Monthly Archives: October 2011

sweet home chicago!!

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After 2 weeks in Santa Monica, I’m finally back to my city – ChiCity! Although Santa Monica is a beautiful place with the ocean and the hills and cliffs…

{ santa monica looking out to malibu }

Nothing beats coming home to this…

{ home <3 }

Downtown LA is incredibly dirty, small, and disgusting. It literally smells like homeless piss every single step you take. Seriously gross. Chicago, regardless of the bitterly cold and snowy winters is the most beautiful city!

As some of you know, I was in the LA area for a photoshoot for Harley. The photoshoot went great, but it was a long long 2 weeks. It’s so funny how when someone hears that I was going or went on a shoot, they always say how cool it is and exciting it is that I get to travel. Most popular question is, “Did you go sight-seeing? Did you go shopping? Did you have your weekends off?” I laugh. Going on a photoshoot isn’t a vacation, unfortunately. You don’t get to sight-see, unless you count looking out the window as you drive to the next location. You work grueling hours, and you barely sleep. You work through weekends, never have them off. Yes, it’s awesome to work on a shoot and travel… but working those kinda hours are tough. I can’t see my husband, family, or friends. In addition with the 2 hour timezone difference, it was incredibly hard to even call anyone.

I met some AMAZING people while on the shoot. The cast was great. The crew was fab. Our make-up artist was the sweetest. The production assistants? Pure hilarious and a total pleasure to work with. The highlight of my trip, though, was being able to shadow 2 of the most amazing photographers. They’ve done work on a slew of clients, including another client of mine – Converse.  The two alone are amazing and hilarious people, but man their work is beautiful. As a few of you may now, I’m working on seriously moving forward with photography. Following these photographers gave me so much insight and inspiration. I can’t wait :)

From the whole shoot process, including the actual shoot and casting, I had an eye-opening experience and learned a GREAT deal about beauty. More to come later :)

Until next time
<3 jenna

Santa Monica, here I come…

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Off to Santa Monica for 2 weeks for work. All the late nights, stressful days, and numerous trips to CA are hopefully about to pay off. Time for the Harley photo shoot. Here’s to being on set from 5am to 11pm every day. Yikes! Should be awesome, though!

{ taken 3 weeks ago when I was last there <3 staying on the beach }

Until next time
<3 jenna

new projects to come

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When I was home the other weekend, I stopped by JoAnn Fabrics to buy some fabric. I have a number of projects that I want to do :)

Project #1 is making my own napkins for our dining table. I keep looking around for the right colors and right design, but everything is so expensive. On Etsy, the ones (like these) I want are $30 for 4 napkins. I have a 6 person dining set, which means it’d be $60. I picked up these two fabrics to create two sets :) Only cost me $15 :)

{ fabric from joann fabrics }

I don’t have a sewing machine, but Jake’s mom does. I’ll post pics soon once the project gets underway :)

Project #2 is creating a headboard for our bed. It’s super simple (see instructions here), just need to find the right fabric and find a place big enough to do it.

Project #3 is making pillows. We have some now (furry brown ones), but I really want ones with fun fabrics. I had actually went out and found fabric, but didn’t fully realize the cost to make your own. Definitely pricier than you think, especially because I want to make big and small pillows. Probably something I’ll save for later :)

Project #4 is my gallery wall. I want to hang a bunch of frames in our hallway, but I’ve been waiting on getting our wedding pictures from our photographer, as well as a canvas print. Once I get that, I can actually do something :) Until then, the frames shall sit in my hall against the wall.

There are tons other projects, BUT I should just start with one at a time.

Until next time
<3 jenna

obsession of the moment: october

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Yes, if you’re a regular reader you know that I’m obsessed with October and the fall season. With it finally being October, I can officially wear my boots now and jackets and stylist scarves. Yes, I refused to wear a jacket or any of the aforementioned because I didn’t think it was really fall. Yes, that means for those of you in Chicago that I stood at my bus stop shivering waiting for the bus as a cold breeze hit me holding my Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte to my arm to keep me warm. Yes, I’m ridiculous.

I had a little fun at Bath & Body Works when I was home last weekend. I bought all fall scents :) I’ve been wanting to so bad since August when I got my first eblast. BUT per what I said above, I haven’t been able to use any of these yet. I now have cracked them out and couldn’t be happier :)

{ fall scents from bath & body works }

Holy cow. Side note, just saw on their website that they have our their Christmas scents. Holy Jesus, let’s slow down a bit :)

I LOOOOOVE their candles. They burn so well and smell sooooo good! Originally they’re $20 each, but I never buy them at full price. Quite often they’ll have a 2 for $20 sale, which is my fave sale. I also purchased a few anti-bacterial hand soaps, which smell AWESOME. Bath & Body seriously has the cutest ideas for making their products look nicer. See the metal wrap around the center hand soap? They make those for everything, including candles. It makes everything extra stylist :)

Oh, and the concentrated home spray is awesome. The Autumn scent smells amazing. Just a small spirtz here and there and your home smells lovely <3

Happy shopping!

Until next time
<3 jenna