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Friday, October 30, 2015

Halloween Weekend Fun

What a fun few days it has been! And Halloween isn't even here yet!

Last night, we had a work "yappy" hour at my manager's brewery.

The yappy hour was the finale to a pet costume contest we've been having. It was $3.00 to enter your pet in the contest and then votes were 25¢ each. All of the money (including a portion of last night's sales at the brewery) went to the Save the Animals Foundation.

Super fun and cool, right?

Since Clem and I are BIG Pope Francis fans, I entered her in the contest as Pope Clement(ine) XV because apparently there have already been 14 popes named Clement.


Who knew?

I was so proud of my little gal for being one of the contest's winners!

Adam joined us at the yappy hour, and we had such a nice evening hanging out with my coworkers and playing with all of the different animals. We had to hold Clem most of the time since she's a bit unpredictable around other dogs, and even though our arms were sore today (she's a whopping 20 pounds, that little Clem!), it was so worth having her along for all of the fun.


Today, I wore a giant spider headband to work that my mom had bought me months ago.


As you can see in the photo below, Clem was unamused. She is not a morning person.


I had a bit of a headache by lunchtime and I kept running into weird things, but it added a festive touch to the day!

We even had a costume contest towards with end of the day, with the winner being a man dressed up (quite elaborately!) like Captain Morgan. There were definitely some very creative costumes around the building!

Since my company gets dismissed at 2 o'clock on the last Friday of each month (wiss woo!), I got an early start on the weekend and headed to Kroger for much-needed groceries.

I stocked up on Witches Brew wine—my friend introduced it to me this year, and if you liked mulled or spiced wine, I highly recommend it!—and bought all of the ingredients I'd need for a hearty beef stew.

Adam made me this cutting board. He is seriously AMAZING.
I spent my afternoon and early evening prepping the stew and giving my apartment a good cleaning. I ran bleach through the Jacuzzi jets and all!

Tonight, I plan on watching spooky movies, enjoying my cozy savory supper, drinking Witches Brew, and cuddling up with Clementine.

Eeeeep! How delightful.

Happy Halloween Weekend! :)

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

Clem the Model

This was how Clem and I felt last night:


We were basically models, you see. 

Since Clementine is being featured in a senior pets article at work (she's going to be a national celebrity!), my dear friend (and very talented visual journalist) Meg popped by to do a quick photoshoot for the two of us. 

She brought her photo umbrellas (there is likely a more sophisticated word for these) and everything! It was so fancy!


Do you know those friends, cousins, or classmates from your childhood that are really going places and doing great things? And you think, "Whoa. I grew up with that person"? 

Well, that's how I feel about Meg. 

She's already making such a big impact with her work (see this incredible film she produced this year that was picked up by USA Today!), and I am so proud to be her friend. 

To say I was humbled that she took the time out of her crazy schedule to photograph Clementine and my portraits would be a major understatement. 

We spent almost the entire session cracking up over the fact that Clementine is the saddest-looking dog. Even when she's wagging her tail, her face just looks so serious. I like to call her my little sphinx because of her stoic expressions and perfect sitting posture.


After innumerable attempts to make Clem smile (which is hard to do with a dog that is both blind and deaf), we took the camera outside...into the pouring rain! 

These are where my most favorite shots were taken. 

Meg, being the expert photographer that she is, crouched down beside a parked car and snapped photos of Clementine and I as we walked down the sidewalk, the yellow leaves and green ivy vibrant against the gray, evening sky. 

The photos are just...stunning.

I'll share them as soon as Meg's done with her brilliant editing work.

Eeeeeep!

Thank you, Meg, for making Clem and me feel so special last night. We are so in love with the photos and are so appreciative<3

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Jenna in the City

This past April, I left the beautiful house I had called home for the past two years (endearingly nicknamed the Probasco Palace) and moved downtown.

To my bachelorette pad.

Whenever I imagined my life in the city, I naturally thought of this:

Source
You know, grabbing cosmos with the girls after work. Always stumbling around my apartment (perpetually, glamorously late!) in a pair of Louboutins as Adam waited outside in his town car for our fabulous date. My desk (with an early 2000s MacBook perched atop) in front of a window that overlooked a tree-lined street. An unexplainable gigantic walk-in closet ready to burst from all of my designer clothes.

But as it turns out? City life is quite different.

If I drink after work, it's normally wine on my couch while watching Netflix. I get ready for dates at a reasonable hour as I am painfully punctual, and I am generally wearing Tory Burch flats. Adam doesn't wait for me in a town car outside. We usually grab an Uber. I actually did initially situate my desk in front of a window...only to realize that the window faced out into a dark alley. And that gigantic walk-in closet with designer clothes? Nada.

In all seriousness, I do enjoy living downtown, but it really is very different than I expected. I had a rough transition going from three roommates to living by myself (the apartment felt so quiet and lonely!), and for a long while, I would get pretty scared going outside by myself at night.

Here is a breakdown of the pros and cons of my life in the city.

PROS

  • I can walk to work! This is probably my most favorite part about living downtown. I am even able to come home at lunch and walk Clementine. It's an awesome break in the middle of my day.
  • I am within walking distance to dozens of incredible restaurants, shops, theaters, stadiums, parks...the list goes on and on! I love how free I feel living downtown. There is something very liberating about the knowledge that you can walk to everything you need. 
  • I've been able to meet and interact with all kinds of different people, including the man who owns the spa next door (where I got one stellar facial), a very big guy who walks a very tiny Chihuahua in the morning, and various City Hall employees who are out and about during the lunch hour.
  • I can hear the Cathedral bells.
  • I have exposed brick. And it's gorgeous. 
  • My apartment is old and charming (see point above, and see home tour below). 
  • I never really feel alone. 
CONS
  • NOISY NEIGHBORS. I had to type that one in all caps because it felt appropriate. I have one neighbor who vacuums at 10pm. And I have another neighbor who is way too loud doing his personal business (if you catch my drift) and appears to be up all hours of the day. Adam tells me to go and speak to these people like a mature adult, but since I hate confrontation, I prefer to sit alone in my apartment and angrily stew about it.
  • I sometimes don't feel as safe as I'd like, especially when taking Clementine outside after dark.
  • Speaking of letting Clementine out, it's definitely not as convenient living downtown and having to put her on a leash each and every time rather than simply opening up a door to a backyard.
  • I can't sleep with the windows open. 
Now that we're through that, allow me to give you a home tour of my humble bachelorette pad!
The living room where I proudly display my Charley Harper piece and fairy lights. Also, Adam built me that TV hutch! Isn't he dreamy?
One of my bookcases. The doors are uneven because my dad assembled it, but I like keeping them that way as it reminds me of him.
My dining room table...I love the bench!


My pride and joy: the Jacuzzi tub. This is why my electricity bill is so high.
My bedroom! With more fairy lights, of course! 
Adam surprised me with this dresser one afternoon after I had been complaining about needing more storage. He claims this Ikea piece took him longer to assemble than the time he spent building my TV hutch from scratch. 
I also have this super long hallway! Clementine loves chasing me as I run up and down it.
While city life may not be all cosmos and Chanel, I do get to live in a neat Brownstone on a tree-lined street. 

I may just be Jenna Bradshaw after all.

Monday, October 26, 2015

I'm back! With a whole new blog!

Bonjour! Hi there!

After a long hiatus from blogging followed by a brief affair with a Weebly blog (which was always leaving me frustrated and looked dreadful on mobile [both user errors, I am sure]), I am back to Blogger with a whole new blog and my very own domain.

Which feels quite adult, I must say.

While I loved blogging on Leggings Love, I felt as though I had outgrown that particular blog. It represented my college years and my first year out of school as I muddled my way through post-grad life. I tried to keep Leggings Love going, I really did, but each time I tried to post, the experience felt weird and awkward.

And trust me, I already feel weird and awkward often enough.

I'm still that same Jenna, but I'd like to think I'm slightly more mature and much happier and more secure since my last dozen or so posts on Leggings Love.

When I started to brainstorm names for my new blog, I wanted something feminine and whimsical.

La Femme, La Fanciful perfectly fit this bill.

I'll still be blogging about the same sort of things as I did with Leggings Love—tidbits from my day, plenty of lists, my incredibly important opinions—but I have new perspectives and experiences now, and a new blog felt necessary.

I am so looking forward to catching up with my Blogger friends, and I am very glad to be back in action.

Chaleureusement (this means "with warm regards" in French),
Jenna

P.S. I still like to wear fascinators. I haven't changed all that much.