Family Tree

On Monday, (8/24/09) Nick's parents, Jerry and Terri, celebrated their Anniversary. (CONGRATS!!) Nick's sister, Kim, called me about a month before the occasion with a gift idea for them. Kim is very creative and talented. She explained to me that she wanted to do an "Anderson Family Tree" for her parents, but she wanted my help to make it happen. She gave me A LOT of freedom on this project and pretty much said, "I thought it could be done on tiles. Maybe you could use a tree and have the family names on it. Then maybe you could do 5 smaller tiles with us kids' family members." Very creative idea huh?? I would have never thought of that. So... after much thinking and researching for ideas, I tried to make it as simple as possible.

(surprise, surprise... I didn't get good pictures of it ALL TOGETHER on the easels, but you get an idea of how it would have looked all together!!) :)

The MAIN tile (16x16)... Family Tree
And the 5 smaller Tiles (6x6)...

Since Kim didn't have an EXACT way of how she wanted it done, I was REALLY nervous on wither the final outcome was what she wanted or how she wanted it. I told her that I think I stressed Nick out because I wouldn't stop talking about how worried I was. LOL! However, when Kim got it in the mail, she called and said how much she loved it. Jerry and Terri also called once they received it from Kim and Lindsay on their anniversary, and expressed their gratitude and love for the gift. It was such a relief to know they liked the gift and it was somewhat like Kim had in mind. ;) Thanks for trusting me with your idea Kim... Happy Anniversary Jerry & Terri!! Hope you had a great day together! :)

The Final Project

{NOTE: This post is mainly for my family due to them asking about my drawings. It's also nice to journal because of the hard work and things that I learned. I will warn you that the pictures are HORRIBLE and you will have to click on them to really see whats going on. Have you ever tried to photograph drawings? Not easy!}
As some of you already know, I took a summer class and just finished 2 weeks ago. The class I took was called Introduction to Drafting Theory. This was one of the first of many drawing classes I will have within the next 2 semesters. :) I LOVE to draw and after getting my Associates of Fine Art from Powell, WY, I slowly started to stop drawing. I just didn't make time for it and taking this class made me realize how much I really enjoy it and how much I miss doing it.
Of course this class was a different kind of drawing from the ones I've done before, but it was still drawing. :) Drafting Theory is all about drawing floor plans of a specific building for constructors to use. Even though this class was only 2 months long, I cannot believe how much I learned.

Our first "big" assignment was to draw a Kitchen Floor Plan using 4 different scales on Vellum that was 18"x 24". This assignment was given to us so that we could practice and get used to using different scales that are used in drawings. You can see from the drawing below that drawing in different scales will result in a smaller or larger overall drawing.
This drawing is just on Vellum, using pencil, colored pencil, and marker. The final drawing had to be ran through a machine, with another piece of paper, to create a "blue print". This process was referred to as "running blue lines".

After passing that assignment, we stared to work on "THE Final Project". :) Our final project consisted of drawing 6 separate plans drawn on 18"x 24" Vellum paper. These plans would construct a Library. The 6 drawings were:

(Remember, clicking on the photos will help to see what's going on ;) )

1. The Main Floor Plan
2. The Reflected Ceiling Plan
3. Exterior Elevations
(These two may be the only 2 drawings where you can tell whats even going on because they are the how the outside of the building will end up looking, and how the inside of the 2 bathrooms will look.)
4. Interior Elevations

On the Interior Elevations we only had to do the womens and mens Restrooms. Thank goodness for that. I can't imagine having to do the entire Interior Elevations for this assignment. :)

5. Wall Sections

Wall Sections show the materials needed in order for the walls to be constructed correctly.

6. Building Details

Building Details consisted of 4 smaller drawings. These were simply the details that the constructor would need to know that could not be found of the coordinating plans.

We also had to "run blue lines" before this project was complete and bind all of the plans together.(You'll notice the red marks on this drawing. This is the graded complete project. Now you know why I didn't want to take pics of the blue prints... TOO many red marks :) )

This may not look like much, but believe me, when your teacher marks off points for a line overlapping another by 1/32 of an inch, or if the measurement of the line is off by 1"... it becomes a big deal. :) With the time restraint it was very stressful and many longs days were spent finishing this. :)
It was an interesting class and MOST interesting of all was the teacher. Let me explain why... This course was 8 weeks long. Well Nick and I went to Wyomng for a full week right in the middle of this course. My teacher warned me, that skipping one full week of the summer semester, is equivilant to skipping 2 full weeks of a regular semester, but assured me that together work it out. Ya, probably NOT so smart to miss that much, but we still went to Wyoming and I had to work by buns off to catch back up and finish on time. When I was finishing up the very last day of class and about to turn in my project, my classmates informed me that the teacher would MOST definetly be impressed because while I was in Wyoming, he told the entire class that he gives me 2 weeks before I drop the class because of the work load when I return. Well, there were PLENTY of words I wanted to say to that man when I turned in my final, but getting an A was good enough for me! :)

Successful Antique Shopping

A couple weeks ago Nick and I spent hours in this Antique Mall, looking for a specific gift for a friend. Well, I just had to take this opportunity that Nick took me to an Antique Mall and look for ideas for our condo. :) It's not very often we go to Antique Malls... my husband REALLY LOVES to shop! ;) SO after looking around for a while, I found this window back in a corner...
Some of you may be looking at this saying, "okay, why did you want this?" Then there are people like my mom who are saying, "that has some potential!" :) Those of you who have seen my mom's house understand her obsession with old doors and windows and why she would say this piece has potential. :) So thanks for the idea mom! Of course I had to pay a little money for mine, while most of yours are found in old houses for free. But, the lady was very nice and gave us half off, so ended up paying $25 for it.

So I took this thing home and chipped off all the old loose paint. I sanded it, and then washed it down with soap and water trying to get all the loose dirt off. Then I painted it black. Here's how it turned out.
I used a painting technique that would result in it looking older. I didn't want to loose ALL of the old paint, so it would add to the layers and worn look. Now what right? Still needs a little more work until it's finished. AND where is it going to go in our condo you may be wondering.

Well, Nick and I have these gorgeous wedding pictures and even though it has been over a year since we had them taken, they're still beautiful. AND... there aren't very many in our living room, the room where most people would be able to see them. Plus, there's this big wall that our couch sits against that looks kind of bare because there aren't very many things decorating it.

This is the BEFORE picture:

SO, with a little redecorating and bringing in our wedding pictures, this awesome window was a success.

The window with wedding pictures from the field and some ribbon added.

And the finished product...After adding more frames with more wedding pictures, and some mirrors, the project was complete. I also added coordinating ribbon to some of the frames to tie it all together.
What do you think? Is it too much?
This was all possible with the help and patience of my husband. Thanks sweety! :) And thanks mom for the inspiration!
I'm excited for the next trip to the Antique Mall!! :)

Two Quick Road Trips

It has almost been a month since I have updated... that's got to be a record. :) Things have been a little crazy around here and so I have left this to the last thing.

I finished the summer semester last Thursday. YAY!! It feels great to be done with that semester. Since we got home from Wyoming, it has been ALL I had time to do. Everything has been put off until now because my class was so time consuming. But, I guess it paid off because I got an A. :) My parents asked about seeing pictures of my final project and so I will probably be posting about that later. So now that I'm done with that, I have until August 31st to relax, soak up the sun by the pool, scrapbook, and finish other projects I have put off. :) Nick and I both start the Fall semester on the 31st, so our summer is also coming to an end... but I'm going to fully enjoy the rest. :)

I'm also just barley getting to this because once I was done with school, Nick and I took a couple QUICK road trips to help some friends and family. Last Friday we headed to Long Beach, California with some real close friends of ours. We met this couple almost as soon as Nick started working for the valet company he works for now. We became such great friends with them that we decided to move to "their" side of town when we were done house sitting. We were in the same ward, condo complex, and worked for the same company. lol! Unfortuneatly, they decided that their was nothing left for them in Vegas, and headed back home to Hawaii. :( They had to have their car shipped back to Hawaii and the port it was shipped from was in Long Beach, Cali. After dropping off their car, they needed a way to get back to Vegas... and so thats why we decided to go along. PLUS, it was the last time we would see them (well, until we get invited to visit them in Hawaii!!) That's probably the ONLY reason we were okay with them leaving Vegas in the first place... we now have a good reason to go to Hawaii. ;)
I have only been to Cali twice now, and it was such a short trip that we weren't able to stop and enjoy the beaches, but we did choose to eat at a restarunt that was located along the docs. So, we at least got to see it. :) And I have decided (only making this judgement on two trips to Cali), that that state is crazy because of ALL of the confusing, intersecting interstates and traffic ALWAYS ALWAYS making things miserable. I don't know how those people do it. I will now try not to complain about Vegas traffic. ;) We had a good time and were glad we got invited to go along. We will MISS YOU Jesse and Ty and your ADORABLE kids!! Thanks for all the fun times. :) :)

As if we hadn't had enough fun driving there and back in one day, we decided to drive to Logan, UT on Sunday. As most of you know, Bob and Dani are moving to Torrington, Wyoming where Bob has got a teaching job. They are leaving Utah for good TOMORROW and we knew they had a lot of packing to do in order to be ready for the move. SO, with Dani being 6.5 months pregnant, and being able to do a lot, we decided to drive down and help them pack up their apartment. We got to Utah on late Sunday night and spent ALL day Monday packing up. We had a blast even though we were their to work and not to play. :) And we even lucked out because Richard and Katie were in Prestion, Idaho (1 hour away from Logan), where Richard had a construction job for the week. So Katie came down to help pack all day and then Richard came down later that night to go to dinner with us and play games afterwards.
We had dinner at The Coppermill, it was GREAT food. :) And even though we had quite the annoying run-in with our waitor, we still managed to enjoy it. :) After wards we played cards at Bob and Danis... right smack in the middle of all the boxes. I'm pretty sure that I will now have to buy Tripoley for Nick. It's his new favorite game. :) We played until Katie and Richard had to get back to Idaho. :) It was so nice of them to come down, it was great to see them and we had a blast. :)
Tuesday morning we woke up early and headed to the Logan Temple. Nick and I have never been in this one and it was very pretty. We had a great time and are glad we were able to go with Bob and Dani. We then headed home to finish packing as much as we could before Nick and I had to head BACK to Vegas. Yes, I know a VERY QUICK trip, but Nick had to work at 1 am. :) For as short as it was, we were VERY glad we went. Helping Bob and Dani was a blast and it was SOO good to see them. Dani makes the cutest pregnant girl EVER!! It was great to see the changes from the last night I saw her. Thanks for letting us come!! We had a BLAST and hope that everything goes well with the move. And we REALLY hope everything fit into that trailer. :)
We love you very much and good luck in Torrington with teaching, settling in, and getting ready for your sweet baby girl!! :)

p.s. We had SUCH better luck on BOTH of these trips then when we went to Wyoming. :) The car we didn't take WAS THERE when we got home. :) And we didn't have any flights to miss, so we were safe there! :)