Hello Internet Land!

Boy am I tired! Thank goodness for extra shots of espresso in my coffee today! I was up late reading the night before last (330am!) & had to be up by 9ish to go to a family gathering of Tims. & then last night I fell asleep during the football game (hoping & wishing) I would sleep through the night. Nope! I woke up 3 hours later hot & thirsty & the dumb game was still on! So then I was awake until 1 am! & poor Tim could not fall asleep for 2 hours! He had to be to work by 9am. Poor fella!

Some good things happening:
I got these for Christmas! Yay!

They are the Moleskine monthly calenders! I saw on Amazon that they went up in price by 30 dollars! CRAZY! I am glad that Tim's parents got them when they did! I agree with some of the reviews... the first half of the calender is full of junk information but I plan to write shopping lists over them :) I love the idea of these so much! (I will write why & my mission in the next post, which will go up later on today.)

My dad & step mom stopped by New Jersey when they were driving back to Maine from North Carolina. It was so great seeing them! With the exception of my college graduation (& then only my dad came - that made me upset) they have never visited me where I have lived since high school (Missouri, Illinois, Colorado, & then here) So even though it was a short visit I was so glad to be seeing them!

I am sponsoring a blog this month! I will admit it is hard for me to 'describe myself' & to 'promote myself' mainly because I do not want to be 'tooting my own horn' :) SO please go on over to Kam's blog & see what this thing is all about! (note: on Kam... we because internet acquaintances when we were in the same art journal class & then we began twittering & all that & now we are penpals! Yay!)

My mom hired me to make necklace/bracelet sets for Christmas gifts. & boy was it a lot of work! But my mom paid well :) & going back to the 'tooting my own horn' thing - I was looking back at the pictures the other day & I am really proud of what I did! Here is a picture of the necklaces before wrapping them up.
My mom said that they got great reviews & that one of my aunts is sending me beads & buttons from the 1950's! First I will make her some jewelry from them & then I get to keep the rest! Oh Yay!

I write about this because since that order I did not want to make any jewelry until the new year so in a few days I will have a pretty rockin' Etsy update, which is perfect timing with the sponsorship!

Alrighty, I am off to run a few errands! I hope your day is going lovely! It has been 50 degrees here lately, which was nice & of course now it is freezing! Stay warm!

Jenn

Here is a ReCap of the last week or two :) In no real order I guess.

Two major things happened with me & Tim (separately) :

A couple of weeks ago I was in Langhorne to meet a friend for lunch & then to meet a friend for a business thing & to go to the big JoAnn Craft there. In between the second meeting & going to the craft store I figured out that I dropped my debit card @ the diner when I got cash out to leave a tip. I went back to the diner, it was not there. I called for my balance ZERO DOLLARS! It was about 45-60 minutes in between all of this. So that means that the idiots who found my card spent all of my money in that little of time. So pissed off. Really depressing.

This week, Tim woke up, went downstairs to get his phone, came back upstairs & told me that the store had been broken into. Ridiculous! It happened at like 5am in the morning! Ugh. (we found out that the next day 2 other businesses about a mile down the road were also broken into!)

Tim's housemate & his friend who is a girl (but not girl friend) are terrible. I do not know how much longer I can be at his apartment. That just means less time for us to be spending together, because his work schedule it makes no sense for him to be driving to my house after working til 10. I do not know, we will talk about it & see what is best.

Yesterday/Last night the area got tons of snow - YAY! Tim shoveled out the car but the damn locks are frozen on it :( So Rob picked us up, dropped Tim off at work, I came over to their house so I could have quietness (Tim's housemate is home). My dad & step mom are on their way back to Maine from North Carolina so I will be seeing them in a couple of hours - YAY! That will be nice.

Oh... today would be a great day to craft & get the rest of my December Daily done ... OH WAIT! All of that stuff is in Tim's car! AH!

I was finishing up the handmade gifts yesterday & the needle on the sewing machine broke! All of my extra needles are in Trenton & of course by that time the weather was getting bad so I did not get to finish Tim's parents gifts :(

Pretty Crazy stuff right?

Here are some happyness things :)

Tim got me this necklace to match a ring I have. So pretty & Sparkly! It is pink sapphire & diamond!

& a Kindle! So excited! We have been talking about me getting one for awhile now. The main thing with not getting one was because I love the library & most fiction books I read only once. But it would be great for book series that I love & non fiction books! Yay!

He also gifted me an apron with oven mitt & a coffee press! What a great guy! I cannot believe it!

I gifted him a desk organizer, some Christmas boxers (I always get him themed undies), a swiss army knife (which has a funny story to that), & this coat:


He looks so good in it too! I should take a picture of him wearing it... oh wait my camera is locked in the car!!! :)

I guess things could be worse! I am really grateful for my boyfriend & for my family & for mostly good health :) I am not complaining about those things.

I have more to say but I will save that for later! I am going to make a list & schedule for the week & I will be back to share!

Stay Warm!

Icing Under My Nails :)

It is 230 am... I just got done making lots of Christmas treats to give friends :) I made Sugar Cookies (the soft kinds like @ Target/Wal Mart), Fudge, & these pretzel-rolo combo.

I will share pictures & write about what has been going on the past week (A LOT), later on today.

I really just want 2011 to get here already!

For now I leave you with a picture... Tim & I gave each other a 15 dollar limit on Christmas Stocking Stuffers ( It is my most favorite part) I was walking to the kitchen past the tree when I saw something peaking out... I got so excited! & since I was about to do my Christmas baking, he let me have them early. YAYYYYY! I seriously was bouncing up & down. I love them! (Last year Martha Stewart had a Snowflake turner but cannot find them anywhere!)

OMG! I looooove them! The back of the spatula has a measuring chart!



& here I am ready to get to work (forgive my nasty hair - haha!)

Craft Fair

Karin
Karin was cutting paper snowflakes & one of the scraps ended up looking like a mustache! Fun! Helped pass time for sure!
Me

Santa was at the fair too! He was outside trying to lure people in :)

My Display... For a few years now I had wanted to display via tea cups & plates. Of course when I started my Etsy, I was not the only one who thought of that. It bummed me out. So I took all of my ribbons & tape off the peg board at home & made it my display. It worked pretty well!


I found these cute Christmas tree center pieces @ Target on Sale! Perfect for selling Christmas earrings! (Note: I did not sell any of those earrings! Weird!)

My "Choose your own journal cover" Station.


Business Cards.


All Packed up & Ready to go!
____________________________________________________________

This fair was more successful than the last fair I went to. It was also A LOT smaller! 14 tables total! In a FREEZING cold church! I was super tired. I slept 3 hours & Karin had not slept at all. I did make a profit, YAY! So that was nice. There were some interesting characters there. Overall it was fun & I am looking forward to more in the future. I definitely learned from the fair previous & I am glad I was able to improve on it. :) Now if only my Etsy shop would do well...

I just had a phone conversation abruptly end... I am not sure if the other person purposely hung up on me or his phone died but it is weird & I am not sure how to react. I hope he is ok though. I am the type of person though who believes if you do not want to talk to me anymore just say so, we say bye & then things are good.
******************************************************



Can you guess where I am at? :) It is my scheduled night time @ the Bucks until the Fella gets out of work. Currently Josh Groban is singing. It is nice. I am cold (sitting by a window) so of course my cute hat & scarf are still on...

(I just remembered I never posted those pictures of what I am loving lately... I will add that to my list)

This is my list that I started on Tuesday - I think I am doing pretty good at it :)

This is my weekly calender. Things are being moved around a bit. I have been @ Tims & I brought stamps & stamp pads to make my Christmas cards... I bring everything out to make them & see that I have brown & turquoise ink (NOTE those are the color of my business. So I will have to wait until I go back to my house (tomorrow).

I am excited, I got the last spot in a craft fair this weekend! Which means ALL DAY tomorrow I will be busting out jewelry, journal covers, planners. (& if I have time maybe something else...) It will be crazy but it will be fun. I think I will do better at this venue (it is a Christmas fair & Santa will there!) I have some new set up ideas too!

I remember going to these fairs when I was a kid. So please Jesus let this be a good experience for me!

My mom also ordered 7 bracelet/necklace combos - they need to be mailed out by next Wednesday - I will be a busy jewelry making machine for sure!

Alrighty, I am off to pick up the Fella & then to put up the 'tree'. Wait until you see that! :)

I'm Just Sayin....

I love all of these! So pretty & unique & vintage! (all found on www.laurenrose.etsy.com )

Dear Kam,

Per Your Pen Pal Request :)

THE Cranberry Bliss Bar


I pair a Peppermint Chai with it - Delishishness! :)

P.S. This whole order was "On the House" Yay for a specific barista who is becoming a lovely friend :)

Bottom of the Basket...

is where I found my camera cord!!!

WTF?! More specifically it was at the bottom of my YARN basket... how? I have no idea!!! But at least I found it!

This means I have an Etsy update! You should go check it out because it has really cute earrings like these:



I also make reusable notebook covers... So please support me & support handmade!

Now off to bring the Fella dinner (yummy chicken fingers & fries that I made!) & then to my house to try to find my bed & do the Fella's laundry!

With Love,
Jenn

Good & Tomorrow

Ok. Now for good things today:

*I made some delish chicken tortilla soup

*There was some good tv this week: One Tree Hill was so good! Dan Scott was back! & Kid Cudi was on! The Office was fuuuuunnny! & Private Practice was so good as well! (I mean SO good). & I still have a few other shows to catch up on.

*I cannot craft & watch new shows at the same time or I will not pay attention to the show & I keep having to rewind the show - Ha! So I have plenty of movies to watch while I craft.

*(Not so good) CSI is not on again until the middle of January! Same with House! & this season of Dexter is almost over. Sad day.

Looking forward to:
*Sweater dress tomorrow
*Peppermint mocha creamer in my coffee
*Uploading to Etsy
*Knitting
*Library
*Making naked chicken fingers & fries for dinner
*Wheel of Fortune on Wii
*Hugs from the Fella :)
*Peppermint Cookies via Elise

{{{I had a double mocha at 11pm... that is why this is being typed at 3 am! Bed now.}}}

Goodnight!

UnIntenionally UnPlugged

I was at the Fella's place most of last week, with out my phone charger and my phone battery made it up until Thanksgiving morning (Yay! But it still died). I was sure I packed it with my stuff to bring to the Fella's & I could not find it anywhere! I even looked under the seats of the car (that is where my library books end up!) So on Thanksgiving morning I drop the Fella off at work (YES he had to work!) & go back to my house & I cannot find my charger ANYWHERE at my house. So on the day of gathering I did not have a way for people to get a hold of me. I leave my house to pick up the Fella at work & realize that I left my dead phone at my house. Ah! When we get back to his place after dinner I find my charger in his room under his laptop case - Seriously?! But I did not have my phone so no phone being charged for this lady! I did go back to Trenton Friday & got my phone all nice & charged! Yay! I had like 10 texts & 5 missed calls. (most were from my mom freaking out about where I was - lol). I went almost 3 days with out a phone, it was .... interesting.

Today, I made a whole bunch of products for my Etsy shop (www.lovealaska.etsy.com) & when I go to upload them all... I cannot find the cord to my camera! Oh. My.Goodness. I looked at my house (where I was at the time) & then I go to the Fella's place (where I photograph everything) & look for the cord - It's not here!!! So it must be at my house. Argh.

Other things that happened today: I woke up with an insane headache, lots of errands for the Fella, total craft mess at my house, weird throat thing, CCCCOOOOLLLLDDDD, debit card has a weird crease in it so it does not swipe correctly, the Starbucks down the road was out of apple juice (for caramel apple spice) & peppermint (for everything) today. (out of BOTH! crazy!) The barista's there know me so I did get free drink coupons out of it :)

Holy Blog Moly.

Be back tomorrow with pictures! For Sure! I am definitely going to buy extra cords to keep at the Fella's place!

A Risky Saturday... (Not to be confused with a Risque Saturday - hahahaha)

{ @ Barnes & Noble 11/27/10}

Hellooooo Readers!!! - if there are any out there ;o)

I am at the B&N on a Saturday night! (I know I am crazy) Well I have my own little table that is full of paper goods & pens & electronics , so I think I am going to be fine :)

Somehow I have been busy... I really have NO idea how. I mean I do not have a job for crying out loud, so how the heck fire can I have been so busy? I have been @ Karin's more than a few times. I bring Tim his meals to work. Last week I helped out a little at his work. I run to the bank for him during the week. I have been doing some crafty stuff but not enough to say that it has kept me busy. So weird!

Anyway, I know I will be busy until Christmas time since I am going to have a handmade Christmas! I am excited about it. Unlike a lot of others who say they are having a handmade Christmas (they mean they are buying handmade) but I truly mean that I am going to be hand making 90% of my gifts! I have the list all written out I just need a few more supplies & then I should be all set. So excited! (Wait I already said that!) Hee hee.

I hope to get everything done on my 'To Do' lists this month. I think that with the whole mailing packages thing that it will help me be fastidious in my accomplishing my To Do's. So that is something to look forward to.

Also, maybe one day again I will get a job. Or my business will be successful. Only one PERSON knows - so until I find a job that pays more than 50 dollars over my unemployment, I will keep doing what I am doing & I will keep looking for the job I would be happy at.

Tim has been so supportive & amazing this whole time. Sometimes I just look at him for awhile (creepy I know) & think to myself 'I am really lucky - he is a great guy' & then of course that scares the bejeezus out of me! There are so many instances of how good he takes care of me! TWO in the past week! Wow.

I will share this , it happened a month or so ago. We were at the grocery store & I found these yummy cranberry bagels & he said he would buy them for me. I cannot remember what I said but his reply was "I wish there were more people like you" I mean HELLO! How incredibly sweet! & at the grocery store!

I will be back later with pictures of what I have been loving lately. I cannot wait to share!

Thanks For Reading!

Back to Life. Back to Reality.

Hellooooooo!



Hey There Blog People! :)

I am back in New Jersey! YAY!

I really am glad to be back. Mostly because I missed the Bearded Fella! & I missed Karin!

I definitely did not miss the idiot drivers in New Jersey. Mainers are much more mellow. Also, Colorado drivers are good drivers PLUS I rode my bike everywhere (ahhhh the good ole days!)

It was so sad saying bye to my dad (it always is) I love him so much!

ANYWAY:::

When I was on the plane I wrote my To Do List... Holy Moly it is major!


See I told you!!!

So I brought myself to Starbucks to try to get some of it checked off. I found this awesome mug at Michaels for super cheap ( it is 22 ounces!) & ordered a Pumpkin Spice Latte to keep me going!

Cute Mug Right?!

I am pretty well known here so I pay for a Tall & get a Venti, Loooove It! :) I also was informed that the Cranberry Bliss Bar is making its arrival next Tuesday!!! Yay! I cannot wait for Tim to buy me one ;)



I even found a recipe for this, so maybe , just maybe I will give it a try sometime.

Ok, I am off to do something productive!

Another Trip to Maine

Eeek! It has been over a week since I blogged!

I went to Maine to house sit for my dad and step mom. Originally my dad was supposed to be out of the house but some of the projects he was working on were delayed so he was at the house with me most of the time. Which is fine with me because my dad is awesome.

If you want to talk about a true hero, he is it! He is in the Coast Guard, he was an EMT, he is the Fire Chief! I am so proud of my dad. I love him super duper much!

The second half of my trip was not the greatest. But whatever. I was on a high from my previous to Maine & I see the error of my ways :) I will not go into details but I plan on having much shorter trips to Maine from now on! :)

While I was there I did get to see my brother Jason & his partner Adam. It was so great to see them & spend time with them! Jason & I are a lot a like I think & we have the same thoughts about life, so it was a good time talking with him.

I planned to work on knitting, jewelry, journals, personal journals while I was there but that definitely did not work out that way. :( the first two days I was there I had a headache! Then I spent a day with Jason & then I just had little motivation. Bummer! I did work on my jewelry though, so yay me :)

I also thought I would blog almost every day but there was not much I thought would be blog worthy.

Mostly I spent time with these critters:

The wonderful old lady, Sassy - or as I call her Sasser Frassers :)

Staring Contest with Simon, the funniest dog ever!

Animal Love, that is Simon (dog), Shalom (calico cat), Sophie (siamese cat)

Shalom - this one will push anything off your lap so that she can sit on it, so cute & fluffy.

Sophie, a couple of weeks ago she did not like me at all. Last week was a whole different story! She took my earrings off the side table & hid one of them on me! (I found it under the couch)

My parents animals are great company & I am especially going to miss Sasser Frassers! *sniffle sniffle*

Bearded Fella

This bearded fella is amazing. I am going to miss him when I go to Maine for a week! :( Thank goodness for text messaging & for Skype!

List 1 / List 2

Check & Check

Update on List :) I think I did pretty good!

*Art Journal - Well this one is pretty much on going, but I did do a few pages!
*Make a packing list for next week - Yay!
*Start a gift for a friends baby - I chose the supplies & have casted on!
*Find a soup recipe so that the Bearded Fella will have something healthy to eat while I am gone next week :) - I made a big pot of chili, that was oh so good! I also made some other meals for him - I will write about that later.
*Find a pair of double pointed needles - I have found some but they are expensive, but I really need them for a lot of the Christmas gifts I am making.
*Bring dinner to the Bearded Fella - one of my favorite times of day!
*Organize pictures in Picassa
*Write some letters
*Go to a thrift store
*Pay rent
*Birthday thank you notes
*Gift for Tim
*Custom Etsy order - I have chosen some fabrics, tomorrow I hope to get sewing!

It's Beginning to Feel A lot Like...

After dropping Tim off at work this morning I went back to my house. At first I thought I was just going to pick up some stuff & then run some errands & go back to Tim's house. Instead I put on The Good Wife & Parenthood from this past week & brought out my beads to do some work. It was not too much longer after that I could barely feel my fingers , it is SO cold in my house. Ah! My room has 4 windows in it plus it is an old house , not a good combination.

This really sucks because my room is now mostly organized & is very relaxing to be in (most of the time - the couple who live on the same floor as me have ferrets & they smell so bad! It is gross). Anyway... I really like creating in my room so I hope that the heat gets turned on really soon!

So I started packing up some things to keep me occupied for the rest of the day , somewhere else. I was so cold that I could barely focus. Ridiculous! I really hope we turn the heat on soon! I packed up 3 bags!
1) Art Journal & Supplies/Netbook/Knitting
2) Etsy shop bag
3) Overnight bag

Phew!

I ended up at Barnes & Noble (where I am at now), the Starbucks at B&N now has peppermint - Yay! I am so cold that I ordered a Peppermint Mocha (which to me is more of a winter drink) so this is nice.

My plans for the rest of the weekend:

*Art Journal
*Make a packing list for next week
*Start a gift for a friends baby
*Find a soup recipe so that the Bearded Fella will have something healthy to eat while I am gone next week :)
*Find a pair of double pointed needles
*Bring dinner to the Bearded Fella
*Organize pictures in Picassa
*Write some letters
*Go to a thrift store (maybe)
*Pay rent
*Birthday thank you notes
*Gift for Tim
*Custom Etsy order

Away I Go! :)

30 Days of Me - Day 26

What Do I Think About My Friends

I think that they live too far away! :(

32 and Fabulous?

Well yesterday I turned 32... It was not a milestone of any sort but still THIRTY TWO! I am sitting here at Karin's trying to put how I feel into words.

I had a "This Many by 32" List that I did not do too well at. I guess I did not think of too many of them as a priority or that it really mattered. Also part of not crossing them off was because I needed some money (not a lot) to achieve them but I lost my job the end of June so there was a priority type of thing going on.

I know that I am not where I thought I would be "life wise". I have not felt that way in quite a few years actually. : { I was really close to it when I was promoted at UIH but then that fell to pieces as we all know. It is a bit difficult.

Something that really helps during this thought process is how amazing Tim has been these past 10 months! He has been patient & kind & generous & loving. I am very lucky.

(picture taken while geocaching a couple of months ago)

Isn't he a handsome bearded fella?

He showed up at my house around noon with a box of Mallowmars & a Starbucks gift card with a generous amount of money on it! Yay! Then he took me out to lunch, a few shopping trips, & sushi for dinner! It was a really great day with him.

October 26, 2010 @ Oishi

Spicy Crunchy Tuna Roll & California Roll

Delicious Wine!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Now I am just a 32 year old. I think that with this relationship & with trying to start a business & trying to figure out my next move - I am more determined to do what makes me happy, not necessarily what makes me money. Here is hoping!

30 Days of Me - Day 25

What Is In My Bag:

I have actually taken picture of my bag before just never have posted them - so Yay for this! :)



1. Purse
2. Grey Square Makeup Pouch
3. Idea Notebook
4. Planner
5. Business Card Case
6. Gum
7. Phone
8. Nalgene Water Bottle
9. Receipts
10. Gift Cards
11. Keys
12. Wallet
13. Pencil Pouch

I have to mention that: 7 of these items (8 if you count the gum) are from Target! Yay! :)

30 Days of Me- Day 24

A Letter To My Parents

Dear Dad, Mom, Meg, & Chuck,

I am so glad that we live closer to each other now (even though I miss Colorado so much!)
I am also glad that we are growing closer to each other & that we are able to love & support each other more!

See you in 8 days!
Love,
Jenn

30 Days of Me - Day 23

Things I Crave A lot

1. Coffee
2. Baileys Hagaan Daaz
3. Hugs from the Bearded Fella
4. Gilmore Girls, hee hee
5. Crafting
6. Colorado - it hurts some times!

30 Days of Me - Day 22

What Makes Me Different From Everybody Else?

Well This One is Kind of Silly...

Everyone is different. I will leave it at that, because it could lead to me thinking negatively about myself. Instead I will list a few random things about myself:

*I have 5 brothers
* I was hit my drunk drivers when I was 3 years old
* I stepped on a bee when I was 3 years old & passed out, just to find out that I was severely allergic. Oh yay!
* I have 2 college degrees that took me 6.5 years to get
* My top 3 career dreams: Director @ a YMCA, Librarian, My own business

Tada!
:)

Spider With Out All Its Legs!

Speaking of Pen Pals (see post below)

Kellie over at http://getthewordsout.blogspot.com is having a lovely fall giveaway! Woo Hoo!

She has a super blog & I am glad to be pen palling with her (yes I made that phrase up!) So goo check it out & enter!

P.S. Here is a picture of me for Halloween one year... (this is a scan of an ACTUAL POLAROID from way back in the day - look at the wall paper!)

Stuffs

Currently @ Barnes & Noble.

Another picture with my glasses , can you believe it?! I am just getting lazy & Tim still is very complentary when I wear my glasses so it works out. :)

A lot of stuff going on here...
1. Going to Maine
2. Applying for Jobs
3. Getting Tim moved into his place
4. Starting the December Daily - Yay!
5. Making Jewelry for my Etsy
6. Having Headaches - BOO!
7. Spending Time with Karin!
8. Reading
9. Making mini books
10. Writing pen pal letters

So it is good because I need stuff to do! I really want a job, or to win the lottery...

30 Days of Me - Day 21

(yes I skipped Day 20 - too personal of thoughts, but it got me thinking)

(A) Picture(s) of (Some)thing(s) That Makes Me Happy!!!



Duh - Coffee!

Hugs from the Bearded Fella!


Thirsty Thursday! (or any type of Happy Hour!)


Colorado Rockies Baseball!


Bike Riding! I miss how easy it is in Colorado!