Pack your suitcase...

I promised to blog more, and here I am again, only a few days later!



Today I finally finished a project I've been slowly working on for a few weeks. My mom had seen an altered suitcase that one of her blog/flickr friends bought and because it was seriously the cutest thing, she went out and bought us vintage suitcase/attache cases to alter. She finished hers right away, but I only finished mine this afternoon! Because I'm somewhat perfectionistic about things, I can't just throw something together. I have to think and think and think about placing things in the exact perfect spot. It takes me forever to make anything because I have to spend 75% of the time thinking and planning! Oh well, this time I love the result!

Here is my suitcase! The first couple of pictures have my moms case with them as well.
*Note: she took these pics! I stole them all from her flickr! :-p



































































































I posted these on my new flickr as well! Here's the link if you'd like to check it out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jenneroni/

Thanks for looking!
More from me in the very near future I hope! :-D

Good grief Charlie Brown!

My plan to update this blog weekly has definitely faltered a bit (like my friends Matt & Laurel! :-p)! However, now that summer is about here, I anticipate having more time, and with that more attention to this here "webblog."

I did something yesterday and today that I've been trying to avoid doing. I got myself a flickr site. Why would I not want flickr you ask? Because I don't want to become obsessed with it like some...ahem...people (who shall remain nameless!) are. I actually won't have time to become obsessed with it though...between all of the millions of things that occupy my time outside of home, and facebook :-p , how could I possibly pay much attention to flickr? Lets not count the hours I have spent recently signing up, putting pics on it, organizing things, creatin a profile, etc.

Do you like my new flickr slideshow to the right here though? ;o)




If you want to check it out, I think you can click on that slide show, or go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27301861@N03/





So why did I get a flickr? Because my mom does these swaps with various people all the time on there and she recently signed me up for an altered altoid tin swap! I have witnessed the happenings of a number of these swaps right in my own home, so I know that I need to make sure I'm all set up w/the proper blog, flickr, etc, with examples of my "artwork", etc. displayed so that I can get a good partner, so here I am! Ready, locked, and loaded, bring on the good partners!








Well, I wasn't going to make this post completely about flickr and swaps, but that seems to be how it has ended up.
I should inform my sparce viewership of what happenings of my life over the past month & 1/2. I will try to do so in bulleted form (though I don't think I can make bullets on here).

Anyway, over the past 6 weeks or so:
* I auditioned for The Music Man
* I was cast as Ethel Toffelmeyer in the Music Man
* I accepted Ethel.
* I was asked to play the part of Sally Brown in "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown" come September
* I accepted the part of Sally Brown (and am super excited about it!)!!!
* I successfully completed student teaching and school (YAY!)
* I was the annoying Thomas announcer for a Day Out with Thomas 2008: The Great Discovery Tour at the Medina Railroad Museum (I'd be happy to recite you my complete script...the same one I've been saying for the past 4 years...I still have it memorized).
* I sang and played piano for my dear friends Stacey & Justin Radford at their wedding!!! :-D :-D :-D <3 <3 <3
* I resigned my role as Ethel in the Music Man as I can't afford to spend $4+/gallon to drive an hour each way for rehearsals
* I fell in love with the waiter at Friendly's where my friends and I go every week. Well, it's really just that I think he's adorable and he has amazing eyes, and is really awesome and always gives me free pop and ice cream, and.....yeah. :-p
* I cleaned my room (mostly) for the first time since December
* I bought a new camera! A Panasonic Lumix.
* I got rid of a ton of clothes, books, cd's, magazines, shoes, and junk that I've had laying around my room.
* I read some great books (none that you all would be interested...Christian fiction mostly)
* I purchased all of the Jane Austen Masterpiece Theater movies!


I think that's about it. :-p
Now I need to go to bed. I will try to post again soon!




Tomorrow I have every intention of scrapbooking or making something, which I will post on here once I do!

My name is Jen...

and I'm a Coke-aholic.


There. I admitted it.




A couple of times a year I give it up. I know that it's horrible for me. According to what I've been told over and over by numerous different people, pop is one of the worst food/beverages you can consume. On the radio tonight they were talking about it, saying that both regular & diet have 6 tsps of sugar in them (not sure what size that serving is). That's not a little.


So as I said, I often quit pop. This year I did for Lent. I think I had also quit back in September. I usually give myself a time frame: one month, 40 days, etc. When that time is up, I allow myself a little bit. Then I will eventually have a little more. Before long, I'll be sitting at work/school thinking about coke and how I can't wait to get out so I can stop and have one. An ice cold, refreshing Coke. Particularly one from a fountain. Draft. On the rocks.

All it takes is one hit. One hit and then I'm gone.

It's just soooo good!



Well, I recognize that Coke is bad for me. I need to not have it anymore. So, today I quit. Cold turkey. I have not had a drop of Coke since last night around 9:30.

I've thought about Coke a lot today. I wouldn't have quit if there had been some in my house, or if I'd been motivated enough to go to the store and buy some. I guess my laziness today did amount to something. :-p



Will I allow myself to have Coke again? Heck yes! Will I still stop on my way home every day and buy myself a Coke? Not anymore. It's all about self-discipline and moderation.


They used to say "Coca Cola Classic, Can't beat the real thing." I'm beating it.

So, goodbye my dear friend with that beautiful red and white logo, with that delicious spicy carbonated goodness. I will sorely miss you...for a few days.





And to those who just read through this ridiculous nonsense post, God bless you. Haha. :-p

American Idol

So I fell asleep about mid-way through the Idol Gives Back thing on Wednesday and wasn't home to see the results show last night. My mom informed me today that they sang "Shout to the Lord" as their opening number last night. I couldn't believe it and figured she'd dreamed it (as she is prone to dreaming things and then not recalling if they were real or not :-p). However, when I checked YouTube a short while ago, I did indeed find two versions of Shout to the Lord that were performed on American Idol! One is from Wednesday night and one from Thursday night.

I find a couple of things interesting about this. First of all, they edited out the word Jesus on the Wed. night one and replaced it with "shepherd". On Thursday though, they sang "Jesus." If I recall back enough, there have been contestants who have sung blatantly Christian songs on the show before, and Simon has criticizing them for singing songs they wanted to sing for themselves and trying to make a statement. Yet, they sang this one twice, and I'm sure he had to approve it. The song is obviously not a pop or rock song, and though it was "inspirational" week or whatever they called it, I found it interesting that this was the song choice. Are they trying to reel the Christians in or something? Maybe the producer is a Christian? Whatever reason, props to them! I'm sure it was awesome for those contestants who are Christian to be able to sing a song truly dedicated to the Lord. And for the others, maybe this touched them and opened some doors. Heck, this song went into millions of homes. I pray it touched a lot of people!

I think I'll go search around and see what other people think about this. Part of me thinks it's cool that they sang the song. Another part of me though just wonders why they "performed" it...if that makes sense. For whatever reason, it's great that it happened and they sounded pretty fab! Haha...reminds me of Heirborne (though we never sang that song I don't think)! :-p

I'd love to know your thoughts on this!!! Please tell me what you think.
Here are the two performances:


Wednesday's edited performance:


Thursday's "Jesus" performance:

Aqua Net anyone?

Hairspray is playing at Shea's in Buffalo this weekend, and Matt and I already bought tickets to see it on Sunday, which we are very excited about! But then, they had a contest on Channel 4. You had to upload a pic of some crazy hair. Then, they did a random drawing from the pics posted. I uploaded this lovely one from last summer during Brigadoon. I had tried to put my hair in curlers for the show, but this is what came of them. I ended up missing Whitney's bridal shower because of the horrificness, as I had to fix my hair before going on stage that night!




Anyway, I got home tonight and checked my e-mail. I had an e-mail from Channel 4 saying "Congratulations, you have randomly been selected to win 2 tickets to Hairspray!" WOOT!!! I'm super excited. The tix I won are for Friday night, so I'm taking my mom. Hopefully they'll be right up front. My mom won tix to a show a few years ago and we ended up being in the front row! Sunday night's performance is up in the nosebleed section of the balcony.


So basically, I'm super excited and can't wait for Friday now! To top it all off, I have a break beginning Friday that goes all the way through the following week. YAY!!!