HAPPY BDAY TO ME!

That's right, i turned 22 and it was fantastic. didn't get too drunk, gave myself a real nice present on friday, and then randomly got free tickets to a show yesterday at the metro. i had a great party, and oh yeah i now have a roommate. the hermitage household is gonna be some sitcom shenanigans as soon as we get all this crap organized.

well my neck and back are killing me right now so i'll be brief but go to here to check out my stuff on display. you can even buy somethin (PLEAZE I NEED MONEYS)! I'll be there this saturday so come stop by and heckle me as i try to wear seafoam. And on sunday i'll find out if i get accepted to the second stage of the chicago fashion foundation's anual scholarship. also hopefully by then i'll have my living arrangements better sorted out so i'm not having to go through a minefield of new and exciting stuff which i am trying not to snoop around in to get to my computer

a series of interesting events; or how i got hit by a car again

yeup, that's right, i got hit by a car. again. i'm really getting sick of it. i'm sick of telling the story since i've told it a million times but basically i'm going to have a decent scar on my left leg. i guess it will balance out the one on my right knee. So RIP Trek Soho S, i barely knew you. i did put over 2000 miles on it in less than 6 months, and for a girl who used to be super girly and frilly 6 months ago, you can certainly see the change. Well so i went and got a hipster doodad, which has actually gotten me some attention. its a 1993 seven21 Miyata, and i switched it from a 10 speed to a fixed gear. its a lot lighter and less clunky than the soho was. oh and i went and got a sweet tattoo after my first accident. i've basically decided my left arm is going to have a full sleeve



ok so i said i was making a collection this summer, and i pretty much did it all in the first week of school since i got really sidetracked by a lot of things. i had this big epiphany about my life about a month or so ago. i was really going down this path of depression and self destruction, not so much with like drugs or anything since i'm not into that, but more so just emotional ruin. i was being a real pain in the you know what to all of my friends. i was basing my self worth over the way people reacted to me and how attracted they were to me and i was just getting more and more angry. it wasn't a good thing. and my work suffered. but basically i realized that what someone once told me who i blew it off at the time, but i can see now that he was right, was that i can't be in a relationship since i'm already in one with my work. i'd be cheating on both parties if i tried to love them both. so i've been really happy as of late. i know that i have a mental issue where i will get depressed but i know what it is and i know i can beat it now. i'm finally happy with myself. like i'm not shitting rainbows or anything but i'm just confident and i think that people see that. i litterally was walking down the street the other day to go "see who i hang with" at neiman marcus and people were stopping me and telling me i was beautiful, and it wasn't like i was super done up or anything. i get handed phone numbers now. its bizarre. i was at the andrew bird concert at millenuim park two weeks ago and seriously like 5 chicks were hitting on me at once. and i'm flattered but i don't let it go to my head because i'm just happy being all grungy and sweaty from bike riding and then i get home and sew.


speaking of sewing, which was what this blog is supposed to be about, my cathardic writing is usually for myspace, i threw together a 5 look collection in about 40 hours of work. thesis can now offically suck my dick. i call it "futuro anarchy". dennis was talking on the first day in thesis about silhouettes in womenswear and when he asked what the silhouette is for this era, i said "its a clusterfuck!" he laughed and said "today's womenswear silhouette is the anarchy of self expression." and i've been kind of thinking that in the next 5-10 years fashion will come back to having a silhouette. i'd like to think it will have a lot to do with the climate crisis and how that is changing our living habits. so my story is that this is the outfit of women in 2013. she lives in a major city and she walks to her job. she's conscious of what she eats and where it comes from and how she needs to stay healthy because she saw what all that processed foods did to her parents' health, so she's slim but not skinny, more toned if anything. i see the color schemes being skewwed in the future as old conventions need to be thrown out, which was where the seafoam color came into play. orriginally the designs were going to be darker grey and navy but when i was at fishmans buying the jersey, those three colors came to me. its a microfiber jersey, and it feels light as air. but that's not always flattering to the figure so all the items except for the body of the leggings are built on top of a power mesh understructure. this means that its slimming, like wearing a body shaper but its part of the dress. its snug but there's still room to move around. and all the white fabric is an organic bamboo voile, which was interesting to work with. i'm definitely going to get good photos taken when i take that photo styling class in the spring. i think that the clothes lend themselves to an interesting photoshoot.

i made it all for chicago fashion week and in about 12 hours i'm going to find out if any of it got accepted. the construction on the inside was a little shoddy since i sewed it so fast. but i still have a 5 look collection put together, so that'll be just fine for when i need something in the next 5 months or so to throw on some models. plus the color scheme is really catching, so i think that might set me apart from some people.

fall, where are you?!

i'm ready for fall. ready for that crisp air, the crunchy leaves (can't wait for wicker park to get even more adorable), the jewel tones, the excess of knitwear. i'm ready to not be sweating my ass off on my bike when i want to ride to the grocery store

so i came across the bastard love child of my two main interests. i'm not sure if i need to run out and buy some of it, be a c*cksucker and rip it off, or run....er hop on my bike in jimmy choo's and ride off into the hills. first of all i'm neither a fan of bianchi or acne jeans (god could you pick a dummer name for your company? i understand its an acronymn but was hemroids or genital warts already taken?) but i'll be curious to see if the fashion or cycling world can come together under such terms. i was toying with the idea of doing a biking collection in the spring for that photo class, but i was going to go a different route, more inspiration coming from tour de france circa 70's.

well i've been busting my concussed ass into gear trying to throw together a whole wack o' shit for this competition on monday. i'm not exactly enthused by what i've done but i guess i'll have to take it. the bonk on the head set me back like 3 weeks on shit and now i'm really suffering from it. photos after the weekend when i'm done with it all.

and omg school starts in like 2 weeks. freakin out!

ooh ooh and i found a new fav store in wicker park. gamma player on division just west of damen is the shit. i haven't come across a store with such amazing designs. i picked up a dress there (yeah shouldn't have blown $100 on a jersey dress) that was just amazing in design. aparantly (and when i told chad about it he was like, oh it was made by people who aren't starving artists) they only make a few of each garment and never remake a run. so my dress is one of like 5 in the whole world. fuckin sweet because its a great dress. so check them out, the store isn't outlandishly pricey, it is expensive but they have stuff like hussien chalayon and crazy designers you've never heard of that are really innovative.

anybody got a job for me?

ta da...... i rode all the way to skokie on tuesday. i found the elusive North Branch Trail, which i had not been able to find for several years.

so i rode to skokie after having been hit by a car saturday night, which probably wasn't the best idea. i collapsed on wednesday, got to go see some more doctors. i got a concussion, which sucks....i think today is the first day i didn't wake up with a splitting headache and an overwhelming feeling of depression. sucks what one smack to the head will do to your brain chemistry. i forgot a lot of things, like i told the same story like 10 times till the point my family wanted to crack me on the head again. it also sucks that the dude who blew the red light and hit me totally drove off without a care. and that some people are being some real C yoU Next TuesdayS about the whole thing. at least i know who my friends are now
so hey look i clean up pretty well. i went to boystown a few weeks ago and put on heels for the first time in months. not that that's a bad thing, i''ve just been biking so much that i haven't really had an opportunity to wear heels

oh and on another note, all the TA's in the fashion department basically got fired for the rest of the summer. like i still have a job come fall, but for 6 weeks i am out of one. no warning, just dumped on me, especially when i was about ready to faint from the concussion. and i'm not going to be able to do this dog walking thing forever so IF ANYONE KNOWS A DECENT JOB, I AM MORE THAN WILLING TO TAKE IT. please, i need to get through senior thesis!

infected by the hipster disease

so here's the jacket i'm working on for the dude in product design. its just the shell so far. its chillin in a dye bath over the weekend at school.


and this was a cop convention that chad and i saw when we were at the bob inn a few days ago. there were like 30 cops. and chad's sideboob. and the heron we saw on our bike ride. the chicago nature museum up by the lincoln park zoo looks like a bond villan's lair.

so i went to village discount outlet today. O M G. check out that spread! i got 5 tshirts, one tank top, a pair of shorts, a pair of shoes, an old lady track jacket, a silk handkerchief, and a pair of ralph lauren jeans that had $2 in the pocket. all of that was only $20. SCORE! and all the stuff i picked up is soooo hipster its scary. living in wicker park has finally gotten to me. and i've accepted it. and those jeans look fucking amazing on me!



so i made my first purse this week for brett's leather working class. its pretty cute. everyone thought i was just putting a new lining in an old purse and i was like, hell no! there's some stuff that didn't work out but i'd have to say for a first attempt, i'm rather pleased. plus its lined in charmuse for secret sexy awesomeness

a little bitter

so apparantly i'm being called a copycat and that i can't design anything despite some people having their heads shoved up you know where so far that they might have discovered a new process of digesting. and i will definitely admit that i'm a bit bitter about it. I'll get over it, but i'm still nursing the wound, especially where it came from. if anything, its making me give the finger to people even more and work harder and harder to prove them wrong. so instead of one 3 outfit collection by the end of summer, i'm going to make two by august 18th. i'd like to see anybody else try to copy me.

ok it doesn't help that i'm still sick over a week after i got a cold and i'm totally pms-y

getting fixed next week

so on completely unrelated, yet equally important to me, news, i'm going fixie next week. that's right, the girl who would spend 100 hours sewing some avant guarde piece, is just as passionate about cycling as she is about the art of fashion design. so having been riding my road bike since march, and usually clocking 130-150 miles a week, i'm switching to fixed gear at the end of next week. I have spent much time scouring the internet, finding favorites hipsternascar.com and trackosaurusrex.com, getting excited to make the change. i'm going to get new velocity wheels, probably in seafoam. i now want to spend the next 6 months trying to train to compete in the Tour da Chicago. i sat on youtube the past few days watching the most insane videos of this year's stairmaster stage and nearly shit my pants. so trackstands, wheelies, and skids (all in dresses!) here i come!

done with the vespula collection

ugh, i'm finally done! this is my Vespula collection for Spring/Summer 09 couture. it is ALL HANDSEWN. everything. by hand. with one needle. one cone of thread. all of the materials were fabric and clothes that i owned already. it was definitely a very personal collection considering the time and devotion that i spent on it. i can look back and pick out the pieces of fabric and have stories about where it came from and what i was doing and so forth.

so what's next? i have to work on a jacket commission for a product design instructor that will be on display at Columbia's A+D gallery at 619 S wabash starting in august. After i get that done, i'm going to spend the rest of the summer putting together a small pre-fall collection, The Victorian Cosmonaut, which i'll hopefully take over to Habit in august and get some stuff sold.
I'll probably pick up some more dogwalking hours since the $$$ i'm making this weekend is enough for a new tattoo and my ticket to Lollapalooza. and if i can sell at Habit, then i'll really be making bank. I need to save some since i'm graduating in like 10 MONTHS. OOOOOH SCARY.
Oh so yeah all these photos will be bound into one of those iphoto books. considering i have like $70 to spend for it, i'll probably have like 5 printed and keep those in my portfolio. well....grad school here i come!

random electronic binges

quite frankly, things have fucking sucked. i can't word it any better. i've been in and out of the hospital a lot lately. lots of tests. still at least one more to go. I got taken off birth control after being on it since i was 16 and now i'm officially insane. i flipped off my favorite teacher today and stormed out of his class only to come skipping back in 5 minutes later. i rode to school in 13 minutes today, a ride that normally takes me at least 20, 25 if i'm lazy. basically i blew through every light and was going about 20mph the whole time. my arm has been jacked for a week now. i finally don't have stabbing pains shooting up and down today, although its just as sore.

as for personal life, that's just as messed up. and it doesn't help that i have about 5 years of pms dumped on me in the past few weeks.....dealing with an ex should go better if it wasn't for me acting so damned erratic. and i would be a total C U Next Tuesday about the other one in my usual style, but shit has hit the fan and i don't know how to touch that.

my computer got erased. that was fun. lost pretty much my whole music library. all 20GB of it.

fuck.

so i've been downloading new music instead of replacing the old. i'm on this big indie eletronica kick for some reason. i guess i would rather enjoy computer made noises and patterns than that of instruments. something about the mathamatical nature of it speaks to me. that and it lends itself to a fashion-ish mindset well. it would be sweet if we got to pick out our own music for senior thesis at fashion columbia like they do at the art institute. i'd find something so absolutely obscure that there'd be one audio freak shitting his pants in the back somewhere.

ugh so tomorrow i have the photo shoot for my DIGITAL PHOTO FOR NON MAJORS class. i get the feeling i'm going to be on my own despite some promises for help. perhaps thats better that way. i'll just fuck it up when i do color correcting. i'd like to think that more than one aspect of my future hangs on what happens exactly tomorrow.

i've been biking a lot, doing all the dog walking. i'm so tired all the time, i think that's why i'm not making any sort of sense.

i'll put up the photos over the weekend. if i get my laptop back soon enough.....

finally found something to connect my camera!

so.....whats up with me....uh......


OH THAT'S RIGHT, I'M AN FGI FINALIST

oh fuck somebody just set off a fucking firework and it scared me out of my chair!

ok, but back to that, but i'm dancin around since i'm one of 5 people in chicago who got into the senior design competition. but i have to wait till like the week before thanksgiving to find out if i win anything. bastards, not really, but i don't want to wait 6 months.


uh....so....photos, its my red dress at fashion columbia, followed by me and my leather coat on display (not me) at Lumen out in the Fulton market, then the leather coat on the model at fashion columbia, and then my pic of me dickin around with my camera.

so....well dog walking is going well, along with all the biking. i'm pretty sure i've lost like 5 pounds already. i rode 120 miles last week, i'm already at like 60 miles in 3 days. i rode from school (south loop) all the way to humbolt park DURING RUSH HOUR in 30 minutes. it was definitely a test of my mental determination. i have a really awful sunburn, just in goofyness scale.


so....well i'm already into the third week of summer school classes. my photo class is really boring, my math class hasn't started since the bookstore fucked up and the book just came in today, and the leather class is cool. i have my whole senior thesis planned out. i've got shit together for once. my medical problems aren't resolved yet and it does kinda worry me, but then at the same time i just ignore it. not the brightest but whatever. i just keep riding that damn bike

i swear i'm not dead.....

seriously....i have comitment issues.....amongst other things. had a bit of a medical scare that's not exactly over with but I had an insane last week of school which involved my evil twin coming to visit after the fashion show, then i moved in a sanford in son style crazy move from the south loop to wicker park. then i spent a large chunk of last week in the hospital being poked and prodded, worked at school, and still haven't unpacked. that's just because of my sheer stubornness. ugh....what else.....well i can't find the media card reader so i cant really upload any of the photos i have of me with my stuff at the one year aniversary party for Lumen out in the fulton market, or my shit on the runway at fashion columbia, or my crazy ass new apartment, or my wacky ass hair cut. uh.....well, since text is boring i won't ramble. i started a second job tonight, dog walking for Paws-N-Effect, which i'm super excited about. I'm going to be the ass with a camera for the next two months taking DIGITAL FOTOGRAPHY FOR NON MAJORS.....god....i really see photography as a nessecary evil i must deal with, but i really would rather leave it to the people who know what they're doing. that's why there's fashion photographers and fashion designers. so i have my leather working class tomorrow. oh, in my photo class between the notes on shutter speed and aperture and ISO and all that gibberish i sketched out most of my senior thesis. i want all my collections to tell a story. my current one i'm making is the representation of italio calvino's Invisible cities, and the story is that the collection is for a member of the post apocalyptic bourgeois who turns leftist radical terrorist. yeah....and senior thesis is for the android assistant of a scandanavian evil scientist. and if i have time in the after summer school before fall semester break, i want to do a marketable one so i can head over to habit on division (I love living in wicker park! so much to do!) and try to sell it. and that one will be for a victorian cosmonaut. lots of overdone princess seams and metallics.


also, i was on the teevee! scroll down just a bit between blue man group and the joffery ballet and its the whole thing about fashion columbia. check me and chad out! and my bad ass haircut which i just cut even shorter today since i've been wearing my helmet when riding to and from every place.....i've been keeping track of how much i ride and its already like 60 miles this week, since sunday....