I've Got Two Turntables and a Microphone...

Once upon a time, I loved colours...actually I still love colours. But once upon a time I loved colours on my furniture! Bright ones! Lots of them! Lookin' like one of them change-colour disco floors. Well, as all of you know, James and I are now college graduates so my disco tables would just not do for our new sophisticated lifestyle. No. We needed more subdued colours...like gold and silver...which still may be in disco floor patterns... So the moral of the story is: we've gone from '65 to '75. And we all remember just how much more sophisticated and posh '75 was. Alright! Here we go...

Before:

These little twinsies were found on the side of the road...bad, bad water stains

The disco floor table itself.

Pssshhh so '65.

Drum roll please....


AFTER!:

Gold/silver makeover!

Silver paint over gold. I love this.

What does square equals square mean you ask?...

...it means it was inspired by our new TV table (from Craigslist)

LOVE this one.

Golden beauty.

So there they are! The new tables for the new apartment near our new jobs!

Also, the Brandons gave us their awesome couch whose cushions had a little run in with the dryer...so I refinished said cushions (sorry, no before picture):



So...what do you think?! Are the squares on the long table weird? I haven't decided... I love feedback. Thanks!!

A Three Year Recap

Today is the day! James and my three year anniversary! So, in honour of the big day, I'm going to give you all a little recap on how this magic started ; )

Once upon a time James came to Colorado to attend University of Northern Colorado. He lived in the dorms and liked to skateboard in his room. This disruptive noise made him form a great friendship with the girl who lived below him, Heather. After their freshman year, Heather decided to transfer to CU in Boulder and work at BD's Mongolian BBQ which, coincidentally, is exactly what I was doing! We became the best of friends. Then one day, I realized how much Ram Pride I had and decided to transfer to CSU. James had just made the same realization. We both reported this overwhelming pride to Heather and she told us that we should be friends. After about a week in Fort Collins, we decided to meet up at the LSC to get football tickets for the up coming game. I got my ticket and then got really shy. I didn't want to leave though because I did want a friend in Fort Collins. So instead, I just hid behind the stairs. After a few minutes, this cute boy in Levi 501s and a Liverpool jersey approached me exclaiming "There you are! I didn't think you were here!". After telling each other some awkward Popsicle jokes, we decided to go get coffee at the Alley Cat where I revealed that I am Canadian and played hockey in high school...James' dream girl! ...or at least big points. We also found out that we liked all of the same music so I invited him to come with me and some friends to Monolith Festival (R.I.P.) at Red Rocks. After a football game, some walks around Old Town, some more coffee at Alley Cat, and a weekend spent at a music festival and treacherous mountainous race, we were officially dating. And such was born "Sniffs and Grizz" (our rap group), the CATS, and the Pup and his Bone : ) And the rest is history! I will now sum up our three years together in a bunch of pictures for your viewing pleasure. Please enjoy:



September 16th, 2007 - Monolith Festival - Morrison, CO



March 2008 - Virginia Beach, VA

June 2008 - Battery Park, New York, NY

September 2008 - A Tree in Red Feather Lakes, CO

January 2009 - A ship in Baltimore, MD

March 17th, 2009 - Winter Park, CO

May 14th, 2009 - Fort Collins, CO

July 3, 2009 - Ann Arbor, MI

July 2009 - Toronto, ON

January 2010 - Woodbridge, VA

January 2010 - Woodbridge, VA

May 14th, 2010 - Fort Collins, CO

July, 2010 - Canadian War Plane Museum - Hamilton, ON

July 2010 - Lake Couchiching - Floral Park, ON

September 2010 - Tour de Fat - Fort Collins, CO

I love you, CAT! Happy Anniversary!! xoxox


There's no place like a new home!

And in other news...James and I found a new apartment!! We will now be residents of Gunbarrel (No longer Ghettos, Colleen...I promise!) in our very own place. It's just lovely. Fireplace, garage (aka room for hockey equipment!), soaking tub, patio, beautiful mountain views and more! I will definitely be updating you all as we get in there and start decorating and making it our home, but for now, here's a couple of pictures that the owners took (with their furniture in it, obviously):

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

Bedroom

So, what do you think?

And here is my first little piece of art for the apartment...I stole this idea from Mallory (sorry and thanks!!). I bought these keys on Etsy from GlamourGirlBeads...she finished them herself. Then I just framed them in a little frame and Voila! cute little art.

Firefighters are the best!

So as most of you know, there was a huge fire (actually a couple) in Colorado. The 'Fourmile Fire' was approximately 3 miles due west of my house. Scary stuff. Although, I feel extremely fortunate. 166 homes were lost in the 7000 acre fire that tore its way through the mountains JUST west of Boulder. It's been so sad to learn about family and high school friends losing their homes :( They're saying now that the fire was caused by a smoldering fire pit on someone's property rather than the initial theory of someone hitting a propane tank with a car (which they would've known was not possible if they had just watched a little more 'Myth Busters').

On the first day of the fire, I was sure there was about to be a zombie apocalypse. All of North Boulder was extremely smoky but the sun was trying to peek through giving off an eerie red glow. There were also large white and black ashes falling out of the sky. We knew right away that it was a huge, dangerous fire.

Ashes on our driveway

Monday night the smoke pushed up a bit which, among all the terrible destruction, allowed for some really beautiful pictures:

A slurry bomber and the setting sun behind the smoke

Beauty in the breakdown

Smoky sunset

Slurry bomber flying over our house

On Thursday (Day 4 of the fire), I decided to make 150 cookies for the firefighters whom were all camping out at the Boulder Reservoir (where I work every summer).

Thank you for saving our town!!

Lindsey and I brought the cookies over and after witnessing the firefighters coming back from the fire thirsty, hungry, tired and covered in soot, we quickly jumped into volunteering to give them all of the things that the community had donated - including food from many restaurants, cases and cases and cases of Gatorade and water, socks, t-shirts, baby wipes (for their poor sooty faces!), chapstick, etc. We stayed until 11:30 p.m. and heading back at 6 a.m. to help some more. The shifts that the firefighters were pulling were the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. shift or the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift. Friday morning, I got the pleasure to thank and assist firefighters from all over the state and states surrounding Colorado. I also got to see my good friend Fred whom is a firefighter. It was amazing. They are all up there risking their lives and own homes to save other peoples' and our town and they were thanking ME for handing them a water and a cup of coffee. Crazy. I have a new respect for firefighters. They are definitely a great group of very selfless people. Anyways, with the Boulder fire 90% contained tonight, a bunch of them have headed up to the 600 acre fire that started 30 miles north of here yesterday!

Anyways, the point is that this crazy fire is almost over and we desperately need some moisture in Colorado...please get your rain dance on. Thanks!!

And thank you firefighters!!! We all love you!! xo

Drum Roll Please...

I got a job!! Starting in a couple of weeks (after I finish up with my PI temp job) I will be working full time at Zeal Optics! They are an awesome company in Boulder that make really good sunglasses and ski goggles. They are giving me the flexibility to do general stuff at first and feel the company out before deciding where I am needed based on what I want to do. Pretty cool.

In other news, I don't even care who won the cu -CSU game yesterday because I was having too much fun doing the Tour de Fat!

James and I headed up to the FORT on Friday night to attend Kathleen, Adam, and Eleanor's going away party. It was on a community run farm which was pretty cool. Good food, good beer, good friends, good fire. I sure am going to miss them!

Yesterday morning we woke up, I pulled on my bug pants:

And we were off to the Brandon's house for bagels and bloody marys.

Afterwards, we headed over to Steph's house to meet up with James' crew

And then off the New Belgium for the start of the ride!

To sum things up, the ride was awesome, there were 15,000 riders, we all recycled/composted a lot and raised a lot of money, we found out that "circus-punk marching band" music is amazing, got hugged by a giant Tony Danza and left the brewery happy, dirty, tired and feeling like it was three days later.

Mucca Pazza! Awesome!

We were so disctracted that we didn't even CARE that there was an unfavorable outcome at a particular football game. Whatever. My blood still runs thick with green and gold.

The end.

I Can't Wait For Prince Charming to Give Me My Medal!

So, as long as everything goes as planned, Shawna, Ryann, Mallory (maybe?...hopefully!) and I will be straping on our tiaras, tutus and running shoes and making the trip to Orlando in February to run the Disney Princess Half Marathon! I am so excited! We will also meet with Christina Gazzia (and Mr.Collins?! Huh, huh?!) and will trek our way through the magical world of Disney for 13.1 miles :) So stoked. Shesh and I have both already started training! Please let me know if you are interested as well...I mean, PRINCE CHARMING will be there.

At first I was going to make this look legit then I realized it was much better like this.

Also, here are some more super great songs:

Dull to Pause - Junior Boys
True Affection - The Blow
In the Morning - Junior Boys
Moth's Wing - Passion Pit
Electric Feel (Justice Remix) - MGMT
Hang Me Up to Dry - Cold War Kids