Imersion

Imersion in my research and writing that is. Sorry for the lack of activity around here lately but I have put my life aside for now. I don't anticipate it getting much better between now and August 8. That means, you most likely won't hear from me very often IRL either. But, when I do come back there are ao many things I need to write about. So I don't forget and am publically committed, here's a list of what is on my post agenda for my return to blogging....

• Recap past travels to Italy, Philadelphia, as well as a future European trip with my parents.
• Plan a nice vacation for November...hopefully to a new continent.
• Talk about my dissertation writing journey, particuarly what I have learned about myself during the process as well as some 20/20 insights.
• Packing up and making a big move.
• Applying for jobs...hopefully having multiple offers to contemplate.
• Spending time with my family and friends in RI (this is a December goal)

An then it will quickly be 2013. I think I will look back on 2012 as the year that flew by and hopefully I will be able to look back on 2012 as the year I finished my Ph.D. Crossed fingers, prayers and positive thoughts welcome as I test my physical and mental abilities in the coming weeks. 

See you all soon,

Jen

BFF

I'm a girl of best friends. I mean I try to be a friendly person in general but there are some people who I am very close to and these are the best friendships I have, the ones I know will be there for many years to come but also the ones that require the most work. These are the friends for which I will fly half way across the world when they ask. I choose to live where I am and the lifestyle that comes with it but one thing I don't want to sacrafice are my life long friends. These are the friends who are there to celebrate with me and to listen to me fall apart when things are too big for me to handle alone. I have best friends from various parts of my life, childhood, high school, college, Germany and I value all of them. I guess this all comes to my miond as I justify to myself flying to the US for 5 days 2 weeks before handing in my complete dissertation to attend a best friend's wedding plus rehersal dinner plus bachelor party.  I literally make myself sick thinking of the work that is waiting for me but I know in my heart I truely want to be there for him as he was for me through so many important points in my life. I am, a bit selfishly, also looking forward to seeing several of the other guests. So, I have moved into my office, bringing dinner with me and canceled all other apointments in order to squeeze in as much research as humanly possible. I will try my best to work through the 9 hour plane ride and still be awake for that night's bachelor party. In the end, I have to trust myself to make it through both my dissertation as well as the wedding weekend. I'm already trying to squeeze in some stress reducing retail therapy. But in the end, I could not imagine missing such an important event for a best friend. I've already made 3 trips across the ocean in the name of attending weddings and I imagine this won't be my last since I already booked a hotel for 2013. So now, I just need to work on efficient productivity and "calm, calm, calm."

5 Minute Fix

As I folded my clothes, I realized this polo had seen better days. But that is just when they get so soft and cozy. Looking at the size (it is a kids 14-16 don't judge the boys are cut longer than womens sizes) it looked about perfect for my throw pillows. I have 4 throw pillows that have also seen better days and while I have big plans for them in the future they are now acting as floor pillows since their covers are not removable. So long story short...add a large button and about 6 inches if ribbon to serve as the loop. Tuck the shirt in and around the pillow envelope style button the neck pop the collar and 5 minutes later I have a soft, washable pillow cover that matches my duvet cover and is cute and preppy all at the same time.

For reference the pillows are 20 inches square and my shirt is the perfect width to fit without being loose and sloppy so I would recommend a womens M or boys L if you plan to outfit a similar sized pillow. I have 3 more pillows but am not ready to sacrafice any more polos just yet.

Conil de la Frontera, Spain

I remember how much I like blogging just when I think I don't have time to do it. It is a nice way for me to keep track of what I did when and look back on fond memories and/or learn from things. I also like to think I may be halping soemone else who happens to find my blog while preparing to do something similar. So, this is post kind of fits all of those categories.

Over Easter, we decided to take a mini break to Spain.Specifically the southern Atlantic coast of Spain. On our agenda was relaxation, ocean, Gibraltar and maybe Morocco. I loved the idea of touching 3 countries on 2 continents in a span of 4 days but in the end relaxation and the ocean won out over Africa. When this is your balcony, you would choose to spend as much time as possible here too.

We had both been to Spain before on vacation as teenagers and for work more recently. We thought about Barcelona but then decided to go further south and ultimately revisited a hotel P stayed at with his family in the past. It also happened to be the one I found via Google maps when looking for something near to the beach.

There's so much I could tell you about this location that won me over in the end. I think I will start with the photos because even though they can't do justice to the location, they still make me swoon. I should also note that these photos were taken on my red Japanese video camera and have not been edited in any way because I am way to lazy to learn photo shop any time soon.

More words to follow. + Gibraltar + Easter + Tapas.

Keys

I am just quickly dropping in to show off my latest functional stress reliever. Banging nails. With more than 100 nails in the completed project, I can safely say this entails the most non-load bearing nails of anything I have ever built and I build with nails a lot.

This was a spin off of a the Pinterest challenge I wrote about last month. One of the other challenge participants made a nail and string New Hampshire and it won me over. I had this small board that I bought from the Ikea spare parts section years ago intending to use in a wedding project. It cost 1 EUR and P has yhreatened to throw it out several times but it has the perfect hanging holes in the back so I could not part with it. When I saw 2 packages of "extra" Ikea nails in our bathroom I knew I had the bones of this project and just needed a practical reason to make something out of string. Anyone who knows my husband knows he is famous for asking where his keys and glasses are and sends me on a panic search for either at least once a month. I clearly made this for him. He seemed genuinely impressed by it when I showed him the final project. Now to see if he uses it is another story.

Total cost 5 EUR mostly for the string of which I now have about 100 meters left.

3 Chairs Hooray!

I couldn't resist that title. I finished chairs 2 and 3. There was a bit of a challenge with the upholstery part of these two. First, the home improvement store in the city does not sell foam (or Styrofoam either in case you are wondering) so I had to wait for P to visit and ask him to get me some with his car. Which he did...he also got a piece of wood for another project which is another story all together but exciting none the less.

There was a bit of MacGyvering going on here as I needed to figure out a way to spruse up the cane seats. I was set on upholstery, especially when I found that nice lt. grey polka dot fabric but not really sure how to do it. I thought about removing the caneing. Then I learned these chairs were an iconic style and started searching the inter webs to see how others had remade them. This is the post from Apartment Therapy that caught my eye via Pulse one morning. So, I guess I really need to give some more credit to P for forceing me into a smartphone lifestyle. Specifically, this rainbow confirmed my decision to upholster

Photo Book

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