A Semester in Review: Fall 2013

Since grad school is a huge part of my life, I thought I'd share what  a semester of an Interior Design Master's program entails. Interior Design is a field that is often shrugged off as something that involves "picking pillows" or a field that is just so "artsy" that it's not something you can study. I'll admit, sometimes it does involve picking pillows, but Interior Design is much more analytical than most might think and that's why I'm drawn to it. It is involves concept development, careful space planning, lighting considerations, and a whole host of furnishings and finishes that must function well in addition to supporting the design concept. Studying interior design at most university levels is similar to pursuing a degree in architecture, so much so that many undergrad programs throw architects, interior designers, and industrial designers in the same classes and studios during their first year of study, and many interior design professors are architects by training.

This semester I took four classes. That's one more than a typical full-time grad school load. I did this for one primary reason: One of the classes I took was at NOVA--an undergrad prereq that I was allowed to satisfy at the much cheaper community college in the area--and I needed 9 credits at Marymount in order to get health insurance through the university. So I had to take three classes at MU whether I was taking the class at NOVA or not. Oh, health insurance. It's fun being a grown up, isn't it?

My favorite class that I took this semester was my graduate level hospitality design studio (hotel design). The professor was wonderful. She was respectful of us as adults and let us develop a project and work on it throughout the entire semester, so we all got really invested in our hypothetical hotel designs and connected with our work.

I designed this entire floor plan within the constraints of the outer building walls and columns. We had requirements for minimum room square footage, number of fire stairs, certain distances from doors, and a number of other things.

The assignment was to design the first floor of a hotel. We picked the location of our hotel and then created a concept inspired by that location to carry through the space. I decided to place my hotel in Nome, Alaska. Nome is most notable for being the finish point to the Iditarod sled dog race, and my concept capitalized on the idea that virtually everyone staying at a hotel in Nome had traveled for a long time and weathered the elements to get there.  Whether they came by sled or by plane, this hotel would be a beacon guiding them to the end of their long journey. I also knew that a race like the Iditarod brings people of all ages and cultures together in this small town for a brief period in time, and I wanted to create spaces for people to develop relationships both in one-on-one settings and group settings. I called the hotel "Tribe"-- a nod to tradition of the native cultures of the region and the idea that the long journey to Nome and the experience there lays the foundation for people to create and nurture their own informal tribes.

We had to create a finishes board as part of our final presentation. I love the feel that this board gives off but it's a little too crowded and would be easier to understand with labels.

I supported my concept by creating pockets of warm and cool color contrast--the warm glow of a fireplace surrounded by soft navy and aqua upholstery, copper/rust-colored table tops surrounded by grey banquette seating--to draw attention to gathering points throughout the space. I also used directed light to draw people through a space--a dropped ceiling with lights peaking out from underneath it to light a path through the space and directed pendant lighting to call attention to stationary seating areas. Finally, I chose furniture and finishes that have a modern twist on traditional tribal motifs. Although some of those motifs are admittedly are more Native American-inspired than Inuit, the overall palette created the feel I wanted in the space.

This is a hand rendered elevation of my lobby space done with design markers and ink. The chairs you see are surrounding a low trough-style fireplace enclosed in glass and surrounded by granite with a metal arch drawing attention to the feature from across the room. The darker blue you see is actually a curved banquette on the other side of the fireplace and the walls are supposed to be leather.

Guys, my renderings (that's what we call pictures of our spaces in the design world) are TERRIBLE. I actually took an entire prerequisite undergrad level class in rendering this semester and they were still awful. While I plan to work on beefing up my hand rendering skills, I'm really hoping that we are able to learn more about digital rendering because there is no way I can have a portfolio of images that look like this. Also, it's 2014 people.  From what I've heard, hand rendering is fine for the ideation phase, but in the real world, unless you hire a watercolor artist to render a fancy hotel or residential interior, your renderings are almost always digital.

I was actually most happy with this rendered floorplan of my hotel lobby. The feature in the middle of the space is the one you see in the elevation above. The goal of rendering a floor plan or an elevation is to bring a third dimension, depth, to a style of ink drawing that is flat--only reflective of length and width. I was best able to achieve that goal in the floorplan above.

The other two classes I took at Marymount were Revit and Sketching for Ideation. I briefly mentioned my sketching/rendering class already. Revit is a really cool type of computer program called "Building Information Modeling" software (BIM for short) that stores all kinds of information about building modeling, so when you go to build construction documents, all the specification information like wall types, door types, light fixtures, flooring, etc. can be easily generated into lists that are a critical portion of construction documents. It also creates pretty awesome 3-D models that I hope to get more experience with over my remaining semesters in the program. Oh, and you can also build your own furniture models in it.

This is a model of the Jett Chair by Bright Chair Company that I created as a family in Revit and placed in my floor plan so that I could generate 3-D images of the furniture in the space.

The class I took at NOVA was Materials and Sources, the focus of which was textiles. After learning about various textile construction and materials, I had to create a binder that inventoried all kinds of fabrics, and included samples of each type. I also had to do a report on two textile designers (I choose Lauren Liess and Caitlin Wilson), and I had to design four textile patterns and apply them to a piece of furniture. Here's one of my designs, which I called "antlers" (really creative) created using an antler silhouette flipped and arranged in a repeated pattern. I created the design in Photoshop Elements and applied to image to a piece of furniture from the 3-D warehouse in SketchUp. I might get a yard or two printed through Spoonflower but I'm kind of low on funds right now so that's a back pocket project.

The next semester starts in a weeks and I'm again taking four classes in an effort not to be a graduate student forever. I'm taking a commercial office design studio, a lighting class, a history of architecture and interior design class, and a research class to lay the foundation for my thesis project. It will be a lot of work, but I'm already excited about what I get to learn this spring!

Christmas Wrap Up

I gave my last presentation and took a final exam at 8:30 am on Monday, December 16, so I really didn't get to do much Christmas stuff until then. I was able to put up all our decorations immediately after I got off the plane from Florida on Black Friday and did as much shopping online as I could so I wasn't totally behind by the time school was over. My decorating was very similar to last year since I was on a limited budget and didn't have much time to dedicate to rethinking the process.

I can't even begin to describe the feeling of freedom that I have when school isn't in session. I work part time so I go from basically working/being in class for 12 hours a day, four days a week to having Mondays completely to myself and getting off of work at 3:30 pm during the rest of the week. The Monday school was over I spent the afternoon baking a family favorite: English Muffin Bread. My dad makes it every year at Christmas to give friends and family. I grew up eating it every time we visited my grandparents in New York, so I have a definite sense of pride when I bake up my own batch and give it to friends.

The other thing my dad makes every year is English Butter Toffee. I decided to try my hand at it this year and I actually did a pretty good job if I do say so myself!

Bro Brennan and I went Christmas shopping together to pick up some gifts for the family and spend some quality sibling time together. Here he is lamenting the fact that Lego Bionicles are so much cooler now than when he was a kid. 

The boy and I checked out the National Christmas Tree in President's Park, something we did the first Christmas we were together but haven't done since. A few things have changed since then...

I had most of my wrapping done by Saturday afternoon and finished wrapping some gifts that trickled in the night before Christmas Eve. I used leftover silver and gold wrapping paper and picked up an extra roll from Target to finish things up. 

On Christmas Eve I headed over to my parents' house after picking my dad up from work (my, how times have changed). We went over to my grandma's house like we have done every year since I was a little kid. We also did something new this year: my family went over to the boy's parents' house and we spent the rest of the evening there with a couple other families. Our families haven't really hung out together thus far (kind of crazy considering how long we've dated) so it was nice to get everyone together and have a good time. And I was able to offload some leftover Sweet Clover merchandise during the white elephant gift exchange. 

The boy and I each spent Christmas morning at our parents' homes opening presents with family. In the afternoon my family went over to my grandma's where we had dinner and opened more presents. The boy joined us there which was a lot of fun. My mom picked up some musical Christmas Crackers from the Christmas Attic. I'm not sure what she expected would happen when she gave eight people whistles, but these two certainly had a good time:

Afterwards the boy and I went over to his house to spend the last few hours of Christmas together and exchange our gifts. The boy knows I'm a huge fan of Kate Spade Jewelry so he got me a couple gorgeous necklaces, including this statement necklace. 

via Piperlime

The boy also knows that if I could live on two foods for the rest of my life they would be tacos and macaroni and cheese. Being the thoughtful guy he is, he gave me these silly TacoPropers (microwave safe!) and this awesome mac & cheese cookbook written by the owners of a Homeroom, a Mac & Cheese restaurant in the San Francisco Bay area. I already cooked the most basic recipe, and it was delicious! It's definitely an indulgence, but I'm looking forward to trying more of the recipes. 

via Amazon.com

via Amazon.com

Both of us were off of work between Christmas and New Years. We used the time to lounge around and have a good time with friends and family that were in town. For New Years we decided to forego the expensive parties downtown and instead went out to a nice dinner together followed by wine at home by the fire (there may have even been a couple rounds of Battleship). It was by far the most low-key New Years celebration we've had together to date, but we enjoyed it and saved about $250 (probably closer to $300 with cab fare), so I'd say it was a success. 

Yesterday I dragged the boy to the U.S. Botanic Gardens so I could see their exhibit of DC landmarks and World's Fair structures completely made out of plants. The detail was amazing.

They also had a clever sculptural exhibit that showcased various spices and dried plants that you could lean over and smell. I love a good interactive installation!

Today the boy is back to work and I am trying to get all the things done that I wanted to get done before I have to go back to work and school starts. We'll see how that goes. Tomorrow I'll take down the decorations, but since it snowed overnight I think the outdoor ones will stay up for a little while longer. I kind of hope everyone else decides to keep their lights on in the snow!

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Do Less, Accomplish More in 2014

Guys, it's that time of year again when I get all reflective and in touch with my inner-self and I think about what the last year has been like and what I want for the new year. It almost feels silly writing a post about this because I feel like I've been in this state of mind all freaking year and you have had to listen to me drone on about my life decisions and milestones and what not. But part of the reason I write this if for accountability, to hold my feet to the fire, and because at the end of 2014 I will enjoy looking back on this post to see where I was and how I've grown.

Speaking of looking back, I did just that a few moments ago and I am so very thankful that I took the time to write out my thoughts on 2012 and the coming 2013. So much has changed since then, things I never would have predicted, and that makes me so very excited (and perhaps a little terrified) for the coming year. When I think about what I am most thankful for in 2013, so much of it involves opportunities, and I kind of hope that every year, or at least those in the near future follow suit. I liked last year's exercise, so I think I'm going to do it again, but with one addition: a motto for 2014.

As has become obvious through a few of my more recent posts, I took on quite a bit of responsibility in 2013. I found myself occupied nearly every moment of every day, to the point where I felt guilty to sit down and watch TV and I perpetually felt I was failing at something even when I was getting other things done. I realized that all my activities were actually affecting my health, so I decided to let some things go. Letting go was difficult since I like to think that I can do absolutely everything and be an overachiever and everything will be perfect. That mindset works for some people but is terrible for me because 1) I am not even remotely type-A, 2) I need more sleep than the average person, and 3) I'm a total introvert and if left to my own devices I would probably see my friends like once a month. I knew I didn't want to let go of my ambition and desire to build something for myself, but I also knew that current operating conditions were not sustainable, nor were the making me happy. So my moto for 2014 is this: "Do less, accomplish more." I want to be more selective and deliberate with what I do with my time instead of filling it with activities to get done just for the sake of doing something.

So let's review 2013, shall we?

Things I'm Proud of in 2013
1) Making the difficult decision to transfer to Marymount's Interior Design Program and continuing to pursue my graduate education in interior design
2) Landing a paid interior design assistantship at a local residential design firm and taking the risk of leaving my better paying government consulting position
3) Selling my furniture out of a space in the Sweet Clover Vintage Market
4) My sister getting a full time job
5) My brother doing a great job working at the Christmas Attic (following in the footsteps of his older sisters)
6) The boy getting a promotion in his current office
7) Completing some pretty cool studio projects (at least I think so)
8) Learning a few new computer programs including Revit and Quickbooks

Things I'm Thankful for in 2013
1) The opportunity to learn how to run a small interior design business
2) The opportunity to work for a furniture picking and painting guru and learn more about that process
3) Two new roommates who have been very easy to live with
4) Having a great time at a number of weddings this year, especially my cousin's wedding with the rest of our family
5) My family recovering from a few major health issues and scares with flying colors
6) Being welcomed to spend a few holidays with the boy's family, including the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas Eve (my family joined in the Christmas Eve festivities too)

Things I'm Looking forward to in 2014
1) NOT feeling the pressure of selling furniture in any venue
2) Starting my own interior design consulting business
3) Beginning work on my thesis!!! (I am super excited about this one for some reason)
4) Learning about commercial office design in my upcoming studio
5) Continuing to work on great residential design projects for Arlington Home Interiors
6) Carving out more time to spend with friends and family
7) Visiting my sister in Brooklyn (I haven't been to NYC in two years and that's ridiculous).
9) Nearly finishing my Master's degree

Last night I was making a calendar of classes for my upcoming semester and realized that because I won't be taking as many studio classes as I was last semester (studios meet twice a week and lecture-based classes meet once a week), I will actually be spending 5 fewer hours in class each week than I did last semester. Subtracting my work for Sweet Clover from this weekly time equation, I will have many more hours to dedicate to school work and "other"--friends, family, design work, etc. There is a lot of change on the horizon in the coming year, but I am pumped to live my life more deliberately in 2014. Bring on the growth.

All pictures were taken by me and featured on my Facebook page. Want more updates from Savvy Young Something? Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. 

*Note that I did not coin, nor do I own the phrase "Do Less, Accomplish More". It appears to be widely used in other articles. This is my own interpretation of the phrase and does not represent the views of anyone else who has used it in their own articles. 

Thanksgiving Vacation, Florida Style

 Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

As you may have noticed if you follow me on Instagram, the boy and I spent last week in Florida. On the Friday before Thanksgiving we flew down to Ft. Walton Beach in the Florida panhandle and drove to Rosemary Beach to celebrate the wedding of a couple friends. We splurged a bit and stayed at The Pearl, the luxury boutique hotel where the bride and groom has reserved a room block. It was AWESOME. We don't get to travel much, and when we do it's always on a budget. So when we walked into a hotel where they immediately offered us champagne and gave us a tour of the facilities while the valet parked our car and the bellman took our belongings upstairs made us feel slightly like Kevin McAllister in Home Alone 2. Make it three, I'm not driving. I was looking so grungy after our six hour indirect flight and drive to the hotel that I seriously expected them to say, "I'm sorry, I think the budget motel you're looking for is down the street." Thankfully, they didn't.

Turn down service comes with fresh baked cookies, naturally.

The bathroom had a TV in the mirror and the boy was OBSESSED with it.

The Rosemary Beach town square was all lit up and gorgeous.

My hair looks like shiznit in this picture which is a total result of being so sick that I slept as long as possible and basically stuck my hair in a damp pony for the wedding. NOT a proud moment.

I was actually quite sick for the beginning of the trip, so unfortunately I could hardly enjoy our plush king bed and the wonderful little shops and restaurants at our doorstep (more on that sickness to come later). I also struggled through the wedding reception and had about one glass of champagne all weekend. Lucky for me, I started to feel much better in time for us to drive from Rosemary down to Clearwater on Sunday, where we spent the rest of the week with the boy's parents who live down there during part of the year.

It was the first Thanksgiving I've ever spent away from my family which made me sad, but I was happy that the boy and I could spend our first real holiday together. After spending countless Thanksgivings in Syracuse with family I'm used to seeing my first snow over Thanksgiving, so it felt kind of funny eating turkey with a palm tree right outside our door. Although considering the kind of weather the rest of the east coast was getting over the holiday, I'm happy I was able to stay warm(ish) and dry in Florida.

This is the view from the boy's grandma's apartment in a retirement community. Not bad, eh?

Despite being sick and enjoying unseasonably cold weather in Florida, I had a great time. Now I'm home and kicking it into high gear so that I can get all my grad school projects finished in the next two weeks. Wish me luck!

Life Updates: New-ish Jobs

I cannot believe it's July and I haven't updated you all on some major life changes that came my way a few months ago. It's high time I let you all in on a blogger secret I've been keeping since March (yes, March). It wasn't that I didn't want to tell you, I just put off writing the post and then had to wrangle up some photos and before I knew it, it was July. Whoops.

But anyway, drum roll please....

I am no longer working as a government contractor! In March I started working part time as the Design Assistant for Arlington Home Interiors. The firm is a residential design firm owned by Suzanne Manlove (my new-ish boss). I knew that in a field like design, where everyone covets that precious unpaid internship or busts their butts to get a job at a big architecture and design firm, experience would be oh-so-important upon graduation from grad school. So when a position for a paid design assistant came across our student listserv, I jumped at the opportunity to apply. And I got it!

 We work out of Suzanne's home in Arlington and have our hands in projects throughout the Arlington community. I have been loving every minute of it. I am learning a TON about the inner workings of a design firm, which can only really happen through an experience like this. When I took the job a few people asked me if I was worried about working with only one other person all the time, but I'm learning that I really enjoy working in a small firm. The cool thing about working in a small firm is that I have so many opportunities to learn directly from the business owner, and I get to witness every project's challenges and successes first-hand. I think I'd like to own my own business someday, so watching Suzanne do it successfully while balancing family and maintaining a good work-life balance is an extremely valuable learning experience too.

Via Arlington Home Interiors

Via Arlington Home Interiors

Via Arlington Home Interiors

Side note: For those of you who are serial to-do list makers, this type of work is incredibly satisfying. It seems so minor and somewhat superficial, but I love spending a day ordering an entire living room's worth of decor and seeing it all crossed off my list when I'm leaving the office. Working in interior design provides a nice combination of working on something medium-long term to satisfy my desire to work towards something "big", while also requiring a host of discrete, quick tasks that give me some immediate gratification and help build momentum during the work day. 

So that's my first update. My second update is that when I left my government contractor job and started working at Arlington Home Interiors, I ended up with a second job too. Since March, I've also been working in the Stylish Patina vintage home decor shop in Falls Church on the weekends. I connected with Kelly, the owner, prior to snagging my position at Arlington Home Interiors. When I was presented with opportunities in both places, I knew I couldn't choose just one.  Kelly has built a successful business on her love for acquiring and refreshing antique and vintage furniture, which is where my love for design was born. I knew there was so much to learn from her, and since the shop is only a few blocks from my house, working there is a great fit. Plus, who am I kidding? I'm in grad school, I can use the extra moolah. 

via StylishPatin.com

The Stylish Patina shop is loaded with cool vintage furniture and treasures, and has a great assortment of new items like cards, candles, books, and other accessories. It also has an entire section dedicated to DIY, so you can come in and purchase Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint among other paints and materials. If you come by on a Saturday afternoon, chances are you'll find me there. I love to help people think through their projects and talk to them about the various paint products we sell, and I also love to help people imagine various uses for the furniture we have in the shop, so definitely come visit me if you're in the area. Stylish Patina is also doing a vintage "Rough Luxe" warehouse tag sale in Falls Church the third weekend of every month in our warehouse down the street from the shop. So you can hit up Sweet Clover and Rough Luxe all in the same weekend!

via Stylish Patina

I have more updates for you, but I think this is enough for today. Has anyone else made a major career move lately?

4th of July Weekend Recap

Last Wednesday the boy and I flew to Tampa to hang out with his family over the 4th of July long weekend. He grew up in Northern VA like me, but his parents have an apartment on the beach in Clearwater and spend a lot of time down there, so we stayed at their place.

The boy's dad is a frequent, frequent, frequent flier and was kind enough to buy our flights with miles. We were even able to fly first class down! It was my first time flying first class, and we took full advantage of the free beverage service. 

After arriving in Tampa late Wednesday night, we went to bed and woke up early so we could get some beach time before heading up to Gainesville to visit the boy's brother at the University of Florida.   

We stayed with the boy's brother in a house with 5 other guys from his frat. It wasn't technically a frat house, but it basically was. Luckily they had some "new" couches that were in acceptable sleeping condition. And we were only there one night, so we didn't have to shower there (thank god). It was the boy's brother's 21st birthday AND the 4th of July, so there was quite a bit going on. We tried to keep up, but one thing is for sure: we're not in college anymore.

On our way back to Clearwater the next day, we got stuck in some major traffic and it took us what felt like forever to get home. We wanted to hit the beach, but it started storming like crazy shortly after we walked through the door. If there's one thing I learned about Florida last weekend, it's that the weather there is predictably unpredictable. It can be perfectly gorgeous and five minutes later, raining so hard you can't see out your windshield. Or it can be pouring rain as you walk out of a restaurant but the apartment where you're staying a mile away is completely dry. And then there's the heat lightning, which is kind of a fake out because you're so used to the stormy weather that at night you can hardly tell whether it's heat lightning or lightning from an actual storm that's headed your way. Here's my advice for Florida in the summer: bring a raincoat. 

I was pretty happy it rained Friday because I wasn't in much condition to do anything but sleep, which is how we spent our rainy afternoon. Friday night we went out to eat at Crabby Bill's in Indian Rocks Beach. The atmosphere was fun and I enjoyed my fried crab cakes, but the service was a little slow and not everyone was happy with their food. It seems like a great place to go with kids, but our overall feeling towards it was "meh". This time at least. The boy's family has been going there for a while, so it's definitely worth checking out. Maybe it was just an off night.

Saturday and Sunday we spent some quality time on the beach, followed by some quality time at the pool. Saturday night we ate at an Italian place called Villa Gallace per the birthday boy's request, and it was delicious. Naturally I ate way too much lasagna, but still made room for some yummy red velvet cake from Frida's Cafe & Bakery. 

Sunday night we ate at a small dive place called Dock Side Dave's in Madeira Beach. They have great seafood, especially grouper, which is a speciality in Tampa. The boy's parents swear by their grouper sandwiches, which are humongous and are served a number of different ways. I had the grouper tacos and they were awesome, too. 

After dinner, the boy and I hit up a few local bars and then called it a night. The next morning we woke up and made our journey back to DC. 

It was the first time I've been on a true vacation in a while, so it was really nice to take advantage of the opportunity to spend some time with the boy and relax on the beach. I'm really looking forward to the next beach trip we have planned--this time to North Carolina! 

How did you spend your holiday weekend?