Music According to Jes: Autumn

IT'S BACK!!!!!! Woo hoo woo hooo wooo hooo.

I thought the jet-setting days of Life According to Jes were over the day I left DC, but in a stroke of luck (maybe?) I am in Georgia this week for work and I am leaving Friday for Chicago to visit my handsome Jew boy. The Hampton Inn in Toccoa, GA may not be as luxurious as the Four Seasons Maui (ouch.. missing out on this still stings), and I may not even have a nice plush robe waiting for me in the closet, or even a real headboard to the bed, but it is travel nonetheless and I am grateful for it.

Every trip needs good music, so while the scarves warm my neck, this playlist warms my soul.

**Updates from this week of travel to come soon! (and my disastrous attempt at cake pops).

There's Beauty in the Breakdown

I was cruising home from work the other day, driving through Dayton and I spotted this lovely yellow shopping cart on top of this old run down building.

DIY: Spoon - Fork - Knife

Inspiration

Household Words on Etsy

Irell on Etsy

My Interpretation

How to:

As a kid, whenever we went to the hardware store, I would get lost in the paint section plucking up as many paint swatches as my little hands could hold. I used to cut them up, draw pictures and stare at the rainbow of colors for hours. And when we went to the fabric store, I would get my grubby mitts on the quilting squares. They are usually only 2 dollars a square and they are organized in the store by color, so I have always been drawn to them. Well, some things never change, and I had 3 brightly colored quilting squares that I had no clue what to do with. I also conveniently had 3 small canvas that I also had no clue what to do with.

I have been inspired by prints lately, and decided to make my own humorous, spin on cute Spoon - Fork - Knife paintings for the kitchen :)

Supplies and sketches

I think a staple gun would have made more sense but I didn't have one and I am too impatient to wait so I used a glue gun. It gets the job done!

Make sure to glue opposite ends of the canvas to make sure the fabric is tight, before moving on to the  next side.

The final result!

What do you think?!

If you have more questions for me about how to make your own Spoon - Fork - Knife paintings, or if you would rather me make them for you, email me at Jbarmstrong87@gmail.com. I would love to hear from you!

Oh Snap

It has been so nice to get settled into my new apartment, and catch up with friends and family. My life looks a lot like this lately, and I am perfectly content :)

Blog Update

My blog needs some refreshing.. some rejuvenation.. some TLC.

I would love to make a new template for my blog, but I am sad to say that I have lost my Photoshop/digital design skills.. I don't think I ever really had them... but I wasted many hours of class playing with Photoshop on the lab computers in my college days. Sadly those days are gone, and along with the cheap booze filled nights, went my digital creativity "skills." If you know a graphic designer/ template designer that needs to build their portfolio email me at Jbarmstrong87@gmail.com. In exchange for an amazing design, I can provide you with a shout out on my home page (because I'm cheap.)

But seriously, I will give you a spot right here

and here

What happened to Music According to Jes?!

Nothing happened, besides the fact that I got a new job that takes up 13912439840 hours a day and I do not have the time to listen to music all day anymore *sad face. My love for music is still growing, so my compromise will be, that I will add a "Post Song" to every post for your listening enjoyment. And if that's not good enough for you, I will make a playlist widget for every season... and autumn is just around the corner.

What do you think?

Dear readers, who are you?

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Updates to come soon, xoxox

Jes

Angel Update

Angel finally got her surgery this past Friday! I didn't want to write a post until we knew the true status, but I am happy to report that she is doing well! For all of you that know Angel, you know that she can be a little... handicap, socially awkward, spacey... and she was digging at her stitches, so now she has to wear this lovely gem for two weeks. HA&^%#@ cracks me up.

I think it suits her quite well :)

The day before her surgery, we prepared the house by laying scrap carpet pieces and rugs over the hardwood floors so she won't slip around and re-injure herself during recovery. Angel is not a big fan of hardwood floors anyways so she was so happy to lay her belly on some cozy carpet.

Poor thing had no idea what was coming the next day :(

The surgery was "routine" for the vet, but the recovery is long and she will need a lot of attention and TLC for the next 8 weeks. Hopefully, in three months or so, Angel will be able to climb the stairs to my apartment (she already hates stairs as it is) and hang out with her big sis.

My family and I want to thank all of you for generosity and help in this time of need. And Angel sure does appreciate it too :) I would also like to thank the Gauders (recently married! Congrats!) for helping make the helpforangel.org donation website and paving the road for Angel's surgery. They were also kind enough to donate the money that their dog won in a contest (for being adorable) to our Angel in need. They "gave Angel her wings" and we could not be more grateful. 

You are all the best!

See, she's posing for you.

For the back story of angel's surgery, visit helpforangel.org and my last Angel blog post. 

Move in Day

Welp, here it is!.. Move in day :)

This weekend I am moving into my new apartment next to the Fraze pavilion in Kettering and I'm so excited! I can't wait to decorate and get settled. My roommate's name is Jess also and I will be sure to update you on our apartment progress.

Am I looking forward to moving for the 5th time since college graduation? No. But I am so excited to have my name on a lease, a semi-permanent address, and a bedroom and bathroom that's all mine! Woot.

P.s. if anyone in Dayton is bored out of their mind (entirely plausible), and has nothing better to do than to help me move to kill time, I will be forever in debt to you. Not really, but I will give you pizza and beer and let you jump in my pool. Sounds like an amazing red-neck kind of day to me.

(My mouse is broken, so deal with it!)

Wish me luck!

Cubicle Blues

I move into my apartment August 20th and my creative wheels are cranking. I'm excited to have an apartment to decorate and I look forward to sharing my new ideas with you all. My first project is to make over a tiny breakfast table set my mom found at a garage sale for $15. This little table will make the cutest patio table on my new porch :) Look for updates soon.

With my new apartment also comes my new job.. and for those of you like me who are still in an office cubicle.. you know that it helps to add a few warming touches here and there to brighten up your work day.

I have been eyeing these perfectly tiny terrariums for quite some time now and I finally purchased them to accent my cubicle. They only require a drop of water and minimal sunlight so they will survive in even the dreariest of offices. I may purchase another set for my apartment because they would look so cute lining a window sill.

You can find these cute terrariums and other furry goodies at Tortoise Loves Donkey's Etsy page.

On another exciting note.. I am only about 120 pageviews away from 10,000 views! Thank you so much for reading everyone! XoxoX

I Have A Confession To Make...

I like Cleveland.

Yep, I said it. I didn't want to admit it at first but I really do. 

People who are from Cleveland even have a love/hate relationship with it. It is the butt of many jokes, in the winter time they report a miserably large amount of snow, and they love to hate this man.

Last weekend I went to Cleveland to visit Adam's family and had one of the best weekends I've had in a long time. His family welcomed me with open arms, even though I'm sure his mother would have preferred a Jewish girl ;) JK, they are truly wonderful people.

We started off the day on Saturday with breakfast at the yacht club and an afternoon sail on his parent's sail boat. Without a view of land in the horizon, Lake Erie felt more like an ocean than a lake. It was gorgeous. Sailing takes a lot more work than I ever thought.. it's all manual.. it would take a lot of work and tricks to be able to go sailing by yourself. It was incredible though to see Adam and his dad working together and I would love to say that I grew up on the water.

The Family :)

My Favorite Picture!

Hahaha

After a day of fun on the water (and a nauseously hungover sail) we headed off to Great Lakes Brewery. We tried to get a table for dinner but the wait was too long so we headed down to the bar/cellar for some yummy tastings. We each got a pint of their specialty beers on tap for the week, Traffic Light and Market Street Wheat. I loved the Traffic Light and he loved the Market Street so it worked out perfectly. I definitely need to go back next time I'm in town.

Next, we met up with Adam's old college roommates and our friends from OU for the Indians game. We scalped tickets for $8 a piece and went in around the 5th inning, so we would be able to sneak down with our friends right behind home plate. The seats were amazing. I took this picture with my cell phone from our seats:

Even though we had an incredibly annoying stuck up family in front of us... heaven forbid we say the H-E-double hockey sticks word.. it was an amazing night... and the Indians pulled out a WIN! I am a Reds fan but I love all Ohio teams (except the Bengals). It was really odd because after the game, no one left their seat. It was weird.. usually people are rushing out at the 6th inning to beat traffic.. then we saw signs that said Rock and Blast tonight after the game. We assumed fireworks so we stuck around. Good thing we did.

Rock and Blast was an extravagant fireworks show synchronized to 30 seconds clips of all the rock classics... Adam was in heaven and I thought I was going to have a seizure I was in awe.

So yes, I loved Cleveland and I'm looking forward to our next trip, whenever that may be. The best part is, I was telling my best friend Ally about Cleveland and her boyfriend is from Cleveland too.. she leaned forward and whispered "isn't Cleveland fun?!" like it was a secret :)

I had to:

Slacklining

My brother-in-law Patrick recently turned me on to one of the most exhaustingly amazing workouts ever.

<< the Slack Line >>

What is slacklining?
Slacklining is the act of balancing along a narrow, flexible piece of webbing usually low to the ground. Originating in the climbing world, it has become popular for balance and movement training, core strength, and FUN.

*The slack line we used was a 2 inch Classic Slack Line purchased from Gibbon.

They sure do make this look easy...

After his first experience with a 1" slack line, he purchased a 2" to master first. We set up camp at Newcom Park in the Oregon District, finding a perfect set of trees and a nice patch of forgiving grass (assuming we would be falling often). Patrick made it all the way across for his first time and then many times after. Adam made it half way and I was only able to master 6 steps! (but I am very proud of those 6 steps).

Setting up

He made it!

Working up a sweat!

Almost there!

 
Feeling inspired? I know I am. Hopefully we can get a group of people together Sunday nights in the park to master the slack line. SEE YOU THERE! I'm determined to get across! And after that, maybe I'll try out some tricks like these:

YEAH RIGHT!