In February in Chicago, lots of local attractions, mostly museums, are open for free to Illinois residents. John and I liked going to the Brookfield Zoo so much we went twice. The second time we went we took John's brother Michael along. Besides all of the amazing animals that visitors can view, dotted all around the zoo are vintage novelty machines that create small blow-mold animal figures from a machine called a Mold-a-rama. Recalling my childhood, I really wanted to relive the exciting moment of watch my animal get molded from plastic. I picked out an American bison and John got a polar bear. There are several machines around the Brookfield Zoo, which is rare in comparison nationally.
The zoo had many great animal attractions that were divided by the type of habitat and animal. One of my favorite sections was the primate section, which had a series of large cavernous rooms, that actually "rained" in the rainforest (overhead sprinklers), and featured huge trees with ropes for the monkeys, apes, and chimpanzees to use. We had an excellent time at the Brookfield Zoo and I hope to visit again in the future.
This year for Halloween I put out some old and new finds in our apartment. I have finally invested in some vintage hard plastic pumpkins and I definitely hope to grow my collection (they're on the top shelf and are the two smallest pumpkins shown). The largest pumpkin is new (as in not vintage), but I got it in Portland two years ago. When John and I were preparing to move, I was willing to sacrifice it (give it away) to save space in moving, but John insisted I keep it. I really love it and I kind of obsessed about getting it and it definitely gets people talking when they see it.
I found a really fantastic antique urn I've been searching for on ebay on-and-off for several years. And it was a good deal! I cut some random weeds in our alleyway and I think it looks very autumnal and a little bit creepy.
I somehow divided up my Halloween decorations into colored groups by orange and black and black and white. The small witch silhouette (pictured below) was for supposed to be enlarged for a yard decoration, but I kept it small. Also, our beloved (stuffed) corgi Cornwall has been getting cold recently so he's bundled up to stay warm. And finally, I've been very eager bake and decorate sugar cookies. I think my attempt at frosting cookies this year turned out well enough.
Have a very Happy (and scary) Halloween!
