School & Anthropologie Internship!! :)

Hey Everyone!
    I am so sorry how long it has been since I last updated my blog but as you can tell I have been extremely busy!  As most of you know I got an internship with the retail store, Anthropologie for this past semester.  It has been such an amazing experience and I have learned so much.  The two windows that we recently did that you see below were featured in the highlight reel for the entire Anthropologie Corporation.  This is a section in the Anthropolgie newsletter and what they do is Corporate looks at pictures from each and every store and they then have and pick out their favorite windows.  So our windows were picked out of numerous stores!  To construct these windows, first we had to plaster and paint the backdrop.  Then we had to hand dip-dye hangers and come up with some sort of unique shape.  It was not an easy task, it took a few trial and errors before we were satisfied with the result but I am very proud of what we came up with.  The other pictures are of some displays we did inside of the store and some merchandising experience they gave us as well.  I was also invited to go with the Visual Team to the Anthropologie work shop last week which was a really exciting experience.  They took us about an hour away to a flagship store and all of the surrounding stores gathered together and did what they call a prototype for the whole week.  This is where we come up with inspiration and gather resources then come together as a team and completely transform the displays and windows for the upcoming season.  They do this so that we all learn new skills and work on team building and therefore we all walk away with a vision and ideas for our own stores.  I have not had a chance to take pictures of this yet but we will be doing similar things to our store for next season as well.
School is also going well, very very busy though.  I have one quarter left before graduation and a lot of work is left to be done.  This past quarter, I've been attending a class called Visual Presentation.  Here we also construct window displays with a group and they are installed in the windows that we have around campus.  I have attached pictures of this window too.  We just started our next window for this class and it is themed off of the movie "Cotton Club".  I will post pictures of this once were done.  I was named manager of this window so hopefully it will be awesome!
Other than school and interning I have been having a good time as well! I am still babysitting and walking dogs every chance I get and that is going really well.  I walk these two dogs named Lizzy & Marley and their owner happens to be a pretty big actress named Vicki Lewis.  You can look her up on imdb.com, but anyway.. she is an actress and her husband is a soundscaping planner for a lot of broadway shows and movies.  Lucky for me they have decided to give my information to a set decorator that they know and said that she will be contacting me within the next couple weeks in hope of offering me an internship with their company! I was also lucky enough to have the opportunity of going to a pre-grammy party at the Beverly Hills Hotel.  That was a lot of fun and I got to see the Dixie Chicks!  Also this month, Aunt Peggy visited California and I was able to travel to her son Chris's house for Henry's birthday party! It was a lot of fun and so nice to see Aunt Peggy, her grandkids are beautiful! In a couple weeks my semester ends and two of my best friends, Katie and Julie are coming out for a week.  I am so excited! Then I will be heading home for a couple weeks which will be a nice little break.
I hope all is well with everyone and sorry that this was such a lengthy post, I will try to update this sooner than later next time.  Enjoy the pictures and let me know what you think!

Love Always,
Mandi xoxo

I constructed this wood structure and then weaved the ropes through it.

This wall was diagonal from the one above, I am in love with the elephant flower pot! :)

In this picture, I constructed the big pot and styled the mannequins.

These flowers were really fun to make, we used wax paper and layered the pieces into flower shapes.

Close-up of the flowers.

                                                  This is the 70's inspired window I did for school.

The quote we used was "Intellectuals are a bore." -Andy Warhol 

Thought I would show you some pictures of the windows in the daylight too.

Hope you enjoyed everything!! 

ROADTRIP! :)

Hey Everyone!
  I know I haven't updated this in a while but I hope everyone had a great summer!! .. I had a great summer, it was so good to be home with friends and family for a while!  I am not back in California and am living in Marina Del Rey this year in a house with 4 other people, right across from the beach :) I drove out here and stopped at some really cool places along the way so I thought I would share some pictures with you all! I will update this again soon, love & miss you all <3

Grand Canyon Sunset

Me at the Grand Canyon!

Im in 4 States at once! 4 Corners Monument

Grand Canyon!

Somewhere between Colorado & Grand Canyon

Beautiful! 

California Sunset

again..

Gorgeous!

Horse Tooth in Ft. Collins w. Friends <3

again..

Me & Rachel, a friend from highschool that is not at CSU!

Awesome rock along my drive...

Somewhere in Arizona ..

Sorry its been so long!!

Hey Everyone, Sorry it has been so long since I last wrote.  I have been very busy between school, my internship and all my visitors!  I had a great time in Arizona a few weeks ago.  After a long trek across the country Mom & Dad finally made it to Arizona & I flew down to meet them.  I had a great time with Dan, Kelly & the kids.. they are growing up so fast !  I was lucky enough to have Mom come back to LA with me & we had a blast! We actually got to go on a live taping of Chelsea Lately which was so much fun, she is just hilarious!  My friend Mariah also visited for a week and she had a great time, she did not want to leave at all! Kelsey is here now but leaves tomorrow :( We had so much fun together though! I attached some pictures of our horse-back ride to the hollywood sign and some other fun things we did!  So as you can see I have been having a lot of visitors, but I am managing to keep up with my school work luckily, that is the most important thing on my mind right now.  I am taking a class this quarter called ideation sketching, its really hard.  I must say though, I never would have thought I could draw as well as I am drawing now.  I have made a very close friend named Truong this year.  You would all love him, he is gay and in most of my classes but he is the funniest kid I have ever met and can always put a smile on my face! I am getting anxious for spring break to get here, only a couple more weeks! I am going home March 25th, I cannot wait to see my dogs!  Being away from them is one of the biggest adjustments I have had to make this year, I mean growing up with them my whole life what can I expect I guess?  I will be home until April 6th and then I will fly back with Grandma and Grandpa.  I can't wait for them to see where I am living and my school & just California in general!  Soon Shay & Grandma and Grandpa Glynn will be coming out too I hope, I am so proud to show everyone what I am doing and where I am living :)  I hope all is well with everyone, I Love & Miss you all everyday! I will try to be better about updating this, sorry! Love Always, Mandi xoxo

The view from where we were riding :)

Me & Kels on our horses <3

My horse, Boomerang :)

Me & Kels in front of the Hollywood Sign !

We had a bonfire on the beach and I got the fire started all by myself! My roomates were amazed, then we cooked hot dogs & smores over the fire! 

Back in LA <3

Hey Everyone! So, I have been back in LA now for about a week and very busy already.  My school schedule isn't too bad this quarter, I have two night classes which I thought I was going to hate but its actually pretty nice.  On Tuesdays I don't have class until 6 pm so I have all day to myself! Last week on Tuesday I went to Malibu and went kayaking all day before class, I posted pictures; the atmosphere in Malibu is breathtaking.  This weekend I went to Huntington Beach with my friend Erika because that is where she grew up and her family was having a big party for the Chargers vs. Jets game.  They were all making fun of me for being from New York but then the Jets won so I was laughing at them in the end even though I am not a Jets fan.  Today I don't have school because of Martin Luther King's Birthday so my friends and I are going to the Chelsea Lately show! I am so excited, we can go to pretty much any live TV show that is taped out here for free because they like to have a full audience when filming.  I really want to go on the Ellen Show but its really hard to get tickets so we will see :)  My classes this quarter are really interesting, some very hard.  I am taking ideation sketching, digital imaging, trends, speech and survey of western art 2.  Each of my classes are 2 hours and 45 minutes long, but luckily most of them are very hands on so it isn't too bad.  This week at my internship was really fun. It is market week which means all the buyers come in and pick out their merchandise for the next season.  I learned a lot and met a lot of cool people, and even got some free clothes! My best friend Kelsey is coming out in March and I am so excited! She is going to be here for the Debut Fashion Show.  This show is a really big deal at my school, a select group of Fashion Design Majors get to debut their work and big companies come and watch and hopefully offer them jobs at the end of it.  I am so excited that Kelsey will be able to experience that! Well I should get going on my homework I suppose, I hope everyone is doing well.. Miss and Love you all! :)

Me & my roomate Jenn running into the ocean at Manhattan Beach the day after I got back to LA, it sure was nice to come back to 85 degree weather!! :)

Manhattan Beach <3

We stayed all day & I am so glad because the sunset was unbelievable!

This is Me & my friend Andi kayaking in Malibu!

Malibu Beach <3

Me & Andi again, cool picture though I thought!

Watching the sunset in Malibu <3

I have finally made a blog!

Hello Everyone!
    I hope everyone had a good Christmas, I sure did! It was so good to finally go home, I was starting to get a little homesick.  We traveled to Albany Christmas Eve and celebrated Christmas with Aunt Kristi, Uncle Sean, Shannon and Grandma & Grandpa Bieg.  I had a very nice Christmas, Mom & Dad got me a gift card to Big Bear Mountain in California and are sending my skiis and snowboard out there! I was really just thankful to be home for the holidays though, my Thanksgiving was not the same and was a lot harder to deal with than I thought.  I had a good time though, I traveled to San Francisco with my roomate Jen's family and it was fun but just not the same without the family.  I have attached some pictures of where I live, when I get back I will take some pictures of the inside of my apartment, I just love it!  I did well in school this semester ended with a 3.3, hopefully next semester I will do better I had one class that gave me a really hard time this semester... Survery of Western Art.  I also got an internship this semester, I work at a showroom called Kathy Walker Sales.  For those of you who don't know what that is, a showroom is a big store that select a certain number of clothing brands to represent and they only sell the merchandise in wholesale.  Overall it has been a great experience and the people I work for are awesome, they understand how hard the work load is at FIDM and cater to me when it comes to the amount of time I spend there.  They undertand that school comes first which is good considering how much of my time is consumed with homework.  My school has a 70% drop out rate because students are not prepared for the workload, therefore I have had to say goodbye to a lot of friends that I have met.  I knew a total of 8 girls who have already dropped out.  Though it is a lot of work, I really do love it.. I have never felt better about where I am and what I'm doing even though sometimes I really miss home. I have made some great friends at school and am getting along very well with all of my roomates, though living with other people isn't as easy as I thought! Well, guess it's time for game night!  I hope all is well with everyone, please keep in touch I miss you all :) Love Always, Mandi

The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco at Thanksgiving.

My favorite place to go hiking, you can actually ride horses right up to the Hollywood Sign but I have yet to do so, it is on our to-do-list.

The most amazing sunset I have ever seen outside of my apartment one night.

This is where I go to school, The Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising.. AKA: FIDM!

The view of downtown from the rooftop pool at my apartment.

This is where I live, 725 S. Bixel Street Los Angeles, CA 90017.

This is the ground level pool.

This is the private park that is attached to my apartment. It even has barbeque pits so we can cook out!

One of my favorite places to go at my apartment is this waterfall, those are the stairs up to my room from the pool.