Big Ben - London - Lego Review

Guess what I got for Christmas?  Yep, that is right, some architecture Legos!  So exciting.  I do love these little buildings, just like the real thing....  Actually I think it was the most genius idea Lego ever had.  Afterall, a lot of architects played with Lego as a kid, and have a passion for them.  However, I hate the little kits for spaceships and such, who care?  But, I do love the build with them.  So to make famous landmarks?  It is like every little architect's dream.  I love mine, and yes, I have even seen them in architects offices before.  They are fun!  So today I thought I'd do a little review / tutorial thing.

It comes in this nice box, the picture on the front of what you are going to build.

It also comes with this fun little book that teaches you, step by step how to build it, so easy.

My favorite part of the book is that it has cool pictures and information about the buildings that I never knew.

 

I opened it, it has the blocks nicely sorted in plastic by size.

Starting the build.  This is always one of the best parts, no idea why I love the base so much.

It gets taller, can you see the cool sides?  I just loved building them.

Upwards, most of the layers were similar, and they hid these black pieces inside, so fun.

Then it had me build these little structures.

And then I put them on!  With more of the cool sides.

The tower is coming along, layer after layer.

Then it had me build the top.  Not sure why I could just put it on, but I made it separately.

The finished product!  Whoohoo!  I love this thing.  It now sits nicely on my shelf by the Sydney Opera House.

Crazy right?  I love these things, they are so easy to do, and so much fun.  It feels like you are building the best architecture in the world.  I also love all the idiosyncrasies that it has.  Love, and love again.

Merry Christmas All!

I just thought I would share some photos I had made, long, long ago in AutoCAD.  I was trying to get a well lite tree shot, but alas, it never got very lite like a Christmas tree would look.  But, it was still a very fun picture.  I really like colors that ended up on the tree.  Love it, hope you do to.

50+ AutoCAD blocks freebie

Hey guys, today I wanted to share with you something that has been terribly helpful to be when designing houses, and those are blocks. 

As many of you know, I love to use AutoCAD to create all my floor plans in.  Have always loved it, and always will.  But it is hard to create a plan from scratch, trust me, I've tried.  So instead I like to use blocks.  They are like little drawings of things that you can put in and don't have to draw them up yourself. 

Here are a few of them for you to take a plan with.  It is super helpful to me, and hope it will be for you.  Linky  Right click and download will probably work the best for you.

Unique Fun Pool Design

Hey guys, I have been enjoying looking back on some old designs that I have done, and I came across this wonderful design for a pool.  I don't get a nice pool here in Utah, what with there being snow half of the year, but I have always had such a romantic with pools.  I loved this one because it was unique as well as having a striking graphical presence.  I made the basic design in AutoCAD years ago, and just now updated it as well as made it graphical in Photoshop, for those of you that aren't in my head and know what the lines mean.  Here, it is, enjoy!

Harmony's House Plans

Hey guys, as I have been looking back at my old AutoCAD drawings, I have found this whole set of house plans. That's right, a whole set. If you really wanted, you could take them all to the city and get them approved to build, along with paperwork of course. However, I wouldn't, because first, my cousin lives on the property and you'd have to demolish her house. And second, as I have learned, since I made these, like eight years ago, it isn't that great of a design, and has issues. Anyways, I hope you enjoy looking at them anyways. If you ever wonder why it takes so long for architects to design something for you, we have to design and come up with all of this, so.... be patient.

my experiences visting general conference 2014

Hey guys, so recently in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we had a historic meeting of women.  It was the first Women's Meeting as a part of general conference, and I was invited to apply to sing in the choir.  It was exciting to just be in the group that might sing.  I was not chosen for the choir, they picked 'at random,' although I think if you had family also applying you got priority, and I did not.  But, the application asked some fun questions that I thought I would share my answers with you.

Please share a brief, memorable musical experience.  (and we got two lines to write it on....)
Singing a solo of "Oh What Songs of the Heart" at my Grandfather's funeral, being able to bear testimony of the Plan of Salvation to my inactive family. This was a great time in life, I was sort of nervous, but was super glad to be able to share what I knew to be true with my family, most of which don't have the same beliefs.

If chosen, what do you hope to learn from this experience (musically or spiritually)?
How great the awe and majesty of singing with a large group of sisters in the grand conference center would be.  And think about it, wow.  If only there had been a way to capture that I wanted to sing in such a great hall, not because it is big and such, but because I appricate it for the architectural wonder that it is.  If you haven't seen it, or paid attention, it has no collums.  That's right, none.  So cool.  And to be singing with that many sisters, cool.  I have got to sing in the Tabernacle, and it is suppose to have better sound anyways, so...

source: http://www.byujourneys.org/

My Mother and I did get tickets to go to the Saturday morning session of conference, which was pretty cool.  So, we did get to go and see some.  I have done that before, but it was fun to take my Mother this time.

If you want to go ahead and learn more about the LDS church, click here and learn.  You can also look at my profile, but it is small, for now. 

Chair Design

Hello.  Lately I have been looking through some of my old CAD drawings, and came across this fun little one.  It is now updated to have some color added, but...  I originally planned to make this chair, but haven't got to it.  Maybe one day I will make it and then post a picture for all of you to see.  Or better yet, why don't you make one and send it to me to see!

Small Cabin Floor Plan

I have decided to design a cabin floor plan.  In my head this is built out of logs, a little log cabin.  It is the perfect little retreat to go up to in the mountains.  I find this to be terribly romantic.  I would love to have a cabin to just escape to every so often.  As you can see there isn't much to do in this little cabin, pretty much just eat, sleep, and relax.  I think everybody needs a nice clean place like that somewhere in the mountains to escape to every so often.

Like all good daydreams, I put this into AutoCAD to save for later, and now for you to enjoy this little escape in  my head as well.  Come back later.

(Note:  If you have such a place that I could use for the weekend, I would love it.  Please and Thanks!)

i designed a new home plan, take a look

I recently had a job interview, and the challenge was to create a 1700 sqft home plan, within a day.  I took on the challenge, since it sounded very fun.  Here is what I came up with.  Thought you'd enjoy a look.

Technology That Empowers Me

We all have certain technology that we love.  Some are the same, some are vastly different.  Today I would like to share with you some of the technology that I love.  In no particular order:

 

My Kindle.  Oh, how I love my Kindle. I keep my email, facebook, pinterest, twitter, and many other accounts on it, ready to be checked regularly.  We bond, many hours a day.  It is my way to unwind, and play.  I even have it set up to remind me of things, and let me know when someone wants to contact me.  Love it.

Ah, favorite program ever.  I started using AutoCAD when I was a junior in high school, a long 12 years ago.  As I use it, the mouse just becomes a sort of extension of my arm, and I can quickly draw up floor plans, elevations, and sections.  I have used a lot of drafting programs in my day, a lot, and still love AutoCAD the most.  A lot of people think that AutoCAD is being replaced by BIM technologies, and I agree, I still love AutoCAD the most.

I love Photoshop.  What did I ever do without it?  I don't know.  I can edit photos I have taken, either for sell, marketing, wedding announcements, or just fun.  I can also edit scans, great for my families genealogy, making old documents readable again.  I can enlarge tiny old pictures to big beautiful art.  I love working with Photoshop, and can't imagine how to do things without it.  I have used other programs, yes, and I know how to work them, but Photoshop is by far the easiest and most versatile program out there.

Coming close behind Photoshop, is InDesign.  How can InDesign possibly live up to Photoshop's standards?  Afterall, most people love Photoshop but haven't heard of InDesign.  Well, I love it for layouts.  Sure, you can do it in Photoshop, but man....  You see, Photoshop deals with pixels, tiny dots, which is fine for pictures, but not for text.  Text is vector based, so you can change the font size without it getting pixelated, and it stays strong.  It is also way easier to move things around with InDesign.  You can also create documents, with multiple pages, instead of just a single page picture.  It is great and I turn to it for all my design needs.

And lastly,  a good old paper and pencil.  I write down, so much.  I keep I journal, yes, and write all the time.  I keep lists of important things.  I love to write down things to remember.  I write down thoughts.  I also love to sketch out ideas that I have in my head, it not only helps me remember them, but helps me figure out solutions as well.  I don't just use pencils, sometimes I use pens, markers, sharpies, colored pencils, or just about anything that is around on just about any writable surface that is around.  I do try to not use so much paper, but I love it, and I use it.  However, I do reuse it, so hopefully I am cutting down on my consumption of paper.

Now, what kind of technology empowers you?

Apartment Floor Plan

I daydream, a lot.  Mostly in which I am doing something I wish that I was doing in real life, but am not.  A lot of those include famous people, and I know that it is not happening, ever.  However, I have noticed an interesting trend in my daydreams, a lot of them include me designing houses.  I can't tell you how many of the same daydream I have had, yet they have multiple houses.

This is an apartment that came about when I was daydreaming.  I then had to put it down in AutoCAD so I could save it.  I really like the different angles of the walls, creating some fun spaces.  It is a quaint place, yet roomy because it somehow involved a rich star.  Someone from Harry Potter, I'll let you guess who.

Be My Guest (House Plan)!

I have recently been having fun with some older designs that I had floating in my head.  Some people design jewelry when bored, some artwork, some computer games.  Some do it via hand sketching, some just make, and some use the computer.  My passion - house, my weapon of choice - AutoCAD.

This is a house that I have had the basic shape of in my head for years.  It was just a fun thing to have the top completely rotated from the base.  I know it has been done before, nothing that new, but I wanted to design it.  I have designed it as a guest house, and I do realize it is bigger than most people's houses.  But, hey, it was from when I was designing the biggest and best house, pretending to be a millionaire.  I also know that it still has some flaws, and if I ever build it, I will make sure and fix those.  But, for a rough sketch and layout, here it is.

I never know what to put first, but in my brain, I always look at the floor plan by where you walk in.  So, here is the main floor plan.  The big dark box is the building, the lighter one on the outside is the patio.  I think I just had it on a big grassy lot in the backyard.  Probably near a swimming pool.

This is the basement, it is the same orientation as the main floor.  It has a nice landing, and two bedrooms.  Pretty basic, but as with most basements, it is really just bonus space anyways.

Here is the top floor.  In my head, I'd take the stairs back up to the main floor, then up here.  It also has a fun landing, and two bedrooms.  These bedrooms are a little more fun however, boasting lots of windows (not shown) and views, along with the great collection of plants scattered about.  I think it would be fun to stay here for a few days.

I hope you enjoyed that.  I have fun making them, and they do nobody any good just sitting in files on my computer.  Let me know, would you be my guest and stay in one of the bedroom?  Which one do you think you'd prefer?

varying heights

This is a helpful little chart when custom designing heights.  I found the height listings in a book, in cm of course, which doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  So, I made this pretty little diagram, with the inches.  I really like the look of it and hopefully it is helpful to you as well.

My House in Paint - by hand watercolor rendering

I recently went to a job interview in which they asked me if I could draw and color in elevation. I was honest with them telling them it was a bit tricky. However, it got me thinking, maybe I will do some drawings again. I don't have hardly any hand renderings in my portfolio, but I thought I'd give it a shot. And now you get to see my renderings.

My favorite graduate level class I took was a water color class.  We, well, I, use to joke that the farther along in the architecture program the more you just look at picture books and drew pretty pictures.  And my water color class was no exception.  I would somehow make it up to the U twice a week at 7 in the morning to paint.  I loved it.  We learned tons of techniques, and I would practice until I got them right.  It isn't a skill that I use a lot anymore, but I still long to pull out my materials and just paint.  Watercolor is a tricky medium because unlike other forms of paint, you can't coverup your mistakes, so you need to get them right the first time.

I have made a couple other renderings for you, I posted one yesterday, and you will get a chance to see the others in the next few days. Keep checking back for more.

My House in AutoCAD - computer drafted rendering

To continue my rendering series, I decided to do one simple one in AutoCAD. I know that I had been doing hand drawings, but I thought I would show you what the base for nearly all of the renderings is. And now you get to see my renderings.

 My favorite program in the world is AutoCAD. I think you know that by now. I love how easy it is to draw up just about anything in it. I have been working with AutoCAD since I was a junior in high school, so, like 12 years, which makes me feel old. I still love it and would not give it up for anything. For this series of drawings I took the construction drawings of my house I grew up in, which my parents still have after all these years, and put it on the computer. It was fun, because they were stock plans which were altered, so I had to make up some things, but all in all, it came out nice. The longest part of it was figuring out which part of which elevation was what ended up in my house. And from working off of memory, I still didn't quite get it all correct. It was a great base to build on for my renderings.

I have made a couple other renderings for you, I posted some already, and you will get a chance to see the others in the next few days. Keep checking back for more.

My House in Photoshop - computer aided rendering

To continue my rendering series, I decided to do one in Photoshop for you today. I know that I had been doing hand drawings, but I hate to see the power of the computer be neglected. And now you get to see my renderings.

I work in Photoshop extensively. I love all of the power that is in it to make a simple picture lovely, or to edit something in a way to bring it to life. I had a teacher who would teach us to just put a simple long stroke across the page, and we were golden. I have to disagree with a lot of his logic, however, it taught me a lot about how simple renderings can be yet have such power. I have worked in this mindset for this rendering.

I have made a couple other renderings for you, I posted some already, and you will get a chance to see the others in the next few days. Keep checking back for more.

My House in Colored Pencil - by hand colored pencil rendering

I recently went to a job interview in which they asked me if I could draw an colored in elevation. I was honest with them telling them it was a bit tricky. However, it got me thinking, maybe I will do some drawings again. I don't have hardly any hand renderings in my portfolio, but I thought I'd give it a shot. And now you get to see my renderings.

I love drawing with colored pencil. One of my favorite things is that you don't need to have the color to make the color. I have a basic set of 12 Prismacolors, and love to have fun with them. However, I am not a patient person, so don't do a lot of even coverage for the pencils, but I do like the sketchy look. I remember when I was first learning to do colored pencil I worked that thing until I thought it was dead, a lot of hard work went into it. I did get a good grade on it, unfortunately my teacher lost it, and I fear I don't have the patience involved to remake it again.

This is the favorite from the series of my Mother's, however, I have made a couple other renderings for you, I posted one yesterday, and you will get a chance to see the others in the next few days. Keep checking back for more.

My House in Prismacolor - by hand marker rendering

I recently went to a job interview in which they asked me if I could draw an elevation colored with Prismacolor markers. I have had some experience with Prismacolor in the past, and it was not a good one. So I was honest with them telling them it was a bit tricky. I realize other interviewees probably lied and were like - oh yeah, do that all the time. And needless to say I did not get the job. However, it got me thinking, maybe I will try some drawings again. I don't have hardly any, if any at all, hand renderings in my portfolio, but I thought I'd give it a shot. And now you get to see my renderings.

The year before I graduated a friend of mine gave me her set of markers because she had a better set at home. Granted, half of these were falling apart, but with a little patience I found the ones that still worked and had a fairly decent set of them. I had worked before with some, taking a class that worked with some for a couple of days. They had me buy four gray ones that were different clearness, and then work with them. This is where my true hatred of the things came in. When I went to do this project the other day, I learned some things.

 Things I learned:

1) Markers work much better when not at 20% occupancy. You see, the ones I had been using were semi clear, so if you wanted to make it darker, you drew on it again. Hence, if you didn't line up the marker lines, you ended up with weird streaks. However, full color markers don't have near this problem, and can be very lovely to work with.

2) Dried out markers don't work as well as fresh ones. I know, this should be obvious, and it is. But man, when I went to the store to buy one because the old one was way to dried up, it was an amazing difference. And at $6 a pop, I now remember when I never bought a complete set to start with.

3) Markers are cool. So, one of the cool things about when the markers dry on the page, they create a lot of character in the subtle color differences. I mean, yes, you see it as the same color, but there are just little pools of fun with slight variations.

4) I don't know if I like the new kind. Ah yes, I have the classic kind, with a super fine point, and sides that let me know which is the thick side verses the small side written on the package. I know that those fine points die a lot quicker, but I don't know if we need the thin side that you can get by turning the thick side on its side anyways.

I wanted to share with you my first try. Yep, that is my first try, ever, making a Prismacolor rendering. I think it is pretty good, and with more practice, and good tools, I think I could be pretty good.


Well, the marker version is my Father's favorite one so far, and I have a couple others done. You will get a chance to see those in the next few days. Keep checking back for more.

New York Times Building

NY Times Building - Wet to Dry & Auxiliary Technique (Salt)

Cardboard -from brickfish

Original post date: 18 July 2008 
 

A while ago I entered the I Can't Live Without My... Campaign

"I can't live without my cardboard. It may sound a little crazy, but I build models all the time out of the favored cardboard. It is cheap, you can tear it apart, it is easy, and you can make it do anything. Instead of spending money to buy it, I use boxes. You have no idea how much I have in my basement; this is a picture of some. Man, I love cardboard."     

  

Now I would like to share some things I built out of cardboard in this blog.

This is our bridge.  We were allowed two 4' x 8' pieces of cardboard per person, and two rolls of duct tape a group.  We had 8 people in our group, full of the smallest people.  The idea was to make it hold the whole group.  The bridge is 12' long, and spans 9'.  First one person from our group got on, it did great.  The TA also held very great.  Our not so slim teacher was impressed it held him.  Then half of the group went to get on and it fell.  But it was fun.  I was put in charge of taking the pictures, and sometimes taping.  I also helped in the design when I thought something was wrong.

Here is one of my favorite site models, all made out of cardboard.  The mountains are built up cardboard, and the river has the first layer torn off.            

    

Close up site model of a building I designed.

This cute little model took about 30 minutes to make. It was one of the first and would take a whole lot less time now.  It was just an idea for a building, which never came to be.  I make these types of things all the time.  It is just a rough one, so now always that great looking.

Disclaimer:  This post was originally made on the website Brickfish.  It was entered into a contest, got lots of views, votes and comments.  Brickfish has changed, even got removed altogether, since I originally posted.  However, I didn't want to loose these again, I put a lot of time into them.  So, now you can enjoy them here on my blog as well.