Value In Taking Time Off

So this little thing called “finding a balance in life” has been a particular challenge for me. Something I’ve blogged about a time or 50. Why my automatic reaction to taking time off/having fun is guilt and “ay caramba, I could be doing so many more useful things with my time!’? Who knows. One thing I do know is that I’m working on it. So there we go. Go me.

So anyway, on this note…. dun dun dun dunnnn…we carved pumpkins this past weekend! And I totally did not feel guilty or stressed that I wasn’t being “more productive”. (ok, j/k that’s a lie, but at least I recognize it…that’s the first step!).

Because of the crazy Texas drought, we unfortunately don’t have the luscious pumpkins patches that can be found in the Pacific NW. Boo! On a happy note – we still have pumpkins – wooooo! Some photos of the festivities to follow.

I don’t want to think about how many other people have put that mask on their face:

Homemade potpourri: orange peels, cloves, cinnamon sticks

Pumpkins:

I chose to follow the traditional pumpkin carving practice of using a knife:

David chose to use power tools:

Tada:

Oh, Hello

View of downtown Austin during an early morning walk:

This dentist’s name is Eugene Chip Silvertooth. I have to assume this is his stage name:

What?

I made a delicious sandwich. I think the brown sugar balsamic vinaigrette made the ‘wich so tasty: Banana nut muffins:

Salsa dancing at Central Market:

Hillside theater put on Footloose this year. Made me miss having free time because I’d love to get back into stuff like this:

Photos From The Archives

From May, 2011:

Fairly confident it’s going to be a crazy hot summer. Not even June, and we’re already just shy of 100s:

Attended yoga this morning. It’s taught every Saturday morning at Barton Springs. Outdoor yoga is such a wonderful start to the weekend:

After yoga, went to Hill’s Cafe – what I would consider a very “Austin” place…well…a very South Austin place. Had the sweet tea and surprise surprise….a burger! This one was pretty good – the bun made it distinct…tasted almost like Hawaiian bread:

Fast foward through the rest of the day to this beautiful Texas sunset:

Made delicious hand-made gyros for dinner, followed by hand-made fruit tart (sans butter). So good:

Hot Air Balloons

The morning began at 4 am, heading out the door by 5. “Why so early on a Saturday morning?”, you might ask. Answer: The 21st Annual Lake Travis Hot Air Balloon Flight! I still haven’t put my finger on my affinity for hot air balloons…but I do love them, so I was really looking forward to this event.

On our way to Lake Travis, a beacon of light in a darkened strip mall caught my eye. The light was a neon sign and the sign read “Donut Taco Palace I”. Now let me just say, I’m really not a processed sugars, hydrogenated oil, deep-fried food type of girl. However…Sat morning rolled around & I felt an overwhelming need to stop at Donut Taco Palace I.

 Unfortunately, self control wasn’t on the menu.

Fortunately, this donut was & it was a delicious decision:

Moving on…

After a short 30 min. drive to Lake Travis, we arrived! Here’s a view of the sunrise over Lake Travis:

Mansfield dam:

Starting to fire up the balloons!

The first balloon taking flight:

Thrillerfest

First off…yes, I realize this happened last Oct. However, I also realize that I never blogged about it. Oops. It was too good of an event to not write about. So here we go:

Thrillerfest happened. Loved it. Love that it happens throughout the entire world. Love that it happens here in Austin, another thing to make the city great. It brings out alllll sorts of people, zombies children, to zombie teens, to zombie moms to zombie older adults. And they all looked awesome. And they all danced it up.

Here’s a portion of a video Alamo put together, I am in it, can you find me?

I took this video during the rehearsal prior to the actual dance!

Here are some *awesome photos of the event:

*Photo credit to Austin360 & NoNo Joe on Flickr. They take great pictures, check them out.