Pumpkin Hunting Weekend

Happy Monday Readers! I hope everyone had a great weekend?

I went pumpkin hunting with my sister Becky and the Lil' Bro. Here are some pictures we took.

At the pumpkin farm:

Typical Midwestern fall weather:

Pumpkin in progress:

GUTS!:

The finished product:
In case you can't tell, I'm really excited for halloween. How about you?
*Crappy Blackberry pictures courtesy of my sister. One day, I will own a real camera. Please do not use without permission.

Family Photo Time

I've always had a thing for old family photos. When I was little I would stay with my grandma on weekends and I could spend ages looking through her old photo albums. The best part of inheriting my grandpa's old computer was getting all the family photos he'd scanned into it. These ones of my dad and his sisters when they were little are my favorites.

The bottom photo is my grandparents in California right after they got married- don't they look cute?

Have a good day everyone! I'm off to go work my butt off in class and the lab :)

All images in this post are mine.

The Daily Puppy!

It's a little bit late for posting but I just had to share this one. A friend from work showed me this website where you can check out daily pictures of adorable puppies. That's right, a whole website devoted to adorable puppies. Isn't that genius? There are also lots of articles on puppies and their care but honestly, I just like the adorableness.

Now we just need a daily kitten and a daily panda and I'll be all set.

Edit: Turns out there is a daily kitten, which you can check out here. No word on a daily panda yet, but I'll keep an eye out :)

Image via The Daily Puppy.

More Chicago!

On Saturday I shared my Navy Pier pictures, but here's the rest of Chicago, or at least what I got to see when I wasn't at the conference.

We stayed at the Palmer House, which was over-the-top gorgeous...
Had amazing deep dish pizza at Giordano's...
And spent some time walking around Millenium Park...
and Grant Park.
On Friday we took a walk around the city, and I took pictures of buildings...

and signs...

(We should all ride bikes like this)

And some nice political street art.

I also got some delicious Shepard's Pie at the Elephant and Castle...
and chilled with Bob Newhart outside Navy Pier.
Overall it was a great time, though I am glad to be back home now. And of course I'm excited to get caught up on all the blog reading I missed while I was away!

Don't forget to check out my Navy Pier pictures below if you haven't already.

How was your weekend?

All images in this post are mine, please use only with permission.

Saturday Night Special: Navy Pier

I just got back from Chicago, and it was just as wonderful as I'd expected and then some. I didn't have a ton of free time outside of my conference to spend in the city, but I did get to wander around Navy Pier on Friday night, which was really nice. There's something about a pier near that great big lake that makes me feel so relaxed.

I'm pretty tired so I'll defer telling all about my trip until a later date, but I just couldn't help sharing some of my Navy Pier pictures with you all. It is really nice there, so keep in mind that I and my dinky cellphone camera could barely do it justice.

PS: Sorry I disappeared for two days while I was in Chi-town. Turns out internet at the Hilton is ridiculously expensive. I love you all, but I'm not made of money. Glad to be back though!

All images in this post are mine, please use only with my permission.

Quirky Pictures Day!

(I'm totally late with the blog post today- it's been a crazy busy day and I have not been home since 7am. Oh, and did I mention it's snowing in Columbus? Yes, snowing. In April. Urgh.)

Every now and then I stumble across something that for whatever reason catches my fancy and think "gee, I should take a picture of that". Well now, thanks to cell phone cameras, I can. Here are a few of the quirky (and okay, somewhat random) pictures I've picked up over the past few years:

You read that right, elephant poo poo paper. That way when you have to write a letter to someone you don't like, you can send them a piece of poo at the same time.
Mind you obey that last half-MPH. No going 13 MPH here!
Oh, just 50 lbs of Swiss cheese. You know, in case you get hungry. Or if you're not that hungry, it doubles as furniture.
When I first saw this car, I assumed it must be one of those advertisement vehicles, but there was no logo on it or anything. Apparently someone just really liked cows.
Pineapple turkey, courtesy of Hil's mom, every Thanksgiving.

Anybody else take pictures of random quirky things, or am I just an oddball?

Photos in this post are all my own. Excuse the horrible picture quality- we're working with a cell phone camera here.

100th Blog Post!

One Happy Panda has officially reached 100 blog posts! I thought it called for a little celebration, and some nostalgia...

Some things you may or may not have seen already:
The spending hiatus.
The classic Chewbacca hair moment
and then I chop my hair off
and smear honey all over my face
and make scrubs with other food type things.
I take pictures of gorillas
and then force myself to sleep (zzz).

Here's toward making it 1,000! :)

PS: I'm playing with the template and colors of the blog, and feedback is much appreciated, especially if anything is difficult to read or see.

Balloon image via Pink Sherbet Photography (flickr)

Virtual Zoo Tour: The Gorillas

Gorillas are probably one of the coolest animals to visit when you're at the zoo. I love going to the Columbus zoo indoor gorilla exhibit- the way it's set up, you walk into the middle of the gorilla house and the exhibit is all around the walls, so it's like you're there in the middle of them, separated only by some (very thick) glass. If you watch gorillas long enough, you start to realize that they look and act a lot like us.

The top gorilla photo is of a little guy I like to call Bubbles. He'll hang off the side of the gorilla exhibit and make faces at the people outside. If you pull a goofy face at him he'll even blow you some spit bubbles. Charming, right?

The other three photos are ones I took at the indoor exhibit because I thought it was cool how their facial expressions were so similar to ours. From the top: wistful, grumpy, and goofy. And these are only a few of the gorilla photos I've gotten over the past year.

Anybody else see the "humanness" in the photos? Got a favorite zoo animal to visit?

All gorilla images are mine.

Design Idea: Framed Magazine Clippings

I loved this idea from Apartment Therapy: clip out magazine photos that inspire you and frame them for inexpensive art. I already have a huge collection of magazine ads and pictures that I just fell in love with and I wanted to make an inspiration board with them, but I balked at the idea because I felt it would make my place look too cluttered (a huge problem in my tiny apartment). But with this, I could arrange a collection of pictures in different frames and it's like an inspiration board/art display. It's such a simple idea, I can't believe I didn't think of it before.

Has anybody else made an inspiration board before? Or am I the only one out there who collects magazine photos I like?

Valentines Day Flowers

Today I stumbled across Susannah Conway, a photographer featured on Bliss, and was captivated by her beautiful images of the world around her. I especially loved these two photos of flowers: "Solitude" (above) and "Sunshine" (below). Wouldn't they make a perfect Valentines Day gift?

It's like getting your sweetie flowers without having to pay the ridiculous florist shop prices (twice as much money for the same flowers just because it's Valentines Day? I think not!).

Images belong to Susannah Conway, and you can see more on her etsy shop Unravelling