Stress and Success (part III) + Halloween

And in the last week, I've been a sewing maniac. I made three Halloween costumes, altered two other costumes, finished a skirt for my sewing class, started and made a lot of progress on a nice collared shirt for one of my customers.

The costumes I made were fantastic. Jennie Ray was Daphne for Halloween, and she and I made a perfect purple dress and ascot for it. Rebecca Flake was the Little Mermaid during the "Kiss the Girl" song in the movie, so she and I made a pretty blue corset and a light blue skirt and altered a white blouse to go under the corset. I also made a zombie cheerleader costume for Alyssa who is 11 years old. (She's a girl I recently began mentoring, which I'll write a whole blog about later.) Her outfit was black with glittery skulls and white accents, including a big letter A on the front of her top. I also made her a black and white striped turtleneck and leggings to go underneath. Lastly I made two bows with the left over black and white striped ribbon for her hair. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of her in her costume, and I'm really bummed about that. :(

Jennie & Becca's costumes.

Then Bob and I had been debating all week about our costumes. Someone in one of my classes mentioned Barbie and Ken the other day, and I thought that would be hilarious. Bob and I just watched Toy Story 3 last weekend, so I wanted to dress up like the Barbie and Ken from that movie. We'd found some wigs earlier in the week at a Halloween store. Then on Friday, the day before our Halloween party, we went to the DI searching for anything really. We lucked out with Bob and found some awesome pleated shorts, a horrible blue-patterned shirt, a belt, and even some sweet loafers. I looked and looked, and finally found what I thought might just work. It was an ugly light bluish-teal leisure suit kind of thing. I tried it on and it was kinda big and fit me weirdly, but I could alter it just fine and make it work. I found a perfect pink belt to go with it too, and borrowed some pink leg warmers, hot pink heels, and a pink head band from Jennie Ray.  I altered everything that night, and when Bob put his costume on he really wasn't sure if he could go as Ken. I think he was just embarrassed to be wearing the light blue ascot that I made him.

So Saturday rolled around and we had breakfast Jennie and Rebecca's apartment. I gave Chelsie a hair cut. We all carved pumpkins. And then we got ready for the night. I have to say, Bob and I looked so good!

Bob carved the cat, I carved the face with the stem as a nose.

We made it to our Halloween party a few minutes late. When we showed up everyone was seated at tables and the people in charge were giving instructions for how the evening would go. Bob and I walked in a door towards the front of the room and just stood next to the wall, looking for a place to sit. Then I noticed everyone looking at us and giggling. At one point the people up in front had to stop talking because everyone was laughing about our costumes instead of listening to instructions. Then I noticed that Bob had walked in stiff-armed and legged, smiling and waving like a Ken doll. I honestly loved all the attention.

We got so many compliments on our outfits. Everyone loved them I think, and everyone knew exactly who we were supposed to be. That was my favorite part, aside from the fact that nobody recognized us at first. They knew who we were dressed up as, but all the hair in the wigs really threw everybody off. It was great!

Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head were even there!

Bob as Ken.

Me as Barbie.

We ended up winning the Best Overall Costume award, a $10 gift certificate to Spoon It Up. I love frozen yogurt, and I love winning contests. It was so worth all the makeup and fake eyelashes and alterations and headaches of the week. Halloween has been great this year.

Stress and Success (part II)

After my whole presentation Friday morning, myself and three of my co-workers had a very important meeting with the CEO, David Clark, and a Supervising Lab Manager, Anna White, of Intermountain Health Care. We were to present a prototype for a new product we're working on and get any feedback and insight we could from them.

We'd been preparing for it for a week, well, I had been anyway. I was taking this meeting really seriously, probably more-so than anyone else. We decided who would present what part and we each came up with questions that needed to be answered. I made some business cards with our contact information on it, and printed out copies of the meeting's outline for each of us. I'd made the most up-to-date prototype and brought it and some older ones with me. I told everyone what to wear, because mechanical and chemical engineers can be pretty clueless about that (which they admitted to me a few days prior).

Around lunch time we all met up and took a BYU car over to the CEO's office. All of us were dressed professionally and we all looked pretty awesome. I called shotgun as we walked out to the car, and as we were driving, I couldn't help but feel tickled about how great of an experience all of that was. I felt like somebody important that belonged to an important company going to some big important executive meeting. Not only did I feel like that, but it was all true!

We made it over there and waited in a lobby outside of the conference room where the meeting would take place. All of us were giddy and excited, especially since we're only college students and things like this usually only happen to professionals.

The meeting itself went well. Our prototype and idea were received well. We got the feedback we needed to help us know in what direction we need to go. Both the CEO and lab manager agreed that if we can get our product finished with the appropriate standards met, they would immediately begin using it to replace their currently ineffective products.

Then Anna took us around part of their facility and discussed some additional problems they have there. She was so excited for our innovative ideas. She really wants our product to work out and is willing to help is as much as she is able to.

Everything went better than any of us expected! We all have a new energy about this project now. I think we all really want to see it exceed now more than ever. So now it's time to get to work!

Stress and Success (part I)

The past two weeks have been absurd.

I was selected among many other students to give a brief presentation to a bunch of people who donate lots of money to BYU's School of Technology each year. Since my major is in that school, and some of the donors funded a lot of money for me to go to Singapore, and the professor in charge of the trip to Singapore adores me for some reason (I really don't know why he thinks so highly of me--I didn't suck up or try to be teacher's pet at all; I was just myself and he and his wife somehow love me... not that I mind...), the Dean of the school asked if I would be willing to share with these donors what I learned from that trip, how it's helped me, and express my gratitude to them. Of course I accepted. I love speaking to people and large groups. I know, I'm crazy, but I really enjoy it.

So on October 22nd, I woke up early and got ready for the day. Bob really wanted to come and hear me speak, even though it was only going to be for 2 minutes, so he came with me. We were both all dressed up and professional-looking. We arrived and quietly sat in the back until my turn to speak.

There were only two of us students who were selected to present. A guy who went to China for a study abroad went before me. The poor guy was nervous and shaking and tripped over his words a few times. I wanted to just hug him and tell him to relax. He finished, and it was my turn.

I felt a little nervous too, but I did my best to hide it. I had a few PowerPoint slides with pictures from the trip. The first picture was of the whole group of students who were a part of the class. We were all dressed professionally in it and had our projects displayed. My small group was gathered around the wheelchair we designed and prototyped, and I was sitting in it. As I was standing there, I briefly explained that I was not actually confined to a wheelchair, which several people chuckled at. I discussed our project idea and the basics of how it worked. The next slide had several pictures on it. One was of me eating some weird food with chopsticks. I told them of some things I learned, especially that I don't like fried oysters as I pointed to that specific image, at which everyone laughed.

'Okay,' I thought, 'I got them all to laugh, so now they have some connection with me.' I was able to relax and opened up more about my experience in learning how to work with engineers, design products, listen to various viewpoints from different people, etc. As I started wrapping up my short speech, I gave some small background on me, that I lived on a farm in Tennessee, and I never really thought that I would have a chance to travel to such an incredible country to further my education. I meant every word of it, and I unexpectedly got choked up and teary-eyed. I finished by thanking them all for helping me to have such an amazing experience, because I never could have gone without their help.

I ended and as I walked back to my seat, I thought, 'Holy cow. Where did those tears come from?' I sat back down next to Bob, beaming because I felt so good about how I spoke. He leaned over and hugged me, then whispered in my ear, "Good job!"

I really felt like I nailed that presentation. I know, it was only a couple of minutes long, but it was partially up to me to show these donors that the money they donate is really going to a good cause and being used well, and we even hope they'll consider donating more. If I hadn't have given a great speech, it could have affected the donations they give in a negative way.

After it was over, I went out into the hall/lobby to stand and see if anyone wanted to say hello to me or anything. On my way out I was stopped by several people who complimented me on my presentation. As we were talking I glanced over at the other student who spoke. He had all of two people talking to him, while I had about eight talking to me. I felt kind of bad for the other guy. I'm such a spot-light stealer sometimes. And yet, as much as I felt bad, I also felt like I had to do that to some extent, because his speech wasn't very good. He had some good pictures and made some good points, but I felt like I had to be really good to make up for anything that his was lacking.

Man, I am so analytic. Is that a bad thing? I'm not sure if the way I think sometimes is right or wrong. It's just how I think.

Either way, the presentation was successful and everyone appreciated my words and insights. I felt great about myself, and met a lot of important people. I can't remember all of their names, but I sure home they'll remember me.

My Wishlist

I've been thinking about Christmas lately, and what to give others for the holiday. Along with that, I've been doing some thinking about what I want, and I've been coming up with a handy list. Unfortunately, most of what I want seems to be some-what expensive...

I'll keep adding to it regularly as other items I want come up and there will be a link to this in the margin with some of my favorite blog entries so you can find it easily if you need to.

So if anyone needs to know what I'd like and I can't remember when asked directly, here are some ideas.


Snow boots. No Uggs, please. They're ugly and not very waterproof. I'd prefer something like these:

Better pots/pans. No Teflon. I'm tired of it scraping and peeling off and not being able to use any metal utensils in them. I want some real steel or copper-bottomed ones if at all possible. Heck, even just one nice frying pan would be great.


A Kitchen Aid mixer. As much as I would love to have a floor-standing industrial sized one, I know it wouldn't be very logical at this point. Any color will really do, but of course I'd like an orange one if such a color exists among Kitchen Aid, but I really like the silver one too. Red is also nice. Or black.

Cheese slicer. You know, the one with the wire that sometimes makes a really cool "bing!" sound... Like this one:

                            This:

It's a ribbon organizer.
(You can find it here as well.)

A DSLR Camera. Probably a basic Canon, like one of the Rebel models; nothing with too many bells and whistles yet. I'm still doing research, but any suggestion or recommendation from experienced photographers is welcome. 

projects in the process

I've been doing a lot lately, hence the sparseness or lack of blogging. But here are some things I've been working on:

Somehow I can't ever quit sewing for other people. Last winter I made some clothing for this guy named Jeff who's in a band. He's 6' 4" and weighs maybe 160. He's super tall and really skinny, so it's hard to find clothes that fit him well. His mom found me at JoAnn's one day and just struck up a conversation with me, got my business card, and next thing I know I'm taking his measurements and custom-making a snazzy shirt and an even snazzier blazer for him. Well, the other day he came wanting another shirt and a vest as well, and this time he brought his girlfriend with him, who happens to want a dress made. I started on the dress first, and here's what it looks like so far:

Also, on Saturday we had a small yard sale together with our neighbors, during which we played scrabble and made $30. Also, our neighbors happen to have some small hedge clippers, so we trimmed down some crazy branches off of a bush in front of the house that blocks some of our front window. Then, I'm not sure why, but I made a wreath out of the clipped-off branches. We have some rose bushes in our front yard as well, along with some nice vines growing in the back. Everyone joined in and suggested putting some roses on it and Bob went and clipped some vines for me to use as well. It was fun, and I think it turned out pretty fabulous, considering that I made it all from scraps of whatever was on the property at our house.

Lastly, I'm planning on having a pajama party this Friday. It's been a while since I've had a party of any kind, and I remember throwing parties all the time when I was a little girl. My mom encouraged it and I think she had a lot of fun with it too. So, I'm starting up again. I made up a bunch of invitations and handed them out to friends. The front has lots of colors and different papers used and the back has all the information on it. I wanted them to be reminiscent of pajama pants, but I'm not sure if that really came across or not. Here's what they look like:

I'm planning on putting together some little bracelet-making and card-making kits for everyone who wants one, and I have a friend who is a Mary Kay consultant who will hopefully be able to come and demonstrate the new microderm-abrasion product available and maybe do some makeovers as well. The girls that come can either stay a few hours or sleep over, and then in the morning Bob and a friend (who he's staying with that night, and whose wife will be attending the party) will be making pancakes for anyone who will be staying the night. I'm pretty excited about it! I love throwing parties!