Fall has arrived! Yippee!

I love fall - 

 and I'm enjoying the artsy classes I'm taking on-line - just a couple of mini-sessions with Christy and Margie - and, while I may not do the suggested projects exactly as they are taught, I so [so] enjoy the creativity they spark in my own mind. 

But before I get to that, let me share a bit of my office goodness...

 We have windows as big as our doors in the front of our offices -

 we jokingly say it 's like being in a zoo...

 Another view showing my little bookshelf that I desperately wanted in my office --

or desperately wanted out of my living room 

where it [and boxes of books] has been setting since April!

The built-in desk and storage above is all new to us - but I'm finding that it's handy...

Fluorescent lighting gives me a head-ache, so I was more than happy when I found this lamp at the Re-Store for only ten dollars -love it.

I was also able to tuck my iron chair into the corner - I'm a creature of habit and need it to hold my 'travel' and training bags... and permission has not been given to hang things on the wall - 

hoping my bulletin board will get approval!

Things are different [louder {more people}, no covered parking, longer walk, etc.] but 

all-in-all the brand newness of it is pretty wonderful.

 One of Craig's friends brought us some hay bales from his work 

[used to test rocket motors or something like that, I think] 

so we picked up some pumpkins at the road-side stand 

and set the stage for the fall decor to begin...

I like to have 'general' fall stuff so it can stay out through Thanksgiving. [FYI- our house numbers are so wonky on our street, seriously -- even and odd on the same side of the street, skipping numbers, etc. - we need all the identification we can get - ha.] 

 But I do have a bit of Halloween that I pull out for a few weeks - most of this is from last year [or the year before --], but I couldn't resist the giant candycorn at Target for $2.50  last week - 

and I added glittered book paper to the top for a little different look...

 Y'all know we sold our camper back in July, right? Well, we decided to go camping this weekend - old school IN TENTS. Yes. When Craig called to reserve our spot 

there was only PRIMITIVE left - no water, no electricity...

We went to Oak Mountain and Haley, Drew, Stephanie, and Matt joined us. 

LOVED having time together - with no expectations other than to just be.

 Enjoyed time at the Botanical Gardens...

 A little art-journaling [although, I'm pretty sure they just call it 'sketching'] ...

 and hammock reading ...

 along with sitting around the camp-fire

made for a great weekend!

I brought along some battery operated LED lights to hang on our tents so they could be seen in the dark - and we had awesome LED lanterns to share with everyone.

 The kids had planned to sleep in hammocks [it's all the rage these days -] but a thunder storm around 9:00 pushed us all into the tents... after an hour or so of reading time, it was 'lights-out' [gotta love our battery operated kindles / nooks.]

 And with our blow-up mattresses I slept pretty well - in between the 11:00 bathroom call... and 2 a.m. coyote scurrying [oops, loping] behind our tents... 

and the 4 a.m. hog rooting session... it was a nice night.

Not too cold thanks to my 20* bag - Emma slept underneath the covers by my side the entire night [when she wasn't alerting me to the before-mentioned happenings.]

Cooking and eating outdoors is always fun - and thanks to Craig's handy camp stove we were able to have chili for supper, toad-in-the-hole for breakfast, and hobo meals for lunch - 

always DELISH.

[Just put ground turkey or beef in a pocket of  [double-wrapped} foil with {thinly} sliced potatoes, baby carrots, and sliced onions  

and throw it on the camp-fire coals for about 40 minutes, turning once.]

In between there was some hiking, some card-playing, and some photo taking --

I can't say it enough - I LOVE having us all together, if even for just a bit..

and while I'll admit that it'd be hard for me to do a week of tent camping 

- a couple of nights can be fun...