blogger doesn't like me.

I have to picture heavy blog posts planning (my January Birchbox reveal! and a tutorial on one of my Christmas crafts) but I can't load pictures for some reason. I can pull up the photo uploading box but the button to locate/upload pictures doesn't exists. Anyone out there experiencing the same thing? Help!

Craftiness.

I have had a few rare nights off recently and I am almost back in the crafting groove. I did say in this post that I was going to do something crafty with the acorns that I swept off the in-laws back porch and I did! Though while trying to get the pictures off my camera, the battery died, the hard drive wouldn't sync, and the computer needed to be plugged in so it has taken me a while to get them to you! So, it isn't all that crafty but it is fall-y and fun. (p.s. fall is my favorite season...photographically and in life...just so you were warned of the fall goodness that is to come). 

I already had everything on hand except the acorns so it was an easy fun addition to my table.

I lurve fall!!

Since my entire living room and dining room are painted yellow, white balancing these photos is insanity (thus why all pictures taken inside my house look yellow-ish).

Chicago - here it is!

In case you missed the memo, I went to Chicago! I had the honor of representing our GS council at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service, hosted by Points of Light.

The conference itself was awesome. The speakers were on point, the sessions were interesting, meeting new people was super fun. I feel like I got a lot out of the conference, even if I didn't bring home tons of new ideas about volunteering; it was just so nice to be among other non-profit leaders and hear them talk about all the things I am passionate about. I feel like our council is headed in the right direction and it was good to be among other people who were asking the same questions, struggling with similar things, and experiencing the same successes!

But of course, on to why you really stopped by...pictures! I took tons while we were there and this is just a sampling.

The reddish building on the left hand side of the background here was our hotel...the Hilton Chicago Hotel and Towers. It really was huge...right beside Grant Park.

This is the Buckingham Fountain - oddly enough, donated by someone French, I believe. It was huge and beautiful!

Chicago has tons of amazing green spaces and public parks. I was impressed by how clean they all seemed to be and how many of them included different forms of art, both large and small. This was a huge flower sculpture that I loved!

This is Trump Towers. nothing special there really, but the view over the river was pretty awesome.

This was one of my favorite pieces of outdoor art (probably #2 on the list for Chicago). It is obviously still being installed there but it is made up entirely of canoes! This water lovin' girls heart was happy!

This is the ferris wheel at Navy Pier....

Look - proof that I really went to Chicago!

A.K. and I took a water taxi from Navy Pier (after walking literally a couple of miles to get there...it didn't LOOK that far away!) to the Field Museum and Aquarium area. The views alone were worth the money.

The Field Museum of Natural History. We arrived about 30 minutes before closing time this day and weren't willing to spend the money to get in for that amount of time. I would love to go back to Chicago for a museum run one day...tons of things I didn't get to see!

Same fountain...at night. Pretty amazing all lit up too!

And this is why I went to Chicago.
I jest but...I was pretty excited to see this piece of art.

It is called "Cloud Gate" and it is basically a huge, mirrored jelly bean.

So everyone calls it "The Bean". And I was super excited to see it. It is pretty amazing at night - reflects the sky and the buildings and it is hard to tell where the Bean stops and real life starts. I liked it so much that I convinced my amigas to go see it again...during the day!

I wanted to kick all the tourists out so I could get really awesome pictures but then I rememberd that I am a tourist too. Oh well. I loved this so much that I bought a small oil painting of The Bean and had it shipped home. It arrived yesterday and I am currently debating on where to hang it!

A.K. and I also went on a sunset architecture tour by boat. The guide was super cheesy but very informative and I learned a lot about the buildings around the Chicago River. This is the Sears Tower (ahem...Willis Tower...but whatever) and it truly did not disappoint. Beautiful!

The plenery session on education was led by the fabulous Soledad O'Brien - who replied to one of my tweets. Made my day. Week. Month. Yeah.

The education session was sponsored by Target - could you tell? Either way, we got spiffy Target glasses which we are all rocking in this picture...

There it is...Chicago in pictures.



2 away.

I am 2 posts away from 700. That is a lot of talking and writing and thinking and sharing. Thanks for being on this journey with me. I asked Chad what I should blog about today...he said these things: - tell them how it has been raining for days, it seems (and he forgets to be thankful because it is prime fire season around here so I am being thankful for him). things are starting to bloom and leaf out making them harder to burn but for now, I am thankful for the rain. (as long as my back yard does not wash away) - tell them how you have an eye appointment, for the first time in years. I am a little embarrassed about this one. I had the same pair of glasses (for reading and computer using) for a few years before I moved to Chattanooga and that was about 2 and a half years ago. It is truly about time. Maybe I can get some stylish new eyes... - He also told me to tell you that we are ready to sell my car - any takers? We are using our tax refund to purchase a new (to us - used of course) car. We've been researching, planning, praying, more research - hoping to make the best, wisest, most frugal, safe decision that we can. And that includes getting rid of my Saturn Vue. My only project this week is to clean it out - nice and good - give her a good vacuum and take some pictures to post with the listing. I will link to it when we get it up. We are gonna start on Craigslist and see where it goes...wish us luck! Headed to bed. I'm on day #7 of the headache. It is only truly unbearable when I cough or sneeze. And yes, I have finally called the Dr. and made an appt. for tomorrow afternoon. Let's hope that we can resolve this quickly. Other than that, I am looking forward to an uneventful week - and working NO NIGHTS. It's gonna be good stuff! P.S. I have been inspired by Danielle's changing of the photo on top of her blog and I finally took the time to figure out how to do it on mine. This was one of our engagement/we-were-actually-already-married pictures by Lindsey. Love it! What do you think about the new header? P.P.S. I promise I put paragraph spaces in here. Blogger must hate me.

harder. softer.

My mom and sister were up yesterday...they came to see me but really they came to cash in their Christmas gift certificates to blow their own glass ornaments.

We had a great time tooling around town yesterday...I took them by the houses we are interested in and let them walk around so I could get their opinion.

Their favorite is my favorite too...

Then I had my interview (more on that later) then we went to the glass studio then I made dinner then they went home.

How was that for a shortened version?

Anyway...I did take some pictures and now I will share!

The first thing you have to do is choose what color you want your final glass ornament (lovingly referred to as "ball" from here on out).
Then the glass man gets a wad (technical term) of glass out of the super fiery furnace (think Daniel and his friends)...

Then he rolls his fiery wad in crushed up colored pieces.

These were the coolest...and made for my favorite pictures of the day.
Then there is some reheating, some blowing (I won't embarrass anyone, including myself, with those pictures), some more blowing, some "harder", "softer", "stop!" instructions, and then you have this...

This one is my sister's ball. She picked cobalt blue and jade green for her colors...she does love cobalt blue glass!

The colors are really starting to show here...

when it is really hot still, all the colors sorta look the same.

This one is mine, getting it's little hanger on top. When it cools, mine will be bright orange, red, and yellow. I wanted blue too but since we already did a blue one, I went with these so we could see something diferent.

This is one of the containers of the crushed glass. I took a bunch of pictures of these and they are so neat I think I might get them blown up and framed!

I was so thrilled to see my mom and sis. I miss them so much and don't get to see them nearly enough. My mom even did the dishes after dinner - she is so awesome.

I did cook and she understands about "the deal" - if you are the cook, you shouldn't have to clean (though that never happens in her house I am quite sure!).

I made PW's Chicken Piccata (which she had on her website yesterday) - it is a pasta dish with a creamy (unhealthy but wonderful!!) lemony sauce.

It was yummy.

What a great day!