Productivity

I like to be super busy.  I was involved with everything under the sun while in college (and high school.... and junior high...) so it's really hard for me to currently be living with my parents in the suburbs while I interview for jobs.  Instead of having a plethora of activities Sharpied (yes, it's a verb) into my color-coded planner, every day is different and depends on what Real HouseMom has in mind for the day.

I'll be honest, it's a struggle to stay focused on the job hunt when there's so much that needs work around the house, and now I'm home with RHM full-time.  Yesterday and Wednesday were spent in the basement, which is literally so scary I'm not going to post any photos.  We've lived in our house almost 20 years, and have an unfinished basement that is home to all the toys, books, games, clothes, artwork, decorations, etc. that accumulate over the decades.  So in addition to trying to clean everything and split it into four categories (keep, donate, sell, trash), we're also making plans for the ceiling, walls, floors and dividing the entirely open space into individual rooms.  Phew!

On top of that, RHM and I are planning to have the wallpaper (eww, yes, wallpaper) stripped from the dining room and guest bathroom so we can totally redo those rooms.  My big procrastination at the moment has been spending hours on the House Beautiful, Better Homes & Gardens, Southern Living and Country Living websites to get ideas for paint, decor and more.

And the weather here in Chicagoland has been cool and rainy throughout the week, so all I've wanted to do is curl up with a good book or catch all the fun summer shows on TV.  I usually just drag my MacBook down to the family room (biggest TV!) and work from there.

How do you manage to get big projects done in addition to the everyday work?

Have a great weekend =)

-Jules

Absolutely Adorable: ShopGlitzyGlam.com!

Hi, My name is Jules and I can't resist anything personalized or monogrammed.  (Hi Jules.)

Seriously, if they had rehab for people who love their name/initials on their stuff, I should be the first person to sign up.  Instead, I keep finding websites and shops that cater to my obsession.

The newest one I found is ShopGlitzyGlam, a website run by two sisters who love to blog about beauty and fashion on their self-titled blog, Elle & Blair.  [Warning: addiction may occur!]

On ShopGlitzyGlam, you can totally customize everything from makeup bags to spa items to lunch bags and more!  Of course they also have some things that aren't 100% custom, but even those give you several options to choose from- including Lilly stuff and jewelry.

And my favorite little detail about their stuff?  Most of it comes with ribbon =)

Speaking of favorite, here are the three things I want most from their shop!

I love this color combo!  It's the light pink waffle weave makeup case (perfect for throwing in your purse) with the turquoise polka dot ribbon and turquoise personalization, and as much as I love O-M-G-double-H-K-P, I'd probably still choose Jules =)

I also love these headbands.  I need headbands when I wash my face before bed, and I think the hot pink headband with a bright orange J on it would make me extra motivated to stick to my routine!

Another love of mine: wine!  Lucky for me, Boyfie's a fan, too, though I'm not sure he would want one of these-- but I certainly do!  I think sky blue and yellow would be perfect =)

So those are just a few examples of the absolutely adorable products on the ShopGlitzyGlam website.  Once I find a new job (fingers crossed!) I'll probably end up spending half my first paycheck on the stuff above!

Have a great Thursday =)

-Jules

59

That's how many children I helped feed for a whole year.  Real Housemom and I spent a couple hours this afternoon (yesterday?) volunteering for an organization called Feed My Starving Children, or FMSC.

 We participated in what's called a Mobile Pack, where a church hosts an event to put together food bags (known as MannaPack Rice, info here) to box up and send to countries throughout Central & South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia who are in severe need of nutritional assistance.  It was really great to be a part of something like this, a volunteer organization working to end hunger.  I loved having the chance to pack some food, and I'm thinking it would be a good use of my time to do additional volunteer work while I'm job hunting =)

When the Mobile Pack was over, Real Housemom and I had some errands to run.  See, I'm going to Indiana again (you'll learn this is a semi-regular occurrence), this time for the wedding of a friend who worked with Boyfie and me at Applebee's in college.  I've already got my dress-- Lilly, of course!-- but I was in dire need of shoes and a coordinating dress shirt & tie for Boyfie.  I found him a shirt that's just about the exact shade of green on part of my dress (it's a patchwork) and two ties to choose from, one pink and one green.  Of course the green striped tie would  not be worn with the green shirt for this, but that's neither here nor there.

After a quick dash off to the bank, Real Housemom and I raided stopped at DSW, aka Heaven.  Where I proceeded to find not only shoes for the wedding, but also shoes for basically every other occasion in my life.  Note: I hadn't bought a new pair of shoes in almost a year, so this trip was more like an annual pilgrimage.  No joke, scroll down if you don't believe me!!

Wedges from Guess

 First things first I found the shoes that were basically what I had in mind for the wedding.  The ceremony is outdoors and the reception is indoors, so I figured a wedge would be a good compromise for both events!

Sandals from Teva

I enjoy hiking, kayaking, etc. so there was no way I could pass up these Tevas.  They were on the clearance racks AND had an extra 30% off - and these things last forever so I'm looking at it as an lifestyle or hobby investment =)

Rainboots from Sperry Topsider

And le piece de resistance - my new Sperry rainboots.  Having had to walk a mile to and from work every day, my feet kept getting destroyed whenever it rained.  No joke, I'm talking horrible blisters and even some bleeding!!  These babies, however, feel more like slippers.  They're so cute and so comfy, I can't wait for the next time it rains =)

Once we left DSW, we popped into Ulta to see if I could use that presh little $3.50 off coupon they send in the mail all the time.  Well by the time we got there, we were both tired and I had just spent practically my life's savings on shoes so we didn't stay for long.  I just couldn't focus on all the makeup products, so I'll probably be going back tomorrow or Saturday.  Our last stop for the day/night was Le Target to pick up a couple last-minute groceries, which meant Real Housemom and I didn't eat dinner till about 10:00!  Which is why it's so late now.... Ok, time for bed, Boyfie's waiting for me to call and say goodnight!

Have a great Friday =)

-Jules

Summer/Fall Movies: 2 down, 1 million to go!

I'll be honest, I had no real interest in seeing the newest Pirates of the Caribbean-- since I knew Orlando Bloom & Keira Knightley would be MIA-- but we got some free passes to see it, so of course we went.  I still like the first one the best but 'On Stranger Tides' is still a fun movie!  I went with two people who haven't actually watched the Pirates movies, aside from bits and pieces of the first one, so I can tell you first hand that you don't have to have seen the first three in order to understand the fourth, though it makes a huge difference when you're familiar with the characters and recognize several of the references.

The other movie I saw recently was X-Men First Class.  Now, the only X-Men movie I'd seen before this was the X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, and I've never read the comic books, so I'm not hugely familiar with the characters.  But I thought this was awesome!  Not sure how you'll feel if you did read all the comic books or watch the cartoon growing up, so sorry I can't help you there.  However if you like the superhero genre or are into movies with a little sci fi and some action, then I can definitely recommend you go see this!  It was totally worth my $10 =)

Upcoming movies I can't wait to see: Hangover 2 (yeah, yeah), Super 8, Green Lantern, Bad Teacher, Mr. Popper's Penguins, Cars 2, Transformers 3, Horrible Bosses, HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS part 2 (definitely seeing this at midnight!!!), Captain America, The Change Up, The Help, Conan the Barbarian, The Three Musketeers, Winnie the Pooh (I've always liked them!), Immortals, Puss in Boots, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

And those are just the ones I know of!  So basically if it's coming out and it's not a scary movie, I'll probably go see it =)

Movies I still need to check out: The King's Speech, The Black Swan, Water for Elephants, Fast Five

Any other suggestions?

Have a great Thursday =)

-Jules

What I'm Lovin' Today!

So as I mentioned in my last post, I'm in Indianapolis for the week of the Indy 500 race!  My team and I are staying at the Staybridge Suites on the north side, in Carmel and it's a great place =)  My room has a fridge/freezer, microwave, dishwasher, dishes and stovetop PLUS the Staybridge has a free laundry room, pool & hot tub, mini theater, all-hours convenience "store", business room and more.  This morning, I squeezed in a workout at the 24 hour fitness center before grabbing some free breakfast in the lobby.  Seriously, this place is such a sweet deal-- as it turns out, my team tries to stay here every time they're in Indy!

The fitness center- this morning I did the treadmill & elliptical

The outside of the Staybridge

My room (mid-blog)

Anyway, my birthday is this Saturday (yay!) but I'll be in Indy working so I'm adapting things a bit.  Since I have to be at IMS (Indianapolis Motor Speedway, aka the racetrack) around 4 am on Sunday, the plan is to skip the bars and instead just have a big group Hibachi dinner with all my fellow Workers for Saturday evening.  One of my teammates and I ate at a nearby Japanese restaurant-- my first!-- for dinner last night and it was so good =)  It was called Izakaya, and we actually found it by accident when we Google mapped a Chinese restaurant that ended up being a seafood restaurant.... Weird... Sooo it turns out I'm a huge Hibachi fan and didn't know it!

My leftover Hibachi from Izakaya - tastes WAY better than it looks, I promise =)

And now on to gifts I'm hoping for!  In addition to all the VV, Lilly and Tory Burch post-it notes I left everywhere hints I dropped to my parents, I'm crazy about the adorable custom Lilly products from this Etsy site, My Pink and Green Garden.  You get to choose the Lilly print and they'll deliver your monogrammed pillow, image pillow, word pillow, memo board or lamp & shade.

I'm crazy about this memo board in the White Zin print!

These throw pillows are too cute!

I'm also begging hoping for a Kindle 3G since I'm a HUGE reader.  I always said I'd never switch to the e-book from the paper book but trying to keep pages from flipping while on the elliptical or keep corners from bending in my purse is a losing battle.  No way will I totally surrender my paperbacks but in some circumstances, I just need to get me a Kindle!  And a cute sleeve to protect it-- besides Lilly or Vera Bradley, do you have any suggestions?

Have a great Tuesday =)

-Jules

Moving On

So Friday (aka 2 days ago) was the last day of my internship.  I had been there nine months and knew it would be my last day, but I was waiting to hear back on a position with a marketing tour at our company.  I found out last week that I didn't get the job (boo!) so it's back to the job hunting drawing board.  My degree is in Public Relations & Advertising and my internship was at an experiential marketing agency so I know I have a pretty broad spectrum of job opportunities available to me, especially in Chicago!

We like to sit by the red sculptures.  Our building is in the background!

Thursday night, then, was the eve of my last day, so I went out with a few of the other interns.  We went to our agency's intermural softball game in Lincoln Park, then went to a couple bars before calling it a night.  The next day was absolutely gorgeous so we got a Groupon Now deal to Qdoba--it was $1, no joke--and ate across the street in Millennium Park.  So overall my last week was a great one =)

At Bull & Bear with two of my fellow interns

I'm currently in Lafayette, IN vising Boyfie for the weekend!  Tomorrow I drive the additional hour down to Indianapolis to meet up with the rest of my team.  For the next 7 days I'll be working for one of our clients at the Indy 500!  I've never been before but I'm super excited, even though I'll be working and not just spectating.  Anyway, enough for now, time for a movie with Boyfie!

Have a great week =)
-Jules

Introduction

Welcome to my blog!  I'm glad you're here  =) A little bit more about me.... I graduated from Purdue (Boiler Up!) in December 2009 with my BA in Public Relations & Advertising and minors in French and History.  Yes, that meant I read a lot of books, wrote TONS of papers and can speak the world's prettiest language!  It was great though, I joined a sorority my freshman year and was super involved on campus all 4 years (my last semester consisted of nothing but class, my part-time job and applying/interviewing for life in the 'real world'), doing stuff like the Student Union Board, Dance Marathon, Panhellic, honors societies and more.  But I absolutely LOVE Purdue-- I could sing Hail Purdue (the fight song) around the same time I learned my ABCs-- and had a fantastic college career there!

This is the Liberal Arts fountain, and the three buildings behind it are where I spent most of my class time at Purdue

That's also where I met my fantastic boyfriend of over two years.  Boyfie and I worked together near campus and have been doing the long distance thing since I graduated a year and a half ago.  Let me tell you, for anyone who thinks distance relationships sound easy-- THEY'RE NOT!!!  Thank God for Skype, that's definitely the next best thing to being with Boyfie in person =)

Boyfie and me at Christmas

I moved home after graduating (home = Chicago suburbs) and still haven't saved up/been making enough to move out.  This of course hasn't stopped me from bookmarking every piece of furniture, organization tool, paint color and bedspread that I plan to buy to furnish my future apartment!  A few months after I moved back home, my brother decided university life wasn't for him and came home too.  Little Bro is 3 1/2 years younger than me but over half a foot taller (since I'm not even 5'5") and we usually get along pretty well.  Usually.

Anyway, since moving home I've decided to get my college butt back into shape!  I started running last summer and finished my first race, the Chicago Half Marathon 5K, in September.  I've lost 15 lbs since I started running, and now work out 5-6 days a week.  I'm still not bored though!  I've found a combo of weights, cardio and yoga that is manageable for my schedule-- and a gym that has locations 1 block from my office and 2 miles from my house.

I can't wait to share my journey through my 20s with you!  Thanks for stopping by!!

Have a great week =)

-Jules