So, I did a thing … I splurged on a DSLR!

Get the post title now? … a new lens? Ha! Don’t worry, I’ll wait for you to stop laughing at my stupidly corny joke before I continue the post.

Kidding aside, I’m super excited about my new tech toy! In an effort to both save money and reduce tech waste, I purchased a refurbished model directly from Canon, an EOS Rebel T6i to be specific.

I’m a bit of a photo hound anyway, and I really want to improve my food photography skills, so I decided it was worth the investment. My shiny new toy arrived last Thursday, and I’ve had fun learning to use it since then.

I’ll be curious if any of you notice a difference in my photos even throughout this post, since half the photos are iPhone and half are DSLR.

On Friday evening after work, Dear Husband and I went out for pizza and then walked around a shopping area nearby. We strolled through Best Buy, where I looked at laptops, since my current laptop is literally going on seven years old and won’t hold a charge.

We then took a walk through a place where I cannot be trusted: a craft store. You’ll be pleased to learn I left having only spent $20! While there we were informed that, whilst it is still mid-October and 80+ degrees here every day, it’s apparently already Christmas….

I also fell in love with this adorable pink typewriter!

After the craft store, we popped over to another establishment where I cannot be left unsupervised with money: a bookstore. 😉

I always have such a tough time deciding what should be on my TBR list, especially since I get easily enticed when I walk into a bookstore. (I settled for the moment on Elantris, which I shall review soon.)

I also bought a cute new notebook for random scribblings and such.

Friday’s sunset was also pretty amazing:

On Saturday I had a satisfying long run of 15 miles, although my knees were very sore the following day. Saturday night we went to one of my sister-in-law’s (sister’s-in-law?) house for a birthday bonfire. Nearly everyone in the family has their birthday in October or November (myself included!), so there will be a lot of birthday celebrations around now.

Sunday was Dear Husband’s birthday, so I got up early to make him breakfast in bed. I bravely attempted to come up with my own chocolate waffle recipe, but being out of eggs, it ended up rather disastrous. With enough sugar and butter, though, it was passable enough for him to eat. 😉

During the day, his dad took him to see the Titans play (and beat!) the Browns. Meanwhile, I went grocery shopping and swept, mopped, scrubbed, and all-around tidied up the house. Oh, a baking whim hit me, so I whipped up the homemade chia and flax pumpkin donuts I wrote about yesterday too!

That evening, we went downtown for dinner. One of our favorite spots for nicer evenings out is the Melting Pot, since we both love fondue. I brought my new camera with me and took snaps throughout the meal. Here are some of my favorites!

If you love fondue and haven’t tried the Melting Pot, I strongly recommend it!

Monday I was back to the grindstone at work, which if you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll know I’m pretty unhappy with for reasons I can’t fully discuss openly. None of my discontent has anything to do with my work itself — I love the content of what I do. It’s just that there have been some management changes and office changes that are severely getting in the way of me doing my actual work. Who knows though, maybe I’ll be able to post a positive update on the work situation soon, if you know what I mean. 😉

Meanwhile, I am bracing myself for what will surely be another ‘entertaining’ presidential debate tomorrow night. And by entertaining I of course mean an utter sh!tshow. For any of my readers who are Canadian, thank y’all so much for being such a sweet upstairs neighbor when mom and dad are fighting. 🙂

And now it’s Tuesday night and time for dinner — on the menu tonight is a new crock pot soup that I’m eager to post on Toast of Tuesday soon: easy chicken and wild rice soup.

Tell me, how has your week been?

Until next time,

xoxo Charlotte