Here's To Savannah

       This summer started off with a bang. Two days after I finished my spring semester, I left for vacation adventure with my best friend, Karen, to Savannah, GA. It was our first big trip and we hope there are many more to come over the years. We stayed in a beautiful hotel and spent our days exploring the city.  It's a gorgeous little town with beautiful park squares and quaint little shops. It was a memorable trip and I'd definitely recommend Savannah as a great little vacation spot. 

Our Hotel Room

Amazing trees in Savannah

Of course I found the cutest fabric shop ever 

Karen and I out exploring

Shopping: My Favorite

I want to live right there

I love this place

Out and About

We even got to go to the beach and I got SUNBURNT

Clouds

Unfortunately we missed this fashion show by a weekend!

Oh so pretty...

Enjoying the park squares

And after my lovely vacation, I came back to the world of reality of working full time 6 days a week. It was an amazing trip and just what I needed to start off my summer. 

Saying Goodbye

My Grandpa passed away yesterday morning. The past two days have been hard. I'm not ready to let go of Grandpa. I know he is having a beautiful celebration with Jesus, I just wasn't ready. I look at my life and think, "I'm only 20 and I want him to be here much much longer." I want him to be at my wedding. I want him to meet my children. I want him to see me live out my life and be proud of me. I want him to tell me stories from when he was a young boy. I want to go fishing with him one last time.

My Grandpa has been one of the most inspirational men that I've known. I've grown up seeing him serve the Lord and loving others with the heart of Jesus. Even as the caner started to take over his brain, he still knew every word to every hymn he has ever sung, and all through his life and through his sickness he has praised the Lord. I've watched his tender spirit to the Lord and admired their close relationship, and I know that I want to experience that same closeness. I want to live a life of service and sacrifice to others, just like Grandpa did. 

Grandpa, I'm going to miss going and getting crickets to fish with, and going to the zoo, and listening to your kind, but strong voice pray. I'm going to miss playing Uno and feeding the ducks with you, but I will never forget all the memories we've made. My life has been changed because of you. Here's to you, Grandpa. I love you!

Let's Party

So I turned 20 recently. Well, almost a month ago and it was great! I got to go see my boyfriend, Jon, for the weekend. It was quite the birthday. He did everything he could to make my time there very special.

1. He baked me a cake. Not just a box cake. A cake from SCRATCH and that's pretty impressive. Not only did he bake me a cake, he also decorated it.

2. We went swimming with manatees! That was quite the experience. Manatees happen to be rather large.

Aren't goggles just so attractive?

3. He was so sweet and made me delicious dinners and made the whole weekend wonderful. Turning 20  was definitely memorable. I had a blast.

I really like this guy! He's pretty sweet!

A Backstage Pass

Now that I've shown off the collection, it's time to talk about the show. I don't think I've ever experienced more stress in my life then a few days before the show as I was finishing up all the last details, fitting models, and pulling everything together. I took every opportunity to sew as you can see in the picture below:

I never imagined I'd be lugging a heavy sewing machine around school and sewing at the booth in the cafeteria for everyone to stare and say, "what in the world is that crazy girl doing?" I was running on pretty much no sleep and coffee was the only way I kept my eyes open. 

My collection hanging backstage

Me backstage trying not to be too stressed before the show

The day of the fashion show was very busy and it all went by in a blur. The show started. I waited nervously behind the curtains to model for my friend Dionne, and then rushed off the stage and started getting all my models changed and ready. Before I knew it, suddenly all the time had expired and I watched as my models walked out on stage. It was so cool to see the garments that I had spent hours creating come to life on the runway. All my hard work was presented before an audience and that felt like such a wonderful accomplishment and a great relief to know that I was DONE! 

This is my friend Dionne's collection. I was one of her models for the show. 

My friend Claire showing off one of my outfits

Me and my models hanging out backstage

Me and some more of my models

My friend Dionne and I. Wouldn't have made it through the show without her. 

Overall it was a great success and a wonderful and valuable experience. As much as I wanted to just pull all my hair out most of the time, I'm so happy that I was able to pull it off and present a collection in the fashion show. 

The Collection

Here is my collection just a little bit closer:

This is a maxi dress with a one shoulder flower strap. 

Close-up of the strap. I also made the earrings to go along with the collection.

This is a gray suede dress with pockets. The flower necklace is removable.

Close-up of the necklace

It's a halter jumpsuit! I loved this fabric and was so happy I could incorporate it in my collection. 

v-neck maxi. Super simple, super comfortable, super elegant.

The back

Shorts, shirt and, vest combo.

Blouse with a polka dotted wrap skirt. It ties at the side, but it's hard to tell in the picture. 

Blouse and skirt

Close up of the collar and tie on the blouse. 

I Hit the Runway

I've been designing and constructing garments for the past couple months all in preparation for a fashion show at my college: JCCC. Last night I finally put down my needle and thread to watch as my 7 look collection walked down the runway. It's an incredible feeling to see something you've spent countless hours on be shown to a whole room full of people. It's also a big sigh of relief knowing that you are done and can now move on to the next collection. I'm very proud of the collection I produced and hope you like it too. I call my collection Lauren James in honor of a dear friend of mine and my Grandpa. This collection is sophisticated, wearable, and fun. Here is a video of it: (I will be posting more about the show soon complete with pictures so you can get a closer look at the collection)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=YwtOSHft1bc

Sewing the day before the show at school. Oh the life of a fashion student.

The Whole Sha-BANG

This has been a great and memorable Holiday season for sure. The whole gang came for Christmas this year. Don't we all look so good?

We had a great time together and I got to spend some quality time with the nephews and niece. 

Caspian really bonded with me and I think quite possibly I was his favorite this time. =)

I also got the opportunity to go visit my boyfriend Jonathan and his family in Florida for new years. They waited to have Christmas with me, so we did a lot of celebrating. It was a wonderful time and actually ended up getting colder than Kansas. Isn't that impossible? 

We baked sugar cookies with his grandma.

With all the rest of my free time I've been sewing and sewing and sewing. I'm working on a collection for the JCCC Fashion Show. I'm so excited about it. 

Yep, this is exactly what I've been doing. This fabric is going to be made into shorts. 

And in order to keep myself from going insane while cutting out tons of fabric I've been listening to:

This pretty much sums up my life the past month or so. I hope to be posting pictures of my collection soon.