What’s new… I start college on September 7. September 2 is a “portfolio review” to see if I can go from Pre-Graphic Design to Graphic Design. Since I am a web designer, I’m feeling fairly confident that I’m a shoe-in. I guess you never know, though. The guidelines for the review list previous work done at college, and all my examples are websites I’ve made. Unfortunately, all examples cannot be digital. So I had to print out websites, which really is not a great way to showcase your work. Things are sized down, colors are muted. At any rate, I’m hoping the examples will be sufficient. I have nothing else! I haven’t drawn or done any artwork in years. Besides – it’s for GRAPHIC DESIGN; shouldn’t examples of graphic/web design be what they want to see? Fingers crossed!

I’ll have a lot less free time when school starts. Especially Tuesdays and Thursdays. I do believe my schedule will have me up at 5am (which will be every day, for the bus) until my last class ends at 8 or 9pm those days. So not looking forward to that. I didn’t want any evening classes, but one that I need is only available then. I’m hoping I’ll buck up and use the college gym when I have a big gap between classes. We’ll see how comfortable I feel. If the gym is mad busy, I’ll probably pass. It’s “free” (if you consider $12,000/year for college “free”). Riding the bus is also “free” for being a student.

I’ll be getting a locker and bringing my own lunch/snacks so hopefully I don’t have to pay inflated prices for crap in the school restaurants. I even bought a super cute new lunch bag and matching insulated water bottle holder (you know how those metal bottles sweat!). I’m fairly certain I won’t need to have a Macbook, at least right away. I emailed the instructor for my 2-D Digital Design class, which stated needing a Mac, and she said as long as I have Photoshop and Illustrator (I do) I’ll be fine. I’ll have to use a school’s Mac to upload assignments or something, but whatev. Better than dropping $2k on a neutered machine with less hardware features than I’ve got already! Ordered a new 500GB hard drive for my laptop so I should have plenty of space (I have 160GB right now – ugh!).

I am so not looking forward to being stuck around a bunch of pretentious art snobs every day. Hipster Mac fanboys and -girls. Nor 18 yr old hyper dimwits, especially if they come to class fully decked out in their goddamn pajamas. I am thinking I’ll be blogging/tweeting a lot more when school starts. Mostly to make fun of people. Am I a bad person?

Thankfully I don’t have to take, like, composition or math and all the other basic stuff. Hoping I’ll be around older more mature people. And with the economy (so sick of that word) the way it is, I’m hoping there will be a lot of, erm, geezer students like myself. I’m 28! That’s like 30!!

I signed up for a few clubs. One for video gamers (I’m not sure how well I’ll fit in, being a noob), one for playing the game Go, and one for playing desktop games. I don’t know if the last one is like D&D or something cool like Battlestar Galatica. I’ll at least check them out. Also signed up for the Art+Design club. If it’s not too pretentious, it should be cool. I need more friends!

The coveted and later acquired boots.

I’m not sure if it is the closing of a chapter in my career (thank FSM) or having a steady boyfriend for really the first time ever, or what. But I suddenly have an obsession with fashion. I have never been a fashion girl. Always tshirts and jeans and sneakers. Forever and always. Now? I own like 6 skirts. I have a bunch of cute tops that aren’t tshirts. In fact, I kind of cringe at wearing a tshirt anywhere but at home. I like heels! I’m obsessed with buying cute booties with a wedge or thick-ish heel that I can walk in. I only have 1 pair so far, but I tried on a pair the other day at a store and fell in love! They were so hot with jeans. It took everything I had to put the $60 boots back on the shelf. I am sure I’ll go buy them some other time.  But I couldn’t justify the purchase quite yet. I’m unemployed! I do so enjoy browsing various websites for shoes, bags, jewelry, clothes (that might fit me – but rarely do they, so I like the accessories more). That’s browsing – not buying! I’m even a bit of a brandwhore. This is not Angela! Or rather, not the old Angela. New Angela is really a whole new person.

Old Angela? Workhorse, depressed and angry, single, drab in appearance.
New Angela? Going back to school, feeling somewhat hopeful (but still depressed a lot), boyfriend, caring about how I look.

Closing doors, starting new chapters, big life changes! Exciting!

Thank you, New Balance! I feel justified. You may recall, I had a bit of a rant on the hideous Skechers Shape-Ups in Fugly Shoes. New Balance (love their sneaks) comes up with a far more attractive version.

Though I still think the effectiveness of these “toning” shoes is in the fact that people walk more than they usually would just because they’re wearing new sneakers with grandiose claims of effectiveness. Something of a placebo effect, I guess you could say.

Cheese!

Cheese necklace!

Cheese earrings!

Owls!

Owl necklace!

Owl earrings!

More owl earrings!

Kitties!

Kitty necklace!

Kitty earrings!

Roses!

Rose earrings!

I love a lot of the bracelets, but they’re the dangly charm bracelet type. I think the noise and having shit dangling around my hand would bug the hell out of me, so I’ve skipped on the matching bracelets for now. The cheese items are my faves. How ridiculous are they, right?! I love it. The necklace pendant is bigger than I thought it would be, it cracks me up so much. This week is going to feel like xmas as all my wins come home to their new mama!

Being unemployed, I’m looking for ways to be employed, at least somewhat. As miserable as I was at my last job, I know I wanted to try something where I am in control. I decide when to work, what to do, how often. I was a cog in a machine before, and I wanted nothing more than to experiment and try something else.

I have always been a tomboy. Not the sporty type, just the “I don’t give a shit about girly stuff” tomboy. My idea of getting dolled up was putting on mascara and maybe (for a big event) some lip gloss. I hadn’t worn nail polish in about 10 years. The only jewelry I had were bracelets, mostly the beaded unisex style.

I think since getting involved with my boyfriend over the past several months (that’s right, man, I’m blaming you!), I have turned into a woman who likes girly/womanly shit now.

Also, as I was pondering what the fuck I’m going to do next now that I have no job, I saw a commercial on freaking TV. About selling Avon/mark. products. Watching it, I thought, this… might be something I’d have some fun doing! It’s completely out of my usual character. This is a time for some change though, try something new, take some control.

Avon calling!

So now, laugh of all laughs, I am an Avon lady!

To be honest, my previous thoughts of Avon was that it was for grandmas and other older women. Like, 40+ at least. But, shockingly, they have tons of great stuff that I want. I had absolutely no idea. It’s definitely not your grandma’s Avon anymore.

I have to share a few of my favorite things. Things that you would be insane not to adore. Srsly.

Sunscreen with insect repellent! Genius!

Sunscreen plus insect repellent?! Fucking genius! I want a million bottles.

Butler bag

The compartmentalized butler bag. I love cute bags, but mine have, like, one big compartment, and a little zip pocket. Which means all my stuff is a jumbled mess, impossible to find anything quickly. As soon as I saw this in a catalog, I knew that it must be mine. It may have even been the first thing I ordered. All the compartments are amazing. All my shit fits in my bag neatly, and I can find it! It looks sexy, and it’s roomy enough to toss a light hoodie or sweater into!

mark Hook-ups

As far as make-up goes, I’m still a bit of a minimalist, though I am experimenting more. The mark brand hook-up is the best. It’s 2 products, one on either side of a little connector. I have a lip gloss and a mascara on mine. Keep it in my purse, always ready to doll up or touch up. I think the gloss and mascara are perfect on this thing, because they’re just the right size to be all used up by the time you should be throwing gloss or mascara away (germs, ew!).

There are tons more things, of course, but I had to share these.

As for profits, I’m not making much of anything yet, but I’m not frustrated. I wanted to spend the first couple of months trying things out, seeing what I can recommend to customers. I got a bunch of samples of things to try (and give away). I’m having fun! When I start school in the fall, I’m hoping I’ll have more opportunities to share this stuff with others.

If this stuff looks great to you, be sure to shop my own store: avongorgeo.us Just hit “Shop Now”.

Besides doing Avon, I am still doing freelance web design work, selling a few things on eBay. Keep trying to move forward. I’m a trillion times happier now than I was at that job, so I want to keep this happiness and excitement up. Keep my eyes on the prize of a BFA in Graphic Design (btw – I was accepted!!!), make a little money to stay afloat.

And have new cute things!

The clubbed foot look has never been so fashionable!

Yay! A sneaker that you can’t work out in because of its ridiculous shape! Grandiose claims of benefits that aren’t nearly based in reality! Fuck up your tendons and arches because your feet aren’t bending and stretching properly! And look like you have clubbed feet as well!

I would say the ugliness of the Shape-Ups is the lesser of the evil among the world’s ugliest shoes:

Fuggs

I don’t think there could be a better name for these boots than “Ugg”. Because that’s the first sound I utter when I see such an ugly boot. Ugh. Shapeless, boring, dumpy. Negative 100 points for any outfit that includes these tasteless boots.

When wearing Crocs, you look like this.

I will thankfully never understand the Crocs craze. There is no situation where a cheaply-made, over-priced neon plastic hoof is appropriate. Unless you’re in a stage production of some sort of psychedelic farmer story. Oh, and they’re fucking dangerous.

Don’t give me the “they’re so comfortable!” bullshit. There are plenty of super comfortable shoes, sneakers and boots out there that are not hideous. Sadly, I don’t think any of these eye-sore trends are going anywhere. But damn if I’m not going to give the stink-face to everyone I see wearing them out in public.