Amazon gift card contest

The Downtown Boutique is hosting a great contest to win a $40 Amazon.com gift card! To enter, just leave a comment here on her blog, telling her what you would purchase with the money.

Me? I'd complete my Harry Potter collection. I currently have books 2, 3 and 7, so as you can see I'm missing quite a few. I bought book 7 in London, book 3 on sale for $4 at Marshalls, and yesterday on my way home from work I stopped in this great little used book store where I found book 2 for $4 as well. It was an amazing little shop, packed so tightly only one person could fit in each aisle at a time. The whole place smelled like dusty old books, which is a surprisingly wonderful smell. And the sweet bearded old man that worked there, asked each customer to shut off their cell phones as they entered the store. I spent quite a while in there, not even looking for anything in particular, and I definitely plan to return soon.

My most recent Amazon purchase was Augusten Burroughs' book Possible Side Effects. I was reading it on the train this morning and he wrote one short story about a trip he took to London, describing it as a place he "considers to be perfect." And I couldn't agree more. He just confirmed his status of being my favorite author.

Wanted to send my favorite west-coast gal, Jean, a little piece of Chicago so I ripped out the skyline for her. Sent all the way to LA for her along with some goofy pics of us in London together.

let me introduce myself...

I'm Jenny. A 23 year old non-smoker from Iowa, currently residing in Chicago. I spend most of my down time watching bad reality tv, attempting arts&crafts, starting new crossword puzzles (I'm determined to finish one all on my own, without cheating, but it has yet to happen) and reading all kinds of design/art/crafty blogs. Although I'm not much of a writer, I have been inspired to try my hand at blogging. Although whether my blog will be of interest to others is yet to be determined, so I'm giving it a test run. So to begin, here's a short list of things that are me.

1. I was famous for a short time. Don't believe me? Check this out.
2. I graduated from the University of Iowa with a BBA in Marketing and a minor in Art History
3. I've been out of college for 14 months and 9 of those 14 months I spent living and working in London and traveling throughout Europe thanks to BUNAC. I moved there with a few friends a week after graduation with no job, no home, and a lot of anxiety. It turned out to be the best decision I ever made. Every college graduate should do it.
4. Upon my return to America, I lived with my parents for 4 months of stressful job hunting, until I obtained a job here and promptly moved to Chicago.
5. I have never worked out regularly in my life.
6. I have 3 sisters. 1 older, 2 younger. And this fall, for the first time in our lives, we will live in 4 separate homes.
7. I'm a firm believer in library books. I love to read but have an extremely small book collection of my own.
8. I am in love with art history. Actually, I'm in love with anything old and beautiful. I still can't believe I had the opportunity to see this and this.
9. Last summer I was a paid movie extra...excuse me, "background artist" to be exact, in this movie.
10. I have no idea what I'm going to blog about each day, but I'm excited to find out.