I'M ENGAGED!

after almost 2 years of dating, peter proposed to me making me the happiest person in world! engagement is wonderful except for the wedding planning. i'm not a big fan of flushing my money down the toilet which it feels like our only option sometimes. we will persevere to a january wedding.

vintage art

i'm always looking for cheap art and i can't help but be drawn to jose lampreia. he merges photography with painting to create a vintage view of life.

Paris, Je T'Aime

Short stories for film by a collection of directors and too many actors to list. Showing at the Landmark Mayan on Broadway. Paris, Je T'Aime.

Jazz in the City

Grab your blanket, a bottle of wine and a picnic basket and head to the park. It's Jazz in the City time. Free concerts in Denver City Park every Sunday evening through the summer. See you there!

Used road bike

48 cm REI Women's Novara Strada 2002 $325

Trek 2200 WSD 47cm 650c $550

48cm Specialized Dolce Comp 700c $1000

buyer's regret

i often experience a feeling that would be the opposite of buyer's remorse. i don't often buy things and then regret buying it (thanks to a 30 day return policy at most stores), but my regret comes from walking away from an object that i sort of want and somehow talk myself out of buying it. then days sometimes weeks later, i realize i really do want the said object, but for whatever reason the object is not available to purchases anymore. maybe i remember it so much more grander in my head than in reality and i mistakenly put that object on a pedestal. am i alone in this bad habit?

for example i saw this pair of shoes back in november on amazon.com and i hesitated to buy them for a day or two and when i went back to purchases them, they were gone. my heart was broken and i still think about those shoes. sadly, i even found the same pair of shoes on zappos.com this week, but they cost 4x as much. now all i can do is mourn those shoes and move on hoping there is a better pair out for me!

a BIG flop

bad acting, lack of character development, beautiful scenery. jennifer garner was a disappointment as there was no karate kicks or wigs involved for this role in Catch and Release. the movie begins set in a funeral which should have been a wedding if the groom-to-be was not killed in a freak accident. after the opening scene it was one fragmented scene after another which helped us to never form an emotional attachment to Gray (garner's character), the left behind bride. later we find out the her groom had cheated on her while they were dating and had a son which he hid from gray... who cares! i didn't, so i turned the movie off because it was so predictable i saw the love connection with the bad-boy best friend from the dvd jacket. honestly, i don't mind cheesy, predictable romance comedies, but give me characters i care about and a plot that is interesting. two thumbs down for this sad excuse of a movie. the only plus of the movie was seeing bits and pieces of boulder, co and the flatirons. a majority of the movie was filmed in canada, but they took a week to film a few scenes around boulder. yea boulder!

birds FINALLY fly south

the bird print i ordered in february arrived a few months late and after much grief. wayne pate, the artist, must of gotten inundated with orders and somehow lost mine in the mix. understandable, sure, but then when i inquired about my order he told me twice that it would be in the mail the next day... it wasn't until 2 months later that i call my credit card to have them resolve this issue that i finally received the bird print. to wayne's credit, he did send me the print i ordered plus another one, both for free.

both prints are being framed right now, unfortunately framing will not be free. who knew art cost so much to display! my hope is the art looks fabulous on my wall.

green architects in boulder

http://www.vastarchitecture.com/Projects_Residential/LabHouse/labhouse.html

http://www.rodwinarch.com/projectHighlight.php?projID=80

http://www.namastesolar.com/index.htm

http://www.mkd-arc.com/index.cfm

i am a vegetarian, day 2

so far i have eaten a salad with avocado, hard boiled egg, walnuts and yummy poppyseed dressing, lots of fruit, yogurt, cereal, and a gardenburger at buffalo wild wings (i do not recommend this veggie option). i did not fully think out the decision to go vegetarian for 40 days and i definately forgot about my standing dinner with the family at a wing place where wednesday night is 50 cent leg night. last night, day 1, i sat sadly eating my dried out, poor excuse for a burger as drumstick bones were flung about the table so carelessly. could my 15 month old niece know that the chicken she has laughingly dropped on the floor would satisfy my carnivorous hunger? it's going to be a long 38 days!

birds of a feather

i just pre-ordered this print from wayne pate for $30! what a steal. thank you Design*Sponge for the heads up today.

frozen yogurt comeback

i'm trying to remember the last time i had frozen yogurt, but apparently it is all the rage in Los Angeles as stores are opening all over town and customers are willing to wait an hour in line for a cup of soft, sour, frozen yogurt in plain or green tea flavor with real fruit or sweetened cereal like fruity pebbles. as i child i remember going to TCBY (the country's best yogurt) and it satisfied me during the warm weather, but it's nothing i craved. now according to pinkberry's website and was written in the LA Times, it is "the taste that launched a 1,000 parking tickets." none of the chains have made it out to denver, the closest thing i can find is suzy-q-frozen yogurt on 16th street mall at welton although this craze started in korea in 2004, the aurora store, Not Just Yogurt might be our best bet. i'll check it out, but i may stick with coldstone creamery and the cake batter ice cream!

hey

one last quick shout out to this great blog site Design*Sponge. this blogger has great taste on all things home. thanks grace bonney for your daily entries!

what to give up?

tomorrow is ash wednesday and beginning of lent. i have never really participated in the ritual of giving something up for 40 days, but this year i have inclination to go without something in rememberance of jesus christ dying on the cross for me. thoughts so far would be meat which would be a hard for me, but i guess that's the point. dessert, ice cream, chocolate, wine. hum probably meat would be the most impactful, yikes. i am a vegetarian (for the next 40 days).

art for cheap and for charity

want to buy art, but think it's too expensive? want to give money to a good cause, but can't decide which one? well, let pretty:darn:swell help you out! it's a website put on a brother and sister duo that sells prints of new artists for $20. plus they donate $5 of each sale to a charity of the artist's choice. check them out and buy a few prints while your at it!

open already!

i have been waiting and wondering when in my lifetime the sunflower market on 38th ave and wolff street will open. i have called multiple times and each time the open date gets pushed out. i see that the framing is in place and hopefully they will begin to start stocking the shelves. sunflower market is also putting in a store in littleton/highlands ranch where a mervyn's store once was. who will open first?

redbox dvd

redbox is dvd rentals
redbox is a snap
redbox is a dollar
redbox is online
redbox can even be FREE
yea redbox!

congrats!

my friend is getting married on october 20, 2007, yippee. congratulations sarah and michael (aren't they a cute couple)!

inspired

like any woman, i like jewelry and two designers that have caught my eye lately are adina reyter (shown on the right) and anna beck. they have inspired me to take a jewelry making course at clear creek academy of jewelry and metal arts. i look forward to finding out if i will enjoy working with metal...

1 warm spot in a very cold month

january has been down right frigid, brrrrrrrrr! this morning i walked to the lightrail in below zero temperature and rick, my 4runner, was not about to start running after sitting out in -18 degrees all night. denver weather has been reminding us that snow comes in the wintertime, a fact quickly forgotten after a few previous years of mild winters. my bright spot has been a quick work trip to san diego where the highs were in the 60's and the locals still wore parkas and shivered like it was alaska. me, i ran along mission beach with shorts soaking in the smell of salt water and the heat radiating from the sidewalk. little italy, in downtown san diego, offered patio seating and is the setting of niche boutique. i bought a cute, dainty necklace there made from adina design, but the boutique also offered adorable baby clothes and accessories along with designer clothes for women. my silver disk necklace will be my sun symbol keeping me warm until the snow melts and denver thaws out.

Christians said what?!?

a theater company named The Civilians from New York have been interviewing Evangelicals in Colorado Springs and is set to put on a musical called Save This City. their research began in April of 2006 and their subjects are the gamut of Christians living in the Springs which is known for the evangelical population. Their script will come from direct quotes of hundreds of liberal to conservative Christians. this seems like an interesting concept and will definately challenge how Christians see themselves. i'm all for poking fun at my own Christian sub-culture, one reason i got such a kick out of Saved the movie. when i step outside the bubble, it really is quite amusing to see the hypocricy and legalism that we cling to so desperately. BUT i have to come back to the essential message of jesus. i do need to be rescued.

i want to be like a californian???

good news: our neighbors to the west are doing their part to use less natural resources and colorado should follow suit. we boast 300 plus days of sunshine every year, why not use that fact for more than just bragging rights? solar panels are being installed twice as much as the year before in california partly because of state rebates and federal tax credit. i remember in the 80's growing up in evergreen with a few hippie/mountain parents installing solar panels on their houses, but that trend was short lived. if new house builders and current homeowners installed them, they would be serving both their self-interest (i.e. pocket book) and our depleting natural resources. win-win if you ask me. now i just need to convince my apartment complex to put a few dozen panels on our roof!