El Fin!

Wow! What a great last couple of days of the internship!
So Thursday was fantastic. This whole week we have been rushing around trying to get everything together for the presentation. So the presentation happened on Thursday. We were all so nervous to see how it would go! And the randomly the designer pulled me aside and said that I was invited in on the presentation. How incredible is that!! There were 3 other interns and I was the only one that got to go in. Pretty cool. The presentation went great! The clients loved almost everything and they seem so excited about the project. I know it will turn out great.
Then later I had thanked Vicente for letting me sit in and he told me that since I had only been to a not so good presentation I needed to come to a good one. And he said he really appreciated all the hard work that I had done for him and he knew I had worked hard on getting this project together. What a great compliment!
Then later we were all called into the conference room for a quick meeting.  And when I got in, they threw a little surprise going away party for me! They got tons of different kinds of mini cupcakes and Vicente even addressed to me and signed one of his books for me to take. SO amazing!
And then to make the day even better, on my exit interview I got fantastic reviews. I was so happy. I had worried about it the whole time that I wouldn't live up to our schools reputation and I was scared that I would ruin the chance for someone else to be able to intern here. But everything was great! And they said they were sad to see me go.
Today (friday) was then my last day. There were hugs all around and they all told me to keep in touch.

 I'm so grateful that I had such a wonderful experience. I learned so much and I am very thankful to Vicente Wolf Associates for taking me on. What a great 6 weeks it has been!

 A surprise from Sophie on my desk :)

 The client's project book. Mini layouts of the presentation so they don't forget.

I graduated from the Wolf Pack

 Mini Cupcakes at my party!

 The wonderful office!

 Laura and I-I love this girl!

Down to the end

Yup this is my last week. How crazy is that?! It's so weird to think about.
But work is going so great! Of course I get comfortable when I have to leave. Doesn't that always seem to happen?
Well we are still working hard on the Florida project. The presentation is on Thursday morning so basically we just have tomorrow to get everything done. Not enough time! Everyone was running around today-going crazy and freaking out. But we were able to accomplish a lot! I worked a lot with getting all of the fabric and furniture layouts all ready for the presentation. And then I even stayed an hour late to help get some of the fabric estimates all finished. For some reason prices were coming from thin air...  But we got it all straightened out. Tomorrow will be a super crazy day though. It will be the rush to get it all done and I am the only intern in tomorrow. So I will definitely have bunches to do!
I am so glad that they are letting me get so involved. Its amazing to not just to have to run errands everywhere and I get to do real design work and work closely with the designers. It have been a fantastic experience.

Here are some pics of the fabric layouts that I'm working on! I took these yesterday, but everything is much farther along now. Hopefully I can get some of the more finished product :)

 The fabric boards being ready to be laid out

 Roman Shades! I had to make 10 of these

 Bags and bags of samples

Shade :)

Jersey Weekend

I had the best weekend!!
On Thursday I got to see the broadway play Wicked. It is about the wicked witch and glenda from wizard of oz before the wizard of oz. It was about their life growing up and how they ended up to when we see the wizard of oz. It was incredible! The singing and the songs were awesome. It was one of the best plays I have seen. I'm so thankful that I was able to go.
Then I got to go over and visit my amazing friend Mary in New Jersey. It was fantastic! It was so great to get out of the city too. Where Mary and Cam (her husband) live, it is so green and beautiful and there are trees everywhere! It reminds me so much of Minnesota. It made me miss home! But it was so pretty there. Then on Saturday we went to the beach. Holy cow I love the beach!! I love the waves and the sand. The people watching is great too ;)
It was so relaxing to be there. And Mary and Cam were soo nice to let me stay there. It was hard to have to come back to the city.
But only one more week. Well less than a week now before I get to see my wonderful husband!! :]

Who needs to know names?

This week is going pretty good so far!! Work is going by fast and its not disgustingly humid outside. But it will be tomorrow. Its supposed to be 95! And then put humidity on top of that. Yum.

But work is good. I'm so involved! I feel so much more comfortable now. I know the people in the office and I know what I'm supposed to be doing. Bonus! We are still getting the Florida project all put together. Right now the big push is to get all of the estimate forms sent out. These are the forms that we right up with the product from the company we want. We then send the form to the company so they can give us a price for the product. We do this for every single tiny thing that is being put into the residence. That's a lot of forms!! Just take a sofa for example. So we need a form for the sofa, a form for the upholstery, and a form for the custom pillows on the sofa, and a form for the fabric on the pillows. There are so many pieces to everything! Then we will get all the forms back and we will add up all the prices to get a total price for the project that we can give to the client so they can write us a big fat check :) And everything has to add up right because we don't want to have to go back to the client and say, "Oh sorry, we need $5,000 more from you for whatever..." that would be bad news!
So then next Thursday we will present the project back to the client so they can see the total cost of everything. They will get to see all of the materials and furniture and say what they like and don't like.

Its great to be so involved in the project. There is so much to learn!
I just can't wait for the half day on Friday, and I get to see Wicked on Thursday. Good week!
Only 8 more days of work. So crazy.

Cocoa Puff time!!

Spoon

What a day!
Finally got to sleep in. Incredible. I love sleep! So that just started my day off right there.
Then Kathryn, Lindsay, and I headed down to the end of the Island. We had to go on the Staten Island Ferry! And its free-of course we are going to do it.
On the way we got some delicious smoothies and saw the Trinity Church. Then we walked through Battery Park. It was so pretty. I just love the parks here. Its incredible what a different world it is from the city.
I miss lawns! Oh ya. Front lawns. I miss grass and trees and quiet sidewalks. Boo.
But we arrived at our ferry. We got a great spot right on the railing. And we watched as the city fell behind and Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty came up to say HI there.
We got to staten island. Walked out of the terminal. Looked around. Then got back on the Ferry.
There is nothing to do there. Haha!
So we headed back to Manhattan and got great views of the city.
Then we went up to Little Italy and went to our favorite restaurant- Da Nico. So good, but Adam is just so creepy! Very very strange, but we had to give Kathryn the great experience that it is ;)
Then we headed home to rest our feet.
Once it got dark, we went out to Times Square. People watching is so great there.
Good day!

 Trinity Church

 Manhattan

Statue of Liberty

Workin' Away

Wow I have really been slacking! Sorry!
Well to get you up to date on New York life...I have been working. Yup. Everyday. That's what I do. That's all I do. But lately I have been super involved in this project! We are working on a residence in Florida and Vicente has given us a big time crunch! He wants to present this project in a week and a half and he is getting anxious. So then everyone else in anxious. Bad news. So all the plans are done, just the exact furniture is being decided and now we have to work on all the estimation forms so we can give the client the final budget! So 4 of us have divided up the rooms of the house. I am in charge of the Master Bedroom, the Master Sitting Room, and the Library. So I have all of the samples and materials that will be used in these rooms. I am also in charge of all the furniture in those rooms. So right now I have to draw up detailed sketches and plans of all the custom furniture in the spaces and write up estimate forms that will  need to be sent out so we can get final prices on every piece of furniture in fabric. SO many details! But its great to be so involved!
I can't believe I only have 2 weeks left. It seems like it has gone fast but then most of the time it has just dragged on. I have learned so much so far! Its unbelievable.

Well here are some pics of the measurements I was doing last week. And my mom did some research about the building I was in! It is the building on central park west that has the 2 towers on it. It is home to tons of famous people like Demi Moore, Diane Keaton, and Steve martin. So crazy! Remember the apartment I was in was $5 Million. Insane!

 The one with the 2 towers!

 Dining Room

Living Room

 Also my pics from my Long Island Installation.

Hard to see, But I had to be sneaky!

Wanderer

What a day what a day!! I went so many places!! My feet were about to fall off-so I got a pedicure. haha thanks mom!

But to start off my day I got ready and then headed down to the Lower East side. The guys in the office were telling me to go find some of the streets fairs down there. So I found the Hester Street Fair. I had to walk through legit China Town to get there. I was definitely the only blonde one. Scary! I finally got to the fair and it was not what I was expecting. It was tiny. Only like 10 tents long. Kind of a let down. But the things there were pretty. It was more of an artist fair. So very vintage and hand made. But very expensive. I got a tiny scoop of nutella and banana ice cream for four dollars! Lame! And then I booked it out of there.

Next I headed up to Washington square. On my way there I ran into another street fair! It was on Broadway and Huston St. This fair was fantastic! It was 4 blocks long and lined with different tents. Jewelry, clothes, scarves, hand made things, ornaments, bonzi trees, and of course FOOD! I had to get a smoothie and then I got a nutella crepe. Delicious. I walked the whole thing up and down and then went on my way to Washington square. Washington Sq has that huge white arch and looks just like the arc de triumph in France. I've been there shhhh! It was very pretty. But then I was starting to notice that there were sooo many people from India. And then came the realization (once I saw the huge sign) that it was the Fair of India! There was Henna and food and different booths about their culture. And everyone was dressed in the traditional clothes of India. With all the colors and the huge skirts and sheer wraps. It was great to see!

Then I headed up to the Flat Iron Building. It is near Madison park and you will never believe what I found there. Another fair! Only this time, it was a BBQ fair. Tents upon tents of different BBQ places. It smelled so good. It was a huge change from the last fair where there were the people of India and then I came to Cowboys and lots of cowboy boots with country and rock music. I walked through the park then came to the Flat Iron Building. It is one of the oldest buildings in New York. It was huge and awesome to see! And when you turn around there is the empire state building a few blocks away.

Then I headed home to get my pedicure. It was heavenly. Tonight we are hopefully going to Snow White and the Huntsman. I hope it is good!

Experience.

Wow! What a week this has been. This week definitely tops the internship so far.
On Monday I had to work and work and work on the drawings for the hotel. The presentation was coming up fast!
Then Tuesday I had to work so hard to get those drawings done. I had 3 floor plans and 10 different elevations. I had to get them done so I could go to Long Island! I was able to get them done thank goodness. So then Vicente and I took the private car out to Long Island. It was about a 40 minute drive. I was so scared. I was just praying that I could get Vicente to talk about something so I wouldn't have to say much and embarrass my self! So we sit in the car and he asks, "Any questions?" I freaked out! I asked some random question about what we were going to Long Island for and off he went. Then whenever he would get done talking about the topic he would ask me for another question. Crazy! So then we arrived at the clients house for the installation. That is where the entire project comes together. All the furniture, wall coverings, and accessories fall into place. Then you have a finished room! It was incredible to see the transformation. What a great experience!!
Then On wednesday was the big presentation for the hotel!! I was so nervous. I didn't have to do anything, but still! So there was the client and he had like he reps and financial guys and all 8 of the crowded around the conference table with Vicente, David (his other designer), and me. Vicente is a pro! He was explaining everything. He was laying out plans and elevations and showing materials and explaining how he solved the problems. And then the client stopped him mid presenting and said he didn't like the way it was going and how the picture was so much bigger. Basically this guy was full of himself and crazy. Everyone else liked it and apparently Vicente just wasn't presenting right for him. So weird. But it was great to see a real client presentation!
Then Thursday I worked on one of their other projects. This is a residence in Florida and its going for a Bali design. So they are importing lots of furniture from there. Cool! So we are still getting the plans done and I had to call all the places that we needed more samples of all the materials in the house. Lots of phone calls! I was super nervous, but the designers said I did a great job. Whew! And I went to lunch with a friend!! Another intern there and I went to Applebees and she is from Georgia and so so nice. It was fun to have someone my age and in my situation to talk to!
Then Friday was one crazy morning! I had to meet David over at 75th St. and Central Park West. This is prime property for NY. But I had to make 2 subway transfers to get there and it was so scary! But I got there without getting lost and 10 minutes early! Booya! The building we went to was the one that you can see through central park on the east side  with the 2 huge towers coming out of it. Amazing! The lobby was gorgeous! We went up to the 6th floor to an apartment. It was pretty big! 3 bedrooms, kitchen, library/den, tiny sun room, a living room, and a long gallery/entry. It was actually pretty outdated looking and the floors were so old and creaky. So I was surprised to find out that this apartment runs for 5 million dollars!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT! I was blown away! A whole house back home isn't close to that! I could buy and incredible house in the Virgin Islands for that! Why live in NY? No idea. So we had to measure the entire apartment to get everything correct for the plans that I had to draw up. It was great experience. So then the rest of the day I drew up the plans for this apartment!

It was a pretty busy week I would say! I got to do so many great things. Plus now I am half way done! Whoo hoo!

The Ultimate Creepers

Great day! First of all Lindsay and I didn't have work, so we were already happy to start the day! We got up late, got ready, and headed off to central park with our blanket and headphones in tow.
We sat in the beautiful warm sun away from all the buildings and honking. I don't think it gets better than that in the city. Here we creeped on an incredibly harry man in a speedo......ewww.....That's just to start out our day.

Then Lindsay said "we need shakes from Johnny Rockets!" Well of course we did! So off we went!
Our waiter was so nice. Him and I even had matching sun glasses! We became fast friends. Until Lindsay decided to drop her water all over our table. Our waiter just had us move to a different table. Haha!! We creeped on him and now we have a new waiter scale!!!
Lindsay: "How creepy is your waiter on a scale from one to Adam?"
Hahahaha! Adam was our nice waiter from Little Italy who gave us free food-and is incredibly creepy.
We were there for a few hours.

Next was back home! Here we played on the internet and tried to not think of going to work on monday. We needed to get out!
Off to Times Square we go!
We had to wait till it got dark so all of the lights would be fantastic. It was beautiful in a weird, grungy-city way...
We got our humongous Jamba Juices and walked over to the Red Steps. We were there for two hours basically laughing our heads off the entire time. Heres how it goes.

First there were millions of people. Millions! And you will not believe how many times you will get hit in the head with a bag while sitting on those steps. Then there was the bride. Oh don't worry. I creeped hard core. I thought her dress was gorgeous and it was so strange to be in times square with millions of people at 9 at night with your entire wedding party on your wedding night. Weird. They came up the stairs and were just one step down from us taking pictures. With millions of strangers in their pictures. Classy....
Then came the two incredibly hot gay men. They sat right next to Lindsay. Right next to her. And the one guy kept staring over at us. We were loud and laughing hard anyways-because we can-and so he was probably looking at us for that, but then everytime he looked over we would make eye contact and then it was even more awkward so we would laugh even more and then it became even more awkward. So we creeped on them for quite a while. Until they left and then we were very sad.

But then. Ultimate!
Three 50 year old asian men came over and were saying something about "for us" and pointing at the camera. So I say sure! We will take a picture for you! And they say "ok, ok"
Then 2 of the guys sit on either side of us and wrap-really wrap!- their arms around us as we are laughing our heads off! Then the other guys snaps like 6 pictures of us. Then they get up and say "Thank you! Thank you!" And told us we were "very pretty" multiple times. We are now famous in asia. Who knew?!

By now it was definitely time to head home. And so we took our lovely subway ride back to the east side.

Fan-fare

Hey all! Back at it again. Cad time! I think I am really finished with the floor plans for the hotel now. So that is good news. I'm working on the elevations for it...but I don't really know what to do...because Vicente was busy all day, and then I think he left early to go to the hamptons. Or maybe thats next week. Lucky! I think ones of these times he is going to take me with him. I'll go to the hamptons!

Then I creeped on the office from my desk and got some pics while everyone was at lunch. Noice! (purposeful type-o. Say it!)  I even had my lunch on the red steps in times square today. Hooray for the infamous Subway!

When I got a block from home Lindsay texted me and said she just got off work and she wanted to go to Dylan's Candy Shop for candy. And since I definitely didn't want to walk up our 63 stairs for no reason I walked around the neighborhood. I even found out where the D&D building is!! We live like 3 blocks from it. Crazy! I have to go in some time. I have heard great things...

Then I got back to Dylan's and Lindsay and I got candy for dinner! Don't tell my mother.

And guess what. We bought a fan! Best purchase of the century I would say. It is so hot here and our room gets ZERO circulation. Cool. So we bought a fan. Its really nice.

time to watch Friends!

 The red steps in Times Square

 Huge windows in the office. I love the view!

 A big printer for big paper. Who knew?!

 Samples and more samples for one residence in Scarsdale

 The Decoration and Design building

The Fan!

Lets all scream for ice cream

Yup you guessed it! I worked today.

Who knew!?

I worked on the cad plans for the hotel. I didn't get much help with it and the other designers didn't have anything to do for me today, so it was pretty boring. But thats ok.

I actually went to a new place for lunch! Well my mom, Lindsay, and I had gone there before. But normally I go to subway everyday-so it was a big change for me! I had a chocolate muffin and a smoothie. Nice and healthy I would say.

The afternoon went ok. I feel so inadequate. I'm not sure what I'm doing and its frustrating. And I keep doing things wrong. I don't like it. And New York is just so busy! I miss my car so bad. I'm already tired of all the people. Its definitely a change from little ol' Logan!

But then I came home from work and went straight to Central Park. It was so nice! I loved just walking around and listening to my music.

Then when I got home Lindsay and I went to the grocery store and I got ice cream for dinner. Yay!

I'll take sand over city.

Sorry I didn't blog yesterday. Too much to do!

So yesterday we finally figured out how to get laundry done. The laundromat is very close so that was nice!

And then we headed off to the Beach!! We went out to Long Island and went to Jones Beach. It is huge! It is 6 miles long and it feels like a mile wide.-ok maybe not that much! But it is a big beach. And the waves were massive! But the water was freezing. I have no idea how people actually had their whole bodies in there.

I loved getting away from the city. It was such a great change. I am definitely going out there a few more times while I am here!

Then that night my mom and I went to another broadway play. I know! Surprise! We went to Newsies. INCREDIBLE! It was a perfect broadway play. The dancing and singing was fantastic! Go to it if you ever get a chance! I loved it!

Then today was more work work work. But hey! Only 23 more days. I'm not counting. 

I worked on the cad plans for the hotel and made big changes with Vicente. I get to work with him a lot on the project. and it is great to watch him work first hand. How does he come up with this stuff so quickly?!

Then I just got to have a lazy night. Cool! I wish it was cool here. I am melting! Bleh!

 Laundry!

 Jones Beach on Long Island

Newsies!