Sunday, April 27, 2008

blue treasury



Sunday evening seemed like a nice time to grab a treasury. I think I succeeded on treasury west this evening because it was having some trouble earlier in the day & just went back up. Ah, well, I suppose that means it may or may not continue to have problems. But it was fun anyway. I noticed a few pairings in a deep teal showing up in my favorites lately and I'm glad I finally got to throw them into a treasury!
See it here while it lasts: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=8423

Saturday, April 26, 2008

New Camera!


Market Vendor
Originally uploaded by emmakat79
This week I finally got a new camera! It's the first brand new camera I've had since all my previous cameras have been hand-me-downs, either from my boyfriend or my dad. All perfectly good cameras, always handy to have a few technically inclined guys around. When they upgraded to new fancier cameras I figured their old ones would work fine for me. Anyway, not the case this time! I had Chuck help me pick out a brand new one. It came last tuesday. I'm finally getting around to posting some of my favorite photos from the picture taking excursion I took on my lunch break Wednesday on my flickr account. And today we're off to check out Olympia, WA since we've never been and there's some happenings there this weekend. Look for photos taken with my new camera! Did I mention it's blue?

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

What, is there something else I should be doing?


Dream Swatch
Originally uploaded by emmakat79
Like...studying for my exams? Or preparing a craft show? No no. Clearly I should be knitting. Actually I don't think this one distracted me too much. I only worked on it sporadically for a week or two. Seems like a nice shiny way of taming my hair in the Windy City.

Yes, it's been decided! We're moving to Chicago! It's finally starting to feel less like a fictional "oh that happens way in the future" thing. Chicago and architecture go hand in hand. So many buildings of such significance right outside my front door! And Sue the T-Rex! We just have to find a place, move across the country and I need to find a job. Yeesh. Easier said than done. But there's still at least 3 months before it all happens. IIT starts in August so I guess we'll be gone by then!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Art project of the week


Wood Block Art
Originally uploaded by emmakat79
We finally finished this project. After seeing a post on design*sponge a few months back I figured it would be easy enough to do something fun with printing blocks. Shortly thereafter we made a trip to the Fremont Sunday market to check out their selection of printing blocks. Okay, the first trip the people with the blocks weren't there but the second trip proved more fruitful. Most of the blocks are chipped or damaged, but still look very cool. In fact, that gives them a lot of character. Anyway, the blocks kind of sat around the apartment for a little while while we tried to think up some fun ways to mount them. Finally on a trip to the art store for something completely different we found the wood canvas which worked out great. Added a little dark stain & hung it above our theater chair (a sample from Chuck's workplace.) Makes for a cozy area near our front door!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Tulips and such

So somehow after getting up early to make it to my exam on Friday we still weren't done with the getting up early. Saturday morning we got up early and drove to the Skagit valley for the tulip festival. It was more of a showing of daffodils, tulips not quite blooming yet. Which works out okay since we saw a lot of tulips a few years ago it was nice to experience all the yellow. My photos can be seen here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/emmakat/sets/72157604504766382/
and Chuck's from this year and the previous excursion are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmaceachen/sets/72057594128992891/
We also wandered around the town of La Conner which has lots of cute shops.

Back on the subject of my exam - I was confused that I finished early. It was supposed to be a 5 hour test so that's what I expected. It turned out to be pretty easy I think and I left the test with an hour and a half on the clock. I never leave tests early, spare time is time to check and recheck and then check it a few more times. Well I did all that so I left! I had to wait a little bit for Chuck to pick me up...not sure what to do with myself..I start walking around and right next door to the testing center is a cute little bead shop. A sign to reward myself? I think so. Well I didn't go crazy, I was just please and amused to find the place.

I'm somewhat happy to be back in a regular work week with no tests to worry about right now. I've got one more coming up at the beginning of May, but I've been preparing for that for while. Hopefully that means there won't be as much boring talk of exams!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

MOO Cards


MOO Cards
Originally uploaded by emmakat79
My moo cards arrived just when I was at my most frazzled! Oddly I was just wondering where my Moo cards were when chuck came back from the mailbox. One of those weird moments. A perfect little distraction just when I needed it!

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

In Bloom


In Bloom
Originally uploaded by emmakat79
Around this time of year my mom asks me what is in bloom here in Seattle. Probably because most Ohio flowers aren't in bloom yet. This year I can give Mom photographic updates. Queen Anne looks very pretty this week!

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Distraction for this evening.

Flickr has video now. This is the best because it means the internets are now fuller of Cat videos. Cat videos is the best. http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=cat%20video&w=all&m=tags

I promise to make more sense after friday, after the exam.

Monday, April 7, 2008

Ack Exam Imminent

I'm being good. I've been doing my studying. I'm not too freaked out, a little, but there's still time. It's a funny test. They don't have the rights to AutoCAD I guess, so they have this drafting program that is ridiculously basic. For example there is no Copy function. If I had to function daily without the copy function I would not be able to function (say that 3x fast!)

Anyway, just stopping for a moment, then back to checking my layout. It is a bit more fun than studying for a multiple choice exam, I have to say. It's the kind of thing I enjoy, although in this situation it's more stressful than enjoyable.

At least I've had good music. I'm completely obsessed with She & Him - Zooey Deschanel & M.Ward. She was the lead actress in the sci-fi channel mini-series Tin Man & M. Ward has been around for while making music I enjoy. It's a good pairing. And so I've played it over an over, way more than a reasonable amount of times. This makes me wonder....will I do poorly on the exam if I don't have Zooey Deschanel singing to me? I don't suppose they let you take headphones into the testing center....I'm in trouble!

Sunday, April 6, 2008

I'm on Ravelry!


Ravelry Screenshot
Originally uploaded by emmakat79
It took about a week before I got an invite, which isn't too bad I suppose. I just learned of the site last week but I knew I wanted to have an account there right away. It's a website that allows you to organize your yarn stash, patterns you've completed, want to complete, knitting needles in your collection and so on. Plus it's part social-network. It's funny that I learned of it last week. I had just picked up the new knitscene magazine the weekend before and several of the patterns had piqued my interest. I also already had several patterns lined up in my head and was thinking how nice it would be if I could somehow make a list online. Shortly thereafter I notice that Leah of Spiderfelt mentioned the site on her blog, and it sounded exactly like what I was looking for. So I finally got an account this morning and I'm starting to fill it up with my projects. I've just got to remember to try not to let this distract me too much this week, I have a lot of studying to do for my first Architectural Registration exam on Friday!

If you're on ravelry, you can find my profile here: http://www.ravelry.com/people/Emmakat

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Good food

I just got back from the Georgetown liquor Company in Georgetown. It's a part of Seattle Chuck and I hadn't really explored until a few weeks ago. We both took quite a few pictures and put them in our respective flickr pools. There's a rather large and old building, formerly Rainer Brewery Cold Storage, being torn down for development by Sabey Construction. As unfortunate as that is, I think as architects we have a similar fascination with buildings coming down as we do with them going up.
Anyway the food there is great. All vegetarian with geeky sci-fi names like the Picard and the Frac. To be honest, that combined with a pretty good jukebox and a couple of old nintedos and ataris to play with would be plenty to convince me, but the food is also very good. Next time we visit Georgetown we will have to check out the other vegetarian restaurant Squid & Ink.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Yay, veggie goodness!

I'm currently featured on two blogs. Each are for Etsy street teams related to vegetarianism. One at EtsyVeg.blogspot.com provides an excellent sampling of talent from the group. The other, at crueltyfreeetsy.blogspot.com, was a web interview featuring me by Jennifer of Jak random art & design, who has been conducting these with all the members of the group. It's been a great resource for getting to know the team. Some of my favorite items from both groups are featured below.
1|2

3|4

5|6


1. Vellum Envelopes from SugarCubedesign
2. Recycled Vinyl Cuff from Jak random art & design
3. Dog & Cat Journals from This Is It
4. Neapolitan Scarf from CricketsCreations
5. Blowfish Journal from Books By Bexx
6. Butterfly Skirt from Revival Ink

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Making Mutilples

Quilt Inspired Gocco Raincloud notepads
That of course comes pretty naturally to gocco. One of the reasons I'm excited about doing a show soon is because it means I can make lots of gocco prints and not think too much about "okay now what am I gonna do with all these things." Sure I can put a few in the Etsy shop but there doesn't really seem to be a great reasons to make lots of anything. Other than the feeling of wanting to get the most out of my screen and light bulbs. But I'm doing a show soon! I need things to show! And a few for the shop, a few for myself....I suspect the gocco machine won't be getting any rest this month.


Multiple Choice
Originally uploaded by emmakat79
I've also had fun making my jewelry in multiples. The same item in different colors is a satisfying result and I can tell that it helps me improve my skills. (should there be a 'z' in skills? Maybe not.) Once I've gotten through all the upcoming busyness (not sure when the heck that'll be) I think making in multiples is something I will continue. It could make the shop look quite pretty!

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

So much happening these days


Acceptance package from RISD
Originally uploaded by emmakat79
The biggest thing being that my boyfriend applied to Graduate programs in architecture this year and has heard back. We will be moving out to Rhode Island (RISD) or Chicago (for IIT) so he can pursue the M. Arch next fall.

On the one hand I'm not crazy about the idea of leaving the Pacific Northwest, it's so pretty, mountains, temperate climate...I am excited about the prospect of exploring a new city and learning to call it home. Additionally, we will actually get to see our family in Ohio more than a few times a year. Without shelling out lots for a painful flight and inevitably elongated layover somewhere where a vegan is lucky if they can by PB and J sandwiches. Yay!

So there's a lot going on for me before the move. I've got at least a couple of architecture exams to take, a craft show with EtsyRain (who I'll miss a bunch, but I'm not saying bye just yet!) then a bunch of moving/new job kinds of things I haven't begun to think about yet.

Meanwhile I thought the folder in RISD's acceptance package (pictured) was just great!