Starting Out Sketchy...

First day of Grad School for Apparel Design rapidly approaching... 

What really got me excited to type was my textbooks arriving! A little taste/sneak preview, if you will, of what's to come (here, here, here, and here), and the anticipation is killing me!  My mother never thought she'd see the day, when not ONLY did I order my textbooks in advance, BUT I've also cracked EVERY cover!  Now let's not get too crazy here, it's not like I read them in entirety, analyzed them, and then answered the "thoughtful" "book club" questions in the back (not that they have those, but you get the point)...but I just never thought I'd see the day when textbooks excited me to this degree!

The last book I have pictured above is my favorite (for obvious reasons); it's very hands on, and so I broke out a pencil and some paper, et VOILA!  Some of my very first ROUGH sketches (here, here, here, and here)...Alec says the last one looks like "ironwoman," and I can't really disagree, ha!  But so far, this sketchbook is a great tool and I can't wait to really dive into it with an experienced professional hand to guide me!  Ok, now the exclamation points are starting to annoy me, I'll attempt to refrain, sorry.  Anyway, as an avid fan of Project Runway (yes, this guilty reality tv pleasure, I will admit to), I am always enthralled with their sketches; I pause (GOTTA love DVR) and try to imagine how they developed these skills, each one has such a unique point of view that is expressed on their paper (or their much coveted HP tablets), and I'm just really ecstatic that one of my first classes is going to teach me how to hone these very skills (very tough to not put an exclamation point there...)

Anyway, I've let this post ramble on a little too long now, but I just wanted to give y'all (and I mean "y'all" figuratively, obviously) a glimpse of what I'm excited about and working on...I'm starting a sewing workshop tonight that lasts 4 days...so I'm sure I'll have many more exclamation points to come, but I'll try to limit them as much as possible :)

Bloo-Blah-Bio

Hmmm...so, the first post, intimidating...I guess I could tell you a little about myself (abridged version, of course)...I was recently accepted into the Graduate Program for Apparel Design at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.  I have no collegiate experience in fashion, just work experience (between managing a small New Orleans/Baton Rouge Boutique - Oliveaux, and a more corporate retail experience managing for Banana Republic - specifically in merchandise presentation).  I received my Bachelors of Science in Psychology at Georgia State University where I was on an athletic scholarship for soccer.  I still attempt to play soccer (I played semi-professionally a bit after college) though I have been PLAGUED with knee injuries, ACL tears more specifically, both knees, five surgeries, not exciting.  

I have big aspirations after receiving my Masters degree at LSU, but in the meantime, there are a few people who seemed very interested in my degree and what exactly I was going to be doing/creating/studying/designing etc.  So, I figure along the way, I can keep people updated on my learnings and travels.  

Alec (my hubby) and I are taking a trip to S.Korea (looking into adoption) and Thailand (better-late-than-never-honeymoon) late in October and I'd love to document that as well.  Essentially, this is the beginning of my journey into the elusive Project Retail Therapy.  I have a pretty lofty goal that I'm working towards, and I hope you enjoy the ride along!