You walk on streets of gold

I'm finally back in San Diego after a whirlwind week at home. I can't believe it went by so quickly, and so much happened. I got to see Alex for the first time in two years, Jennie got married, and Lauren has a baby now. There was a huge reunion at my house that hasn't happened in two years, and it was amazing seeing everyone and hanging out with my family.

Between jet lag, culture shock, and all the crazy adventures, I can't even remember all that happened last week, but I was incredibly sad to leave. I miss my family and my amazing friends back at home, but I'll be back there in two weeks to pick up more of my stuff.

Yesterday my classes started, and today was my first day interning for Zandra Rhodes. I got there at 10, and they put me to work organizing Zandra's work space. I enjoy organizing things, so it was a lot of fun. Not to mention the place is full of incredible things. Art supplies, sewing supplies, tons of fabric, crazy shoes, and makeup from her MAC line she did. After that I sewed labels for putting in the garments, but I did it all wrong the first time. When I finally figured it out (and used thread wax for the first time) I was ready for lunch. Beach parking was a nightmare, and even though I'm just a block away, I decided to take a nap in my car.

Back inside, I tied knots on the crazy ruffles on this amazing wedding dress someone commissioned Zandra to make, so I had to wash my hands a lot and be very careful. Then I was asked to try to paint and draw designs for fabrics inspired by Zandra's designs for the rest of the day. I have no idea if they'll actually like any of them, but it was fun to do nonetheless. I figured out that if I work 11 hours a week, it's plenty, so I left at 3:30. Christina, the office manager, was really sweet. She told me that when Zandra is actually in, she gets really intense and crazy, and sometimes gets really upset, so I should be prepared.

I'm so excited for youth group tonight, I've missed my girls so much! It's going to be a really fun year.

The End.

It's here at last. I leave London today, and it's at that point that I'm just ready to be home already. I've said my tearful goodbyes, eaten my last baguette, and ridden my last double decker bus. A lot has happened over the past few days, but I've had writers block of some kind, so even though I've sat down multiple times with the intent of writing it all down, I end up never finishing. Probably because my defense mechanism is to shut down when I'm about to leave another place I call home.

I had my last day of work, which was long and kind of sad. Julia gave me a genius hand made card though, it was super cute. All I did was meet a red headed woman named Katherine to give her keys, and it was a gorgeous walk trying to find the place. The wind was blowing and it was cold, almost going to rain. Then I got another lunch at Beetroot, the vegan restaurant I love now. Then I got back to the shop and helped Julia load her tiny car with all the clothes for her vintage show. I visited with Zanab (I finally learned how to spell her name) and we exchanged email addresses. Then I sat in the shop and put music on a flash drive for Julia the rest of the day, before going home for our going away party. I met April and Kik at the Thai restaurant where Kik was getting our food. ( and my getting our food, I mean cooking it in the kitchen with the chef. I love family run restaurants.) Then we had our little get-together with people from a bunch of different countries. Thailand, Italy, Poland, England, and the US were represented.

I got up early to take April to the airport, and her luggage was so unbelievably heavy it took us forever to get to the tube. But I think adrenaline kicks in when you're trying to just get home, and I know that will happen when I leave today. I went to an amazing Bible study and took them as much stuff as I could carry from the apartment. Then I went to school to print out my papers to turn in. After that I was so exhausted I took a long nap, then spent the rest of the evening making really good veggie stir fry and packing. I slept in this morning, and finished packing and cleaning, now I'm waiting for Kik to get here so we can leave. I'm sad, but just ready to be home now. The only part of this day I'm looking forward to are the movies on the plane, because I miss movies so much. I watched Charlie Bartlett for a second time last night while I was packing.

Praise God for He has made this an amazing trip. He has changed me in so many ways I can't even describe, and I'm praying that I don't go back to how I was before I left. I don't think I will, because I've been here for so long. Sometimes you change a little when you're gone for a week or so, but I've lived here for almost 3 months, and I know I'm not the same. I'm more joyful, and much closer to my creator. I have peace finally, after a very long two or three years of it missing.

I'm so excited to get home, and I love that because I missed everything so much, I won't take the mundane for granted ever again. I can't wait to see my friends and in a few days my family. I can't wait for the heat and the sunshine. For Alex to get home and Jennie to get married. For all the cooking and crafts Dustin and I will do, and the burritos and adventures I'll have with Casey. I can't wait to sit on Kelly's bed and talk about life like we've done since the 9th grade. And most of all, I will have them all over to lay by the pool and drink strawberry lemonade with me. Praise God :)

Day 16. Almost done.

Today was my second to last day at work, and it made me so sad that I'm leaving! I went in at 10:30, and got sent straight back to DGS to drop off a pattern to the Greek sample maker named Chris. He told me I always look different, and told me to sit down in his office while he looked at the pattern. Then he proceeded to ask me how I like what I'm doing, and then gave me some advice about the industry. He told me fashion design is all about flair. He said to take a fashion illustration class, and to never lose my flair, as well as to go shopping all the time and get ideas to improve on. After that he told me a long story about a lady friend he knows in Texas, and how he might visit. Then he gave me his card and told me to keep in touch in case I need work in the future. I was so happy when I left there, because I feel like it was a great networking opportunity.

When I got back to the shop, Julia set me to ironing a big pile of t-shirts for the Vintage festival she's showing at this weekend while she ran some errands and got lunch for us. It was fun work, I don't mind ironing. And the radio was on, which I still thoroughly enjoy because of the novelty of being in England. I went upstairs and watched the store when I was gone, and traded music on Julia's computer. I love sharing that part of my culture with her, and gaining the same experience through music she loves as well.

Julia came back with vegan lunches from Beetroot, and they were amazing!!!! There was all sorts of fun stir fry and tofu and mint seasoned quinoa. It was really filling, and we had a nice long talk about getting into the business, mistakes she made when she started, and other life things. I really am sad that I am leaving, because I feel so at home there. She's sad I'm leaving too, because everything just kind of worked out really well with us working together. It's so strange to think that tomorrow is my last day. But after we finished lunch, she sent me to Shepherds bush with two dresses to match fabric for. One was the creme cocktail dress, but she wanted the same fabric in black, and then there was another black dress to match and lining as well. I think it's funny when she can't remember where she bought it, but it works because then I can go to the places that will give me a good deal. I was able to find all three for relatively cheap, and in record time. So with that, I said my final goodbye to Shepherds Bush, and went home for the day.

Days 14 and 15

Friday I forgot to write my journal, so I'm trying to think it all up now. It's so hard to remember what happened after a crazy long weekend of adventures.

Day 14

I was happy this day was friday. I'd had a long week with lots of long days, so thankfully it was the end of the week. I came in at 10:30, and watched the shop while Julia went out for a few hours. I did some work scanning things into the computer, and worked on cutting patterns out for the first few hours. I hadn't finished them the day before, and it was quite a time consuming task. Thankfully I finally mastered using the little paper punch thing. When she came in, she had me press all of the clothes from a boutique on Carnaby street to display in the store, which didn't take long at all. Then finally, it was interview time. I had spent a few weeks compiling a long list of questions to ask Julia about every part of her business, and about being a designer working in sustainable and fair trade goods. She spent over a half hour talking with me about everything, and I recorded it all on video to dictate later. Now I have page after page of interview written down, and it's priceless. I learned so much and was so empowered to start doing it for myself, that I got my entire paper written off of the interview. I might talk more about it later when I have the time

Day 15 (I think the weekend will have to be a separate thing altogether)

Today was Tuesday, and I got to do lots of fun things. The first was sending out an email invitation to a vintage festival Julia will be showing at to all the people on her press list. She has a very extensive network of people that she works with, and it took me almost an hour to send the emails out to them all. I scanned some stuff into the computer, and sat back to realize how much I loved what I'm doing in life. I get to sit in a studio with a cup of coffee and listen to really good music all day doing design related work. I am so blessed to be doing what I love.

I did some photoshop work next, which included cropping and resizing the sample pictures I had to model for. I didn't like those pictures at all, and it proves pink is NOT my color. But it was still fun to do photoshop all the same, and seeing the line come together is great. After I finished it all, I ran to the store to get more instant coffee for Julia, the fair trade kind. I think almost all the coffee here is Free Trade and Rainforest Alliance, which is super cool. I got some gingersnaps for us to eat too, because work is just more fun with cookies around.

When I got back, Julia had me use the overlock for the first time, and I was super excited to get to sew. My job was to sew together strips of the fabric I cut out a few days back, and to make tubes out of them. They were about ten feet long, so turning them inside out was a bit of a chore, but because the fabric had some stretch, it was relatively easy. My fingers hurt now though. Julia said that she's using them to make bracelets and necklaces of some sort, so it should be fun when it's all finished. When I was done, she let me leave for the day, but tomorrow should be a lot longer.

Tonight I presented my powerpoint about opening an eco-friendly store in OB, and I got completely soaked walking back from work and then to school in the rain. My umbrella was sadly forgotten at the house after Bible study on Saturday night, so even my rain coat didn't save me. But now I'm going to start the packing madness, and see what I have to throw out before I leave.

Day 13

Today I got ready to go in by 11, and I got a text from Julia telling me there was a problem with the shop, so to not go in yet. Instead, I went the British Museum, and then lost myself in Covent Garden. I also got a bagel with peanut butter and coffee at the other Monmouth store. Then I walked all the way to work, thus getting my several miles of workout in for the day. As soon as I got to the store, Julia sent me back out to Morplans, to get bags and a sale sign for the store. I was once again glad that I’d been through design classes so I could find the store easily. After I bought the supplies, I headed down to a shop on Carnaby Street called Beyond the Sea to pick up some of Julia’s dresses they didn’t sell. There were only a few, and I checked and signed for them. Carnaby Street is an awesome place, it was where Mod fashion started in the 60’s. Think.. Twiggy style. When I got back to the shop, I started cutting out lots of patterns that just came back from the print shop. It was lots of tedious work, but I got to use a special paper punch to make notches. I also had another really good conversation with Zana who was working with me. We talked about what skills are needed in the industry, how training sometimes doesn’t matter, and we dreamed up big plans. She was so encouraging when I told her my business ideas, and it made me think that they could come true. I left work so happy and encouraged today, because I want to dream big and start my own business within the next few years. Tomorrow I’m opening the shop, and finishing the patterns I was cutting out today. I’m getting pretty darn good at all the exact little things in pattern tracing and cutting out fabric. I’m really thankful this job as taught me that, because I tend to be sloppy on my own.

Day 12

Today was a slow day. I went in at 10, and found out I would just be hanging out at the shop by myself for almost the whole day. Julia also gave me the "small" job of cutting out a pattern that was just a 4.5 cm/60 cm strip. This turned into almost 4 hours of work, because she wanted as many as I could get out of a bag of scraps. There were a ton of scraps. But I love listening to the radio and being left alone to work, so it was quite peaceful, though monotonous. I also scanned in some design sheets to the computer, and it gave me some ideas on how to make my own, with all the specifications for production. Tom, the man Julia is working with to start his line, came by early and ran around the shop. He looked at the samples I picked up for him, and asked me what I thought about them. He is an interesting guy, really nice, but also very strong willed when it comes to the creative part of things. It's kind of fun to work on the samples for them, because they'll be launched into production eventually and be sold.

I took a short lunch break to get a baguette at Waitrose, which has kind of become my norm. I know it's not super healthy to eat a whole loaf of bread every day for lunch, but I love them so much.

When I got back to the shop, I modeled two dresses for Julia and Tom, and they got into an argument over the strap of the pretty cream cocktail dress. The strap goes over one shoulder and connects to the ruffle down the front left side, and is the focal point that brings the dress together. Julia loved the strap, and Tom didn't like it at all. He has very strong opinions, and I could tell Julia was getting frustrated. I personally thought it would just be like any other strapless cocktail dress without the strap, and I told them that when they asked me. Julia is the designer, and has a strong vision of what will sell and make things unique. Then I changed and watched the shop while they went out looking for ideas on Oxford street for the rest of the afternoon. I dropped off her keys to her at Selfridges after 5, and I get to go in late tomorrow. That's exciting :)

Days 10 and 11

I'm a bit behind because I'm partly forgetful and partly lazy. But here goes.

Friday at work, I got to arrange pictures in photoshop for Julia for a few hours. It was a good reminder that I need to have basic knowledge of design programs, and I enjoyed the work I got to do. I pick up on computer stuff fairly quickly, and it was cool to do it in a professional setting. I watched the shop for a few hours, and helped the few customers that came in. Julia sent me back to Hackney again after that to pick up another sample from Kasha. The dress is a beautiful cream colored cocktail dress with a asymmetrical strap and ruffle down one side. Thankfully I got to go home early that day, and I left some cookies I made for everyone to eat.

Today, Tuesday, was an early day as well. I came in and found out Julia wasn't feeling well. She had me pick some seams on the cocktail dress, and on this crazy pantsuit outfit where a sleeve seam had caught. I've become very accustomed to picking seams, because I mess up my sewing more than I get it right. After that, I watched the shop while Julia ran across the street to get some orange juice, then I went on an adventure to pick up the pink ruffle dress I cut out last week from another place. I got coffee, then took the tube to a place past Manor House, and walked through a crazy indoor market to find the place. It had some lovely old greek men sitting out front that told me how to find the unit I was looking for. When I got there, the man behind the desk was eating an ice cream cone. He said "Hold on just a minute, I'm eating my ice cream cone." It was great, and he was really nice. I grabbed the dress, which looked really great, and I was proud because I had been in charge of picking out one of the materials. I took the dress back, and, after getting lost and paying extra for being outside zone 2, gave the dress back to Julia. She let me go home after that, so I went to Oxford street and got some clothes shopping done :) good day all in all.