the beginning of a brand new adventure.

as i mentioned in my last post, i lived in ireland for two months. my lease in paris ran out, right when my french student visa expired. i needed a place to live, and to plan, because i wasnt quite ready to return to the states just yet. my friend aoife was up for the challenge. she had recently moved into a three-story house fifteen minutes outside of dublin. she asked her new flatmates, and they agreed i could stay as i long as i pitched in for garbage collection and propane for the stove. i instantly agreed. so i brought my tiny backpack, packed with warm weather paris clothes and showed up on aoifes dooorstep. it was then that she told me the tiny little hiccups: one, ireland was COLD. two, we didnt have a room yet, we were living in the laundry room. the laundry room had one queen bed, an armoir, a washer plus dryer, and literally nothing else, if you dont count the mold and snails that came in from the broken window above the bed. i couldnt complain, i was living there for almost free. but it was a little depressing after the charm of being called 'daz', a form of laundry detergent, wore off.

but the house, and the people in it, were amazing. the rooms (yes, even the laundry room) were large and run down, exactly how i like them. it reminded me of the place i lived while in brooklyn; an artists squat. grafitti drawings, and mural paintings covered the walls. it was a completely inspiring place to be.

it was there that i met lynn macpherson, of salty philip. during my brief time in ireland, i worked under her. i learned a lot working under her and was inspired to finally pursue a career path that i had recently begun mulling about in my head. lynn was a scottish designer, living in ireland, fresh from berlin where she had owned her own shop. lynn made eco-sustainable designs only, something i would eventually like to incorporate. on top of that, lynn was only twenty-four. she had owned two shops, and had a studio i was in awe of. these are some pictures from her photoshoot from her most recent collection. the professional ones can be found on her website, linked above. lynn is the one with an umbrella.

ireland is full of artists doing what they love. granted most of them are on the dole, an irish form of welfare, it is nonetheless inspiring. being around lynn and seeing her working, not only showed me it was possible but got me excited to start my own career in fashion.

being with this girl helped too. in case you dont recognize her, thats kulka from ravelry, her blog here. after blogging back and forth for years, i finally met her last year my first time to ireland. then when i returned, there was no question we would become great friends. she would like to start designing her own knitting patterns and we talked drunkenly for ages of opening an etsy shop. she recently started art school at 25, and is giving me the courage to pursue fashion design school at such a late age.

so that was ireland, two months full of inspiration. that coupled with the inspiration given by spending the last several months with an amateur fashion photographer in paris, has given me the drive needed to pursue fashion school.

i used to think that speaking about something made it less likely to happen, a form of jinxing if you will. but over the past year ive learned that not speaking about things doesnt make your dreams happen or problems go away. in fact, not speaking does just the opposite: that simple act of ommission can make everything worse. it is through facing your problems, asking for help or advice, or even just talking until your head is clear, that accomplishes anything and everything. donc, i am appealing to you, blogging world, to offer me advice, even more inspiration, or to simply be a sounding board for me bounce ideas off of. 

in less than a week, i am moving back to arizona. i need/i want/i have to finish my last semester of university. however, rather than returning to flagstaff, i will be (eep, those dreaded words ever college student dreads to say) living at home and attending the nau phoenix campus.

i have my reasons, more than i would have thought. the least selfish is i really need to be closer to my parents, my sister, and my nephew. i have spent the last eighteen months away from them, and am planning on spending the next three years away as well, while pursuing my next degree.

the more selfish one is that i will save money. i need to save up thousands of dollars before i can move back to europe. granted, my income will be more in europe, but i will have tuition, rent, AND student loans from nau to pay off. living at home while in america allows me to work, and actually save money.

now for my favorite reason, the one i am most looking forward to. my mother is a seamstress who used to have dreams of designing herself before she became a hippie fighting against the vietnam war. and she has agreed to devote the next six months to teaching me everything she knows about sewing, and helping me create my portfolio/application. 

the average fashion school in paris requires a sort of portfolio. they dont look at transcripts of high school or other colleges, they simply look at your work, your innate talent. this works in my favor, as my grades arent exactly shining. (the first time i even encountered the grading system, i was fourteen. after leaving the montessori school i had attended since four years old, i arrived at a public high school and received my first failed math quiz. i havent ever quite adjusted.)

anyways, the portfolio. the portfolio changes from institute to institute, but the most common version is simple. five drawings of original garments, and five photos of those finished garments.

something so simple decides my future. so you bet i am going to work as hard as possible to overcome my slight 'handicaps' and say loud and clear 'i deserve this!' most people who attend fashion school are fresh out of high school and been already making clothes for years. i am certainly not fresh out of high school (going on five years now!), and, if my knitting is not counted, my experience with making clothes through sewing, though existing, is novice at best. (the next few months will fix that!)

  

now, for those of you that are starting to worry, dont. this is NOT becoming a fashion blog. you will not see me posting daily updates of my outift, or anything like that. although, that works for some people and i find it interesting to read, thats not what im interested in doing. i have no desire to be a model, i want to be the one that dresses the model, that designs the clothes, the one in control. speaking of which, i will eventually need a model for my portfolio, if any of you are in phoenix!

so, if any of you have any tips and advice or even funny stories, please let me know! i am going to be upset, disappointed, overworked, and frustrated the next several months. i just know that this is going to be very difficult, returning to america from a year in paris. returning to school after six months break. and knowing now that my future rests solely upon my shoulders.

but honestly, even more than all of that, this is going to be so much fun. i am starting a new adventure, just as this one closes. and i am more than happy to still have you to share it with.

all photo credits: aoife mcgarry

ireland and ravelry meetups: week eleven.

the traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see. [g.k. chesterton]

three weeks left...

daily updates:

1 december. well, it is december. my building has been decorated with wreaths, flashing lights, and a giant fake tree. the streets are adorned with candy cane lights, giant twinkling stars, and sparkling nets for the trees. the winter is upon us: the sun sets at four o'clock, and you cannot step outside without two pairs of mittens and two sets of tights. outdoor ice skating rinks have sprung up over night. advent calendars have been put up, and the air just crackles with the need for hot chocolate or mulled wine.

the holiday season is so depressing, but i cannot help being charmed...

during the day, i went to class and did homework. max, linsday and i went to get froyo. then, we just hung out in max's room. for weeks i have been talking about reactivating my facebook, i even put it on my 101 in 1001 list. i had some qualms about getting it back, but that night, max made me. so, then we spent hours looking through all my old pictures and comments and messages. it reminds me how far i've come, and how much i do enjoy this new me i have created. in the span of three years, i have changed so much, i didnt even recognize myself when i stumbled upon the earliest pictures. [neither did max or kat.] the changes arent only physical, but also in my personality and morals. but here is how much i have changed, just to illustrate my point!

of course, there are some similarities. but i have grown up so much, and it was really nice to see it. i am no longer the flighty, superficial sorority girl with blonde hair and fake blue eyes. now i'm a lot calmer, a lot nicer and i just have fake black hair and real black eyes hahaha. however, im not so sure i want to keep my facebook. ill give it a few more weeks, but im a bit iffy.

2 december. i spent the day trying to shop for boots and going back to the h. that night, i did some last minute packing and went to get indian food with max. we didnt get back until late, and i just fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

3 december. even though i was reluctant, i went to french class. after class, i met up with megan and we hopped on the tube and headed to heathrow for... my trip to ireland!! the weekend had finally arrived! we were on the tube for forty minutes, then arrived at heathrow two hours early. security was a breeze. they let me on with my liquids, even though they were supposedly too big. we then wandered around trying to find food. we could only afford pret, so i got a meatball wrap. i have started eating meat over here. ive been craving it, i think because i am so malnourished. it wasnt until we got inside the terminal when we happened upon a weatherspoon! we surpressed our disappointment, and boarded the plane. i slept the whole way, which was less than an hour. then we landed!! we figured out the buses, and took them to our hostel. after checking in, we went to a pub that was right by the hostel. we stayed there for a bit, but they were dead, so we went to another one. that one had live music and trendy boys! my two favorite things!

4 december. we woke up late, but still in time for the free breakfast of jam and toast. i tried blackcurrant jelly for the first time, and i absolutely loved it. i'd had blackcurrant in my cider before, and in my vodka, but i had never seen it as a food. after breakfast, we booked our tickets for a hop-on, hop-off tour. i had never done one of those before, in my quest to never be branded a tourist. all my life, my dad has taught me to be a traveller or a visitor, never a tourist. but megan really wanted to, so i bit the bullet. i actually had a great time, we saw and learned so many things we would never have without the bus. we rode it all around dublin, and went to the guiness factory. i liked guiness more than i thought i would, but not enough to finish my whole sample. i went to 'gravity', their rooftop bar. but instead of my free pint, i got a free lemonade. no point in wasting a whole pint.

after we had toured all of dublin, we decided to go on a musical pub crawl. there were two main musicians, and we followed them around to multiple irish pubs around dublin. they talked about their music, told us the history of irish music, and played for us at each place. there were even some songs in gaelic. it was very interesting! after that ended, we went back to the pub by our hostel for some more irish music.

5 december. in the morning, we took a trip down to the coast. i absolutely love the beach, but as it was december, i didnt brave touching the water. there wasnt a single boat or person out on the water. it was still gorgeous, and we got to see the smaller side of ireland. we took a hike down the beach, had a picnic, and then turned back when it go too muddy.

after the coast, we met up with aleks, aka kulka. it was so nice to finally meet her, after over a year of talking on ravelry. she lives right outside dublin, so she came into town to show us around. we went to some great trendy places, which were off the beaten path and made me feel like a local. after spending the first couple hours trading kniting stories, bragging, and drilling each other for information, we decided to go party! first, we went to a very modern looking bar, where we had some very chilled conversation. then we went to an irsih pub. it was so crowded! there were also musicians sitting in a circle playing music to each other. it was interesting to see, but i had gotten enough of that the night before. so then aleks took us to local pub, with an outdoor courtyard full of boys. it was quite a sight to see, there must have been dozens. there was even a converted double decker bus, where you could go and drink in. we had a drink called 'tonic wine'. i cant remember its irish name, that is where the night starts getting fuzzy! eventually, we left that bar and went to one last pub. we met up with all of her friends, and i had an amazing time! i feel like i was able to see both sides of dublin, not just the tourist facade.

the ocean air, mized with the constant drizzle of ireland, does funny things to my hair. i look a mess in these pictures, but it was so much fun!

aleks, if youre reading this, thanks for a great night!

6 december. we didnt do much in the day since we had some trouble finding the bus to the airport. finally we found it, and they wouldnt let us on because megans suitcase was too big. supposedly the luggage racks were full. so we ended up having to take a taxi, which was expensive! but we barely made our flight, we had five minutes to spare. we had some trouble at security since, apparently, irish security is much more strict than english security. but it was all sorted, and we ended up on the plane okay. the plane ride home took two hours, instead of one. but i slept the whole time. when we got back, i unpacked and fell asleep straight away. i really do need to start eating better, i can tell i am malnourished here. unfortunately, my gp is acting up. as soon as i get to guidlford, i'll have to go on a liquid diet for a bit. fortunately, thats not too far away! :(

7 december. spent all day in bed, catching up on the sleep i missed all weekend. then in an effort to eat better, went to get burgers and froyo with max, kat and lindsey. my essays are due soon, im trying to get them all done this week, so i can enjoy my last week in london with no worries or stress. hopefully i wont procrastinate too much!


weekly highlights:

dates: 1-7 december [days 73-79]
sights seen: the republic of ireland!

something new: tonic wine! if thats not enough, i went on my first ever tour.
someone new: countless :) notably, alexs!
somewhere new: dublin and the coast of ireland!
new venue: countless!

what i miss: i desperately miss the dollar. the tube, while i was in ireland. my mother, father, and sister.
what i love: toast and blackcurrant jam. days spent at the coast. traveling with friends. coming home [to london]. my five euro fake uggs.
what im not so sure about: my upcoming move to paris...


in knitting news, i was featured on knitted bliss' modification mondays. i'm quite proud!!