Spring Happenings

Holy crap.

Remember that time there was a cute little blog with actual posts on it every week or so?  What was that like?

So this spring has proven extraordinarily busy for both myself and Magpie.  When I say we have been busy, that wouldn't even begin to describe our situations.  I have been in over my head with school and life and everything in between.  School is kicking my arse to say the least.  The good news is there are only three weeks left.  The bad news is there are only three weeks to finish all of my final projects.

Things To Do before May:

1. Sew my evening gown for draping (there is a $2,000 tuition award for the best design and finished product - more on that later)

2. Finish, bind, and beat myself in the head with a fully detailed financial business plan for my hopefully future vintage shop

3. Finish a research paper on the presence of evil in our world

4.  Illustrate a collection complete with mood boards and tech flats (cue panic attack)

5.  Finish knitting my knitted sculptures for my sculpture class and photograph them all (dumb.)

6. Die

This semester has truly tested my ability to handle stress.  But I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and that's a beautiful thing.

Here is my mood board and illustration for my final evening gown.  I painted silk by hand on Monday to use for the dress.  I'm hoping this little (so not little) detail will help me win that $2,000.  That would be such a huge help in paying for school.  So say your little bird prayers for me!

I'll try and get pictures up of my silk as soon as possible.  As of now, it is wrapped in plastic and curing.  I will probably be able to rinse it tomorrow and see how it looks.  Very exciting. 

---

Even though I'm trudging through all of this wonderful stress, Spring is in fact my favorite season.  I'm a color freak so all of the blossoming plants and flowers give me enough creative juice to push through the other less colorful seasons of the year.  I love the weather (rainy and cool), the blooms and blossoms, everything. It's perfect.

So far this spring I've been all about the greens.  Of course, as a redhead, I love taking advantage of the green palette as often as possible, but emerald green has made a huge splash into the fashion world this spring and I love it.  I just bought some AMAZING revlon nail polish that is delightfully kelly green.  It's amazing.

Speaking of green, I was fortunate enough to travel to one of my favorite places in the entire world in March -- Ireland.  I booked a flight to Dublin a couple of months ago, fully anticipating how stressful this semester would be.  I knew I was going to need a HUGE incentive for moving forward.

I have a group of amazing friends in Dublin that I serendipitously ran into a couple of years ago when I was on vacation and we have been besties ever since. I felt oh-so-at-home in the land of green and quite honestly contemplated not coming back.  There is something special about being there.  I don't know if it's the accent, the beer, or the rolling green landscape, but my soul feels at rest there.  I could only hope to be so lucky as to spend more time there. Here are a few pics from my trip!

My plan is to try and intern in Ireland somewhere next summer.  I'm hoping maybe I can make my desire to live abroad come true, even if it's just for a couple of months.

And who knows - Maybe Magpie and I can make a trip across the pond together one day...!!?? 

Alright little birds, it's late and I'm pooped.  Hopefully it won't be another two months before I'm here again ;)

-- Eagle

Oh, P.S. if you guys want to see super boring pictures of my life in fashion school, follow my instagram (I know, how so very hipster of me). I'm @ashnicolebald .