Jenny Journalista

Sunday

2012-01-22T21:17:00.001-05:00

I love when something is weighing on my heart and mind and God randomly drops a reminder into my life that hey, I’m not alone. Image found via Pinterest today.

The Year of Not Giving A D@MN

2012-01-21T12:34:00.001-05:00

*Disclaimer: If foul language is not your thing, my apologies*

One thing I saw over and over again in my Reader this past month, was the resolution to stop caring about what other people think so much. It literally felt as though it appeared on 9 out of every 10 lists I read. I had been mulling over what I wanted my resolutions to be and this was a thought that kept coming back to me over and over again.

Last year I had a lot going on. Between getting married, my “busy season” at work, a lot of travelling, new social commitments and so on, I overextended myself. And while I enjoyed being busy, I felt like a lot of joy was sucked out of some things because I was either worried what other people were thinking or I was doing something because I was worried about what other people would think if I didn’t do whatever it was I was doing! Craziness.

I say “yes” to a lot of things I should have said “no” to out of fear of offending or disappointing someone. Or if I say “no” to something, I toss and turn over what I worry other people might be thinking about me saying “no”.
I say a million times that I want to workout but I never join a gym because I worry people at the gym will stare at me because I am new and don’t know how to use the treadmill.
I don’t take enough pictures because sometimes I worry what the strangers around us will think of me whipping out my big camera.
When meeting new people, I worry too much about what I am wearing, if I have food in my teeth, how my hair looks, etc. to actually be present and get to know them.
After spending time with people, I worry too much about if I worded things just right, if my jokes were funny enough, if I should or shouldn’t have said something.

And by December 31, 2011, I was just exhausted from worrying so damn much.

So I have decided, in lieu of traditional resolutions, 2012 is going to be The Year of Not Giving A D@mn. I want to look forward to spending time with my friends. I want to worry less about how cute my outfit is or how perfect my hair looks. I want to take a million pictures. I want to love going to the gym (or at least not give a hoot what everyone else there thinks of my fool self on the treadmill!). I want to give more back to the people around me because I haven’t spread myself too thin. I want to worry less about everything I could have said, should have said or didn’t say. Life is too short. I want to enjoy it more.

Happy 2012 : )

Sunday Night Confessions

2011-11-13T18:38:00.001-05:00

- I have managed to possibly kill another houseplant. I have never had a green thumb, it’s always been more of a Black Grim Reaper of a Thumb. Everything I try to plant or maintain winds up dead within a week. Poor little Henry, he made it about three months but then I forgot the temperatures were going to dip into the 40s on Friday night and I woke up Saturday morning to the below photo. I’m trying to nurse him back to health, but it’s touch and go right now.

- I have an odd habit of naming inanimate objects; hence Harry Houseplant above. I know I’m not alone in this and I have no shame about it. My current car, which I’ve had since summer of 2003, is a white coupe named Betty White. (Funny story: I was driving myself and three former coworkers to lunch one afternoon in Betty White. The clock in the car has not worked since probably 2006 when I ran the battery down and it hasn’t been the same since, and it always flashes the wrong time. On this particular afternoon, one of my coworkers noted the time was off, and I said “Oh yeah Betty White has Alzheimer’s”. Not only were they completely thrown off and freaked out but they also clearly thought I had mental problems once I explained myself . . . this is perhaps the only time I have ever been embarrassed about my object-naming habit).

- This morning I may or may not have bought a cookbook I already own from Goodwill, that I had gone to a lot of trouble to track down on Amazon not two months ago. Behold: More Lean & Luscious . . . and, More Lean & Luscious. Sigh.

- It is no secret to friends and family that I LOVE fall – it is far and away my favorite season of the year. However, I also HATE fall – my sinuses go absolutely haywire from temperature swings, and this past week our temps have been all over the map. This weekend I have been chugging water and taking sinus meds like it’s my job, and STILL I have that dull headache and a puffy face.

- I bought a new camera yesterday (thank you Veterans Day Sale at Best Buy!) and I think I already need an Intervention. I am completely obsessed. I have also uploaded approximately 108240284 photos to Photoshop Elements of Goldie and tried out every last one of Pioneer Woman’s Elements actions. Also: does this make me a crazy dog person who acts like her dog is her child? Maybe that should be my next confession.

That’s all I got for now.

Monthly Magazine Round UP

2011-11-11T14:42:00.001-05:00

I have an ungodly amount of magazine subscriptions and a pesky habit of stockpiling them in the house until my husband threatens to divorce me if I don’t toss some of them out. I’m not quite at “Hoarders” level but it is pretty bad so I figured I would start snapping pics of my favorite things and recording them via the blog so I don’t feel bad about trashing them after I’ve read through them.

Just to show how bad this stockpile issue can get, I am subscribed to the following:

Country Living
Canadian House & Home
Style at Home
Better Homes & Gardens
Elle Décor
Allure
InStyle
Entertainment Weekly
US Weekly
The Week
House Beautiful
Veranda
Cooking Light
Southern Living

This doesn’t even take into consideration the occasional People or Newsweek or Time magazine that gets tossed into my grocery cart. I love to read, what can I say. I read extremely fast and have a “thirst for knowledge” so to speak, so that explains some of it.

My mother always gets on me that it’s a waste of money but I rationalize that subscribing is better than breaking down every week at the store and buying them full price! Plus I buy a lot of my subscriptions from Amazon when they run their $5 deals, so I like to pat myself on the back for finding bargains!

Here are some interesting snippets from my readings this month:

Country Living

I have been obsessing over plates and table settings lately, as well as vintage items on Etsy, so when I saw this article on the 10 most popular silver patterns in the United States, I was really interested. Francis I is the pattern my grandmother had and that I inherited from her and I absolutely adore this pattern. Apparently this pattern was also used in the White House during Truman and Eisenhower’s presidencies! I love a good trivia bit.

Speaking of my obsession with plates, I almost fell off the couch when I saw this article! I didn’t register for fine china when we got married because there wasn’t much offered at the stores we registered with that I was fond of. I knew I wanted something non-traditional and feminine without being too girly, and I was willing to wait until I found exactly what I was looking for. When I spotted these plates at Anthropologie, I knew I had to have them. I LOVE them. I was excited to see how CL styled them for a dinner party.

Canada’s Style at Home

Style at Home and Canadian House & Home have become two of my favorite home decorating magazines this year. With so many shelter mags shuttering, these two have wowed me more than most of the American decorating magazines have. Style at Home featured a wine and cheese party spread that looked so inviting that I’m thinking about cohosting a holiday wine and cheese party in December with a friend of mine. However, I had never heard the term “cinq a sept” to describe a party before, so some online sleuthing revealed that the term “cinq a sept” is Quebecoise for ‘happy hour’. I’m such a dork, I love learning things like this!

The Week

The Week is one of my favorite magazines. It’s a weekly news rag that samples articles from newspapers, websites, and other magazines all over the United States and the world to discuss various current events from different points of view. It is fascinating. They also feature articles on pop culture, new recipes, shopping guides, book/movie reviews, and so on. One of my favorite features is their weekly real estate round-up of similar types of homes in different parts of the country. I always pour over it and pick a favorite house out of their selection. This week was Plantation-Style Homes and I couldn’t make up my mind which one I liked best!

Now, I know the next couple of pics aren’t magazines, but they were fun items I found amid all the catalogs that come to the house (which, I think outnumber the amount of magazine subscriptions by a landslide, but I have no issue flipping through and tossing):

Uncommon Goods

How precious is this e-reader case designed to look like a classic hardcover book! I love my Vera Bradley case for my Kindle, but I’m not totally sold on e-reading in general. Maybe I’ll feel more inspired if when I pick up my Kindle, it looks like I’m burying my nose in ‘Pride & Prejudice’!

Anthropologie

LOVE this bejeweled dress! My company Christmas party might be two months away but that doesn’t mean I can’t start planning my outfit (plus I might need two months to save my pennies for this one!). I’m thinking it would look amazing with my wedding shoes! Love those shoes, I must find another event to wear them for.

That’s all I got for now.

What Up

2011-10-19T21:53:00.001-04:00

Not too much going on around here lately. The biggest excitement has been that I changed my hair from blonde to brunette:

I am obsessed with it. My stylist matched the color to my natural color so I won’t have to go in for root touch-ups every five weeks like I was doing with the blonde. It’s definitely a big change for me since I’ve been very, very blonde for about 10 years now. At first I thought I would go back to blonde a few months down the road, but after a few days of living with it, I think the brunette is here to stay.

For now.

Show & Tell Tuesday: Our Honeymoon

2011-10-10T23:30:00.001-04:00

via

I figured I’d follow up last week’s wedding post with a post on our honeymoon. Please note that because I was obviously seriously interested in feeding myself after the starvation that was my wedding prep diet, our honeymoon basically turned into a culinary tour of Savannah, as evidenced by the photos. I seriously think I have maybe one photo of Brandon and I together on our whole honeymoon and about 500 photos of plates of food. NEW WIFE FAIL.

Originally we had grand plans of a honeymoon that at least required air travel, like Europe, Greece, or Hawaii . . . basically something not within the contiguous 48 states. However, we decided to prioritize the house down payment fund over the honeymoon fund and we decided to go somewhere neither of us had been but that was still within a day’s drive of where we live. Tough to do, because I have visited most major vacation areas in Florida and along the Gulf Coast.

However, there was one place we could agree on and that neither of us had ever been to, and that place was Savannah, GA. Brandon liked it because it was close enough that he could get in a round of golf at Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island (see above, taken from our hotel room window – Brandon made me set the alarm so I wouldn’t miss him!) and I liked it because I could finally get to try out all of these wonderful restaurants I’d been hearing about from friends and family who’d visited Savannah. (Also I swear I have more interests than food but I think whenever Savannah came up I just had images of Paula Deen’s buffet flashing in my brain thanks to the aforementioned Wedding Diet).

So on to the photos!

We stayed at the AVIA, which was right next to Ellis Square. The customer service was wonderful and our rooms were beautiful. I highly recommend staying here if you are planning a trip to Savannah. Ours had a balcony that looked out over a pool/lounge area of some sort and it turned out there was a wedding going on the afternoon we checked in, so we got to jam out to the live band with the doors open for awhile before our dinner reservations.

We took several tours while we were there, ranging from ridiculously cheesy to really interesting. The first one was a ghost tour that we totally got suckered into buying tickets for when we stopped at a tourist information place. We also took a tour of the city in a horse-drawn carriage and I absolutely loved it. The weather was beautiful and the tour covered everything from the history of savannah, to movie production info, to restaurant suggestions, to architecture . . . I could not recommend it enough (although I think we just got really lucky with a great tour guide – I heard complaints about a guide from the same company while we were there). I didn’t read up on anything Savannah-related prior to the honeymoon so I had no idea the city was divided up into squares but I was fascinated with the history of them, and they were so beautiful:

Brandon’s favorite tour was the Sorrel-Weed House ghost tour. I hate all of that supernatural stuff so I just paid attention to the information about the architecture and history of the house and took pictures. They offer a day tour that just focuses on that info and I think that would have been more my speed! The tour guide was great though and very enthusiastic about the subject matter!

We also took a walking tour of Savannah that focused on Civil War history. Holy smokes y’all, did I ever get a lesson. I thought I knew my history but our tour guide was working towards a PhD or something in history and he seriously knew his stuff. Brandon certainly had a lot of questions for him as Brandon’s favorite time period to learn about is the Civil War (I cannot tell you how many times I have sat through the Ken Burns documentary . . . if I hear the voiceover actor say “William Tecumseh Sherman” one more time, I will seriously lose it).

Okay onto the food!

We had some seriously good meals. Vinnie Van Go-Gos pizza was amazing (and huge!)

We also went to Leopold’s for ice cream one night:

My biggest request when planning the honeymoon itinerary was to go to Paula Deen’s restaurant, The Lady & Sons. We made our reservations first thing in the morning and made them for what my grandparents probably would have called the “Early Bird” time. Good thing we did because we had no wait to get in!

I had high hopes of spotting Paula or one of her boys, but no such luck. Turns out Paula’s grandson had just been born that day! I’m sure that was of a much higher priority to her than meeting me and Brandon .

Brandon and I agree that on vacation it is “Go Big or Go Home” when it comes to ordering food, so we ordered whatever sounded good. We wound up with an insane amount of leftovers (which may or may not have been completely demolished when we came home from drinking beer in Ellis Square that evening!) Also, I am now obsessed with the garlic cheddar biscuits served there, I think I have made them at least once a month since our honeymoon.

We had also been told that we needed to check out a place that I swear to you on my life was described as “someone’s grandma’s house in an alley off a sidestreet, but really good”. I was highly skeptical of a place with such a description, but I’m nothing if not an adventurous foodie, so I actually repeated this to the concierge at the AVIA and assured him it was a real restaurant, and that is served everything family style, and might he know of such a place? He thought the only place it could be was Mrs. Wilkes. And if he was wrong, I don’t want to be right. This place was hands down the best meal I have ever had in my entire life.

Mrs. Wilkes is only open for lunch, so we figured we’d get ready for the day and walk through the city to get there and take in the sights some more. Well, we wound up getting there a lot faster than we thought we would, and were shocked to see a line was already starting to form. We figured we might as well hop on line. We were seated within about 15 minutes of the restaurant opening with about 8 other people we’d just been waiting in line with, as they seat a huge table full of people whether y’all know each other or not. It was definitely part of the charm to meet people from all over the globe at lunch!

Then they brought the food out. I thought Brandon’s eyes were going to pop out of his head. It was dish after dish after dish of good old fashioned Southern cuisine. There had to have been at least 15 dishes on the table, all served family style.

Above we have mashed potatoes, macaroni salad, beans, cornbread, some kind of pork, the MOST amazing sweet potato casserole ever, creamed corn, some kind of green bean concoction, and some kind of beans.

And the above photo would be my SECOND plate and dessert. And two glasses of sweet tea. I bought the cookbook on the way out (after we bussed our own tables – hey, even the President had to do it when he visited!). It is one of my favorite cookbooks now. The recipes may require some major adjustments to salt, as is definitely the case with the meatloaf (word to the wise), but oh my word, the recipes are to die for.

And this was the line (which actually went all the way to the corner, and then down the next block!) when we left:

We were there for several days but there is still so much we didn’t get to do before we left (of course, my mind is thinking over all the restaurants missed). I would love to go back for a long weekend just to poke around in some of the shops, soak in all the history and just walk down all the picturesque residential streets with cobblestone roads.

Simmering Potpourri

2011-10-09T23:13:00.001-04:00

(Please excuse the bad cell phone pic!)

One of my best friends growing up came from a large family (five kids with the oldest and youngest being fourteen years apart) and they also had a large Rottweiler. You would think the house would have reeked to high heaven, but every time I came over (which was often), it smelled absolutely wonderful!

The secret was simmering potpourri. I don’t know if my friend’s mother made her own or if it was store-bought, but it was amazing. My grandmother also used to put a mix of spices and apples on the stove to scent her home as well. I had completely forgotten about simmering potpourri until a few days ago when I was running through Hobby Lobby and I saw the above packet called “Harvest Home” priced at $3.99 – SOLD!

The house smells AMAZING! It smells just like fall – it’s a combination of cinnamon, apples and spices that is just heavenly. I can actually smell it in every room of the house, unlike how when we use candles, I can only smell it in whichever room they are burning. Supposedly it is also better for you to have potpourri going then to use scented candles, as candles (and plug-ins!) give off petrochemicals and carbon monoxide and a whole host of other scary-sounding chemicals into the air. I love my scented candles but a lot of what I have been reading on them has made me really wary of them. Unfortunately, I hadn’t found an alternative that would make my house smell just as great – that is until I found this potpourri!

All I have to do is put three to four tablespoons of the potpourri in a pot and add two cups of water, then set the stovetop to simmer and voila! Instant fall in our house!

The back of the packet suggested using either a regular pot or a potpourri pot, and I had no idea there was such a thing as a potpourri pot in the first place. I googled it to debate if I wanted to invest in one, but came up with a lot of results saying they had many issues with fires so I quickly nixed that idea. I did, however, find a link that had several recipes for homemade simmering potpourri!

Here are a couple I can’t wait to try out, from this website:

Edible Simmering Potpourri

Apple cider to fill a large soup pot
One apple, cut horizontally to make circular round slices 1/2-inch thick
One orange, cut into round slices 1/2-inch thick
3 whole cinnamon sticks
6 whole cloves
6 whole allspice berries
One 2-inch piece of fresh gingerroot, cut into small rounds

Place all ingredients in a large soup pot and bring to a simmer, then reduce and allow to simmer uncovered, adding cider as liquid evaporates.

When guests arrive, ladle out a mug full of the hot cider for each person, adding a splash of bourbon or brandy, if you like, and serve with an additional cinnamon stick in each mug. (My note: how awesome would this be to serve for a pumpkin carving party or other fall-related festivity?!)

Christmas Simmering Potpourri

Simple and great smelling. I like to mix the dry ingredients up in little Ziploc's to have them ready to add to water during the holiday season.

3 cinnamon sticks
3 bay leaves
1/4 cup whole cloves
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 lemon slices, fresh or 2 tablespoons dried lemon peel
2 tablespoons orange peel or dried orange peel
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 quart water

Mix all ingredients in medium saucepan. Simmer on low heat. Add more water as needed.

Friday Favorites

2011-10-07T07:45:00.001-04:00

- I’ve had this song on repeat all week. I love how calm it sounds:

“Quiet Hearts” by Amy Stroup

- I’ve been getting up early in the mornings to read, drink coffee and just have “quiet time” before the day starts, and I am obsessed with the Millstone Hazelnut Cream K-cups I found at Publix for $7.79/box! I like it much better than the Gloria Jean’s Hazelnut I’d been getting.

- On Sunday night I decided Brandon and I needed some more veggies in our diet and I was tired of cooking meals with meat. Brandon is very much a carnivore but indulged my vegetarian preference for the evening and I made the Pioneer Woman’s Vegetable Lasagna. Oh my word, AMAZING. I cut the amount of squash in half and threw in a zucchini instead, and I also messed up the layering a little (actually a lot) but it was still SO FREAKIN GOOD. Also, we had leftovers for days. Hers looks way more appetizing than mine, so here’s her photo:

That’s all I got for now!

Game Day Attire

2011-10-05T23:17:00.001-04:00

When I was in college, my usual game day attire consisted of a screen printed t-shirt from the FSU Bookstore, flip flops and a cutoff denim skirt from Abercrombie & Fitch. Occasionally I’d mix it up with jeans or shorts instead of the skirt but mainly that was the uniform for myself and my friends for tailgating. A game in September usually meant highs in the 90s and nobody ever got dressed up, so it worked.

Nowadays, I like to skip the “obvious” choices for supporting my Noles. I like a good logo tee every now and then, but I like to find stuff that not everyone has and that’s a little more on the fashion-forward side. Also, on the comfortable side!

This season I finally talked Brandon into getting season tickets (he is not a Florida State alum like me and was not that big of a fan prior to our dating, but I think he’s being slowly converted!). So I knew I’d want to get some new outfits for tailgating, but I also didn’t want to break the bank either!

I purchased the following two dresses from Forever 21:

The first one is a little more on the red and yellow side as opposed to garnet, but it’s a tribal print that I think goes well with the whole Seminole Indian idea. It’s also crazy short on me (I’m 5’9” with a long torso) so I plan on wearing it as a tunic over jeggings with a garnet colored cardigan when the weather gets cooler.

The second one I plan on taking to my seamstress to be altered to tunic length and having the fringe cut off to tone it down a bit (although I kind of like it so I might keep it on there!). I plan on wearing this with skinny jeans and boots.

I also found the below jewelry for a song from Forever as well. The arrowhead earrings speak for themselves as far as a subtle nod to Indian heritage, but the necklace I especially loved because (nerd alert) Seminole Indian chiefs and warriors used to wear necklaces similar to this called gorgets (see, Mom, I did get something out of my merchandising degree!):

For jewelry, I also combed Etsy to find some unique pieces. One of the bigger trends of the year would be feathers, and while I’m glad I didn’t get feather hair extensions earlier this year, I am so thrilled with my feather earrings I picked up from this shop. I got a ton of compliments on them when I wore them for the Oklahoma game!

For away games, some of our friends like to do what we call “home-gating”, which basically involves setting up beach chairs on the lawn of our good friends’ house and bringing the flat screen out to the garage to watch the game! While this is definitely a casual affair, I still like to look cute!

Target has some great finds for casual game day attire. I bought the cardigan (but in a garnet color) and I’m eying that t-shirt dress to wear with a gold scarf, a cute cardi and some boots when it gets cooler out!

Last but not least I hopped on ModCloth to see if they had any cute options too. They did not disappoint!

My friend Allison bought the below skirt to wear with a cute tank, and it is precious in person. The fabric is a little bit on the wrinkle-prone side however, so I think it’s a colder-weather option for sure when we won’t be “glowing” so much from the heat, ha!

I also picked up the next dress. It hasn’t arrived yet so the verdict is still out, but I think it looks like a great option for FSU games that can be dressed up or down and will be lightweight in hot weather and go nicely with cardigans in cold weather:

For cooler weather, I found the following scarf and super-cute jacket for cold weather options:

For dressier events, they also had these adorable dresses! Our tailgate crowd doesn’t usually get too dressed up but how darling would they be for away games at schools that do get more dressed up?

That’s all I got for now!

Show & Tell Tuesday–Our Wedding

2011-10-03T16:32:00.001-04:00

I figured I would kick off my Tuesday/Friday series with the event that occupied my every waking thought from February 2010 until May 2011: our wedding. It was such a huge part of my life, what with the planning and everything a wedding entails, and it easily was the single biggest event of our lives this year. So here goes!

We were married on May 14, 2011 at Pebble Hill Plantation in Thomasville, GA. I had our invitations made by Momental Designs (who were fantastic to work with!). I had wanted the tree design because originally we were going to be married underneath a giant oak tree next to main house.

The venue was a bit farther away from where we wanted to get married, but still close enough to plan easily without a lot of travel involved. It is a gorgeous 200 acre plantation in southern Georgia that has been around since the mid-1820s, called Pebble Hill. I had actually driven by the plantation a long time ago when I was in college and had thought, what a beautiful place to have a wedding – little did I know that a few years later I would be having my own there!

I was obsessed with my dress, it was an A-line covered in lace with a sweetheart neckline and decently sized train. It’s called the “Natalia” dress by Wtoo. I had bought it from a local bridal boutique and the shop owner suggested removing the satin sash that came with the dress and replacing it with a gorgeous chiffon one that was covered with pearls and crystals in a design that was reminiscent of my engagement ring. (The first picture is from my bridal portraits, hence the sun!)

My shoes were by Ivanka Trump, and I chose them because they too were reminiscent of my engagement ring, but I wound up hardly wearing them!

My favorite accessory by far however was my pearl necklace. I knew I wanted a statement necklace for the wedding but searched and searched and could not find anything I liked, until I found the Divine Jewel shop on Etsy. I hesitated when I first got the necklace because it was a lot going on, but I am so happy I decided to go with it. It really completed the outfit and just felt really ‘bridal’!

My bridesmaids all wore floor length pink gowns by Dessy with satin sashes (with Forever 21 earrings and Target shoes!). I wanted them all in the same dress, jewelry and shoes and then let them choose how they wanted to wear their hair. They all carried small bouquets made up of white and cream flowers. The groomsmen wore khaki suits with pale green ties.

I was in love with my bouquet. I’m not sure what all was in it, I had just specified whites, creams and green only – no other colors. Brandon wore a gardenia boutonniere.

We had intended to have the ceremony outside, but severe thunderstorms changed our plans. Luckily the plantation was so accommodating and allowed us to move the ceremony from underneath a giant oak tree (and potential lightning rod!) to the back porch area of the house that myself and the bridesmaids were getting ready in.

God bless our officiant. We had to race through the vows in between downpours so no one would get soaked. We kept skipping ahead of ourselves. It made for some fun photos though!

After the ceremony, we had to move the reception from what was now a flooded courtyard to the inside of their newly built special events barn. As much as I would have loved to have the ceremony in the courtyard, it was a blessing in disguise to have it in the barn. Air conditioning was a godsend that day!

The centerpieces at the reception were a surprise to me. I had requested pink flowers, various heights and types of flowers for the arrangements, candles, and flower petals, but other than that I had no clear vision and let the florist and our wedding planner go to town. I loved how it turned out.

Overall the whole day was incredible. Good food, good music, good people. Brandon and I still can’t believe what an amazing wedding we were so lucky to have. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter if it rained or not – we were finally married! Looking over these photos makes me want to go back and relive it all again!

7th image courtesy Woodland Fields Photography; all other photography courtesy Amanda Suanne Photography

Monday Musings

2011-10-03T12:13:00.001-04:00

In an effort to get something posted today, I’m going to do a brain dump of a post. No rhyme or reason to it, this is just what’s on my mind today.

- To get into the swing of things with blogging regularly, and just writing in general, I’m planning on doing a series of posts on Tuesdays and Thursdays detailing my favorite things or documenting life events. I’ve seen on other blogs variations of this idea and I think it’s a great way to remember all the little details of your life that are so easily forgotten as time goes by. It also seems to me that this is a great way to overcome writer’s block if you have a list of topics to write about!

- It has been insanely cool in Florida! Well, in my neck of the woods anyway. On Friday, the high was 90. But on Saturday, the high was only 78! LOVE. I may or may not have worn boots and a (lightweight) winter coat to Walmart yesterday. I might be getting a little ahead of myself but in my defense at 8am it was only 60 degrees out. Also, in honor of the first day of October, I put out the monogrammed pumpkin I got for 50% off at Hobby Lobby in August!

- I have been searching high and low for the perfect camel colored leather boots for fall. So far the closest I have come to finding what I am seeing in my head are the Tory Burch “Kasey” boots, but I am not able to stomach $525 for a pair of boots right now (although you can get 20% off at the Bloomingdale’s Friends & Family event that ends today!). I feel like every pair of boots out there are either flat riding boots or what I call “hooker boots” (4”+ heels, massive platforms). I just want a classy ladylike boot!

- I seriously need to get my television viewing under control! I used to be a huge TV watcher back in the day, but in the past few years there just hasn’t been much that I like on the tube. This season however, I find myself struggling to keep up with all the shows I have lined up Monday through Wednesday nights! So far this season my favorite new shows are “Revenge” and “Ringer”. Jury is still out on “Pan Am” but I am really enjoying that one too so far!

- I am also a pretty big “Glee” fan and when I saw the below costume on PetSmart’s website, I seriously debated putting Goldie in it for Halloween, with a sign hanging from her collar that says “Kurt for President”. However, I do not think my husband would speak to me for a week (much less split the dog-walking duties!) if I did that!

Okay that’s all I got for now!

Third Time's A Charm

2011-09-27T22:46:00.002-04:00

I started this blog two years ago in September 2009 to document my life and all the details that make it my life, partly to keep in touch with far-away friends and family and partly for myself to look back on years down the road. I wrote about 25 posts over the course of a year and a half, then promptly got sidetracked by all those aforementioned life details and also was hit with a major case of writer's block.

I've always been a pretty creative person and I've always loved to write but I haven't put a pen to paper or sat down at the computer to type on a regular basis in years and it is something I really miss. I've gone back through some of the posts I've written on this blog and felt like they were more me trying to fit myself into a box of "this" or "that" type of blog, when really all I want is to write a daily journal regardless of what genre it all falls under. So, I deleted practically all of them in an effort to start over.

So here I am, again. I've tried blogging once, twice before, and here we go again. Third time's a charm, here's hoping!

Currently

2010-04-10T23:43:00.017-04:00

Currently I'm...

Reading:

Chelsea Handler is hilarious and one of the few that makes me actually laugh out loud.

Lifesaver! Probably one of the best wedding book purchases I've made so far.

Listening to:

I love Goldfrapp and the new album makes me think of 'Dirty Dancing' and 'Flashdance'.

Just purchased today:

I finally broke down and bought the Marc Jacobs dress in black for our engagement pics.

I'm crazy about all things turquoise or coral these days, they remind me of the ocean. Can't wait for summer I guess!

Considering for our honeymoon destination:

The Grand Wailea on Maui

or somewhere in Italy

or even maybe Greece?

Watching on TV:

I'm obsessed with Sarah Richardson, am loving 'Sarah's House 3', and I'm THRILLED that her shows are on HGTV in the US finally.

Also loving 'Being Erica' on SOAPNet. Both shows are Canadian, interestingly enough.

So there you have it! A peek at what I've been doing/up to this past week.

Engagement Outfits

2010-03-28T16:53:00.011-04:00

Now that we're agreed on doing engagement photos, the future hubs and I need to plan out some outfits. Naturally, Brandon has zero interest in this, and that is fine with me!

The photographer that we're using is fantastic and I am extremely excited to work with her. I love all of her photos because the colors are always amazing. Therefore, I want our outfits to be basic neutrals, and I want to add the pop of color in the accessories so it won't be overwhelming.

Since we got engaged in Destin, FL, and our photographer is based out of Destin, I thought it would be both easy and awesome if we did the shoot back at the beach (plus a mini-vacation in May to the beach? Yes please!). Brandon had really wanted to get married at the beach, but with the ultimate decision to do a traditional, plantation-set wedding, this way he at least gets something beachy related to the wedding!

So in keeping with the beach theme, I wanted to wear something in white and something in a summery fabric. My first inspiration was this one of LC from "The Hills":

It looks sort of like a romper but possibly just a button down shirt dress, I'm not sure which. Instead of black accessories, I want to do either turquoise or a medium pink; I haven't decided yet but I was leaning towards something like this Stella & Dot necklace:

Or this one:

I loved the idea of wearing a dressier white romper, like this one by Chloe (which is unfortunately practically see-through or I would have snapped this up):

However, I worry that a romper is just way too trendy right now and in 20 years my kids will be laughing their heads off at how ridiculous Mom looked. Lord knows I do that to my mom all the time when I spot her and my Dad's '70s-era photos!

This dress by Marc by Marc Jacobs is perfect, of course I can only find it in this horrible orange color, which I cannot wear with my skin tone. Naturally. But if this came in white, I would totally go with this!

So this is where I stand right now. I think this is going to be more difficult than finding a wedding dress!

Currently On My Plate Right Now...

2010-03-26T23:16:00.010-04:00

Oh what a year 2010 has been so far for me! Can I just say that picture above had to have been designed with me in mind??

I can hardly believe April will be here in a week already. Time is truly flying by and it is making me sad!! This month has been one thing after another. Major renovations at work mean I get French doors into my very own office (yay promotion!) and brand new furniture, but working in the same room as construction and demo work = insanity time. In the midst of it all I had a minor health hiccup, but before finding out it was minor, I was convinced I was dying (I am a gigantic anxiety ball most of the time). Turns out I'm not, but I DO have a previously undiscovered food allergy. Now we just need to find out what! Then, I got socked with a horrible, fever-inducing sinus infection! I was doing so good with my healthy eating but the amount of stress I have been under has been driving me to bad habits again, especially my pesky little need for a Starbucks fix every morning!

Now, onto the fun stuff!

Wedding Planning: We have been going full steam ahead with the wedding planning this month. We've decided to push back the date to May 2011 and we've also booked our venue, a gorgeous place just north of town here. We're doing it all outside so May is a MUCH better month than March in terms of potential weather disasters (but I'm still booking a tent rental for a just-in-case!). Pushing the date back gave us 14 months to plan and with my OCD tendencies, this was a fantastic idea!

Here's where our ceremony will take place, only our guests will be seated facing away from the house towards the lawn:

And here is a sneak peek into the stable courtyard where our reception will be held:

Engagement Photos: Next up I'm hoping to finalize things with my top pick photographer and get a move on with scheduling our engagement photos. These are something I've gone back and forth on,and we almost went down to Target to do, but we ultimately decided to do an engagement session since Brandon and I have maybe one good photo of the two of us. I used to be a picture fiend back in the day, but we are both homebodies these days and we're not about to sit around on the couch snapping pics in our sweats! Due to this fact, we decided some nice professional photos would be a great idea. Now, on to obsessing over outfit choices!

September Again

2009-09-02T23:45:00.012-04:00

This is the time of year that I've always associated with fresh starts and school. This September is a return to the familiar for me because, despite having graduated from college a few short years ago, I'm headed back to school again this fall! It's all crazily familiar since I'm enrolled once more at my alma mater, so it's kind of surreal logging into my old school email and the class sites again.

I assumed I'd be much more likely to get my assignments done well in advance and much more motivated to fully pay attention to all my assigned reading, now that I'm the one paying for it, you know, and not just wasting away all my parents' money . . . hahahahaha. Silly Jenny. This past Sunday night, we're barely one week into the semester and the hours were ticking dangerously close to the midnight assignment deadline, and I'm furiously skimming through the textbook to get my quiz turned in on time. Some things never change I guess!

Another September tradition: the Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks is back. Unfortunately I live in Florida and our weather apparently hasn't gotten the memo that it's time to knock it off with the incessant heat and humidity already, and get back to cooler temps goddammit. So, I'm forced to get the iced version. And something about iced pumpkin flavor makes my skin crawl. Oh, and the sign at the bank next door to Starbucks informing me every 20 seconds that its 87 freaking degrees outside while I'm sitting in the drive-thru awaiting what is supposed to be a hot beverage is another real mood killer. Nothing screams fall like the A/C on full blast!

This is the point in time each year when I've had it up to here with the heat and I seriously begin to contemplate moving back to my hometown in the Northeast. Which I have been kinda homesick for lately. Even if it is in New Jersey. Shudder.

Anyways.

Another fresh start with a new blog. We'll see how this goes.