Gorgeous sunny day in Vancouver

Slept in today, went to class around 11 and talked to Erin about my progress of my major project. Did some of my diversity project work that is due next week. Got to put it all together and photograph it, put it into illustrator then fit it to size, save it as pdfs and print it out and mount it on foam core. Next, had our mentor presentations, mine isn't till next week but, heard many mentor experiences from my classmates who are due for presentations today. Something interesting came up that I would like to share with all of you. Joseph mentored at Rethink, and he told us what an amazing experience he had and this video that he shared with us stuck with me. Rethink did a video for the Langara college scholarship. It's totally inventive and very interactive. Check it out!

Last day at HQ

my work station at HQ

the studio at HQ design

Kate's desk

on my right hand side: the patio
sun light streams into my desk area

coffee station

the artwork around the studio

So, today was my last day at HQ. I'm sad that its time for me to go but the experience was definitely worthwhile. I wanted to make them something special before I left. So, I remembered this one time when Kelly mentioned that she met her client from the Lime and Moon pie company about wanting a website done for them. And they came in with a freshly baked apple pie. She mentioned that she was expecting a strawberry rhubarb pie instead because that was her favorite so I've always remembered that scenario so I took the time to look up a recipe and I baked them a strawberry rhubarb pie. Recipe courtesy of food network.

Here it is:

putting all the ingredients together

my pie crust

adding the ingredients into the crust

the pie shell on

TA DA! its done

Here is the recipe:

Grandmother's Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients

Crust:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional flour as needed, up to 1/4 cup
• 1/2 cup cake flour (recommended: Soft As Silk)
• 3 teaspoons sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening (recommended: Crisco)
• 1/4 cup salted butter
• Pinch salt
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vinegar
• 1/4 cup ice cold water

Filling:

• 2 1/2 cups chopped red rhubarb, fresh
• 2 1/2 cups de-stemmed, washed and cut strawberries (in larger pieces)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar (1 1/4 cups for high altitude)
• 2 tablespoons minute tapioca
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons butter, cubed small
• 1 egg white beaten with 1 teaspoon water
• Large granule sugar

Crust Preparation:

Directions

Using 2 pastry blenders, blend the flours, sugar, shortening, butter and salt. Whisk the egg, vinegar and water in a 2-cup measure and pour over the dry ingredients incorporating all the liquid without overworking the dough. Toss the additional flour over the ball ofdough and chill if possible. Divide the dough into 2 disks. Roll out 1 piece of dough to make a bottom crust. Place into a pie dish. Put dish in refrigerator to chill.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Filling Preparation:

Mix the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, tapioca, flour, zest and juice of lemon, dash of cinnamon, and vanilla. Mix well in a large bowl and pour out into chilled crust. Dot the top of the filling with the butter. Brush edges of pie crust with egg white wash. Roll out the other piece of dough and place over filling. Crimp to seal edges. Brush with egg white wash and garnish with large granule sugar. Collar with foil and bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Decrease temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for an additional 45 to 50 minutes, or until the filling starts bubbling. Higher altitude will take 450 degrees F and 400 degrees F respectively. Also, you can use a pie bird for extra decor. Let cool before serving.

Grandma's Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe-Food Network

TIP: I read the reviews and many people used 3-4 tsps of cornstarch instead of tapoica.

By the way this was my first time baking a pie using rhubarb. And yesterday night around 8:30pm, I was struggling to find rhubarb at Superstore. See why...

Can you spot the difference? Which one is rhubarb?

So, I didn't buy any rhubarb that night. Apparently my mom told me we had frozen rhubarb at home. So, I used that instead. But, the thing with it being frozen there is still a lot of moisture in the rhubarb when defrosted. So, it would make my pie more watery. And since it wasn't fresh, it wasn't the best either. Even worse was, since it was a last minute idea. I wasn't able to make 2 pies. Only one! so I couldn't see if it was good or not. But, at the end of the day, Kelly mentioned to me that Claire, her daughter said the pie was delicious! and that was all I needed to hear. Nevertheless, I will have to make the pie again to see for myself.

Talking about baked goods. My future endeavor is to learn how to make my current favorite cake from Save on Foods, their strawberry shortcake (which I found the recipe for!) awesome! and one of my favorite pastries is the Walnut Napoleon from Anna's cakehouse.

Walnut Napoleon: layers of yummy goodness

I'm so thankful for Ian and Kelly for taking me in and mentoring me during this past month. I've enjoyed my time there and I've also met some great people, their family, Kate and Kelly Chen. There is a saying about giving back to the industry and one of them is through teaching/instructing. And, Ian and Kelly did just that for me. I've learned a lot and I really got a sense of what the 'outside' working world is like now. As, Keith taught us, we are given many projects at a certain time and we need to learn to manage our time and to juggle all our project deadlines. Now, I fully understand why he would assign so many projects during the semester. It was sad to go but, I'm so grateful that they took the time to take me in and teach me a few tricks of the trade. Thanks again! I understand why HQ design is so successful. I hope to see them again.

ANSWER: top is rhubarb, bottom is swiss chard

Is Owen asleep?

Check this out: video made by my classmates

Garfield: I hate mondays....I say: me too!

Just as Garfield hates mondays I detest mondays too and also raisins...so here's a recap of my weekend. Friday, went and did some damage to my wallet...went shopping. Here's my buys:

items: one hot pink tank top, 2 short sleeve button up tops, 2 long sleeve plaid button up tops, one oversized black knit top, grey & blk knit top, and two underwears.

Quite an eventful weekend, well maybe just that crazy sat where me and boyfriend cooked for around 13 ppl. Yes, just the two of us. And it was last minute planning too so that was quite a challenge but, nevertheless it was successful. Here is what we did:

Our plan was to combine home cooked food plus a BBQ. So we made a vegetarian dish: the Michael Man Vegetable Casserole. 3 home made pizzas: 1 vegetarian, 1 shrimp/chicken, 1 meat w/salami, bologna. We marinated chicken wings, drumplets, steak and chicken breasts for BBQ. And that was more then enough food for the evening.

vegetable casserole: (Michael man's recipe) consists of: brocolli, carrots, celery, onions, cheddar cheese soup, shaved cheddar cheese, pasta and shake and bake topping.

marinated steak: with BBQ sauce, garlic and onions.

cutting up some onions (surprisingly I did not shed a tear)

mushrooms and red+yellow peppers for pizza

chicken wings + drumsticks marinated in spicy teriyaki sauce and garlic. 

(me ♥ garlic!)

PIZZA DOUGH! Michael man's specialty 

marinated shrimp in garlic powder

oh! the reason for this epic adventure was for Michael's dad's birthday! Happy Birthday Uncle Wade! I hope he likes his party that we threw together. Who doesn't enjoy a surprise birthday party surrounded by the people you love? It was a busy day but it was all worth it in the end.

Sunday

Didn't do much cause I was pooped out and so was hun. We slept until 1pm in the morning, ate the leftovers from the night before and watched Beverly Hill Cops 2 featuring Eddie Murphy. Rested a bit and cleaned the house. Watched Daywatch...interesting movie...I liked how they use the type and incorporate it into the film (since it was a foreign film) I believe it was in polish or russian. I forgot. I rate it 3 stars! Tried to watch Stomp the Yard: Homecoming but that was boring as ever...couldn't even finish it so we just went and ate dinner.

Everybody is looking forward to the weekend!

Met up with Jess to go over some details for the venue on May 12 for the David Carson speaker night. Decided that we needed to have a group meeting as well as a chat with Ken about the event rental details. Afterwards, I went on a shopping spree!!! tee hee! my goal was to find a pair of pointy black heels for my graduation ceremony but the only ones I still preferred were the Guess ones from Winners. Still iffy about spending $80 on them. So, I went to look for other choices and I found a great deal for plaid button ups I bought like 4 different kinds...short sleeves, quarter sleeves, full sleeves and of course a range of colors. Mostly, spring colors cause spring is here. I found the cutest little orange dress/romper at forever 21 that I wanted but they didn't have my size...boo hoo....and check this one out...really cute and in my favorite color but no size...boo hoo x2

love how its light and springy not to much patterns which I like and the belt is a great compliment to the dress. I want so bad. *sniff *sniff

Food Coma!

Before I pass out I'll share a little bit of what I did today so far. My goal today was to finish off with the wedding invitations for my sister. Get it printed and ready to mail out and done with. Gosh was I wrong. Since I've chosen to print my invites at Kinkos...I spent $55 on useless trial and error. What a great way to start the day. The colors were fine the paper selection was limited and I was unhappy about the paper stock they had. But we had to make due with the budget I had. But, the printing was good here and there and it wasn't consistent...so overall, I have to go checkout another printer to get a better result because I don't like it. We went to Jang Mo Jib in Richmond since my sister was craving for korean food. This is what we got:

Mahn Doo Jub See: Korean style homemade steamed dumpling served with house special soy sauce.

 Side dishes: consisting of kimchi, seaweed, sweet potatoes and radishes.

Dol Sot Bee Bim Bahb: assorted preserved vegetables, sauteed beef, kimchi, onions and fried egg served on rice in a hot stone bowl, served with homemade hot chilli paste.

Sahl Go Gee Dahng Myun: Sliced beef with sweet potato noodle in beef broth served with sea salt and green onions and rice.

 Bee Bim Naeng Myun: Korean cold, chewy noodle in homemade hot chilli paste.

Doen Jang Soon Doo Boo: Soya bean paste, radish, onion, green onion, mushroom and beef with soft tofu soup in clay hot pot.

Soon Dae Gook Bahb: assorted sliced pork organis and korean blood sausage in spicy soup served with rice.

Sides: everything was alright preferred Chosun's sides better

Overall, it was an alright meal. Nothing special except the blood sausage noodle I ate from Winston's dish. It was quite interesting a regular sausage but with pork blood and potato noodles in it.

 It was quiet on a thursday during lunch time and the service was extremely slow with only one waitress serving the 3-4 tables there. Overall experience: ☆☆☆/5

in-spuh-rey-shuhn

it's a gorgeous day today and I couldn't help myself and not get out and enjoy the sunshine. I was inspired to do some painting today so I made a trip to Michael's to purchase some items. I needed to get a new palette, canvases and some cold paper press paper. I also purchased some colorful cardstock paper for future card making endeavors. I also found a on sale lilac scrapbook for only $3.49 original price was $34.99 what a deal! had to get it! I bought a stamp pad for my diversity wall idea. I wanted my pieces to be as "raw" as possible so I'm taking things I see in everyday life into my work. Here are my purchases:

Screws Better Than Glues

last workshop day! weeee! finally our group is done! our theme was thinking big: about jobs, careers, preparation and making a positive impact in society. Great examples is the (red) campaign and the tap water project. Check it out! (red) campaign and the tap water project:

The other workshop was about manifestos + calls to action. I learned that manifestos are beliefs and calls to action are taking our beliefs and making it happen. They gave examples such as consumerism: selling one big idea "the more we consume the better our lives become." The message that consumerism brings into society. So, what do you think? "consumer"= dirty word? as Alan Chochinov asked.

my weekend

Been watching lots of movies lately, Megamind, Street Fighter: Legend of Chun Li (which I still have to finish) btw lots of fob accents and really bad acting but what can I say I was to interested to see what they have done to butcher this very popular video game. Easy A, Tangled > (which I really enjoyed watching: I shed a tear it was very touching)

Friday
didn't do too much just watched some movies listed above...did some homework for my exhibit team: storyboards for the SFU building as well as the Pendulum gallery. Worked on my major project: still having trouble coming up with a logo as well as the structure for my booklet.

Saturday
met up with boyfriend later in the day, chilled at his place...had steak and veggies...it was super yummy! and the meal consisted of my favourite veggies: mushrooms and zucchini...delish!

 First step: "marination" ingredients to marinate the beef was garlic, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and oil.

then you blend all the ingredients into the meat...rub all the ingredients into it so, the meat absorbs the flavour. Best results: overnight "marination"

with a wok or a pan...just brown all sides...(10-15mins) depending on how well you like your meat cooked: the result of ours was medium done. Brown on the outside, juicy and red on the inside. Nice and tender.

Sunday
woke up earlier then usual...got a lot of stuff done....we realized how much we got done by 2pm...worked out, made lunch, prepared dinner, and cleaned the house...it was quite amazing...usually we would sleep in till 12. We made tacos (hard/soft) tortilla with homemade guacamole, salsa and baked steak and chicken...it was delicious. Watched Dinner with the Schmucks and Cyrus.

homemade salsa: tomato, white onion (you could substitute with red) italian parsley (best with chinese parsley: "flat leaf parsley") depending on your tastes...italian parsley is quite strong while, the chinese parsley has a hint of parsley flavour that adds flavour but not overpowering the other ingredients included in the salsa. We just had to make due with what we had in the fridge. All ingredients chopped finely and ta da! your done! easy and simple and very healthy and delicious!

suggestions: you can eat it with bread, or tortilla chips, or even regular flavour chips.

oh yah during the weekend: we drove by a "very good looking car" the new 2011 CR Z Honda Hybrid Sports Car Coupe....oh was it ever sexy....the person inside not so much but the exterior...man on man!

Finally tried the Haagen Dazs: Green Tea & Honey Vanilla Flavour...it was silky smooth and "oh so gud" w/fob acccent.

rating: ☆☆☆☆/5

Here is some Haagen-Dazs ads I found while looking for pictures:

interesting take on incorporating the concept of tea into a ice cream advertisement.

Me and ice cream. Best friends forever!

When life is uncertain, eat dessert first and think about it another time. ohhhhh....haagen-dazs!

Designing for kids

So, right now I'm stuck with ideas on how to make my youth kit more attractive and appealing to my target audience kids ages 13-15. So, as I'm web surfing online I found some of my favorite childhood books. Take a look!

 What are some of your favorite childhood books?

GDMA Pub Fundraiser

Before I forget, we are having our last fundraiser for this year. It's going to be held at the Rose & Crown in Tsawwassen on Saturday March 19th. Hope you can all come out to support our grad of 2011.

Time: Saturday, March 19

11am-11:30pm

Location: The Rose & Crown Pub

1203 56th St.

Tsawwassen, BC

More info: 

Kwantlen's 2011 GDMA Students are at it again!

Come out to the Rose & Crown on Saturday March 19th for a night to remember. Everyone loves free stuff and we've got tons to give away. Were starting at 11am and going all day folks. Stop by for lunch, dinner or drinks and buy some raffle tickets. If you can't make it, make sure you buy some raffle tickets prior to the evening from your 4th year GDMA'ers. The prizes are of epic proportions! 

Were Talkin:

- A Team Canada Jonathan Toews signed Olympic Jersey!!!

- A set of Canucks Tickets

- A Packers Jersey, Aaron Rodgers MVP

- A men's Bulova watch

And so much more, gift baskets like you wouldn't believe! Whether you like golf, coffee, beauty products... you name it, were giving it away!

So stop by on Saturday or buy some raffle tickets! Hope to see you all there!

A big thanks from your 2011 GDMA'ERS!!!

mentor at HQ Design day 4

At the home office it's 9:09am, and its a start of a long day...currently looking at the commercial drive website that they have designed. Check it out here: commercial drive and here is the brochure they are refreshing.