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.