And so I was mightily sadden when they announced that Rami was moving on to the top three. I just didn’t like his look at all. It was safe, very safe and boring. Although with Chris, I wasn’t so sure about the human hair extensions, I don’t wear fur either. But it was daring and very creative. It might have been a bit costumey, but it was still wearable. I would have worn the first to looks (minus the the hair.) I wouldn’t have worn any of Rami. But I guess that’s just me. Out of all the designers, Chris has truly been on a roller-coaster of emotions, to be kicked off than brought back and then to make it to the final four, given the time and money to make a collection and the HUGE possibility of showing at Bryant Park in the Project Runway show…I would be a mess about now. But he kept a smile on his face and a cheerful deposition. I truly thought he should have went.

 However, as many of you know, he will be showing at Bryant Park along with Sweet P and after the finale airs, I’ll watch their collections on you-tube.

As far as Christian’s collection, I’m not convinced at all. From what little we saw, it looks like what he has usually designed. And since he was constantly a judge favorite I guess he figures that’s good enough. I hope that I am wrong and his pieces are unique and interesting. It would be awesome to finally have someone who is young win. They have always penalize the younger designers for the age in the past. His concept however sounded like his concept for every thing else. So we shall see.

Jillian has surprised me somewhat, I’m still not a fan. But out of what I saw, I was intrigued to see the rest. The color palette as Tim said was a bit dreary, so I hope she takes that to heart and puts so bright and life into her collection. What was really interesting was her arrogance about who she was as a designer. I think in all aspects of life you should have some humility. Christian and Satino have both been criticized about how arrogant they were on the show but it didn’t come off to me like Jillian’s.

I remember when Tim visited Santino and he explained his past and where he was before he came to Project Runway, I understood his actions a little better. Christian is just young and arrogant I wont deny that and I wont deny he’s irritating. But I don’t know Jillian just…something…me…I can’t explain it. I give her points for having such confidence in herself. But that whole, “I know everyone else says they will be the next greatest thing, but I know I will be” kinda rubbed me the wrong way. I lot of people say that too and they don’t amount to much but they die trying so I guess as long as you have a goal in life its all good.

So next week is the finale and then that’s that. I need to find a new show to watch and write about…any suggestions? I’ll tell you right now I’m not a Idol fan. Now that’s a show that’s run it’s course.

Here’s how I did on my February Goals:

1. Look for more places to apply:  Met and Passed. I applied to 10 more places with in the last month.

2. Gain full time employment:  50% done. I got an part time job, but have yet to gain full time employment.

3. Find more ways to bring in non-salary income: Counting the Part Time job towards this goal as well. I’ve tried to doing surveys, and have found one thing out I’m not a survey type of person. Through CashCrate.com I’ve only qualified for 1 and earned a total of .80 (wow!) and it was irritating, it was a movie survey and basically it was trying to get me to see this one movie, it was very bias to that one movie. I’m going to say this is 70% done.

4. Post more articles on Helium:  100% I posted a total of two articles this month.

5. Add another 25 goals to the 101/1001 list:  I’ve kind of abandon this one, this is a major under taking and trying to keep up with so many goals is tiring. So I’ve kind of just abandon this idea, I’ll stick to my yearly and monthly goals. I know what I want out of life but that could change from now to three years from here.

6. Step up posting:  So this goal has definitely been met, and passed. A total of 20 post in the last month, which is an average of about 5 posts a week. 100% done!

 

It’s amazing how one can go from a high to a low in space of a day. Well maybe in the space of a weekend. Last week I wrote how I had gotten a part time job, well I still have it, she just pushed back my start date. I was suppose to start this morning, but she wasn’t quite ready for me. Hopefully I can start next week. Then my dad did my taxes, I was slated to get almost $300 back from Federal and just over $200 from state. Which I was glad to get, since I had only worked technically part time the whole year. Well they rejected both state and federal and my dad had to re-file for me, the problem? There had been a tax update within the week he had did my mom’s and sisters and mines. That update affected me and the tax limit bracket I guess I was in, thus I get nothing from federal and only $54 from state, that’s a big difference. Although I wasn’t that upset because taxes are something you should never count on having. The government is to fickle to rely on, so oh well.

So I was bit bummed about that, I was going to use half of the money to pay off some debt, but oh well. I’ll just use half of that to start the high yield savings accounts. Later that day the post came, and I must admit I love getting mail, even if it’s just junk mail. I like it to see my name on it, it’s weird I know. I don’t necessarily like to get bills, but it is mail so I’m torn on it. Well yesterday there were several things for me, I felt so special. There was a first class envelope with no returned address, some samples I had sent off for, a coupon for free kid’s yogurt, and a letter from my student loans provider.

Of course I was curious over the first class mail, no one ever sends me something so important it has to come in a priority mail envelope, not even my college degree was sent in one. So I tore it open, and it was a letter from some government agency conducting a survey. The survey was about how American students pay for secondary education. In gratitude they send you a $30 check after you finish it, since it was a web survey I logged on and completed the survey in about 25 mins. So in about four weeks I should be getting a $30 check. That of course lifted my spirits.

The samples and the coupon lifted my spirits even more, another thing I love is free stuff. I’m really excited to try the kid’s yogurt. Even though I’m no where near a kid, the things they put out for kids tend to be more nutritious than the things they put out for grown ups. This one has less sugar than normal yogurt and plus its free.

But the biggest boost was the letter from the student loaner, I thought it was just my monthly statement that they send. But no it was a letter say that two of my loans were being dropped because of no disbursal. For some reason when you graduate in December they still give you financial aid for the spring semester. I had to wait for my alma matter to say I was no longer enrolled before they took away the loans. So a total of $2,751 was dropped from my total debt. Bringing my total to $15,190.98 in student loans and $17,904.00 in total debt. That’s not bad, compared to some other’s (got to stay positive.)

Well with all that good news coming back to back how could I get into a low? Well I received an email from one of the jobs I applied to and they decided to go with some one else, oh well. Then I sent an email to my mom asking what’s the hold up on that job. Apparently they too went with someone else but that person declined the offer. So I’m just going to go ahead a say I didn’t get that one. My mom thinks I should send an email to the head inquiring about the job and how I would really love to work for them, but I’m like I wasn’t there first choice and they aren’t my first choice, I’m not going to “beg” them for the job when I don’t really want it. So back to the hardcore grind of applying for non-existent jobs.

I think the good and the bad have just even me out, I’m bummed but not to bummed. I would really like to get started some where in a job, just to give myself something else to think about.

 

It’s been a while since I did an installment to the Reason Behind the Dreams series. I decided to merge four of them into one post, #4-7: France, New York City, California, and Hawaii. I know the last post have been traveling, but never fear this one will be the second to last one.

So why France?

Well France is really about the same things as England was. Historical academic need. France to me is right up there with England, on the places to see for historical sites. You have the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame Cathedral, Arc de Triomphe, Musee National du Moyen Age-Thermes et Hotel de Cluny, The Catacombs, the Pantheon, and several different ancient ruins. And that’s just in Paris. France is also the heart of the fashion world, I would love to see a fashion show in the France while I’m there. And just like in England I’m going to need an additional trip to see it all.

New York

New York is just one of those places you have to see in order to understand it. There’s historical sites there, but because I don’t have the same affinity for American history as I do for European history, they don’t hold the same joy for me. For America New York is the heart of fashion, so again a fashion show and a all-out shopping spree. Plus a authentic slice of New York Pizza has my name on it.

California

Another great American state you’ve got to see to believe. Really this one is just say I’ve gone across the country before, shallow I know.

Hawaii

The sandy beaches, the coconut drinks, and the exotic food…need I say more?

So this morning as I was working on chapter five of Locked Away I got a call from an unfamiliar number, usually I don’t answer such things but something said “eh mines well.” So I answered it and it was my sister’s non-boyfriend boyfriend, apparently my sister’s car was a victim in a multi-car break in hullabaloo. A total of 8 cars were broken into sometime last night. The robber(s) broke my sisters window completely and took her radio completely out. A guy down the way had his in car TVs stolen and his girlfriends air pump thingy was taken, she also had a NOZ thingy and they took it but left it halfway down the street. They also managed to pop her trunk and pull out all the stuff that was in there, clothes and papers. Fortunately they left my huge picture of Captain Jack in there (maybe they knew I would hunt them down like the dogs they were if they took it.) My parents went over there so they could be with her while the cops can and my dad could tape up the window with a grocery bag, until she could get it fix. I was left at home with my brother but once I was convinced that they had made it over there I called my mom to tell her to bring my hole puncher home. My sister answered the phone, out conversation went like this

“Hello.”

“Sis?”

“Yeah.”

“You stopped up?”

“Sorta…geez”

“You sound like it.”

“Well BJ I’ve been outside the whole morning!”

“Uh…anywhoo tell mom to bring home my hole puncher.”

“You called about a hole puncher?” can also hear my Mom in the background laughing.

“Well yeah what else am I suppose to call about?”

“Oh I don’t know, make sure I’m okay, see if everything is okay. Your picture was in the car remember?”

“Wait they didn’t take it did they?” True panic in my voice.

“No.”

“Oh okay than, so yeah hole puncher.”

“You know you just weird.”

“Maybe but I still want my hole puncher.”

“They broke out my window.”

“I talked to “BOB”. Dad brought some trash bags to cover it up.”

“Yeah he’s upstairs cooking.”

“Cooking?!”

“Yeah, we went shopping since it was suppose to snow but yeah that didn’t happen.”

“Wait he’s over there cooking, and they left us here.”

Passing the phone to my mom. “He isn’t up there cooking BJ.”

“I mean ya’ll just go over there and have family time meanwhile me and my brother over here just like what?”

In the midst of my rant, “BJ stop talking. Does your Dad cook at home, he just went grocery shopping yesterday.”

“Define cooking?”

“I’m hanging up now.”

“Okay yeah but hole puncher!”

“Bye weirdo.”

“HOLE PUNCHER.”

After all that do you think I got my hole puncher? Nope? But my take on the whole deal is that she’s okay, they didn’t take the whole car, nor put a car bomb underneath…be glad for little wonders.

In this past week’s episode of Project Runway they did the reunion show. All the designers were brought back to the Bravo set and asked a series of questions about the show and how they felt about things afterwards. Just like the other three seasons, they waited for a while before bringing out the finalists, and then they brought out the other judges Nina Garcia and Michael Kors.

There’s not much to say about this show because it was just them talking. The most noted thing that happen was Carmen’s breakdownish tantrum, as I like to think of it. The designers were asked how they felt about anything they heard said about them after the show. Carmen was really the only one to speak up. Her grief was that she didn’t feel like she was really missed after she left and that she overheard Kit say “Even if she did finish it wasn’t a good design.”, she then went on to say that it hurt because she took to heart what they all thought of her.

Some other things to note was Jack was back and they talked about him leaving and the possibility of him coming back next season. For those of you who don’t know he is HIV positive and has been for about 18 years, during the show he had to leave early because he got a staph infection in his face. He spent five days in the hospital and then was healed as fine there after. He doesn’t know yet if he will come back, and after they did a clip of that episode the whole cast were in tears. Christian won the Viewer’s Favorite award, which was given by last season’s winner Michael Knight. Knight stayed for a while and shared the news that he has just launched his own fragrance. Victorya had her first fashion show and Kevin was asked was he show he wasn’t gay. Heidi was unanimously voted by the designers to be the harsher judge this season and Michael Kors was asked why he never wore anything more than the black shirt, black blazer and jeans. His answer was he used to be the trendy teen, but once he went into business it became less about him and more about his clients, and his motto is what’s easy to get ready in the morning so I can get to my clients.

My thoughts:

Like the whole season there was a noticeable lack of drama and the sense of let’s force some drama with the questions that were asked. For example, designers and judges who had the overall worse design throughout the whole show. This cause another fuss from Carmen, Nina and Michael said that the Men’s wear challenge overall for EVERYONE was the worst. Heidi agreed with a “I know we saw jackets without shirts.” which was what happened with Carmen and that was the challenge she went home on. As far as Carmen goes, I can’t say I don’t truly understand her feelings about what happened, especially the Kit comment. After four challenges, I’m sure she had made some friends, but get real everyone was there for a chance to win. Everyone was under stress from day one and everyone is always slightly glad inside when someone else goes and it’s not them. That’s how it goes, if it didn’t seem like people missed you so what. First off it’s not like you died, you left the competition and went home, they didn’t have time to mourn the lost of you, they had to continue on. If she is going to live her life according to what others say to her, then she’ll never go far.

It wasn’t a surprise that Christian won the Viewer’s favorite award, but unlike last season I’m not onboard with this one. He’s just not my favorite, he’s good but I think there were other designers that were more relatable and interesting than Christian. It was good to see Michael Knight he was my favorite from last season.

Next week’s episode is about Tim visiting the other designers at their home and viewing what they have so far in the collections and we will learn which one, Rami of Chris will be showing. I am curious to see where they are so far and even curious to see the end result. I know that if you go on the official website you can see the pictures but I’ve refrain from doing so, I like the act of waiting and seeing the conversation with it.

Well yesterday I had an interview for a part time job, and the interview went well, better than expected (sort of). She offered me the job right there, and as I thought low pay and no benefits. But it’s okay. Because know there will be some kind of income coming in, not much but some. I’m excited, can you tell? So what’s the job? It’s an office assistant for a beauty consultant firm. I get to do all the things I love to do. I’ll be assisting, web designing, marketing, organizing, PR(ing), inventory, customer relations, accounting, product buying and more. And a few things I don’t like answering phones, not one of my favorite things to do but I’ll do it. Right now it’s only two days a week, it might increase to more days if I’m needed.

It’s going to take an initial large sum of hours to get started, mainly because they have been with out an assistant and the head admitted that she had no system so she’s opened to suggestions (she asked me to stay for a meeting and she introduced me to everyone and there was a long loud scream of joy…I was slightly scared!) and you can totally tell. The first thing is to do an overhaul inventory, it’s suppose to be done every January but that didn’t happened. She’s willing to work with me once I find a full time job to adjust my hours, which is a good thing. I would hate to leave her in a lurch if I were to get a position soon.

So right now I’m probably looking at about $400 a month from this position, like I said not a lot but it’s something. I still haven’t heard something from my mom’s job, hopefully I’ll hear something next week. I honestly don’t know why they are lagging. It’s almost not worth it, but right now that pay is to much to pass up.

Well after yesterday’s sewing adventures, I was even more determined to turn something out that I would be even more semi proud of. Well before I tell you what happen I must say this: I don’t know my measurements. Apparently having a college degree doesn’t equal knowing your measurements. I never realize how off I am on knowing what’s what? The whole time I was looking up for things to do I would come across things for 22″ of something but I would need two of it. I would say nope can’t do that I don’t have enough, I only have half a yard, but I was thinking was Nope can’t do that I don’t have enough, I only have half a yard which is just like half a foot which mean I only had 6 inches. Do you see the failure of my logic. I don’t know why I though I only had six inches worth of fabric when I could clearly see that it was more than six inches. So now that I have admitted my shame, let’s move on and never speak of this ever again.

So while my Dad borrow the laptop again so he could do some preliminary research for an interview on Friday (speaking of which everyone please keep him in mind, needless to say we REALLY need him to get a job.) I started got ready to do some sewing. Well first I woke up at 5 and print out instructions for the two projects I wanted to do, now that I knew I had enough fabric for. And then I washed my fabric, I didn’t do that yesterday cause I thought it would be okay since I was just practicing. Well after I washed all the fabric I was going to use I went ahead and ironed them. I suck at iron and I don’t actually remember the last time I ironed something I think it might have been about two years ago. Well then I sat down and started the first project. The wallet again. One thing you should know about me is that I hate failure and that OCD came rearing up. I could stand that fact that I had failed horrible and it was perfect ( a perfect failure I could half way stand ^_^)

Well this time I it turned out way better than before and is actually a wallet, it’s not perfect but it’s better. Pics:

this is it closed…the coloring is horrible, when I get batteries for my digital camera I’ll retake them and wont use my phone camera I promise. It’s an hot green and hot pink polka dot fabric and a plain beige fabric on the inside.

An inside view, sorry about the glare…

with a card inside

 

Inside the dollar bill part

Well like I said it’s not perfect in the second picture you can see how I messed up. I eyeballed the middle (when I should have just folded it and then sewed in the crease, lesson learned) so now the card slots are off. One side is way bigger than it needs to be and the other side is just right. I might remove the stitch and hand stitch the middle again or just stitch a second line and call it a day. Also I don’t like how it’s so wrinkling inside, but that’s just my ironing skills at work. I will be trying this most definitely again. It was actually pretty easy once I took my time and read the directions…and measured everything right

Well after this increase in success I was stoked to do project number two.

Well I found two tutes for a simple hobo looking bag, they were pretty much the same, but I used them both because one had better pictures and the other was clearer in words. Well I modified it out of necessary and want, it came out longer and skinner than I kinda of wanted but that’s okay, it works for me. Here are the pics (better pictures to come I promise)

So what’s next? Well I’m gonna take a break from sewing until I can get some more tools and what not…so I don’t know…

The other day my Dad borrowed my laptop to do my sister’s and my mom’s taxes (which reminds me I need to find where my W2 is). Well I needed to do something because I wasn’t sleepy so I couldn’t just take a nap. I didn’t feel like re-reading the limited books I have here. And nothing was on T.V. After about thirty minutes of starring into the void of space, I decided that wasn’t gonna do it. So I shuffled upstairs and started looking around for a random book to occupy my time. And guess what I came across, that little pink sewing machine I bought a year ago. I totally had forgotten about it.

Here’s a pic to remind you of it:

And that remind me of all the fabric that I had bought at random times of that year…

And my head started thinking…hmm…The other thing was I still didn’t know how to sew…plus a lot of the sewing tool thingys were missing thanks to my brother and is asinine need to mess with other peoples stuff. AND I only had a half a yard of each fabric, not much to work with. So I sat there for another hour and half starring into the void of space again. Well then my Dad finished with my laptop so I did a quick search for beginners’ projects. And came up with some good ones, one I don’t have enough fabric for (1/2 yard short) and the other I need a few more inches of at least two of them, plus something called interface, bias tape among other things (missing my seam ripper). Well I did find a tute for a simple fabric wallet that didn’t call for much fabric. So I tried it and it came out horrible. Why? I didn’t measure it right, I didn’t have a ruler so I used one of my tape measures ( I have three of those for some reason). Then I forgot to put in the lining fabric. But then my sister brought over her full size machine that she gave to me, cause she too hadn’t used hers for over a year. Well I tried it again…and again it was horrible…but this time I figured out how to re thread the machine all by my lonesome…and Jess can confessed to how I bulked at doing that on her machine. And I even did the bobbin thingy by myself. Well around 3 something in the morning I was still hacking away at the machine…and I came up with I was just gonna sew stuffs…so I made a bag out of some scrap material and a old night shirt I had that had shrunk in the machine a year or so ago. Here’s a pic or two..

it’s blurry cause I took it with my phone and the kitchen part I was in has those halogen lights…hard and harsh. Well it took me three hours and I was so (semi) proud of it. The straps came from a pink terry robe that I don’t use cause it’s too short. Well then I decided to use the rest of the pink fabric cause I used most of it on the wallet…and some blue silky fabric scraps had in a box and came up with this…

Here’s a close up..

I have the rest of my fabric samples inside…what you can’t see on this blurry pic is that the blue fabric is the wrong side…I got confused around 7 in the morning. On the other side the top part where the pink and the blue come together I sewed it the wrong way so the edges can be seen. The blue fabric was very hard to work with, cause it’s satin-silk type and it wanted to slip and slide the whole time. I also think the tension was to high cause you can see it puckering and what not (I learned that from Project Runway.)

I’m going to try and do some more sewing…I have a project I want to do for my cousin, his baby-mama-to-be is having her baby shower next month and since it’s the first great grandchild it’s kind of special occasion. Plus this way the fabric I bought for that dress I never made will be used for something. I think I have 2 yards of it, maybe more since Jess told me to get more than I would need.

If there’s anyone out there with a good sewing blog or info on beginners tutes and what nots please share!

The past week’s episode of Project Runway was the last challenge before Bryant Park. Which meant the top three would be announced, but there were still five contestants. That meant that two people were going home. Needless to say the tensions were running high. The challenge this time was to take inspiration from a classical masterpiece and translate it into fashion.

Sweet P: chose a painting of peacocks, entitle Peacocks, Chris chose a 18th century portrait, Christian chose a Spanish portrait, Rami chose a Grecian sculpture, Jillian chose the paint Masters of the Argonauts.

As predicted Christian showed to be truly arrogant in this week’s episode and Jillian made note of it. Jillian herself, moved very slowly like always and was stressing towards the end. Chris ended up finishing up early and decided to use the rest of the time to take a nap, despite Tim’s worriedness over his garment. Rami spent most of the time trying to convince himself that what he was doing was right, no matter if it was the same old thing. And Sweet P freaked out.

On the runway:

Sweet P: “nice dress…but just not enough.”

Chris: “Can see you showing in Paris (from guest judge)…looks like the dress you and Christian did a while back.”

Christian: “you think about the show…practical… super chic”

Rami: “too normal…expected more…predictable”

Jillian:”you surprise me every time in a good way…good details”

Results:

Christian was the winner so he automatically is going to Bryant Park, Jillian came in second so she too is going to Bryant Park. Sweet P was Aufed…which is no surprise, but still a sad thing for me. And yet another Project Runway twist…Chris and Rami are both going to Bryant Park. But before you start thinking, they are going to have four show again like last season…nope. Both Rami and Chris are going but once they get there they have to show the judges their three strongest pieces and then they will choose a third finalist to show at Bryant Park.

My thoughts:

Well I’m sad to see Sweet P go, she was the most wearable designer out of the entire group. But the show isn’t really about commercialism as they pointed out. It’s about fashion, and not all fashion is about wear ability. I’m not surprise to see Christian in the top three, like I said before he’s the judges favorite. He does have a noticeable point of view, it’s just that everything he creates to me looks like it belongs to the same collection. Not that’s bad, cohesiveness is a good thing. But I would be curious to see three collections down the road, five, ten? I don’t know if he has the staying creativity to produce some new and different all the time without it being reminiscent of his previous wear. But then again I guess that’s what branding is all about. I guess I’m not really surprise to see Jillian in the top three, she’s just a bit shady to me, but the judges love her. The thing between Chris and Rami, I can totally understand. It’s almost like last seasons, all four were so unique you just couldn’t decided between them. If I had to pick right now I think it will be Chris to show, only because he was my second favorite and although he too has a certain style that he shows again and again…it’s not the same one note technical style as Rami’s. Plus he seems more willing to try and change it up a bit and tone it back, where Rami continually says but this is what I do.

Next week is the reunion and that’s always interesting to see how people feel about their ousting challenge. From the previews their were some tense moments and tears…

Cheers!