Getting antsy...

Okay, I really should be in bed right now and I don't think I've made it there before midnight one night this week; to no one else's fault but my own. I have no update on wedding planning or our move. We have a whole lotta little details that as of right now, don't feel like their going anywhere. Alright...I'm whining...sorry. I will stop now and just tell you what I do know:

*******

Keep telling everyone that we're waiting to plan wedding until after the move is out of the way...

It has been so hard not to move forward with wedding planning, so I broke down and bought my first few wedding magazines... of which I have not even looked through yet, can you believe it?!!

The more I bring up wedding, the more I find Jeff mentioning buying a house first...

I am torn about the afformentioned issue.

One of my girlfriends called me a week after our engagement to tell me the exact same news for herself... makes me really want to plan wedding even more...

Kind of feeling the urge to plan a quick wedding now... 4 months maybe? But probably not.

OH! I found us a great place to live last weekend and soon we'll be able to call ourselves official Portland'ers (based on the new address). WHOOP WHOOP!

When I drive along Lake Washington everyday I get really sad to leave a place I already love living in so much...

Had a great drink/dinner date with some fabulous girlies from my Western days... they are amazing, just what I needed to get me through this stressful week, and helped me remember that really great friends won't go anywhere.

I know I have a TON of campaign launches & projects going on at work right now, but been struggling every day for the motivation to stay on top of stuff. I had been doing really good.

Jeff learned the last few days that his company will be giving us crazy amounts of money for our move... I still tell him I'll believe it when I see it...

The amount that we'll receive, aside from what they're paying the movers, could come close to the down payment on a house... {or wedding???} :)

Just found out the moving company is going to pack our stuff... big sigh of relief... but that was yesterday...

Moving company has yet to call and set up a date to come pack/move our stuff. When they do, it could be a 5 day range for them to actually show up & another 5 day range they have to drop it off at the destination. We're only moving 3 hrs away! ..... 'nuff said.

*******

I am so tired and think I will head to bed now. On an exciting note, my Grandma & Grandpa are moving back up to the PacNW this weekend (snowbirds) and I get to see them before our move down south. They are my favorite people in the whole world, can't wait!

Hope everyone is having a great week and enjoys the sun this weekend!

Love ~J

When it rains...it pours?

Our few blog followers may be losing faith in me by now, but let me just tell you... when it rains, it pours. That might be a little cliché, and you may think this means there has been some bad stuff happening this week; but in fact, it couldn't be more contrary. I'm sorry that neither Jeff or I have posted our engagement stories yet. It was definitely planned for earlier this week, but then we had a little more craziness added to our life... as if getting engaged and having to call everyone & their mother to tell of the news isn't enough (don't get me wrong, I was very happy to make all those calls).

Here it goes...

The actual day that we got engaged (I would say refer back to the story, but you do not know it yet - you'll understand soon), Jeff also received a phone call with an opportunity that we definitely were not expecting. When the call came in, I sat in the background in shock with my jaw probably down to my chest; we were in the car, so the timing could not have been more random either; and I was still reeling from the proposal. We talked it over a lot the following few days, while we were still keeping the engagement a semi-secret and then finally it became more and more evident that this other big change was probably going to happen. Once that sunk in, it involved much more thought, research and time from this week. The final word just came in... by choice and chance.... we are now officially moving back home!

Portland, here we come!
Jeff has accepted the offer to take over the GG store in Beaverton, OR. I think we are both SO SO ecstatic for the chance to be around all our direct family & really good friends again! I am especially excited for what it brings for my wedding planning stuff. :) And if all of that wasn't great enough... After communication with my company, I was granted the opportunity to stay on with them and will work remotely from home when we get there! I am having a hard time believing just how lucky & blessed we are right now!

Will write more later. Time for another adventure. Life is good.

Love,
J

{photo courtesy of Portland Ground: Pictures of Portland Oregon}

BIG NEWS!!!!!

I'm writing because I need to feel like I've been productive; although I did wake up with my fiance, play tennis, cleaned house (j/k, I more directed him while he cleaned house), ran errands (haha, another joke, it was more pleasure @the mall), cooked a fabulous dinner (lemon garlic orzo pasta w/ chicken), and before I go to bed I will finish putting away my clothes..I do feel productive. So, let me correct myself...I need to feel productive on this blog!

A lot, a LOT, has happened since my last post. Most significant out of everything: Jeff asked me to marry him - and we are now officially engaged!!! Yaaahhh! The actual engagement event spans an entire week, and for anyone that has gone through this, you probably understand that I feel like we're still in the whirlwind of our engagement 'story'. We have not even had the chance to call all of our family members to tell them, I have yet to chat with a lot of my close girlfriends about how it happened (sorry girls), and NO, we have not planned a date yet. lol. I know that this is a question I will continue to get on a daily basis, so I better get used to it.

Needless to say, I (WE) are very excited! Not a lot feels like it has changed for us, seeing as we've been together for almost 6 yrs. - living together 3 1/2,and faithfully known for some time that we planned to spend the rest of our lives together. But that's okay, because I can't act ignorant to the fact that things will change and may feel overwhelming at times through the wedding planning process. I hope that Jeff can help me keep a level head. ;)

Jeff and I made a deal that we would both post our story/version of the engagement events, and I think you may see some more posts from Jeff from here forward. I'm looking foward to it. I just love watching the both of us grow every day, learning from the experiences He allows us to encounter in life, and learning more about each other and how we can love each other whole-heartedly every day. Alright, enough sappiness.... I know you want to hear the story now, but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Gots to go cut Jeff's hair, or la....nevermind. ;) Hahaha, I think I'm hilarious.

Tomorrow I will post about how this engagement rolled out, and then you'll see Jeff's tale in the next few days.

Love to all,
J

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same." ~Emily Brontë

My Monday Relief

You know when you wake up from a restful weekend, deceived, thinking that you will have a smooth transition into the week...but then...dun dun duuun...chaos!?!?! Okay, my day wasn't that bad; that was a slight overreaction. But I did have a really restful and productive weekend, went to bed at a decent time (for once), [everything in between], got to work this morning and immediately fell into an insanely busy and chaotic work day! Oh my. At first, I was really worried that this was a bad sign for the week ahead of me, but then...to the end of my day.... I got home to a fully cooked dinner by Jeff and it just got better from there (and it's not even over yet)!!

I hope everyone else had a great Monday & has an even better week! Here are some of my Monday reliefs*:
[*Disclosure: Monday is one of our main TV nights, you'll catch on]

1. Watching The Haney Project w/ Jeff and seeing how entertained & passionate he is about golf. I have to admit, the show is pretty funny. If you've never seen Charles Barkley's swing, you've got to check it out! We also had a jaw dropping moment seeing someone we knew & worked with from Beaverton on the show.

[photo courtesy of examiner.com]

2. Seeing the new Hershey's Kiss commercial for the first time. It is so cute!

3. Falling upon my new favorite design & fashion blog oh, hello friend - You should definitely keep her in your feed to see her daily's:

[all images courtesy of oh, hello friend]

4. AWESOME CBS Monday night shows

[all images courtesy of cbs.com & cwtv.com]

HairLESS

This may be a lame post; however, per numerous requests, I'm posting a pic of the new hair. Or, should I said - hairLESSness (yeah, that's totally not a word, but I'm leaving it)! Anyways, we are at the beginning of a long week moving into our new apartment, and I am finding that this hour is the only time I can get something done that I want to do and not feel guilty. It's shaping up to be a normal work week for me, but a tiresome & stressful work week for Jeff (poor guy). As such, I will be recruiting my sister to help me move a little on Wednesday (and pawn-off some furniture on her, hehe). I might post some pictures of our new place (pre-furnishings), but I haven't quite decided if that is creepy or not?? Nothing else new on this front, other than some brainstorming for a fun birthday weekend home (March 5th-8th). If anyone can think of some fun things to do for my birthday weekend in, or around Portland, please let me know! :)


{In the car after haircut, Feb 2009 - not the best, but you'll see more soon}

Antique Me, Please!

This is what my photos have been screaming at me for some time now! Jessica sounds like she's lost her marbles, you must be thinking. I assure you that isn't the case, lol. I've mentioned before how much I find creative inspiration in my every day and this is one that I've had for some time. I love antiques... I love antique stores. I love antique gadgets. I love antique jewelry. I love antique people (hehe, this is what my Grandma calls herself). But most of all, I LOVE antique photos! I would be lying if I said I saw antique photos on a daily basis, but in my recent blog roaming craze & interest in photography, I've seen so many photographers and graphic designers that have used this technique. It brightens my day to see these photos. Since I don't have a professional camera yet, I've been wanting to experiment with my graphic design interest and experience in this realm. However, I lost Photoshop when the ol' desktop pc went kaput, and ever since then I've struggled finding a similar program that had the necessary features AND ease of use. Fastforward (or rewind, however you look at it) to a few days ago, when I found it...Picnik.

Picnik is a web-based photo editing tool that allows you to edit photos from your computer, the web or a handful of other photo storage sites like Picasa, Flickr, Facebook, etc. It has a ton of one-click & auto-fix features, exposure, color, red-eye, as well as the standard crop, re-size, rotate, etc... but then comes the good part! There is a whole section of 'Create' features with custom-made effects that really allow you to build and personalize your photos. So, tying it all together, there are two features called 1960s & cross-processed that 'antique' my photos - in one click! I LOVE IT! Seriously, I can't even explain all of the cool things that Picnik can do.

This is definitely a new favorite of mine that I think everyone should check out if they enjoy playing around with and sharing their photos. In honor of my new favorite tool & love for all things antique, I've included some recent blog-find favorites and photos from my trip to Lincoln City, OR for my girlfriend, Stef's, birthday in January. It was such a great weekend and I was reminded of how the beach is one of my favorite places to be.

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Friday favorites:

{from sadie olive's flickr}


{reposted by still dottie from tec petaja}

{from millie motts' flickr photostream}

{old post from sweet sassafras}


{photos by max wagner via a cup of joe}
**some are older post, but I couldn't help it :)

Mosaic Me

Well, it's been awhile. I should honestly be in bed right now, because I'm running on about 2hrs of sleep. Problems? No, not really, only that Jeff is out of town in Pittsburgh for business and I have this horrible problem staying up until freakish hours keeping myself occupied while he is gone. It's not like I have a problem sleeping when he's not here, or even that I get bored without him (anyone who knows me well, knows that I can keep myself distracted for hours)...but I think it's just a bad habit from the first time we moved and he had to take this same trip for over a week. I was so scared staying by myself in a new town, new apt, and I kept getting these prank calls late late at night. So of course, I was freaked out! I stayed up every night w/ all the lights on until about 3-4am, then finally fell asleep w/ scissors under my pillow and cell in hand. LOL. From there forward, I just have this habit of staying up late when he is gone....

Anyways, I just started Nights in Rodanthe, so I will make this short. I nabbed this from a friend's blog and thought it was kind of fun. I will try and post one for Heffe when he gets back. One a side note, I got my hair cut today and it's REALLY short and I have bangs! Me-bangs, haven't had them since I was 5! I will try to post a pic soon.

p.s. I'm an artist and respect giving others' credit for their work, but if I had...you would know the answers to my pics :)? Hope they forgive me...

Here's how it goes:

Step 1: go to flickr.com
Step 2: in another window open http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php
Step 3: choose 4 columns, 3 rows
Step 4: answer the following questions in the search bar of flicker. pick your favorite one on the first page and paste it into your mosaic.

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One word to describe you.
12. Your nickname.