According to findyourspot.com, the top cities for me to live would be:

1. Honolulu, HI
2. Baton Rouge, LA
3. Las Vegas, NV
4. San Diego, CA
5. Orange County, CA
6. Little Rock, AK
7. Long Beach, CA
8. Los Angeles, CA
9. Baltimore, MD
10. Kailua-Kona, HI
11. Charleston, SC
12. West Palm Beach, FL
13. Oakland, CA
14. San Francisco, CA
15. Portland, OR
16. Jacksonville, FL
17. Alexandria, LA
18. Houston, TX
19. San Jose, CA
20. Orlando, FL
21. Augusta, GA
22. Providence, RI
23. Valencia, CA
24. New Haven, CT

blah, blah, blah....paste excuses here for not blogging every day. guess i'm out of the nablopomo competition. i'm still going to try and finish.

i've started knitting the unraveled coat into a new one. i haven't finished the hat because i ran out of yarn. at first i tried to cheat, but that just made me look like i had a mushroom on my head.

this photo is of delicious brownies i received Nancy Drew style.

technically it's day 8, but i haven't been to sleep yet. so doesn't that count as day 7? It's been such a grueling day. I don't really have the strength to re-hash why. But I won't be going to sleep just yet. I can't wait until I do.

I've gotten into this bad habit of waking up at 9am, deciding I'll just rest for the next few minutes, and then waking up at noon again. Fortunately, I only do this on days I don't have to be anywhere. But I still feel like I'm wasting half the day. The one good thing is that I have awesomely weird lucid dreams.

Today's dream took place in an old house where I used to take dance lessons (the dream me, not the real me). My diving lessons had been moved there from our old pool, and we were diving straight into the wood floor. My friend James really hurt himself, not by diving into the floor, but by landing face first in a pile of chairs. While waiting for my turn, I started talking to my old friend Sy. Lots of other things happened in this dream, but as typical, I only remembered the details for a few minutes after I woke up.

The weird thing about this dream is that I had totally forgotten about Sy ever existing. This made me google his name and the school I knew he went to, and only one record popped up. This one record had his email address, and with some investigation of the source website, it's clear that this email is current. It really makes me want to send him a 'hello' and see what's up. But I think explaining the details of how I found him after 10 years of not talking to him might sound a bit stalkerish.

my apartment is not burnt down. just in case you wondered. i also had not left the heater on, so there was no reason to worry.

phew! today has been so tiring!

i'm about to go home and maybe draw a bit with my new erasable crayons. i'm hoping when i get there that my apartments not burned down. i have a feeling i left the space heater on...it theoretically should be fine, cause it's one of those ultrasafe ones, and not near anything flammable. it still makes me nervous though.

The great thing about creating your own knitted clothing is, when you get tired of it you don't have to give it away. That's a big deal for me. I'm not good at giving things away because I always get really nostalgic and assign lots of meaning to inanimate objects. I struggle with this daily in my small apartment. I even have clothes I used to wear in high school, which was now 7.5 years ago. But I still wear them! Why give them away? I've got both the top and barrett I wore to go see my first crush in his high school play Grease, both with butterflies. My mom had gotten that barrett to put in my Christmas stocking, but gave it to me early cause she knew how big my crush was. I also still have the receipt from the grocery from when I was buying picnic supplies for a date at Ravinia with my current boyfriend. So, I know from these stories it sounds like everything I save is related to boys, but that's not true. The point is, I put the meaning in the product. Maybe that's why I decided to become a product designer.

This photo is of my einstein coat. The pattern really is a genius design by Sally Melville. The problem is, it is gigantic and I'm not. This coat is no more. It is now a bag of yarn balls. But, I will not be sad for long. It will soon transform into another coat, much more form fitting and adorable.

It was funny, because I went to the yarn shop the other day, looking for yarn for this jacket. The whole time I was looking for something that would turn out similarly to the coat. I loved how the stitch definition would look. Not only could I not find anything, but I was realizing the hefty price I would have to pay for 900 meters of yarn (not that I don't know the cost of yarn, but I don't think about it often). When I arrived home, I knew what I had to do. I mean, I never even wear the einstein coat! It still took me a few hours before I actually had the guts to begin unraveling. But I'm glad I did.

i think i want new boots. evidence:

1st, 1 bought a black pair from target

2nd, I told my mom I wanted a felting book from pickupsticks to make gorgeous alpaca lined boots

3rd While doing some brand analysis research, I started uncontrollably drooling over some green toe boots

two things:

1) This morning I went to my amazing Theories of Information and Communication this morning. It was awesome! And, theoretically speaking, I know the difference between semiotics and semantics now. Don't ask me to explain it to you though

2) Instead of doing work or cleaning my room, I'm knitting a beret. No, not a red Ira Glass one (sorry, shameless joke from this morning's lecture that probably no one who reads will get). It will be a beautiful sea blue one, from a pattern I found on knitty by Ysolda. I was originally attracted to the pattern by Ysolda's name (I loved the three Tristan & Isolde novels, hated the movie). And you may agree that Ysolda is incredibly beautiful (she's the girl in the pick). But anyway, the pattern was perfect because I had one skein of beautiful slubby yarn and nothing to make of it.

p.s. the cookies refered to yesterday were from Bake for Me

day 1 of NaBloPoMo! I'm thinking I won't get this done, and that's not a good thought to have the first day.

Yesterday was the annual halloween party at ID. I am now the undefeated champion of the costume contest. Hooray! Too bad this year's prize was only a certificate, where last year's was a bottle of wine. But there were some excellent cookies available, which I had about 5 of throughout the day.

Today, I joined NaBloPoMo. Basically, that means I'll be blogging for an entire month. I'm not sure why I'm doing it. I found out about it from glittyknittykitty, whose blog I read in my google reader.
So, the whole blogging about my Target experience never really happened. I was too lazy, and busy having fun in Minneapolis. Yes, Minneapolis is fun! Although, I can only speak for the summertime and not winter.

Anyway, I'm back at ID now, finishing up my design degree. I just finished my last interview during our 2 day recruiting event. I'm exhausted!!!

I know I've been delinquent in updating this. I can't believe I've already finished week 3 of my 10 week internship!!!!!!!

To put it mildly, my entire experience has been excellent. The main project I'm working on is CONFIDENTIAL, but I think it's safe to tell you it has to do with the guest experience in the store. However, this week I've hardly even worked on my project because I've had so many meetings and activities. These include:

meeting the president of the company
meeting the VP of marketing
a posh cooking class with the other interns
a St. Paul Saints game with the new hires
a trend meeting where i saw all the new colors and patterns for back to school 2008
drawing class (totally laid back)
designing a POG (plan-o-gram)
meeting with IDEO
looking at samples for a product i'll be working on (in stores next year!)
marketing huddle (preview of not yet released commercials!!!!!!!!)
marketing review (see products that aren't even released yet!!!!!!)

There has been tons of other stuff too, but I can't even remember it all. By the way, I'm currently on vacation. YES, I get 2.5 days of paid vacation. This was a little annoying at first, because I had planned on taking one friday off for Lollapalooza, and with the 4th of July on a Wednesday that would leave me a single day of work marooned by holiday. But, my boss is awesome and told me we could some of my hours so I essentially get an extra half day. And, Target gives all of us a free flight to either have our significant other visit us, or us visit them!

However, seeing as my boyfriend lives in England, and I don't, I'm just in Chicago for the holiday. But, that leads to another positive glitch. When I sent the request for my flight, somehow I ended up with a first class leg for the trip over! HELLO good buy!

And for those of you who managed to read to the end of this post, a little prize. I know who the next two GO International designers are. With a little sluething, I think their names are already out there on the web somewhere. But let me tell you, girls, you are going to be very pleased. The next one hits soon!!!! I have to admit, I'm more excited about the second designer's collection, but that's just my own fashion.

Keep your nose here for more updates (I really promise!!)

Target is excellent.

Still trying to clean up my apartment here, and get packed for the move next week.

Ok, there's one thing I'm not looking forward to at Target. Attire is business professional. When I first got the offer, the HR guy very excitedly told me "and we get to wear jeans of friday!" I didn't think it'd be a good idea to tell him that when I have to be up before 9am my wardrobe consists of whatever is on the floor. And clothes on the floor usually smell like last night's bar. I don't have a washer/dryer in my building, so that means clothes that aren't "dirty", but might smell funky get a spray of febreeze when I have the time, or just a breeze of Chicago wind when I don't.

At least I'm creative. I attribute most of my fashion sense to my mother's "Make It With Mademoiselle". I pilfered this book at about age 12 (and it also is the caused my knitting fetish). This book has everything from how to decorate your whole house with sheets, to bikini from three handkercheifs, and of course more ways than you could imagine to tie a sarong. Hopefully I can use this inspiration and find more ways to turn my drab work clothes to night out fab.

I thought I'd share my "shared" page courtesy of google reader. Most of the time it features stuff I've filtered out of core77's news feed, like Patrick Whitney speaking at our Strategy Conference (it looks like his head was photoshopped in)

In case you were wondering, yes, I am a google fanatic. I use gmail, documents, reader, calendar, notebook, and igoogle with customized tea house theme (it comes with a little fox who does different things all day like hanging the wash, having tea, singing to the ducks, etc. who couldn't love that?).

Also, thanks to John for the props in the photo. Target sent them along to him, but apparently mine got lost along the way. Or, they knew he needed more convincing than me to work there ;) You just wouldn't believe how coordinated all their hiring materials are! The package with the umbrella and Target dog said something about April showers bringing new and exciting things for interns. I don't remember exactly. Every letter we get from them comes with different coordinating papers, folders, and envelopes. They'd be so great for origami or other art projects! I hope I can have some when I start there.

Shortly after receiving an offer, these posters were found at the local Pearl art supply store. I haven't been to any of the events, cause I was too busy with school. This month I could go, except I will be back home in Cincinnati.

Target also hosted the Bruce Mao exhibit at the MCA. I did manage to see this at the opening. Target gave out little strawberry plants in a bag. Two of my friends gave me theirs as well. I've managed to kill all three.

Just found out this is probably where I will be spending my summer. It sounds pretty nice, and is only a block and a half away from where I'll be working. They have an indoor/outdoor pools and a fitness center. This will be great since I won't have to join another gym. I also won't ever have to carry around an extra set of clothes, shower materials, or shoes.

Although, I did just get a new bag, and it's pretty big. It's part of the Harajuku Lovers line. I didn't even realize this was part of Gwen Stefani's line when I got it. With fashion, it's all about the details. My favorite detail here is the little bell hanging off the side, shaped like a little head. Also love the girl walking a turtle, and the inside tag which reads "You got the wicked style/I like the way that you are/I am your biggest fan/Love, Gwen oxoxox". I plan to use the outer tags from it for the Versailles altered book I'm working on.

I know I'm probably overly excited about this bag, but it's my first birthday present. My birthday is 21 days away (yes, I have a counter on my google home page).