I Guess I'm a Grown-up Now...

Well, I officially have my first real grown up job. We're talking full-time, benefits, paid vacation, the whole shebang. I'm now an Assistant Manager for Aeropostale at the mall closer to my house. I'm really really excited about this change, but I am so super sad to leave the Gap. I love the people I work for (for the most part), but I think this will be a good change, plus I'll get to see everyone often.

I'm really excited that I finally realized that retail is what I love to do, and that I want to make it my career. I would be miserable doing a desk job, and sure even retail get's stressful and crazy at times, but I'm actually really good at it too. Perhaps getting an MBA is in my future, but for now I'm going to enjoy my first real grown up job.

Totally a time killer...

It's been a while since I did a survey, and since I can't sleep (surprise, surprise) I thought I'd do this one. It actually has some fun questions to answer.

1) What is your current obsession?
Reading recipes and day dreaming about my future house someday.

2) Who was the last person you hugged?
My dad :)

3) What's your favorite dinner?
Chicken alfredo, garlic bread/breadsticks, with red velvet cheesecake from Cheesecake factory for dessert. Yum!

4) What was the last movie you saw in theatres?
Up In the Air. It was a really good movie!

5) What was the last thing you bought (to wear)?
black leather flip-flops from the Gap, or a button up shirt from Aeropostale. I can't remember which store I was in first.

6) What are you listening to right now?
My television, but I honestly couldn't tell you what show is on. I'm not really paying attention to it.

7) What is your favorite weather?
When it's sunny and warm enough to wear a hoodie and flip flops (quite the combo I know).


8) Say something to the person who tagged you.
I stole this from some random blog, but I'm sure that person is just fantastic!

9) Tea or coffee?
Oh my! Dark cherry mochas (non-fat, no whip, no chocolate shavings, iced) seriously are what makes my world go round. Basically this was a fancy pants answer for coffee.


10) What did you want to become as a child?
I really wanted to be a medical research scientists, or a scientist that studied the hole in the o-zone over antarctica. Yeah I'm neither, but I really love that I realized that what I love most in life is working retail. Glamarous? no...but I love it!

11) If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go?
I would first go to New Berlin and pick up the boyfriend, then he and I would go to Brookfield for an hour (inside joke). But really I want to go to Hawaii super bad lately.

12) Who do you want to meet in person?
Oh I would love, love, love to meet Jen Lancaster because I think she'd be hilarious to talk to!

13) What is your most challenging goal right now?
Probably figuring out what my next career move is going to be (fingers and toes still crossed for my last interview to work out! I want that job so badly! I'm not jinxing it by talking about it in detail though!)

14) What is your weirdest obsession?
I'm totally obsessed with ants on a log lately (celery, peanut butter, chocolate chips or craisins), dinosaurs, and stalking craft blogs.

15) Why did you start your blog?
Boredom one night before I moved back to Wisconsin.

16) What is your blog about?
Just myself...and whatever little random things I feel the need to write about.

17) Which blogs are you obsessed with at the moment?
Peachycheap.com (not technically a blog at all, but still totally obsessed)
nieniedialogues.blogspot.com
postsecret.com
and pretty much any craft related blog out there.

18) What is your dream job (realistic or unrealistic)?
Something combining retail and charity work.

19) If you could change professions or careers, what would you try (realistically speaking)?
I would absolutely love to see what it would be like to be a broadway actress for a day.

20) Who is your favorite designer at the moment?
I don't really follow designers that much, but I LOVE Project Runway and Jay is my favorite this season!

21) What is your favorite brand of jeans?
I have yet to find a pair of jeans that I love...I mostly have Gap though due to my discount.

22) One thing you would snitch out of someone's closet, with no regrets?
If someone somewhere has the Bobbi Blu moccasins that I have and adore I would totally take them. I have worn mine to the point of nastiness.

23) What designer piece of clothing would you most like to own (new or vintage)?
Again, I'm not much with designers but I totally would love to be outfitted head to toe in something from Anthropologie.

I tag everyone! Ha now you all have to do it!

Go Gap!

So way back in Sept. of 2008 I was looking for a part-time job to keep me occupied while looking for a real grown up job. I decided to stick with what I knew, which was retail, but I didn't want to just work for any company. I did some research and really wanted to work at the Gap because they are a company that encourages social responsibility. They fulfill this through donating proceeds to charity through their friends and family sale (5% of proceeds that weekend go to charity, they do it 3 times a year, and so far 9 million dollars has been donated to various charities since they started this program), encouraging stores to participate in charity events, matching the charitable donations of employees (if I were to personally donate 25 bucks to like the children's hospital they would match it), and helping improve the lives of the people who work in the factories over seas.

The 5-14 of March, Gap is doing a denim drive in every store. If you bring in old denim (of any brand) to the store you can get 30% off of your purchase of new denim! The cool thing is they're going to recycle the old denim and turn it into eco-friendly insulation for new houses! Isn't that the coolest idea? I love working for a company that is making strides to make the world a little bit better. I seriously love my job!

Our friends and family sale is the 18-21 of March and once again my charity of choice for the proceeds is Feeding America. Feeding America helps stock food bands and provide food the underprivelaged people across the US. If you want a coupon (even if you're a blog stalker who never comments on my blog or someone I don't know!) leave your e-mail in a comment (or e-mail me at staceyjuntunen at gmail . com). The coupon is good at Gap/Gap Kids/Baby Gap/Gap Maternity/Outlet, Banana Republic/Outlet, Old Navy, and piperlime.com It's a great way to score some great deals and help others at the same time!

Dear Mayfair Mall/Wisconsin/Utah

Free Pretzel day at Aunt Anne's

combined with a board breaking competition for the kiddos

combined with the fact it was a Saturday

equals one very not so happy Baby Gap employee.

Seriously this is about how I felt when 5 o'clock rolled around: (cept buried in baby and kid's clothes, and not so skinny)

Oh and our main register was broken and un-fixable til monday, but Mayfair Mall that's not your fault.

At least I got to go to PF Changs afterward and have dinner with Brian and his family :)

But seriously Mayfair you need to get your act together, or pay to have a mall cop patrolling my store 24/7 to catch all the freaking shady shoplifters we have to follow and baby-sit on days like today(which is totally against Gap policy but a girl can dream right).

Sincerely,
the leader on duty from 10-6 today
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Dear Wisconsin,

6-10 more inches of snow tomorrow eh? Ok let's make a deal, I'll be happy with that as long as you keep your flakes to yourself til 7:30 pm CST. Unless you're sending me these snowflakes:

These are the Utah commercial snowflakes...go to youtube and find the commercials if you don't know what I'm talking about. Then I'd be happy because I'm sure they magically could get me to Utah somehow so I could spend time with my bff's there and eat some fry sauce...and in-and-out, and shop at DownEast, and go to St. George where it's warm, and see a mountain or two, and see a polygamist (because Big Love makes me miss the polygs so much).

Love,

Your resident for 19 years

PS sorry I escaped for those 5 years and moved to Utah, but you'll forgive me by holding out your snow til 7:30 right? right? ok.

Snow Day!

Today we had a very snowy day here in Wisconsin. It has been snowing non stop and as of 10 p.m. we had 14" and it is expected to snow throughout the night. I had a most excellent snow day with Brian! He had two court hearings 3 hours apart at the courthouse that isn't too far from my house. His office is about 40 minutes away so it didn't really make sense for him to drive back and forth, especially in this weather. He came over for lunch and I made a really yummy spicy chicken macaroni dish (I love exercising my somewhat decent domestic skills for him).

The plan was he'd come back after his last hearing to come get me (I'm still petrified of driving in the snow from last years icy hill debacle) and take me to work since the mall I work at is like down the street from his office. Well we were driving to the mall when I got a call saying the mall was closing due to the snow and I didn't have to work! Yes! The mall NEVER closes early, I mean seriously every school and business known to man will be shut down but not the mall, so this was a great treat. We spent the rest of the day playing Super Mario Bros. Wii, went to Chili's for dinner, and then watched a few Criminal Minds episodes. It seriously was such a fun day, and it felt like we were playing hooky even though we really weren't. My one wish was that the snow wasn't the dry powdery kind because I really wanted to make a snowman, but alas it wasn't snowman building snow.

Advice from you parent types out there...

Ok so I've got a few friends here in Wisconsin who are going to be having babies. You'd think seeing that I work at baby gap I would have instant gift ideas but one of the people works with me (and really won't need clothes I bet) and the other isn't going to find out the gender of the baby, and with a 60 day return policy that makes buying clothes a little difficult (and how much yellow and green clothing does a baby need right?). I came across this idea of something that would be neat to make and I was wondering if as parents this would be something you'd actually want, or if it really isn't practical. It's a growth chart in a box, and you pull out the chart thing and then pin the tag where the height is and date it and what not. Please be honest and let me know!

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=11974319

and here are a few pictures from her etsy page too on it in case you don't want to go to the listing or it is gone.

ooey, gooey, and oh so good!

We're just going to ignore the fact I started weight watchers today for the sake of this post. We're also going to ignore my bad photography skills with my blackberry's camera.

We had a rockin' weekend at work. We seriously kicked major butt, and everyone who worked was in a GREAT mood. I decided as a treat to make some cupcakes. I'm pretty much obsessed with anything s'mores. Since we can't have bonfires in Wisconsin (at least the city I live in, oh and it's the middle of winter so that kind of puts a damper on it) I get my s'more fix through World Market's s'more hot chocolate and Caribou Coffee's Campfire Mocha (espresso, skim milk, dark, white or milk (or all 3!) chocolate, and marshmallows on top). I'm also pretty much obsessed with bakerella's website and recently she posted a recipe for s'mores cupcakes. I've been dyin gto make them so this was a perfect excuse to do so. The bottoms are graham cracker cupcake batter, a marshmallow then chocolate cake batter, and you sprinkle a bit of graham cracker topping (graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar, and butter) in between the layers and on top. Then you top it off with a marshmallow after they're done baking, drizzle with chocolate ganache and end up with a super ooey gooey treat. I'm hooked...and weight watchers thanks me for being a member for like 2 weeks longer now because of these!