Just In Case You Were Wondering....

I have promised a couple of people (for you Whitta) that I would post pictures of our apartment up as well as some of the paintings and decorating projects I have taken on. Since the job search lasted a little longer than I would have ever thought or preferred, I have spent time finding inexpensive (or free) ways to decorate our apartment. Ryan so graciously let me keep my craft supplies somewhere accessible (he wanted them in the storage closet...but we compromised). Now they are in these cute and nice-looking canvas drawers in our living room...tucked away where only I know what is in them. There is still a lot of decorating I would like to do in our apartment, but I think we have gotten a good start and we can add items as we find lasting pieces that we will want to use in our home someday.

The leaves on the mantle are fabric sewn onto a piece of twine to make a fall leaf garland. It was something I saw in a magazine a long time ago and vowed to do it one day in my own home.

I bought the giant S to use for our wedding and there didn't end up really being anything to use it for and we gave ourselves enough projects as it was. There was nothing over the tv so the decorated S did well to fill the space. The frame came later. It was a mismatched frame at Joann's that someone must have designed and then it wasn't right for them. It was the perfect size for what we needed so I sloppily painted it black (to get a more worn look). It has become one of my favorite pieces in our apartment.

The painting above the door was a last minute fall decoration that I ended up being more pleased with than I expected so that's always nice. I'd love to end up selling it in my future etsy shop, although I realize it will be out of season soon.

Our back porch has kind of become a haven for me here. It is always cool on the porch and the view of the Rockies is something I will always enjoy and thank God for (and my husband for picking the 3rd floor). This is our porch and some of the views from our porch. I think you will see why I love it so much. 

Here is our kitchen and the area around it. It looks very cluttered in pictures, mostly because of the million pictures on the fridge, but its not nearly that bad in real life. Up on top of our cabinets I have all of my beautiful wedding dishes/bowls etc. displayed 1. because we don't have anywhere else to put them 2. they are so pretty so they make for a nice filler to that space. 

 

This is the "Simmons" painting I made for our kitchen. I don't do a lot of red, but it goes well with a lot of our dishes and kitchen colors. I love the way the painting brings everything together. Sorry I can't take pictures that are not crooked. I am working on it.






This is our dining room area (really it is all just one big room but it is hard to show that in a picture) that is right by the door to the porch

 

It is hard to take pictures of our bedroom from any good angle but I will give you my best.  I am still deciding on what I want on the walls in here so it is still a work in progress.

I would show you our bathroom, but lets be honest, unless I had it decorated in a really spectacular way, you don't care about seeing it. What I will show you is a glimpse at what my studying husband typically looks like. Isn't he adorable? 

Now, onto some other paintings I have been working on.....These are some I would like to put in my etsy shop (in the works, i'll add the link here when it is actually presentable) if I can ever sit down and figure out how to format the pictures correctly. That is my current stumbling block, but I will overcome it. Until then, let me know if you would be interested in either the Thanksgiving or Christmas painting for yourself or a friend or family member. I might even give you a discount if I am feeling generous...

This Thanksgiving painting is still very much a work in progress. It was an idea I had in my head and tried it out here for my mom. Many touch ups and a couple more coats here and there and I will be done with it, but I wanted to show what I had so far. Jilly can't wait to put it up at the house this year.    

Below is a Christmas painting I did for us to use in our apartment. This idea started as a gift for (Mother) Teresa about 2 years ago. She is very creative with her Christmas colors, so this idea of the colored lights works perfectly with her color schemes. I have done a handful for others since then to give as gifts or for their own homes. I really enjoy this one and can't wait to put it up in our apartment as soon as we get back from Thanksgiving! 

After all that, I couldn't forget to give you a small glimpse into our lovely but all to short "fall break" in Destin. We flew in Thursday morning and met our Simmons family at the beach for some relaxation, wonderful company, and delicious food. This is one of the few pictures we took of the weekend at the restaurant that is very near and dear to our hearts (where Ryan and I had our very first date), Dewey Destin. 

Adventures in Subbing

If you didn't know already, I finally got a job! I am so thankful! 
I am subbing in the Cherry Creek School District. From what I have seen just in passing many of the schools around our apartment and different parts of Denver, this is exactly where I would want to be. The schools are very nice and many of them look brand new. Everyone I have met so far has been very kind and helpful. I am trying to make lots of contacts in case a good opportunity comes along in the schools I am subbing for. I had training last Wednesday and found subbing jobs for Thursday and Friday right away. Here is an excerpt from a message I sent to my dear friend Caroline Bumpus. 


Yesterday (Thursday) a child asked me if I was from Germany because of my accent...I responded - No, I'm just from Tennessee. You probably don't hear much of that. 
Today (Friday) I said "y'all" more times than I'd like to admit to my middle schoolers. They thought I was from Texas. I continued to tell them I was not from Texas. I had to send two boys to the deans office. 
Middle schoolers smell like Taco Bell and onions. Or at least lunch time in the halls smelled like Taco Bell today. It was weird.
There are redneck kids even in Denver I suppose because I have seen some weird mullet mohawks and one kid had a buzz cut with one very small unfortunately placed patch of braided hair on the left side of his head. It was bizarre. I had to tell myself to stop staring at it when he was talking to me.
I still stand by my observation (Junior Impact 2008) in saying that middle schoolers think they have to RUN everywhere. It's amazing. I should observe it more and then do interviews on why they think it is so necessary. It made me laugh, but I had to tell them to stop. It was my job.


I feel certain that there will be many more interesting stories from my subbing experience. I am glad to be back in schools and learning new things everyday. It is nice to see that I am still passionate about teaching. 

Lovely Ladies, Leaves, and Lance

Disclaimer: The picture formatting was on here is all out of whack. I know, it bothers me too. I tried to fix it for entirely too long and then gave up. 


Ryan and I had been told about how beautiful the Aspen trees are when they turn yellow in the fall.  After our time at the Maroon Bells in August, we set a goal of making it back in the fall.  Last weekend, we planned a camping trip to see the leaves. Anna and Miriam joined us and spiced up our trip.  They were such a fun addition to our trip and were up for anything (which was perfect because we didn't exactly plan any of it out...). 

We left early Friday morning and drove through the gorgeous Independence Pass to get to Aspen and our campground. We found an area to set up camp before we headed to see the Maroon Bells.

                                                  
I could try to describe how gorgeous it was there, but I will let the pictures do that for me. We had such a fun hike to Maroon Lake, even though it was mostly dried up. The weather could not have been any more enjoyable.

  

Our hike ended about 5:00 p.m. and we realized that we had not eaten a real meal all day. So, instead of freeze-dried food at the campfire, we decided pizza in Aspen would hit the spot. 

Afterwards we headed over to the local grocery store which ended up feeling more like a zoo. We got supplies for a fire and s'mores and Anna and Miriam almost got lost trying to get to a dungeon bathroom under the grocery store. Mir actually took a video so I'll try to get a hold of that to include here. 

The next day the girls (accidentally?) slept in while Ryan woke up at the crack of dawn to watch the sun rise at Maroon Bells. He got some pretty incredible pictures.

When he came back, we headed into Aspen to explore while Ryan listened to the Tennessee game on the radio. We were in Aspen most of the day checking out all of the stores, the street market, and the coffee shops. We liked to consider our day in Aspen "pampered camping".  It worked quite well and all of our food was delicious and easier to enjoy than the freeze-dried camping food that we brought to eat (it ended up back at REI).

On Sunday we woke up and drove back through Independence Pass and on to Kenosha Pass.  Ryan had read about a Ghost Town that was rumored to be one of Colorado's "most preserved" Ghost Towns.  It was the last day of the season there so our timing was perfect. 

 

Now, for Lance.  Lance Wheeler and I became friends our freshman year when he briefly dated my roommate.  Lance was in Denver recruiting for Lipscomb for a couple of days so we made every effort to get to hang out with him.  Lance, this picture is probably about 6 years old, but I thought I would put it here for old times sake. It is so nice to have friends around from home.  We had so much fun getting to show Lance different areas and restaurants that we have found.  We are hoping to see him a couple more times during ski season.

I'm still getting used to this blogging thing and Ryan won't blog about anything he can't make funny, so you'll just have to bear with me here. I've promised Whitney that I would put up pictures of the apartment soon so I'll be working on that for my next blog. I've also got some other feature blogs coming up so get excited people. I figure, if Libby Barker can blog about everything (and do it well) then I can give better and more frequent updates. I know you are dying to know about our lives. Thanks for tuning in.