I’ve been hanging out with my cat in the back yard a lot lately. I figure I should soak up as much of that evening sunshine as I can before the rain starts to pour in. It’s always fun to grab my camera and follow Felix around the yard, seeing where his favorite hang out spots are.

After an obligatory post-class unwinding, I spent the rest of the day– from about 1 until 8– holed up in my room, guzzling soda pop and working on my drawing portfolio, which is up for review tomorrow evening. I’ve missed a few classes and had to make up some assignments, as well as finish work I never finished in class.

I’m still not done, though, despite my tenacity. I have one alternative medium drawing to do (suggestions? My first was in colored thread) and a few 10-minute drawings left, but everything is coming together; I think I’m looking at a solid B here. I’d love an A, but I just don’t have the energy to actually work for it (the scary truth of senioritis!).

Anyway, I meant this post to talk about how amazed I am by what I can accomplish just from getting off the internet for one day. I finished my watercolor of Felix and did an awesome* gouache of a Buddha statue I took a picture of at Rigdzin Ling last year. This is my first time seriously working with both of these mediums, so I was pretty excited by the results.

Imagine what I could do if I spent this much time off the computer every day. But we all know that’ll never happen– not as long as I have a digital camera, anyway!

On a side note, I listened to a lot of music while working on my portfolio today (natch). I mostly just turned one thing on and let iTunes do its thing. I’m currently on round 2 of Nas, though, and I’ll be damned if I’m not enjoying it. Every time I listen to this album, I’m blown away again and again. Highly recommended!

* Awesome for me. I know to any seasoned painter these are pretty shabby, but I like to think it’s a good start! :)

Somehow over the last week I became convinced that I need to stop eating and acquire these items. The only thing that bothers me is whether the reindeer vest would look better in black or red, which is apparently a profound enough question to keep me and my bank card at bay… For now…

Until that glorious moment, I’ll be sitting at my desk, writing papers and rolling all the change in sight!

I couldn’t help but dedicate a post to all the unique looking squash we saw at the pumpkin patch the other day. I found it a tad suspicious that the majority of the pumpkins that had been smashed open were right next to the walking path; someone was getting crazy on those hayrides!

The little market they had open for business was so cute with such a fun variety of cheap-as-free squash coming in all shapes, sizes and color, some of which I’d never seen before (like the turban squash, how cool is that?!).

Yesterday the whole house drove out to Blue Lake to visit a local pumpkin patch! I must’ve been in the 3rd or 4th grade the last time I visited one, so needless to say I had a ton of fun. The farm was huge, but it didn’t take us long at all to find our picks. Pictured above is me, Katie and Jamie with our choice pumpkins.

We got to enjoy a bumpy hay ride there and back, full of pumpkin-smuggling hobbits. There was also a corn maze, but it cost $5 per person and from the hay ride I could only spot two sunflowers that didn’t look like they had given up on life. Definitely not the most exciting looking corn maze!

When we came home most everyone enjoyed a hot cup of tea while watching a baseball game on TV. All in all, a perfect autumn day.

Lots ‘n’ lots more photos from the exciting day on Flickr.