At school, our design projects have to be specialized in a certain area. Some examples of what my classmates are doing is: flooring, window treatments, lighting. I am specializing in "GREEN". My thesis is basically how to incorporate green products into your home. So I thought I would share with you some of my favorite green products. If you interested in learning more about green design, this months Dwell & Domino magazine talk all about it. Also you can ask me!



Vetrazzo is a mixture of recycled glass (85%) and concrete. It comes in many vibrant colors (you can also customize) and is mostly used for countertops but can be used for tabletops, flooring or even attached to walls. It is scratch resistant and is almost as hard as Granite (meaning you can put your hot pans on it and the counter won't melt.) My teacher has this in her house and it looks really spectacular. A good alternative to granite.

AFM Safecoat is a type of paint that produces 0 VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), which means that it doesn't produce any air pollution. Most paint companies have 0 VOC or low VOC paints but those companies are adding other chemicals in order to get a low VOC that is in turn polluting the air. AFM Safecoat promises that their paints are 99.9% chemical free.

Duro Design is just one of MANY companies that sells alternative flooring. I love the way that Bamboo flooring looks. It is really unique and has beautiful coloring. The reason that Bamboo flooring is so much better for the environment is that it grows back in 4-5 years and yields 2500% higher usable biomass than traditional flooring. It is also harder then most wood flooring and has half the contraction and expansion problems.

I was always taught to be on time. My mom is ALWAYS on time. I would hear her get up before dawn with my dad and start getting ready hours in advance. From this I learned that it was better to be on time then late. So for the life of me I could never understand why people were late to church or school or even work. If my mom, mother of seven could be there on time, so could everyone else. I never understood the old saying "Mormon Standard Time". I have a best friend who uses this excuse a lot. And it bugged me SOO much. I always thought it was disrespectful and lazy of a person to be late. I mean how hard is it to just wake up on time or leave a little earlier. My wise Orchestra teacher would always say to us when we had to come for early morning practice,

"To be early, is to be on time,
To be on time, is to be late,
To be late, is to be dead"

That is who I was....until I started college. It came to my attention my freshman year that teachers don't really care if you are late. So why would I get up early when I could sleep for a couple extra minutes. And in Singles Ward you were a loser if you were early. So me not wanting to be a loser would start by being 5 minutes late, then it was 10, it was all down hill from there. This last Sunday, Brandon and I were 45 minutes late. (I can hear my mom screaming now.) I can't blame it all on us, some crazy people decided to run a marathon right past our church, blocking all entrances.

So why am I reflecting on this? Tommorrow I start my last semester of school. I haven't been this nervous for school ever. For not only will I be going to school but working full time also. All my friends have graduated and moved on. I will be there with a new group of students. A group that has been known to be very competitive. So I have to start again, working my way to the top of the classes. No one knows who I am or how hard I have worked in the past. I am going to have to prove to my teachers and the students that I really want to be there and that I am going to be a designer. That I need to be a designer.

So tommorrow I start again, of getting up early and going to work and going to bed late because of homework. The only difference is this time my eternal best friend will be holding my hand the whole way!