“Failure is a detour, not a dead-end street.”

Good grief I'm tired. It's been a long semester. I'm sad to leave everyone, but really excited to graduate.

I think most of you know I've spent the past few months collecting prom dresses for Operation Prom Dress. We ended up with over 300 dresses. Last Saturday was our giveaway. We got Doster all ready, organized the dresses, and prepared.

Ten people showed up.

Yep, that's right. Of the 300 dresses we have, we gave away 12. It was disappointing, to say the least. I've spent a lot of time getting the dresses, getting them to the cleaners, making sure all of the high schools knew about it, and just hoping for the best. But it just didn't happen.

It's hard to get stuff done when you don't have a full team of people totally dedicated to the task at hand. I am admittedly over-committed and with my uncle dying and still dealing with Marika's death, I can't honestly say I'm totally here. I'm stressed, exhausted, and completely overwhelmed. So as President, I can't say I've been 100%.

I was definitely upset that things did not go as planned, but then I decided there had to be a way to get these dresses to people in need. I called around, got on the FB garage sale group, and eventually made my way to freecycle. I got to interact directly with the people in need. I met some people one night after class to give them a dress for their sister, I met 5 or 6 people today to get dresses for themselves and their friends, and I went to Bryant High School and met the most adorable girl who was ecstatic to have beautiful options for prom. I am happy to have gotten the opportunity to meet these people. I also got in touch with Wings of Grace, the Forest Lake Baptist Church relief center, who were overjoyed to receive dresses. I met a woman in charge of caring for homeless people and their children. I got to help her pick and choose dresses appropriate for teenagers because she had no idea, "what the children wear." And finally, I am able to help the YWCA offer so many more dresses at their giveaway in Birmingham this Saturday.

It's amazing how you can turn a failure into something positive. I was happy to take on the task of giving the dresses away after our giveaway did not go as planned. It gave me the best opportunity to meet new people and help the community in so many different ways.

And now it's time to look ahead. I have to make a bajillion record bowls for our Good Art show (April 17th, 4-6 pm in Nott Hall! Be there) and I need to make sure Tee Time is actually going to go off without a hitch (April 10th, 7:30, $5, front lawn of Doster! Be there!). But for now, I have to make sure I don't fail my marketing exam and that I actually finish my online entrepreneurship class.

Oy. Is it May yet?

“The pain of the mind is worse than the pain of the body.”

My uncle passed away yesterday morning. Marika's husband Randy. I don't really know what's going on, and I feel absolutely helpless. I want what is best for my cousins, and I don't know if that is what they are getting. I'm scared. I'm angry. I'm totally and utterly powerless. All I can do is be there for them in whatever way I can and continue to live my life. The problem is I can't seem to remember how to do that at the moment. I thank God every day for the family and friends He has placed in my life. I don't think I could do all of this without them.

So please bear with me, friends. Life threw me another curveball and I'm just cowering on the home plate. Or something like that.

“Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.”

Blog, PLEASE forgive me for neglecting you for over a month!! I'm so sorry. So much has happened in that month, too! But we're going to breeze right by that and jump into a recap of Spring Break because really, that's what you want to hear about.

Sunday morning I picked Heather up and we headed to Birmingham to pick up Clay. We got him, got Taco Bell and made our way to Palm Coast. It was a looong drive and I was dumb and drove the whole 11 hours. OY. Didn't make that mistake again the rest of the trip! We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn because my military discount made it cheaper than ever other hotel in town. We're fancy, I know. Turns out, Bike Week in Daytona was this week and Palm Coast being about 45 minutes north of there, our hotel was PACKED with bikers. They were all pretty cool. Driving behind them made us insane, though. We were staying 5 minutes up the road from Flagler Beach and decided we needed to see the ocean since we drove so far. So at 11 we drove out to the beach. Stayed for a minute then went back to the hotel. Passed out. Monday we woke up, got our stuff together and headed for the Hammock Resort in Palm Coast. My mom was there for a conference for work so we got access to all of the amenities, including their private beaches and pools. It was AWESOME. We spent several hours on the beach using the free chairs, playing soccer and getting beat up by the waves. Well, Clay and I went in the water. Heather just supervised. My mom got into town around noon so we met her for lunch at one of the resort restaurants right off the beach. It was really good, and it was funny to watch the waitress judge us. After that we got some camping gear from my mom then parted ways so she could go do work stuff and we could keep playing on the beach. After a while we met her at her room and got her card so we could go to the pool. The slide was closed, so I decided we had to do the lazy river. SORRY Heather and Clay!! The water was frigid and awful. Oops. So then we found the massive really hot jacuzzi. That was wonderful. So then we said by to my mom and headed for JT's Seafood Shack, a dive just outside of the resort. It was packed and some of the best seafood I've ever had. Our waiter was great and it was a really fun place. We stayed a while, then headed back to the hotel.

Tuesday morning I made them get up to go watch the sunrise. It was at 7:37 and we left the hotel by like 7:30, meaning we cut it really close. Oops. But we managed to make it and get really good pictures and find lots of really pretty shells. So it was fun! After that we went back to the hotel to pack and clean up, then it was time to start the journey to Key West. I let Clay start the drive so I wouldn't make the mistake of driving for so long. It was a pretty good drive. We were behind bikers most of the way. The drive from the mainland to Key West is the hardest part. It's a 2 lane road that is about 3 hours long and you just hit key after key after key. But fiiiinally around....5 I think? We made it to Key West! We stayed at NAS Key West, the Naval base on the island. We stayed at Sigsbee Park, the awesome campground. For $12 a night, we had a waterfront campsite with enough trees to string up our hammocks. YUP. Sometimes it pays to be a Navy brat. Oh, another fun thing was every time we came in to the base, they saluted us. I assume the sticker on my car signifies in some way the fact that my dad was an officer. SO FUN. So yeah. We accidentally missed the office but found nice people who got us checked in. We set up camp and then ventured out to find food. We went in search of this Caribbean place only to discover that it was closed. Luckily for us, Finnegan's Wake, an AMAZING Irish place was right down the road and was bumpin. Parked in a parking deck and made our way over. It was an amazing meal in an amazing place. The restaurant was authentic and the atmosphere was great. We were happy. After that we headed to Duval Street to scope things out. Found a hammock store, decided we didn't need another one, headed back to the campground. Heather and I tried to sleep in our hammocks, but there were practically hurricane force winds coming off the ocean, so that didn't happen. Tuesday night we did sleep without the rain fly, so it was breezy and open and awesome.

Wednesday morning I woke up around 7 and laid in bed watching the sun rise. It was fun to be able to see it rise and set from the same spot. I got up, showered, paid for our campsite, then eventually we all got up and got ready. I had booked us on the Gulfstream party boat fishing, so we made our way to Charter Boat Row, after a few U-turns and less than legal driving maneuvers. We were by far the youngest people on the boat and poor Clay, Heather and I were definitely the most inexperienced. It was a good time, though. We caught 9 grunts, with Heather catching 2, Clay catching 6 and me catching the baby of the group. Oh well. We made some strange old man friends and had a good time. After the excursion, they sorted the fish in this weird man auction where you called out how many you had caught and they threw them in your fish basket. Then they filleted them for us and we took them to Half Shell Raw Bar, a really cool place just outside downtown. Unlike every other place in town, and unbeknownst to me, they based their prices on the amount of fish you brought, not how many people. So rather than pay $15 a person, we paid $9/lb, and at 2 lbs of fish, we each only paid 6 bucks for dinner. Pretty sweet. The grunts actually tasted really really good. I was shocked because I definitely don't eat fried fish, especially white fish. So yay! After that we walked around a bit by the ferry, Clay chased a chicken, then we headed for Mallory Square for the sunset celebration. We took lots of pictures, saw lots of street performers, then headed for Duval Street. We walked around a lot, saw all the touristy things, then remembered we aren't really crazy bar people, so we were just awkward. I decided we should walk to the Southernmost point, since it was only 1.5 miles away! We walked it, got some bikers to take our picture by it, then walked back. Heather had some weird allergic reaction in her eye, so she proceeded to die for the rest of the night. I felt so bad. We ended up at Joe's Taproom, this cool craft beer place attached the Sloppy Joe's. Had the best glass of UFO I've ever had in my life, probably because I was so exhausted. After that we headed back to the camp for what we didn't realize would be a night of adventures.

Wednesday night we still had the rain fly off the tent since it was so nice out. Unfortunately, around 11-12, the skies opened up and started pouring. We jumped into action and managed to get the fly on without much getting too wet, but the hurricane force winds picked up and threatened to collapse our whole tent. So in the middle of the night, in the middle of the pouring rain, we had to unstake the entire thing and turn it 90 degrees and stake it back down. Did I mention we were camping on essentially solid rock? Yeah. But somehow we managed to do it and spent the rest of the night praying we didn't wake up in a collapsed, drenched tent.

Thursday morning we woke up to discover that it was still raining, but our tent had survived the night. We got up and got ready, then headed to Smathers Beach. We managed to avoid the throngs of obnoxious Spring Breakers and found our own cozy spot down the beach. We spent 4 hours laying in the sun. It was glorious. I burned a good bit, but it was such a good day. From there we headed back downtown to a place called Two Friends Patio, because we remembered them advertising a lobster special and that was the one seafood we hadn't done yet. I ended up being the only one who actually got it, but it was good. It started raining again, but stopped by the time we were done. We walked over to Joe's again, which was much easier this time because it was still light out. Duval was always crowded though, with people of every age. Heather's eye attacked her again, so we headed out early. We stopped at Walgreens on the way home because, I forgot to mention, Tuesday night my bed popped, so I slept on the rocks Wednesday night. $9.99 later, I had the crappiest air mattress I've ever owned, which immediately popped as soon as I put it down on top of the other mattress. Oh well. We went to bed relatively early. I walked to the bathroom, which was fine, but on the way back, Poseidon's dog tried to attack me.

OH MY GOODNESS I FORGOT TO TELL YOU ABOUT POSEIDON.

Poseidon was our camping neighbor. He was clearly a long term camper, with his fortress pretty well fortified. He was an old man with a long beard and a tan, and he looked just like Poseidon. We never spoke to him and only saw him twice. He had a lady friend....we heard them having their special time Wednesday afternoon. That was....awkward.

So yeah. Poseidon had this dog, Cujo, that liked to wander the camp and assert its authority. Unfortunately, he was roaming my path on my way back from the bathroom. He didn't notice me until he saw my flashlight, then he freaked out and started barking up a storm. I shined my light at him and he REALLY didn't like that. Finally I turned my light off and stood still. He seemed to forget I existed and trotted back to Poseidon's lair. Unfortunately, he woke up our other neighbor's dog, and the neighbor, who came out to see who was skulking. It was just me...

Okay. So Friday we woke up and weren't sure what we were going to do. We had mentioned renting kayaks before, but never got a chance. Clay found a 2 hour tour that was reasonably priced, so we decided to go for it. We went to ITT, who happened to have a $10 off discount for military. WOO! So we got the tickets and headed over there. I had never been kayaking before, so I was a little nervous. Luckily, I took to it easily, and we had an amazing time. We bonded with the guides, I didn't fall out, and I was never last. I loved it. It was easily one of my favorite activities during the trip. We saw mangroves, sea hares, sea cucumbers, conchs, and so many other things. It was amazing. After that, we ate at Hurricane Hole, a restaurant conveniently attached to the marina. It was really good. We also ate conch for the first time. It was pretty good. After that we changed into dry clothes and started the journey to Spring Hill. The trip went pretty well. We got in around 1:30 in the morning. Oh wait, did I say the trip went well? I mean I hot delusional state about an hour or two outside Spring Hill and caused utter madness. Then we stopped at an abandoned gas station in Dade City, there was yelling, laughing, not breathing...it was good. We finally got to my house, I gave them a quick tour, then we passed out.

Saturday I actually woke up surprisingly early. We made breakfast with Kathy and Dan, ate, then they left. We spent the day in/near the pool with my parents, Chris, Amy and Craig. It was fun. We went to dinner at Buffet City for my dad's birthday. It was fun and they were nice. After that we came home, lounged a bit, then played lots of games. Eventually we did cake and presents, then more games. By 11, we were exhausted, so we got to bed around midnight or so. It was a fun day.

Which brings us to today!! Which is good because my battery is about to die. We got up at 7:15. Well, I got up at 7:15, packed my things, then they got up. We packed up, said good-bye, then started the journey to Tuscaloosa. Clay and I drove. We hit a lot of standstill traffic, but overall made surprisingly good time. We had a lot of fun psychoanalyzing eachother and jamming to country music. We got back a little after 5, I dropped them off, came back and unpacked, then we reunited to watch The Walking Dead and Robert joined us. That show is craaaazy.

I'm not sure what to do with myself now that I'm back to the real world. I don't want to be here, and it's REALLY weird to not have Heather and Clay with me 24/7. We had a really, really good time. I'm SO glad we went. It was the perfect last Spring Break.

Anywho. I hope this exceptionally long post will make up for my absence. Hopefully I will see you again soon. Until then, here are some pictures!!

“The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving.”

Oh hey friends! What better way to spend Valentine's Day than in my pajamas working on Entrepreneurship homework? I figured I'd take a break to update this ol' blog.

Sorry I haven't been around much lately. Lots to say, not sure how to say it. So I figured I'd give it a shot now and see how it goes.

I finished all of my sewing a few days ahead of BFW. Thank goodness. Then it was preparations and getting myself ready. I drove up to Bham Wednesday and checked into Hotel Highland, which was AMAZING. I highly recommend it. I got ready and headed off to the Kick-Off Party at Gus Mayer just as my parents were arrived. Said a quick hi-bye, then ran off to the party. It was fun. I met some nice people, got a picture with Taylor Hicks and had a nice time. After that we headed over to Pepper Place for model run throughs. Got a chance to ask any last minute questions, then gathered all of my models for one final fitting. Everything fit perfectly except Olivia's top, but it was an easy fix. I went back to the hotel, got my mom, and we ran to Wal-Mart because I had to redo one of my sketches and that was the only place open at 11:30 at night. Oy. Redid the sketch, busted out my sewing machine to fix the top, Fixed Corrinne's hem, and made it to bed by 3. Not too shabby!

Thursday I woke up at 7. Oy. Grabbed a lovely breakfast downstairs then it was off to the tents! We did hair and makeup early early, but it turned out really amazing. I wish I had caught the name of my hair and makeup people because they were wonderful. Spent the morning chatting with Kassi, Megan and Robert. I'm so very glad they were showing on Thursday night as well. At noon I met Kevin for a quick lunch at Cantina, then it was time for rehearsals. Spent a few hours on that, then it was time to get myself changed and dress all of my models.

Can I tell you how amazing my models are? Erin, Corrinne, Caitlin and Olivia are some of the best people I've ever worked with. They were fun, funny and super supportive. Their genuine excitement about wearing my designs was such a confidence boost. After they were ready I helped some of the other designers get girls taped and pinned because hello, I am the mother of every situation. Everyone loved my little sewing kit. It was chaos but we had a lot of fun.

After that we headed for the tents. Stood backstage for 2 hours before the show finally started. Everyone was FREEZING. But I think the show went well. I honestly couldn't tell you because I was backstage the whole time! DJ Coco was AMAZING though. He played Vampire Weekend for my collection, which was SO fun and fit the mood so well. It made me happy.

After all the Emerging Designers went, we sat and waited for the rest of the show to end. I spent most of the time chatting with Robert. I'm so very glad I met him. He is truly an amazing designer and a great person. After the show ended, they announced Top 5. Kassi and Robert made it, but I did not. Honestly, at that point, I was just proud to have finished my collection and made it through the show. I was proud of what I did and that's all.

I met my models back in the changing room, got my garments back and met my parents, Annie and Heather at the car. We said goodbyes and my parents and I headed back to the hotel. We put our stuff up and went to Cosmo's, this sweet pizza place right behind the hotel. It was DELICIOUS. Our waitress was stoned out of her mind, but she was so nice! She let me sample two local beers, both of which were delicious. And we got an awesome pizza with yellow pepper sauce. YUM. After that we went back to the room and passed out.

Friday we came back to Tuscaloosa and spent the rest of the weekend cleaning and bonding.

There are a lot of things from the show that I am frustrated with. I'm not going to go into detail, because it's not my place, but I think a lot of things could have been handled differently. I am still SO grateful for the opportunity to show my collection and for the people I met. The main thing I took away from the show was the friendships I made with fellow designers and some really amazing models.

I'm moving on from this experience with a new outlook on life. I've realized a lot of things about myself and a lot about people in this industry. In the next few months it is going to be really interesting to see where I can carve myself out a life. I'm not trying to fit in where I don't belong and I'm not going to pretend to be something that I'm not. I'm proud of what I do, and I think there are a lot of people who feel the same.

So there's that. We're moving past it, and we're moving on to even bigger and better things!

I got a 98 on my Marketing exam today. WOO. And tomorrow is the first Tuscaloosa dress drive for Operation Prom Dress. I will finally get to meet Quella face to face and hammer out the details of a lot of things. This coming weekend is the CBH finalist visit so I will be absolutely insanely busy. But when am I not? ;)

“Fashion is a social agreement. the result of a consensus of a large group of people.”

I'm sorry friends. I've had no desire to blog lately. Hopefully soon I'll get inspired. Until then, I'll shower you with pictures from Birmingham Fashion Week. You're welcome.

“Friends are God's way of taking care of us.”

Apparently I wrote this Monday:

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I have a terrible habit of staying up too late. Today I woke up too late. I got up, did some sewing, showered, did laundry, went to the store, ran errands, made brownies for my freshmen, went to see them, then Heather came over and we made meatloaf and rice and peas and carrots. YUM! Then we watch more of A Very Potter Musical, then some Leverage, then Clay came over for a while, then more AVPM, and then she left. Noooow I need to go to sleep because I actually have to go to class tomorrow!

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Tuesday I went to class and work, then I came home and sewed for a long while. I think I did something else that night as well. Oh, I think Heather came over again. Didn't she? Who knows. My days blur a lot. Oh yeah. Annie and I went to Yogurt Mountain. Yum. Then Heather came over. I really don't sleep much these days.

Wednesday I got up way too late, went to my meeting, which was very productive, then I think I meant to go sew but I paid my rent instead, then I still wasn't productive. What the heck did I do yesterday? Oh, yup. Went to Kobe with Annie and Clay, then went on a mad search for a new desk chair since mine broke. Didn't find one, ended up at Target getting wine. Yup.

Today I was almost late to Marketing because I am having a REALLY hard time with this whole waking up AND getting out of bed thing. Wake up? Okay fine. Get out of bed? iiiiiii don't think so.

So went to Marketing then went to work for the rest of the day. Trained Paula a bit, called schools for OPD, did budgety things. Went on a treasure hunt to Russell. That was fun. After work went to Caitlin's to borrow a wig in case my models' hair isn't good for the look I'm going for, then went home. Erin came over, we went to Chang's, then came back. I sewed, she watched tv. Superawesomewonderful Kevin got the thread I needed from Joann Fabrics in B-ham, so he stopped by to drop that off. So nice to not have to drive to Birmingham. I of course would not let him in my apartment because it is an utter wreck. One of these days it will be beautiful and clean and happy and I will want to have everyone over. But for now, I will pretend to be a hermit. I continued to sew, Heather came over and she and Erin watched Grey's. After that Heather left, I sewed, then Erin, Julia and I went to see Red Tails. It was awesome, there was literally NO ONE else in the theatre. We could talk as much as we wanted. Wonderful. Also, go see that movie. It is amazing. Just do it.

Soooo yeah. Tomorrow I am sewing all day and my goal is to finish everything. I REALLY hope that happens. If not, then I HAVE to finish it Saturday. No excuses. It has to get done!

And that's that. Still waiting on info on my final model, due to some issues with another one. Don't get me started on that. Other than that, I'm a crazy wreck and I can't wait for Birmingham Fashion Week.

"Family means too much, friends are too valuable, and life is too short to put off sharing with people how much they really mean to you and pursuing whatever it is that makes you happy."

Dear darling blog, I wrote you a lot this afternoon, but I don't believe I will be posting it at the moment. It's not the tone I want to set for myself right now.

So today I got up around 9, got out of bed around 11, and made my way to my sewing room. And I sewed like a crazy person. I sewed so much that all that's left really is hemming and adjusting things. HUZZAH! Then I worked on some Operation Prom Dress stuff, then some UH300 stuff, then one of my models came for a fitting, then I went to Hancock. Once I got in my car at Hancock some lady appeared next to my window saying, "I'm not going to hurt you." and asking for a ride to CVS. CVS is right down the road...and I'm definitely not letting you in my car. She just kept saying she wasn't going to hurt me, WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT SOMEONE WHO WANTS TO HURT ME WOULD SAY.

So anyway. I got out of there and went to Target. Got a new steamer which had better work or I'm going to blow it up. Got some brownie mix to make some lovely snacks for my little freshmen. I like most of them. Some of them...well, you know. Win some lose some.

So then Corrinne and Erin came over for their fittings. We ate dinner then had a blast trying everything on. I decided what they are wearing for the show so huzzah for that. After that I wanted to sew more but it just wasn't going to happen. Actually, that's not true. I sewed some stuff for UH300. And worked on a top. But then it was time to stop. So Heather came over. We watched Leverage and ate the delicious homemade cheesecake I made, then we spent way too much time on random youtube videos and A Very Potter Musical. yup. Cause I've never seen it. Apparently that is shocking. Oops. I told her she has to come back tomorrow night so we can finish it.

Tomorrow my goal is to hem as much as I can, finish my UH300 presentation stuff, and get some OPD stuff worked out.

Which reminds me!

I am the Tuscaloosa coordinator for Operation Prom Dress, a local nonprofit that provides prom dresses to girls who cannot afford their own. I am looking for donations of dresses, shoes, jewelry, and unused makeup. If you have any to donate, please get in touch with me. I am also looking for groups/businesses to run dress drives throughout the month of February to generate more donations. And lastly we will need a dry cleaner to donate their services to get all of the dresses cleaned. If you are interested in helping, PLEASE let me know!