 
- Take a yoga class
- Run a half marathon
- Grow a mustache
- Go to Beth's Cafe & get a 12 egg omelet
- Go paddle boarding
- Start regularly recording my outfits
- Use and develop at least 1 disposable camera
- Get my motorcycle drivers licence

Proud.



Last year, during my first semester as a second year student of architecture, we were assigned to design an addition to a museum.

This year, my work along with 9 other students have their work being shown in the museum.



In retrospect, it's kind of a crazy thing. My design was chosen to be presented as one of the top from my section of students, and 9 other amazing designs were picked too. And then our work was realized in the three dimensional form by the means of 3D printing.

Here we are, a year later and the work is in an exhibit in the museum. I thought the gallery opening was cool enough, but one of Capital Regions newspapers ran a story on it. Not only did they run a story, they conducted interviews and I happened to be around for that so now I'm IN the newspaper article. And then we got photographed for the article, and somehow only three images ran with the article; one of the group of us whose work was exhibited (shown at top), one of Jackson's (a grad student and a friend of mine) interior render, and me with my model.

And our work was published in a book by the School of Architecture. We all got one. It's kind of fantastic.

I do not in any way own these photos, all credit goes to the Daily Gazette and Gazette Photographer: Stacey Lauren-Kennedy

The more places I'll go


This semester I'm taking an elective course that is geared towards reconnecting contemporary painting with contemporary architecture, and there is something about it that makes me want to fully invest my life in learning about our contemporary culture. Recently we have covered information regarding stylistic periods of art from the 19th century to now, and the external learning that we have been given leave me searching for more. We were required to watch a documentary called Painters Painting which opened my eyes to how an artist creates. As an architect, we are given a predetermined paradigm of functionality or a restriction, which, due to our medium is one that requires our attention in design. But instead of working towards an idea and stopping at our restrictions we should learn how to break down those restrictions in order to find something new.

I just watched this lecture/discussion between an artist and a film maker as part of researching how Matt Connors as an artist conceptualizes his own work, and there is a whirlwind of thoughts running through me currently.

I want to go to museums. Wherever I go my new goal is to go to a museum. Historical, art, science, anything. Especially in the contemporary realm. In schooling we are taught history. It is given to us as sheet of information that we are supposed to retain. But no one tells us about the world we are living in right now. We're just expected to know about it, which, if you are anything like me, you don't even realize how many innovative things are happening, and how many ideas are being realized in different manners. Not only the fact that things are happening, but we need to experience them, and try and understand them.

I need to watch more movies. Not romantic comedies or action films. Documentary's. Films with a message, with a story, with art. I've neglected considering films to be a source of "art" persay, since I've considered movies to be more so involved with the entertainment of masses, and quality suffers. There are movies of course that I thoroughly enjoy and would praise for several things, yet the connotation of art had never been realized. I'd like to change that.

I want to read more books. For a while now I've been wanting to read Heidegger's Subculture: The Meaning of Style because I find society and its representational qualities to be a fascinating aspect of our contemporary life. In that respect there are a lot of books that conceptualize relationships of our future to that of our past. One that was mentioned in the discussion I previously addressed was titled Retromania and discusses specifically music, but overall conceptualizes our modern fascination with reproducing the past into contemporary culture.

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go.” 
- Dr.Suess

Edge.


1 // 2 \\ 3 // 4 \\ 5

Lately I've been craving a style change, and it all started with me wanting a new hairstyle, and with it a few new pieces in my wardrobe. It's taken me a really long time to actually figure out the rules (and consequently how to properly break the rules) of style, but as of late I've been extremely comfortable in how I choose to dress. Now, you're all probably thinking "that's a splendid thing for you old sport!" but for some reason I want to start moving into a trend that has been been evolving into something modern and aesthetically interesting; something with edge. 

Whether it is the architect from New York mentality or the fact that Halloween is rapidly approaching, I've been drawn towards a lot of black lately. While looking online for a nice thick knit shawl collar cardigan I stumbled onto the Zara website and instantly became transfixed with these pieces with leather embellishments. Now if we take a look at the pieces above the four on the right could actually probably be easily incorporated into my wardrobe without too much of a style shock; they incorporate elements of edge to ordinary pieces. The first piece however is not something I could see myself wearing, even though all of the photos of it being worn make it looks like such an amazing piece. It's too much of a statement, mainly because the shape is unlike anything I have ever, or currently own.

Unrelated, I'm pretty excited for Halloween festivities.

Mid Term.



I've had quite a tumultuous week. I had a few mid-term tests recently and my studio midterm presentation in which our dean winked at me. A lot of the grimy had to do with the prospects of a relationship that from the beginning was not going to work out - we both knew it too. But oddly enough I'm not upset about it. I also came to the realization that without swimming looming over my life I would have time for a relationship if I wanted one. But enough about that.

In the past few weeks there have been a lot of people coming back to RPI as alumni and it's so weird to think that I'm a junior in college now. Like, I even started thinking about whether or not grad school should be an option so that I could teach if  I wanted to. (And since when would having a Masters hurt in finding a job?) Just a few years ago, some even less than that had graduated and are now part of the real world which is a moderately terrifying prospect. Already I am concerning myself with summer internships, and seasonal jobs for when I go home during winter break.

In general though, not much else has been going on. I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and although they have a consistency similar to muffins they are too good. One of my roommates got me hooked on American Horror Story. Natalie is supposed to be coming up next weekend! I met a grad student at my school today who grew up with Maggie and she was really nice, and excited about the fact that we had a mutual friend. Sometimes you just have moments where all you can think of is, "it is a small world."

<<jacket: dead poets society by UO > < sweater: j.crew > < navy blue tee shirt: nordstrom > < belt: old navy > 
< off white denim: levis > < clarks desert boots w/  blue j.crew laces>>

Countdown



1 // 2 \\ 3 // 4 \\ 5 // 6 \\ 7 // 8 \\ 1

It's the first day of October, and that means that my Birthday is rapidly approaching. For the most part, Birthdays aren't too big of a deal, except for a certain few; 16 when you can get your license, 18 when you become a legal adult and can vote, and 21 the age of being able to purchase alcoholic beverages.

In thirty days I turn 21. Needless to say I'm pretty excited about it. It has more to do with the social aspects of being in a college setting, and having a lot of friends who are older than me that I'm not able to spend time with because of an age restriction.

Anyways, since moving into an apartment I am starting to feel like there are some things I can own now, simply because I have a place to put them, or things to use them with. Like those straws? I don't even need them. I don't even like drinking out of straws to be honest. The rest of the things are more practical, like watch straps, and a wallet, and even though they're not on there I'd love a pair of wayfarer sunglasses.

However, lets talk budgeting real fast. Because most, if not all, of these items are not things I will need in the near future, rather they are things I would like to own. This is true with a lot of things, so this month I'd like to do a budgeting exercise for myself. My goal is to not purchase anything not absolutely necessary for survival. So, groceries I can purchase, I just want to be smarter about them. Everything else, all of the impulse buys that I have been known to do, I am going to resist.

Here's to October!

Rambling Man




I don't usually eat dinner at 10 pm, but when I do it's with the Dean of the School of Architecture and Odile Decq; well known french architect (who also happens to look like Edward Scissorhands.) I mean, it wasn't just the three of us, there were 4 professors and 3 other students too, but I was the only student that was invited -instead of being drawn from a raffle- because I'm in an advisory council with the Dean. I can't tell if the best part was hearing all of the insight from this woman of ingenuity, or seeing my Modernity professor drink too much wine and talk about how I shouldn't be surprised when our lecture is all over the place the next morning.

He was kind of all over the place this morning.
Just like this post is going to be all over the place too.

In other news, it is most definitely fall here in upstate New York. I ordered (and am wearing) a new quilted jacket that I got on sale from Frank & Oak, an online menswear shop that is based out of Montreal. It's one of my favorite pieces in my closet as of now so I wear it all the time. These pants on the other hand I rarely wear, even though I've had them for almost 5 years now; and yet they somehow still fit me.

The other night I got a bit restless and decided to make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies from one of my favorite food blogs, A Pastry Affair. (I also found her recipe for a pumpkin spice latte that I plan on trying very soon.) The cookies are so simple, but delicious.

I've spent my free time recently renovating a mid-century modern dresser that was left in our basement into a sort of liquor cabinet (almost 21 guys, almost) where I took out the bottom two drawers and replaced them with semi-transparent plastic doors. It's pretty poorly constructed but I'm pretty proud of myself for trying to do something I'd never done before and it actually pretty much worked out.

That'll be my motto for this year; try new things and hope they work out.


Playing catch-up



So lately I've been wanting to take some style photos now that it's fall, but I just can't seem to casually take photos of myself on or around a college campus so once I figure that out there will be more outfit pictures.

For now, enjoy this flashback of me when I was in Hawaii this summer at a luau.


An expensive weekend



I love the way that the setting sun lights up a city. Every building has the shadow of the building in front cast upon it, the angular geometries of the skyline become intensified, and the sea of skyscrapers before you become spectacular to look at.

I spent Friday night and most of the day Saturday in New York City for a "field trip" to meet up with a professor at MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art along with some of my friends in the school of Architecture. The Le Corbusier exhibit that we went specifically to see was fantastic to say the least; it was amazing to see all of the work of one of the architects who defined what modern architecture is today. The museum is six stories of wonderful art and I only really got to experience about 4 of them, but it is somewhere I will definitely return to once a new exhibit is set up.

We also went to the Guggenheim which is a spectacular building, but the amount of work that was inside was lacking, and the featured artist really didn't do much for me, besides the lobby installation which mesmerizing. The rest of the time spent there we were with our other friends who are spending a semester studying in the city, the most of the time we spent together was at restaurants, which would have been fine if the service wasn't so poor and the food so expensive.

And even though I spent far too much money, I'll be back soon enough.





Does it almost feel like nothing's changed at all



I'm still not sure how this phenomenon occurs, but the first week of classes feels like it actually took course over the period of an entire month. It probably has something to do with the fact that I've been here for over 2 weeks now, but 5 days of classes should not have felt that long.

In terms of school:
- For third and fourth years of Architecture school we get put into a process where we rank our top choices for a professor during a given semester and a somewhat rule-based lottery determines if we get our top choice or not. I ended up getting my top choice, but it's different than all the rest because it meets Tuesday Wednesday.
- Because of that, I had to drop a course (I really didn't want to take it anyways) and I picked up another.
- The new course is a prep class getting architects ready to take the test to become LEED accredited which is much more beneficial to me.
- I think I might actually like my courses this semester, even with the large quantities of reading I have to do for Modernity (a history/theory course).
-Where is my motivation to be productive?

In terms of living in an apartment:
- I wish I had a car, or a knew how to and could get a motorcycle or something because I hate having to ask people for rides.
- Cooking on my own is good so far. The meals have been pretty unexciting but they have been healthy and taste good so I'm not complaining!
-  I don't even mind not having a dishwasher.
- Note to self and to others in charge of food: don't buy more produce than you can eat. For example, six ears of corn, although a steal, was a pretty unreasonable purchase.
- Follow up: If you do buy more produce than you should have look up ways to use it and keep it fresh longer. For example, cooking the corn and then cutting of the kernels to eat later when you feel like having corn again.
- This goes to anyone who has roommates. You will have problems with your roommates. It is bound to happen, big or small. Just try and resolve any issues in the most rational ways possible. Keep in mind, everyone comes from different ways of living and was taught different ways of doing things.

In other news:
- It is really hot and humid here and I always forget that because it's cold so much the rest of the year. (Note to self: If you end up getting an internship here over the summer invest in a window A/C unit!)
- I really need a haircut.
- Even though I am complaining about heat I just got a quilted jacket for fall because of good labor day deals.
- Kopecky Family Band, Lorde, and Josh Ritter are some recent music choices of mine.
- I'm really happy to be back with my friends on campus, but there are a lot of people that I miss quite a lot; whether they're abroad, graduated, or from different parts of my life.

That turned into a series of lists, and I do not apologize for that. 

Sunday.

It's not until you have to figure out what kind of light bulbs to get to replace the burnt out ones throughout your abode that you feel like you're living somewhere for the long haul.
And it doesn't really feel like home yet, but it will soon.

It took the majority of a day to travel across the country, again, and the rest of the day to unpack. I was lucky enough to just buy off the furniture in my room for a low cost because I knew who lived here before me, and they left everything. Like, three bookshelves (all different sizes), a dresser, desk, bed frame and mattresses, bedside table, and another mini dresser. So I took it all out, rearranged it and only kept what I needed, and moved the rest out - leaving me with the bed, the black dresser and desk, and two white bookshelves.

Now, here's the fun part; the rest of the week before classes start will be spent making it feel like my room.

 -the big white bookcase blends in too much so I'm going to paint the backing of it a dark grey
- i'd like to find a thrift or vintage store to get a few interesting pieces, specifically something I can use for a trash bin, lamp, and wooden picture frames to hang things in
- i'll arrange and hang all of my prints and the cool clock my mom got me from ikea
- and a chair for my desk. don't have one of those as of now either
- i feel like a rug would make it feel more cozy, but I definitely wont get one unless it's cheap and I love it
- maybe over a long weekend i'll do this or this project for a tufted headboard because I need a headboard

So far my color theme is just black, white, and grey - what color should I do a headboard in?

Seattle Blues


I need to pack. I leave in two days and haven't packed at all.
Oh well.



The last week before heading back to school is always a long one filled with things to do and people to say goodbye to. Monday involved going downtown Seattle to visit Maggie, where we had a delicious dinner at Wild Ginger, walked to the Olympic Sculpture Park, rode the Ferris Wheel and finished the night off with ice cream at Cupcake Royale - which happened to be the same place where we got ice cream the very first day we met up in Seattle. Both of us started the night in poor spirits for our respective reasons, but by the end we were rejuvenated by the life of the city.
Tuesday night I ventured back into Seattle, this time with a different crowd, and to see a pre-screening of Kick Ass 2. It was a nice last hurrah to say goodbye to close friends, and also to see a movie I would definitely recommend (only if you've seen the first and liked it though).
Wednesday night my family and I went and saw Gavin DeGraw, The Script, and Train in concert. Even though we had tickets on the grass around the amphitheater, and it was raining the entire time it was a really good show.

Although I'm all too ready to head back to school, just as always I'll be missing this city the whole time I'm gone.







What I'm wearing: <sperry topsiders> <bullhead skinny chinos from pac sun>  <hoof pick belt>
<navy blue polo from j.crew> <sunglasses by nordstrom>

D.I.Y. Frosted Glass Votives

(Disclaimer: Do it yourself projects are never as easy as the tutorial makes it seem.)

Today my family and two other families met together for a dinner and game night that we have annually been doing for a couple of years now. The hostess refused to let us bring a dish or dessert so instead I made her a gift; some candle votives.






So, in reality these weren't that hard to make. The original tutorial I found recommended some very specific items that were pretty pricey or I just couldn't find at all. Just going to the store and attempting to find materials was half the battle. (Also I only had 4 hours to get everything and make it) It also included some color spray options, none of which looked very nice so here we have an alternative that you can play freely with.

What you need:
- glass cups (we found these at value village, a thrift store for $1 each)
- frosted glass spray
- tape/stickers/rubber bands/jute (this depends on your level of creativity and what you want your finished look to resemble.)

First thing you should do, if you already haven't is wash the glasses and dry them completely. Then use rubbing alcohol or windex to clean them and create a clean surface for the frosted spray to adhere to. From here on out try and only touch the inside of the glass or the outside where you have already placed tape or something covering the glass.




Technique 1: Washi Tape
While on our hunt for a thin adhesive tape we were looking for something thin, preferably around a quarter of an inch thick that could be adhesive. Easy, right? Wrong. The only thing that thin was called super-adhesive-double-sided-permanent-tape or something so we did not get that. That or the $18 vinyl tape. So we went with a roll of this inexpensive decorative tape for our first glass. I simply wrapped it around in a curved pattern, almost like branches.
For the cleanest edges make sure the tape is really sticking on there, and if you are curving something that is not meant to be curved, clean up those lines with more tape.



For all of the glasses, I took them outside and put them on newspaper on a flat surface (or if you're me you put them on a giant upside down ceramic bowl in your dead lawn, which is why there isn't a picture of this process) so that the bottoms were up, and the lips of the glasses down. Be conscious of the fact that you will be spraying the bottom -unless you tape it off- so place your tape and coverings purposefully!


After applying two coats and letting it dry (which doesn't take very long, about 5 to 10 minutes a coat) you can take the tape off. Peel off smoothly, and in line with it's shape, to avoid extra peeling of the frosted spray. The washi tape was really easy to remove and left pretty clean lines on the glass.

Technique 2: Stickers
For the second glass I foraged some stickers from a drawer of stickers in my craft area and managed to find these heart ones, which must have been from Valentines day years ago. These were nice to use because they weren't overly sticky, and peeled off nicely when It came time for that. The tutorial I saw originally used circular stickers to make a polka dot votive which I really liked visually, but apparently they don't carry circular stickers in my local craft stores.



Technique 3: Rubber bands
Although I originally tried to use jute on this one, the shape of the glasses I had found didn't really allow for the lines I wanted; the jute just wanted to slide down. So in a rush a grabbed a hand full of rubber bands and haphazardly arranged them onto the glass. The thicker ones that went around without twisting were by far my favorite, but the mixture of all the widths created an awesome effect.
When taking the rubber bands off, lift them and then cut them off. Because the spray covered the rubber it changed its properties slightly and some of the frost will want to come with the band if you just roll it off. Trust me on this one.



To finish them off, we filled them with flattened glass marbles that we had around our house and a generic tea candle that was later lit to show the patterns on the now frosted glasses. All in all, it was a pretty inexpensive and not time consuming project that, once you get the right materials, is pretty easy to do. (Your grandma will love it as a gift. Especially if you make like Christmas themed ones with reindeer silhouettes or something.)
In the end I had three different glasses that were all unique and the hostess we had given them to was very impressed that I had made, and not bought them.


"This little light o' mine, I'm gunna let it shine..."

Do It Myself?



Today marks the two weeks that I have left here in Seattle before I fly back to New York for another year at school. But this year will be a very different year than those in the past. One, because I will be living in an apartment (with 2 girls nonetheless) and two, I will not be swimming competitively for the first time since elementary school. Here we have a general jumble of items that have caught my eye recently; some being things I may purchase and some being future long weekend projects.


In my new place one of the perks is having a bedroom all to myself. Since I can't paint (or rather, haven't asked the landlord and don't really want to) I plan on doing a focal wall consisting of a variation of frame styles all tied together with the same color or something along those lines. There are already a stack of prints and pictures I want to put up, and another DIY poster up my sleeve. I also have a terrarium kit from Lina that I intend on finally putting to use.

Eventually I'd like to purchase a wingback chair, either on sale somewhere or get a second hand one for cheap and reupholster it myself. I have a few other small projects I'd like to attempt; like a mat made of branches cut so you can see the inner rings, or making a pillow using a fabric of my choice. A Beautiful Mess has hooked me in recently and ever since then I've been fantasizing about how much fun it could be to do a bunch of projects by hand to have in your home.

Because lets be honest, my room, my solitude, should be somewhere I want to end up at the end of a long day.

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