Newest Purchase

So I made a purchase on Saturday which I don't think I would normally make, except they are absolutely perfect.

The ones I purchased from T.J Maxx for $39.99 look more like the ones on the bottom, but are the leather color of the ones on the top (sorry, I couldn't find a picture of them on the interweb). I usually never buy heels, and never 3" heels . But I couldn't pass these up.

4 reasons why I love love love these shoes.

1. Soft and suptle. My feet are usually prone to getting blisters when walking in any shoes other than a sneaker. I don't know if that's because they're mis-shaped or because they are so delicate (I'll stick with the latter), but it happens. The leather on these shoes is so soft I'm not sure there's any way I could get a blister.

2. Heaven in a shoes. The insole of these shoes is padded. PADDED! It's like a soft pillow for my feet.

3. Lock and Load. There's a huge thick strap locking my feet in. See the problem I always have with wearing high heels is that my foot always slips out...I always seem to just walk out of the shoes. I don't have that issue with these ones.

4. Versatile. They're a very pretty neutral color which I think I can wear with all colors.

Last night Phil and I were playing a lively game of cribbage (which we are usually doing most Sunday evenings, or any evening for that matter...huge cribbage fans) and he caught me looking over at my shoes giving them a contented sigh. Needless to say my husband thinks I am very silly. Maybe I am very silly, but its hard for a big footed, picky shoe wearer to actually find shoes that satisfy. The end.

The Contents of My purse

Because I know you all have been wondering....

• wallet (of course)
• checkbook
• car keys
  
• mobile phone
• pens and mechanical pencils (i use mechanical pencils at work because they write better than the pens they give us...and they always seem to end up in my purse)
• receipts
• chapstick (x5)
  
• gum
• lip gloss
• $5 worth of Dunkin Donuts bucks (have had in there for months now...not conducive to low-carb eating)
• Pay-stub
• bracelet Phil got me in Namibia
• old iPod shuffle, but no headphones to listen to it...darn.
  
• loose change
• various old gift cards, some of which still have some money on them. I really should use those

Well, that's it. By evidence of my purse, I really am not an interesting person. But at least I'm prepared for a wind-chapped trip to Dunkin Donuts where a mechanical pencil is required.

This is not my purse, but wouldn't it be nice if it were?

My new love

I have looked at this website before (thanks Val), but it wasn't until yesterday that I really found my love for it. www.Etsy.com is a site where anyone can buy and sell handmade items. You can find pretty much anything you want (or don't want) on there from handmade jewelry, clothing, to even tie-dyed tightie-whities. Here is one etsy store that I totally fell in love with. She makes the most amazingly beautiful jewelry. I was so enthralled by it that I even went to her blog and left her a message. I NEVER do that! (I sure hope she doesn't think I'm weird) But here are a few of her pieces that caught my eye:

This is a bracelet I particularly love.

And I love the color combination in this necklace.

I love Etsy so much that I've been brainstorming ideas of what I could sell on here and of course I don't really have any of the skills required to do them (sewing, painting, etc). I think having another creative outlet is always good for the soul. Anyone have any ideas? Really, I'm not cfrafty whatsoever. I think the only VERY crafty thing I have done that has worked was a stool that I decoupaged in high school. Right now it seems like my very own Etsy store is not in the stars. But at least I can window shop and gaze at (and maybe one day purchase) everyone else's creative outlets.

Really????

WARNING: the following post is a result of having nothing to do at work and doing lots of internet window shopping and may not have any pertinence at all, but afforded me the opportunity to do something for 15 minutes.

A furry purse and a purse that looks like a school project!? Someone would actually purchase these insanely ugly things? It's amazing that just because it's a Versace or Fendi original people would purchase them. I'm a firm believer of purchasing things if you LIKE them not if you like the label that's on them. These two are good examples of this.

The furry blue number is a Versace that retails for $4,710.00, but you can get it today at Bluefly.com for the very low bargain-basement price of $2,722.54! (NOTE: it is made of fox fur...so if you're an animal lover you might want to stay away from this one) This one reminds me of those furry-topped pencils that Cher on Clueless made so popular. They're so phat.

The art project gone wrong is made by Fendi and retials for $5,190.00 and is on sale at Bluefly.com for $2,699.59. And this one isn't even made of leather...it's woven nylon.

(I don't want you all to get the wrong idea. I DO have a job...they just haven't released me into the water on my own yet. But I have been told that in our department we are either EXTREMELY busy or EXTREMELY bored. We'll see how that pans out.)

Evidence

Here's some evidence of Phil and I's trip to San Diego for Dan's wedding (see...palm trees!). We forgot our cameras and so we relied on others to snap photos for us. I rarely like pictures taken of me, but I think Brittney did a fantastic job on these.

The Singer Brothers (staring into the sun)
Matt, Phil, Dan, and Nate

We had a great time in San Diego. It's funny because every time Phil and I have ever talked about where we want to live California has always been out of the running due to crowded cities and over-priced cost of living (and this is coming from a couple who lives in Boston!? I know our logic makes no sense). But having experienced the pleasures of San Diego we are amending this statement to: "we want to live nowhere else but San Diego!" The weather was wonderful while we were there (mid - high 70's!). In fact, while we were there we dodged the below zero weather in Boston. It was such a relief to slip on flip flops and t-shirts and walk along the beach! And traffic in San Diego is no worse than here in Boston (if not better), and I'm more than positive it's ten times better than L.A.'s traffic. Even if Phil and I never move to San Diego, I think we have decided that we are definitely going back...many many times.

Thanks to Dan and Wendy for having the wedding in San Dieogo and thanks to Rita Clem for making the stay so wonderful!

Our new place

Now that we are back from Oregon and the busy holidays are over I have finally found a few moments to take some pictures and blog about our new space in the basement of Erin and Brian's. We love being down here. This is by far the largest place we have lived in since being married. So here is the grand tour...

Our lovely front porch and door

Our front room

(thanks to Erin and Brian for the extra couch, rug, ottoman, and book shelves below!!!)

Dining area with our favorite bar height table

The desk, which has stayed down here since Jon and Deb lived here. I guess they nor Andrew and Rebekah wanted to keep it and we thank them for that!

This is our kitchen. Andrew and Rebekah painted the wall red and we liked it so much we kept it.

As you can see we don't have a stove top or an oven but we survive. Andrew and Rebekah left us their two burner hot plate and the microwave is also a convection oven (which currently doesn't work, so we borrow on the good graces of Erin and Brian if we need to bake something).

Our very own laundry room! This is thrilling for me to have this much space to fold laundry and it has lots of cupboard space.

The bathroom was the largest project I under took when we moved in. I took down old fixtures, patched holes, painted the walls blue (they used to be red), put up the wainscoting and chair rail, and repainted all of the moldings and cabinetry. Then Phil helped me put in the new fixtures we got with our awesome Black and Decker perk (thanks Dad!).

This is what you see when you walk into our bedroom.

This is the smaller closet that we use for Phil's shoes and our coats.

The bedroom used to be all yellow. Brian was kind enough to paint our bedroom for us. We chose a chocolate brown for the accent wall behind our bed and a cream color for the rest of the walls.

And our very own walk-in closet!

So that's our place. But here are a couple pictures from our travels to the Northwest.

This is a double rainbow we saw on our way back up to Portland. The picture below is the right side of the rainbow! It was a really large beautiful sight.

Phil and I are excited about this new year. We both have new jobs and we're in a new place. We hope it brings many new things for us! Happy New Year to all of you!

I got a job!

So I got a job as a Project Analyst for a large healthcare compant in their finance department! I interviewed for this job back in September. I will start in January after the new year. This job has worked out rather perfectly. Being that the country is in a recession and the job market is awful I thought there would be no way I would get a job offer in the near future. So I consider myself extremely lucky. Anyway, thanks to all our friends and family for your prayers, love, and support.

p.s. keep tuned for pictures and detailed post about our new place!

Getting Ready for the Big Move

This next weekend Phil and I will be moving downstairs to the basement apartment! Andrew and Rebekah found a house to rent (just a couple blocks away). We are really excited to get all of our stuff out of storage and find out what we have been missing for the past 5 months. I of course am thrilled to have a space I can make our own, i.e. paint, decorate, etc. I have some pretty big plans for the bathroom, so I will take pictures when that project is done.

Along with the exciting news of our move, Phil has a new job! He started it last week and I think he is really liking it. (Check this out to get his take on it.) I am really proud of him and very grateful he was able to get this position. It finally makes a little more sense to us now why we moved here. We ultimately moved here so Phil could find a job and get some work experience before graduate school. It took a little longer than we expected, but we are thrilled with the results.

Anyway, stay tuned for pictures of our new place as we settle in and decorate!

More pretty pictures

So Phil and I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago at Mt. Auburn Cemetery, but we haven't shared them with all of you yet. The last three are taken from the top of the tower, which was closed the last time we went.

This picture does not do this tree justice. It was the most beautifully colored tree in the cemetery and it looked so eerily bright amidst all the graves.

If you look closely you can see the temple up on the hill in the distance
(sorry, my camera is a bit "dated" as far as technology goes and I couldn't zoom in much more and the mega pixels are a bit low)

Needless to say, Phil and I are really enjoying the fall here on the East Coast. You definately don't get colors on the trees in Utah like you do here.

Updates of all updates...

Every time I look at Julia and Dave's blog I get upset that there are no new posts to look through (I mean how else am I going to keep in touch with my twin sister who's 2,000 miles away? I know, phone, email...but it's just not the same). Then I realized others might feel the same about our blog, seeing as my last post has been up just as long as Julia's. So, I think it's time I updated our loyal readers of our life here in Boston.

So Phil and I have been her in Belmont for 3 months. We currently reside in the "Yellow Room" in the Barbara Rd. house while our stuff resides in storage. Both of us have actively been pursuing gainful employment. We have written numerous emails, sent in a plethora of applications, had phone interviews and real interviews...but to no avail. We are still looking! It doesn't seem like the best time right now to be looking for jobs with the way the economy is going. But we're pretty sure higher ed, health care, and nonprofit organizations aren't suffering as bad as financial institutions, so we're hopeful.

But with all our free time Phil and I have discovered a love for the local Belmont Library. Sure, it's old and smells funny, but it has lots of great books. Those of you who know Phil know that he is an avid readers, reading 2 or 3 books at a time (I'm a one book kind of girl) and since all of our books are in storage and we don't have the money or the space to purchase new books, the library has been our closest resource for our reading enjoyment. Here are two recommendations that I have:
1. Leaving Microsoft to Change the World, by John Wood is a really good read about the struggles of starting an internationally operated nonprofit, plus I really enjoyed his casual style of writing.
2. North and South (this one is more for the ladies, unless you gentlemen get as much enjoyment out of a love story) by Elizabeth Gaskell. I read this book because my sister-in-law Hannah recommended it. And let me tell you ladies, this one is great. I would also recommend viewing the the miniseries BBC produced, I would put it on par with the miniseries A&E did for Pride and Prejudice.


I guess another update that needs to be done is on my diet. As many of you may know, I have been on the Atkins diet for the past 12 weeks. I have never really done any dieting in my life and I felt it would be a waste of time to try because I just wouldn't have the sticktoitiveness (many may think this is not a word, and it most likely isn't, but dictionary.com has it, check it out) to see it through. Surprisingly I have been able to stick with it rather well and I have lost...drum roll please...28 lbs! I know I know, you want to see pictures, but I promise that results will be better when January comes and I have hit my goal...then I will share pictures of my new frame. For now, I still have a lot of work to do. I work out three days a week (on Erin's treadmill in the attic) along with the diet, which I think helps. Although, technically you don't have to work out to lose weight with Atkins, I find I feel better if I do. Well anyway, I don't usually like to talk about my weight...but I wanted to share this accomplishment with all of you.

So that's pretty much the Jen and Phil update. If anyone knows of any good jobs available in the Boston area, let us know! For now, I will leave you with some pictures from a trip we took up to Kittery, ME this past Friday. (the last three pictures were taken at a beach in York, ME just past Kittery)

pretty tree

another pretty tree

pretty jen and phil

pretty beach

pretty beach houses