We were able to visit the coveted Horseshoe Craft & Flea Market this Saturday in Denver!  It was FABULOUS!  I did not spend over $100 though I easily could have and then some!  If you need a jump start in creativity, from staring at Pinterest to too many purchases from Bed Bath and Beyond, this place will rock your world, food trucks included!

Wanna join us next time?

 Here are some upcoming dates (click the boxes to go directly to their link):

There is a man at work who is much older and a dishwasher.  He is commonly found with a smile on his face, and always asks me, without fail, “having fun?”.  I am at work when he says this, (we both are) so, no, I don’t usually answer that I am “having fun” at work.  I would have to be getting off work, on my way to go shopping or to see the Hunger Games, to really be “having fun”.

But today, after we ended our Young Marrieds Small Group at church on the “not a fan” six week small group discipleship study, I’ve been really thinking about how I approach life and what I am doing to be a Follower.

(To find out more about “not a fan” study go to www.notafan.com)

So today I walk into the kitchen for some really awesome quiche.  I am tired, the shoe on my right foot is wearing a blister on my heel, and I don’t want to admit the weekend is over just yet.  But here he comes, this grinning and happy and unbelievably compatible  human.  I am almost annoyed by this.  And then he says it!  “Having fun?”

“Well…” I start to want to go back to the “old me”, telling him all the reasons I am not really having fun per say.  But then I change my mind.  “Yes, I am having fun today,” I announce, his grin becoming absolutely contagious.

My day was, well, fun too! I got to catch up on some family photos with a resident, laughed with my Bingo group, and found some great entertainment prospects.  Maybe I’m not hang gliding or surfing or even at the park with my family, but in every way I am still having fun at work, and its okay to acknowledge it every so often.

I want you to try and find the fun in life, even if its just a little fun, just a little smile even.  But as long as we start to have fun, and spread the word, life is a little more bearable!

So, without further ado- ARE YOU HAVING FUN?

G was riding on my back as I did push-ups… and yes, I’m sore today!!!

I had to try this out:

I just got OPI nail color “Road House Blues” and Revlon’s “900 Gold Get ‘Em” at King Soopers (our grocery store around here) and had to try this out!  Here’s the result, albeit a little sloppy still:

Let me know if you’ve done the same!?  What colors have you used?

Bottom line… I’m obsessing:

I’ve been getting better at dressing myself.  Case in point, today I am wearing gray and mustard yellow together, and it’s totally working… if only I would add some Chevron stripes to it… hmmm.

I digress… I wanted to show you what I am finding on the web and absolutely drooling-on-my-keyboard for!  Here goes!

Enjoy!

There’s a certain hardship that’s befalling us 20-somethings right now; money.  And last I heard money most usually comes from a paycheck.  And our generation struggles with this concept, not because we don’t want the jobs, but because a job is an illusive thing these days.  And we are living off the fallen feathers and twigs that once padded our childhood homes and continue to make up our parents’ homes.

“41 percent of Gen
Yers have received
financial support from
parents after college”

~ Julie Halpert, The Fiscal Times

I do not know many of my generation that have “big” wealth, in that they own their own home, own car, have a full-time, Monday to Friday job and are able to support themselves, much less their spouse/family/anyone else.  We are graduating with thousands in debt from school tuition, also making us educated and unemployed, and therefore making most of us capable of analyzing the financial and social implications of our own unemployment. 

Characteristics of the Gen Yers:

Sometimes I want to yell out and say, “We is Kind, we is Smart, we is Important” (dammit), and we Gen Yers are more than capable and ready to work!  It’s frustrating to understand that our jobs will not match that of our parents’ careers.  Most of us will not land a job and comfortably stay there until retirement day.

• We will bounce around in jobs, sometimes scaling up the ladder only to be let go or leaving after just six months for higher pay.
• We will not be loyal to a profession.  Our parents had one career, one “specialty”.  Both my parents were teachers.  So far I have worked as a graphic designer, a nanny, a sales associate, a freelance writer, and now an activities coordinator.  What else?
• Let me know, I CAN DO IT ALL.  Our generation’s mentality is being Renaissance Men and Women.  Whatever our eldest generation will throw at us, we’ll gladly rise to the challenge, either knowing it or learning it in minutes on YouTube.
• We will be generous with our time.  We have (perhaps false) faith that the harder, longer, stronger we work, the better the payoffs.  We learned this from the last generation.  How we work will work, right?
• Which means we’re unusually optimistic.  No, seriously.  No, really, I am sure we are!

“The unemployment rate for those with a college degree is twice what it was four years ago,” ~ Carl Van Horn, Director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University

Budget of the Gen Yers:

Our starter homes have become starter apartments or even starter cars.  Our paychecks, assuming we have them, are struggling to cover our expenses.  Not to mention (as mentioned above) we have thousands in school loans to pay off.  But that’s how we got through school, and one needs schooling and degrees to land jobs, right?

“Not only is total student loan debt the highest it’s ever been in history, the cost of a four-year college education continues to far outpace the rate of inflation, meaning that current graduates are saddled with an average of $27,000 in student loan debt before they even finish packing up their belongings in their college dorm.” ~Dominic Basulto, Washington Post

The interest rate on this 27K is outstanding, depending on the lender, and meanwhile its possible we have a couple credit cards that have racked up some great big debts on their own, depending on how close the bars were to our college dorms.  I looked up my little, unsuspecting Target Credit Card and noticed that it has a 22.90% annual percentage rate.  Ouch.

Enter the Gen Yers Revolt:

This pisses me off, and it should piss you off too.  When I needed Suze Orman on my college campus those first weeks as a freshman, I got Wells Fargo shoving a credit card in my face with a (quickly) increasing credit limit.  They actually had a whole office and tellers in our university center, they did so well with us fresh meat.

HuffPost’s Anya Kamenetz writes in her article “Generation Debt at the Barricades”:

“Occupy Wall Street is Generation Debt at the barricades, on blogs, Twitter and Tumblr, expressing their deep sense of betrayal. At the heart of that betrayal, the one issue that comes up over and over again is student debt.

College is the centerpiece of the American dream. We tell our children that if you have both merit and gumption you’ll be handed the chance to prove yourself on a level playing field, with both financial and personal rewards. And so it’s our nation’s college students — the ones with an average age of 26, the ones who are burning through their youth with a cycle of part-time jobs and part-time classes — who are now raising their voices to tell us that the dream has gone hollow.”

It makes me think of biting into a Twinkie, expecting what people have told you to be the sweetest center ever, and getting air.  And then to have people continue to tell you, “Just keep eating… that sweet center is in there somewhere”.  Well, we’ve already bitten off too much for us to chew. 

Conclusion… That Goes Here, Right?

So what’s an over-educated, deeply-in-debt, jobless generation to do?  The worst thing we can do is continue on exactly as have been: buying the American Dream on our six different credit cards, going back to school when the job doesn’t pan out, and then settling for part-time, slightly-above minimum wage jobs when we finally do turn ourselves over to the workforce.  We are a damned hopeful bunch, though, and continuing this cycle seems to always have a prefabricated light at the end of the tunnel.  Personally, we have to stop seeing that light.  We have to stop going back to school for educations for jobs that no longer exist, have to stop settling for jobs that cannot possibly support us, and most importantly stop trying to replicate the adult lifestyle of our 1980s-boom-town parents.  

We have to redefine our generations’ wealth, jobs, and education.  It will be different for us.

Spending on a dime is the new smart.  Living well below our means is the new wealth.  Asking for the paychecks our parents brought home is the new job, one we work hard at one day obtaining.

Weigh in.  Tell me what you’re doing, Gen Yers, to survive in a world running on the afterglow of our preceding generations.  Tell me how you are redefining the workforce, the wealth, the education in your own life.

Color is on the brain.  Haha, I am in love with different kinds of shades, patterns, assembles right now.  It was brought on after an early Spring clean done in my closet, and suddenly it was apparent that I needed some MORE COLOR!!!   And, what’s this?  Target has read my mind?  Could it be?  Check out their new commercial: (and, no, I am not promoting Target, but wouldn’t I be somethin’ if I were??:)

Target Commercial 2012

So, in anticipation of getting some brightly colored clothes, I decided to scour the internet for some sorely-needed “color-spiration”!  Enjoy:

CANON BLUE ALBUM COVER In August 2011 Canon Blue will be releasing his second album Rumspringa at Temporary Residence and Rumraket. The album cover is inspired by Amish quilting techniques.

Alia Penner-Black Rainbow Flag 2011 2ftx4ft

Jennifer Sanchez, (title unknown)

hui-hui.de Cut-outs colourful photoprint of paper- cut-outs and wooden objects with many details.

You gotta love a chic who will wear all colors at once, hair included! Meg Gray, Vogue Australia Marni top Prada skirt, shoes, bag Photographed by Phil Oh

So now that I’ve provided you with color-spiration (say it three times today- it WILL catch on!) go out and, please, COLOR YOUR WORLD! 

Couldn’t resist these little POPs of COLOR from Nick Knight called “Explosions”, found on wellthreaded.com.

If you have been listening to the news lately, you might have heard about the snow storm we have had here in Denver, Colorado!  It’s been crazy.. and to top it off, the Buggus and I have had the flu-ish stuff (promise we both got Flu shots!) while the snow was piling up outside – icky!!  So feeling a little under the weather (hahaha) I am finally taking a turn for the better today and wanted to share some of the storm aftermath with you!  Hope you are high and dry, and if you live in the Denver-metro area, hope you’ve found the snow shovel buried in the garage!!

There should be two planter boxes under there somewhere!

Where art thou patio furniture?

I think we are measuring 12″ at the time this picture was taken!

The snow hanging over our roof… yikes!

Don’t worry- I stayed warm with a fire the hubby built and some extra-strength Tylenol.

This is my favorite picture!  The sky is clearing up by now and the ice is starting to melt!