Oh my! After saying I was going to get back into the habit of blogging daily, I didn’t blog hardly at all last week… I did however take lots of photos.

Photo of Axel

I think I was feeling a bit overwhelmed by my inbox, the amount of comments I hadn’t yet replied to, and maybe being a bit burnt out on blogging last week. After catching up on emails though last night, I felt much better and definitely think I am going to try to blog a bit more this week. :) Now I just have to catch up on everyone else’s blogs. That should be fun though!

Photo of Pounce

I haven’t done much sewing or anything creative the past few days other than taking photos. It was been a fairly busy weekend though. On Friday, Pounce had to go to the vet for his annual checkup and shots. (He is healthy and even lost a tiny bit of weight:) Then after that, Ben and I went and took some photos at the local arboretum.

Trees at the arboretum

Saturday we drove to a state park that is a little over an hour from our house. It was one we had not been to yet and it was probably the nicest one we have seen so far in this state. (Although the back half of the park was actually called the hunting area, which sort of seems odd to me… hunting in a state park?) Who knew Illinois actually had a bit of forest though? And hills! So it isn’t all flat prairie… although around here it mostly is. I am still laughing that a few of you said I should actually post photos of cornfields! :)

Flowers at the arboretum

On our way home from the state park on Saturday we stopped at the local apple orchard and got some fresh cider and apples. The apples turned into homemade apple pie, although I should state that I had nothing to do with that:) Ben made the pie and it was delicious. There is just something so perfect about apples, apple pie, and crisp fall air. Summer is my favorite season, but fall is definitely a close second.


Hidden garden at the arboretum

Sunday we mostly relaxed and wished that the weekend hadn’t gone by so quickly…

Me at the arboretum – Photo taken by Ben

Today after I do a bit of blog reading, I am hoping I will finish up a few packages to mail out to 2 very patient people:) Also I feel the need to be a bit creative this week and I have a few ideas in my head that are starting to take shape. At some point this week, I am also thinking about getting a book on photoshop to help teach myself how to use it more. Any suggestions on good books for that? I would love to hear what everyone else has planned for the week! :)

Forest in Illinois – who knew! :)

Well I am feeling a bit better knowing that I don’t have as many feeds as some people! :) I still haven’t replied to emails/comments yet, but I will hopefully get to that tomorrow. It is actually kind of funny, because Axel cuddled on my lap for awhile this afternoon which made it so I couldn’t get anything done (he is a fairly large cat and I also dislike making him get up since he has only recently become really cuddly.) I suppose I could have done something productive on the computer during that time, but I played a computer game instead. *blushing*

We took a walk this evening to a nearby park… It was quite a lovely evening, although a bit hot out. I don’t think the weather wants to make up its mind here… one day it feels like fall and the next like summer still. That photo was the only one I took on our walk. I feel like I can only be so creative with my photos and there isn’t much to photograph around here except for cornfields… Maybe along with blogging a bit more I will try to get out and take some more photos. There has to be something good out there to photograph, right? :)

Tomorrow’s to do list…
Be productive. :)

I have not been a very good blogger lately! I am behind on responding to comments, I was behind on reading blogs (mostly caught up though), and I haven’t posted much since I have been back from my blogging break. I hope this week will be a bit different though… I am planning on posting every day (!) and hopefully catching up on emails/responding to comments. :) (It really makes me wonder how some of you do it? I don’t have kids, so I can’t imagine how behind I would be if I did! Maybe I need to cut back on the amount of blogs I read – I only have 223 in my feed reader… said with a little grin on my face.)

This weekend, Ben and I took a mini-road trip and went to Chicago on Saturday for the Renegade Craft Fair. It was a nice cool day (felt like fall definitely) and was perfect for walking around looking at lovely handmade items. Oh so much fun!

It was so neat to see all the different booths, how people arrange them and items being sold… It gave me ideas for if I ever participate in a craft fair. (Like, tents/booths that you can walk into are much friendlier feeling than ones where the table is at the front and you stand out from under the tent – too much crowding in the walking area makes you feel like not stopping.) Of course I couldn’t go and not buy anything! Although I did pretty good and only walked away with 2 lovely handmade items…

A letterpress card from paperedtogether (love the colors of this card and so love the letterpress technique!) and a bar of Sweet Mandarin Orange soap from Oliba (this smells so good & I love anything orange-ish smelling!). I also tried on a top at one of the booths, but couldn’t justify the price since I knew I could make it myself and the quality was only okay (is that bad? I just felt like if I made something similar the quality might be a bit better.)

The only frustrating part about the time there was that I emailed the people at Renegade and was told that there was street parking available around the neighborhood that the craft fair was being held in. Um, it would have helped to know that they meant permit street parking and not metered! Oh well, we actually found a parking spot close by that wasn’t permit or metered (free is even better) so it worked out.
The neighborhood was gorgeous though with lots of lovely homes…

After we were done at the craft fair, we also drove to the mall to go the the Lindt chocolate store and H&M. Ben had read that Lindt sold 99% dark chocolate bars and he wanted to try one (he loves dark chocolate, I hate it:). So he got that and I got some new clothes at H&M. A very fun day!

Oh and something I didn’t blog about last week when I got it….

My new crumpler camera bag! I wanted a bag to carry my digital SLR in when I go out on walks, to the park, the craft fair, etc… This bag is absolutely perfect! Crumpler actually makes tons of different sizes of bags and I actually ordered too small a bag first (I have a battery grip on my camera and so my camera didn’t fit in that bag), but returned it and got this one. It fits my camera and a few odds and ends (like my cellphone, keys, wallet). Great for walking around!

Now I am off to get a few things done before my ballet class this evening! Hope everyone else had a wonderful weekend!