Fall semester: finito

Well there goes that semester. These past few months went very quickly and I'm happy to say, I had a great semester. I did not get everything done that I wanted, but I have no idea why I really thought I could anyways. I tend to make more work than time, but that does help me bust my ass, so its a good thing. I did that to the extreme this semester.

Although the semester is over, I have a mountain of work to do before the spring starts. I need to finish my book, refine my website, re-do my presentation, refine older projects for my portfolio, assemble my initial portfolio, make my process journal, and refine parts to my thesis.... then re-shoot ALL of my work. I have 5 weeks to do that, one of them is completely off of work. Fingers crossed I keep up the motivation.

My pre-final presentation went great! Not "great, they loved it, my thesis is perfect", great. But, great as in, I received helpful feedback and it is mostly all parts I knew I needed work on. No surprises or big issues with my project as a whole. Just a LOT of work needs to be done to my presentation/organization of information. It's my weakness. But, the feedback they gave was so good, that I have a lot to work off of to make it better.

Although I won't be done till May, this was my final thesis class. I am not sure if I will keep up my weekly postings, but I will post when I have finished pieces to show. I'm happy to get working on my portfolio in the spring and building up the rest of my freelance business. So my efforts will soon be shifted over to my side work and day job, which will be nice. Hopefully no more spacey, stressed, Missy. :)

I plan on beginning a new blog to compile my images from photography jobs, just with a better blog system.....maybe tumbler. That blog will be used along with my website and will help me market my work. I look forward to doing some creative work that I get paid for.... rather than paying for it :)

In the meantime, here is a sample of images from the wedding I shot last month. Everyone looked amazing, the day was awesome, and Tico (the reception restaurant) did awesome. I hope I get to shoot there again.

Week, something or other...

Well, it is here. My pre-final presentation is tomorrow. I'm presenting a "new" way this time and I think it will go well. My presentation is heavy with visuals, and I have absolutely no speaking notes. I have practiced what I want to say over and over so many times, I remember it for the most part. I'm hoping not reading bullets or notes will keep the panel engaged. I know my work and topic well enough, that I should be fine. But there is a slight chance I get nervous and barf everywhere. Kidding.

Web
This was the last week it was on hold and I am ready to pick it back up again. I gave up thinking I will have the whole thing coded, but I do need to make some changes to the design for the final book. The code stuff will have to come later, or when I graduate. Learning never ends :)

Book
It is also the last week this is on hold too. Some parts are now refined though, because I needed them for my presentation. I can't wait to get my grid locked down, and make this book look really nice in the next month.

Life
Still not much of a life. I got out a little this week and took some time off of homework to mess around with my macro lens and the Christmas lights. That was a good time. :) I didn't get to yoga this week and I miss it. I was just busy this weekend with homework and could not take the 2 hours to go. :( Maybe I will do a quick vinyasa before bed so I feel like I worked out.

Food
Been taking pictures of random foods to get inspired, but I'm not sure how I will use them in my book. Either way, I need some food spreads in my book as a breather to the thesis work, and to remind the reader what it is all about. I'm gathering some images of food production, plates of food, ingredients and my typical cooking mess. I'm hoping this will spark some idea of how to use them. Nothing yet.....so I just eat the food.

Most likely, there will be no visuals till the book is done. So here are a few images I took with the tree lights that will make this post sparkly.

Last day of week 12

I know I say it every week, but I have no idea where this week went. It's taking me longer than I thought to put this presentation together, so I didn't get through my weekly to-do list. Oh well. It is due today for the rehearsal, but I can make the changes I need the rest of the week before the actual presentation. The long weekend away from work was good, I have no idea how I would have gotten all the work done I did, if I had to work Friday. But, I was pretty happy to come back to work today. I was lonely. I spent most of the time off, sitting in front of my computer and I feel better being around other people, even though I am working.

Web
Still on hold. I hope by this weekend my presentation will be refined and practiced enough, that I can move on. I also hope to practice the code that Mike has been teaching me these past few weeks before I forget it.

Book
Also still on hold. I miss working on my book. It was just starting to get it pulled together when I had to put it off. But, there is no point in working on it before I get overall feedback on my thesis. I would end up doing things twice. Not a good use of my time.

Life
Still don't have one, obviously, if I am looking forward to coming into work to be with people. I went back to the hot yoga class and it went well. I am sore but not as bad. I wish I could go every night. It is my happy time lately. I can't think of school or work, or life. I love being able to clear my head by focusing on not falling over, or breathing through the pain of holding myself up in a weird contorted position


Food
I am not the cook anymore, or even the food planner. I tossed that duty to the hubby. He is a great cook, but not is so into the food planning for the week. I just don't have the brain space to plan meals ahead lately, so he has to do that too. He even took over the thanksgiving baking. I can't lie, I was jealous. Once I graduate I'm going to make so much food, everyone I know will be fat from me giving it away. That is my goal.

I'm lacking with the visuals for this week. My presentation is meant to be presented, not seen as stills. So I will post a few pictures of a shoot I did at Latitude restaurant in W. Spfld. Hey, it's food, and is my work, so why not!?

Looking back at week 11

This week's to-do list was a big one, and I got through almost all of it. Yay! Everything is so insane right now, that I feel like I am floating around through life in someone's dream... not even my own. Oddly enough, its a good feeling. I'm too busy to be stressed, running around so much I don't have to worry about staying sleeping, and working on so many cool things that I don't need to worry about being inspired.

Web
No time these past couple weeks to work on code. I miss it and I can't wait for the insanity to die down so I can mess around with it again.

Book
I love my book! The binding is really nice and the pages are taking shape. I did not get my grid worked on this past week, but that has to take a back seat for another 2 weeks.

Presentation
This is what is causing all the stir lately. I present my "final" on the 6th. I will get to present in a sort of formal way and get some feedback from 3 people who sit on panel at the real final in May. I'm looking forward to it. I'm working on my presentation now and need it to be done in a week from today. Yikes! Luckily, the pieces I am missing for the presentation are also needed for the book, so in my mind, I'm working on both.

Life
I decided that I should do some sort of physical activity each week, because stress is high and my body has gone to shit. I hit up a hot yoga class on Sunday, which is something I haven't done in close to 2 years. Apparently I jumped in on the strength one and I am feeling it today. I had to roll out of bed this morning because my arms, legs and abs were too sore to use. That's pretty bad. I will be going back next week, and hopefully soon, I can be back in shape.

Food
Brandon made sauce on Sunday and it smelled awesome. I dunked a few slices of bread it in, once it was done and it tasted so good! He is making pasta with it tonight for us.

City Farm building and land

ALMOST final mock up, book cover

Spine, binding

Week 10, re-cap

The caffeine habit didn't last long because Monday night I went to bed and didn't fall asleep. I would rather work a little slower then feel exhausted, so no more coffee for me. This week was crazy, but good. I had an aggressive to-do list and tackled it all. I also shot my first wedding. I was so nervous, but it ended up going great. The pictures look awesome, and I had so much fun. My body took a beating though. I carried 2 bodies and both were pretty heavy, but it was a great workout. :)

Website
Still taking a backseat to the book. I didn't do much at all to it this week. I am still trying to play with the code to keep learning, but this week was over before I got anywhere.

Book
Finally, I am bringing the pages, grid, and system together and it is starting to actually look nice.  I still have 2 sections to layout but I gave up doing that this week because I needed a visual boost. The layout of type and image placement is general and boring and I needed to see some of the details figured out to motivate me to keep going. I'm still messing around with the binding mock ups. I tried this transfer technique that worked out OK. I made a mess, but for my first try it wasn't bad. I typed up a strip of text on my typewriter, scanned it, then printed it out. I then took the print and glued it face down on my book cover. When it dried, I took a wet towel and got off all the paper leaving the words. A pic is below... it's kind of a mess, but taught me a lot about how to do it.

Life
Still don't have one. Work, school and freelance are crazy. But, busy is good.

Food
We made up a new meal this week and it rocked my world. Butternut squash ravioli sauteed in onions, brussel sprouts, olive oil, a little butter, oregano, and almonds. So good!

The type transfer. Still some paper left on, and I rubbed a little type off. Oops.

Ya, if you notice in the back I was drinking red wine and OJ at the same time. Nasty, I know.

Week 9, re-cap

Great week. I'm back on the caffeine and it's working its magic. I really want to stay away from it, but I may have to wait till May. I can't concentrate as well without it, and I have no time to lose. Again, the week went flying by, and I'm left wondering how I could possibly be going into week 10. I'm kinda of freaking out. I present my fake final on the 6th, so I have a month left to get something together. This will be more of a feedback meeting, but I would like to have my book completed so I can get feedback on the final. On that note....

Book
Saturday was a successful book day for me. I re-sized it yet again, made the new mock up, tested out a new sewing technique that I made up based on Matt's feedback, and I love love love it so far! The book layout is getting there. Right now I'm working on finishing up the placement for each page. Then I need to make the system work better, and look more dynamic. I also STILL need to Photoshop parts of my work that I was not able to physically make. Things such as the logo on some baggies, words on my delivery carts and crates... and more. It would have cost me too much money to get these actually made, so thanks Photoshop. I also need to watercolor the sketches in again. I want them to be full bleed images of one side of the book, and now that I have a final size I can do that. So much to do.

Web
I spent the week re-doing the code that Mike taught me, so I can learn it for myself. Mike must be some sort of wizard, because it all made sense to me and I actually felt like I knew what I was doing. I finished what I wanted to do early, so I spent some time breaking the code and trying to fix it. I was able to fix most pieces, but not all. Still, much more that I would have thought I would understand at this point.

Life
I don't have one.

Food
I ate too much cheese again this week. I love fresh mozzarella and I can't control myself. I went to visit Wilson Farm again and bought the cheese there, and stocked up on veggies that actually smell like veggies. I love the way real peppers smell. I wish I had a car, so I could drive there every week. The grocery store sucks. Their peppers smell like plastic.

No thesis visuals. I need to finish part of my book mock up before I will show it, and the web is nothing fancy yet. I guess I will show part of what I am working on in my other class. I am working on a business plan for my freelance company. Below is the business card. I need to work out some more details, but I am using this for now. The name Monsterfoot came to me when I was being wacky at wacky hat weekend this year. (a weekend get-together with friends and we wear wacky hats... just as silly as it sounds). We had a pinata in the shape of a monster this year, and his foot got ripped off. At some point, some one put the foot in my pocket, and like a nerd I began doing homework in the middle of a party. I had been looking for a name that fits my work style, and the foot was perfect. "Monster" because my projects take over my life and become my monster. The foot because I love the research part of the design process... the "footwork" if you will. I still have the little pinata monsterfoot. I love it.

The pinata got a "wacky hat" too.

Week 8, complete

I was debating on not writing a post this week, because I am too busy. But, I don't think I have missed a week since I have gotten into writing this. I can't break the habit now. Especially when I am so close to compiling my process journal. I am sure I can use all the brain dump I can get.

Book:
I met with my old advisor, Matt, this week. As usual, he got into my head and said the few things I needed to hear to provide me with clarity. Everything he said made sense and my only regret is that I didn't meet with him sooner. I am now back to binding method #1, but with a few minor changes. I plan to make a new mock up at full size this week, then re-size the book again, and roll with it. Way too much to do, but at least I have a clear direction and I can move ahead.

Website:
I began the week by trying to teach myself code. I think I understand it now and feel comfortable writing some basic stuff. Now, I just need to get building everything, and find the questions I know I have.

Life:
I am less grumpy this week. Our landlord got us a new fridge, and I went overboard at the grocery store the other night. I think just having food to pick at and keep me full, is all I need to get through the rest of the semester.

Food:
I discovered pumpkin flavored cream cheese this week. o.m.g.





I got all of the pages to the website mocked up. The image looks huge because this is just the screen shot of the full area, most of this will be hidden by a normal sized browser. I just didn't have time to take new screen shots of the pages.

Home

Harvest

 

Connect

Food delivery

Pod renting

Seed magazine

Gallery of images

Week 7, re-cap

This week felt like a month. Too much happened, and I did too much work. Not just with thesis, but with my other class, and with my job. I'm exhausted, felling shitty, and in need of a week off. Not happening.

I tried to sign up for my last class, and like always, it was not so cut and dry. I was offered a chance to present my final this semester, and if I passed, be waved from the last class. The news was awesome at the time and I was going to go for it....and then they sent me the final checklist. Not happening. The positive part of this, is now I have the checklist and I can plan my time to fit it all in.

Clearly stressed, not a positive post. Well, it's going into week 8, I may as well get used to this for the next couple months.

Website
I made good progress this week, although it does not really look like it. I had a lot of details to work out and sections to add. Now it is ready to code! I'm going to mess around with some fake stuff this week, and hopefully get comfortable working with code.


Book
I made my second book mock up this week and I really like it. The mock up itself is a disaster, it is hacked together with random materials I had laying around. But, the point is to test the method and see it physically. I decided to change my book size to work with the paper size I can buy. It helps to keep the book costs to around $300, rather than $600. This is why I am broke. But, the binding is really nice, easy to do and works with my sections well. I spent a lot of time re-sizing the book and mocking up more pages. I'm about 1/2 done and presenting it to my old advisor, Matt, on Friday. We will rip it apart and make it better. It is just so-so now.


Life
This past week begins the fun part of the semester where I don't sleep well, don't eat, and am so tired that I make mistakes at work, and begin dreaming of dropping out. Since I am so close to finishing, my dreaming is more about graduating rather than dropping out, so that is good.


Food
Not really eating. One part I have no time, one part our fridge is 20˚, so all our food freezes. Maybe when we get a new one this week, we will have food in it. Then I will beg the husband to cook for me. I did have one great meal this week. We went to dinner to this small Italian place, for my father-in-laws birthday. The owner was an off-the-boat Italian, and pretty funny. He made a point to talk to everyone and made you feel at home. The food was great! My favorite part of the night was when he chased us out of the restaurant when we left, because we didn't give him a hug goodbye. HA!


Finally some visuals! Not all of the sub home pages are complete, but here are a few pages of my website. No book stuff yet, it is not good enough to show. It better be soon though, I'm running out of time.


 

HomePage

Harvest main page

Connect main page

What week is this?

...oh ya, end of week 6. I don't know what to write about this week. There must be someone else in my head, if I am at a loss for words.

Let's see... I had a busy, but good, week. I officially applied for graduation and the feeling that came over me was sort of unexpected. We have to apply early, and I never knew why. But, it was my time to apply, so I went in to my online profile and went through the steps. When the screen popped up that it was submitted, I was stuck in a daze. A good daze. The type where your head gets all light and cloudy, like you just fell in love. I'm a dork. Then I found out why we need to apply so early. (feeling subsides) We need to have our version 1 portfolio designed and approved before we can can take our final class, which is portfolio. So we design a portfolio, to get approved to design a portfolio. HA. The good news, is at least I know my work is good to go BEFORE I do the super sexy portfolio and attempt to pass. Aside from all of that, I sat at my computer for so long my leg fell asleep for pretty much the whole week. My poor body. Saturday I was looking for any excuse to procrastinate and found a great way. On our way home from laundry we walked by the Southie "antique shop" and they actually had an antique! It was this insanely beautiful 1800s dry sink, that we got for way less than we should have. I took it home, vacuumed the spiders out, wiped it down and then took pictures of it. It smells like old wood, but I lit incense in it and closed the doors. Now it smells like an old hippy. :)

OK, enough rambling. (Guess I did have a lot to write)

Website
I made some good progress this week, even though I only got through about 1/2 of what I thought I could. Building these pages is so time consuming, but now that it is getting tightened up, it is really rewarding. Tons more to do, but looks like we will start coding next week. EEK!

Book
Of course, I get working on the book again and make more work for myself. I worked on it till the later hours in the night, then spend the night dreaming about it. Which ends up in the usual "I can't wait to get out of bed and work out my ideas, which means I'm not sleeping" situation. My new ideas involve re-doing my whole binding method, and re-working my structure. Dammit! The plus side is the binding is going to be so much better, because I am working in signatures, and each section of the book will be its own signature. So this creates a really nice system for organizing the information in the book. I blame this all on Pinterest... a website full of endless kinds of inspiration which makes my mind wander.

Still not ready to show my work yet, so here is my pretty dry sink for this weeks visual. I decorated it with some other old pieces we have. billow camera, A Midsummer Night book, and the pictures of my grandparents when they were 18. I really went all out with procrastination.

Week 5 re-cap

Another week has flown by. At this point, I'm getting a bit spooked (see what I did there, it's October) at how fast this semester is going. I'm mostly still on track, but when the weeks fly by like this, I usually find myself at week 12, totally overwhelmed. The good part, is it is going by fast because I am having a good time. Last weekend was the last one filled with plans, and it was 80˚ out! I was so happy to be out doing things rather than stuck behind a computer. But it is time for my fun weekends to be put on hold for a while. Oh well, at this rate it will be May before I know it.

Website
I really have no idea what I am doing, even with the design. I messed around with the main parts of the homepage for far too long, and now I am about a half week behind. Not a huge deal, but I gave myself a kick in the ass last night to keep me on track. No more messing around and trying things out. I like where I am with the basic structure and now I'm just going to pimp it out. Busy week ahead.

Book
I say this with my head low and, if I had one, my tail between my legs..... I did not touch my book this week. I was so excited that I was ahead of schedule and instead of moving ahead like I was, I put it aside in favor of a day trip to Salem. I'm bad. As much as I should, I really have no regrets like I normally do when I take time for myself. I usually feel guilty any second I am away from the computer.... not this semester. :) I have tomorrow off of work for my October "day off a month" day, so I plan to work all day on my book. My plan is for the whole thing to be mocked up on the computer and ready to nit pick, by the end of this week.

Life
Guess I already covered this. It has been fun lately! I am mostly stress free, super happy, and loving every second I am out and about. When I actually do get to bed, I am sleeping great. But, I have been getting to bed later and getting up earlier to make up the time. Oh well.

Food
I ate too much cheese this week.


Still not ready to show what I have been working on. It is not good enough yet. So here are some more process images to keep the post pretty.

Photo shoot day

Photo shoot day

Painting the picnic tables

Pile # 1 waiting to be photographed

Photo shoot day at my in-laws

Pretty proud of my shirts, even though they are boring

This was what my apartment looked like for most of the summer

My work station at my office. I make a mess everywhere.

Week 4: re-cap

This was one of those weeks that it was all of a sudden Friday, and I feel like the week just started. Laundry was over-due, I had a couple late nights with work, and had my first "day off a month" day. I'm happy I was a bit ahead these past few weeks, because I slacked this week. Luckily, I had jury duty yesterday and got cut a little after mid-day, so I was able to get a head start on my work for my other class. It is called professional practices and we are working on our personal identity, which I will use when I develop my portfolio in the spring. We need to produce a business system this week and I can't do that without a logo. I bused out some good logo sketches last night and I will need to mock them up and create the collateral all this week. EEK! Lot's to do on top of thesis, but my personal identity is going to be awesome. I'm so excited to get it all done.

Book
I slacked on the book this week. I don't have an advisor for the book to report to, so I decided to put it aside for a few days. Next thing I knew I was running out of time and needed the time for the website work. I was able to mock up a bunch of pages with images and the header type, but I did not get as much done as I wanted. This week will be a bit of a challenge. I hope to have the whole thing mocked up by week 6. Do-able, but not easy.

Website
I was not 100% happy with where my mock ups were last week, but I felt it was because they needed to be refined. So the first thing I did this week was refine my homepage and work out some details. After I got it cleaned up, I was still not sure it was good enough. So, I went back and worked on a few different home page variations that are slightly different than what I originally had. Now I have two more that I like better than the first. I'm happy to have something better looking, but I was hoping to have this nailed down so I can move on to the rest of the pages. I did get most of the type typed out, so it is ready to put in the pages without having to use placement type. Yay!

Life
Last week was pretty good because I was all over the place. I liked the variety of my week, but it totally kicked my ass. I took Tuesday off as my first "day off of everything day" and because I was out of work for the day I needed to work late on Monday. Which also means up late doing homework. Then Thursday I worked out in the market seeing design opportunities in different liquor stores, so Wednesday I had to work late to make up for that. Thursday I got home late, stayed up late doing homework and Friday I just wanted to crash. BUT, I forced myself to get some work done. I wish I was one of those people that could function on 7 hours a night. My sleep is high maintenance, so when I lose a little, it throws me off. Can't complain though. The week was hectic, but pretty awesome!

Food
Last night I made a new meal and it came out awesome. I like to find recipes and then change it all around to make it the way I think is better. I made this casserole thing that has thin sliced potatoes. sweet potatoes, layered with a mixture of leeks, artichokes, seasonings. lemon, celery and this soft cheese. I topped it with bread crumbs and baked it! I put a little too much pepper on some parts and it was a bit spicy, but overall it was great. Meals like this make me excited to go to work the next day, so that I can have it for lunch.

Still not much to show for visuals. So here is a sample of what it looks like to make your own typeface. I hand-made each letter and then thinned it down for the "light" version. To make all of the type I have to go in and copy each letter to make the words. Below is my type palette, and also the page of all the words I have used so far. Kinda time consuming, but City Farm has it's own unique typeface so its worth it. :)

 

Week 3, recap.

I can't believe I am finished with the 3rd week of this semester already. The month of September is flying by, and I am sure October will too. So far, so good! I am still ahead of schedule with some parts, and right where I want to be for others. I am sure I will slip a little in another few weeks, so I plan to stay ahead as much as I can.

The past week I got my motivation back, felt creative, and I have more energy than I have had in a while. I owe that to running. I really have no idea why I let myself slack with that because the more I do, the better I feel, and therefore the more I get done.

Book: I began my computer roughs for the book. I set up my book pages, the grid, and began mocking up the pages. The majority of my book needs to be hand made, but I need a computer rough done so I can see how everything looks before I go and waste time hand making a page that sucks. I plan to take the next couple weeks finishing the mock up and then show it around to people to get feedback. Right now I really like where I am heading with my sketches, but I know there is much more I can do to make each spread dynamic and interesting to look at. I also have to write the book. I have a pretty good idea of the content that I need, but I need to write it out and have it there to dump into the book when it is ready. I am using placeholder type for now. The next couple weeks will seem slow moving, but will be really helpful for moving forward.

Website: I wrote most of the type for the website last week and then made a few variations of the home page computer roughs. It was really helpful to see the sketches mocked up, but I ended up liking bits and pieces of each version. So this week I need to refine the homepage and explore some new ideas for the little details that will make the website look professional and actually designed. I am spending more hours at the computer working on this than I thought, with little to show for. But luckily my book is ahead of schedule, so I was able to put some of the work I had planned on hold so I could catch up with the web plans.


Life: I did not get sick last week. Guess it was allergies. This is new to me, so I am not used to the feeling. The only feeling I have to relate it too is a cold. So that is what I thought it was. Yippy to not being sick. I have been able to socialize too! This semester is like Christmas. I have cool projects, I'm not stressed, I'm still sleeping, I'm eating, AND I have been able to make time to play each week. I now it won't last the whole semester, but that is OK! I will take what I can get.


Food: I stopped by the grocery store on the way home tonight. I like doing that rather than going on the weekend, because if I take the long walk home it is on the way so it is quicker. The downside is, it is pretty busy. I was getting some cheese at the deli and did the pre-order thing and it took longer than my shopping, so I was able to do some "thesis research" like I used to do when I began my work for thesis. It is so much fun. I just follow other shoppers around and see how they interact with the produce. It is so amusing to me because people pick up the food, squeeze it a little, pick up another, squeeze that, and repeat till they find the prize. At that point they admire it like it was a hand-full of gold, smile a little and then place it in their cart before they move on to do it again.  I suggest "super market stalking" sometime. It is a good time.


Well clearly I am practicing with the book writing. That was a long post. I don't have much to show for visuals yet, so I guess I will keep posting pictures of the photo shoot to keep my posts pretty.

Jam Jar

Picnic tables to be used in Farm Food eatery (painted by kids in Little Farmers)

Little Farmers t-shirts

Week 2. Felt like week 12

I lost a little motivation this week. That's what I get for working like a dog during week one. I still managed to get a decent amount done, but I didn't want to do it. That is not supposed to happen till the end of the semester. At the same time, it does not feel like I am in a semester at all. I think it is a combination of being able to work at home, and working in between semesters the past year. I love working at home because I am getting much more done, but it is a break in my routine so it is kind of throwing me for a loop. Oh well, I will keep plugging on.

Book: I  had the whole book sketched out from week one but then noticed some holes. I also sketched the book out so fast I was worried I would forget what my notes meant. So, I went back and refined the sketches and cleaned them up. Now I can follow each spread and know exactly what it means. I also fixed the issues it had, worked out some details, and updated the parts I forgot. I am pretty excited to be going into this week with a full plan for my book because that means I get to jump into my computer roughs, which is what I had planned for week 5.

Web: I began the week with refining the sketches from last week and working on navigation variations, but I felt something was holding me back. So I stopped that stuff and began writing the content for each page, which then led me to re-do my site map. It scared the shit out of me. I had no idea how much content I could have for this website. And, what I included is just a portion of what the real website would be if City Farm we not just my dream. Luckily, my advisor Mike is kick ass and helped me to make sense of my site map. So now I can see that some parts are combined and some are not needed, or can be put off to add later if we have time. Thanks, Mike!

Admin: I also found out I was taking 3 classes instead of two, which was not what I thought I signed up for. I had some communication issues when I was setting up my classes so I had to drop my book advisor. I'm kinda bummed because she had some nice work and seemed super friendly, but that would have meant a very expensive semester. Seeing as I have already had the book ideas sort of worked out with my old advisor Matt, I figured I could go ahead on my own. Fingers crossed I can make it awesome on my own.

I also found out that I can not present my thesis as a final in December. Final presentations are done after we have everything completed. So I will need to wait till portfolio is done in the spring. It alleviated the pressure this semester had, but I still do plan to be finished with everything at the end of this semester. No need to go into the spring with a broken website and a crappy book.

Life: I am feeling something coming on. So I plan to work crazy tonight and hope I get ahead of myself if I do get sick. If not, then I guess I just worked ahead :)I also got back into running, but it was only because I signed up for a road race a while back. It was only 4 miles and I hated every minute of it. Guess I better get back in shape. :)

Food: Just ate some sesame seed crusted tuna over rice pilaf and green beans. When that settles I plan to take down this chocolate mouse cake thing. Tomorrow is my favorite meal and I have made it so much my husband has grown to hate it. Poor Brandon. It is a white wine, mascarpone cheese sauce with pasta and mushrooms, topped with fresh chives. Life is good.

Not much to show for images these first few weeks (trust me, no one would make sense out of my sketches anyways). But I have most of my images edited from photo shoot #2, so here are some.