It has been a slightly busy week! Ben & I are getting ready for his parents to come visit this weekend and I have been trying to finish up a project. I decided to take part in my first ever craft swap this month, it is a notecard swap and so I had to make 5 notecards to be sent out to various people. Here is what I made…. (sorry the picture is terrible, but it is dark and gloomy outside today, and I needed to get these mailed).

Since the cards are going to be divided up and given to different people, I figured it was safe to share. I had a little bit of a mental block on what to make them like, but finally came up with 5 cards that I am fairly happy with. My favorite is probably the card on the bottom right with the kitty.

I have not been walking as much as I would like to this week, I had to take a little break due to the terrible blister I got on my foot. I even had to skip my horseback riding class because it was too painful to try to get my boots on! I should hopefully be back in the routine of things this next week though:)

Seeing as I have a million things to get done, I probably should go do those things… I will probably be back to posting on either Sunday or Monday. Ben & I are planning on taking a walk to a nearby park this weekend where I hear the picture taking is pretty wonderful. (I am seriously thinking about upgrading to a DSLR camera sometime in the future, so that said picture taking could be a little more wonderful:)

Does it ever feel like there are not enough hours in the day? I kind of feel that way right now…

I took a walk today, which was probably not the best idea in the world. I have blisters on my feet from some shoes I wore the other day (which have never given me blisters before!) I thought my feet would be okay though, since I was wearing good tennis shoes on my walk, but I think I walked a little too far. Maybe I will give my feet a rest tomorrow.

Pictures from my walk today…..

Guess what I got in the mail today? My rainboots finally:) They are cute and seem to be pretty comfy too, which is definitely a good thing. Here they are along with Pounce who did not want to leave them alone!

Now I need to go get some stuff done!

Funny story… Yesterday I went to mail out a package and I happened to write the address down wrong. I didn’t realize this until about 2 hours later though, but I called the post office anyways to see if it could be fixed. The person on the phone said that the mail was going out in less than a half hour, but if I rushed there I might be able to change it. So I went straight to the post office, where the person at the counter looked at me quite oddly, but proceeded to find the package for me and change the address on it! Pretty amazing and kind of funny that I was actually able to fix it:)

I ordered some rain boots, since we have been having a lot of rain around here and it is going to continue. I want to be able to continue walking everyday and this way the rain won’t stop me:) Unfortunately, they have not yet gotten here in time for the rainy weekend we are supposed to have….

Pictures were taken during the walk I took with Ben after he got off work today. Does anyone know what those yellow flowers are? I like them since they seem cheerful and would love to be able to write down the name of them for the future, when I have a nice big garden:) Oh and as always, pictures are clickable.

Jojo!!! (Which is pretty funny, since she just had a post on her blog about how lucky she has been lately at giveaways:) Thank you to everyone else who either commented or emailed! Jojo I can’t seem to find your email address on your blog, would you mind emailing me with your mailing address? Thanks!)

I finally got the rest of my fabric in the mail yesterday after the long delay due to an emergency beyond UPS’ control. (I still would love to know what that emergency consisted of!)

The cherry fabric is a cotton jersey knit, which feels absolutely wonderful. I think it may end up being a pair of pj pants. The rest I am not sure what I am going to do with exactly. Although I have been thinking about redoing my living room a little and the second to the right fabric might just make a nice pair of bright couch pillows!

Because the weather was so nice outside today, I took a nice long walk. I ended up walking for a little over 3 miles and actually got to see some neighborhoods that I had never seen before. I also took a ton of pictures. These are a few of my favorites!

I found another cute, little camper just like the other one I have seen on my walks! This one is just a different color.

Is it a bad sign when the biggest, fanciest houses in your city have been turned into funeral homes?

Church tower against the blue sky.

Christmas decorations forgotten….

I love the brick streets found throughout my neighborhood. It is probably one of my favorite things about where I live.

Some of the other stuff I did today…. Worked on that purse I have been wanting to make for awhile. The pattern is slightly confusing, but I like the idea of starting from a pattern instead of making my own purse design (which is what I have always done in the past).

Oh and of course I hung out with my cute kitties:)

Now I need to go, since Ben & I haven’t had dinner yet! Hope everyone has a great night:)

Yesterday evening I decided to do a little bit of sewing. Here are the results….

Some bookmarks, kleenex pouches, and keychains. The teal/brown set is going to my lil sister along with these adorable hedgehog post its.

I am going to keep one of the white w/pups on it bookmarks, but I think I will give the rest of that set away (set includes 1 kleenex pouch, 1 bookmark, and 1 keychain). So if you would like it, leave a comment here or email me at allaboutjunk (at) gmail (dot) com. You have until Wednesday night (around 7ish maybe) to leave a comment on this entry or email me, and then I will draw a name and email you if you won! :)

Oh, imagine my surprise to see on the cover of this months Real Simple the title “Walk your way to better health.” I have not read it yet, but am looking forward to especially since I have been walking every day for a few weeks now and don’t plan on stopping anytime soon:)

Yesterday some of the fabric that I order online arrived. I am loving the colors and patterns of these and can’t wait for the rest of what I ordered to arrive. I am thinking a sundress out of the animal print (inspired by a L.A.M.B. dress that I cannot afford:), maybe some purses, a summer top out of the gray fabric, and a skirt or dress out of the white/blue print on the far right.

Unfortunately one of my other fabric packages is sitting in a UPS center waiting to be delivered, but was delayed today due to emergency conditions out of UPS’s control. Hmm wonder what the emergency was? It can’t be the weather since I looked that up and where it is sitting the weather was sunny today.

Little bits of spring…

I saw these flowers yesterday on my walk, everything else still looks a little dreary except for these early signs of spring. The weather decided to be a little silly today and get cold (it is supposed to be cold the whole weekend), but next week it is supposed to warm up again. I think spring is really on its way and hopefully after this weekend we won’t have any more cold spells.

This little camper makes me happy everytime I walk past this house. I felt a little silly taking a picture (and was a little worried someone was going to come out and yell at me for taking pics), but am so glad I was able to get a picture of it. I just think it is adorable:)

Spring colors….

(Click on any picture for a larger view.)

Last night, Ben & I went on a date to see an orchestra play. It was a lot of fun to go see, even if the first piece wasn’t really the style we enjoy. It was actually a little too modern for both our tastes, we both enjoy classical music that is from an earlier time period. Whenever I go to something like this, I always miss my piano a little bit. We gave it away since I didn’t have any spare time at all to play it (the funny thing is that now I have lots of spare time:), still it is nice to have the space that it took up and I can always listen to classical music (after all, I am sure someday I will have another piano, plus it went to a kid who could use it).

I have actually got in a bunch of sewing and knitting lately, which I have to say is pretty exciting. Today I worked on a purse, mostly just cutting out the pattern and fabric. It is actually the first purse I have used a pattern for and I had to call my mum for help in understanding the pattern. Thanks by the way! (Without her, I probably would have sat there not sure how to cut it out.) As soon as I have it done, I will take a picture of course. The other thing I have been working on is knitting my “this is taking forever” blanket. I am almost done with one stripe, which means I will finally get to work with a different color yarn pretty soon! Pathetic that it has taken me this long though:)

You would think that I already knew it is impossible to go into the fabric store for just one little thing. If you go in to buy thread or something else little, you will usually walk out with maybe a pattern or two, some fabric that you just couldn’t resist, and if you are lucky you will actually remember why you went in the first place and get the little thing you needed.

I just couldn’t resist the London fabric that I found, it was even on sale! I just got 1 yard since I have no idea what I am going to use it for (any ideas?), but when I saw it I just had to have some. The underground symbol on the fabric is probably the best part of it, although I do love the whole print. Oh and I have been looking for a top pattern for the summer and I think this one just might be it (view B to be exact). The only thing I am not 100% about on the top pattern is that there are no ties on the back, but maybe it won’t need it (or I can add some if I don’t like how it looks without).

The weather here has been kind of weird all afternoon. It was gorgeous and sunny in the morning and temps have been in the mid70’s most of the day, but this afternoon it started to look like it was going to storm. It rained a tiny bit, but it still hasn’t really stormed. I hope this doesn’t mean we are in for tornado type of weather. Ick! I am terrified of tornadoes!

“The beautiful is everywhere; perhaps more in the arrangement of your saucepans on the white walls of your kitchen than in your eighteenth-century living room or in the official museums.” - Fernand Leger, painter

I actually knit a little on the “blanket that is taking forever” today. It is going to be purple and gray stripes eventually, but I don’t even have one full stripe done yet (granted it is a pretty wide stripe). Now if I could just work on this a little every couple of days I probably would have finished it, oh maybe a year ago:)

I cannot wait until my fabric arrives. I feel the need to make a sundress before I go out and buy one. I was pretty tempted today at Old Navy (and I don’t even shop there that often, I went with my friend Jes since she wanted some stuff there), but decided that it would be much better to make my own dress than buy one. I did order some fabric that I am planning on making into a sundress, still not sure what pattern I will use though.

Tonight at my horseback riding class we rode outdoors, which was pretty cool since it was warm (although it was pretty windy and got cold towards the end of class). We just rode in the outdoor arena, pretty much in a circle. However, we got to trot a ton this week and we did some barrel racing exercises. My horse decided to be a slight stinker this week and put up a little fuss a few times about trotting, but other than that he is a sweetheart and a great horse to ride. I love getting to ride, it really is a wonderful experience!

Apparently daylight savings combined with the influence of caffeine yesterday has completely thrown my sleeping schedule off! It is 2am right now and I am totally not tired. It didn’t help matters either that I had caffeine yesterday afternoon, which made falling asleep last night difficult and of course that meant I slept in a little this morning. So now I am paying for it by being wide awake, even though I know I have to get up earlier tomorrow (actually technically, today).

So I thought, since I was still awake I would post some pictures that I took today of Pounce and Axel.

I love these shots of them. It is so rare to be able to get good pictures of them, since they move around a ton and my camera doesn’t take pictures very quick. This was just a perfect photo opportunity with the nice sunlight that we finally have and the two of them relaxing in it.

I have still been walking every day, in fact today I took two walks:) However, it is still muddy and dull looking outside, even though the temps were in the 60’s today and are supposed to be in the 70’s tomorrow. I keep seeing pictures of spring all over the place and wish it would hurry up and start looking like it around here!

Still haven’t worked on the anniversary gift for Ben (even though today was our anniversary). Hopefully I will get going on that tomorrow or Wednesday! I definitely am planning on it at least:)

Today was warm and sunny, so Ben & I decided to go to a nearby park for some hiking. We took at least a 4-mile walk through the woods (and mud). We saw an owl in a tree, some little creature (maybe a muskrat?) swimming, and also a white-tailed deer that was only a few feet from us. The deer actually really startled me, it had been hiding in some brush and when we got closer it jumped up and ran away. Very cool though, that is the closest that I have ever been to a real live deer out in the wild! (I just wish I could have gotten a picture, but the deer really startled me and I didn’t have time to grab the camera. Oh well! At least I have the memory.)

I love pictures of the clear, blue sky on days like today. It looks so fresh and wonderful, spring is definitely on its way!

The trail followed along the river for awhile and at times crossed over it with little cement bridges that looked like no one except the wildlife really used the bridges.

There are gardens at this park, and some sculptures. This is one that we had actually never seen before and the lane up to it was pretty (although muddy too).

Our feet full of mud:) Actually, this picture doesn’t give you any idea of how muddy our feet got!

The park also has a conference center in an old house. Hmm… wouldn’t you love to be able to have a house like this! We played a game of what we would use all the rooms for and I don’t think I would actually be able to use them all up:)

The house overlooks a pond, which is still frozen over.

Just taking a short break from all that walking…

On our way out of the park…. one last glimpse of the house (which I actually made us walk around in order to get this picture).

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Saturday evening!

As always, click on the pictures for a larger view of each picture.