The Home Stretch

My emoticups! they're already glazed and I can't wait to show them off.

ONE MORE WEEK AND I CANNOT WAIT

I have finals and then I'm done DONE DIDLEYDONE. The past month was insanely busy for me and all I want to do is hibernate in my room and catch up on my anime. Last I posted was a recap of NCECA. Since then I've had a couple of fundraisers, the Dragball, a Popup Gallery show, the wet clay deadline, glazing deadline, a field trip to Storm King, my friends' senior exhibitions, a couple of bonfires, and now I'm helping out with the Westville Artwalk...oh yeah and class and work.

I have a couple of posts planned that I haven't gotten around to, unfortunately. I'm hoping this week with my extra time I can catch up on that too :) till then, I'm still active on my other social media so follow me there!

OOTD: If I could...

If I could dress this nice every day for school, I totally would. As much as I love my major, this semester I'm taking pottery; probably the messiest class I'll be taking, leaving me no choice but to wear sweats to school. In spite of that, I could still see this as my future career. Other than being messy (which can be resolved once I get better at it) There's no way I could wear a skirt or a dress at the wheel--at least if I want to remain ladylike. On the days I don't have pottery I take full advantage of the fact that I will not be covered in mud :) I wore this for my school's club fair. I'm on eboard for three clubs so club fairs are always a juggling act. Lots of fun though!

D E T A I L S :

• Coat - Burlington Coat Factory
• Dress - H&M
• Leggings - H&M
• Boots - Urban Outfitters
• Scarf - Thrifted
• Belt - Gift

There are so many things I love about this outfit. Full of little details but still pretty simple, I think. I got this dress for $10 with a gift card I got for Christmas. I absolutely adore the back cut out with the little pearl fasten. I'm also wearing my favorite boots that I've had for three years now. I think they're starting to show their age, though. 

M A K E U P :

• UD's primer potion
• UD's Deluxe Shadow Box palette - Peace
• UD's Dangerous palette (2nd edition) - Evidence
• Foundation
• Liquid Liner
• Tarte Amazonian Clay Blush - Flush

I'm so excited for this to be my 99th post! Stay tuned for the 100th because I decided to make it a giveaway :D 

TTFN! <3

-Avé

Art Major Major Decision

latest thing from my drawing class

October has been an super uber busy month for me. Midterms, curating the gallery space on campus, work for WSIN, bakesales, portfolio review, critiques, homework, sinfest, dragball, etc... This semester seemed to start off late so literally everything is playing catch up this month--so am I! I have a couple of blog posts that have been waiting to be typed since September :X.

All that has nothing really to do with what I wanted to talk about, which is my decision to drop the Media Studies major. No more double major. Just an Art major. *inhale, exhale* My entire college career has revolved around art. I've been too nervous to pursue this alone because of how risky it can be. Here's a list of all the switches I've made since Fall semester 2008:

• graphic design
• art and psychology
• art and nursing
• art psychology
• art education
• art and media studies
• art (concentration in ceramics)

Crazy right? I haven't been confident enough until recently that I can do something with this degree. It'll  take a lot of hard work, but it will be so worth it. I kept thinking about my future and there was no place  for the Media Studies degree. My goal is essentially to have my own studio, work on my stuff, and sell my stuff--oh and blog along the way ;). This new found confidence came after helping out with the Post-it show (which was awesome by the way). I got to decide what art goes in the show, the layout of the gallery, and the placement of the work. It was one of the most satisfying things I've ever done. I'd love to curate another show; I'll probably add own and/or work for a gallery to my list of goals. That plus how much more seriously I'm taking my work really helped me make my decision. Also, I have the absolute most supportive fiancé ever, and he believes in me *awwww*

TTFN! - Avé

School Show and Tell

I'm on campus at least 12 hours a day, four days a week, so naturally I should blog about it! I'm only ever in one of two places: the ceramics studio or at the radio station. My classes are Drawing I, Ceramic Sculpture II, Chinese III, Media Research, and History of Art in Eastern Asia. I can't believe I'm all ready about half way through the semester! For some classes, I'm glad because I can't wait for them to be over I really don't like to draw.

My stuff is in the middle. Still lives, paper and light studies.

My second project for sculpture is a llama. Not done though!

My first project is a statement on social media usage. It went through the kiln yesterday and now it's waiting to be glazed.

The station front desk. AKA: where I spend a ton of time.

Here's where I do my shows :D

School's keeping me busy but I have a couple of blog posts that I really want to finish up! Hopefully soon.

TTFN!

-Avé

OOTD: First Day of Class!

I may be entering my fourth year of college, but my first day of class outfit will always feel special. It's a new semester, new faces, new impressions. People do judge a book by its cover, so I guess I like to make sure my cover is representative of me. Today I only had sculpture and Chinese, but I can already tell this semester is going to be a doozy!

D E T A I L S :

• Animal print tank - H&M
• Blue collared tank - thrifted
• Dark skinnies - Kohl's
• Brown flats - Target
• Necklace - Target
• Spiked earrings - Forever 21

The collared tank top is from a new thrift store that just opened up near by called Helping Hands. Most of the clothes there are 99 cents! The bulk of the store is quality vintage furniture that made me so jealous that I dont already have a place of my own. I had my eye on this pair of orange ceramic lamps from the 70's that were $60 a piece. Alas, I have no place to store them until they would have become of some use....and i didn't have $120 to splurge....*le sigh*

Kohl's was generous enough to offer my readers a 10% off code too! You can use the code UBLOGTEN now through October 24th and stack your savings with one other department specific code. Woop woop! I'll probably pick up another pair of these jeans [Apt. 9]  in one of their fall colors. Can't wait!

M A K E U P :

• UD's NAKED palette - virgin, smog, toasted
• UD's Eyeshadow Primer Potion
• UD's Oil Slick Eyeliner
• Revlon's Double Twist Mascara
• Revlon's Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain - Sweet Heart Valentine (025)

OK, I have to go freshen up my Chinese big time. Off to the books! 再见！

TTFN!<3
- Avé

What's in my bag? // College Commuter Edition

School starts today for me and I CANNOT wait! I'm a commuter so more thought has to go into what I bring in my bag every day. Some days I'll be on campus from 8AM to 11PM, so it's worth the extra planning. This year I'm pretty sure I'm considered a senior credit wise, but still one more year after this one to get both of the degrees I want. This semester I have three regular classes and two studios: Media Research, Art History of Eastern Asia, Chinese III, Ceramic Sculpture II, and Drawing I.

So here's what's going in my bag for the first day of class:

• A notebook and folder for each of my regular classes
• Chinese III textbook (used it last semester for Chinese II)
• Molskine Agenda also from last year
• The Lovely Bones to read between classes since there's never work on the 1st day
• Chapstick and back up chapstick since I'll probably lose one
• Scented hand sanitizer
• Deodorant for those long days
• student ID of course!
• Business cards
• Lots of pens; Especially clicky ones.
• Highlighters and pencils too 
• a gluestick....never know :P
• make up bag - eye drops, microfiber cloth, bobby pins, little clips, concealer, eyeshadow, bandaids, makeup brush, mascara, eyeliner, travel size parfume, and feminine products.

I also pimped out my bag with pins and floral fabric. I used to be really big into collecting them when I was in high school but places that I frequent for pins have been slacking in quality over the years. The majority of these are from either a radiohead set I got at the concert I went to in 2008 or from a Keith Haring set I got from the Brooklyn Museum a few months ago. The fabric is the scrap from that thrifted jacket that I said I was going to hem. Right now the pins are holding it there to cover up a star I'm not crazy about; but I might sew it permanently in addition to a couple other patches.

Of course, this post excludes the amount of food and beverages I'll be bringing in a separate lunch pouch. Oh, and all the supplies for the two studio classes.I'm glad I have a locker!

Did I miss anything? I'm I over prepared? What's in your school bag?

I hope everyone has a great first day of class!

TTFN <3

-Avé

Internet's Busiest Music Nerd...On Campus!

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Anthony Fantano of the b/vlog, The Needle Drop. WSIN radio, where he got his start, hosted the event. If you haven't heard of or seen it yet, The Needle Drop reviews music from all sorts of genres focusing on those of the "independent persuasion."

We talked about how he started, how he makes a living, advice for future media entrepreneurs, music stuff, etc etc... It was slightly surreal to meet a youtuber I'm so used to seeing on my computer screen, but it was really awesome! He was super nice and helpful, just what I needed as I'm kicking this hobby into high gear :).

There were two little gems of info that I gained from this Q&A session (three if you include the birth of Cal Chuchesta):

1. Post content consistently, using all social media sites to your advantage. He used a rapper by the name of Little B (Lil' B?) as an example. He's certainly not the greatest rapper (to say the least), but he's constantly uploading mix tapes, music videos, and posting on twitter--so much that it leaves little room to breath and consume it all; but it's effective.
2. As long as you provide an original perspective on a topic you love, people will come back and might even follow. This is especially true if you share content with others that they may not have learned otherwise.  It also helps if it's content that people would want to share.

There were a bunch of other things like how he handles his diverse fan base and requests, where does his income come from with advertisements, and more businessy type things, but I'm not quite there yet :P Still, super cool to meet him and learn behind the scenes things about a young, successful entrepreneur. Hope to see him again sometime!