RamsdenDesigns

Graduation

Last night I went to my graduation. It was pretty gosh darn exciting. I’d been quite ambivalent about the whole thing most of the time because I’d been so busy working on the business.

However I did have the forethought to go out and buy a new dress and shoes for the occasion. And I’m glad I did because the girls were looking really smart and nobody wants to look like the dowdy mum at their graduation.

There were four of us graduating with the same degree (apparently not everyone goes) and I have to admit I’m fairly certain the other three were far smarter than me. If I’d been as pleasant and confident as they were at that age I’m sure I’d be Prime Minister by now. As it was I was spending a good deal of time at night clubs then. Which is possibly a good thing, the world wasn’t ready for my genius all those years ago.

That’s me, on stage accepting my accolade. You can see I’m so excited to be there I’m almost jumping up and down with joy. But it’s a nice picture…thank goodness.

I think my pants could have been a tad longer.

Greetings Smart People

Hi there, it’s me Jacquie, from Empire of Delight. Normally you wouldn’t think of talking to me, I’m one of those uneducated people who thinks the 7pm Report on Chanel 10  is law and who can’t understand why A Current Affair isn’t taken more seriously. But I have important news today.

See I’m just like you…an educated person. I got my uni results today and according to them I’ve got a Bachelor of Science.

Woot!!

Oops sorry, that’s the TAFE in me talking.

Ok, so I’m pretty late in getting my degree, I’m in my 30’s and definitely way too old for schoolies week and I’ve already done the whole travelling around the world bit but now I’ve got that bit of paper that says I’m officially smart.

S-M-R-T!!

So lets hang out sometime. We can chat about the ETS and Quantum Theory (well I’ll listen and nod a lot because my degree had nothing to do with those things) and we’ll hang out at one of those trendy inner city bars. I’ll wax lyrical about how the summit at Copenhagen is ultimately a metaphor about the Hare and the Tortoise and you can trip the light fantastic, or something.

It’ll be grand.

Blogtoberfest Day 28 – The Day I Began Ticking Off My To-Do List

The fact that I made a to-do list and am making it the highlight of this post shows how thrilling my life is.

The pic below I made at uni for an assignment and printed out an extra copy for myself. Today I hung it up in Little J’s bedroom and for fun took a photo of it.

It’s a movie poster for a made up movie staring of course Little J and introducing, in his very first major motion picture, the talented Tiger as himself. I’m quite become with the poster myself. It’s all sweetness and goodness, just the way kids movies should be. There are no aliens or wise cracking rude little buggers, and definitely no tiny little outfits a la Bratz. Of course the movie is going to be a block buster, after all Colin Firth (that casting was just for me) and Emma Thompson are in it. So there’s bound to be a little Jane Austen influence. Or if you’re a bit younger, say aged around eight, perhaps the duo represent a more Nanny McPhee style.

One for Little C is in the works and is quietly being thought about. If she could just sit still for more than a second I might be able to get a semi decent photo of her.

Dora the Explorer has taken center stage in our house lately. Little C has a new persona and goes by the name Dora and has managed to kidnap Diago’s pet Baby Jaguar and transform it into a stuffed toy kitten. Little J and I have been regulated to the roles of Swiper, Boots and Map…depending on the whims of Dora.

Now my head is clear of all things university related I’ve realised just how many hours there are in the day. Filling them isn’t a problem however. It’s amazing how much time one can spend sweeping floors, wiping bench tops and singing nursery rhymes so two year olds have something to dance to. So before I completely lose myself to running the house and start subscribing to Martha Stewart magazines I’ve written out a substantial to-do list for the business and have been working to tick each task off.

When something interesting is ticked off you can be sure I’ll post about it right here.

Blogtoberfest Day 27 - The Day I Started Blogging Again

Ok, I'm back. Getting the last of the assignments finished has been exhausting but it's done and done.

I guess we can all conclude this month has been a blogging disaster and Blogtoberfest a dismal failure, but normal transmission starts again tomorrow.

The least I can do is finish the month!

Blogtoberfest Day 21 - The Day The Stress Hits The Fan

Egats! I'm starting to feel it. With two assignments due on Friday and another due on Monday I'm starting to get that wired-out feeling I always get when hit with a uni deadline.

It's possible of course to get it all done and not have a nervous breakdown at the same time but I still feel very jittery. The problem with the two assignments due on Friday is they are design based. What that means is they are never finished, they could always be improved. So I am constantly looking at something and thinking it's not good enough (and when it comes to my Photoshop skills it appears that's true) and there is also the worry that some technique I've done is just that particular thing the lecturer hates with a passion...and if he has to look at another assignment with that in it he'll scream.

With regards to Empire of Delight news, everything is going fantastic but I want to wait till this weekend is over before I start posting about that. So brace yourself for several days of "uni stress is killing me" posts. You have been warned.

To lighten up the post here is a still image of the animation project I'm working on with two other students. They are infinitely better at animation than me but I am keeping up, just.

In this scene is my dinosaur toy and a Wolverine toy. We're having a nice chat in our owners bedroom (designed by me). We're just about to notice Johnny-no-mates coming up to say hello which will cause Wolverine to roll the skateboard towards him, tripping him up.

 

My dinosaur is a bit of a stupid character. He's kind of the bumbling sidekick that just goes along with everyone else. I think he's adorable.

Blogtoberfest Day 18 - The Day At The Races

See! Missed a few days of blogging and now I look delinquent in my Blogtoberfest duties.

Despite my very dull life I've been very busy. Yesterday was spend at uni doing an animation for a group project. I despise group projects, there is always one person who doesn't pull their weight and this time it looks like it's me. Except I finally put the hard yards in on Saturday and made significant contributions, therefore redeeming myself in the eyes of my teams mate who I'm sure were thinking I was a bit useless.

Big B took us to the races (except Little J who is sleeping over at her cousins place). and it thankfully wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Except the sun gave me a headache (and this is why I stay in doors).

The next week is going to be really busy. I've got assignments due and markets to get ready for.

In Limbo

Uni assignments have dragged me away from soap making. And it’s dull and boring uni work too. I made this over the weekend:

He’s a jigsaw dino for a group animation I have to do. He’s not rigged up yet but by the end of the week I’ll have him walking, chewing imaginary grass and looking around. He’s pretty, I like him.

There’s plenty more I could be doing, business wise I have a tonne of work to do.

• Finalise the core colours for my scents that will be representing them
• Make up labels ready for the printers
• Work out codes for each item for sale
• Start catalogue for wholesale orders
• Make up an order form for wholesale orders
• Keep working on a whipped butter recipe (it must be perfect)
• Congratulate self on awesome scrub and lip balm recipe

Get Ready For…

…the ‘I can’t handle the stress’ posts that will soon be flying thick and fast. Uni is starting its relentless pressure and last week I needed to hand in two assignments. Wouldn’t it be exciting to show you what I did?

No…not really. One was a website made using CSS, XML and XLST. Hardly thrilling stuff. The second was a 30 second animation, which while I’d actually like to post on the blog is sitting on my uni desktop refusing to be downloaded onto my external hard drive. Something about formatting on PC means it won’t work on Mac blah blah blah!

But here’s a screen capture:

Can you see what it is? On the left is my Maya software to make and animate 3D, showing four views; top, front, left and perspective. And on the right is a render of the perspective screen showing what the final images will look like.

I had to animate a ‘simple machine’. Modelling is my favourite thing to do when it comes to 3D and the machine is my little baby, a huge eye on some joints that is connected to a half ball on the ground so it can rock around. Not a useful machine, and lets face it, the fun ones never are but he’s cute and he works well as an animation. Considering this was my first time using Maya I’m happy with the results. Navigating around a new application is frankly a nightmare, it’s like being dumped in the middle of a foreign city and told you have only a certain amount of time to find some landmarks. You know what they look like but don’t know their names, and you only know part of the language too so the tour guides are next to useless.

A Post For Mum

Mums over in Germany right now so I thought I’d better post something about what the kids are up to.

Brace yourself…some of it’s not pretty.

Little C after ANOTHER session in the pantry. This time it was the Nutella, an entire tub of the stuff actually. In seven days Little C managed to:

1. Play tennis with the eggs.
2. Paint herself with a tub of vegemite.
3. Plonk half a kilo of cheese on the carpet.
4. Waste a tub of Nutella.
5. Hide a tub of butter under the coffee table.

That's it. For now.

It was a big day for Little J at the school assembly on Wednesday. Her class was putting on a play and she had the exciting role of running out into the crowd and catching a pretend cricket ball.  It was a serious job picking out her costume for the task. We finally decided on a pink shirt and denim shorts.

For some reason Little J was convinced she was performing a guitar solo at the same assembly and was in a bit of a tizz about it. Said solo was answered with blank stares by the teachers so we happily put the guitar away.

Shame really, I was looking forward to “Hot Cross Buns” played several times on the stage.

Little J is my model for a uni assignment. I have to produce a photo in the style of Annie Leibovitz and chose a princess theme to help. Tiger the cat was insisting on joining in the photo shoot and even chased off two Dalmatians that ventured too close. He is the funniest cat.

Despite the cold Little J was a trooper. I love the intensity in her face.

Day 87 - 91

Ok peeps, it’s the final countdown. So what have I been doing?

Sleeping!!!

And it feels so good. Last week I felt like I was just some kind of walking zombie, fatigue was the only thing I could think of. At first I thought it was the stress getting to me but then I remembered “What stress??!!” Now after a few nights of quality sleep I have renewed energy.

This week I’ve been bath bombing, working on my business plan and buying stock. It’s really disappointed me that I won’t get my initial goals for the 100 days done due to financial restrictions but I’m not beating myself up about it. Things are still going very well and if it takes me a bit longer to get the ingredients I need than so be it.

Tomorrow will be spent at uni discussing the intricacies of polygons and layer masks and vectors and levels. Lost? Me too.

Shout out to my dad, who won’t be reading this…he only looks at the pictures.