A New Direction

If you are looking for me, you can read new posts at blog.alyquintero.com. I hope you will follow me to my new blog and new home, where I hope to showcase my current projects and you can follow my life  after school as a fashion designer in the south.

Aly

Walking the Runway!

Tonight, was the first time I had a dress I designed walk the runway! My final pattern making project walked in Hemline's fashion show and it won 1st place out of the Junior class designs! 

I have a video, and a few more pictures, but they're on a different camera so they'll get up another time. I'm  currently getting ready for the move to NYC! 

Do You Have What it Takes?

I just got an email with this flyer...

So it seems like the people over at Project Runway are getting ready to film a new season! Last weekend I was watching some reruns and I'm super excited for another season. While, I'm not apply for the upcoming season, one day I may decided to apply to the show, but at this point, there is still so much I need to learn before taking a shot at it. What about you? Anyone out there looking to apply?

Refresh

Challenge: 5 easy pieces, that coordinate to be worn on a weekend trip. Pieces must be able to easily convert from day to night and be suitable for your destination.

The Result...

Sorry for the poor quality picture, its from my phone.

Nail Polish of the Week: Laced Up

So I finally got around to trying Sally Hansen Salon Effects Real Nail Polish Strips. I heard a lot of good things about these, many of the girls in my pattern making class had tried them and loved them.  I wasn't sure at first because they cost $10 for a set and I could buy a new nail color for $8. But you can get some pretty cool designs that you wouldn't be able to achieve with polish, so thats where I decided to go ahead and get some polish strips. 

 The stickers took me a few tries to get used to before getting the hang of it, I probably should have watched the video on the Sally Hansen website. I even decided to time myself, I think I ended up taking about 30 minutes to put them on. I heard other people only took them like 5 minutes.  None the less, they were still a lot quicker than when I paint my nails. 

The nails lasted me about 6 days, on the last day I had my interview for my internship, so I was plenty nervous and started picking at them. They probably would have lasted a little while longer had I not gotten nervous. 

I would probably do these again, but I would only do the prints, I wouldn't pay for the solid colored ones. 

News!

After a couple of weeks of waiting, I got some really awesome news Friday night! I was offered an internship with a high end designer in New York this summer! I am super excited and cannot wait to move up to NYC for the summer and be able to blog from  New York all summer long! 

The family got me my fav flowers. 

Schooling

Currently, I'm in my second pattern making course and I am super excited because as our final project we get to design and make a dress. Even though the end of the semester is in May, we are already starting to get our designs finalized.

This is my working sketch, I'm still tweaking things, playing with armholes and things like that. 

I found this fabric at Mood which I really really really want to use, but its $14 a yard, and on top of an underlay, lining and notions... it would make the dress really expensive. So I'm going to have to really think, maybe look around for something cheaper, and start saving. 

Wedding Bells!

Anna & J 

are getting Married!

So Anna and J are finally getting married! With Anna planning on going to Law School in the fall, we must delve right into wedding planning. The wedding is slated for June 2012 and the venues have been narrowed down to two. 

The first, is Boudreaux's, it offers an endless buffet, a wedding coordinator, use of candles, some florals, and overall is a very large space. Like every place, it has it's downfalls; its an older venue,and the location is  not ideal as it isn't close to a hotel. 

The second venue, Lod Cook Alumni Center, is located on the LSU campus, with a wonderful view of the LSU lakes. It is a newer venue, with a hotel just steps away, its located pretty close to the church as well. The downfalls of Lod Cook include, no wedding coordinator, not allowed to use candles, and no decorations are included. 

So, leave your thoughts, and suggestions in the comments!  

Nail Polish of the Week: Black Shatter

OPI just came out with their new Katy Perry inspired colors, and of course I had to have some! I got Teenage Dream, a pink glitter and Black Shatter, one of the coolest colors I have. 

You start off with a blank slate of any color, the little sister did it with a hot pink, I chose to stick with classic black and white. 

I did two coats of white then let the nails fully dry. Once dry, apply one coat of Black Shatter... 

sit back and watch, the shatter effect happens pretty quickly. In the time that it took me to put down the brush and pick up the camera, it had already shattered a lot, Example A: picture 1.

I had trouble finding the Katy Perry nail polish, I usually get mine at Ulta, but they either didn't have it yet or weren't going to carry it. I found it at Trade Secret and also on Amazon. 

Nail Polish of the Week: Fash Pack

I forget where I heard it first, but I'd heard about the nail polish brand Butter London, and I definitely wanted to try it. However, I just heard about it and never really looked into where I could get some. Then I was browsing Ulta's website, and came across the Butter London line. At $15 a bottle, its my most expensive nail polish, but its definitely one of my favorites. I chose Fash Pack, which was described on the butter London website as "An edgy and unusual colour. Putty meets mushroom. Sounds strange and wrong, but somehow it works, like deep fried Mars bars. (an actual English delicacy)."

It delivered, I have finally found my long sought after Putty colored polish.  I am most def going to be wearing this color for a while. 

Earlier in the week, my nails were painted Essie's Chubby Cheeks, which is and orange/coral color. I think the picture made it look more orange than it truly is, but not by much. 

And I finally found something to hold all my nail polishes! Although, its already mostly full and I'll probably have to get something else soon. Oh well it works for now.

Nail Polish of the Week: Jade is the New Black

Its been awhile and then I don't even post a good picture, I post a phone picture. Oh, well. Its almost time for back to school, next Tuesday, so time again to get back to the routine. 

This week's color is OPI's Jade is the New Black, its a great  jade green color although the picture makes it look a little blue. 

Getting Ready For A New Year!

I just arrived home from a week long vacation to Florida... It was an interesting week...

The first day we get there, the day before Christmas Eve, I made the silly mistake of venturing into the mall... I bought a gorgeous pair of Nine West shoes, but the mall was insanely packed.

Then on the way to my cousin's house, my cousin, little sister and I get into a car accident. We were stopped at a red light and the other car slammed into us.

We spent the night at the ER getting X-rays, we are all fine, but my back definitely still hurts.

I took pain killers and pretty much slept through Christmas eve, but not before getting all dressed up.

My Nephew Matthew and I getting ready for Noche Buena!

We spent Christmas Day at my Aunt's house, I got makeup and clothes.  And forgot to take pictures.

 Since, most people were either sick or sore from a certain car accident, I spent most of the trip just hanging out with my nephew.

And I got my Michael Kors watch!

Horrible picture of my beautiful MK watch. 

15hrs later, and we are home! Ellie and Lolly slept most of the trip

Nail Polish of the Week: Stealing the Scene

I know it has been a while, but truthfully I didn't paint my nails for about a month. GASP! Last week I went with Stealing the Scene from Essie its a metallic mixture of silver and gold... and after a while it just looked completely silver.  Nevertheless, its a great festive color.

And I misplaced my camera... so Iphone pictures for now. 

This week, I have my KISS Everlasting French Manicure going. I haven't grown tired of it yet and popped them all off, hopefully I'll keep them on a full week this time.

And my toes are a lovely shade of Envy, which looked especially festive with my red peep-toe flats. 

It Lifts and Separates

 I may have mentioned, I've been consumed with school lately continuously working on projects. Well, this week as the semester draws to an end, so do my projects.

I think my favorite, but most intense class this semester has been pattern making. I spent many nights and countless hours in the classroom working hard on my patterns. My pattern work, wasn't as good as I would have liked. So when given the chance to challenge myself I went for it.

Our final project was to make a bustier foundation garment. We had to make a bustier with princess seams, or we could make a bustier with bra cups, which was a bit harder.

After my first sew up, I was starting to regret my decision. As you can see, the muslin was HUGE on Betty.

But it really wasn't that bad, it only had to be taken in... a lot. I did two complete muslin sew ups,  then the canvas/final sew up. I then had to replace a whole piece of the canvas, because apparently Betty is lopsided. I added a bra (a padded fabric, which we had to make ourselves) and some boning.... 

I am so incredibly happy with how it turned out! While I'm happy to have some free time, I already can't wait to get back to pattern making in the Spring!

MIA

I know, I know... I have been missing around here for a while. School, is the culprit... just project after project. Don't believe me?
Exhibit A: I'm writing this at 3 a.m. (I just finished a project, and thought I'd check in.)
Exhibit B : 140 unread emails in my inbox this morning.... I am usually super on top of going through my emails.

Well, I have my big Bustier final due on Friday, and finals the week after... then freedom... and more regular updates on the blog!

My final project bustier, in muslin before the first fitting. 

Crazy Times!

When I say the last week has been full of crazy, I mean it! There were obviously no posts from me last week, I was busy putting together my Visual Merchandising project, which took up all of my time.
But I will now attempt to do a quick recap of things you might have missed:
First, we missed Halloween, where I made a costume for the little sister. She went as Super Glue. I did not dress up...

Next, I went to Voodoo fest and saw Muse and Weezer. It was an interesting trip getting there but once there, it was AWESOME!

The next big thing that over took my life, the Visual Merchandising project. Where we created our own window displays.

We spent many long hours working... 

Obviously, we didn't go with my design, but my group and I were very happy with the end results.  The writing on the window says:

 LBD

A Sure Bet

Oh and my nails have been naked for over a week, hopefully I will get some time tomorrow to finally paint them so we can have a Nail Polish of the Week this week.  I am between redoing Envy from Ulta or finding a completely different color from something I've already done.  Let me know what you think in the comments!