End of September Blues...

September's almost over already!  Where it went is anybody's guess -- the following things can only have added to it:

- New Job!  I got a new job in youth services (!), at another library.  This is very exciting to me since it's basically the next step in my professional development, but I'm still getting used to the hours.  It's an exhausting change that has left my head spinning, a little bit! Needless to say, this has been at the forefront of my mind lately, and crafting and blogging have sadly had to take a backseat for the moment.

- Fall Activity Extravaganza!  When not busy being exhausted, I have been throwing myself at autumn with everything I have.  Apple picking, hiking, pumpkin-themed foods... this year I'm determined to do it all! 

Apples!  That I picked myself!  Off of a tree!  And they were all, without exception, somehow amazing.

- Time Spent With Friends is Time Well Spent.  Enough said, but somehow it always seems like too much time passes between spending time with good friends.

In a way, this time of year leaves me feeling down -- summer's over, and that means that winter is on the way. But fall... fall is just the best.  It's my favorite season, my favorite time of year, with my favorite activities and tastes and holidays.  At the same time, it's only a matter of time before fall is over again, and winter comes. That's always in the back of my mind, and it seems to add a sense of melancholy to everything. It's important to just enjoy everything while I can!

Weekend Wrap-Up: Long Weekend Love

Happy Labor Day, and happy Monday! This long weekend was a bit of a whirlwind -- it's nice to have a chance to get my head together every once in a while. I'm starting in a new position soon and am very excited about it.  But any new position means new stresses; change itself is stressful, sometimes, even good, awesome change.

The first stop of the weekend was Barnes & Noble for a few hours, where I indulged my magazine-lovin' side with the new Vogue and Games magazine.  I love doing puzzles, it's such a good way to de-stress and take some time to myself to think.  I've also been reading Jillian Larkin's third flapper novel, Diva, which I picked up at the library late last week. This series is so much glamorous YA 1920s fun -- I hope that this one brings things to a fabulous conclusion! 

Yesterday my friends and I took a day trip to Green Lane Park to go hiking.  It was damp and a little rainy, and we found a ton of really interesting mushrooms and fungi -- really productive, and I got a lot of satisfying photos!  Going on mushrooming photo walks is such a good way to find inspiration. I'm really terrible at identifying, but love the huge diversity of shapes and colors that can be found in even just a small area of the woods. 

Thirty Days of Lists

This September I've decided to try my hand at participating in Thirty Days of Lists, a very cool creative project run by two inspiring bloggy ladies, Amy of Lemon and Raspberry and Kam of Campfire Chic. The basic idea of the 30 Lists project is to complete a list every day during the month of September in whatever format you want -- scrapbook, digitally, in as much or as little time as you'd like!  

I'm a huge lister (fan of lists? list-maker?), and the idea of this project was so enthralling that I just had to sign up. It's so awesome to see all of these interesting, creative people joining together around the simple art of listing and I'm excited to see what everyone comes up with this September. 

I was thinking about doing the project digitally, and still might use Photoshop to play around with my physical lists. Instead, though, I've decided to challenge myself and start with blank index cards.  I have a bunch of paper crafting supplies, and hope to combine these and illustration to make each list and card fun and unique. I'm going to house them in this cute little box that I bought at Staples so that the project seems complete and has a place to live after the month is over :)

I started simple, making a cute insert for the card box out of things from my It's Paper, Dear! August box, which was filled to the brim with super cute paper bits -- I hope to post a full review soon!

If you're interested in listing along, make sure to go check out the project's website, 30 Days of Lists!
 

How do you use lists in your daily life? Are you joining in on 30 Days of Lists?