Cool & Clear

A few great articles to start with, definitely worth a read this week:

Can a Papermaker Help to Save Civilization?  New York Times by Mark Levine  (Read it, you will be better for it)

A Proposal for Penn Station and Madison Square Garden.  New York Times by Michael Kimmelman:

I love how Kimmelman starts his article:  "It’s time to address the calamity that is Penn Station." and it also contains one of the best architecture quotes I have heard in a while:  

"To pass through Grand Central Terminal, one of New York’s exalted public spaces, is an ennobling experience, a gift. To commute via the bowels of Penn Station, just a few blocks away, is a humiliation. --  What is the value of architecture? It can be measured, culturally, humanely and historically, in the gulf between these two places."

In other news, it has been an interesting week:

I survived the wisdom teeth extraction with flying colours, or so the oral surgeon said.  When they were putting me under, I may or may not have told the anesthetist that he was cute - I definitely thought it.  The only side effect of note is that I think I hear my own voice differently.  Although this sounds crazy, it makes a bit of sense:  I am now missing 4 teeth and I have a pretty significant new pair of holes at the back of my mouth where my top two wisdom teeth were.  This has to have messed with the acoustics of my mouth.

I have a few new ideas for button stuff - and some requests for button trees to fulfill, I will post some pics after I get done with them.

I also have also been hired as a tutor for a high school student starting this week - so I now need to relearn Geometry (specifically finding the surface area and volume of solids) by Tuesday - that should be fun!

Goals for the week:
Button Trees, Button Facinators/Pins, Post about Manaus/Brazil in prep for a classroom event in a few weeks, new Etsy items/mailout once I reach 25 items and 10 print items.  (that looks good for now.)


Finally, a few sketches to round out the evening:

Cold and Threatening Snow

News:  I am getting my wisdom teeth taken out on Tuesday.  I am staring to stress, but can't wait for it all to just be over.  I will be off of work for a couple of days, and probably asleep for most of my time off (which actually sounds amazing.).  Anyone who wants to bring ice-cream by would not be greeted unkindly. :)  

Hopefully I can spend the down town on some projects that have been on the back-burner for a while, including getting some info together on St. Mary's Church here in Paragould.  This church is actually an interesting footnote in the Eames (of architecture and furniture fame) repertoire - hopefully more about this in a later post.  Also, I need to finish up the write-up and image catalog of the First Baptist Church of Paragould's stained glass collection.  This project has turned into a much larger beast than I had originally thought possible.  Did you know that the First Baptist Church of Paragould has over 100 individual stained glass widows?  I didn't until I personally counted and photographed each of them.

 

Better News:  New things up on in my Etsy shop, you should take a look!!!  Just click on the picture below or on the picture to the right and you will be directed straight to Architecturally Abroad on Etsy.com.

Also, I am working on some prints and postcards to add to the Etsy shop.  This is fun!
And, as usual, some sketches to round the night off:

Cloudy, just Cloudy

I have officially opened the new ArchitecturallyAbroad Etsy shop - just click on the image at the right to visit and look around.  I will be posting new items all week! 

This week, mom and I made over 70 valentines pins:

We gave them to all of the Senior Ladies at my church, during our Senior Ladies Tea.  Everyone loved their pins and a few of the workers even talked me out of some of the extras.  I think everyone had a great time.  I love all of the "little ladies" (as I call them) of our church!  They are truly an asset to our church community.

Mom and I also made cake balls for the Tea with her handy-dandy cake ball maker [which I got for her for Christmas - I am such a good daughter :)]  One interesting story to report - apparently I am allergic to Red Velvet cake batter.  I think it's the red dye.  I am also allergic to the red dye in lots of fruit punches, including Kool-Aid.  Let me tell you, this made being a little kid interesting.  I always thought Kool-aid was the coolest kid drink, mostly because I couldn't have it. 

 

 

 

  I am also set to start with the personal trainer this week - hopefully I can keep up with my goal to be healthier and more fit this year, especially after all the cake balls.  Really, I just need to go walk around Europe again - someone get on that for me please!  

Lastly:  A few more sketches:

A small sketch of our church window design.

The Hamilton's who always sit in front of us in church.

a small architectural capriccio.

Sunny with a Chill in the Air

More work this week - enough about that - on to more fun things:

The Etsey shop is set to launch next week - I need more pictures, but I can't wait to get it started!

I also have rediscovered my intense love of the Theatre - I recently downloaded an application put out by Digital Theater.  They offer recordings of live plays from the UK, including some great and current names like David Tennant and Katherine Tate starring in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.  It was a riot of laughter and tears and was definitely worth the time to watch.  I so loved the theatre in London.  I watched every show I could get a ticket to see.  I really need to get back there soon (and not just for the theatre, but oh, what a perk of living in London!)

Ah, home is nice, but travel is always better, until you near home again.  Then home seems to exert an overpowering force on my trajectory.

Mom and I are making these great little Up-cycled Flower-Button pins for the ladies at church - they must be done the middle of next week, so I hope we can finish them up quick.  Fun to make, but time consuming.

More from the Sketchbook:

Cold and Foggy

It has been a dark and damp day here, nothing much to speak of.

This week, I have found myself constantly refering to the following quote:

-  Mahatma Ghandi

Just like most things, I believe your mind will never truly grasp something until you are ready; either through experience, or needed background knowledge, or just simply repetition.  This still rings true for me.  I have heard this quote numerous times throughout my life.  I even studied Ghandi closely when I knew I would be visiting India earlier last year.  Although I am sure I always grasped the meaning of this phrase, it has only become a true inspiration and motivation in my daily life during this new year.

I have always struggled with the importance of others opinions in my life.  When I was very young, I often let the words of others dictate my own opinions and expressions of my personality.  Once I entered High School, I realized that I was allowing others to shape the person I wanted to be.  Although I still wanted to look up to those that I respected, I wanted to find myself, not just the mirror of the world that I had made myself.  My senior year of High School, I made a commitment to remember my past, but to forge a new freedom for my own self expression. 

Over the last 8 odd years, I have continued to struggle and persevere in finding the true person within.  Not just the one that people see, but the inner person.  The inner voice that shapes the external image.  That small cage where the beliefs, likes, dislikes, values, hopes, dreams and fears are created and nurtured and often released to wreck havoc or sometimes stir the soul.  I want to be strong in my convictions, but knew that I never could, without first knowing what I am and what I want to be.  Although this is a process I will never finish, and which will always require help from above and beside - I look forward as always to the continuing voyage.

On a daily basis, this means that I try to not only talk about the changes I want to see in the world - I also try daily to be that change.  If I really want and expect others to take pollution and the sacred beauty of the natural world, then I need to take actions that mirror those ideals. (even simple things like taking my re-usable grocery bags to the store and recycling whenever possible)  Also, if art and education are truly important to me and I believe they should be important to others - then I need to be sure that I am educated enough to talk about these issues intelligently, and be able to share this passion with others in ways that will inspire and en-noble, not degrade or ridicule.  If knowledge is power, then it comes with great responsibility.

On a lighter notes, a few things from the sketchbook:

Lovely Weather, Isn't

Well, week two of the new year is done.

Work, work, work and a bit of fun on the side.

I have a couple of painting planned and I started the process to create an Etsy shop for my mom and I.  I hope to get it up and running by this time next week.

On a more creative front:  Enjoy!

Sometimes I illustrate my own books when I am bored.

Reboot

It has been a while, and in the spirit of the new year - I have decided to reboot this blog.  One of my new year's resolutions is to post at least once a week here at ArchitecturallyAbroad.  Here is a list of a few of my other resolutions.  [maybe if I write them down here - I will be more likely to accomplish all of them in 2012]:

Keep up the blogging.
Create the ArchitecturallyAbroad broadsheet/online archi-zine - more about this in the next post!
Lose a few pounds/exercise on a regular schedule.
go through the acccumulated papers from my last few years of school (organization is hopefully going to be a keyword for me this year.)
create an etsey shop for mom and I.
Finish the First Baptist research and self-publish the results.
Create measured drawings of the following buildings in Paragould:  Museum, Dad's office, Oak Grove Middle School rock building, ect. [also a full panel of the church's stained glass windows in the sanctuary.]

A note about the past year:
lets not forget that this last year was amazing - Semester At Sea was definitely the highlight!!
Oh and I started a new job right before Christmas - @ Lantern Bookstore, the local Christian book and gift shop.  It has been interesting learn more about retail (i have actually never worked a real retail job before.  I have done phone sales, academic administration, architectural history consulting and other book related jobs, but never actual retail - which seems strange for some reason.  I also feel a bit like I am paying a boredom toll for the overload of exciting travel at the beginning of the year.)
But, I have always believed that the best is yet to come - so Bring It On 2012!!!