Eek! Another year, another set of smashing Dailies. For those of you who are new to Design for Mankind, The Dailies are [hands down!] our readers’ favorite feature. Basically, we follow [read: stalk] a day in the life of some of today’s most talented artists, designers, bloggers and the like!  And face it— everyone loves a good voyeuristic journey now and again.

Today’s Daily is from a dear friend— Martha McQuade, designer/owner of Uniform Studio, which hosts the most elegant ensembles and organic textiles. In fact, stay tuned later today for a special surprise giveaway of one of my favorite Uniform pieces! But for now, the Daily must go on… take it away, Martha!
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5:03
I wake up without the alarm. I’m a morning person and usually wake up around 5. On the weekend I might go back
to sleep for an hour, but on weekdays I get up so that I can have some time alone before everyone else gets up
and chaos ensues.
I open up the windows so the cats can sit in the window sill and then I make coffee and sit down at the computer to
check email and read the news headlines.

5:32
I begin making lunches for my two sons. The light at this time of morning is beautiful. Dusk and dawn are my
favorite times of day. While I’m making lunches I start thinking about light and how it effects our perception of
space. I am in the middle of preparing the curriculum for an architectural design studio I teach and I file this
thought away for work on that later.

5:45
I wake up my husband, who needs to iron his clothes for work, make his own lunch and take a shower. I finish up
the lunches and empty the dishwasher.

5:52
My 4 year old comes into the living room complaining that Fritz (our black cat) has jumped into his bed and woken
him up. I remove the cat and tuck him back in.

5:57
My son comes out again, this time crying that Louis (the tiger cat) has now jumped into his bed. I remove Louis
and shut my sons door firmly. Those cats spend their day dreaming up new ways to get into that room to bug my
son. As I shut the door, my 7 year old comes out of his room asking what’s going on. I tell him to go back to bed.
So much for my alone time:)

6:04
I assemble the kids clothes, backpacks, sunscreen, water bottles, etc. -everything for their day at school and camp.

6:15
The 4 year old comes out again. He’s done sleeping. I give up and get his breakfast. Then the other one gets up
too. I guess we’re having an early morning. I get his breakfast, lay out their clothes and then head in to the
bathroom to take my shower. After that I get dressed. Even though I design clothes, I rarely wear what I make. I
don’t like to stand out too much and often wear my own “uniform” of jeans and a button up shirt. I do like to add a
little something though to make it unique, like this silicone bracelet.

7:15
My husband leaves to walk up to his bus stop. Until recently he would drive the kids and I would take the bus but
the architecture firm I work for closed down a few weeks ago and now I’m working on projects on my own. In a few
weeks when I start teaching again our schedules will change, but for now I’m the driver.

7:45
The boys are both reading in the living room and everything is so peaceful and quiet I almost hate to disturb them.
But it’s time to leave. As we head out to the car the boys notice that they can still see the moon in the early
morning sky. I drop my older son off at his day camp and then head over to the U of M campus to take the 4 year
old to his Montessori school. Once I start teaching in the fall, I’ll be able to take him on the bus with me and drop
him off before my class.

On the way we drive past the “big shiny building”, aka the Weisman Art Museum. My younger son is excited
because today they are going on a walking field trip to see it. The location of his school on campus is ideal as they
can take advantage of so many things like the museum, summer concerts on the campus mall and walking through
the little commercial area of the Dinkytown neighborhood.

When we arrive at his school I wish I could stay and “work” too. The Montessori method makes work so fun and
the materials they use are so beautiful.

8:27
I arrive home and eat a quick bowl of granola. I usually take an hour in the morning to have breakfast while I
respond to email and read through blogs and flickr but today I have a 9:00 meeting with an architecture client so I
eat quickly. I’m a little embarrassed to say that I eat the same breakfast almost every day. In the winter I make my
own granola, but in the summer it’s too hot to have the oven on that long. I top it with whatever fruit is in season.

Before I leave, I rummage through some material samples to find a piece of glass I need to bring to the meeting.

At the house I notice how pretty the morning light looks shining through the cast glass light fixture and I snap a
picture.

10:12
Back home I start in on some sewing. I try to use the morning, which is my most productive time, to do things that
can become boring, like production sewing. Later in the day when my mind tends to wander I’ll move back and
forth between tasks that take smaller amounts of time and concentration. Right now I’m filling wholesale orders
and I need to sew set in sleeves into coats.

12:35
I take a break to eat lunch while I look at the new Domino magazine which has an article with Jenny Gordy from
Wiksten in it. How exciting to see an online friend featured! As with breakfast, I also eat the same type of lunch
every day. I love to eat a little of a lot of different things, so I never feel satisfied if I have something like a
sandwich. The little piles change daily, based on what we have and what’s in season, but there is always a fruit,
vegetable, cheese and some kind of bread or cracker.

1:10
After lunch I take a break from sewing to do some organizing. I have a small workspace in our basement but end
up doing the majority of pattern development, layout and cutting in my dining room. I need to clear this out at the
end of each day so that we can use it for things like dining, so I end up carrying stuff downstairs and dumping it.
Needless to say, my workspace is usually a huge mess. This afternoon I’m rolling up fabric I’ve washed to store in
these flexible storage bins from IKEA.

1:49
I have run out of package stickers, hang tags and labels, so I work on printing some more. I like to keep a big
supply of these on hand so I don’t run out when I’m busy packing things up and need them.

3:08
Time for a snack!

3:23
I need to work on the curriculum for the fall studio I’ll be teaching but I don’t feel like sitting down at the computer.
It’s a beautiful sunny day and wonderful light is coming in to the house making beautiful patterns everywhere. I
decide to pick up my camera and document the light and shadows. Nothing like procrastination….

4:35
Time to go pick up the boys. We’ve planned to go to Wagner’s drive in for dinner, which is an annual summer
outing for us.

6:00
My husband comes home on the bus and we all head over to Wagner’s, which is a drive in diner. I love the simple
style of the canopy, which hasn’t been changed since they opened in the 1960′s. They still have car service with
the trays that fit on the window, but we usually sit at a picnic table so the boys can play with the board games they
have outside stacked up in a metal cabinet.

There is nothing better than greasy fries in little paper bags and milkshakes on a hot summer night.
[editor's note: And yes, this is a Daily from last August. Can you tell both Martha and I are rabid procrastinators?]

7:30
Back at home it’s time for my younger son to go to bed. My older son and I have time for a quick game (quoridor
and he wins as usual) which Louis tries to sabotage and then it’s bedtime for him as well.

8:20
After reading him a story I come back into the living room and notice the fading evening light. Summer is indeed
almost over. I snap one last picture and then start in on curriculum planning while my husband starts some
laundry.

10:00
I can’t concentrate on work any longer so I answer a few emails and then peruse flickr for awhile while my husband
heads off to bed. I have quite a few blogs I read, but find that I’m really addicted to flickr. It’s so much easier and
quicker to leave comments and that makes the dialog more dynamic. And I’m continuously inspired by the images.
I can’t do this too long though or it’s visual overload. Time for bed.

11:00
goodnight.

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