Deja Vu

Well its almost like being back in April!  Back to looking for a job and trying to find ways to fill my time.  Thankfully it isn't as hot as it was during the first few months we were here!  I can't believe how quickly fall got here-I'm definitely still adjusting to the temperature change!  But anywho, back to what I've been up to.

Like I said I've been looking for a job; there are some pros and cons to doing this again right now.  The good thing is I think I'm in a slightly better position this time only because I know a few more people and am a little more comfortable with the area.  The not so good thing is the timing.  Since it's getting to the end of the year a lot of places are slowing down hiring-especially non-profits as they find out their budgets aren't quite in the shape they thought they were.  But, I'm working really hard on staying positive about the whole situation.  I'm getting myself in the mindset that a job is a job and it doesn't have to be a non-profit job.  I can take any job and always do fundraising and volunteering on my own time.  I did take a part time retail job at Loft (a division of Ann Taylor).  Good news is I absolutely love their clothes!  Bad news is its retail which means kind of junk hours sometimes and it will make it really hard to go home for the holidays.  It isn't by any means a replacement for a full time job but it helps me bring in a little money and gives me somewhere to go and hopefully meet some new people (plus a sweet discount on clothes I love!).  Other than that I've jumped right back in to helping out at Gilda's Club.  It's funny timing for me to be able to help again because they have another big event coming up at the beginning of October-so I'll now have helped with both of their big events this year :)

Besides looking for a job Matt and I have been keeping ourselves pretty busy.  We've made some good headway on wedding planning and even done a project or two already :)  I think I've created a craft monster in Matt, but I like it.  Crafts were always a big part of my family growing up so I'm excited that Matt is interested in doing projects now too.  I have to laugh-my mom and sister were always crafty ladies and I just never fully got into it.  I now understand the draw of crafting-only took me 25 years to get there ;)  Other than wedding planning and projects we've mostly just been enjoying some time together with nothing to do but watch football and enjoy the cool weather.

We're about at that time of year where I need to start emptying out some of my potted plants and storing stuff for colder weather.  I'm thinking we'll maybe start that this weekend....maybe.  I'd also love to find a cider mill or pumpkin patch thing to go to.  I don't ever remember going to one to pick out pumpkins or anything.  I'm hoping we can do that this weekend.  Then, next weekend, I get to go back to Madison and visit my parents!  We're going to a UW football game (hopefully they play better!) and doing a few wedding things and just hanging out.  I'm so looking forward to being back in Madison-its so great there in fall.  Not to mention how excited I am to see my parents, especially since I most likely won't see them again until December at the earliest.  Hopefully these next couple of weeks will go great and will include some job leads!

A Mixed Few Weeks

Well the good news is-it hasn't been a month since my last post!  I say that's a positive.  

Other positives in the last few weeks: Matt and I got engaged!  So that's pretty exciting (and oddly stressful already).  We're both looking forward to planning the wedding together and obviously about getting married.  Even more positives-we've finished more projects!  I think I've created a craft project monster.  Matt actually asked for more craft projects the other weekend.  I thought I was in the twilight zone :)  I'm really pretty happy about that.  It's nice to have someone to work on things with you.  So here are a couple of pictures of what we did.  Nothing super challenging or exciting but still fun.

 First, here's the completed picture frame project from the last post:

The picture frame idea was from Pinterest as was how we hung them.  I beg you-if you're ever going to hang multiple pictures use this technique:  First we cut wax paper in the same shapes and sizes as the picture frames.  Then I marked on each sheet of wax paper where the nail hole was for the frame.  We played around with the wax paper sheets until we found an arrangement we liked (and that we wouldn't be nailing into electrical wires to hang up!).  So simple.  No extra nail holes to try and fill in or anything.  It was great.

This next one was a new project (and yes, it was from Pinterest too).  This one is a little different than the original idea I found (smaller and less ornate).  We just used a simple picture frame (spray painted it white), cut out some cardboard to fit, adhered burlap and the painted letter (that we painted and then roughed up to age a bit).  It was a couple of steps but really fun.  We're planning on giving this to some friends as a wedding/housewarming gift.

Now for the not so good news: I lost my job on Monday.  Very not good news given that we're trying to plan a wedding now.  I was given a kind of b.s. reason for getting fired (that I wouldn't continually work extra hours because that's not what I was contracted for) but I have a feeling the real reason is I challenged my boss' lack of ethics.  Apparently that is a no-no.  In all honesty I really didn't like that job and I didn't like the environment/culture.  But, I did like having a job (and a paycheck).  As for my boss, she got some instant karma in that my co-worker (the only other person besides the boss who worked there) put in her 2 weeks notice immediately after I was fired.  Her loss on both accounts in my opinion.  So now I'm back to the job hunt.  I've got some interviews set up for retail part time positions just to keep some extra income coming in.  I'm hoping something will break quickly so I can get back to work.  I'm to the point of trying to be optimistic about everything but it certainly is hard.  At least I am better off as far as connections in the area than I was when we moved here 5 months ago.  Hopefully this will all work out quickly.