A full week.

This week has been full in a good way. 

I took a spontaneous vacation day because the weather was perfect and Andrew was off of work. We spent the entire day laboring in our front yard, working on landscaping and filling up a Bagster full of debris from our renovation work. (Can I just interject that the Bagster is awesome if you're doing work on your house? Seriously. We'll definitely be getting one again.) We made such a difference in one day of work and celebrated with margaritas and Goats, both of which were fantastic.

We also made progress on our office renovations. It's so close to being done, I can't wait to cross another project off the list. 

But the best part was that I got a promotion (!) and Andrew and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary. I'm feeling very blessed.

Volvo Joyride.

With two trips coming up this fall, I've been thinking about travel a lot lately. There's something I really love about getting on the road, even if it's just a couple of hours away. 

Windows down, music on and knowing that I'm free of some of my responsibility for a little while. It's ideal. 

So, when I heard that Volvo is having a contest in which you can win a road trip, I jumped on the opportunity. To enter, you have to create a Volvo Joyride pinboard and pin your destinations, activities, outfits, soundtrack and, of course, the Volvo you'll be driving. I chose a road trip to Maine. Acadia National Park to be exact. I loved the little bit of time I got to spend there in the past, and I'd love to see that part of the country in the fall. 

Here's a preview of my pinboard:

  

Today is feeling especially fall-like. A cool, grey, rainy morning. Soup and a good book for lunch. Finishing up the last bit of painting in our dining room, a bold orange red that looks like fallen leaves. Now I'm working on framing this piece for a group show at the gallery in American Greetings that hangs next Friday. I always look forward to fall, no matter how much I'm going to miss bare legs and skirts and warm summer nights.

The birds.

It's always fun to see all of the animals at the fair, but my absolute favorites are the birds. I can't get over all the fancy kinds of chickens and pigeons. The GIANT turkeys. And of course, the peeping chicks. 

Fair week.

I went back to my hometown of Wellington, Ohio twice this week to spend some time at the Lorain County Fair. As a kid living in small town Wellington, fair week was THE event of the year. Everyone went to the fair and it seemed like everyone was at the fair nearly every day. Many people I knew had animals in the fair, or 4H projects on display. I was always entering drawings or photographs in the footsteps of my mom and her family. The prizes were never more than a few dollars, but there was something really special about having your work on display at the fair. When we were old enough, my friends and I spent our week at the fair working at the Hawaiian Shaved Ice stand. Our boss, Jay, was a science fiction/fantasy author who I was totally in awe of at the time. 

Needless to say, I love going back to the fair. The food, the animals, the people, the sentimentality of it. I love it all.

(See my last trip to the fair here / More photos from this year here)

Just another cat on the internet.

I was loving how Emma's eyes were matching the old tile in our bathroom so I snapped a couple of photos. She is lounging across my desk as I type, trying to rub on my hands. The cats are always following me into my studio to get attention. It's where I sit still the longest.

Plaster. Dust. Paint. Wires.

It's hard to believe that we've almost lived in this house an entire year. Sometimes it feels like we've gotten so much work done. Most of the time it feels like we've barely scraped the surface of what needs to be done. The office is nearing completion. The yard is half torn up. It's a lot of work, but the end reward is a house that exists exactly how we want it to. And that's definitely worth it.