Seattle Nesties
we're having twins!
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
non clicky poll: jewelry pt 2
i think you guys should help me pick out some fashion jewelry. i always love the way it looks on people but i'd never buy it, for fear it doesn't look right..
so where do you guy your cheap fashion jewelry?
what are the basic things every girl should have?
your fav thing?
we're having twins!
Re: non clicky poll: jewelry pt 2
So I'm terrible and can't answer most of the above, but I did ask DH for a David Yurman bracelet for Valentine's Day. Unfortunately it's super-expensive so I'm not sure I will get it... I always thought DY bracelets were like, $500 to $600, but then we were looking online last night and they were all like, $3,000. I must have a bunch of baller friends to be buying his stuff...
so where do you guy your cheap fashion jewelry?
forever 21, and the "love 21" store in alderwood (i think it's tied in with F21), h&m, claires, and my "expensive"-cheap jewelry comes from cache.
what are the basic things every girl should have?
big dangly hoops, big dangly earrings, long pearls, necklaces that are really like 8 necklaces together of varying lengths, a sparkly bracelet
your fav thing?
i can't pick just one. it depends on the outfit. maybe my sparkly bracelet.
♥ bfp1 06/14/2011 ♥ edd 02/22/2012 ♥
♥ baby jennlin born on 02/15/2012 ♥
who says you can only wear your wedding dress once?
honeymoon bio ♥ married bio ♥ planning bio
jumped ship to the new and improved nest. back to TB for baby boards.
I buy "cheap" jewelry from places like Ann Taylor Loft, Express, and Banana Republic, but they tend to not even be that cheap. I cant' wear Claire's stuff cause it makes me rash, earrings, neck, fingers etc...
Other than that, my mom tends to get me cheap streetside jewelry from Korea (which is where a lot of the Ann Taylor/Express/BR stuff is from anyway).
from uwhusky::
Btw, tell sara to check out franchesca's. There's one at southcenter. They have sales all of the time, so don't buy something full price bc chances are it'll be sale within a few weeks.
♥ bfp1 06/14/2011 ♥ edd 02/22/2012 ♥
♥ baby jennlin born on 02/15/2012 ♥
who says you can only wear your wedding dress once?
honeymoon bio ♥ married bio ♥ planning bio
jumped ship to the new and improved nest. back to TB for baby boards.
so where do you guys your cheap fashion jewelry?
Forever 21, H&M
More expensive:
what are the basic things every girl should have?
chunky stone necklace
delicate chain with a special pendant (mine is marcasite with gray pearl, Jennlin's swan)
chunky bracelet
cocktail ring (costume jewelry is fine)
your fav thing?
my red bamboo coral necklace
so where do you guys your cheap fashion jewelry?
Nordstrom BP or Nordstrom on Sale, Target, Express, Forever 21 (although I try to avoid shopping there)
what are the basic things every girl should have?
a simple everyday bracelet
delicate chain with a special pendant - I agree with KST on this. I have a tiffany one, with a heart, key, and pink pearl (the heart and key are from DH, the pearl is from my parents)
a long necklace (both gold and silver)
stud earrings
chandelier earrings (both gold and silver toned)
your fav thing?
right now, probably my kendra scott earrings
Ha! My lifestyle is temporary until funds run out! Long story short, I knew in undergrad I wanted to go to grad school (I was very lucky in that my parents paid for my undergrad) so I scrimped and saved and scrimped and saved for four years after graduating (including a stint living with my parents so that I didn't pay rent - not the coolest thing in the world) to pay for grad school. Well, it was completely unexpected but I got a full scholarship for my grad school program, so I suddenly had this surplus of cash. I put half in the bank immediately and designated the rest of it as my "fun fund" to make up for the past years, so that's how I can get some of the stuff I have and that's how I travel.
Also, DH's company provides tons of perks for things that we normally would pay for, so that helps a lot in giving us discretionary income. For example - DH's company paid a large portion of his rent for two years (he spent about $2,000 a year on rent total); they pay for our dry-cleaning; they pay for our gym memberships (and we get discounts on trainers); they pay all of our medical, dental, and vision insurance; and they provide food, free of charge, to DH for breakfast / lunch / dinner M-F (and weekends if he ever went in to work). When I worked at the company I did in SF, they also provided free breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so M-F for 2 straight years we didn't buy any food. I saw a nutritionist at my old job - no cost to me. And there was a weekly massage therapist who came to work to do mini-massages (15 minutes) so I'd get 1-2 a week (gave those up when I quit working!). As you can imagine, that saved a ton for us and we threw it in a slush fund for "splurges". Plus, DH's company provide a shuttle that picks up right near our apartment in SF (random coincidence) and drops off at work, so DH doesn't ever drive his car.
We also don't own furniture because we are those super-cool married people who have a roommate and we just use his furniture. Rent in San Francisco is ridiculous, and I'll be completely honest - I would rather be able to spend $$$ on travel then live by ourselves right now (if we rented on our own, we'd probably spend about $1,500 a month more than we do now). When we move out of the city (in 1-2 years) we'll live on our own (and then we'll have to reign it in to buy furniture, have a kid, maybe have a mortgage, etc. etc.,) but for now I'm totally fine making some sacrifices in the "adult" world to be able to have a few nice things and to be able to travel.
I forget that you don't all know all my back story, but really - my life is relatively normal (except DH knows some cool people so sometimes we get to do cool stuff for free). For example, if you lived in SF I could invite you over for dinner and you would dine on the *finest* folding chairs you've ever seen.
I just refuse to buy nice furniture until we have a place that is more permanent - though I did get DH to finally understand that if it's left on the side of the road, for free, it's there for a reason (no joke: DH once brought home a white laminate nightstand that he found on the sidewalk. I wanted to vom.).
Oh, whoops, forgot this. I honestly don't know what size the stone is for sure. If I was to guess - probably around 1.75? (FWIW, if I hold the stone up to my computer it's almost the exact same size as it shows on my screen, but not sure if everyone's screen is the same?)
DH bought it and got it insured so that I'd never know what it cost. All I know is DH had some Apple stock he'd bought when he was working at MSFT (so 2003-2005ish) and that he sold that to pay for my ring in 2010. He basically just got really lucky and I'm not banking on replicating that anytime soon (if you look, the stock was hovering around $30 a share in 2004; it was over $200 a share in 2010). But, as I like to say - sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.
ah, got it! i always just thought you were rich and bragging about the nice stuff you had.. not bragging necessarily in a bad way, but telling us about it. i was starting think i was the biggest loser on the board... and i think i'm pretty cool.. so you can see how that would be a problem for me! lol!
anyway.. you and emy need to be friends with your $500 braceletts! holy moly! h bought me a diamond tennis bracelett once and i made him return it.
Uhhh, no. That would be me explaining to DH (when I first met him) that I was "doing the fiscally responsible thing and still residing in my parent's domicile" (age 24). Obviously I got the heck outta there shortly thereafter (and it *was* the smart thing to do, financially), but it was pretty awk. I'm glad I did it because I didn't want grad school debt, and I don't have any (and thankfully my parents are crazy cool), but still... it wasn't exactly how I'd envisioned my amazing-post-undergrad-life and it sure wasn't the most romantic pick-up line for DH.
FWIW, i lived at home until i was 23 and 11 months, and h was 25 + few months-- also, to save money. h and i bought a house 2 months before we got married, and we got married when i was 24 and 1 month. we had originally planned to "setup house" during those 2 months, but we got too excited and slept on the living room floor the first night, and never went back to our respective parents houses....so during those 2 months, we figured since we had lived apart for so many years, we would just sleep in separate rooms till we got married.
living at home = best money saver, ever.
♥ bfp1 06/14/2011 ♥ edd 02/22/2012 ♥
♥ baby jennlin born on 02/15/2012 ♥
who says you can only wear your wedding dress once?
honeymoon bio ♥ married bio ♥ planning bio
jumped ship to the new and improved nest. back to TB for baby boards.
Thanks. I like, too, and he picked it all out on his own so that was nice. I honestly couldn't even ballpark what he paid for it, because as I learned from looking at stones - the size isn't what seems to affect the price the most. I remember looking at a 3-carat stone (loose) that was like, $12,000 (which is a lot of money, sure, but this stone was HUGE and you would swear someone wearing it was like, bathing in Cristal or married to a rap mogul or something). Apparently, though, it had lots of inclusions and was bad coloring, so it wasn't as expensive as the .75 carat stone sitting next to it. I don't get diamond pricing (except that I know it's all artificially inflated because they greatly restrict the diamond supply).
The salary is good only if you don't live in SF/Bay Area (it's adequate here; it's just not exceptional in terms of quality of lifestyle). Also, don't forget that in CA, we're lucky enough to get to pay a 10% state income tax, on top of the standard 9% sales tax.
DH works for a tech start-up. He's an engineer by trade, so he did that to start with, and now he manages his company's mobile product across all their platforms (iPhone, Android, etc.).
I used to work for a different tech start-up in SF doing recruiting, primarily for MBA students (since I got my MBA). My salary was not nearly as good as DH's because I was a non-technical employee (really the only people who make $$$ are engineers and then executives), so I actually quit about a year ago when we looked at our taxes and realized that - since we were going to be married - I'd pay so much in taxes that I really wasn't making enough to make it worth working.
The world of tech down in SV is really, really weird. Basically any company - no matter the size - provides a $hit-ton of perks to their employees because the competition for *good* computer software engineers is so high. I had basically unlimited vacation at my old job (as long as you were getting your work done), and DH has 4+ weeks at his. Other perks I've heard of: free hair cuts, bring your dog to work, free iPads, lavish all-expenses paid trips to Hawaii, Las Vegas, Vail, etc., cash bonuses that are 100% of your salary, free acupunture, free yoga classes, free personal trainers on site, free life insurance, free pet insurance, one company has a treehouse built into their office (???), cupcake trucks that come and feed the entire office, ridiculous happy hours with bars carved out of ice and with food trucks, unlimited alcohol... it is ridiculous.
what would be exceptional?
so do you not work at all now because you felt you were paying too many taxes?
i feel like this is an ask you anything post! i like it.
Like I said in my other post, I love 21 is a great store for cheap jewelry. And it's so cute! I know you would find something you like there. That's where all my stuff has come from, except for my wedding earrings. But that's the exception.
My favorite pieces are my small hoop earrings and my wedding earrings. They are topaz and gawgeous.
Hmmm... exceptional is hard to gauge down here. For example - if I said $60,000 - that sounds like a lot of money, right? That's pretty standard for an administrative assistant starting salary, because one just can't live off of less than $60K in San Francisco in any moderately comfortable way. I've known administrative assistants down here who make almost $100K a year. Salaries are higher here, but then again, so are costs.
I don't currently work, no. I quit before my wedding so I wasn't going to try to find a job when there was 4 months and I knew I'd need a lot of time off... then we had the honeymoon and then the holidays. I'll eventually look for a job again, but the fields that I want to work in pay $hit (not just in SF - this is pretty much universally true because I want to go into sports or non-profit), so we won't see much of a jump in income if I do go back to work. Right now I just spend about 20 hours a week doing volunteer work to try and build up my network and that way if a job comes open, I know someone who could refer me.
Basically what happened with me on taxes was that I didn't make a ton of money, and DH made pretty decent money individually and was about 2K below the next tax bracket with his yearly salary. So, once we got married, my tax rate was going to jump up to the higher tax bracket because we'd be combining income. When I was single, I took home a lot more money than I was going to, and since the work/life balance at my old job was miserable and I generally was very unhappy, we just said, 'Let's adjust some of our plans and make it work on just one salary.'