Happy 4th of July!

I hope everyone had a super holiday. This week has been super around here. Meg and I went to Georgetown, CO on Tuesday to ride the loop railroad there. Wow, was it fun. The train is a steam engine built in 1912. It was originally running on a track in Maui. Wow, Maui to the Rocky Mountains. The day was overcast and cool, about 65 degrees. It was a lovely break from the 100 degree temps we were having last week here in Denver.

We tooled around Georgetown, CO after the train ride. It's a quaint little mountain town, in a beautiful valley with rocky mountains on both sides. We toured a hotel that had not changed hardly at all since 1875. It was like stepping into a time machine. The architecture is beyond cool in Colorado mountains towns as the boom for most of them was in the late 1800's. If you are like me and you like Victorian architecture you gotta get to Colorado and do some exploring. Leadville is a killer town for victorian house stalking. It's amazing how many victorian houses are in city of Denver too. A lot of silver tycoons had city houses as well as places near their mines in Leadville and other spots around Colorado. Check out the Baker neighborhood if you are ever in Denver proper. It has the best examples in the city. (in my opinion!)

The 4th of July was a laid back day for us. I worked some in the morning and then in the afternoon we had a family photo shoot. These photos say it all. We are a very lucky family and we love each other SO much. I have the cutest Meg in the whole wide world and the most handsome Mambo in the whole wide world. How did I get so lucky you ask? I have no idea, but I am grateful to have such amazing love and support.

Things in Denver are great. Things are getting ready to change. Today I am happy to be here, in the mile high city. ta ta for now!

Our Denver house! Photos! Yes!

well, I do keep my promises, but sometimes things take longer than I had planned. In the case of photos of our new house, it's taken me about 6 months longer than I thought, but hey better late than never, right?

Well, here you are. Our beautiful house. We both love this house. It's a real home. We are so lucky to have found the right place for our Denver experience.

Our house renovations are nearing the end of the line. It's a good thing because neither of us are really up for any more painting, caulking, fixing, or going to home depot for a least a year, maybe two. Justin is also pretty over sawing, building shelves, tiling stuff, and other random everything he ends up doing around here. Have I mentioned that he is world's best ass saver around?

We have some very special guests visiting over the next month, so we are very happy to be able to put our best foot forward.

Bon Iver & Feist at Red Rocks. Check that off my bucket list.....

Man, have we been traveling a lot. Meg and I  recently drove down to the deep south and did a photo shoot of the Historic Dunleith Inn in Natchez, MS. The photos will be used on the new website, in the new print advertising and on a brand new billboard. I am still loving this project.

Meg did an awesome job capturing the spirit of Dunleith. We had a great time on the property for three days and enjoyed getting to know the house and all of it's150 plus years of history.  The new site will be live in early August.

So as most of you know I am a firm believer in balance between work and play.  So, wow, can you say stoked? It's been almost a week since I saw Bon Iver & Feist in concert. I still can't believe I was actually there. I have seen Feist before and this time was just as good, maybe better. The venue could not have been better, Red Rocks in Morrison, CO. The company was the best in the world. Meg and I still enjoy spending time together after almost 10 years together. Our 10th anniversary is this October. We have a pretty special trip planned and loads of changes are happening later this year, but for now, I am happy to be here in Denver, where I can do things, like see my favorite musician  of all space and time.

I feel in love with Bon Iver's music in the winter of 2009. It was a snowy cold winter and I listened to his album "For Emma" all winter long. His music says something I could never say with words. I can tell he has had his heart broken and he has been very low in his life, yet his music shines a beautiful light on that sadness. For me sadness is just as important as joy, as how do you know true joy without sadness?

 I am an artist and I feel all the range of emotions deeply and fully. I will take the sadness any day, so I can feel real love and joy. I consider myself very fortunate for the low times in my life, as they give me perspective about how happy I am today.

It's a rare cloudy day in Denver, our house projects are almost done and summer is here. We have a lot of fun things planned, like seeing Florence + the Machine at Red Rocks, riding the Georgetown loop train, and getting over to the Boulder Farmers Market.

Goodbye for now!

More B-day love & what the hell have I been doing besides blogging? A lot, that's what.

The epic b-day trip ended with a two days in Leadville. We had a great time checking out the amazing examples of Victorian architecture, and wandering around a couple of super killer antique stores. I am newly obsessed with purple glass from the 1880's/90's. It is clear when it is first made, but as it is exposed to sunlight, it turns purple depending on how much manganese was in the sand used to make the glass. Until about 1915 sand with loads of manganese was the sand of choice for making clear glass.

French Victorian example

see where this style gets it's gingerbread name. Looks good enough to eat.

Spindle love!

Glass is so much prettier than plastic don't you think?

Cedar Shake love. I want our Neo Victorian tiny house to look a lot like this. 

So, Leadville was beyond interesting. We also visited the matchless mine. If you are interested in the history stuff, this is where Horace Tablor made his fortune. This is also where Baby Doe Tabor lived after Horace died. There are still piles of silver mining leftover crap all around the mine. This crap is from the late 1890's. Can you believe it's still laying around. Crazy!

Here is me sitting on a pile of the leftover stuff.

Now we are back in Denver working hard. I am busy with design work, while Meg is busy working on the house. We have news regarding all of the house updates but that is another post.

Lately, we have finished the trim in the bathroom and kitchen. The kitchen floor is painted a great grey and looks awesome. We fixed two flagstone pathways that were a hot mess. Of course, by we, I mean mostly Justin. I think it's been like three posts since I said he was the greatest feller ever. Well, he still is. Today he put up the sun shades on the deck. Yesterday, he helped me and Meg get the backroom hardwood section of the 3rd bedroom ready to sand. He is also close to being able to lay new tile in the 3rd bedroom and the other bathroom.

What would we do without him you ask? We would be lost, that's what! Justin For President has been our latest chant around the house. He would make a great one by the way!

Someday I will take photos of everything. Someday when the house is clean. Wait, that may never happen but I will take photos!

Meg's sister is in town this week for a cooking class. We did a little day trip to Boulder on Sunday and had dinner here.  http://thekitchencommunity.com/  Can you say OMG, amazing food. I had this yummy roasted chicken with a meyer lemon sauce, over an amazing ramp mash. WOW. Thanks BABS!

Alright, next week, Meg and I are off to photograph Dunleith Historic Inn in Natchez, MS. The inn was built in 1856 so we are pretty stoked to capture the history and scale of the property.
Until next time!!

Epic Birthday Trip Part II

Day #4 was a pretty lazy day. we walked all around the tiny town of and did a little hike outside the edge of the town. We rented "the Iron Lady" and did a whole lot of nothing.

Then Day #5 was my birthday. Wow. What a super day. We hiked up a trail right at the edge of town. with the most amazing view of the Crested Butte valley and Mount Crested Butte! It was chilly and sunny with some really beautiful clouds. The photos say it all.

After the amazing hike, we headed into town and picked up some gluten free crusts from a local pizza place called the Brick Oven. We went back to the house to make some pizza. As I started prepping for lunch, it started to snow. I would not have believed it was the same day, if I hadn't been there to witness it myself. The pizza I made had some smoked mozzarella, fresh basil and tomato sauce. I made a spinach salad with red peppers and olives stuffed sun dried tomatoes with olive oil and olive juice dressing. I figure having salad meant I could have all the pizza I wanted, right? After our late lunch we watched a movie. Then after the movie it started to clear up and we took a little snowy walk. Yes, this is the same day. It was unbelievable to watch the storm move in and then move back out. It's one of the prettiest things I have ever seen.

The house photo at the bottom is where we stayed for the week. Can you say amazing? The lady who loaned us the house is very generous. We are so grateful, as this trip was one of the top five vacations I have had. Year 38 is really off to an amazing start & I couldn't be happier. My next post is about our time in LEADVILLE, CO. Can you say Victorian goodness overload? Stay Tuned!

Epic Birthday Trip Part I

Usually, I take notes for later reference for my blog posts... or I write the post right away. This past week I didn't do either. I hardly logged on to the computer at all. I unplugged for almost a week. No facebook, no e-mail, no phone. I didn't write anything down. I didn't think about anything do with work or home projects. Unless it was an address of the taco place that had gluten free cheese and green chili tamales or gluten free pizza crusts in Crested Butte, CO.

Well, where to start? The last ten days have been super. I worked on a flagstone patio Saturday before last most of the day. It was super fun. It's about half way done.

Sunday we spent most of the morning at a walk in clinic as Meg stabbed her finger with piece of wood she called a splinter. I call it one big ass piece of wood. It's the splinter all other splinters aspire to become. The mother load if you will. The doctors at the clinic did an x-ray and sent her home with some antibiotics. I am glad we got it checked out, as her pinky looked like it was about to give birth to triplets. Mother and babies are all doing just fine! Ha!

Day #1 of the birthday trip....We drove from Denver, CO to Crested Butte, CO southwest on 285 to Buena Vista, CO. Then we drove over Monarch Pass to Gunnison, CO, then north to Crested Butte. Wow! Colorado blows my mind. The landscape changes from minute to minute. It's like driving though five states in one hour. Meg did not photograph the trip. She just experienced it right along with me. We listened to a lot of XM radio and laughed even more.

We arrived in Crested Butte in the early afternoon. Crested Butte is a town of 1487 (as of 2010) and it at 8,885 feet above sea level.We got settled into our friends house where we stayed for the week. We made a late lunch and sat around looking out at the view from the house. WOW!! Then we took a walk, and made dinner. It is amazing to have nothing to do but be together.

Day #2 in Crested Butte we walked around the cemetery right outside of town. I read the most beautiful poem about death on one of the graves.

Here it is : Why weep for loved one deceased? Our loss is his infinite gain, A soul out of prison released, and freed from it's bodily pain. With songs let us follow his flight and ascend with his spirit above. Escaped to the mansions of light and lodged in the eden of love. This beauty was on the graves of two children, a boy, Joseph, who was 6 and his sister, Florence who died at the age of two.

Day #3 was filled with hiking down to the slate river though mountain lion country. Meg and I sang our favorite vintage LSU cheer to ward off the big cats! The cheer goes...."Hot boudin, cold cous-cous, come on tigers, poosh, poosh, poosh." Clearly it worked because I lived to tell the tale of our walk!

The walk was amazing. There is still a ton of snow on the ground in Crested Butte. Really, things have just started to thaw out up there. We sat by the river for a long time and listened to the water and made mustaches with rocks. As you can see it's about the prettiest place on earth, and this winter. Can you imagine what a summer day must be like?

I will continue the post tomorrow. Next up, my birthday hike and a snowy afternoon. Then it's off to Leadville, CO! Stay tuned!

Wow, has it been busy around here. I am working on four websites, 2 logos, a catalog, a number of print projects and a few other random projects. I can't believe how busy I am right now! I am so grateful for all the fun projects. I have been working on a new website for Dunleith Historic Inn. It's looking pretty super. Check it out!

We also are almost finished with the new bathroom. So close to photo time! Meg planted ten trees last week, and we are in the process of putting down weed barrier cloth on the whole back yard. Then plan is to build a new flagstone patio in the middle of the back yard, and mulch the rest. We will be planting all sorts of new plants, mostly drought tolerant pine shrubs, and native grasses.

We are also almost ready to paint the kitchen floor. It's the original hardwoods of the house, we had hoped to refinish them, but it wasn't possible. Both of us are stoked to paint them. It's going to look very cottagey. Too bad that's not a word, maybe it should be. We plan on painting them a cool light green color.

Then next up, is to re-do the other bathroom and put down tile and paint the hard woods in the 3rd bedroom.

Yeah, we are super lazy fools! Don't worry we are having fun too. Last weekend the Women's final four was in Denver. We had a BLAST.

Well, hopefully, it won't be 6 weeks before I blog again.

My birthday is in about two weeks and we have a killer week long Crested Butte trip planned. I promise not to be too busy to blog that week.

I hope you all have a super day!