An Instagram Giveway - HOORAY!

Hi there. How are you?
My 2015 Calendars have gone over so well this year. Thank you for that! I just have a handful of them lest so I decided to give one away. Yippee!

I'm running this giveaway exclusively through Instagram. All you need to do is follow me on Instagram,  repost this photo on your own Instagram account, and tag it with #FREEBIRDS2015. I'll choose the winner at 9PM Central time on Tuesday, January 20th. Good Luck!

If you'd rather not leave it up to chance, you can purchase a calendar in my Etsy shoppe. Do hurry....Supplies are extremely limited! 

Ta-Ta for now!

Snowed In

Winter weather was out in full force again this weekend.

While on our way up to Rockford to visit my stepson Jack, we got caught in a white out. 

There was a few hours of white knuckled driving. Not fun! 

We intended to take the 6 hour drive back home to Carbondale on Monday,

 but got caught in a blizzard and had to say an extra night.

Despite the crap-tastic weather, we still managed to have a nice visit with Jack and the rest of our family. 

We celebrated my cousin's 21st birthday with a Sunday morning breakfast. 

Instead of taking a picture of my fam, I took snap of this cool sign. 

Sorry family.

I got to see my 92 year old grandmother. (Again, no picture.) 

While I was at her apartment I came across her great collection of icons. This one is my fave.

  Jack has been drawing again and allowed me to share a couple of his faves here.

 

 I was able to work on this red-belied woodpecker. He's just about done.

Now we're home and about to go enjoy a walk in 60 degree weather. Yahoo!  

Hope you have a great week. Ta-Ta for now! 

Weekly iPhoneography

Hi There. How are you?

 Not much to say today.... Here is my week in photos.

I got some more good snaps on my workday walkabout. 

  

I stopped to visit my friend Heather's roosters along the way. 

 

We went up to Rockford this weekend to visit Jack. 

He's at the age where he hates when I take his picture, so this is the only one I got. 

Aren't Matt and Jack twinish?

 We spent some time shopping local in downtown Rockford. 

If you live in Rockford and haven't been to the Rockford Art Deli, you're missing out! 

It's an awesome space and you'll enjoy their humorous Rockford themed t-shirts.

I'm obsessed with the late afternoon autumn light these days. 

Matt and I are catching the train down to New Orleans tonight. Expect some great snaps next week. Happy Thanksgiving!

P.S. I'm have a stupid big Black Friday Sale. Read about it on the blog later today or tomorrow! 

Ta-Ta

Another iPhoto weekend

Expect to see this chair make an appearance in my work!

Hi there? How was the weekend?

We had another stellar Southern Illinois weekend. 

Beautiful weather, good food, fun times with friends and great live music. 

 Here is my weekend in pictures.

Hobo Knife at Vulture Fest in Makanda, Illinois

The door to our friend Hugh's house in Makanda. 

Hugh lives above the boardwalk in the center of downtown Makanda.

A charming little vignette in Hugh's apartment

We capped Saturday night off with a martini garnished with Mexican style picked vegetables homemade by Matt. Yum!

 

Have a great week friends. Ta-Ta. 

P.S. Have you read yesterday's blog post? There's a DISCOUNT CODE! Woo!

Weekend iPhoneography

Hi! How was your weekend?

This was the first weekend in ages that we got to stay home and do some more Southern Illinois exploring. As always, I documented our weekend with my trusty iPhone.

On Friday, we tried out a Thai restaurant we'd never been to (yum!), heard some excellent live music at the Carbondale Friday Night Fair, and had a nightcap at Walker's Bluff (the new tasting room is awesome!)

We found this awesome looking caterpillar munching away on our tomato plant.  It's amazing how well camouflaged it was amongst the leaves!

We did a little walking in downtown Carbondale on Saturday.  Trains still run right through downtown. We got caught by this one for a time.

The weather this weekend was incredible! We took advantage of it and did some hiking in the state park. 

I tried out the new panorama feature that came along with the recent iPhone iOS 6 update. 

I'm just enamored with autumn light. It has such a distinct, crisp quality at this time of year.

Lastly, we cooked! (Man, my oven needs cleaning! Ick!) Matt made homemade biscuits complete with lard and bacon drippings. (Yum!) I tried out 2 Pinterest recipes. Crockpot Apple Pie Oatmeal for breakfast and turkey sausage, kale and bean soup for dinner. (Double yum!)

How was your weekend? Do share!

A Beautiful Day in the Neighbohood.

Well Hi! It's been a while....

I just can't get over the weather we've had in Southern Illinois this week. It was bright, sunny and 70 degrees yesterday! I have to keep reminding myself that it's February.

Matt and I decided to make use of the spring like conditions to explore the tiny, old cemetery that sits just across the street from our house.

This is a really old cemetery......Many of the stones marked 19th century graves, with only a handful from beyond 1970.

This was one of two stones labeled "infant".

All of these were taken with my trusty iPhone 4s. I am continually amazed by the quality of the camera on that phone. I have to admit that my digital SLR barely gets any action these days as it's just too convenient to use my iPhone.

Have a happy weekend friends. Expect some new art up on the blog soon!

Ta-Ta.