When things don't go as planned.

We had spent the previous evening celebrating the wedding of a good friend of mine with some of my favorite people in Indiana, old friends, and new friends that felt like old friends. Talking about backyard chickens, gravity and singing along with the Beatles.

The next morning we moved a little slower than we should have and at some point during our seven hour drive to Michigan we realized that it wasn't going to be possible to reach the Sleeping Bear Dunes before the ranger station would close, leaving us with no permit to be able to camp. So, thinking quickly, I searched for other parks in the area that offered backcountry camping. Ludington State Park seemed to be our answer and we made a slight adjustment to our travel route to get us there with enough time to hike to our destination and set up camp. 

After waiting in line, watching RV after RV check into their reserved spot in the park, the woman at the desk told us that their backcountry site was closed. At this point, I was getting rather discouraged. I told her that we had planned on backpacking and she said that if we took their trail to the lighthouse we could then continue on past the park border and into federal land where we could camp wherever we liked. Although I was hesitant about the fact that the woman could offer us no map of the federal land, it seemed as if things were falling into place and Andrew was encouraging and eager to get going.

So we hiked to the lighthouse.

But when we got to the lighthouse our trail came to an end. We wandered a bit. There was no additional trail or signs to be found. No obvious path that others had taken. After many attempts since first leaving the park office, we were finally able to access a map of the federal park on Andrew's phone despite the spotty service. As it turned out, the woman at the desk should have sent us down a different trail. A trail which, at that point, was at least four miles from our location. Not to mention that we would have needed to hike another two once we got past the park border to get to an area that were allowed to camp in. The sun was setting. Hiking miles in the dark was not something we were prepared for. Returning to Ludington to set up our tent amongst the RVs was certainly not in our plans but it seemed to be our only choice.

As we retraced our steps the sun slowly disappeared, the air chilled, and everything became so quiet and still. There was a point when we stopped to look around and on the dune between us and the beach stood a herd of deer silhouetted by the last bit of sunlight. It was that moment that made me stop caring that nothing had gone as planned.

The next morning we packed up and drove to Sleeping Bear.

Wandering.

Andrew and I spent some time wandering through Michigan this weekend. It was a really great trip and I've been looking forward to sharing the pictures but I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Soon.

(Andrew snapped this panorama with his iPhone while we were in Ludington State Park failing to find a trail to take us into federal lands where we could camp.) 

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.