Stress

I took a health assesment for work. Usually it just tells me to eat better and exercise. this year it told me I have high health risks due to stress.

This statement then stressed me out. Great. More to worry about.
Thanks work.

Really?

So I got to thinking, if I don't own a laptop, what is the point of an online blog?
If I spend my 8.5 hours a day in the office, and my 7 or so hours sleeping and my remaining hours cooking, cleaning, etc, why would I want to sit in front of a computer and write about what could be happening if I wasn't sitting at a computer?

So much has happened, I've had many thoughts, dreams, worries, events. So I wonder, if I was writing them all down, would they have still happened?

Dear Santa,
Please bring me a laptop.
I've been pretty all right this year.
Thanks,
Me

From Mars

so, okay I'll admit it. I don't like cheesecake. I want to. It always looks sooo good all decked out with chocolate drippings or with chunks of strawberries nestled in a graham crust. I try and everytime, ...nada. it's gross. I said this aloud after eating a bite one time at a party and three women looked at me like I had just slapped the pope.....Maybe it's a woman thing. Maybe I'm not really human.

WHAT?!

So, I just took a trip down to the ol' Trader Joes with Alissa. (mewpaperarts to you) And yes, there are pictures, and yes they WILL be posted!
As we were leaving however, this guy yelled to her that something was hanging out of her car door and it looked like her dress. To which she replied "Oh my god imagine if that was my leg and it was amputated?!"

Again I say...WHAT?! where does this stuff come from.

Paradise..I hope

So, after MUCH drama (wish I could write about it, but this is after all the internet and anyone can read this) The FH and I finally have our honeymoon destination set!

Really though, how beautiful is this? LeBlanc Resort and Spa in Cancun, Mexico........Is it June yet?!

Dear Etsy,

Could you please stop having such amazing artists on your website? Everyday I find more and more things that I am in love with. Also, the people who use you are way too nice and helpful, which makes me want to purchase even more. Don't you now that I have a wedding to pay for soon, and can't be spending my money for the next year?! Also, if you could stop people from being interesting and funny, then I could stop visiting the forums and checking out people's stores, and thus in turn wanting more. Oh and the good cause of buying homemade, is making my situation worse.
Your disgruntled fan,
Jena

so it's happened

I've joined weight watchers....Yes, i have about 20 pounds to lose, no I willnot show you from where. Trust me it's there. hmmm if I could only have a big mac right now.....

Laziness

Oh to be a cat. I long to be able to curl up (or in this case stretch out) in the sun and take naps all day. We ask her every day if she got a job, but to no avail. Maybe I should charge her rent.

must...stop...buying from Etsy..

Eh, I can't stop. It's an obsession. Oh Etsy how I love you! The earrings on the right came from StoneSoupJewerly (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5057953)

And the earrings below came from SirenJewels

(http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=57821)

Love them!

Kaboom

There are certain things that never fail to bring me back to being a child. The ring of the ice cream man, the smell of fresh cut grass in the middle of summer, and fireworks.

Happy 4th of July!

aaawwwww

welcome to the world baby sister! My dad and step mom had this little beauty on Friday morning. All is great, and I can't wait to be able to go visit her.

snagged again

here is my latest etsy purchase. It was in a treasury and I fell in love. I'm so excited to get it!

I'm a sucker for etsy, what can I say?

Here is a link to the shop I bought it from-http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5095053

Hooray!!!!

Yesterday was my little brother's graduation and he was the valedictorian. He also won an award. I'm so proud of him!!! That's actually my cousin hugging him and his girlfriend in the background.

me, the graduate, and the littlest one..

<---------

Plugging away

So I have yet to take a picture of me wearing my favoritest etsy purchases, but I really think that a blog praising the makers and what i bought is wayyyy overdue. So here we are. This is a cuff bracelet that I got from Radcow (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=33880) Only the coolest shop ever. I have a really hard time not buying out the shop. I wear this with everything. I think that it's pretty unique looking. Go check out the shop for a few more amazing things.

And this is a necklace that I bought from Magnoliastreet. I read about her making it in her blog and was so upset that it wasn't in her store. Patience is apparenly a virtue (or blind persistence) because not too long after, it showed up for sale and I snagged it. It is the prettiest thing. I get so many compliments on it. Even the back clasp is gorgeous! (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=79591) She has a pretty cool blog too.

So there you have it. My raves for Etsy once again.

Maybe for my birthday I will go splurge a bunch on Etsy. hmmm

The smell of it all..

So I think that I am in love with this new soap that I bought from etsy. The maker is Shower Treat Soap and the link that you should be clicking right now is: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=20548 The energy soap (the one on the right) and the Spearmint and eucalyptus (left) are the greatest. They smell amazing and it lasts for a long time. Almost all of the soaps are vegan so some are so yummy it's hard to not want to eat them....now if only my mom had these when I was little.

Why Lee is the greatest

My fiance got me a Canon Powershot S3 for Christmas and I think I just got the hang of it...for your viewing pleasure:

ONE MORE YEAR!!!!!!!

So I've started a photo diary...I got the idea from http://www.etsy.com a lot of the members are doing one photo of them a day for an entire year, and others have a self portrait thursday. Since I now have one year to go until my wedding I figured it would be kinda cool to take a self portrait every day and have the last one of the year be me in my wedding dress. This is my first one on June 7th 2007. It's my only one more year to go photo. Yes, yes, that is my shower curtain in the background. I'm pretty excited, except for the fact that I actually have to take a picture of myself every day..weird.

It's warm out, I swear

Today I am dreaming of this. A small private island in the Bahamas.

Day three of no power, and it's the beginning of a rainy weekend. Thrift store shopping is in my future, so that's happy!

Have a great weekend : )

Blog Frenzy

I guess I'm a roll today. I figure since I haven't actually introduced myself yet, I will now. My name is Jena, and I will be your blog host this evening. Would you like to start out with an appetizer?

So I have been engaged to a crazy nerd of a guy for a year and a half now. We are getting married in June of '08, and I can't wait. I will be blogging about the process and stresses as it nears. As of now, I have my invitations created (I did them myself!) I have a dress that I desperately want to post photos of, but I can't just in case Lee (that's the future hubby's name, duh) sees this. We also have a hall, an official, and a ceremony site. It will be at the wonderful Candlewood Inn in Brookfield, CT.

Here we are actually standing in the gazebo we will be married at. Cute huh? I think I'll keep him. We also have the most adorable cat ever. Yes, I am going to go on about my cat. I used to laugh at people when they did that, but come on, how freaking cute is my Harley Quinn? And If you understand her name, you are awesome.

A Mew of my favorite things

Really though, How great are these? My friend from the famed MewPaperArts (check her out on etsy!!) made them as save the date cards for someone we work with. I think that I want them for my thank you cards after the wedding (which I will post about in a minute). Mew has all sorts of great cards and designs for sale.

Here is another of my favorites from her:

How amazing are these?! Go check her shop out http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5060494

You shot me!

Well, doctor's visit over, and I'm pretty much fine. However over the entire course of my body, the once spot they had to take, was on my butt. Umm...what? Sure you can stick a needle into my butt cheek...I just love it.

So I wanted to be a bit more interesting and start posting photos and whatnot, but we had a gimormous storm last night and i am without power. So as soon as I can I'll be up and running. I think today I will start by posting a few of my favorite etsy things.

Dun Dun Dun Dun...

So I am freaking out a little bit. I have a doctors appointment at 2:15 to have a full body scan. This is to check any marks (my mom calls them beauty marks) to see which ones could be cancerous. This is scaring the crap out of me. Plus the fact that I get to stand pretty much naked (I have them everywhere) in a cold room while someone looks reeeeeeaaal closely at my body. Just in case I was self conscious at all before. I guess I'll write what happens next when I get back.

In lighter news, I started drawing again last night. I like to draw letters or my name using objects. I did a lotus flower, a moon, waves, and such to spell out my name. Not so bad.

Creative Time

This whole working in a cube thing doesn't really suit me. I spend my free time here searching etsy.com and looking at blogs. I think that it is time I start to paint again. This was a painting I did for my brother's birthday. I've started to get away from drawing, painting, and writing. It's been somewhat of a sad existence not doing anything creative. Coming into work and staring at the same beige cubes all day. I really want to go Office Space and knock down one of the walls.

I think that tonight I am going to go home and start a painting. I've started to go out and take photos again (I'll post some of those later). That always makes me happy. Now if I could only do this for a living...

That Old Nostalgic Feeling

I recently just moved and we are juuuust getting to putting away the last of the boxes (since November!) The one thing that I love about spring cleaning or moving is going through all of my old stuff. This sparked a conversation with my FH and my sister-in-law (to be) about all of the things we used to do and play with as kids.

I can remember setting up the picnic table outside under a huge tree in my old backyard and setting out pie tins, shovels, buckets, and all kinds of things. We would make mud pies (even baked them in the sun) and decorate them with leaves and berries. We even had "chicken." There was this type of wood that we would find that was really soft and easy to break apart and it looked just like chicken. I had this playhouse that my uncle built me complete with real dishes and silverware. It had a Dutch door and a sliding window for ordering food. I loved that thing. It currently has been chopped in half and houses my father's firewood. That was a sad day. At school we even did this. The girls would bring in jars and plates and we would make "food" and play house. At the beginning of recess we would run out to get the best spot or "house." When it was time to go back inside, we even had a bunch of hiding places for all of our stuff.

It's amazing, once a memory is brought up, tons more come flying back. I remember I was the Skip-It queen. I remember making igloos out of the snow mounds and making forts out of leaves and branches. I remember riding my bike everywhere. I remember the corner store and buying a sno-cone everyday, usually with pennies I found around the house. Camping and family trips to the aquarium, making friendship bracelets on the playground at recess, playing football with the boys (not allowed at the catholic school I went to, but we did it anyway). I miss summer vacation. I wish that adults had it too. I remember reading The Adventures of Huck Finn on my couch during a summer thunderstorm and it made the book so much better to have the dramatic sound in the background. If I think back, I can still remember how my old school smelled, how the carpet in my old room felt, where my secret hiding place in my closet was, how I felt when my mom would let me help her cook or watch the baby, that feeling in my stomach when my favorite song came on the radio, how much my stomach hurt from laughing with my best friend, and what it felt like to have the wind in my face on a long car trip in the jeep. How excited were you when Oregon Trail was the game of the day in computer class? I still have most of my notes from friends in high school, my creative writing projects from 7th and 8th grade, tons of pictures from all around my life, and little pieces of my past in boxes. I'm sure that I could keep on going, remembering and reflecting on all that has happened in the past almost 25 years, but frankly, my fingers just don't want to type anymore.

First Off...

I guess before I go posting blogs and writing up a storm, I should say a big "Hey Thanks" to anyone reading this. I'm actually starting this blog as a way for me to remember more. Weird huh? I figure if I write about my thoughts and experiences I will then have something to look back on. Remember cleaning out your room and finding your old diaries? I love that. It's great, albeit sometimes embarassing, to look back and see what state of mind you were in at a particular stage in your life. So welcome weary blog traveler to my blog. Hope it entertains you a bit.