Website is up!

Yes, yes...I know it has been about 6 months since I have posted anything. I am a bad blogger, I know! BUT I have accomplished something lately....my website is up and running! Yeeessssshhhh that's right! http://www.angelinenguidodesigns.com/ I think I deserve a cookie or a small parade. Which would you choose? Hmmm...Considering it was my birthday this past weekend and I gorged myself on sushi (like way more than any one normal sized person, especially a lady, should consume), hamburgers and cake...a small parade is probably the wiser of the two options. Anywhooo, sadly enough I have to be truthful about the real and honest reason why I finally got my "you know what" together and got my site up and running. It's actually kind of funny...since John and I are now married, we share a checking account. Well, I have been switching all my auto-draft billing items over to our new account and had just about finished that project when I realized that, being a man, I knew John would question why we are being billed $9.95 a month for a website that has been "under construction" for about a year. So, instead of facing the monthly confrontation over $9.95 wasted, I spent some time researching how to cancel my web hosting account because I had about given up on figuring out how to upload and customize the template that I spent a stupid amount of money on. So, after failing to figure out how to cancel the service, I decided that I just needed to sit down, have a pow wow with cyberspace and do the dang thing. So, after 6.5 hrs of pure web domination, from 12:00 am - 6:30 am the other night/morning, and one FREE template later (yea, I don't know how I missed that before), my website was born. It was a labor of love - pun intended! It is NOTHING fancy at all, so no judging. It was about all I could handle doing by myself. I should have about 4 more projects uploaded by the end of July, so check back!!

Hugs!

Mrs. Hall, but always a Guido at heart :)

Who said a Christmas tree has to be green?

Sooo, like I mentioned before...I do some contract design work for Sambuca Restaurant. Aside from doing Interior Design, it's actually pretty much anything they need me to do. Somedays it's tracking down soap dispensers for the bathrooms, other days it's ordering extra placemats, but TODAY...today I got to play florist/event coordinator :). It was suuuuper fun/exhausting. Exhausting because I am slightly OCD when it comes to this sort of thing. I blame my mother solely for this downfall. The woman spends hours obsessing over wrapping Christmas presents. She doesn't go to sleep until 4 am every night between December 20-24. I have to admit though, she does make the most perfect bows that would put even Martha Stewart to shame. Don't even get me started on Birthday presents...printing out pictures of the Birthday victim and pasting them in some embarrassing fashion to the front of the present. Somehow, in contrary to how it must sound, she manages to never make them look tacky.

Anywhoooo, back to Sambuca. They didn't want anything super traditional (totally cool with me), so I found this pretty awesome silver branchy tree from Z Gallerie for only $59.00!! I would post a link, but couldn't find it on their website. It must be brand spankin new. Lucky me :) AND they are having a great sale at 20% off! Lucky me x 2! Don't be fooled...this tree is no small tree. It is almost 5' tall to the highest branch. It was pretty much equivalent to/as awesome as putting Elijah Wood on top of this table http://manolomen.com/images/Elijah%20Wood%20at%20Cannes.jpg. I think I about gave the manager a heart attack when he saw the setup. I had some other big (and breakable of course) vase arrangements around the tree, which was decked out in also breakable ornaments (duh). Immediately after I got the last embellishment in place...all nice and pretty, I look over and the 3 managers are scratching their heads/contemplating poisoning my food the next time I eat there and looking at me going, "What the heck are we supposed to do with all this stuff after tonight? What if some drunk a** falls into the table and breaks everything, etc. etc. etc." All I can do at this moment is bat my eyelashes. My only vice. BTW, I started using the Maybelline Pulse Perfection Vibrating Mascara http://www.maybelline.com/product/eye/mascara/Pulse-Perfection-Define-A-Line.htm. It is really awesome and I kind of love it. One problem...I didn't wear it today, so guess what that means? No luscious pretty eyelashes. So, I got nothin.

Drum roll pleeeease...the owner loved it and after much despair, I am relieved to report that the centerpiece made it through the night without falling to the ground or impaling any (drunk) guests or innocent onlookers.

Please excuse the poor photography, compliments of my iPhone that has been dropped one too many times x 125. In the left vase is a bunch of ornaments and in the other is a submerged strand of orchids with floating votive candles

All it takes is one...one person to take a chance on you

While I was in my last semester of school, one of my roommates, Michelle, worked at this boutique in Ft. Worth. There was this particular, and very stylish, woman who used to frequent the store. She just so happened to be looking for a Designer and sweet, sweet little Michelle referred me. So, there it was...I had my first clients; Julie, Frank and their adorable little girl, Alexandra. I didn't actually start working with Julie until after I started my professional career, so it was what you would call "moonlighting". Well, a few small projects trickled into a few more purchases and before you knew it we had furnished pretty much their entire house. Julie loves shabby chic with a light and airy beachy feel. We are still adding things here and there and little by little Frank's A&M paraphernalia is slowly getting moved to "the office niche". I can't believe this man, he is such a good sport - every wife's dream. They just received their custom dining table, chairs and china cabinet - very exciting; however, I think Alexandra is maybe a little upset that her tiny table has been restationed elsewhere. The dining area was the last big project - atleast for the time being; although, I never really know with Julie. :) Now we are on the hunt for the perfect vanity to go alongside their bed.

Here are some pics from September when I had their house photographed.

Alexandra's Pad

Mom and Dad's Pad

Living Room

Julie sent me this picture titled "Decorating by Alexandra"...precious

The Beginnings

Well it all began, my love affair with Interior Design that is, as far back as I can remember. Both my parents are home builders and it was somewhere between drawing with chalk on the cement slabs of the construction sites in my pink bicycle helmet, to being drug around Interior Design showrooms as a child during my mother's time of being a Designer, that I decided there was nothing else in the world I wanted to do. Well, actually I just recently read a journal entry from when I was in 4th grade, and the question of subject was, "What I want to be when I grow up." The daunting question that some of us still are asking ourselves. My response was, "I want to be an Interior Designer or an Actress". Now as for becoming an actress, I think I gave that up after my debut as Mrs. Claus in the 4th grade Christmas play. There were plenty of times during my high school years that my father tried to talk me out of going to college and to just go into business with him; however, I am proud to say that I made it through 4 years of sleepless nights in the design studio at Texas Christian University, one in which I almost lost my finger to an exacto knife while building a model and another where me and some of my other classmates enjoyed 40's of our select favorite beverages while working the night away. As much as we all complained, I think we all loved improvising from missing out on fraternity parties. After graduation, I went on to accept a great job that I absolutely loved with the company that I had done an internship with in both their Chicago and Dallas offices. It was on December 5, 2008, after two internships and only 8 months into my professional career as a Hospitality Designer (designing hotels, resorts and restaurants), that the economy did to me what it has done to almost everyone else in my graduating class from the School of Interior Design; I was laid-off.

After being laid-off, I went through what I think many others in my situation probably went through...I started re-evaluating my career path. Maybe I should try sales...ooohh pharmaceutical sales. I could make really good money doing that, right? So, I bought some sales books, signed up for this sales recruitment company that sends you job postings in your area and helps you find a job, etc. After paying a monthly fee of some stupid amount and not one interview, I decided to forget about pharmaceuticals. I ended up taking a job doing ad sales for a locally based Interior Design resource magazine. I loved the job (other than being 100% commission), I loved the people I worked with, I loved getting to go out on sales calls, but I couldn't stop thinking about what I really loved to do. I ended up getting a remodel job from a school auction where I entered 4 hours of my Design Services, so I got permission from my boss at the magazine to do that part-time while working for her. We came to an agreement that I could work 30 hrs a week for the magazine and 10 hrs for myself doing design jobs. Well, 10 hrs just wasn't enough. I decided then and there that it was now or never. If I was going to pursue my passion, this was the time to try. I had to try, while I didn't have children, a mortgage, could move back home to save money, and run the risks of not being successful. Thus, "A Starving Designer" was born.

I am getting married to the most wonderful man in the world on April 24th, 2010 and somehow I lucked into him being super supportive of me and what I want to do. Sometimes I think he thinks I just work for free - almost true. Sooo, since August 2009 I have been strictly self-employed under Angeline N. Guido Designs, aside from doing some contract design work for Sambuca Restaurant-so super fun. Working for Holly Forsythe, co-owner of Sambuca Restaurants, has been truly such an amazing experience and I feel so lucky. As for ANG Designs, so far I have 1 remodel, 1 new construction home and 1 private residence residence design under my belt and am currently working on one other remodel and one other new construction home with a new builder. Sounds like pretty good money, right? NOT...not it you charge pennies on the dollar just to get some work ;) We all have to pay our dues sometime, eh? I guess if you love what you do it's OK if you starve a little, especially if you have to fit into a wedding dress. And that is A Story of 'another' Starving Designer.