Projects

I've been working on a lot of projects over the last few months, and I finally got them all finished, so I thought I'd share some before-and-after's (because those are always fun)

Kitchen Chairs

Ever since we got married, we've only had 3 kitchen chairs, which isn't exactly ideal, since we usually invite at least another couple over for dinner - making 4 people.  I've been wanting to buy a couple more, but didn't want to spend a lot of money and hadn't had much luck at the thrift stores.  One day, back at our old apartment, I saw these two kitchen chairs sitting by the dumpster.  They were in great condition and looked totally abandoned, so.... I took them!!!  Boo-ya, free chairs.  I sanded them, painted them black and roughed up the edges a little bit so they would match my other chairs.

BEFORE

AFTER

Hanging Spoons

Our new place only has 3, yes THREE drawers in the entire kitchen.  Great.  So to save on space, I had to come up with some creative solutions.  One solution was this:

I just got a piece of board, hammered in some nails, and voila - hanging spoons!  (Oh and the fabric on the wall under the cupboards was another project. I got the idea from my cousin Lindsey.  It's awesome because it peels right off with water and you can't even tell it was ever there!  Perfect for rental's.  Plus there are way better options in the fabric department, than wallpaper).

I also applied this same concept to my necklaces:

Patio Furniture

Since we have a backyard now, I thought it would be fun to get a patio set so we could eat outside and have friends over for BBQ's!  I found a cheap, pretty decent set on Craig's List for $30 (for 4 chairs AND the table! Not bad.)  But it was kind of a blah color, so I bought a couple can's of spray paint to spruce it up a bit.  I like how it turned out.... 

BEFORE

AFTER

Sewing Project

And finally, we've had a guest bed for a while now and I have a beautiful quilt to go on it that my grandma gave us for our wedding, but it was definitely in need of a bed skirt and some pillow shams.  Well, since I have my own sewing machine now, I just whipped some up! (Ok, I didn't really whip them up, it took a while, but hopefully I'll get faster the more I practice!)

BEFORE

AFTER

I was lucky to find some cute white fabric that matched exactly with the white on the quilt.

I love having projects to work on and I especially love finding inexpensive ways to improve my home!

USU vs. CSU

On Saturday, the USU football team came to our home town!  And so did Brody's family!  Everyone in his immediate family came to town for the game (except Berg - we missed you!) and we had a great time with them.  Brody and I aren't normally HUGE football/sports fanatics, but since we have ties with both teams, and the game was taking place literally 1/2 a mile from our house, we figured we couldn't miss it!  And it was a lot of fun - I do like the exciting atmosphere of being at a game with thousands of other people, and cheering for our favorite team.

Everyone (except me)

Brittney (Brody's sister), JD and their adorable kids

Me and Brod

There were quite a few Aggie's there to support the team!

Our niece and nephew - Devyn and Dylan. Aren't they adorable?!

It was a great game - the Aggie's dominated!  31-19.  Sorry CSU, but even though I live in your home town now, my heart will always be with Utah State.


Other than going to the game, we did many other fun things during their weekend stay:

Went to City Park (the most awesome place ever) to play on the playground . . . .

 Oh and we also fed the ducks while we were there too . . . .

We also walked around downtown, played in the water fountain, went out to eat at a few yummy places, and went to our new favorite candy shop - Rocket Fizz!

The white line above their head is water that shoots out every few seconds - they tried to get as close as possible without getting wet

Which candy to pick????

All of us in our backyard.

I hope they had a great time, because we sure did!  I really wish we could see them more often - especially the little ones . . . . they just grow so fast!!  Thanks guys for coming to visit!

--------------------------------------------------------

NEXT WEEK:  We will be in San Francisco for a week long little trip - I can't wait!!

Awesome {outdoor} Adventures in August

A day at the lake:

One Saturday, Me, Brody and Salomon spent a couple hours at Horsetooth Reservoir.  It's definitely the biggest body of water in the area, and just happens to be really close to our new house.  It's about a 5 minute drive or a 25 minute run up the mountain (which is what Brody did - he's really getting into trail running lately.  He wants me to get into it with him, but I can barely walk up a mountain, let alone run.  So we'll see).  We brought a picnic, some chairs and a book and enjoyed a few hours in the sun.

Salomon had a blast chasing the ball into the water.  Or into the liquid mud, I should say.  If you can't tell, the water near the shore was really muddy.  (I was wishing I had a video camera with me to capture how excited Sal was - so I ended up just taking a series of pictures one right after the other instead.  Imagine looking at these in a flip book)

It looked like so much fun that I decided to join him (and eventually we talked Brody into jumping in as well).  When Brody would throw the ball into the water, I would swim after it with Sal, and he kept looking back and forth between me and the ball like it was a race and he really wanted to win.  I think he was a little confused as to why I was in the water with him.  I also tried to pick him up in the water and he didn't like that either.

Me and Salomon doing our best doggy paddle

"I'll race you to the shore!"

Aww special.  Except it lasted about 2 seconds before he started squirming to get away.

When he was done swimming, he thought it would be a good idea to "dry off" in the sand.  Silly dog.  Don't worry, he went straight to the backyard for a bath first thing when we got home (our car also got a bath - these excursions sure are dirty, but a lot of fun!)

Hike to Horsetooth Rock

Horsetooth Rock is pretty famous around Fort Collins.  As you can tell, a lot of things are named after it: A reservoir (shown above), a road, a waterfall and many businesses.  At first I thought, what a weird name, I wonder where they came up with that.  And then I looked up and noticed that the tallest point of the mountains closest to us is shaped like a Horse's Tooth.  (Or any tooth for that matter - I'm still not sure how they decided on a horse specifically)

So one Saturday, we decided to hike to the top.  I love hikes that have a destination, so this one was perfect.  We went with our friends Chelsea and Stan, oh and both of our dogs of course.  It was a little hazy that day, but still really pretty and the weather was perfect for a hike!

A closeup of the tooth rock

The mountain range to the west of Fort Collins (this is where the big fire was this summer)

That's it for our Awesome Adventures in August.  Or I guess I also could have called it "Horsetooth Adventures" since that was the common theme.

Side note: Fall is officially on it's way!  The tree in our front yard just got it's first yellow leaf of the season.  We also just realized that this big tree in our yard is going to eventually shed all these leaves.... I guess we'd better buy a rake!  Bring it on, fall!