The day he proposed...

I get the nervous jitters every time I watch it!

And I'll never forget this day or the crazy feeling of utter confusion over "who is this man, and what does he have to do with me?!" when I saw the picture of him in the magazine pullout and I'd seen him walking around the thrift store... the only thing that made it all add up was when he smiled. And then I still couldn't believe it!
I just kept saying "you're crazy, you're so nuts" and I couldn't stop laughing!!!

Best day ever! And I'm so glad it's documented so beautifully so I will always be able to re-live it!

Thank you Ron for always blowing my socks off. You never cease to amaze me!

Dear Anthropologie:

Can you please give me all your stuff?

Well, thanks for the daydream anyway.... click

You got time to click on links, right?!

Oh thank you all so much for the sympathy comments! Its just what I needed! Really, I don't know what it is about comments but they really add so much to the blogging experience! ;) Especially those of you coming out of lurker status. . .

Class today was ... hmmmm.... long. exhausting. overwhelming. eye-openning. interesting. exciting. motivating.

I could go on and on about how great my new instructor is. She's the head of the 2nd year of Interior Design at BCIT. She teaches, I think, 5 of my classes, so the 22 of us in full time will get to know her well, and I can tell, it will be a relationship worth having! I don't even know where to start... she has stopped designing as a career and focused on teaching now, but she also always has her head planning something else as well. Like this summer she organized a design tour of London with a group of 8; she invited  "huge, internationally known, Interior Designers" and all showed up except one. They gave seminars and toured the city from a design perspective. She also has taken on the task of introducing BCIT students to the concept of Biomimicry; this year will be the second year with it in our course content. She's taken seminars on it through Janine Benyus - and you need to take twenty minutes to go watch her talk about it - and is convinced that this is the way to design, to solve every problem, and will be HUGE (instead of "eco-efficiency") in a good, big way. She also foresees biologists being present at the table of designers, architects, clients, engineers, etc. in the initial planning stages of a built project. So she is also developing a 2-year diploma program in Biomimcry to begin at BCIT (currently only available at the Toronto College of Art and Design, as far as Canada goes). We are so lucky to get to learn more about this as it is still somewhat in its infancy, and will be such a valuable asset for us.

She also has extended education in lighting design and so is able to teach us a lot - so valuable, as in this field, the lighting aspect really needs more course room than it gets! She has made sure that BCIT gets 95% more education in lighting than any other Interior Design courses available in Western Canada. What else...she set up a program where students went and studied in Italy a few years ago, in a remote area that didn't even have so much as a postcard available to buy. She then decided to buy a little cottage there because she fell so in love (the photo of the view she showed us was amazing). Today she was wearing a necklace made of bycicle inner tubes and old wire. It was all spiky and scary, and was pretty awesome. She is not the type of instructor who teaches the curriculum the same over and over and over again, she likes to change it up and keep herself interested, therefore, new stuff is always coming up. Cool. So now that you have a little picture of her...

Today in the morning we had Materials2. We learned lots about "efficiency" as taught in "Cradle to Cradle" (get yourself a copy! Or watch him talk on Ted) and then Biomimicry. We watched a video on landfills in the US, which was pretty insightful. It made me think: how many things do I touch in a day that I will throw "away". "Away" really is quite the concept, as it really can't go too far!
I challenge you to count yours! Every paper towel. Coffee cup. Tissue. Cheese wrapper. Napkin. Razor. Soap bottle.

I am super excited about this class because we will really analyse what "green" is and which building materials actually are, and which ones just tout the "chlorine free" or "green" or "natural" or "pesticide-free" horns. . . not to be cynical, but find out what they DO have in them, where they DO come from, how they ARE made... that means a lot more. The other assignment we have for that class is to recycle a found object or piece of garbage, make it desireable and new again, and they will be auctioned off at the 2nd annual BCIT Farmers & Artisan Market on October 8th. All proceeds will go to charity. We're also going on a tour of the Vancouver Landfill in a couple of weeks. We'll be goin to the Gaining Ground Conference (we get to pick which seminars we attend), HOK offices, participating in the Canadian IDEC competition, and we will also go to a green roof seminar.
(yes, all this just for materials class!)

Sooo much to think about, all buzzing around in my brain. And thats not to mention the Lighting class that was this afternoon (lots of review and new knowledge) and AutoCAD (the 2011 progam seems to be giving me lots of trouble. ugh.).

I think I am going to start a blog where I share my Interior Design projects, assignments, inspiration and ideas more. I feel like it needs to be a bit seperate, and less personal, so I will post that here soon.

Thanks for reading on! Sorry, I didn't mean to make this go on forever, but think how crowded it must be in my brain right now! Now go get educated by Ted!

Dreaming of being in my Renderings

Aaaaaaah.... to have a pool in the backyard... and this nice beach-front property with a view of the mountains to the north.... These renderings have just made me kinda dreamy. But its a nice day and my grassy green tree-covered back yard will have to do. I'll supply the bathing suit as long as the sky keeps supplying that sun!

Bring on the Freckling!

Have a good Tuesday, hope it's sunny wherever you are!

Sunny Saturday Stroll

Last Saturday, February 20th, 2010, Langley, British Columbia

I <3 the shadow of me and my boy amongst swampy duck water. : )

The heat of the sun, the sounds of the splashing ducks, the sights of Spring's signs, and the scent of fresh air. . . aaaah I will revisit this day in my brain for a while.... :)

an Etsy shop

Here's what I've been up to lately!

Time to advertise to the world ... there is much more to come, but you can look at what I had time to upload today!

Get shoppin' folks, it's all one-of-a-kind, first come first served!

;)

And this is my 100th blog post!

Taking Advice...

Yay for playing with words! I liked everyone's ideas. Everyone's!
I tried a different way of puting two together by writing all the words on peices of paper and puting them in a jar, pulling them out . . . Then I'm not restricted to my brain's ideas.

See Home - uh...
Bon Fine - does Bon mean good? Good Fine? haha!
Cushy Sing - that sounds like a voice lesson tip... tool... thing I know nothing about. A la "have a cushy voice, now.."
Habits Love - habits love... what
Kind Purely - ESL?
Sentimental Secret - barf
Porcelain Heart - porcelain is consistent throughout; pure. But too delicate sounding. And nice.
Little Polka Dot - good name for a kid's store
Soul Jam
Once One Hundred - has a ring to it?
Ruby Street
Blue Olive
Smile Simply
Button What
Ocean Ruby
Red Heap
Tea Light
Puzzle Fine
Porcelain Simply
Habits Kind - Kind Habits
Polka Dot Oh - Oh Polka Dot
Polka Dot Ocean

Simply What . . . okay this game is getting old.

Then I developed an obsession with the word/name Simon. As in simple simon... was a pie man. I'm not really a boo-yah-crazy-lovin pie person but Simon is still a good name.

Simon Soul
YaySimon
All Simon
Simon Island

Yellow Dawn (favourite colour, middle name)

My boy hates when I ask for help and then don't take the advice given, too. So you're not alone if you're thinkin 'uh why did you even ask for help, Ayla?!', but I am sorry! I was just trying to get some creative sparks flying, so thank you!

ONE of these days I will get on this and I will actually have something to show for my 'thoughts' on openning an Etsy shop. I am still struggling with the idea of putting myself out there when I feel like my ideas have all been done; I have nothing new to offer, and that feeling always bothers me. A lot.

And also wondering if selling vintage finds and treasures is stupid or smart. I just can't decide. But I do have some treasures...
I just don't like those shops where they sell a set of bowls for $35 when you can get them at the Salvos for $2. But at the same time, maybe my ability to pick out the great stuff, IS worth money. Is it? Please, I need some opinions.

Alrighty, Good Nighty!

Orion

I'm thinking about being more open...but also about letting more than 1 person know about my blog, so letting it become more general.

But I loved my evening last night because I went to see my boy, cupcakes and a new plant in tow. All the other plants in his house are done and gone and I can hardly bare the thought of no greenery anymore. So I got him just a lil one from ikea, it looks rather strange, like no plant I've seen before but probably only because it is still so teansy. But I picked it because it has very rounded leaves which is good Feng Shui. No, I don't practice Feng Shui, I just know a few things about it and therefore I do those few certain things whenever I think of them because it just seems better than the alternatives. Because I know you were about to ask. I wanted to take him outside under the stars because the moon was so big and bright and beautiful, and requested the biggest hill he knows in the area. I got a tiny parking lot surrounded by trees... And, well, me in my unprepared-ness didn't have blankets or anything with me anyways so sitting on a hill would've been rather uncomfortable anyways. It was nice in my head... just him. me. on a hill. Gazing at the universe. He loves Orion, the constellation, because he has it on his chest. Its true. How do these sorts of crazy things happen to little things like people? Well they do and it's neat, and if only to raise the question, I suppose it's worthwhile for God to throw something in there like that. I'm babbling.

The reason it was a good evening was not, however, because we ended up finding a park and a baseball diamond to look up from in the freezing cold while clutching our Tim Horton's for dear life. It was the talks. We talked about our future, our plans, and again - again - it was all put in the right perspective. About working toward our goals. And I loved that he suggested I start a journal where I record anything and everything I deem important every. single. day. Because our grandkids could pick it up and read it and it would mean so much. I can admit I would love to read my grandma's journals; think of the experiences, the advice, things taught to children, to their partner... Also it would really help me, because so often I don't know how I feel about something but only because I don't take the time to stop and think about it. My brain doesn't automatically come up with feelings, it blocks them more or less. So I need to train it to let them through and also to let other people know about them.

Things

I want:
1. a clear, organized space for creativity-only purposes
2. a house big enough for all my stuff and lost of makeover projects
3. a dog
4. a blog that equates the nieniedialogues .... some day, some day...
5. a passion for the work I do (or work that I have passion for)
6. an Etsy Shop selling whatever I can come up with!
7. a clean keyboard... g2g now I need to attend to that one

BIG picture plan

An email to Mom I must remember when I try to change my stupid unsatisfied mind sometime again the future when I am regretting this decision. Think Big picture, me... think big picture.

".... So guess what? I am not doing school this semester at all! I figured that I could save up some money this semester and possibly quit my job for next semester and go back to full time school. I just want to get it done and over with. I am not 100% on quitting work and all yet though, I will try to decide in the next month or so. I change my mind enough eh?! But being part time in school, I just can't get into it, and I feel like I've lost a lot of knowledge and drive to really be in it just from being half away from it. I will get a better education by doing it alone than interrupted by work for the next 3 years or something. Sooo that is that kinda.... And also I am looking forward to this semester because I want to learn some sewing and get into it, see what I can do with it, and also with photography again. Those things interest me more now than Interior Design. And I thought after I am done design I might go to school for something else like textile pattern making or web design or graphic design. Ya, I know, I am all over the map. I just see what the design/architect industry has to deal with and all it is is a stress ball, it isn't design or creative at all. well maybe 10% of it is. Not my thing. I don't wanna be overworked and constantly annoyed by stupid clients and people who don't do their job. Ya, that is a bit worst-case scenario-ish, but that is how I see it now. But if I have my Interior Design Diploma, I have the knowledge to do it if I want to. And if Ron wanted me to do Interior design on houses he builds, we're set up to do that too. But I don't see that as a full-time commitment that I would ever have to make. Sooooooooo thats the deal. I am kinda figuring it out as I type, so don't be all like spreading this news like it is fact or something. Because I know you would do that... such a gossiper. Weeeell I am just bored at work so I am going to play on the internet now!...."

These Dresses....

I don't know what it is with Vintage dresses; why don't we see this anymore? The cute little sleeves, flattering shape and feminine fabrics and textures.... hmmmm. I just love it.
Love Love LOVE the skirt of this one:

This one's very different but still the classic shape, so any lean toward a camouflage look are forgiven.

And of course some polka-dots - I like the neck line and sleeve again too.


If I had these I want to think I'd wear them all the time. I doubt that though. Oh well, in a perfect world it would happen I'm sure.

Wedding Inspiration??

This pretty well sums up my dreams, thoughts and lovely things going through my head lately! As far as a dream wedding, I could never make up my mind on a colour - but materials, that I can do! See these things would look great with pink, green, blue, grey, white, yellow and orange of course....

Making mosaics is going to be my guilty pleasure I think. Things look so much better together in organized co-existance.Thats the one that didn't fit in there - I think tables scattered with penny's would look pretty. And inexpensive!

Good night blog!

predicting the...uh...past

Last night I talked to my boyfriend when I got home from work. It was about twenty to six. He'd just woken up from a long and luxurious nap, much to my, uh, envy... and I was trying to decide if I was going to unpack or eat. Anyways, the point of the story is that he was hungry and we hung up after deciding he was going to get some food in his belly. I went and started making muffins. Then he calls back and tells me he wants to come over and eat my food (its a 45 min drive and he had offered me to come over and I decided against it because I wanted to get to bed super early)... so I said okay, I'll have to go buy some food - the cupboards are bare. He'll be here in an hour and a bit. So I'm gettin' goin' and then he calls back again... "can I have tomato soup and grilled cheese?" - sounded good to me after a commute home in the cold and rain! This is also the meal he asks for on his birthday and nobody seems to believe that it is one of his favorite meals. But anyways, it was all lovely having dinner together at my house - that has not happened... ever??? Anyways, normally I go to his place but it was a nice change. He brought Heroes season 2 (we watched season 1 together a while ago and really liked it!) and we watched a couple of episodes together, then watched some youtube videos and then, needless to say, I didn't get to go to bed until 11:30. I could have conked out at 6! But HERE is the whole point to the story. This morning I opened up my Capricorn 'personal guide to the future' booklet (available for $1 at grocery stores all over the place!) and I realised I had not read yesterday's. It says:

" Tuesday August 26: When the moon is in Cancer you are especially tender toward your spouse or mate. Doing kind things such as taking over some of the chores, cooking their favorite meal or just being a shoulder to lean on are all things that promote emotional intimacy and show your love."

Interesting or what?! So today's says:

"Tonight's Mercury-Pluto square could bring a message, phone call or e-mail from an old friend or family member who lives at a great distance. This is a person who has been out of your life for quite a long time. If you are unsure of how to feel about an impending reunion, let your heart lead you."

But it seems that it never happens unless I don't read it before-hand. I'll have to get in the habit of checking it the day after.

Item B on the agenda: people's crazy names in this city! I get a call for my boss from a guy named Ominut or something, so I told him who was calling and he's all "who?" and I said "Ominut... I don't know how it's spelled exactly..." hesitantly... and he replies "you gotta get the name!" So I asked the guy on hold if he'd like to leave a message instead and got the right spelling. It's Amanat. Sounds the same! But honestly it took me a while to figure out who was who in the office and to recognize who the person on the phone was asking for each time... its like Havarti? Madia? Fee? Showheeg? Nenad? Havier? I wrote the pronunciations right, not the spelling :P but no, it was tough... I'm okay now, but figuring out who's calling is another issue. I think you would be pushing it if you said half of the people living in Vancouver don't have an accent. It might be less.
But there we go, that annoyance is out of my system now!