May 17th - I've been thinking about how much my life will change in the next four months. I'm over the half way point in this quarter classes, and they are my last ones to take here at WWU, before I student teach. Next fall, I'll be in a completely different culture, atmosphere, climate, and life for three entire months. What will I do when I'm having a challenging day teaching in a school on Italy? While I'm here in Bellingham, I've got such an amazing support network. I realized that even more so when I hosted my fundraiser last Saturday. There are so many special people in my life who want to help me reach my goal. Each one, a beautiful person who I love. How will I get through all of this completely on my own? Honestly, it's a bit frightening... like the first time I rode a roller coaster. My heart would beat rapidly, perspiration on my brow and flushed face, while I laughed hysterically as the cart began to go up the ramp. Held onto Jeffrey's hand with a tight grip. He has been there for me throughout so many challenging moments on my life these last four years. My silly and strong rock that I can count on. So now I realize that I'm going to have to count on myself a whole hell-of-a-lot more. This is going to be another amazing adventure on my life, and while it is scary, it will be a great ride! May 22nd - I may not get to go abroad after all this hard work. The offices could not find me any available spots to place me for student teaching in either Italy or Spain. Now, they have offered me one placement in Surrey, about 30 minutes south of London. But… that would cost me an additional $1200 before my financial aid would kick in for fall term. And now I wait to any possible chance that my Woodring adviser could find for me to have any extra help with scholarships, grants, or school loans. I feel awful… because I’ve worked so hard and so many people have believed in me. None of the $800 program fees are refundable, which I knew when I began this option. While I have talked about this with my dear J yesterday, it was before I had my meeting with the adviser. Now I have less and less hope that it will happen. All of this, and I am sitting here in tears feeling awful that I am letting people down. I took a big risk, in asking for help, starting the fundraiser, and reaching for this goal. Sometimes, the goal is reachable. This one may not be the right one for me at this time. Maybe later on in life I can make it happen to go to Italy & Greece on a vacation with my honey. I just have to get through these hoops to get myself into a student teaching position next fall and if that is going to be here in the states, then it had better be close to home of Bham. I do love it here & wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. So maybe this is the best place for me to learn how to better teach. Time to reevaluate, change gears, and move forward in another route. Either way, I will finish my degree at WWU and get to be an art teacher. May 23rd - I am dumb-founded, flabbergasted, and so blissfully relieved! After thinking that there was no possible way I could afford to go abroad to this other location, I find to my surprise that the love of my life is going to help me go. While I knew my mom was able to gift me some funds, I knew it wasn't enough for the extra expenses and fees of the visa. Now, I can say that my man has saved me. There are not enough words to express the amount of gratitude that I have for such a beautiful person. I never expected any of this to happen. The love, adoration, respect, and yes much corniness we share. I'm waiting to hear back details from the study abroad program with the teacher I will be working with. This is so exciting! Now, I need to try really hard to concentrate on keeping up with my studies. May 28th - Now, to bring all of this together, I am going to be updating a blog while I'm studying abroad for those three months this fall, but I think I will want to practice using it this summer while I prepare for the big trip. While there are a lot of things to get done before I head over seas, I also want to enjoy my life here each and every way I possibly can. Also, there will be photos taken and posted. *Woot!* ~Laughter & Light~ ~R~

The ending to a long project. Hold onto your breath!

This is the final link to the chain of events that have brought me to this time art project. Hold onto your breath and take 11 minutes to watch this to see how I ended my Time Art Piece for my class assignment. Tomorrow, I get to show the video with the blog to the class as a presentation. :)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0_qEnZAK8w

On Friday, we took a little trek out to Chuckanut Drive in the south end of Bellingham, WA. over to hike on the trail to Clayton Beach while the tide was out and coming back into shore. It was a gray with clouds and windy, but not too bad with the weather to get this adventure under way. (Just to let you all know, I did pick up the left over paper reminents left behind.)

I'm really looking forward to hearing feedback from others, so please do leave comments here or on the You Tube link. Thanks so much! This was a great experience & I'm so glad to share it with friends. Also, I'd like to give a special thanks to Jeffrey Cunningham, my love, who helped me take the video and encouraged me through out the process.


~Love & Rockets~
~Rachel Simpson~

There are only a couple of days left...

This is days 29 and 30. I've finished making the last batch of sugar and the top of the building. After the time consuming working process for the roof this week, I decided not to make it as realistic as I could.

Day 29, making sugar cubes:



Day 30, finishing the roof:





Thirty days of actual work (since January), 1 1/2 bags of sugar (7.5 pounds), and 5 bottles of Elmer's glue later...



We have my own version of a Greek style building made out of sugar cubes. :)

Now, tomorrow I will do the last and final stage of my Time Art Piece. It will include a drive in a car, a hike through the woods, and a surprise at the end caught on video. I only hope that I will have a break from the rain. :)


~Love & Rockets~
~R~

It's the last week!

It's hard to believe that it's the last week of the project. After finishing the building, I'll be doing the final stage of the time piece for the blog, pictures, and video. Be sure to keep on looking at the blog to find out how this ends. :)

Day 27:







Day 28:





Now, it's time for a roof! I had to use a cardboard base to stabilize the sugar for the roof of the Greek building.







I'm making more sugar cubes tonight for tomorrow's final steps in the roof. Then, on Friday this weekend, I'll get to go on a trip to do the fun part with the Time Piece. :)


~Love & Rockets~
~R~

Day 26 and counting...

Today I ran to the store & bought a second 5 pound bag of granulated sugar. I had to make more sugar cubes before continuing.



Then onto building...





Once the cubes are dry & solid, later this afternoon I'll add more. It's getting so close to being done! Just 2 more weeks left.

~love & Rockets~
~R~

Days 24 & 25

On day 24, I made another batch of sugar cubes. It's funny how after a month of doing this, now I can say I am running out of sugar. Probably will have to go buy some at the store later today.





Today is day 25. I added more layers to the structure.



Even though it is below freezing outside, I'm enjoying the sunshine while I work. :)





It's actually starting to look like a Greek Parthenon type of a building. YaY!

~Love & Rockets~
~R~

On-going building process

Days 22 and 23 are mostly of the same... it is slow and I've gone through three bottles of glue, and three batches of 2 cups of sugar to make the cubes. Now, grant it about 1/4 of the cubes are defected & had to recycle them for coffee & tea. :)

Day 22





Day 23





Today, is much like yesterday. Not much more to tell as of yet. I'll keep posting though. Only 2 more weeks left. :)


~love & Rockets~
~R~

Playing catch-up on the blogging...

On the 21st day I worked more on the second level. It's slow going since the cubes tend to want to topple over.



Then I reworked a plan B to accommodate the fact that sugar is really not a strong substance, even with glue. I drew a few sketches & decided on another final product that will still have height but work better for the process.

Later today I'll be posting another blog about the following day.


~Love & Rockets~
~R~

The twentieth day, and I'm still building.

It's Sunday, and I thought I would get farther in the building process...



Then I had to go to the store & get more sugar to make more cubes.





I'm now waiting for them to be a bit more dryer, so that they will be hardened enough to build with. Probably will get more added to this by morning & post another update soon.


~Love & Rockets~
~R~

Reporting days 18 & 19

So on day 18 I built some, but ran out of glue.





So I had to stop here...



The following day, I finished the bottom layer & began to build upward! Oooh, exciting!





Now, I realize that I have to do this in phases because I have to allow the glue to set before going too high too fast. I don't want it to collapse. I guess this means I get to work on it twice daily to make sure it gets completed on time.


~Love & Rockets~
~R~

Days 15, 16, & 17

I'm catching-up on updating the blog for the last few days of work I've done on the sugar sculpture. This week has been busy but I still find the time to work on it daily. It's the posting daily online that seems to be a challenge. Like I thought and wrote earlier, I'll be posting blogs a few times a week with the updates.

Day 15, I came back home from the busy day of studies to add a more sugar than I had been doing.



On day 16, I added even more sugar cubes. I really want to finish the bottom layer this week, so I can begin building upward in its height.







It's slowly getting there...



Now, today I had to make more sugar cubes. I finally ran out of the first batch I made two weeks ago. This makes me happy to think I am on a second batch. :)



All that's required for the ingredients is sugar and water. Simple, but effective.



Now, I have to wait for them to harden before I can add them to the structure. Looks like tomorrow morning, I'll get to do more.


~Love & Rockets~
~R~

Saturday, day 14

Since it's been two weeks of building, and I've not gotten very far, now it's time to step up the speed. Today, I added ten more pieces of sugar, instead of the usual 2 to 4 cubes. I'm going to add even more tomorrow.












Here is the length I'm going to stick with, (no pun intended), for the building.



So far, I'm pretty satisfied with how it is going. I just need to keep increasing the speed like today. :D


~Love & Rockets~
~R~

Add more sugar!

A building we will go, a building we will go...





It's slower than I'd expected. Since it seems my original drawing plan is a bit too large to fit onto my tray which is 15"x11" & each sugar cube is 1/2", I will do another sketch to fit to scale. Today, I go back to the graph paper and pencils.

~Love & Rockets~
~R~

Sugar dissolves!

Sugar journal,

Here we are going to show the results of a trial test for putting two glued sugar cubes in cold water.













After waiting 5-10 minutes, I decided to try to agitate the water without touching the sugar.





It seemed to help the sugar dissolve faster. :)









After about 15 minutes, I came to the conclusion that if I were to put a larger piece of glued sugar cubes in running water, then it won't take too long to "disappear". This is a good thing.


~Love & Rockets~
~R~