christmas eve check-in

I hope you enjoyed my 12 Days of DIY December posts and maybe were tried a few projects! I'm now back at the family homestead and was thrilled to see that my mom made a lovely card garland inspired by my post.

Since a lot of my posts were of the theoretical nature, I just wanted to take some time this merry Christmas Eve to share a little bit of what I actually did for the holidays at my apartment!

The secret to an awesome Christmas: lots of lights! As you can see, I embroidered and hung some stockings over the built-in, but never quite got around to glitter-spraying my magazine trees (it's been snowing like the Dickens around here, but I'm sure I'll find some use for glittery spray paint...). I tried something a little different for my card display this year, using a giant bow and hanging the cards on a Christmas ribbon underneath with the most adorable tiny red and green clothespins. I have a batch of homemade Kahlua infusing atop the fridge, which should be ready for gifting on New Year's - better late than never! I also made an ornament wreath, though I don't have a good picture of it hanging. It wasn't my most successful experience (I should have gotten more ornaments), but I like it anyway! And, of course, I did some intense cross-stitching, but I can't show you that! (It's sitting under the tree, shhhhh.)

Not too shabby a showing for this holiday season, I think. I hope you have a safe and happy holiday filled with great people, good food, and even better times. Merry Christmas!

apartment therapy style cure: the beginning

I have now lived in my apartment for 8.5 months, and things...are fine. Fine, but not awesome. I had this idea, you see, that my first apartment was immediately going to be the prettiest girl at the ball, an extravaganza of fine taste worthy of many a shelter blog. That is not the case. Don't get me wrong, I love my apartment! There are a lot of things in it that I love; I just haven't spent the concentrated effort on "designing" that I thought I would. It can be hard to set time aside for decorating when you're living your life. Luckily, Apartment Therapy to the rescue!

At the last minute (yesterday evening), I decided to sign up for this round of the Apartment Therapy Style Cure. Basically, AT will be sending me an email every day to give me a task or project related to redesigning a room and, when the month is over, the room will be redone! I will admit that I'm pretty terrified by this prospect. I've never done a room, properly. I've never painted a wall or done a large scale DIY project. The only furniture I've ever bought is the couch from which I write this post! But my bedroom in particular has been the part of the apartment that I really want to feel like "me" but doesn't at all. It's just sort of...there. All my stuff is there, but no one would look at it and say "Oh, that's Jennifer's" (unless they recognized my stuff).

So...wish me luck, gentle readers! If any of you want to muddle along with me, you can either sign up at the link above to receive your daily email, or just keep your eye on the AT website for new posts on the Style Cure. I'd love to know if you're doing it too, so drop a comment below if you want to share in the adventure! I'm going to try really hard to keep up with this, despite this being a super busy season for work (and for FUN. Yesterday was my birthday, by the way. I got older! It happened!)

pinterest attempt: german manicure

Yesterday was Germanfest, the best of fests! For those that don't know, Milwaukee is the home of many ethnic festivals, most of them the largest of their kind in the US. Germanfest has always been special to my family; we are of German heritage, for one thing, and for another, my parents actually got engaged at Germanfest. We go every year, enjoy delicious food, great music, and just generally have a fine time.

This time, I had an idea for a thematically appropriate manicure inspired by something I pinned, so here is my very first attempt at bringing Pinterest into the real world:


Doesn't look too hard, right? So I picked up some red & yellow nail polish (I already had black because of course) and some stickers and set to work!

Okay, not quite as beautiful as Pinterest promised. But all in all, a fairly successful experiment! If you couldn't tell, I am not actually that good at painting my nails. I have shaky hands, and I haven't actually done them that often...back when I was living at home, my mom would paint them for me (I know, I know). But overall, I'm pretty proud for my first attempt at level 2 nail art. I love that it's such a flexible technique. The middle one with two colors would be great for any kind of sports team-themed manicure (or, perhaps, Gryffindor nails?), and well, it just looks cool.

My biggest problem was with the nail colors smudging (even after I waited until they seemed completely dry), but I think that's mostly due to the quality of my polish (the $3 Sally Hansen X-treme from Target). I also had some issues with the stickers leaving residue on the nails (which then were difficult to remove due to the aforementioned smudging problems). I'm not sure entirely how to fix that...decreasing the stickiness by handling them more would help, but I don't know if that would diminish how effective they are blocking the polish. It'll take some experimenting to get right, but I'm pretty confident! It was a lot of fun to have some German pride on my fingernails while I was enjoying spanferkel and Bavarian chocolate torte to the sweet sounds of polkas and German guys singing Gangnam Style. Yup, that happened. Ich liebe Germanfest!

summertime (and the livin's easy)

It's finally summer! Which means it's super hot in my apartment...hooray? Whatever - at this point in the summer, it's all such a welcome change after winter that I'm happy to deal with a stuffy apartment now and then. That's what fans are for!

Hello, blog! Long time no see! As you may have heard in the previous paragraph, the weather in Wisconsin is finally getting warm and, believe it or not, I've been doing things. Occasionally even outside-things! Still, I miss blogging and have made a goal to make it part of my schedule again. If I have time to watch Shark Tank, then I have time to write a blog post.

There are a couple cool things I've been doing lately - I'm really enjoying my new job, and it just happens to both put me in touch with a lot of great things going on around the area and sometimes we even do fun things as an office. For example: this Thursday we went on a cruise down the river as a staff outing!

I'd actually never been on a boat in the Milwaukee River; I went on a similar sort of trek in Chicago, but it was great to see the skyline I know and love from a new perspective! Plus, floating down the river, enjoying fancy appetizers in the warm sun instead of being at my desk? That was pretty awesome too.

And I went to Bay View Gallery Night, where I strolled the streets, saw cool art, and ate some chips. It wasn't as fun as it could have been, since I didn't end up connecting with the people I was planning to meet there, but it was still pretty cool. I didn't get too many pictures of the art because I was busy looking at it and wrangling a purse, my phone, and a cup, but trust me - there was some great stuff! My city is awesome.

Plus, cross stitching! Having a new hobby is fun! I've always had crafty urges, but a hard time actually finding a project I could stick with. This is my second cross stitch, and I think I may have found my craft! I have a bunch of ideas for new projects. My roomie is already worried that we'll run out of space for me to put my projects...I intend to bring that concern closer to reality!

That's what I've been up to! I'll try to have more fashion/home/all that good stuff content coming soon - what have you been up to at the start of summer?

secret obsession: wigs

I just started a new job this week (yay!), so what better way to celebrate movement forward in my fancy career-oriented adult life than a post exploring one of my decidedly dorky and non-adult passions?

My secret obsession (which is not so secret anymore)...is wigs.

I love this wig. I bought it at LeakyCon last year to show my Slytherin pride (I told you this was a dorky passion) after many years of poring over wigs on Ebay and drooling over cosplayers with elaborate faux-hairdos. Last weekend, for lack of anything better to do, I put on a full face of makeup and my wig and took selfies in the bathroom. Obviously, I lead an exciting life, but for real - it was a ton of fun to play dress-up, even if I didn't have anywhere to go. (Also, this was the first time I'd done a full-face of liquid foundation since my spackled and raccoon-eyed days as a high school theater nerd with no idea how to apply makeup. Hopefully I've progressed since then.)

Part of the fun is the chance to be extreme without consequences. A couple people thought I'd really dyed my hair when I posted the pic on the right to Facebook, but this was the day before I started a shiny new business casual job - there's no way I could get away with green and silver hair, no matter how fabulous. But with a wig, I can pop it on and be that cool girl with the alternative hair for a while.

I'd always thought wigs weren't for me because, as I've mentioned before on this blog, I have a really big head. Woe is I. But this one from Arda Wigs fits great, no adjustment needed, even without a wig-cap. If I were actually going to wear it out (which I'm working up the courage to do), I probably would secure everything a little better, but for now I just pin back my bangs and put my hair into a ponytail and tuck it inside. They're super reasonably priced too, and it seems like good quality to me - I don't know enough about wigs to make a full review/rec, but I would definitely say Arda is a great place to get your first wig if you want to experiment a bit. They also have a bunch of tutorial videos to help you care for and style your wig (I haven't done anything crazy with mine, except for adding a few braids.)

The rule I've made for myself is that I can't buy another wig until I wear this one out in public OR if it's for a specific costume I'm working on. That said, I'm going to have to pluck up the courage soon, because I have my eye on a few more (you can see them on my aptly named I Want That board on Pinterest.)

Have you ever worn a wig (for a play maybe, or just for fun)? Am I the only one who yearns to have pink hair one day, blue the next, and long flowing locks on alternating Thursdays?

dream a little dream of spring

True story: the other day, I thought to myself, "Hey...isn't there a time where you can...just wear skirts and no jackets and not be cold? What is that?" Yup, I forgot what spring was. Anyone who lives in a northern clime can probably relate. So I thought I would look ahead, past the darkness of winter, and share a little bit of springtime.

retro spring by ficklekitsch 

Ahh, can't you just feel that warm breeze? Spring is all about color, of course, but I'm not married to the traditional pastels. Why say "oh, hey, here's a little color" when you can say "WOW, here's a lot of color!"? (I take the same stance on chocolate, cookies, and episodes of the greatest sitcom ever, Frasier.) I was feeling a little retro feminine flair when I made this outfit: pair the bold, fun skirt with a sweet pretty top (love that bow!). Like the rest of the fashion world, I'm obsessed with these metallic toed flats and darling little leather satchels. The earrings call back to both the chevron and geometric trend without being overly trendy and top it off with a chunky bracelet in a contrasting color. Since it's springtime, you'll obviously need an adorable pair of sunglasses too. I would pair this outfit with a classic trench, just in case you end up in some spring showers. Man, I just want to put this on right now. Why is there still snow on my stoop?

I'm also excited for...

Source: roadkillrescue.net via Jennifer on Pinterest

DIY! There's a great deck off the back of our apartment that I think will be perfect for any kind of outdoor projects, like spray painting. Secret confession: I have never spray painted anything. Not even once. What have I been doing with my life??? Every DIY blogger I follow has shown me how something s simple as a can of paint can transform a piece from bland to bold. I've had this project over here waiting on my Pinterest for 6 months. 6 whole months, and look what cute stuff I could be doing with a little lace and some paint? I'm definitely hoping (as I previously mentioned) to paint our new bookcase and after that, who knows! I'm still on the hunt for a dresser for my room; if I pick one up at the thrift store, it very well could end up getting a fresh coat of paint (there's a new Habitat Re/Store that just opened up the street AND a brand new Goodwill about to open, I'm going to be second-hand heaven!).

Speaking of the deck, I'm SO excited to finally make use of it! There are already some cafe lights strung through the railings, but there's so much more to be done. The deck might be half covered in snow now, but it could look like this:

Source: shelterness.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Wow! Upholstered furniture may not be in our future, but I definitely want at least a cute cafe table and chairs. Sitting outside on the weekends, writing blog posts in the sun? Hanging out with the lights on at night, enjoying the breeze with my roommate? Sounds just about perfect.

I can't wait for spring.

things to do: brewcity bruisers

When I was in college, the movie Whip It came out. The local roller derby team sponsored a premiere with free posters and such, so I figured I would check it out. I loved the movie (female friendships! awesome music!), but more than that, I was super intrigued by the sport. I wished I was tough enough to be a roller girl (for reference, I somehow managed to scrape my hand on the couch yesterday. The couch!), but the fact remained that I still hadn't seen a live bout. Well, no longer! Last night I checked off one of my year goals: I attended a roller derby bout! And it was awesome!

Warm-ups! Everybody was already blurry and this was the slowest part of the night!

The Brewcity Bruisers are Milwaukee's rollergirls; the league is made up of four teams, so really, it's two bouts for the price of one. Last night, we saw Crazy 8s vs. Maiden Milwaukee and Rushin' Rollettes vs. Shevil Knevils. Each bout has two periods, so we got plenty of halftime shows too! Halftime for the first bout was a dance performance by the Beerleaders; during the second, there were Racing Beers ala Miller Park's Racing Sausages (if you aren't familiar, well...it's a quintessentially Milwaukee thing, kind of hard to explain. Basically people dressed as anthropomorphic sausages (or in this case, beer bottles) race one another in a humorous fashion). The main halftime between the two bouts featured a bout by the Micro Bruisers, the youth derby league. Man, I wish I was that awesome when I was 8-17 - maybe I would be tougher today if I'd been doing derby instead of whatever it was I was actually doing (reading, probably, or theater. Both worthy hobbies, but not lending to athletic prowess).

For an $18 at the door/$15 in advance (or with a promo - K and I got a discount for bringing nonperishable items for a food drive) ticket price, you get an awful lot of bang for your buck. There was a communist lime cheering on one team, beerleaders slingshotting t-shirts into the cheap seats, and rollergirls going flying into the crowd seated around the track (K and I decided to stay off the ground level in some real seats for our first outing). If you're not familiar with the rules of the sport, don't worry! The announcers give a lot of information in their play-by-plays, and it's really not hard to pick up on the basics. Even if you aren't sure what's going on, it's always exciting to watch!

K and I came home with the urge to make our way to the local roller rink to strap on some skates ourselves (for some much slower, hopefully less hip checking fun), and are definitely planning to hit the next bout on March 9th - if you're in the Milwaukee area, put it on your calendar now and prepare for some high-speed fun!

home improvement: writing nook

This weekend, I added another room to our apartment. It didn't take any construction permits (and trust me, you don't want to see me handling power tools) or even good ol' fashioned magic - just some simple rearranging! I even did it all by myself to surprise my lovely roomie when she came home from work. The cat mostly got in the way.

 

From the first time we saw our apartment, I was brainstorming how we could set up the slightly odd living room. The illustration below will show you what I mean! The previous tenants had their TV blocking the front nook with the couch against the back wall, leaving the entire nook empty and useless (I think they put a litter box back there? Whatever.)

Man, how long has it been since I did an MS Paint illustration of something? ...not long enough, you say?

 

Look at all that wasted space in question mark land! I wasn't about to let a perfectly good nook go to waste. My plan was to put the TV on the back wall and stagger the couch in the middle, leaving enough room to access the nook. I put my desk back there as a kind of console table. Which was cute, but not really functional. So the wheels in my head started turning around and around, like they do. I eyed up the desk. And I eyed up the wall. I'm not especially gifted in spatial reasoning, but I was Pretty Darn Sure that the desk would justtttt fit alongside the outside wall.

 

In a surprise boon, I got some free furniture from my mom's newlywed boss (mazel tov!), and the new bookcase I brought home was just the motivation necessary to do a little switcheroo. Switch switch it went, and suddenly, we had a writing nook/office where naught but "behind the couch" was before!

 

 

I have so many plans for this nook; there's a decorative craft project I'll hopefully be undertaking soon, and I'd love to brighten the space up with more art (Belle is lonely!). Once the weather gets warmer, I plan on repainting the bookcase, so I'll have to start pinning ideas for that! (Right now I'm sort of feeling ombre on the inside? Maybe a stencil? Anything goes!) Obviously we have to decide what sort of things we're going to keep on the shelf - leaning towards more decorative, since just out of sight there are three massive bookcases double-shelved with books with more books in the built-ins AND an entirely separate shelf K is keeping in her room. Maybe I can put some of my pretty coffee table books out (they were banished from the proper shelves for being non-regulation size).

Here's a close-up of the bookcase:

It's a cute pale blue in real life, but it has a few dings (probably from when SOMEONE was trying to haul it in and out of the back of a Nissan Versa...oops) so refinishing is on the list. Oh, and up on top is a peek at an easy and quick "project" - I framed a page from my alma mater's calendar. This one is of the old-fashioned mailboxes student receive their mail in. Old-timey, black and white, a secret personal connection, AND free? Sounds like a winner to me!

As always, pics are from Instagram. Follow me there to see it all in real time!

rec: challenge accepted

This is probably brand new shocking information for most of you, but I have a little bit of a procrastination problem. One only has to take a look at my history of blog posting (or dish-doing...) to realize the sad truth. I'm a procrastinator. I put stuff off, then I feel guilty for putting stuff off, and then I put stuff off more because I feel guilty about it and I don't want to face it, and et cetra et cetra the vicious cycle continues. I know a lot of folks have the same problem (especially internet folks - big ups to Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, all of you beautiful timesucks), and I'm happy to say that I can recommend a website that's helped me a lot:

 

 

Challenge Accepted/getyedone.com is awesome. The concept: earn EXP for completing tasks and level up, just like you would do in a role-playing game. It seems simple, but for me, at least, it really works! The points don't "mean" anything, but having a tangible reward (seeing the points add up and getting to a new level) is super motivating for me. Suddenly, cleaning the bathroom doesn't just get me a clean bathroom - it gets me points! Much like an arcade, where many hours and many quarters would net you enough tickets to receive some plastic trinket that you could probably buy for a single quarter, it's not really the prize that motivates you; it's the escalating success and the feeling of accomplishment.

 

The site is also super intuitive and easy to use. There are three nested categories: Tasks, Quests, and Odysseys. You can do a solitary task list or create a sweeping plan with multiple layers. Personally, I have a bit of a mix; I have a "Chores" Quest to which I'm constantly adding tasks. I also have a "House Snark" Odyssey with separate quests for each room/DIY projects/etc. so I can keep running track of things that I want to do. I have a quest for writing that rewards me every time I get another thousand words done (I also get points for making blog posts, which might explain the upturn...), one for fun so I can still reap the rewards of succeeding at recreational tasks like beating Super Mario for Wii, one for beauty/fashion since I get lazy and forget how much I like doing little things to stay fabulous (I got points for getting my bangs, and this week I get points for wearing makeup everyday). Basically, the possibilities are endless! You can categorize each task with a "skill" or "attribute" (most of mine fall under "Cleansing," "Adulting," "Wordsmithing," and "Drudgery") but it's optional. You also get to decide the level of difficulty of each task, and you'll be awarded points accordingly.

 

There are still a lot of exciting things coming down the pipeline; I follow the creators' Tumblr, and I'm pumped for a lot of the upcoming changes (especially an expanded social system). It's both interesting and cool to be getting into a site that's still so new; I was one of the first 600 people to sign up, I believe, and they've already blown past 1000 and are still growing. I highly recommend checking the site out; if you're a nerd who tends to put off everyday tasks but could grind for hours to get your character levelled up, it's practically mandatory.

Now if you excuse me, I need to go check off "write blog post"!

bangarang

Once again, the cat was out of the bag on instagram before I came to announce it here...

I got bangs! Also had my hair colored, but really the bangs are the big news. I've never had bangs before in my whole entire life. But I've been wanting to do something different with my hair/look, and some thick blunt bangs were always something that I'd yearned for. Call me a hipster, but there's something about a fringe of hair just brushing the tops of chunky black frames that makes me say "brava!" (The color is more of a deep red in person, and it should lighten up in the next week or so.)

With bonus Historical Disney Belle print in the background

I love them! It's going to be a bit of an adjustment for me, since I need to blow dry them straight and I usually just let my hair air dry with...pretty much no input from me. It does what it wants! But I'm willing to give it a go for the sake of fashion. Also on the table is the products I use in my hair. I asked my stylist about my shampoo/conditioner woes and I got a wrinkled nose in response to the brand I'm currently using. Obviously, they'd like to promote their own products, but I do think it might be time to bite the bullet and buy something salon-quality. I have notoriously uncooperative hair, which somehow is always an inch away from being dried out AND an inch away from looking slimy and weighed down fresh out of the shower. I'm also interested in trying a product without sulfates and parabens. Right now, I think I'll probably stop by the salon and pick up travel-sized versions of the products the stylist recommended to try out - but I'd love any suggestions you guys might have (especially if your hair is a ridiculous prima donna like mine).

What do you use in your hair? What was your last big change-up?

starting off right

One of my general goals for the year is to be better at stuff. And blogging is stuff! So, right on the heels of my year in review post, this is what I did over the long weekend!

As mentioned in the previous post, my fabulous artist friend and first-ever houseguest Claire came down from her shanty in the wild woods of Minnesota to ring in the new year Milwaukee-style. (Note: she does not actually live in a shanty. Or the woods. But she does live in Minnesota.) We had a lovely time - we took a trip to the Milwaukee Pubic Museum, which I hadn't been to in years. It was fun to see the new stuff and all the exhibits that fascinated me in my youth. We ate at the Milwaukee Public Market (always a favorite spot!) and brunched at Cafe Centraal, which is right in my new neighborhood! It wasn't all downtown treks and fine dining, though - we also spent plenty of time playing video games, watching funny videos on Youtube, making butterbeers, and just talking about everything. Basically all the stuff you need your best bros for. We rang in the new year with mimosas and thoughts and dreams for the new year. And before Claire had to go back to her shanty on New Year's Day, we helped my roomie Disdainbrook fulfill one of her 2013 wishes.

We dyed her hair! It was my first time being on the begloved end of a dyeing session, and it went quite well! We only did the underside of her hair (with Atomic Turquoise from Manic Panic) and somehow managed to keep from getting dye on anything in our bathroom, including our big white tub. Great success! It definitely gave me the itch to get my hair dyed again. I'm way overdue for a coloring, but I still have to decide what I want to go with. I'm going to stick with red, but I might go with something a little deeper than before. We'll see what swatches sing to me next time I'm at the salon. Although there's something wonderful about dyeing hair in a little bathroom with a white tub, two friends with gloved hands and a tupperware to do a cold rinse in. It's hands-on, gives you a sense of shared purpose and community. But it does also make everything smell like dye, so. You can't win 'em all.

a year in the life

Happy 2013! The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things. Like, for example, how a year has just ended! I really like having time to reflect back on the year behind me and to look at the year ahead.

In 2012, I:

• got out of my retail job and into a full-time temp gig
• got a permanent (though part-time) job in my field 
• had my face in a nationally circulated magazine
• moved out of my parents' house (and in with my best friend)
• attended my first convention (LeakyCon!)
• hosted my first houseguest (who is here now! Hi Claire!)
• read more books for pleasure than I have since before college
• learned how to pick up a cat
• opened a bottle of champagne with no injuries (New Year's Eve, just squeaked by!)
• survived a suburbs-to-downtown commute (every day!)
• bought my first piece of furniture 
• handled a plumber
• tried two different kinds of Butterbeer
• ate brunch downtown
• got a book signed in person by an author I admire

As for 2013, I don't really believe in "resolutions." It seems like a way to set yourself up to fail, making sweeping declarations and plans that will fade when you get back to everyday life and probably be a bust within the month, which is a bummer when you have a brand spankin' new year to explore. But I do believe in goals and my goal for 2013 is...to achieve more goals. Basically, I want to do things, things that I've never done, or things that I've been afraid to do. I might make an actual list, but either way, I sort of feel like my adult life has really "begun" now (with a job, car, apartment, even a cat running around!) and with all the serious building blocks in place, it's time to enjoy some extracurriculars. I want to write more, I want to explore my new(ish) city, I want to make things and share things and accomplish things. My goal is to nurture my confidence, my creativity, and my relationships with family and friends.

Happy New Year! May we all enjoy happiness and success in the coming year.

settling in

It's aliiiiiiiive!

Yes, it's true. Contrary to appearances, this blog is still alive! What have I been doing that's so important? Well...moving. Whoever said that moving was easy was lying to you. (I don't believe anyone has ever said that moving was easy.) Who would have thought a person could accumulate that much stuff? And yet once I was in the apartment, many trips to Target were necessary for more stuff! Mysterious...

Dining room, circa moving weekend. Check out that sweet built-in!

As of now, House Snark is still very much a work in progress, which is both fun and frustrating. Just like every shelter blog tells you, making a well-appointed home takes time. I would rather make do than run out and spend a lot of money buying things that I'll probably regret (also the running out and spending a lot of money isn't actually an option right now. Budgets!), but it's sometimes hard. Kaitlin and I both really want to have an organically created home, with lots of things that are handmade, vintage, and just plain old awesome. Sometimes that means living without a dresser (hello!) or a coffee table (hello again!). But problem solving happens - I've got clothes in my closet, obviously, as well as in storage crates on my IKEA shelf (I would show you but one of those crates is holding my underwear and...I don't really feel we've reached that level of intimacy, Internet.) and a pair of folding chairs have served admirably as places to set computers, plates, and beverages while sitting on the couch.

Speaking of the couch, that's one thing that I am really pleased with. Neither Kaitlin nor I had a couch going in, and I knew that was something that would be really important to both our day to day life (where else are we supposed to watch Downtown Abbey* and play Mario?) and really difficult for us to get into the apartment on our own (we both drive compact cars and, PS, are delicate noodle-armed young maidens). So the couch needed to be set before move-in day. My mom agreed to be my shopping buddy (she drives a Ford Escape!), and we made a plan to visit a local used furniture store to check out the selection and possibly stop by to check out the clearance section at Steinhafels.

But the used store turned out to be a lot less local than we thought, and I'm afraid of bedbugs, so Steinhafels became the first stop and, well:

With cameo appearance from my mom's foot

I even WANTED a grey couch! It was on my secret mental list (because I didn't want to want it too badly) and there she was, waiting for me in the warehouse clearance section (which is PAST the normal clearance section and is, indeed, in the warehouse) looking pretty as a picture and comfy to boot. Not to mention all clearance was an additional 15% off THAT DAY ONLY (oh sales, you do enliven my blood and bring the caps out of me). In the end, the couch B A R E L Y fit in the car (I had to ride with my knees squashed against my chest because the seat was pushed forward all the way) and was in the neighborhood of 45% off. Not too shabby! Plus, I was right about the comfy thing (I'm sitting on it right now, so I would know.)

Next up on my list is to hang some art and continue to deck the halls. I'll share some more pictures once things are more to my liking. I ordered some curtains for my bedroom that I'm super in love with, so hopefully they'll look just as good in my room as they did on the internet.

Until then, blogizens!

*OMG Downton Abbey! I somehow hadn't seen it before, so K and I are working through it. All of Lady Mary's outfits are TO DIE FOR. Possible post upcoming.

apartment hunting: success!

Not that kind of Rent...

When I last posted about my apartment hunt, it was a wishlist for my "someday" apartment that I hoped would be coming soon. That was back in May but, happily, someday has come! The fabulous Disdainbrook and I signed have signed a lease and are now officially renting a lovely little apartment (dubbed House Snark).

I won't lie, the searching was rough. I spent hours on Craigslist, sifting through spammers and aggressively ugly (and poorly maintained) apartments. Not even gonna lie, after the thrill of finding a place, my second thought was "I don't have to spend every night on Craigslist anymore!" Freedom is sweet. But in the end, perseverance (and a little good ol' fashioned luck) is what made it happen. We visited several places, some (one) doable and others not. We weren't overly picky, in my opinion, but we knew what we weren't willing to compromise on and, much like in the dating world, we were looking for Mr. Right, not Mr. Right Now.

And Mr. Right, indeed! I didn't really remember what I'd put on the original wishlist I'd posted, so out of curiosity's sake, I went back to take a look. And, well, see for yourself!

(Bolded points were top priorities)

Location - I'd like to be close enough to downtown to go back and forth easily but in a neighborhood that's relatively quiet. Not college student-land. Check! It's in our top choice neighborhood, which is close to the city but has a great mix of neighborhood-feel and funky flair

Clean/well-maintained Check!

2 BR/1 BA Check!

Separate dining room OR den - K and I are both writers (obviously) and would love a shared office space. Personally, I'd lean towards dining room because I also would like to entertain Check! We have a lovely little dining room (complete with a built-in with leaded glass!)

Hardwood floors Check!

Historic charm Check! Built in the 1920s with many original features!

On-site laundry Check! (and it's free too!)

Non-hideous kitchen Check! And much more spacious than most kitchens we saw

Parking for 2 - preferably at least one that comes with the unit, the other can be street parking Check - one garage & plenty of street parking

Central air - Uncheck :( But there is a window unit that comes with the apartment, and we knew that was a longshot in the historic buildings we were looking at

Preferably upper level Check!

Walkable to restaurants/groceries Check! (Well, the winter might keep us in our cars a bit, but there's a lot of great stuff within a mile)

Tall shower - we are both tall ladies Check!

Outdoor space for DIY projects Check! We get our very own private porch - great for projects and entertaining!

All but one point on my wishlist? Not too shabby, if I do say so myself!

My biggest tips for new apartment hunters like myself are: never give up (never surrender!) and be ready to act. It was tough trying to coordinate two very different work schedules (I have a standard corporate schedule with no availability during the day, Kaitlin works a variable retail schedule that changes week to week), and there were a few times that we set up an appointment for a showing a few days in advance only to be called and told that the place had already been rented. The same was true in the case of the apartment that became ours - I asked for a showing on a Sunday, we saw the place on Monday (due to a serendipitous series of events that gave Kaitlin the night free), decided that night we would take it, filled out applications on Tuesday, were formally offered the place on Wednesday (and immediately accepted), and signed our lease that weekend. The rental world moves fast, especially when you're looking in a popular area. It's scary, but when you see the right train coming, you just have to be ready to jump on board and ride that baby all the way to tenancy. 

I'm nervous (and horrified by the length of my to-do list), but I'm so excited to finally put all my blog-reading and pinning to good use. And, of course, to share our ideas and projects with all of you! Westward ho!

summer 2012

Summer isn't technically over yet but...wow, what a doozy! As you may have guessed from my disappearing act, I've had a very busy summer. For one, it was the first summer I'd worked full-time the whole way through, like a BOSS grown-up, but it was also filled with more adventures (mostly musically related) than ever. A quick run-down of the big ones? Why sure!

Summerfest

Summerfest is the world's largest music festival, and it takes place right here in Milwaukee (damn straight). I've gone one of the 12(!) days when there was a band I really wanted to see, but this year the Summerfest Gods smiled down on me and my sister and I went down three nights. For an S-Fest veteran, that's small potatoes, but it was a lot for us! We went down to the grounds after work on a Thursday and Friday (I work only a block and a very large parking lot away from the festival grounds) and then all day Saturday. On Thursday, we saw Imagine Dragons, a great band whose album isn't even out yet! On Friday, it was AWOLNATION, which has my vote for best concert of the summer (also a cool "emerging" band called Hell & Lula, check them out!). And Saturday we braved the heat, sitting on hard metal benches all day until the sun went down and Cake performed. By the end, I was incredibly sweaty (and I was sore from all the bench-sitting), but filled with rock n' roll spirit!

State Fair

I'm really not a huge State Fair person. Sure, deep-fried food on a stick is always entertaining, but as I've gotten older, I'm way less interested in spending time in smelly animal barns than I used to be, and the weather always seems to be dire. But this year, one of the headlining bands was Neon Trees (whom I'd seen opening a show last fall and had been jamming out to on the radio all summer) so, that's right, sister & I headed off the fair. Even though it was both hot and rainy, we still had a good time - my godparents came up to meet us, so the whole fam hung out for a while before J and I set off for the stage. We ate: cheese curds, cream puffs, deep-fried scallops on a stick, all-beef hotdog and a cheeseburger from the Cattleman's Association, and cotton candy (well, J did). There was even time for my favorite "traditional" State Fair activity - checking out the prize-winning food and textiles! There were some gorgeous cakes in there. And the show was great too - it stopped raining by then, and Shiny Toy Guns opened and were a pleasant surprise (although I started coveting the female singer's undercut! Bad self, fall in love with office-appropriate hair!).

LeakyCon

Did you know I'm a huge nerd? I think you did. If you recall the lengthy post I wrote about Severus Snape and the implications of sorting, you will probably know that I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd. So when a Harry Potter convention popped up a mere three hours from home, obviously I packed up all my best house gear (Slytherin pride!) with Disdainbrook and headed down to Chicago! It was really the highlight of the summer. We actually didn't end up going to any Harry Potter panels (...oops?), but we saw a ton of awesome panels by awesome young adult authors (including one of my favorite of any authors, John Green), participated in epic wizard rock concerts and dance parties, and saw the final installment of Team Starkid's A Very Potter Musicals LIVE AND IN 3D!!! (I'm looking forward to seeing what the version they eventually put up on youtube will look like...it was definitely an experience to see it live...all 5+ hours of it...) 

Authors!

Wizard rock!

(If you couldn't tell, I'm pretty obsessed with Instagram now. You can follow me @ampersandjay. Just before Leaky, I got my very first smart phone, which was another big source of excitement this summer!) Basically, when they announced the dates for next year's in Portland, I started mentally planning my attendance so - yes, it was awesome. My first convention!

But perhaps the most exciting summer moment came just this Thursday - I got a(nother) job! It's part-time, but it's in my field and it seems like it'll be a great place to work. And, on the plus side of part-time, I'm going to be able to stay through on this temp assignment through the end (which actually got extended...gosh, I haven't posted since then, did I? Oops!), which is fab. Looks like the best of both worlds! (Did you go to a Hannah Montana place? I've never even watched that show. Let's pretend no one did.)

How was your summer? It feels like the Really For Real end for me since J is moving back to school this weekend - plus, I've done so much fun stuff, that must be a whole summer's worth!

state of the union

I hope all you Americans had a happy 4th of July! Mine was pretty laid back, but it was followed by three days (well, two long evenings and one full day) of music festival-ing. I saw some great bands, had lots of laughs with my sister, and didn't get heat stroke or even a sunburn! I have some fun posts in the pipeline (including a neat product review!) but I was thinking about how projects on blogs always just kind of disappear into the ether - they happened, you posted, it's done - and I wanted to give a little update on how things were going.

I tweeted about the Sally Hansen Polish Strips I reviewed in this post, but I have to reiterate here:  they were horrible to remove! I don't know if it was because I left them on longer than advised, but the adhesive used on the strips got gummy and everywhere. I was scrubbing at them with nail polish remover and all it seemed to do was push it around. I still have a little residue on my nails - proceed with caution!

My bookshelf brightening project is still a smashing success! I was a little worried that the paper might bubble up in the heat, but it's all smooth and lovely as ever.

Finally, the tablet case I purchased is still doing a great job! It's started to wear a tiny bit at the corner and some of the fabric on the inside has started to fray, but that's user error - it's where I hook my stylus, and putting it on and off has worn at the fabric a tiny bit. I'm still totally in love with it and it's kept my baby safe and sound through thick and thin and daily travels to the office shoved in my tote with my lunch, umbrella, passcard, notebook, and all those other important work-related things! The tablet is also a homerun - I actually finished my very first full ebook on it last week and it was a lot of fun! I don't know if I'll start buying a ton of books that I don't already own, but it's an excellent resource for checking books out of the library (the ebook I checked out, by the way, is called The Paris Wife and I heartily recommend that too! It's about Ernest Hemingway's first wife...I read it for my book club [I'm in a book club now! How grown up and literary is that?] and can't wait to discuss it with the ladies!)

That's basically the state of things around here - how are all of you doing? Anything new and exciting? Projects or purchases that aren't holding up like you expected them to (or exceeding your expectations!)?

apartment hunting: the wishlist

That's right, folks, I'm moving out! ...eventually. Okay, okay, stay with me:  as someone who watches a lot of HGTV, I obviously would like my apartment hunt to be just like that:  a helpful (yet sassy) real estate agent takes me to three equivalently priced but subtly distinctive domiciles which I consider the pros and cons of before selecting the one I like best. Fast-forward to me three months later, all set up and thrilled with my new digs! Unfortunately, there is very little fast-fowarding in real life, and I won't have a real estate agent (which is probably for the best...the sassiest ones are all in Canada) to help me along. But even away from HGTV and in the gritty real world known as The Internet, the process of apartment hunting is truncated and glamorized. Most of the apartment-hunting experiences I see are written by people who already have apartments, which is the best place to give advice from, but not quite what I'm looking for to relate to as I (slowly) embark on my own first hunt. Lucikly for you, I've decided to fill that gap with my own real-time apartment hunting adventures. This gives me something to blog about (yay!) and an outlet for my repressed apartmenty desires.

So, first up, the wishlist. Picture this appearing in split-screen while I talk about what I want, in classic HGTV fashion. Of course, I won't be on this adventure alone; the (future) apartment is to be shared with (surprise!) none other than the wonderful Kaitlin Disdainbrook, who I'm sure has her own list of wishes that will butt up against mine (as all HGTV pairs must...hopefully I'm the wife in this scenario, the wife always gets her way). The bolded elements are my must-haves.

Location - I'd like to be close enough to downtown to go back and forth easily but in a neighborhood that's relatively quiet. Not college student-land.

Clean/well-maintained

2 BR/1 BA

Separate dining room OR den - K and I are both writers (obviously) and would love a shared office space. Personally, I'd lean towards dining room because I also would like to entertain

Hardwood floors

Historic charm

On-site laundry

Non-hideous kitchen

Parking for 2 - preferably at least one that comes with the unit, the other can be street parking

Central air

Preferably upper level

Walkable to restaurants/groceries

Tall shower - we are both tall ladies

Outdoor space for DIY projects

So that's my preliminary list! I've just been browsing the listings to figure out what neighborhoods are going to be the best fit for our personalities (and the price...oh yeah, the budget, frequent crusher of HGTV dreams), so I'm sure things will evolve as I start to see actual places, but at least there's a starting point! Hopefully soon I'll be able to jump out of hypothetical browsing and start hunting in earnest - until then, I'll try to keep my hopes high but my expectations in line with my budget - the greatest lesson TV has taught me.

milwaukee spots: the safe house

This past summer, I posted about some fun places to get a bite to eat in Milwaukee, my home city. I was on that adventure with an old friend of high school, Ms. Gail, and since she was in town again last weekend, we had to hit up some more downtown spots!

On Friday night, I met up with her at the Milwaukee Public Market (mentioned in my first Milwaukee post) for a little dinner before we started checking out the nightlife. We checked out several establishments, but my favorite was a place I've been wanting to visit for a while: The Safe House.





Did somebody say spy?


The door reads "International Exports Ltd.," but that's just a ruse to throw enemy agents off your trail. The Safe House is a spy-themed bar and restaurant that is a ton of kitschy fun. It's themed to the gills, and I love it. If you're not a fan of James Bond, 60s style corniness, or looking a little silly in the name of a good time, the Safe House is probably not for you. But if Bond, cornball, and silliness are your bread and butter (hello!), prepare for a good time!

Once you enter, you'll be asked to provide the password before you can get into the bar proper. If you don't know, you'll be asked to perform some sort of humorous feat in order to prove your worthiness to gain admittance which, you will discover after getting inside, is shown on TVs in the bar area. It's all in good fun, but if you really want to avoid it, the password is...just kidding! What kind of spy would reveal that kind of sensitive information in public? I'm no double agent!

Although Safe House does have a full menu, we just ordered some chicken tenders to munch on in the bar area. They were very tasty, but...they were chicken tenders. Nothing too out of the ordinary, so I can't really speak to the quality of the menu. I didn't end up trying any of their specialty drinks (which are wonderful and thematically appropriate and, in the tradition of these things, pretty pricey) but had a delicious amaretto sour. For younger spies, just keep in mind that after 7PM the Safe House is a bar and no one under 21 is admitted, but you can still come in for lunch or dinner to enjoy all the atmosphere!

There's also a secret exit, if you're a particularly clever spy, which I'm sure you all are.

Have any of you found your way to the Safe House? Is there a kitschy theme restaurant in your city you'd like to recommend? Comment below!

commuting shoes: the working girl's best friend

The first time I heard of "commuting shoes" was on an episode of What Not to Wear. The makeoveree was defending the sketchy sneakers she wore to work, because she rode the subway, there was no way she could make her commute in the pretty heels Stacy and Clinton were showing off. Happily, Clinton was there to set her straight, and the idea of commuting shoes lurked in my brain through many years of sketchy-sneakers-wearing (I was in college, give me a break!) until the time finally came to put that knowledge to good use.

Source: famousfootwear.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

If you've never heard of commuting shoes before, here's the long and short of it: sometimes you have to walk a lot to get to work. Sometimes you have to drive a long time. And sometimes you don't want to do those things wearing heels. But you are not doomed to wear sensible flats every day of your professional life -- no! You can buy a pair of comfortable, reasonably athletic shoes, and then change into your nice shoes once you get to the office! Do you see how this was a revolutionary idea in my young brain?

My commuting shoe of choice (pictured above) are my Skechers Actives "Addicted" (I have no idea. Shoes, cars, and cellphones have the weirdest names); I bought them for my retail job, because I could stand in them for 4-8 hours at a time without my feet falling off. They're comfortable, provide some arch support, and are nice-looking enough that I don't feel like a total fashion disaster during the ten minutes it takes to get from my car to my desk in the mornings. Actually, I have been known to wear them with trousers; they're a nice pair of black shoes that don't call too much attention to themselves.

Some people keep their work shoes in a desk drawer for easy on/off - just slip them on when you get to work and put them back at night. Personally, I like to have access to all of my shoes at all times (you never know when you'll need them!) so I just pack mine into my work-bag, and off I go. This gives me the added bonus of being able to decide to wear my fancy shoes out to my car, if my feet are still feeling okay and I want to work some stylish professional realness on that catwalk we call a sidewalk.

Do you wear commuting shoes or are you the kind of hardcore fashionista who walks five miles uphill both ways in her heels? (If so, I salute you and stick my feet further into my fuzzy slippers!) What say you, kitschens? (Haven't used that for a while...it's still not cool, is it?)

hair begone

Did I get my hair did?



Yes, I did. (It's not an April Fool!)

I have been wanting/needing a haircut for a while now. You know how when it's been a while since you got it cut, your hair suddenly can do no right? Everyday it just looks wrong, even though it probably (I hope) looks fine to everyone else, you know that's not what you want. In my case, I needed a color freshen-up and I needed to get some of the weight off. When my hair gets longer and heavier, it weighs down my curls. Some people would be pleased about that, but I'm proud to be a curly girl! I wanted to put a little spring back into my hair's step.

Getting my hair cut in the spring is always a little extra special. I'm looking forward to the long warm months ahead, and I want to make sure that I've got a style that'll feel light and fun when it's hot and sticky out. I went shorter than expected this time...the night before, I'd been extolling to a friend the wonders of just chopping it all off. When I was a senior in high school, I went in for a trim and impulsively decided to cut off a good 10 inches. And I've (seldom) looked back!




The asymmetrical cut has the benefits of being a little bit fun/edgy (while still professional enough for work) and is a built in style. Because I shower at night, I don't have a lot of options to style my hair when I'm actually preparing to go out for the day, so it's nice to have a cut that does something all by itself!

Are any of you planning to try a new 'do for summer? Have you ever committed a chopjob or are you happy with long luxurious locks? Sound off below!