Snippets from the weekend

How was your Thanksgiving?  Hopefully full of good times.  Mine was spent on my parents' farm and it was pretty quiet and relaxing.  I love spending time with family but it is always nice to be back at home and sleeping in my own bed.

I didn't capture any photos during Thanksgiving (the camera never made it out of the bag) but took a few snapshots with my phone during the drives.  We had a rental car instead of our Jeep and the dogs (creatures of habit) were not sure what to think about the back seat.  Besides family time and traveling, this weekend I finished a 2012 calendar that includes some of my favorites shots of Chicago, Paris, and New York.

 

A few goals for this week**...

• This week I need to decide on whether to do an advent calendar and what to do about holiday cards.  I have long been resisting the photo card but I kind of want to do one this year (three years of holiday card posts!). 
• I really need to have a solid week of working out... boy have I been lax on that front! My goal is 5 workouts this week.
• Finishing a couple handmade pay it forward gifts is high on my priority lists. Once they are delivered I will share what I made - it has been way to long since I posted up about a craft project!
• And crafting up a post or two to share the handmade gift ideas that I am tossing around for the people on my list in case they are helpful for any of you.
• Lastly, not to order delivery for dinner.  My interest in cooking has been pretty low lately but I filled our menu plan for the week with easy, no fuss type of dinners to keep us from eating Thai food or pizza yet again.

Hope you have a lovely week as we finish off November and head into December!

** I really enjoy posts that share bits from the weekend with goals for the week (like the ones that Mary writes) - so I am going to borrow the idea and try it out. 

Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sale

Hope you are having a fab Thanksgiving weekend! 

To celebrate the kicking off of the holiday season there is sale going on in the In This Instance etsy shop.  From now through Cyber Monday receive 25% off when you use the code FPOE2011.  Maybe postcard sets for stocking stuffers or a print for treating yourself.   This can be used towards custom print requests too, as long as they are purchased by midnight on Monday - want a different size or a photo you have seen on the blog or on my flickr page?  Just send me an email.  Enjoy! 

Loving in November

For some reason I have had very little interest in being on the computer this month.  I am not completely sure what is the cause.  It certainly could be that it is dark when I leave work and thus snuggling up on the sofa is much more appealling than jumping back on a computer after dinner. During my bout of laziness here are a few things that are I am really loving this November...

• Lingering fall leaves
• Long shadows
• Picking up cranberries to make my contribution to the Thanksgiving table
• Purchasing the tickets for our holiday date
• Making apple pie cake
• Making pumpkin puree to freeze for yummy treats this winter
• Brunch with friends on both days of the weekend
• The vignette camera app (android)
• Lazy Sunday afternoons watching movies with my husband
• Picking up cupcakes from Crumbs for Friday night dessert - the squiggle cupcake for me
• Negotiating at the Randolph Street Market for a Super 8 video camera
• Planning handmade gifts for Christmas

A Weekend in NYC

The first of November I headed to NYC to attend a conference for work.  The moment I found out I was going to New York I emailed Dan to see if it would work to extend my stay and have him meet me out there for a long weekend exploring the city.  It was such an amazing weekend.  We both fell hard for New York.

As in looking up rentals in the West Village and doing internet research on random NYC living things.  It is still unclear if our crush will be strong enough to actually make the move (it will have to last a few years as we aren't quite ready to leave Chicago) but one thing is for sure we went from kind-of-intrigued to totally-in-love for this city over a weekend.

We wanted to see as much as possible during our short visit so we became friends with the subway and basically spent the days walking (my legs were so tired Sunday night!).  Here are a few favorite shots of the city from the weekend...

If you aren't completely tired of looking at photos of NYC at this point, there are more in this set on flickr.

An Evening Walk in Midtown

Just a few snaps from my phone during a walk yesterday evening in Midtown that I wanted to share with you.  I can't even describe how excited I am to be in NYC... this is the first time I have truly visited this city (short work trips don't count).  The Folio Show wraps up today (I am learning so much!) and then Dan is joining me for a long weekend exploring the city.  It is going to be fantastic.