I just wanted to share with you .... PEARL!
Shes a sweet gal in my program and will be vlogging our journey through this treacherous land of BCIT INTD 2nd year full-time!
Soooo if you feel like having a deeper view of what we dooooo and stuff like that, she will show you and talk to you and she's pretty funny too. Oh, and you might see me in some of the videos. And you will definitely see our ugly ugly school. Here is last week (not to be confused with THIS week) - subscribe to her on Youtube and you will get all her vlogs!
Cya later alligators!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
School & Recycling
I need to write a concept and make a concept board type thing for my upcycled-item-for-auction item (I think I mentioned it in my first 'school' post). I want to take a photo of the item(s) before and then the item after, which will end up being a telephone table/bench like they used to always use because phones had little cords and you had to sit by it to talk! Not all that common anymore .... so these pieces of furniture are a bit novel now, although fun and interesting! ...but, y'know, something like these:
The one I ended up finding looks sort of like the below one though, except the magazine rack part is between the side table and the seat...
Not as purdy, but it is going to do the trick (and I was really worried I wouldn't find one at all!)
So the whole concept is that we don't need these pieces anymore....and we don't need cords....so let's put them together to make something really unique!
I will be wrapping old (useless, discarded, tangled) cords from phones, tvs, computer equipment, etc. ALL around the frame. I will just recover the chair with some recycled fabric and other than that it will be all cords!
Its a whole "done with the past, look to the future" scrappy type of thing. Okay, I dunno, I am trying to explain it to myself as I type it too and I'm not sure exactly how my concept is going to be portrayed! I was thinking of getting an old telephone to sit on there as well. Maybe connect it to the table top. And make it so that it hides a charging station for your ipod/phone/cell phone....to give it more of a purpose.... I actually just thought of that as I was typing.... Initially I wanted to do that with a drawer or shelf, but since my telephone bench doesn't have that, maybe adding a phone to it would be better! But I was thinking maybe I would use the phone bit as a concept 'board' and explain the piece by writing things on the phone or somehow attaching it to a sign. Or make a speach bubble coming out of the phone? Or I could do that whole thing ON a board. Yeeeeeaaaah.... like ............. (hello Picnik....)
Does anyone have any good ideas of how to make it obvious that it would be for a charging station? I think just connecting an extension cord to it would work, but I think there should be spaces/holes/pockets to put your phone/ipod etc. so it is more "thought-out" looking than a dangling extension cord from the back of it! Comment lots of ideas please!
I wanted to write more and make this a proper blog post, but I can't be bothered and I think sleep is more important and I am trying to be good about going to bed early. Sooo this is it for now!
Friday, September 17, 2010
top 5 tips when thinking about lighting in the home
My aunty Sue was wondering....
"Sue Nimegeers said...
I need help with my lighting....give me your top 5 tips when thinking about lighting in the home!!?? "
I kinda love this topic so I'm gonna write a quick response while I'm on my lunch break!
#1. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
- If you see 2 bulbs that look the same by the label other than their prices, always go for the more expensive one. You will get better quality light, colours that are true, long lasting equipment, and you will be happier for it!
#2. Always use more than one light source .... so, have your task lighting (lamps or wired-in lighting for particular tasks), your accent lighting (accenting art, an alcove, etc.) and your ambient lighting (most of us think of it as a ceiling mounted light). Referred to as "LAYERING light", it makes a room individual and interesting. Put it in in that order, using the ambient lighting to balance it out. But make sure there are still "pockets" of light, and its not over-lit, which destroys the whole purpose of layering light. Which brings me to ....
#3. BALANCE the values in the room. Yes, you always want light, medium and dark values in a room and light can help with this. Note: everybody reacts differently to different uses of colour in a space, but everybody reacts the SAME to lighting. Everyone will always look first at the brightest thing. So, if you want everyone to notice the circle of light attached to your ceiling first, make that your brightest spot. : D ... but that's not the "brightest" design idea...hehehe!
#4. I will say, for environmental purposes, use CFL (compact fluorescents) instead of incadescents. This is where you will DEFINITELY get value for money, and the colour rendering, warmth, etc. is no longer
inferior to that of incandescent. I promise you. Also, people who say they get headaches and such from fluorescents are wrong. They get it from the glare that comes from the way they're being used. Improper lighting techniques can not be blamed on the bulb used!
#5. If you have Halogens or BR-Lamps or PAR-lamps (R38/PAR30/20 commonly used if you have recessed or "pot" lights), do not touch them when installing. They'll burn out fast (and they're innefficient incandescents to start with!).
And another note, because it drives me crazy when they are done wrong: bathrooms or change rooms (retail especially) should have more than 1 light source. The absolute worste thing to do is stick a light right above your head shining down on you. It creates big shadows that highlight under eye circles, cullulite, and everything we hate about our bodies! If you HAVE to have a light straight overhead then at least have another one that is wall-mounted in front of you (think behind or beside the mirror) or on a wall to the side of the mirror, to counteract all those terrible shadows. Swimcois the absolute WORSTE for this! Their sales would probably double if they lit their change rooms properly!
Hope this helps! See-ya later!
"Sue Nimegeers said...
I need help with my lighting....give me your top 5 tips when thinking about lighting in the home!!?? "
I kinda love this topic so I'm gonna write a quick response while I'm on my lunch break!
#1. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR
- If you see 2 bulbs that look the same by the label other than their prices, always go for the more expensive one. You will get better quality light, colours that are true, long lasting equipment, and you will be happier for it!
#2. Always use more than one light source .... so, have your task lighting (lamps or wired-in lighting for particular tasks), your accent lighting (accenting art, an alcove, etc.) and your ambient lighting (most of us think of it as a ceiling mounted light). Referred to as "LAYERING light", it makes a room individual and interesting. Put it in in that order, using the ambient lighting to balance it out. But make sure there are still "pockets" of light, and its not over-lit, which destroys the whole purpose of layering light. Which brings me to ....
#3. BALANCE the values in the room. Yes, you always want light, medium and dark values in a room and light can help with this. Note: everybody reacts differently to different uses of colour in a space, but everybody reacts the SAME to lighting. Everyone will always look first at the brightest thing. So, if you want everyone to notice the circle of light attached to your ceiling first, make that your brightest spot. : D ... but that's not the "brightest" design idea...hehehe!
#4. I will say, for environmental purposes, use CFL (compact fluorescents) instead of incadescents. This is where you will DEFINITELY get value for money, and the colour rendering, warmth, etc. is no longer
inferior to that of incandescent. I promise you. Also, people who say they get headaches and such from fluorescents are wrong. They get it from the glare that comes from the way they're being used. Improper lighting techniques can not be blamed on the bulb used!
#5. If you have Halogens or BR-Lamps or PAR-lamps (R38/PAR30/20 commonly used if you have recessed or "pot" lights), do not touch them when installing. They'll burn out fast (and they're innefficient incandescents to start with!).
And another note, because it drives me crazy when they are done wrong: bathrooms or change rooms (retail especially) should have more than 1 light source. The absolute worste thing to do is stick a light right above your head shining down on you. It creates big shadows that highlight under eye circles, cullulite, and everything we hate about our bodies! If you HAVE to have a light straight overhead then at least have another one that is wall-mounted in front of you (think behind or beside the mirror) or on a wall to the side of the mirror, to counteract all those terrible shadows. Swimcois the absolute WORSTE for this! Their sales would probably double if they lit their change rooms properly!
Hope this helps! See-ya later!
Thursday, September 9, 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Where have all my commenters gone?!
First day of school! I'd thought I would write all about it in analytical detail. But its not looking that promising right now. You see, it is hard to keep blogging when the comments keep reading 0! And I know for a fact that there were 16 people here yesterday, 10 the day before that, and 21 the day before that. So come out of the millwork and give me a little love! Come on people! Otherwise forget it, I'm striking. I won't tell you about my first early morning start, heading to the school gym where I got my locker set up, my little jog around the park....or about having a lovely little shower and getting set up with laundry service so that my gym clothes and dirty towel are washed up for me every day. (I paid for it til June to keep me going every day!) But whatever, I'm not telling more about that... Or about playing bongo drums in a big cirlce for orientation. Or about our teachers advice ("If they catch you sleeping in the classrooms in the middle of the night they will kick you out... I guess they don't want you to literally live here... but if you bring a sleeping bag and just do an hour at a time under your desk they probably won't be able to catch you...") or classroom (We're supposed to plaster it with inspiration and we can even paint it! [as if we could all ever decide on a colour scheme]), or my shiny new outfit I wore and the ruffly new bag I carried. Nope. None of it. :)
- ayla
- ayla
Monday, September 6, 2010
Boy's Birthday / Etsy Love
How cute is this card I got made for Ron, by CookieBits! I was super impressed, and I think I'll be back to her shop for more hand cut cards!
I also got him this vintage bowling shirt from BeyondTheDoor on Etsy. It's to make him more of a player, just like Charlie (haha!). We Love our Two & a Half Men! I should get a picture of him in it though, it looks great on him!
AND this Agenda is in the mail (I can not wait!) from Etsy seller An Artful Agenda
There's my Etsy love from the last little while .... always another great shop to be found. Got any new favorites to share?!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Happy Birthday Dearest!
We celebrated Ron's Birthday at our house with a few friends...just food and good conversation!
We had some tasty pizzas (chicken/taco bbq and proscuito/feta), stuffed b.l.t. tomatoes, strawberry walnut salad, homemade limeaide and angel food cake ....there were fantastic cards to read and gifts to open, a little cutie to make us all smile, candelight for our lightless-living-room, beachy tunes, crayons and paper tablecloth to sketch on... and my very own amazing young chap, in a sparkly green birthday crown (with no evidence of that to be found!).
It was so much fun to entertain (for once!) and try some new recipes, and everything worked out well! I love our friends, you all made it a great evening in and a perfect way to celebrate a birthday!
Ron, you make me so happy and you deserve soooo much happiness. I hope this year is your favorite one yet!
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