Colorado, Internship, Back to School
July & August:
The summer seemed to have just slipped away from me! Let me get you caught up on what I’ve been doing the rest of the summer!
In July, I took a trip to visit one of my best friends from high school, Abby. She is from Carbondale, so we stayed with her parents. We visited the Aspen Art Museum and saw some installations before walking around town for a bit. We also stopped by Andersson Ranch and poked around their beautiful campus for a while. Andersson Ranch is one of the top craft schools that has been on my list of places to attend for a while. I loved getting a glimpse of what I hope I will one day be a part of! Abby really gave me the full Colorado experience and took me to the local rodeo. Wow. It was so incredible. No shortage of entertainment between the people watching and the animals! We then met up with her parents a few hours away at Chapman Reservoir to join them camping for the weekend. It was a gorgeous spot to camp right next to the water. We went paddleboarding, swimming, and even saw a moose in the water! We went on a hike with some of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen that ended at a lake surrounded by mountains. The morning I left, we soaked in the hot springs next to her house, and it was just the perfect way to end the trip!
During Mid-July, my internship with Dutton & Co. picked up a bit more. Our main project was for a woman named Erin who lives in Whitehall. My first project was to reupholster her dining chairs with her mother’s old curtains. I think they turned out great! Erin and I clicked so well that she had me come back to help her with some personal projects. She lives where an old Boy Scout camp used to be and loves digging for artifacts on the beach. I helped her sort and organize all the various artifacts, from oil paint cans and beer bottles to lanterns and uniform buttons, to help her get ready for working with a museum on the exhibit. I also worked a couple of weeks on making her a dress for the Alaskan cruise she was going on. I worked with a pattern on the dress because it was very intricate, so there was definitely a bit of a challenge, as I tend to follow my heart when sewing. It turned out very beautiful! I had a lovely time working with Rachelle and Erin this summer and learned so much!
In August, I started going through my grandma’s house to start the downsizing process. It was a few weeks of going from room to room in their house and sorting through everything to make it a bit more manageable for my grandpa. It was physically and emotionally very tiring, but I’m happy I was able to help out. I feel like I haven’t been processing my grandma’s passing, so it was hard having to face all the emotions that came with going through all her memories. It made me think a lot about how women are so reflected and visible in the home, and what it means when that person is gone. Definitely sparked a lot of interesting thoughts and further research that I will be continuing during school.
I am now back at school, all moved into my new apartment! This year is my first time living alone, and I am very excited! I’m just two doors down from where I lived last year, so I’m still close to all my friends who live in that apartment. My mom and Calvin drove over with me to help move me into my last college dorm and get settled. It was nice having those extra days with them. Last night I finished unpacking and had some friends over to catch up for a bit before we all get busy with schoolwork. It was the perfect way to break in the new space!
Tomorrow is my last first day of college, and I’m excited to get to creating and can’t wait to see what this year has in store for me!
Hope you all are doing well!
Love, Sophia
