Finally ... Trick-Or-Treaters!!!

Happy  belated Halloween everyone! Sorry for being MIA, but the we haven't done anything of "real" interest the last few weekends. I guess that isn't true because Nikki and I have been working our tails off creating perhaps the best Halloween costumes ever!!!

Coon and Friends - Mosquito, Mint Berry Crunch, The Coon, and Mysterion!!!

We worked our butts off making these costumes, unfortunately they weren't as well received as you might imagine. Being from,and in Colorado, we figured everyone would know who we were, but sadly no! Either way, we were thrilled with our hard work. For Mosquito (my husband Mike) I crocheted his hat, used freezer paper to make a mosquito stencil for his hoodie, and Nikki sewed his sash while I hot glued the ketchup packets for his blood reserve. For Mint Berry Crunch I cut the leaves from felt, dyed 1/2 my white leggings green, and Nikki sewed my hat, berries, and collar. Nikki made her and Matt's costumes, which you can see in more detail at www.theambitiousprocrastinator.blogspot.com. And thanks to Nikki for making all of our masks!

Before I reveal more pics of our fabulous costumes, I want to show you how artistic myself and my friends are. Yes I know, you see how artistic we are every week, but last Friday we were exceptionally artistic :) 

Last year the Savidge's hosted our first ever pumpkin carving get together. It was a hit, and since they just added a little one to their household I hosted this year. In preparation Mike and I made 1 of our 2 a year trips to Walmart. For those who don't know, I HATE WALMART, but unfortunately I find myself there every year at Halloween and Christmas. Anyway, we headed to Walmart to pick up some pumpkins ... 6 to be exact. 

Yes, you can use the boring run-of-the-mill stencils that come with the carving kits, but we had something else in mind ...

Here is a sample of the stencils we used

To make some room, Nikki and I carved out all of our pumpkins (2 for her, and 6 for me). I carved while she scraped out the the seeds for a tasty snack. We made plain, cinnamon and sugar, curry, and spicy pumpkin seeds.

I need to add that my pumpkins from Walmart were mutant pumpkins. Instead of the typical gooey pumpkin innards, they were more like a spaghetti squash inside! Weird!

Right as we finished pumpkin number 6, our guests arrived. After a couple hours of meticulous carving we had these masterpieces:

                                                                                                                                                           

 Here are some shots of everyone at work ... some people took it more serious than others!

 And here are some individual shots of the ones that Mike and I did:

And here they all are in action on Halloween! This was the first time that Mike and I have ever had trick-or-treaters! We've lived in apartments up till now, which I always thought would be the place to go as a trick-or-treater, but this year we had about 20!

 Fun was had by all! The next day was spent in prep for our evening out. Instead of the normal downtown scene we opted to go to the Colfax Block Party. Just so everyone is clear, this is the definition of a block party according to Wikipedia:

A block party is a large public party in which many members of a single neighbourhood congregate, either to observe an event of some importance or simply for mutual enjoyment. The name comes from the form of the party, which often involves closing an entire city block to vehicle traffic. Many times, there will be a celebration in the form of playing music and dance and activities like pony rides, inflatable slides, pop corn machines and BBQs.

We pre-partied for a bit, and then headed out to the block party ... THERE WAS NO BLOCK PARTY!!! Just normal bars, that were packed to the brim. Are we getting old? Cause we decided to head somewhere with a few less people. We ended up back at the Tavern (where I work), and were home before 1am, how sad. To make things even worse, hardly anyone recognized our costumes! We got a couple of shout-outs on Colfax, and some kids recognized us at the Tavern, but overall it was a major bummer! Oh well, we knew we looked AWESOME!!!

Coon and Friends

The Coon in action!

Mint Berry Crunch and Mysterion

The Cupid Shuffle ala Mysterion

The Coon must know when to defend itself!

Mosquito!!!

Keep an eye out in the next couple weeks for my post about my Vintage Ornament Wreath tutorial!!!

An Only In Denver Kind Of Weekend

Thursday afternoon one of my girlfriends at work, asked me to go out with her on Friday night. I told her I felt like I had something planned, but couldn't remember what. Mike and I had planned on heading up to the mountains on Saturday, but I swear I had something planned for Friday night ...

http://www.canvasandcocktails.com/

Oh that's right ... Nikki and I were going to Canvas and Cocktails!!!

C&C is this great Denver based business that combines ... you guessed it ... cocktails and canvas! Each night a different painting is taught. You may be thinking, there is no way I could do that, but the way the class is taught, it makes it so that anyone can achieve greatness! Once you decide on a painting that you want to do, reserve a seat (they go quick!). Arrive early, if you don't you have to sit at cafeteria style tables, with little elbow room, but if like Nikki and I, you arrive early, you can snag one of the few hightop tables for 2 or 3 people. Then, pick out your apron, grab a drink (or a bottle of wine), and get your colors.

Most of the aprons are just covered in old paint, but if you search hard enough you can find one that really suits your personality ...

Here is the painting that we were going to do that evening.

Nikki and I agreed that we would like to change it up some to fit our particular decor. I have decided to go with a Paris theme in the guest bedroom, and I decided on a purple palette to match my new bedding.

We lucked out because it turned out our instructor, Brittney, was the owner. The class is a combination of instruction, dancing, singing, ...  and painting. After 2 bottles of wine, and Nikki winning a free class by shaking her boot-ee, we ended up with some pretty sweet pictures! I wish my Eiffel Tower was better, but we had such a good time, who cares!

In case you think there is no way you can drink and paint at the same time, here is the proof that even drunk, art can be achieved!

More pictures can be seen at www.theambitiousprocrastinator.blogspot.com

My weekend was off to a good start, and on Saturday Mike and I set out for a trip to the mountains. One luxury of living in Colorado is the fall foliage. Take an hour drive out of the city, and you can see some of the most beautiful fall landscapes in the country! We decided to take our normal route, Denver to Grand Lake, through Rocky Mountain National Park, and down through Estes Park. Here are some of the highlights:

In Grand Lake

Beyonce in Grand Lake!

One of the best parts of driving through Rocky Mountain National Park, is the chance to see wildlife, particularly the elk at this time of year. We saw a few here and there on our drive, but not as many as usual. We began our trek home, leaving through Estes Park, when we got stuck in traffic, it had to be a horrific accident right? Nope, turns out some of the local elk had decided to spend the day at the park!

We spent some time watching as a juvenile bull tried to creep his way into the herd of cows. However, his attempts were thwarted by this massive specimen

But I was able to snag some great shots of Mike before we had to run for our lives to get out of the way of the fighting bulls!

 You might be thinking that there is nothing that could make this weekend better ... WRONG!!!

If you want fun then listen to this, Denver's hottest hangout is the Justice League of Street Food Party! Food Truck promoter Fat Damon is back, and this time he has gone crazy! You'll see food trucks, hipsters, fire dancers, beef tongue tacos, bacon cupcakes, and slilts ... You know it's that thing when slutty girls stand on stilts!!!

http://vodpod.com/watch/3625166-snl-stefan#

Fun was had by all!

Phew!!! What a crazy, fun weekend. On top of all of that I was able to sneak in a little estate saleing (see http://thehouseonadamsdrive.blogspot.com/p/weekend-treasures.html), work on my craft room a bit, and scrape this weird blackout film off the glass slider! I know not every weekend can be as jam-packed as this one was, but I love when I am able to get out and see the great parts of Colorado while having a great time with friends!

What did you do this weekend? Does your city do any fun, unique events?

Kitties and Kegorators

Everything came together this weekend for our Housewarming party. We had great food, beer, and great friends! A lot of preparation was made for this weekend, and the last thing on our TODO list was to install our kegorator in the basement bar.

Bartender Not Included

When we started looking for a house, we knew that a basement bar was something that we both wanted, but it wasn't on our MUST list. But when we found the house on Adams Drive, we knew we lucked out! Half the basement is finished, and there is an unfinished bedroom that backs up to the built in bar, the perfect spot to put a kegorator! We purchased the previous owner's fridge with the intent to use it in the basement. 

Mike once again used his Googling powers and found a company called Beverage Factory, which specializes in home beverage systems, http://www.beveragefactory.com/. We got everything we needed from them to install our kegorator for $160. Now all we needed was Mike's dad, Jeff, to come up from Colorado Springs to help Mike install everything. 

Jeff was able to come up last weekend, and while they worked to install the kegorator I made myself scarce and set off to do some estate saleing! More on that later ... 1st up, READ THE DIRECTIONS (always important), empty the shelves out of the fridge, and build a shelf to support the keg ...

Next step, following the directions of course, Mike drilled a hole for the tube that goes from the keg to the tap ...

Ok, so at this point you are ready to install the wall tap. In our bar, the tap was being installed into the wood paneling, so to give it more support Mike and Jeff attached it to a 2x4 on one side. 

The final step is to tap your keg, and get to drinkin'! But there was one small oddity about our bar that we needed to rectify ... In order to get in the bar, you must open the half door, and crawl under the shelf that runs along the bar! No one can figure out why this door was installed without some sort of hinge allowing easier access. So before Mike and Jeff were done, they wanted to add a hinged door to the bar. To do so they had to remove the molding from the shelf, cut where the hinge should go, install the hinge, and reapply the molding ... Voila!!! 

This is about the time when I returned with my acquisitions. I managed to hit 3 sales, and the antique mall, all in about 4 hours! Here are my finds

Copper napkin dispenser, flower cookie cutters, vintage kitchen clock, copper measuring spoons, about 50 plastic coasters, and a handmade lantern

My favorite find of the day was the lantern. When I'm out estate saleing I have a list of sales that I plan to hit, and I use http://www.estatesales.net/ to find them. If I see a sign for an estate sale, I'll drive by to check it out, but can I just point out to everyone that an estate sale is different than a garage sale or moving sale!!! An estate sale implies that the owner has passed away or is willing to part with everything in their home, and it does not take place on a lawn. I can't stand when I drive off my route only to find some housewife calling her garage sale, an estate sale!

Anyway, back to the lantern, I found it by following a sign, and it actually was an estate sale. The owner was there, and she was in the process of downsizing into assisted living. She had the lantern priced at $25, and I offered her $20. She told me she would give it to me for $20, but only if I really loved it because her husband's great-aunt had made it for them! I told her, not to worry, that I loved it, and that I had the perfect place for it!

Special thanks to Jeff for all his help! 

I can officially say that our TODO list is done! However, that only means that now I can focus on all the small little projects that I want to do including painting the foosball men on our vintage foosball table (U.S.A. vs. The Netherlands), and stenciling the vinyl window shades throughout the house.

Kitten Intermission!!! 

I would like to introduce everyone to the 4 most amazing cats in Denver, CO (heck maybe the world), Mr. Bojangles, Lucky Boots, Barbara, and Detective Ricardo Tubbs ... 

Mr. Bojangles

Lucky Boots (and Mike)

Barbara (and Matt)

And now for your viewing pleasure, a video featuring Detective Ricardo Tubbs, brought to you by The Ambitious Procrastinator herself, http://theambitiousprocrastinator.blogspot.com/