...the rest of my days

My last week in California started out with a 4th of July weekend... Whitney and I headed for Long Beach. We went to the Aquarium of the Pacific, which turned out to be a really cool place to be on the holiday. They had a lovely barbecue on the front lawn full of all the usual holiday favorites. I touched all sorts of crazy sea creatures and saw all kinds of new things. When it became dark, we watched the fireworks off the Queen Mary in the harbor. Truly patriotic. It was a joyous time.

On our holiday off of work, we took a day easy and wandered around down town LA. We came upon this little treat, Olvera Street, an old Mexican market. We wandered around in the blazing heat and naturally, ate a churo.

We continued our travels to Angels Flight which is an old rail car system that pulleys two cars opposite each other up a hill. Pretty magical, especially after discovering that in 2001 there was a fatal crash and it just recently opened again.

On my last night, the girls and I went out to eat in true Hollywood fashion. Whitney discovered this little place called ketchup... hence the red lights. It was fancy! They had all sorts of ketchup... chocolate ketchup... mango ketchup... banana ketchup.... interesting, yet delicious. It was good to spend time with them before we all parted our California dreaming.

Nice look after a long day at work. Oh boy.

i live the high life

Occasionally one gets to attend a party...

After work one day Kelly took us to a dinner party with the whole company.

We had great food and soaked in the ambiance of the hotel poolside while dancing to our personal DJ.

Did I mention, she re-designed it?

Best part was everyone repeatedly asking me why I don't drink and then replying... "good for you!" in an extremely sincere way.

It was a good night.

um... I love being awkwardly close in photos.

california...

As you can clearly see, time in California came and went. When six weeks hit my two roommates

peaced out to get married and be with their husbands. Lucky for me I got to stay for another

two weeks. At 6 weeks, I wasn't ready to be done. I still felt that I had so much to learn and see

in California. I had nothing super exciting to get back to and as much as I missed my family, I knew that this experience was once in a lifetime.

I gained a lifetime of knowledge about the design world, and myself in only a two month period. I guess sometimes when life gets monotonous it takes getting out of your comfort zone to really

understand what life is about. I discovered that design truly is my passion, that I have a deep love for Salt Lake City, and that the gospel is true everywhere you go.

As much as I loved being at Kelly Wearstler Inc. there came a time to leave. After a flat tire one

day and an earthquake the next, I was ready to be home.

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who made this happen for me. From my professors

who 'forced' us to do it, to Kelly for loving my portfolio, to Jess and Stacy for finding me a

home to live in, and especially my parents. They have always been so understanding of my wants and continually try their best to make my dreams come true. I am so lucky and so grateful to have them be mine.

Here is a quick recap of the last few weeks in California:

I went to the HOLLYHOCK HOUSE by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was magical. His architecture and design will ever inspire me.

Went to the Chinese Theater:

My Mom and Aunt Donna came... and we went to DISNEYLAND:

I am so proud of her.

We also went to Universal Studios and we had "Preferred" passes that made us feel special:

The Grinch Set

The Los Angeles Zoo with Amy and Whitney:

This Koala was named Kylee... awwww

...and I love being a kid. It even came with animal crackers.... clever.

Went to a movie at Hollywood Forever Cemetery:

Then bowling at Lucky Strike... Super fancy

Finished up the weekend with some beach time at Malibu:

week 8: kelly wearstler

My last week in Los Angeles started out with a day off due to the holiday. The rest of the week I finished up on the usual things. I finished working on my jewelry sketches and paintings. I finished working on some shop drawings for the hotels. I finished some photoshopped elevations. I finished up with a greater knowledge of how an Interior design office works. I finished with a greater understanding of how much work goes into a single project. I finished knowing that what I had learned was invaluable and the experiences I had were life changing. I am so grateful to have been a team member at Kelly Wearstler. I have learned so much, even if I wasn’t extremely involved in every aspect of the design process. This experience will be a part of me forever. Back to Utah!

week 7: kelly wearstler

Another week, come and gone, time goes by so fast when you are busy. This week I was able to work with the product department again with making jewelry sketches and paintings. We all know this is not my forte, and I was really nervous to hand things over to them, embarrassed moreover. They loved everything and had me keep doing pieces, and more pieces, and more pieces. Besides doing jewelry I worked on the usual Pos and errands, but I also worked on a FFE schedule, I fixed some CAD shop drawings, had a really long detailed meeting with Kelly, completed a flooring plan, and did some Photoshop elevations. Busy, busy week!

week 6: kelly wearstler

Sixth weeks have come and gone, and I am continually keeping busy for the most part. This week started out with a lighting schedule, Pos, pricing, and the usual errands. This week ended with painting for the product department. In between we had CBS come and film in the office a spotlight on Kelly and how the office works. It was definitely eventful and insightful into how things are filmed and what goes along with that. The best part of this week was getting stuck doing sketches, sigh, but being told that I had a great hand. I guess hundreds of European sketches paid off.

a few things i have learned...

After being on this internship for 6 weeks I have learned a few things about work....California... and more importantly myself. Here they are:

WORK

It is impossible to work as a designer without these things.. in order of importance

1. Post-its

2. A phone

3. A computer that contains Photoshop, AutoCAD, and Excel

4. A Scanner/copier/printer... nothing would get done around here without it

5. Hundreds and Hundreds of samples

CALIFORNIA

1. Roads are extremely confusing and drivers are worse than you can even imagine, you can ask me later how damaged my car really is, for example... yesterday I was sitting in my car parked when a guy decided to parallel park.... into my car. Lovely.

2. It's not what it looks like in the movies... We are currently involved in June Gloom, which is just how it sounds. No sunshine.

3. People express themselves in all sorts of ways... no clothes, hundreds of clothes, crazy outfits, dressing dogs in outfits, and my favorite... the homeless lady who was in the turning lane... with her shopping cart.

4. Everyone here has a dog, even their dogs have dogs. One prime example, we got home from work and 6, I repeat 6, dogs were behind our gate. How that happened I will never really know. I sure do love those cuddly critters though.

5. Traffic is by far the least appealing thing thing about California. I live 15 miles away from work and it consecutively takes 45 minutes to get to work everyday. Not only is it bad in the morning, it continually gets worse during the day... even at midnight. Oh technology, how you have changed our world.

MYSELF

1. Traffic can be handled by two things... shuffle on my ipod and orange juice. That is the cure for all things.

2. I can survive without having a bath every week.

3. It really is a huge problem when my toe nails aren't painted.

4. I get really excited when I can cross things off my list... I love lists... and post its. (You can even ask my roommates how severe this list thing is, and no I'm not crazy, I just like to be organized).

5. I miss my family more than I ever thought I would. I miss my dog. My home. The mountains. and the comfort of my own bed. Not too much longer Salt Lake, I will be home. You will ever remain the most beautiful city to me.