giant doily

so I saw a rug on Oh Joy!, its actually the rug in her house that looks like a giant knit pattern.. I did some searching and found the same rug for about $800, just a wee bit out of my price range. I searched and searched for alternatives, but nothing I found was very affordable (for me).
On my search, I found this artist, Jean Lee, who crochets the mega doily rug.... which is SO AWESOME, but also out of my price range. So I decided, I'd just have to experiment and make one for myself.

I headed out to the fabric store, and got two 10-yard samples of rope (one was rope, and one a rope-ish thing that you use to make trim). I knitted several different patterns and styles, and crochet-ed the crap out of those two 10-yard pieces.. but 10 yards would only get me an 8"x8" square, and I would have to spend over $150 for the 5x7 rug I want... not sure if I wanted to invest $150 in a DIY project that might not work, and would be WHITE (probably for only a short time.. hah), I scrapped that idea.

Then, I remembered I had bought a hot pink, king size, jersey knit sheet set for like $8, and already used part of it for its intended project.. so I cut the rest of it up into 2" strips, crocheted by hand, and voila the hot pink doily was born.

Its pretty fun.. not to sure where it will go though.. its only about 3' diameter. I really want to do it again in another color, with some different crochet patterns. And I still realllyyy like the knit-look, but it just didn't look right with the jersey fabric.

weekend in austin

this past weekend, mom and I took a trip over to Austin for my UT architecture open house! we stayed in my parents' new-ish house.. I built this chandelier for them for Christmas, and I finally got to see it installed and in action:

saw the idea at an anthropologie store, and decided, hey, I could build that! so I did.
they look a little uneven in this picture, but I fixed it later.

while I was in open houses, mom worked on mosaics..

Ps. open house went pretty well, there are some things that I think it was lacking in their presentation, but that's ok. It will take a LOt of getting used to - big departure from berkeley.

anyway, we looked at a few potential housing options, and then went to goodwill. where I hit the jackpot. Found this taiwanese tea set:

and a sheepies! mug for my growing green mug collection.

and these plates.. "Golden Meadow" by Sheffield. I found out that these plates are worth $10 each! and I got.. a lot for $8. There are also really cute teacups, a teapot, and salt and pepper shakers that go with this line.. maybe I'll acquire those at some other point.

and my favorite picture from the weekend:

box #2

the second box... labeled "oh you know" haha

Its full of stuff from my time in Italy..

Random party invite..

and a sketch of my thesis concept... pretty abstract. It represents how even though this kilometer long building-city is huge and incomprehensible, all of the units and individuals are connected by various means. more later..

welcome to cal

This is an official UC napkin. from the garden party at the Chancellor's house welcome week.

yes, i know, i'm lame.

？

apparently I ordered a camera lens from Japan and kept the stamps.

SF

I don't remember which bay cruise this was... I have been on several. the 08/05 seems like it would be either august, 2005, or the 5th of august. I don't recall going on this cruise in august of 05, and i was only in ca on august 5 one year, and I didn't go on the tour. so yeah..

The first time I went on this was with Carolyn and Marcus. We had been in the dorms for a month and they decided that it was time for me to get my first taste of in-n-out. M checked on his phone and found the closest one was at pier 39.. so off to the city we went. We got off the bart at Powell, and in our infinite wisdom decided to WALK to the wharf. We followed the trolley lines and had an adventure.. we dressed up as disney princesses, took part in a protest, and got flipped off by some Stanfurdians on a scavenger hunt. When we finally got to the pier, it just happened to be the day the Blue Angels were there. So we had a fantastic day at in-n-out, and watched the blue angels from a boat in the bay. awesome.

vote yes!

In 04, I was 19 and it was about time to vote. My mom sent me this whole section of the Houston Chronicle that outlined all of the important issues, and each party's position on them. I remember M stayed up all night with me to help me figure out what I thought was important, and what stance I took on every key issue. I don't remember a whole lot, but I remember talking about abortion a lot, and being happy that I had someone to talk to about all of this.. I was pretty proud of him too, for remaining mostly impartial and letting me talk out all of my thoughts and opinions and figuring out my own stance.

Anyway, I also had figure out my stance on all of the local issues, and since I couldn't remember all of the letters and numbers and whatnot.. I wrote them down.. cheat sheet!