project 20: birch forest

time: not completely sure
I was gone for most of the days that this installation was taking place. I did come in on the last day and I added snow (with spray adhesive--sick) on to the batting as a final touch. Little kids kept touching it. We brainstormed about setting up razor wire in front of it.

project 19: 15 inches of snow

time: a few days
I stained and cut several hundred yardsticks in preparation for their installation. Carrie installed them on uppers throughout the store. They were stuck into green floral foam, and the foam was covered in batting and fake snow.

project 18: candle signage

time: 1 hour
Hannah let me make signs for some of the candles that we were selling. We were sent an inspiration picture of an old photo on a wire that was stuck into a snowball. We had to make ours similar to that. I looked through some old books in the store and went with illustrations from Norwegian fairy tales. I thought Norway seemed snow-ish. Everyone was really happy with how they turned out. I really liked collaborating with such strong artists, and I always felt very honored to get to do something on my own.

project 17: necklace holder

time: 2-3 days
I lost my camera during the making of these necklace holders, but they turned out really great. Hannah cut out the same shape two times-- once on a thick piece of wood and one on a very thin piece. Batting and fabric were wrapped around the thin piece and hot glued down. The thick piece was then screwed into the back of the thin, upholstered piece. We hot glued thin wood veneer to the edge to make it seem as though the upholstered part was sunk down into the wood. They were placed on stand and out on the store shelves.

project 16: rough lux

time: 1 day
This was actually the second or third project that I worked on. We got an entire cord of wood delivered to us. It was dumped in the back parking lot. We hauled in the wood on dollies that had flat tires. We placed the wood in the empty shelves and made a bed out of logs. The idea of this area was to have opposite feelings of luxury and roughness. Some of the logs were used in the Modern Shed fire place. There were lots of spiders in the wood.

project 15: poofs

time: weeks and weeks and weeks
This project was for the in store displays as well as the storefront window. We used various materials such as cellophane, different colored tissue paper, wax paper, toilet seat covers, trash bags, and anything else white or off white that could be bought in bulk. We accordion folded multiple sheets of paper at a time and then die cut the ends of them. We did all kinds of variations of die cutting. I think this is a method that was used a vary long time ago to make wedding decorations. The die cut accordion poofs were hooked together using wire and glue. Some where attached to chicken wire to make larger poofs. The pieces of folded paper were then seperated, or "poofed" to make snow balls. We made so many poofs. Big poofs and baby poofs. It felt like I poofed for years and years. They were still poofing on my last day. They are probably still poofing right now.

project 14: basic wiring

I learned how to wire one end of an extension cord to a socket so that a light bulb would work. This is the most exciting thing that I learned during my internship. For some reason I did not know how simple it was. I can't wait to use this. I already started saving cords from vintage irons that have the braided cotton outside and colored acrylic plugs covers.

project 13: holiday tie-ons

time: various
We all brainstormed ideas for holiday product tie ones. One item from a certain display would generally have some sort of holiday tie on tied around every single product. In the project about candle signage you can see some of the tie ons. This project was very repetitive. It was fun trying to figure out something that was both cheap and fast to put together.

project 12: plant vase

time: 15 minutes
Hannah gave me some sand, some bark, and some rocks that she found interesting and told me to do whatever I wanted with them. After doing it, I learned a lot of what I would do next time, because I never thought about of the effect water might have on it.

project 11: bicycle seat

time: 30 minutes
This little project was fun. Hannah asked me to upholster the bicycle seat. I got to figure out exactly how to fold the fabric, cut the fabric, attach the fabric with whatever I wanted to use to upholster it down. Having never upholstered a bicycle seat, it was very exciting. I chose safety pins.

project 10: welcome home II

Hannah and I really didn't like this project at all, which really made it more frustrating to work on when it was hard. But we totally powered through it. The window was supposed to look like a road map, and we were supposed to use electrical tape, masking tape, and paint as streets and railroads. I did like getting to write the names of streets on the windows. I really like to write backwards. When they first asked me if I could write backwards when I did the hours on the window, I got really excited and told them that I always practice writing backwards and drawing with my left hand. I never had a use for it until then, so that was pretty awesome. What didn't occur to me until after we had to remove this was how difficult masking tape was to remove. I then remembered how the masking tape turned into a very hardened glue-like substance after being exposed to the summer heat and sun on the Hastings window. I was never able to remove it off of the plastic frame where I left small portions of tape. The entire window was covered in an almost gorilla glue like substance that couldn't be scraped off. It was so terrible. Hannah tried to just scrape it, then she tried window cleaner, and finally she had to use Goo Gone. It stunk so bad. We used the entire bottle of Goo Gone on the window so scrape off windows. These windows are huge. They are roughly 4-6 times the area of the Hastings store front windows. It's hard to describe the heat of the sun through big windows without actually feeling it. It was so hot and the smell was so bad that Hannah and I each had to stop every few minutes so that we didn't pass out and fall off the ladder. Then we windexed the windows and scrubbed them, only to find that there was still a film. We had to use the last of the Goo Gone bottle to clean off the window, followed by another windexing. I had experienced paper macheing and painting the store front of Hastings without gloves for about 30 hours in mid-December Missouri weather and how intense that was. I named the streets after each of the 5 streets I have lived on in the last couple of years. Famous streets of Warrensburg, Missouri. I named one street after my cat, Tina. I had a Pine, a Borland, a Troost and a Prospect. I named one after the places where my grandmother lived. I asked a worker there what the name of the street he grew up on was called. That part was fun. I also to happened to have been raised from birth-9 in Roseville, CA where Anthropologie was located. Anthropologie is a very high class store, and I found it ironic that it was located so close to the seemingly "poor," broken down trailer park that I had grown up in. have never been so overwhelmed from working on anything after that morning. It was terrible.

non project: hannah gets her dream house

My cousin and I found a thrown out doll house at the Auburn Placer Disposal Station where he works. People throw away that coolest stuff. Someone was throwing out a wood doll house, complete with working interior and Christmas lights. It had furniture, carpet, wallpaper, people. I told Hannah and she said has been wanting a doll house ever since she was a little kid and never got one. I thought it was really cool but didn't know what to do with it so I gave it to her and this is how excited she was!