update!

Obviously many things have happened since I've been absent from my blogging...

Pippa has been growing like a weed. I attempted to introduce her to Justin's dog Buck....

Notttt too successful. She is quite the maniac lately until night time when she likes to lay across my neck like a scarf and suffocate me. Both mine and Shawn's hands are covered in scratches from her attacks. To the point where I've had multiple random people ask me if I have a cat. Luckily I can say yes, but I keep thinking about what an awkward question that would be if I didn't...

Thinking back over October and what we've been up to, I can pretty much only think of one thing: Halloween. I don't believe I've ever done so many Halloween-related activities in my life. To start, Shawn worked in a haunted house for the month of October, which involved a daily dousing of fake blood and wearing of white-out eye contacts which all began to not even strike me as unusual around Day 10. 

Then came Zombie Crawl. Thousands of people dressed as zombies rambling around the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver. There were definitely some sights to see. And some sticky blood to be had, considering the fake stuff we made was mainly corn syrup. Oh yeah, that felt good :(

Sometime in the Halloween blur of October, we managed to carve what seemed like a thousand pumpkins:

Can you guess who is who?

Shawn did this one for work.

All that pumpkin meant that of course we had 2 rounds of toasted pumpkin seeds, a loaf of pumpkin bread, and are now in the process of making pumpkin soup to freeze for Thanksgiving :)

Speaking of Fall recipes.. I finally managed to make a tart with my tart pan I bought months ago... a scrumptious caramelized apple and onion tart with homemade rosemary crust. Deeelicious. I must apologize to my dear mother for hating her rosemary potatoes so much growing up because I now think it's one of my favorite flavors. Who knew?

You'd think with all this Halloween-ing we would've planned our costumes ahead of time.. but no. So basically at the last minute before we headed out to our apartment community get-together, I had the grand idea to be Goldilocks and Shawn would be a bear. Pretty much based solely on the fact that he was wearing big bear feet slippers and I have a blonde wig that I need to lower my PPW on (Price Per Wear, that is). So I whipped up this little ensemble and then got to work making Shawn into a bear.

This may have involved a brown pillowcase over his head with a cutout for his face. The two corners tied at the top to make ears. Let's just say he did not love, and thus, no pictures :( But he was a good sport and I was freezing. Very jealous of his brown snow pants and brown hoodie. The party was actually thrown by our apartment management company who owns a ton of properties around Denver. Two of our neighbor friends won $250 off rent and $500 off rent. We walked away with a $100 gift certificate. Not too shabby! For the record, it was a random drawing, not a costume contest :)

Aside from all that nonsense, I've been staying quite busy at the j-o-b's. Things are going very well at the Holiday Inn. There's been talk of putting me strictly in charge of the wedding business. Which sounds like a fantastic idea to me! I've also been working with Pink Posey here and there, which got me a little gig making a sign for a bride's ring bearer to carry down the aisle:

Still waiting to see the professional photos from that one, but I can't imagine how it was not the cutest thing ever. It also allowed me to decorate my first ice cake. Shawn actually helped with this one. The bough of flowers across the bottom was his lovely idea :)

Unfortunately, with all this working there haven't been many estate sale visits. Or perhaps it's the fact that our tiny apartment has reached capacity. This hasn't stopped Shawn from Craigslisting, however, and I am "proud" to say that we are now the "happy" owners of:

60 bottles of hot sauce from around the globe...

A cat condo larger than my own body...

A PS3 that is the reason I am undistracted enough to be writing this at the moment...

More fish and aquatic beings than I can even count...

And an iguana who basically came and went (i.e. got the boot) in one weekend. Luckily while he was here, it was necessary for us to acquire another ginormous tank so we have a home for the next "surprise" !!!

Needless to say, things are never dull. But it finally feels like we're getting into the groove of normal life for the most part, which is a nice change from the semi-chaos of the past few months. And to top it all off, there's a Jacksonville trip on the horizon! December 1-6 we'll be home to visit for the holidays. Can't wait!

busy busy busy

Who knew that working like a normal person would make me feel like a haggard middle aged woman... So to counteract that, I've been trying to make sure I actually still do things during the week (whether going out or staying in and crafting). Doesn't exactly help that I'm still working some with the catering place and these two months are Buffy's busiest with weddings. So when I am at home, I basically want to be a lump. Shawn will not have this.

Last weekend we were both off on Sunday so we decided to see what all the fuss was about and go tubing in Boulder Creek. We borrowed Robyn and Justin's tubes to minimize expenditures and headed north. Luckily, we had been warned that this was not the type of tubing we were used to in Florida.. You know, the Lazy River kind of floating in freezing water where you have a tube designated to hold the cooler. Yeah, the only thing similar was the freezing water. And I don't know why I would expect anything different from extreme-sports-central-Colorado. So after a quick stop at Wal-Mart for some $7 Aqua Socks..don't worry, I got the gray and purple Mary Jane style so mine are totally cool... we parked somewhere along the creek and started walking upstream. Along the way I was beginning to see what types of rocks and rapids we would soon be dealing with. Yikes.

I'm not gonna lie, there were some serious wipeouts. And the fact that there are people sitting along the banks all the way down just waiting for you to dump out of your tube is a bit intimidating. I definitely got stuck in an eddy at one point and was continuously going in a circle until I could finally pull myself out into the main flow. Luckily towards the beginning of our journey down, we encountered some tubes that had been abandoned by their previous owners. Shawn risked life and limb rescuing one from the base of a small waterfall and then swam across the raging rapids for the other one. My hero <3 These tubes were larger and thus much better at keeping your rump from bashing against the numerous rocks poised treacherously just below the surface. This may all sound rather dramatic, but I'm telling you, when we got out at the end, we were both just like "Whoa." It was quite fun but also pretty exhausting getting bumped and thrown around. We were tubed out.

So the next spot we hit, it being another glorious Colorado day and all, was the Boulder Reservoir. Apparently, no one in Colorado has ever been to the beach, because if they had, they would never accept this bo-bo imitation as a sufficient substitute. Very weird. A man made lake that seems to be somewhat in a desert-like area of the mountains with roped off swimming areas and floating plastic docks. Very commercialized. $6.25 a person to get in? Wack. Of course we had to do it, just because we drove all the way there and we'd never gone before. But never again. I did get sufficiently burnt and we did meet some weird people which is always entertaining, but for the most part, I feel we were jipped.

On another note, with not a whole lot of spare time, I have for some reason decided to take on one of the biggest projects ever. Pattern-painted curtains. I've been dreaming of the perfect curtains, yet knowing full well I will never want to spend the money I'll need to spend for the fabric or even find them at a reasonable price in the store. So after a bit of Googling and a trip to the thrift store, I ended up with two panels of sheer ivory curtains for $6 and a pattern of "Imperial Trellis" the size of three sheets of paper.

Needless to say, it is an extremely tedious process of tracing. Completed only due to the fact that Shawn was working all night so I had no distractions and mayyybe a bottle of wine. And I only managed to completely trace one panel.

But out of curiosity, I tested a small bit of paint on one of the bottom corners. I've decided on a slightly metallic gold, which was of course purchased with my Joann 50% off coupon. Unfortunately I am encountering some bleeding over my beautiful crisply traced lines that does not please me...

I'm off to do a bit of experimenting to hopefully get these things done before our next out-of-town visitor arrives. Sign up below if you'd like that lucky person to be you!

a new chair

Way back when we first got to Denver, we picked up our table and two miscellaneous chairs from the Craigslist free section. One of those chairs was this one:

Since that day long ago, I have been slowly plotting and pulling together the necessary items to give it a new life. I didn't mind the color the wood was painted, but it was pretty beat up and really needed a fresh coat. And the fabric, well, that's just hideous.

Step 1 was to remove all the fabric and layers of crazy batting and cushion. My original plan was to re-use the cushion but upon seeing it, I decided some less-than-20-year-old foam might be a better choice. Also, the seat part of the chair didn't have a hard base, but instead was supported by these crazy springs that stretched from the front to the back. Shawn helped me get those off (miraculously without losing an eye) and I started brainstorming on what to use to restructure it.

Step 2 was sanding. Sanding sanding sanding. Until it looked like this:

Sometime between steps 1 and 2, we ended up at an estate sale where the man had been a furniture upholsterer. What luck! And it was half-off day so I ended up getting some fabric for $2.50. Not my absolute favorite #1 choice ever for fabric, but considering this is my first attempt, I figured it would do.

Eventually, I ended up buying some high density foam from the craft store along with some extra stuffing to fill in any gaps. Probably the most expensive part of this whole project. I decided to just do a piece of plywood across the seat to serve as the base and kept my eyes peeled in the alleys and dumpsters for a while. After weeks of no luck, I thought perhaps I should just see how much a piece might cost from Lowe's. Even their smallest piece was more than I wanted to spend, but luckily I spotted the scraps next to the giant lumber cutting machine. I pulled out a piece of thick MDF that was close enough to the size I needed and asked a friendly Lowe's guy how much they would sell it for. "You can just have it," he replied. Music to my thrifty ears :)

So the only missing piece to the chair puzzle was the paint. I was wanting a glossy mahogany but didn't have any luck finding it in a quart size or even in spray paint. On a trip to Lowe's, Shawn found a quart of "oops" paint that, priced at $2.50, was surely close enough.

Then the long, often procrastinated, process of putting all the pieces together ensued. I had kept the old pieces of fabric to use as a pattern and discovered that the bolt I had bought had literally just enough cloth to replicate the pieces. Phew! The seat was cut to size thanks to the borrowed saw from the resident construction workers (turns out they are good for something...) And a couple of coats on the wood frame  had the chair looking fresher already. The paint color did turn out a bit more orange-y than I had originally wanted, but I'm considering adding a tinted glaze on top to give it a bit more gloss. One day. I also painted the blue table legs in the same color to pull them together somewhat. An estate sale staple gun came in handy for the actual upholstering, and I'm happy to say I think it came out rather well!

I must admit that the back is not fully finished, as I'm debating if I want to do visible nailheads or use the tiny ones that disappear for the last panel. Perhaps something will pop up and inspire me!

Here's one more before and after:

    

dumpster shelf

There's a space at the end of the kitchen counter that has just been begging for a shelf. And I've been begging for a place to put all my miscellaneous vases and candlesticks. As luck would have it, a quick peek by Shawn into the dumpster the other day offered the perfect solution. Well, almost perfect.

It was kind of a strange orange color but I'm thinking someone built it just for the exact spot I wanted it to go. So of course I decided to work with it. I busted out the black glossy paint and after a quick trip to Joann (not sure Shawn would call it quick, but...) we have a new (to us) and much improved shelf!

The fabric on the back is kind of a cobalt/royal purple with white flowers. Which I'm liking with my neutral-with-pops-of-color living room. This was also my first adventure with spray adhesive which worked well (not like the backs of the shelves are going to see much action) but sprayed a bit more unpredictably than I would have liked. A bit of black touch up was in order but now it's all set and stocked up with my little goodies :)

wow

Since I have quite a bit of free time on my hands, I decided to make Shawn a good ole fashioned Happy Birthday banner. He's holding up his membership card for the Denver Parks and Recreation Center I got him so he can get back into boxing. He has to go get his picture taken for it but for now I drew him a fantastic likeness.

Shawn's new job was kind enough to let him off Saturday for his birthday so we took advantage of the absolutely perfect weather and went up to the mountains. A nice 80 degree cloudless day for a hike. We packed some sandwiches and a bit of trail mix and set off for Rocky Mountain National Park. We were headed for the Emerald Lake trail which was pretty far in to the park. On the way up the slow winding roads we spotted some wildlife. Actually not sure what these are... elk?

We also spotted some patches of snow along the road and I secretly plotted a snowball ambush once we got out of the car. Oh how naive the little Floridians are. Upon reaching the trailhead, we realized we were the only ones in shorts and tank tops. Everyone else was wearing boots, pants, jackets, etc. But there were no clouds in the sky! The sun was warm! We put on some long sleeves that were hanging around in the car and decided to go for it.

As we cautiously walked to the beginning of the trail, trying to avoid the massive slush puddle that had formed there, we noticed some other wary hikers talking to the ranger. He was assuring them that they should still be able to hike, but to be careful because some spots would be slippery. At that moment a couple emerged from the trail wearing snow shoes and carrying ski poles. Ruh roh.

During the first attempt at taking that picture, Shawn yelled for me to watch out and I had to dodge out of the way of some downhill skiers who were swooping through. That's normal. Notice how deep into the snow the sign is buried..

It was only 1.8 miles to the lake and by about mile .2 I was DYING. Trudging through the snow was like running on the beach, only worse since you're using every muscle in your legs to stabilize you and keep from slipping. Then we'll just throw in the part where we're almost 10,000 ft about sea level. Wow. The snow is so deep in some spots that you sink up to your knee. I was having flashbacks to all those episodes of "I Shouldn't Be Alive" that I recently watched with my dad.

Meanwhile up ahead, Sherpa Shawn was bounding along, popping up to lookouts to get some amazing views.

He was of course also offering words of encouragement, "We're almost there!" "It's just around this turn!" Blah blah blah. All of a sudden, I shriek as my foot sinks in and literally my entire right leg is buried in the snow. I am doing a vertical split into the mountain. Not comfortable. After doing some very graceful writhing around I finally manage to twist myself up and out. By then, Shawn is by my side and looks down into the hole my body has formed in the snow. "Um, I think you actually fell into a tree." Yes, ladies and gentlemen, there is so much snow that I managed to walk myself right into a tree top.

After a brief rest and a good laugh about the absurdity of this whole situation, we continue on to the Emerald City Lake. We eventually reach a huge clearing that seems to in fact be a frozen lake (the lake?) but some passing hikers (outfitted in snowshoes) inform us that Emerald Lake is just a bit farther along. Trudging trudging trudging through the snow and slush. Our feet were soaked through. There miiiight have been a few episodes of me falling over into the snow and stating/whining/potentially crying that I simply could not go on. Slightly dramatic I'll admit.

I wish I could say that we finally made it to the lake and it was so glorious and beautiful that is was totally worth trudging through the frozen tundra. However we reached a point at the bottom of a basin which seemed to be a dead end. There didn't appear to be any other path from the basin except straight up where some guys had just snowboarded down. Needless to say, that wasn't happening. There were some giant boulders around that were not covered in snow and thus a perfect place to finally rest. So after some bananas and Clif bars we called it a day and trudged back. (Did I mention we got a box of Clif bars for 50 cents at an estate sale a few weeks back? Along with a can of soup and a box of cereal?) I will say the return trip was much more enjoyable since it was mostly downhill. This allowed us to practice our foot skiing which eventually turned into sledding downhill on our freezing bums. Quite fun if not a bit uncomfortable on the way home.

On the way out of the park we stopped to enjoy a little mountain stream and then headed for a pint and a snack.

All in all, a successful day. Shawn did point out that his birthdays with me so far have gotten us into some pretty interesting situations. Last year we went camping at a spring in central Florida and ended up on a day long canoe trip with about 300 of our closest spider friends. Wonder what I can cook up for next year..

We survived!

introducing...

Our newest rommates: Pesce and Poisson!

(pay-shuh and pweh-son)

They’re called Half Moon Bettas because their tail forms a semi circle when its fully flared. The crazy fish girl we bought them from had about 20 of them. She was originally just going to sell Poisson but she said they seem depressed when the other one isn’t around so she wanted to sell them as a pair. Okay. But then as Shawn pointed out later, when they flare at each other, it’s because they’re wanting to fight.. so technically they are actually arch enemies and not BFFs.. but we will keep that fact to ourselves. Also, they eat these little live worms which totally freak me out. So I will leave their feeding up to Shawn. I just hope he doesn’t “over love” them and cause them to die of obesity.

Other than the fish excitement, it’s just been business as usual over here in Craft Town. I’ve been practicing my calligraphy..

Anything to make a buck, right? ;) p.s. I'm aware the word "success" is spelled wrong.. I was copying some lettering I found online and the girl had a little quote written out and framed but it was spelled "Sucess". Very annoying to me.

We created an art masterpiece from an old framed Jimi Hendrix poster we found in the trash pile. A mixed media of sorts with craft paint, semi-gloss furniture paint, tissue paper, bits of gold trimming, vegetable oil, foot spray, and nail polish remover. You’d never guess Jimi was hiding under there.

I also finally finished the coat rack that we got (ha, almost said “bought” but nope, it was CraigsList free!) with the table a while ago. It started out a hideous glossy flesh toned color. Not sure why that color even exists… but it was promptly sanded off and replaced with a fresh coat (or three) of shiny black.

before

after

I bought a little white side table this past weekend at an estate sale. It’s a good fit but it wasn’t really exciting me. I also found a gold vent plate at a sale with no idea what I would do with it, but I loved the pattern. So the two have now been combined and I am very pleased with the outcome.

I have been seriously into geometrics lately.

                

Plus the couch pillow patterns, key holder, and the base of my yellow ottoman. They’ve been catching my eye everywhere I go. I’m thinking curtains next. Or a rug. Maybe a subtle monochromatic pattern. Once I get a paycheck :)

cookin' and craftin'

A crazy thing happened the other day—I went to work! Just a catering job but it was nice to actually make a bit of money again and meet some new people. And I have a few jobs lined up for next week, so things are moving along :)

The past couple days have been full of cooking and crafting. We had an enormous pack of chicken to cook so we decided to split it up and each have a stab at it. Since it was Sunday, and well, Sundays are made for crockpot meals, I made this recipe. Just substituting the whole chicken for the halves that we bought.

spice rubbed and ready to go

It took about 4 ½ or 5 hours to cook but mmmm mm it was worth it. Like a Publix rotisserie chicken. And super simple. Luckily Shawn was working that day so it was allowed to cook long enough. He doesn’t exactly have patience for slow cooking methods. (Which is what led him to proclaim “I’m never cooking Indian food again!” the following night when it was his turn.) But the curried roasted chicken he made with spicy slow simmered chickpeas was well worth the wait.

Meanwhile, the living room and dining area have become enveloped in crafting clutter. I finally dug out the sewing machine to hem a dress and try out an Easter card design similar to this one:

found on pinterest of course

My machine had no love for sewing on paper though, so I had to bust out the trusty needle and thread. Not exactly the neatest stitches (I guess I’m more of a Laura Ingalls than a Mary..) but it got the job done. I also constructed Laina’s birthday card and then Shawn and I had a grand ole time making Laina and Andrew's Easter present. Don’t want to ruin the surprise with pictures of that yet.

And finally, since I had my sewing goodies out, I whipped together this little barrette out of extra buttons I had.

Yes, I do always keep the extra buttons they give you with shirts and pants. No, I have not ever needed them other than maybe once. Maybe. But you know, just in case :)

I also managed to motivate myself to go for a run. My first mile-high run. And wow, it was a doozy. I’m pretty sure I must have stopped about 5 or 6 times to walk during my 3 mile loop. The fact that I haven’t actually run in quite some time wasn’t helping my case either. Never enough oxygen.

craft time

I've been slowly gathering pieces for various projects that have each been waiting on one missing piece to complete. These first two are definitely the easiest of projects on my to-do list so of course I did them first. We picked up some black lacquer paint the other day so I was finally able to finish my key rack a la garage sale finds.

The backing is I think from a piece of radiator cover that I trimmed down to fit into the 5 x 7 frame. The frame used to be a similar gold but that was looking a little crazy. The hooks came from the same sale that we got our plant stand bar from. I just wired them on through the holes. And the old key I picked up from a funny little shop in Austin. So now our keys have a home.

While I was in the crafting spirit, I decided to finish off my plant stand that had been waiting for some more attention. This one will be used as an actual stand for plants (namely herbs) and not for serving cocktails from. It looked like this when we got it:

Not exactly my style. I painted it this khaki/greenish color which was actually a leftover sample from one of my old house painting clients. (Thanks Dwayne!) Then I roughed it up a bit and added some free pots that I found at another sale. So now I just have to get some more pots and the actual plants and we’ll be cooking with fresh herbs in no time :)