For my Plants in Design class, we’re keeping a journal – the goal of the journal is to document different ways plants are used to enhance built environments which is ultimately what I’ll be doing upon graduation. Fingers crossed the financial recession will be behind us by 2012 when I start looking for a job!
I pulled 3 of my favorite pages out of my journal from last week’s assignment to share. The topic of the assignment was “enclosure” (in terms of plants) and it’s in evidence everywhere I look now. Some work, some don’t and I suppose that’s the benefit of keeping our eyes open – Being able to file away different ways plants work in the landscape for future reference.
For this assignment, we were asked to draw in “plan” (sort of like an aerial view) & section (literally a cross section) to scale. It’s a totally different type of drawing and the scale is really more an approximation since I was measuring the spaces by using my feet as a ruler. It’s a little more technical as far as drawing goes, but it is sort of fun for a geek like me. 
Meanwhile, I picked up 25 lbs of white stoneware clay this afternoon. The Colorado Potters Guild sale is less than 1 month from now and while I don’t have much to show for myself, we are allowing clay jewelry this time around. Guess what I’m making? I really don’t have much time to do much else.
Hey, what do you know? I managed more than 2 posts this week….
~Cynthia
P.S. Tonight we’re going to try a new hot dog stand just a few blocks from our house – Steve’s Snappin’ Dogs. It has something for everyone in the family – big old all beef dog for the hubby, vegetarian dog for Jasmine and Frito-Pie for me! Luckily, I don’t have class tomorrow ;D
Unless you count being a mom, wife, student that is.
Life is happening for sure – it just feels accelerated - is it really almost Friday again? One of the classes I’m taking is called “Plants in Design” which made my head ache during the first 6 weeks of class. We learned how to id plants and had to memorize common names and their Latin names. The latter is what made my head throb – sometimes I’m just not sure how much room my brain has for all this extra info. We had weekly quizzes where we had to identify 15 plants chosen at random by the professor out of the 20 – 30 plants we had learned the previous week. While we only touched the surface on all available plants, we did focus on local native and adapted plants to Colorado and our climate.
Last week, we shifted gears and have started weekly journal assignments. While this relates to landscape design, I was quite relieved to be doing something artistic again and gladly pulled out my water color crayons. Our assignment was to choose a landscape related term and explore that term visually and verbally. Since I have an art background, I decided to analyze color theory and how it relates to the natural and built landscape. I have another page or two to add since I only briefly considered what it would be like to be “color blind” – one of my classmates confessed that he is color blind and gave me more information on how he perceives certain colors. I found out that 52% of men have some version of color blindness – that’s a pretty huge number. Color theory and perception is a huge topic, but I felt like I gave it a good start. For next week’s assignment we will be exploring the topic of “Enclosure”.
Still no clay activity around mi casa. Last weekend was very busy around here, so hopefully, this coming weekend will be more relaxes and allow me to get muddy again so I can bring a few things to the Colorado Potters Guild show in November.
I know my blog is gathering a few cobwebs here and there and with all of my obligations, I find that I’m using Facebook more and more to catch up on everything that is going on with people.
Happy Thursday everyone,
Cynthia
Hello everyone – happy new week (sort of since it’s already Tuesday)! Between being a mom, going back to school and moving, I don’t seem to have enough time in the day to do everything that I want to do. Oh why, oh why do we need to sleep at all? It seems so frivolous to lay unconscious & prone for a good 5-8 hours a day (more if you’re one of the lucky ones). With that said, and realizing my limitations, I resigned as fall show marketing chair for the Colorado Potters Guild a few weeks ago. I just can’t manage to find the time to squeeze in one more obligation – though I haven’t gone cold turkey. As web-mistress for the guild, I agreed to continue in said position and am also doing the online marketing component by delivering event notifications to local online calendars, magazines, newspapers and am establishing a social networking presence. I just don’t have time to cold call and do all the press releases etc.
The Colorado Potters Guild Facebook fan page
As a marketing tool, Facebook just can’t be ignored by businesses, individuals and non-profits. It represents viral marketing at its best like the old Breck shampoo commercial – “I told two friends and they told two friends, and so on…”. While the Colorado Potters Guild’s Facebook page is in its infancy, I think the venue has potential. Today, I am super excited today to learn that I could add our Vertical Response Email Invitation sign up form directly on our Facebook page. I have the sign up form installed on our website – but being able to add it to Facebook should help us attract new invitees who are interested in handmade pottery.
Do you have a Facebook page set up for your business? Do you want to know how to add an opt-in email form to your site? In the search pane, type in “Static FBML” and then click on the application. Once you are on the application’s page, click on the link in the upper left that reads “Add to my page” → then a pop up menu will appear prompting you to select your page → after selecting your page, go to your business page and click on the link under your profile photo that reads “edit” → from here you click on the “static fbml” application and click edit → copy and paste the code given to you from your email marketing company → save your settings. Once you have saved the code, go back to the main page and click on the + sign at the top of your page and from here you can add the tab for your form. Voilà – I’ve tested my form and it’s live. If you use Vertical Response, they have a video tutorial highlighting the process – not hard to do and it took less than 15 minutes to set up.
Meanwhile I have a quiz for which I need to study, a paper to write (luckily I like writing) and am past due for my morning run which means I have to sign off.
Have a great week,
~Cynthia
Agate ware circa 2005-06, cone 6 white and brown stoneware, glazed on inside only.
If you tuned in recently, I want to assure you that I’m much better though I’ve been quiet on the blog front mainly because it’s been a busy weekend. Yesterday, I ran with my training group – about 6.5 miles total for me. I felt great and after a post run breakfast, I headed to the Colorado Potters Guild for our annual group cleaning day. I both dread and loathe the day because cleaning is not on my top 10 list of things to do, but it’s also sort of fun to get together with most of the guild members – this is something that doesn’t happen frequently aside from our biannual sales in the spring and fall. I closed the day by catching a Flobots concert at the Filmore last night with my hubby.
I feel the urge to get my hands in clay this next week – especially after spending time at the Guild yesterday. Even though we were cleaning, there’s nothing like the smell of a pottery studio to get in the mood. 
Architectural scale is triangular in shape and has 6 possible different scales.
Meanwhile, I agreed to do a small scale garden design for a friend of mine. Nothing big – and I knew it would be a good exercise in preparation for returning to school in the fall. I went to her house, took photos, measured and spent this afternoon reacquainting myself with my architectural scale while drawing a “plan view” of her home and garden. I worked in 1/4″ scale meaning that each 1/4″ = 1′ in real life. The project isn’t difficult and I’m only really recommending some plants and hard scape details to replace some ugly overgrown evergreen shrubbery that she removed. She lives in a lovingly restored 1910 bungalow that has been in her family since construction a century ago and I’m recommending plants that are period appropriate that can handle our semi-arid climate based on the hours of sunshine that her yard receives every day.
She keep asking me to name a price, but since I’m not formally trained (yet – though I do have my Colorado Master Gardener certificate handy), I’ve been hedging. I think I will tell her I’ll do it for a few bottles of nice red wine.
Have a great week,
~Cynthia
P.S. My husband thinks I should call my last post “Glazed and Confused”. While I concede that this is a great post title, I’ve file it away for future use.
