Hey Hey Hey! Mine and Meg's second year of college has begun! I am really going to love this semester for sure. I am taking Intro to Illustration and Watercolor, along with generals English 201, Natural Disasters, and Doctrine and Covenants.

I know this is only the first week, but I think I am safe to say that I absolutely love my Illustration class. My teacher is awesome. He is an animator by profession and is really good at getting us excited about our work. The class is run like an illustration firm. We will have strict deadlines every week, and will learn to conduct ourselves professionally in our work and our critiques.

 There are five projects for the course. Our first, which we actually started on Wednesday, is a Master Copy of another illustrators work. We had to choose and artist from the Golden age of Illustration and find our favorite illustration to replicate. I chose Maxfield Parrish's "A Swiss Admiral". I really like the eery feel the eye gives. It will be fun. I have to complete my line drawing by Monday. Next week we work on our value studies in charcoal, and the following week will be focused on painting.

The second project is to design a cover for our favorite classical book. I'm not all that interested in classical literature, however there are a few that I really like. I'm thinking about creating a cover for Mary Shelly's Frankenstein, or maybe one for Grimm's Fairy Tales, or Anderson's Fairy Tales.

After the book cover, we will work in the arena of advertisement. We get to choose any item we want and create an ad for it. I haven't really given this project much thought. I might choose a candy bar or something along that line. I want to create a fun packaging option as well, but we will see.

The fourth project is the one I look forward to most. We can either choose character design, environmental art, or UI design for a video game. Our teacher has the game all thought up, but won't reveal it officially until the time comes. I think I know what it is because I found it on our class schedule, but I'm not sure if it from last year or not. I'm excited for this one for sure!!!

The final project is a free choice illustration. We get to pitch our idea to our teacher as well as our class. That will be fun.

So that is Illustration in a nutshell. We have three weeks to complete each project, with the exception of the video game one, we only have one week to finish that. Oh yeah, my teacher's name is Joshua Abegglen. He has done some really cool work! Look him up if you want. He has animation tutorials for Maya too which are great.

So yeah. Watercolor is slow right now. We are learning the basics. I thought it would be boring to relearn this, but I was wrong. We are studying the pigments and experimenting what each color does. We are learning about granulation, setters, stains, transparent, and opaque colors. It is pretty cool actually. I did some color studies. I am excited to get back into watercolor. We are using better paints and professional paper. It is going to be fun. My teacher is funny. She reminds me of my Nana. She is great. Her work is pretty neat too. You should check her stuff out. Her name is Sally Cannon Ellis.  

Those are my fun classes. I am going to have so much fun this year. I hope to build up my portfolio to submit for Pixar's internships this summer. I'm looking more into art and story this time. Who knows what will happen.

So yeah! It will be great. I still love it here in the potato state. School is nice, roommates are awesome, and friends are everywhere.
 P.S. Thanks Courtney for the banana bread! It was delicious.

Major catch up, but on a good note.... it snowed!

Oh dang its been a while since I have updated this.

So where should I start? Um soccer I guess. Sports are done for the semester. We came in 5th out of 6 teams. Hee hee, at least we didn't come in last. During our playoff game we could have gone further if we won. Within 15 minutes a girl on the other team collided with one of our strikers. The other girl broke her leg. That was disgusting! I didn't hear her bone snap like some of my teammates, but I sure did see it flop. I have always wanted to break a bone just to say I have, but now I never want that to happen. Ewe. So we lost the rest of our first half due to the injury. In the end we lost and it was game over for the Hurricanes.

Oh! Oh! Oh! Megan and I got a job! We are early morning custodians. Every day (M-F) we work from 4am to 7am in our buildings. Megan works in our history building and I work in our English building. It isn't that bad getting up early. We get work done before classes so we have the rest of the day to ourselves. We just need to get to bed earlier -- no more 2am nights. But yeah, a job is a job. I am so grateful to have it.

Yesterday and today it snowed. It didn't snow like crazy, but there is an inch on the ground. It looks really pretty. Yesterday I wanted to play in it, but I was stuck in bed all day. I got sick and had to leave work early. It wasn't fun. I had a fever and couldn't eat anything. But don't worry, today I feel AMAZING! Megan took care of me yesterday. She made me soup and walked to Walmart to get me Sprite and Junior Mints. I love my sister.

But today we did get to go outside. We went to the gardens to take pictures of each other. It was so much fun. We were out there for an hour, and by the time we got back home my hands were frozen solid. But it was worth it. We got a ton of funny pictures.

Yep. So here are some pics:

We decided to let Megan take pictures here, because I would have fallen.

I loved these columns!

Hee hee, I made that hat for her.

This was one of the first ones we took.

I really liked this wall.

Yeah, I guess this is what I look like when my hair gets stuck to the tree.

Megan: Do something pretty. Me: How bout this?

This is my all-time favorite! Thanks Megan for taking all of these, especially this one.

6th Week of School Completed!

This is going by fast! We are half way done with the semester! YAY!!!! I love it here, but am still ready for a break, and to be done. Next week we have Midterms. It's going to be alright though, Meg and I only have two real midterms; Book of Mormon: Read Brad Wilcox's The Continuous Atonement and write a bunch of stuff on it, and English: write a 6-8 page informative paper on any topic we want. I chose to write my paper on Pixar Animation Studio's 5 year process of making animations. Fun fun fun. I barely made 6 pages while Megan barely kept it under 8.

Besides school, I am still playing soccer. We are now having two games a week for competitive, Friday and Saturday, so we can finish before snow comes. I don't think that will help much. Next week is supposed to be our first snow sighting. I am super excited. It is super cold in the mornings now, so I want the snow for the little bit of warmth.Before snow comes it will rain. Tomorrow I have a soccer game in the morning and it is supposed to be pouring. Eck!

Well I guess that's it really. Megan and I are getting our costumes ready for Halloween. Megan is going to be Boo from Monsters Inc, and I am going to be Darla from Finding Nemo. It is going to be fun.

Here are some pictures, there aren't much but still there are some.

Umm, don't try opening paint with your mouth.....EVER! It tastes nasty, and doesn't come out of your mouth.

I brought a bucket of toys with me to Byui, I couldn't help it. Luckily Mater came into use for my drawing class.

My thumbnail sketches of Mater. Over the weekend I get to draw a 9x12 of one of these.

I learned how to do another braid. This one comes from Snow White and the Huntsman. You dutch braid across your forehead first, then connect it to another braid in the back. I like it.

Megan had a track meet right after my soccer game last Saturday. It was FREEZING! She did pretty good. (You see that dot behind her foot... It is a mark on my camera lens that I can't find or get off despite using Megan's camera cleaning kit)

We had to take pictures of organic and mechanical textures for our design and color class. I got bored so took pictures of Megan.

Megan had a free ticket coupon to see Finding Nemo 3D so we went to the local $3 theater (for 3D you add $2). The ticket was good for $12 but couldn't be split into two tickets. The cashier was nice and gave us our two tickets for free despite what the coupon said. That was super nice. The movie was pretty good in 3D, nothing spectacular, but great for a free movie. Then we went to Thor's Icecream after. They serve $1 scoops all the time. We each got a scoop of Pumpkin Pie icecream. It was so cold out that it didn't even melt on our walk back to the dorms. 

Well I guess that's it! Talk to you later! Bye!

Another Week Done

This week has been jammed pack with homework, sports, and fun.

Soccer practice started on Tuesday and Thursday from 5-6. Fun stuff. We were a little rough during practice, but that is expected seeing it was the first time playing together. Thursday night was exciting. I had practice with the Hurricanes, and at 8:15-9:15 played my first rec soccer game! We are the Hot Koolades. We did played amazingly well together, especially for never practicing. We won 1-0 off of a double header goal. Awesome!

Right after winning with the Hot Koolades, I played another game with our YSA ward, the Bangaragatangs. The team is half experienced payers, and half newbies. We lost 0-4, but in our defense the other team was mostly guys and ours mostly girls (not that that is an excuse). The guys on the other team were huge. They bulldozed our players. I knocked one of the guys flat on his back. That was funny. The other team couldn't believe their best player could be knocked down by a little girl. That was the best part of the game.

Anyways, Friday night we had a Hurricane dinner at our coaches' apartment. We ate, talked, and bonded. It was a ton of fun. We got our warm up jerseys too. There were only two small jerseys. Half of our team wanted the smalls. So they let the two smallest get the smalls: My roommate Jessica and I. Thank goodness! Even the small was too big, so just imagine a medium on us.

Saturday started our Hurricane season. We had a tournament, playing 5 games total. Our coach, Alisha, was in Utah, so Kelsey our assistant coach and fellow teammate took charge. We started playing at 2. Each game is 20 minutes long; 10 minute halves without a half time. We also did not have subs. We lost our first game 0-1. We found out our formation wasn't working, so we tweaked it for the rest of our games. The next four games were back to back, starting at 2:40 and going till 4. We won the first 3, a lot to nothing. We tied our final game 0-0. We might up winning the season, you never know. Winners get a special BYUI sports shirt. That would be awesome!

After the tournament I started walking home. I saw a bunch of people practicing on the other field, and realized it was the Hot Koolades. They called me over to practice. I was so tired from playing 5 straight games, but I joined them anyways. We ended up scrimaging another group. We decided we would stop at the first to 3. We ended up losing 2-3. Oh well. That took up another hour. I was definently pooped after that.

I finally got home at 5:15. That was a lot of soccer. After showering and eating food, Megan and I watched the Relief Society Broadcast on our laptop. We were too tired to get dressed up and go down to the BYUI Center (BYUIC). I was so tired I ended up falling asleep half way through. Oops.

Anyways, that was about it. Nothing much happened today, Sunday, except church. I guess that's it..... until next time!!!!!!

Still Loving it in Rexburg!

The weather is still pretty nice. The weather says we are going to have thunder storms and rain showers tomorrow, but we'll see. I still want snow! I want to make a snowman and throw snowballs.

This week has been packed! I went to a sports meeting on Tuesday to get signed up for soccer tryouts. BYUI does sports differently. They are all in school competitive, or recreational teams. There are 6 woman's soccer teams to tryout for. At first I didn't know if I wanted to play, I will have homework to do and tests to study for, but I decided if I could play soccer in high school and still get good grades, I can do it again in college. So I went to tryouts on Thursday from 5-7:30. It was pretty fun. One of my roommates, Jessica, tried out too. After we finished we were told to return to tryouts again tomorrow at 7:30-9:30, and again on Saturday morning at 10. We didn't have to return if we got a drafting call from a coach.

 Right after Thursday's tryouts Megan texted me saying I had to meet with Bishop Sweet ASAP. I forgot!!! I was supposed to meet with him at 6:30. I had to run to the Hinkley building. I was in my soccer clothes, all sweaty. As I walked into the building everyone looked at me funny. We aren't supposed to wear shorts on campus, it is part of the dress code. Oops. I ended up meeting with Brother Smith. He gave me a calling. I am now a greeter for church. YES!!! No teaching!!!! So after the meeting I went back home and showered.

I didn't get a call from a coach, so at 7:10 on Thursday I left for soccer tryouts. I was running late. It takes about 20 minutes to walk to the 4-plex (soccer and baseball  fields down the hill from the Temple). I still had to get there and put on my cleats. Then I remembered I left my tryout number at home, so I had to turn around and grab it. Now I was really late. I had to run to tryouts. Luckily I made it with time to put my gear on, and catch my breath.

Tryouts went great. We did some basic drills: short-short-longs, possession, 2 v 2 tournaments, and corner kicks, finishing off with a scrimmage and shooting drill. One of the coaches stopped to talk to me. She wanted to know my name and what position I play. I play left wing midfield. So maybe I will get drafted, maybe not. We will see.

Saturday morning I was getting ready to go to soccer tryouts (I never got a call) when I decided to check my school email. The first email in my inbox was from the coach I talked to. I was drafted!!!! I am now a member of the Lady Hurricanes soccer team. I was so excited!!!

So now I didn't have to go to tryouts. Instead I looked up housing for next semester. Megan and I decided to save some money by staying at Aspen Village. The kitchen is only a one butt kitchen, but the bedrooms are bigger than the dorms. We also liked Birch Wood 1, but it is almost $200 more. The rooms and kitchen are bigger than Aspen, but you share an apartment with a total of 6 girls. Plus Birch Wood is near a burn zone or something, because it was all smoky there. And they don't have grass. I want to be able to make a snowman on the grass in the winter.

Yep. That is it I guess. Tomorrow, Monday, we will sign a housing contract for Aspen Village. We also happen to have Family Home Evening over there at the guys dorm. It should be fun, we are playing get to know you games. Anyways, yeah I think that's it.

Here are some pictures from this week:

Peanut Butter Chocolate Banana Shake: 2 frozen bananas, 1 1/2 Tbsp cocoa powder (we used Nesquik), 1c milk, 1 Tbsp maple syrup, 1 heaping Tbsp peanut butter. Blend together. Enjoy!

We made pretzels yesterday!  They are yummy. We didn't actually make pretzels I guess, just mini pretzel rolls.

You can't really see, but Megan got hit by sprinklers on the way to class. It looked like she wet her pants.

This was actually last week. I made peanut butter cookies. The first pan burned. It was sad. Luckily they didn't taste burned.

The second pan was perfect!

Last Sunday we decided to make tortillas. We don't have a rolling pin, so we used a cup.

They turned out all lopsided, but tasted fantastic!

Clean Checks are every Wednesday at 1. This was taken Wednesday at 12:45. We ended up getting a 100% YES!!!

This is our friend the squirrel. We keep our window open all day, to let in a cool breeze. One day Megan walked into our room and saw this little guy climbing on our screen. It jumped off before she could take a picture. We still need to think of a name for him. 

That is all for now! Until next time!

First Week of College Completed!

Classes started on the 10th here at BYUI. It has been pretty exciting. I like all my classes, and pretty much all my teachers are great. I have Book of Mormon, Writing Foundations, American Foundations, Art 101, Art 117 Design and Color, and Art 110 Drawing. I love all my art classes. Art 117 and Art 110 are both online. I have never taken an online class before, but so far so good.

As of now the weather isn't bad. It is a bit chilly in the morning, but warms up in the afternoon. I am super excited for snow. People think I am crazy, but I really, really, really want the sky to dump snow everywhere.

I have met a bunch of people from all around the country. Our ward alone represents 40 something states and I think 3 countries. It is pretty weird going to a YSA ward. It is so quiet. No babies crying or screaming toddlers. It is pretty interesting.

The weekend before classes started we were put into I Teams. Our team is definitely the BEST. We still hang out throughout the week, going to devotionals, watching movies, and playing night games. Fun, fun, fun.

Megan and I are having fun cooking too. It is funny to see how even when following a recipe, the final meal looks completely different than the way Mom cooks it at home. We are still alive, despite our cooking mishaps none the less.

 Anyways, I think that is about it. Here are a few pics ( we are horrible at taking pictures).

Delicious "Aunt Ali's Meatballs" we made last night for dinner.

Me enjoying our first actual meal.

Megan chomping down on her food.

My first college drawing assignment!

My Completed Smash Book

Woo Hoo! I just finished my first Smash Book! They are awesome journal/scrapbook/sketchbooks! Mine is the Doodle Red Smash Book. I love it. I have two more, the Simple Orange and the Mod Black. I can't wait to fill them up. My orange one is for random stuff, and the black will be for my college adventure. Super fun!!!

So here's a look inside:

So here it is! A little thick. It would be nice to have a 1" spine, I would even pay a little extra for it.

My nature page! I love feathers, so I smashed them. Also my favorite part of this page is my lizard Pascal's scales.

This was my first page ever!

My Best Birthday Party Ever! Mine and Megan's Hunger Game party. The best opportunity to kill those friends you don't really like... :)

A little bit of everything...

Fake smiles everyone (they really work)

This is my future. I want to be an animator so bad. I am determined to get to Pixar one day. I will.

So that's it! I hope you like it, and if you don't oh well, I do.