Back to my inspiration blogs.

I am excited to say things are going really well for us. The Denver do over could not be going better. I am grateful everyday I wake up in Denver. I know it's the right place for us.

So, back to life, back to what is important to me. Inspiration. As a creative person, I am always searching for new music, new curtains, new colors, new typefaces, new anything that I think is pretty or gives me that happy feeling.

Lately, I am inspired by simple things.... today it was homemade ceasar salad with a gluten free pizza. We used tomatoes and basil grown here in Colorado, near or in the city! I was surprised to see tomatoes still looking great and in season. I picked them up at the South Pearl Street Farmers Market on Sunday. Hello, can you say new Sunday tradition. Loved it!

I am inspired by cool, crisp Colorado evenings. We took a bike ride this evening, and I was actually cold! It was awesome.

I am inspired by the new Burton Catalog I got in the mail. I want everything in there!

I am inspired by regular days, that are spent working, making lunch, petting the cat, and spending time with my awesome partner in crime, Meg.

Last but not least, today I am inspired by change. The last year of my life has been all about change. Making changes is not easy, but hey, anything that is awesome enough to be worth doing is not easy.

So here's to a new house, in a new city, with new friends.... Denver you are starting to feel like home and I know we are going get along just fine.

Four Day Weekend!

Four day weekends are my favorite kind of weekends. Meg & I have our first out of town guest in Denver this weekend, our awesome niece Lalu! With everything we have had going on the past few weeks at first we weren't sure about having company... as Lalu is the first of many guests this fall. But after thinking it over, having a guest is a nice break from everyday life & hey we could use a staycation!

The weekend started with a trip out to Red Rocks Amphitheatre to see Alison Krauss & Union Station. The weather was cool & cloudy. We arrived early (after walking up about 7000 steps) & really enjoy the view before the big crowd arrived. There were thunder storms in the distance most of the evening and a huge rainbow. I took that as a sign for a very good weekend ahead. Boy, was I right about a good weekend!! The show was amazing & so was the four day weekend.

Saturday, we got all dressed up in LSU gear and rode our bikes down the cherry creek parkway to REI to do a little shopping, then we had a little Mellow Mushroom lunch. Then it was back to our house to watch the LSU vs. Oregon game. There is a bar in town that is the official LSU club bar, but for such an important game, I wanted to be home where I could focus on the game. I do plan on joining the club for a less important game in the very near future.

Sunday started off perfectly, with breakfast at Snooze!! The wait can be over an hour at times. If you are in Denver, ever, you must have breakfast at Snooze. YUM!!! Then we took off and drove over to the Indian Peaks Wilderness outside of Boulder, CO. The drive goes through tiny Ward, CO. It's only about an 1 1/2 from the heart of Denver, so if you are ever around there, this is the place to go in nature, period without a doubt. We hiked for a couple of miles on the Lake Michigan trail. It was beyond amazing. There is still some snow up there if you can believe that. There is a glacier you can hike too but it's a 7 hour (round trip) hike & that was a little out of our range at the moment. When I say out of our range, I mean me and Meg, not Lauren. She could handle a 7 hour hike no problem!! I waded around in the little lake and almost froze my feet off. I only lasted about 90 seconds and I don't even mind cold water, but this was serious. We drove back into Boulder, had a fancy coffee drink & drove around Boulder a little so Lauren could check it out.

With a nice coffee in hand, it was back to Denver, for a dinner of grilled BBQ (Carolina style) chicken, roasted brussel sprouts and taters! Then we rode downtown and stumbled upon the taste of Colorado. It's was sort of like bele chere but bigger & with a gourmet food section. I think Bele Chere needs a gourmet food section, don't y'all?? We finished up the night at sweet action ice cream near our house. Again, YUM!

Monday was a chill day, Lauren went on a bike ride in Washington Park & we took a little walk before we had to drop her off at the airport.

Overall, it was a great weekend. We loved having Lauren around and we enjoyed getting to know our fine city.

I am off to pack for a trip to Asheville. We will be there this weekend to photograph a wedding and see the many friends we did not have time to say a proper good bye to in June. We are both still having good days and rough days, but we know that we are where we are supposed to be and trust that everything happens like it is supposed to, when it is supposed to. Keep those positive thoughts rolling our way. thanks for all the love and support!

Until next time folks!

Denver do over!

Each day is getting a little easier for both me and for Meg. We are so blessed to have so many friends and family who are there for us during such a difficult period for us.

It is amazing that when I am down, what a dang difference it makes for me to clean & rearrange the house. We have been in the new house since June, but it's almost like I have only been here for the last week. I cleaned everything, moped the floor and rearranged a bunch of furniture.

Meg & I put up some new curtains in our living room over the weekend. I am officially in love with window treatments. It amazes what a difference nice curtains can make.

We are trying to get out in nature as much as possible. We hiked along clear creek in Golden, CO this weekend. The hike was an easy one, but along a killer little, fast moving, freezing creek. Loads of people were tubing down it and it was quite entertaining to watch. I love how people holler out when they go over a rough patch, like Woooooo! It's a universal reaction that I never get sick of hearing. Tubing is a very unrated activity. We also happened upon a USA Pro Cycling Challenge pre party festival. There was a pizza food truck with a gluten free option. Have I mentioned that living in Colorado makes it much easier to eat gluten free? Well, it does and it's rocking my world to have so many options everywhere we go. There was even a gluten free stand at the Colorado Rockies game that even included gluten free beer. Sweet!!

We were in awesome Boulder yesterday. We already have our favorite Boulder tradition. We hit up the Village Coffee Shop for breakfast anytime of day. Breakfast is my favorite meal. I had a veggie omelet, hashbrowns, bacon and gluten free toast, YUM. Meg had monstrous stack of gluten free blueberry pancakes. Then I had a lovely business meeting, then it was off to Chautauqua Park in west boulder where we walked along the Mesa trail. What a beautiful place.

This morning when I got up it was 60 degrees. The last couple of days have been slightly cooler. I am very excited for it to be fall. This summer has been hot, super hot & our new house does not have central air. We will get be installing central air before next summer I promise. Until then bring on cool, crispy fall please!

Alright, I am off to make breakfast and get ready for a hike to O'Fallon Park with my favorite Meggie.

Hard Times.

I have tried to pull a post together three times in the last week and each time I trash the draft. I haven't known what to say. Antonio decided to go back to Asheville two weeks ago. Out of respect for his privacy, I won't go into the details, but things were not going well for him in Denver. The time he spent here had a few moments of peace but mostly things were chaotic and difficult for everyone. Meg & I had hoped things would improve, but they continued to decline from day one. I never saw the boy I signed up to help in Denver. It's like someone else came to Denver in his place.

Meg and I have mentored Antonio for the last four and a half years. That is over half of our relationship together. It is really painful to know he will not be part of our daily lives. We are not in contact with him right now, as that is what is best for us. We are able to check up on him through the grapevine. The information we are getting confirms that it was for the best for him to move back to Asheville.

We spent the last two weeks with friends and family trying to recover and reclaim our lives without Antonio. It's tough as we both we just getting used to having him around all the time. We are making daily progress but it is slow going. Our family mantra right now is Easy Does It.

For all your supporters out there, we appreciate all the support you have given us over the past four and a half years. Antonio will appreciate when he is old enough to understand how many people cared about him. I know being 15 is hard enough age when you come from a loving family who cares about you. His background was too much for him to over come at 15. He has been taught a lot of bad habits and a lot of things that are not helpful to being a successful person. As anyone out there knows it's very hard to break bad habits. He is really struggling right now. We know we did everything we could to try and undo a lot of these habits, but the pull of poverty is bigger than us.

I wanted to specifically address all the wonderful folks donated to help out with Antonio. We were able to give a number of things we had purchased for Antonio to a friend Antonio made while in Denver. Antonio met Elisha when he was attending the work study program this summer at Arrupe Jesuit . Elisha is attending Arrupe this fall and he plans on being the first person in his family to graduate from high school. He comes from a very rough background. He has a very supportive mother and he is very determined to be successful. His mom dropped out of high school and really wants Elisha to get his high school degree and go to college. She does not want him to have to struggle like she does. It's beautiful to see someone really showing up even though things are really hard for her and for her family. Elisha is showing up big time. He is willing to do whatever it takes to be successful. They don't have much in the way of material stuff, yet they seem to find a lot of happiness. It's really beautiful to see. We wish Antonio had this kind of support from his mom.

For now, Meg and I are in Denver, and we are going to try it for three months and see how things go. I am working on re-building my graphic design business here and Meg is doing the same with her photography business. We are planning a lot of day trips from Denver into nature to recharge and recover.

Neither of us know what the future holds for us or for Antonio but we know we did all we could and now we have to be patient and witness what unfolds. If you pray, pray, if you chant, chant, if you send good vibes, send them please. We could all use the positive energy and prayers right now.

A few reasons I love living in Denver.

1. We live very close to the light rail station on Alameda Ave. Antonio has taken the light rail/bus to school a few times already. He has also jumped on the light rail & headed over to the skate park. We could go downtown to a NBA/NFL/MLB game via the light rail. It's amazing!


2. We live near a ton of restaurants & fun stuff to do.
+ Lark Burger is my number one favorite place to eat right now. Yes, it's because of the vanilla shakes and french fries, not the burgers.
+ Washington Park is my favorite place to ride bikes and people watch.
+ Whole Foods is just a few blocks away. I gotta get my gluten free fix somewhere!


3. I get to live with the best two people and furry man in the world. Meg, Antonio & Mambo are all loving Colorado. Mambo loves his big yard and his man cave (the basement). Meg loves the new house. She spends a lot of time sweeping the front sidewalk and working on shaping up the yard. Antonio loves his room and his basketball court. He spends a lot of time at the skate park.

4. Our new house is so cute and so us. I know loyal blog followers, you want photos. E-mail Meg ok? she is my official photographer & she is on a contact making mission... when she is not sweeping the yard. She is rebuilding her business from the ground up, so she is burning up the lines and hitting the pavement introducing the Denver/Boulder market to her heirloom photography business. Bug her please. I want to show off this place!

5. We have an amazing handy man. His name is Justin. He helped us with a million projects the first couple of weeks we were here. He is amazing & he is nice & funny. We are very lucky to have him.

6. I really like being a mom, when Antonio is smiling. I mean, who wouldn't want be his mama? Look at that face. The above photo is from his first day at the work study training program at Arrupe Jesuit High School. This is where he is going. No more trying to figure that out. He is very excited & so are we.

All this wonderful change is SO inspiring. Until next time! Happy Almost Friday!

Wow, Denver is awesome.

This is what Antonio says when you ask him about Denver. I tend to agree with him. We are really settling in to the new house since Antonio got here a couple of weeks ago. So far we have painted our bathroom, the kitchen, Antonio's room, his bathroom, the deck, and half of our office room. I know, I know... when are you going post photos? Soon people soon. It's gotta look good, I am a designer remember?

I have been so busy with house projects, looking for a full time job, learning html & dreamweaver and being a full time Mom, that I haven't had time to blog. I do have a lot to blog about so let's get to it!

We spent last Friday night with our friends, Eddie & Tatum Perez. Tatum graciously invited us to an after hours viewing at the Museum of Outdoor Art, exhibit called Light Supply. Man, did we have fun. The most entertaining part of the evening was dancing on the harp that plays when you break the plane of the laser with any old body part. See the photos above. It's the big metal thing, with the dots on the floor. The blue room photo is where Grammy award winner, Mickey Houlihan of Wind over the Earth created an original soundscape for the different colors of the room. The room would fade from one color to the next. It was a very pink floyd experience, which reminded me of my college days.

Read all about it here :
Museum of Outdoor Art

The weekend before last we dropped by a denver art thing, that turned out to be super great. I loved the graphic they created and I saw it on facebook and decided to go. Meg and I both left the event feeling very inspired. check out the artists & get the scoop on the event. http://projecthello.posterous.com

Antonio is really turning out to be quite the skateboarder. He wants to go to the park everyday. While, he doesn't get to go everyday, he has been going a lot.

Last night after I made homemade vietnamese spring rolls for dinner, we headed over to Aurora, CO for some serious firework action. Check out the craziness on utube. This guy uploaded the last 4 something minutes of the show on youtube to a rocking guitar version of the national anthem. Forward to the 3 something to see the grand finale. It was brain numbingly loud, and it sort of seemed like the sky was exploding. I have to say the show was pretty dang spectacular, especially if you happen to be 14 going on 30.

Aurora Fireworks on youtube

Today I am inspired by new friends, a new city, and a new family. This year is all about doing things differently, so far we are right on track! Signing off from Denver!

The awesome photos from the museum by Nikki Leven Breaux.

It's been a big week around here!

It's another beautiful day in Denver, CO. We have been living here a little under a month and man has a lot happened.

Our friends Amy & Nikki moved here from Rockford, IL late last week. It is so wonderful having them around. They have two awesome kids, Halle and Spencer (AKA smoothie). The kids all get along great & have a lot of fun hanging out together. We used to visit Amy & Nikki once a year, when they lived outside of New York City. We have always wanted to live in the same city as them and finally we got our wish!

Antonio has been here since Tuesday and he is doing great. He had a surprise waiting for him, his own personal basketball court! So far he has spent a lot of time playing basketball, skating with his friend, Smoothie, hanging out with Halle, and doing anything we ask him to do around here. He is such a wonderful guy. I set up a blog for him earlier in the week. antoniosbigadventure.blogspot.com. Check it out. He is very funny!

We got the paint for repainting the entire house. We got some great colors. I know we need to take some photos! We are going to get back to painting over the weekend. The colors are a nice warm gray, a beautiful greenish light blue, a killer charteuse green and a lovely pink of our room. If you have seen my work, you have seen these colors. Lately, I have been pushing some new combos (in my work!), but these colors are some of my all time favorites.

Meg still hasn't found her nikon d300 charger yet, hence the lack of photos. We are such opposites! I know where everything is and she doesn't know where anything is! This is why are are such a good match peeps. Our nine year anniversary is in October. I am so lucky to have such a great partner.

I am still looking for a full time job in Denver. There are a lot of options, so I know it's going to happen soon. In the meantime, I am finishing up some freelance projects for my Asheville clients.

Tomorrow we are off to check out the Boulder Farmers Market. I can't wait. I have been dying to get over to Boulder anyway. It is supposed to be the best market around.
http://www.boulderfarmers.org

I promise to post more photos of the house this weekend. Happy Friday Peeps!