ARALucy

Zombie Hockey Player

2011-12-22T10:49:00.002-07:00

Eric's sister gave him the coolest birthday gift. She found a hockey player nutcracker and painted him like a zombie! So creative.

Homemade Lip Gloss

2011-12-10T18:14:00.014-07:00

When I was home for Thanksgiving we made our own lip gloss! Of course, this was inspired by a pin I saw on Pinterest.com. It's really the easiest thing ever; it only requires 2 ingredients!
Kool-Aid and Vaseline Petroleum Jelly

You melt the Vaseline in a microwave safe bowl in 30 second increments, stirring in between each time, for about 7-8 minutes.

Once it's melted you add a packet of Kool-Aid. I think next time I will add more than one packet. It sort of changed the color but you can't really smell or taste it! Use a funnel to pour it into whatever lip gloss container you find.

I bought mine from RusticEscentials.com.
Over all these ended up being about $1 a piece including the Kool-Aid packets (we used Black Cherry and Pink Lemonade), Vaseline and the lip gloss containers.

Original idea from Meet the Dubiens.

A day at Mile High Marketplace

2010-10-23T20:00:00.004-06:00

Live painting at the flea market

2010-10-23T19:45:00.004-06:00

Eric has his art on display at the new coffee shop at the newly revamped Mile High Marketplace and right next door is the new art gallery where he did a live painting. After 2 years of dating I had never seen him paint so I was glad to be his art wing-woman. Here's his painting coming to life.

Life Plan #149-hiccup

2010-10-22T12:27:00.002-06:00

Yesterday at work I was informed that I will be reimbursed for Fall Semester but not to plan on it for Spring. This was a semi-major blow as part of the reason I took this job was due to the tuition reimbursement! They have no official procedure in place as of now and until they get one the whole shebang is on hold. Which, in a big picture way, I get. I really do but in a selfish me way it sucks!! Additionally, I had accepted loans for Fall and Spring but once I found out I would get reimbursed for Fall I unaccepted it...but looks like they took it upon themselves to unaccept my Spring loans too so this could get interesting.
Fundraiser anyone??

Hello blog..it's been a long time....

2010-10-18T13:02:00.002-06:00

I haven't posted here since May! That's crazy! Life has been crazy since then though. Started life plan #149-quit cubicle job that made me miserable, started job as dispatcher and started taking classes at Metro. I'm half way through my second semester and am now just starting to think about doing something creative again. I had to quit taking pottery classes now that I work nights. So I'm thinking with the weather changing it's time to start knitting again! Eric's mom gave me this yarn and dye kit for Christmas last year...bout time I give it a try! I just can't decide what shape/size scarf to make. I may go for a cowl...which means I need new circular needles. That's manageable.

large pottery photo dump

2010-05-12T10:27:00.003-06:00

vases galore and my new favorite coffee/tea mugs of all time!

army man FAIL

2010-04-07T22:52:00.005-06:00

what we have here is a very sad example of army man suicide. he jumped right off of the table. perhaps he was upset that i was trying to glaze him pink? he is accompanied on the right by another army man fail-lost his arm before he even had a chance to be turned pink.

the armless man was a bit more lucky...and useful. turns out his head is helpful to prop up handles while making mugs!

bedroom after!

2010-04-06T11:07:00.002-06:00

Ta-da! My bedroom is approximately the size of a shoe box so it is hard to get good photos.

bedroom before pics

2010-04-06T11:04:00.003-06:00

this isn't really before - before because this is when i had already started the purple to cover up the blue walls. however this is how it has look for about the last 4 months! the white is primer due to the purple paint running down the walls because of moisture on my walls. awesome.

how to craft the perfect (army) man-part 5-the end??

2010-03-09T21:11:00.003-07:00

i am overall pretty happy with how these lil' guys turned out. i think next time they'll get two coats of purple. i may still add a pink tutu onto him in a sort of "don't ask, don't tell" statement...although i may still consider them a test and start over to get the purple more even.

pitchers!

2010-03-09T21:09:00.003-07:00

here are both finished pitchers! finally! the first one looks so tiny now compared to the ice tea size one.

progress

2010-03-08T20:27:00.003-07:00

today i (i really mean my mom) was able to refinance my car for a $130 a month lower payment, i called comcast and asked them if they could help me lower my internet monthly bill - they took off $18 a month and then i called at&t and got my cell phone bill down a whopping $8 a month.

this helps a lot but i'm still afraid it's just not quite enough!

the good news is that midge has an appointment with the vet on thursday for a psychological analysis! bring on the doggie prozac.

janelle's cups, platter and make do pitcher

2010-03-03T14:34:00.004-07:00

my mom requested some iced tea cups and a pitcher for her bff janelle's bday. i threw in a platter just for fun and now they are getting two pitchers because i had to cut the first one in half length-wise due to giant crack(which was my own dumb fault)! this one is definitely not big enough to hold iced tea but will be great for some flowers.

how to craft the perfect (army) man-part 4

2010-03-02T22:24:00.004-07:00

i decided to make tiles of the army men or i think someone suggested it to me actually. most likely not my idea because it was a good one! anyway here are the tiles during the glaze process-for some reason this step seemed to be by far the most annoying. tedious painting!
i can't wait to see what they look like when they are done. i hope they are super vibrant and obnoxious.

more tailpipe vases!

2010-03-02T22:19:00.004-07:00

eric wanted a tailpipe vase to hold paintbrushes. well, he's getting two. i love the stripes and how the glazes bubbled up!
the bottom one is actually the smaller of the two even though it looks giant in that photo!

pretty picture!

2010-03-02T22:15:00.003-07:00

my friend scooter dave had an art show at Plastic Chapel in January and i picked up this gem! he's a forest monster and i love him.

what have i done!

2010-03-02T08:12:00.002-07:00

yesterday i did something that i think many people think i'm insane for. i quit my job of 6 years. that's my cubicle-where i have spent 40 hrs a week for nearly 6 years. the last year or so have been really miserable here (besides meeting my sweetie) and this year i finally decided i HAVE to do something about it. the job market is really not so hot these days (no surprise) so i decided i want to go back to school and get a bachelors degree. i only have an associates from the Art Institute of Colorado and it's pretty much worthless. one of my bff's Paula mentioned that her job is always hiring in the customer service department AND they have tuition reimbursement after a certain amount of time. so yesterday i interviewed, was offered the job and accepted.

the scary part of all of this is i'm cutting my income approximately in HALF.

the good parts are: i can walk/bike to work (cutting down on car costs), tuition reimbursement, flexible schedule, referal program, free healthcare!

the bad part is obviously how do i pay my mortgage!

so these next two weeks i'm going to try to refinance my car for lower payment (longer loan), cry to comcast about my internet bill and try to figure out how to reduce my cell phone payment from $70 a month!
i've already got my car insurance down $55 a month and cut my netflix from the $16.99 plan to the $8.99 plan.

so. i guess i'm off to a good start?

head gear

2010-02-19T16:15:00.003-07:00

i've been thinking about hats a lot lately.

hats of the vintage variety mostly.

example:

but here's the thing. it is weird to suddenly add hats to your daily wear. people will notice and wonder what's going on with you.

how do you introduce vintage hats to your wardrobe?

how to craft the perfect (army) man-part 3

2010-02-02T21:45:00.000-07:00

trial and error:
front

back

half cracked assembly job with likewise half cracked spatula and frying pan

not exactly the smoothest first run at him but we'll give him another go next week and hopefully his frying pan will look like a frying pan and not a tennis racket.

Tail pipe vases

2010-02-02T21:38:00.000-07:00

here's my newest complete tail pipe vase:

and my works in progress!

eggs glorious eggs!

2010-02-02T21:37:00.000-07:00

three of the women in my pottery class have chickens! i asked one to bring in a dozen for me and she did tonight. they are so pretty! she said that the eggs we buy at the grocery store are typically 10-11 months old. ick!

how to craft the perfect (army) man-part 2

2010-01-30T14:49:00.000-07:00

how to craft the perfect (army) man-part 1

2010-01-25T20:27:00.000-07:00

lilly's owie

2009-12-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

my sad little amish dog

belly owie

why is this dog wearing a lampshade?

potteries

2009-12-28T19:13:00.001-07:00

turtle vase and mom & dad's wedding pic!

tailpipe vase in use

platter i made for paula's bday

monster mouth ash tray-for nate for xmas

there is a dog under these snowy leaves

2009-12-13T17:09:00.000-07:00

tailpipe vase

2009-12-13T17:08:00.001-07:00

there were originally three of these that were supposed to layer/stack together but this is the only one that survived. i jokingly called them tailpipe vases due to their shape but after glazing this one actually really looks like a tailpipe. now i just need to find a spot for it and get some flowers in it.

bird cage lamp

2009-12-13T17:06:00.000-07:00

i found a lamp on anthropologie that i loved but it was $1600!! can you believe it. it inspired this 'bird cage' lamp which is actually made from an industrial size mixer beater. i'm so glad my mom and dad are handy and crafty and made this for me!

new rugs!

2009-12-13T17:05:00.000-07:00

Sole Purpose Two

2009-11-23T22:23:00.000-07:00

roxy's cups

2009-11-07T17:00:00.001-07:00

for my mama!

gma's christmas present

2009-11-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

i made my grandma 4 candle holder tray dealies...i hope she doesn't break them but most likely she will.

cups!

2009-11-07T10:13:00.000-07:00

my friend brooke asked me to make these cups for her mom...i hope she likes them!

more turtle stuff

2009-11-03T22:23:00.001-07:00

it's a vase that sort of resembles a flying saucer...although you can't really tell that by these pics

my halloween costume

2009-11-01T18:15:00.001-07:00

i had a monkey puppet too but he didn't make it into this photo!

creepy cupcakes

2009-11-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

i made these to take to eric's sister's halloween party...this is stolen from rachel ray...

tony's stuff

2009-10-28T18:54:00.000-06:00

tony requested some bowls...here they are! i threw in a cup because i had 3 bowls instead of the 4 i had intended. however, the glaze didn't really work out how i had hoped. i hope he doesn't hate them. i made them the same as christy's bowls with the sort of octopus fingertip marks..that's why they looked so dimpled!

new boots!

2009-10-26T09:01:00.000-06:00

i won these schnazzy doc martens on ebay for only $60. although now i'm certain my calves are too large and they won't fit. sad.

my new bed!

2009-09-13T14:39:00.000-06:00

this is my first real adult furniture purchase. i'm 31...hard to believe eh? i'm lucky to have a mother with great taste who likes to get new furniture about ever 24 days! so all my hand me downs suit me just fine but i really need some extra bedroom storage so here we go...

all you need is a coat of paint...

2009-09-11T08:08:00.000-06:00

i FINALLY painted my front door. this was supposed to be done at the end of may with the painting of the flower boxes. it definitely makes my door a focal point but i think i really like it!

Before:

After!

turtle shoe update

2009-08-17T19:49:00.000-06:00

i went to pick up my turtle shoe tonight, all glazed and ready to go! now i just need to figure out how i want to add 'grass' to it.

turtle shoe

2009-08-12T08:18:00.001-06:00

my pottery teachers friend puts together a 'shoe' show...this is going to be my entry...i think i'm going to call it shell toe. this was pre-glaze last night.

super vessel

2009-08-12T08:15:00.000-06:00

this was originally intended to be a tea pot but once it was put together it didn't seem very tea pot like to me so i left off the spout and handle and turned it into a super vessel!

pots!

2009-08-05T08:40:00.000-06:00

the tray and cup are from my 'earth to annie' workshop. the spoon rest i made in class because i had an ugly white plastic one for so long!

my how your garden grows

2009-08-05T08:38:00.000-06:00

this pics are from a week or so ago so everything is even bigger now!

holy veggie

2009-08-03T20:48:00.001-06:00

besides some random banana peppers and a lot of spinach this is my first real 'haul' from my garden. it's already way more food than lil' ol' me needs!

birthday presents!

2009-07-28T11:21:00.001-06:00

now i can become super educated about pottery! and about jesus's childhood.

lilly takes a hike

2009-07-28T11:19:00.000-06:00

little kids really get a kick out of a dog in a backpack. and so did a few old men. weird.

pendants

2009-07-09T13:06:00.000-06:00

i've also started making pendants out of my textured scraps at pottery class. i am sort of in love with them. i had to buy ONE HUNDRED of the 'bails' that you use on the back so i'm sure i'll be making a lot more!

platters!

2009-07-09T13:04:00.000-06:00

i made a few platters and a deviled egg tray for my upcoming backyard bday party. i'm going to be making fancy sandwiches which is why i made the platters. i should be able to use veggies from my garden which is totally radical.

new necklaces..

2009-07-09T12:58:00.000-06:00

i haven't made necklaces in forever but i got this turquoise center piece in telluride when my mom was here so it inspired me!

my first garden 'harvest'

2009-06-29T15:46:00.000-06:00

i already have spinach ready for consumption from my flower bed garden! wednesday night i'm having eric over for dinner and i'm going to make baked ricotta and spinach rigatoni...yum!!!

steampunk grasshopper

2009-06-24T08:58:00.001-06:00

my mom bought me these little birdie plates...love them...

but now they have a grasshopper buddy! eric traded this print for his canoe salsa bowl...it's a steampunk grasshopper! i love him so

close up

brie's bday 'cake'

2009-06-22T16:11:00.000-06:00

brie doesn't like cake so for her THIRTIETH bday i made her dessert sushi.
ingredients are rice krispies, gummy worms, marshmallows, twizzlers, fruit rollups, green dyed frosting and ginger candy! and no, i did not think of this myself! ha

canoe salsa bowl and water platter

2009-06-19T08:12:00.000-06:00

eric requested a salsa bowl from pottery class so i decided to make a salsa boat!

yard!

2009-06-19T08:11:00.001-06:00

the rain has been good to my plants and veggies!

corn and tomatoes and squash...oh my!

pottery

2009-06-12T13:22:00.000-06:00

lamp (in progress! i am missing a 'lamp nipple'..hee..)

and a 'sculpture'....it's really just my scraps that i sort of balled up and thought well this looks kinda interesting. i might hang it on the wall if i can find a good spot.

pretty plates

2009-06-12T13:20:00.000-06:00

roxy bought me these plates in telluride... they were only $8! total! anyway they were supposed to go in my kitchen behind my sink but i thought it was too busy so i added them to the new bookcases.

here's a close up...

omg new bookshelves aka i'm in love

2009-05-31T20:56:00.000-06:00

before....

after!

my favorite shelf:

ashley's new condo

2009-05-31T20:54:00.001-06:00

my mom spent a few days at my sister's new condo helping her get it all decorated and fancy. here are my favorite parts/arts.

new lamp!

2009-05-31T20:52:00.001-06:00

my mom was here this week and she was nice enough to pass on this lamp that i've been eyeing for quite some time! i love it...thanks mom!

spaghetti and meatball...cupcakes!

2009-05-26T12:01:00.000-06:00

xeroscaping...a pictoral...

2009-05-26T11:57:00.001-06:00

boots

2009-05-22T08:19:00.000-06:00

i think i require these.

platters!

2009-05-20T08:31:00.001-06:00

my mom requested platters from my pottery class so here are her mother's day presents!

octo-pottery

2009-04-28T21:49:00.000-06:00

this is my octobowl and octoplate. sadly i sort of made the bowl 'inside-out' and all the cool stuff is on the outside you wouldn't see if you use it like you normally do a bowl. and the inside is rather ugly so maybe it must be propped up for decoration only?

close up pottery

2009-04-28T21:47:00.001-06:00

still not the best pic but maybe some more detail?

radical new purse

2009-04-28T21:45:00.001-06:00

my new purse from the thrift store! only $6!

pottery...

2009-04-22T18:56:00.001-06:00

here's my first round of loot from my pottery class. unfortunately the mug has a crack in the bottom...more unfortunate...i didn't realize that until i had already poured coffee creamer in it!

platter

2009-04-22T18:55:00.000-06:00

my brother bought me 17 bowls for christmas. i was helping my friend brooke move and she had a matching platter which she was nice enough to give to me!

new goodies

2009-02-04T08:25:00.001-07:00

brie bought me a belated xmas gift this weekend...the cupcake book. it has the cutest ideas in it! there's even a whole garden patch idea.
the chicks are from anthropologie and they are for cream and sugar! they are so happy.

cutie pies

2008-12-30T08:50:00.000-07:00

it wouldn't be a complete christmas post without a new pic of the doggies!

fun gifts

2008-12-30T08:47:00.001-07:00

i got this alpaca yarn and crazy funky scarf from eric's parents. the yarn is so pretty but i'm scared to knit with it and mess it up!

mish mash scarf completed!

2008-12-30T08:46:00.001-07:00

i love it. it's so warm and cozy.

crazy christmas coincidence!

2008-12-30T08:44:00.000-07:00

my mom and i somehow managed to buy each other the exact same thing at thrift stores in different states. she didn't end up sending mine because she found other stuff so she was able to take a picture of the ben franklin bank twins.

sassy gma

2008-12-30T08:38:00.000-07:00

here's gma in her xmas gift scarf!

roxy's painting

2008-12-30T08:33:00.001-07:00

my mom painted this a month before i was born! i snagged it last time i was home.

christmas gifts!

2008-12-23T10:24:00.000-07:00

i opened my christmas gifts from my family last night and i got the best gifts! we did a thrift store christmas this year and it was a fun challenge. although, it didn't even occur to me to look at books for my brother until i opened a book from my parents! oh well. here's what i got...
and here's a close up of the pattern on that stack of bowls from my bro...there are 17 there! time for an ice cream social?

mish mash

2008-12-22T14:37:00.000-07:00

i have all these little yarn balls leftover from random projects. so i decided i'm going to make a mish mash scarf out of them. i started last night and made it pretty far so maybe i'll even be done with it this week!

new scarves

2008-12-05T10:48:00.000-07:00

these are, naturally, horrible pictures. i really need to work on getting better scarf pics! my buttons are too low so i'll have to redo them. lucky for me my dogs decided to take all the buttons off last night while i was gone! they did my dirty work for me.

geno giving a hairscut

2008-12-05T10:46:00.001-07:00

nate was brave enough to let ashley give him a haircut over thanksgiving. geno wasn't totally satisfied with her work so he took over and finished up!

thanksgiving table

2008-12-05T10:45:00.000-07:00

my sister always sets the nicest table on thanksgiving!

creepy babies...

2008-11-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

i snagged this from someone's facebook! it's from high school drill team...

doggie clothes!

2008-11-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

my gma was a little obsessed with buying my dogs clothes this weekend. i didn't stop her! look how cute they are! although...lilly looks sort of ashamed in the 2nd pic.

gloria steinem!

2008-10-30T08:58:00.000-06:00

paula and i went to see gloria steinem speak last night at the borders in northglenn. it was radical.

awww....

2008-10-28T08:42:00.001-06:00

look how cute my little guys are....

thrift find

2008-10-20T10:27:00.000-06:00

i got some good stuff thrifting this weekend but this is by far my favorite. it was only $2 and when i opened it up it had a handkerchief that has MOTHER embroidered on it!

is this your dog?

2008-10-16T09:00:00.000-06:00

if so he's living in my kitchen.

new scarf

2008-10-13T08:51:00.000-06:00

i finally finished brie's scarf which i do believe was to be her xmas present last year! it turned out pretty good...although my camera was not happy with the lighting so these pictures ar crap. she did have a moment of brilliance and flipped it around sort of like a cape...great idea!

how to dance: a picture tutorial

2008-10-06T16:29:00.000-06:00

chris' bday cupcakes

2008-09-23T13:30:00.001-06:00

i really wish this was on my desk right now.

vanilla cupcakes with mocha buttercream frosting and COCONUT! i was going to post the frosting recipe but i guess i can't find it.
sad.

silver plume tea room

2008-09-23T13:23:00.000-06:00

saturday ashley and i took gma to the silver plume tea room to celebrate her bday. roxy read about it in one of her magazines so of course we had to check it out. it was the cutest place and the food and tea were so good. the town itself only has about 180 residents but it has the coolest houses, all painted in bright colors with lots of wildflowers growing all over.

2008-09-10T09:40:00.000-06:00

i opened my front door this morning to put my netflix movie in the mailbox and found a lovely bowl of tomatoes from my neighbor! i decided i'm going to give her one of my homemade ice cream sandwiches as a thank you. the cookies for the sandwiches are chocolate white chocolate chip. for the ice cream i just used the ben and jerry's french vanilla recipe. so yummy! here's the cookie recipe i used from foodnetwork.com.
Chocolate White Chocolate Chunk Cookies
Copyright 2001 Barefoot Contessa Parties!

1/2 pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup good unsweetened cocoa
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 pounds good white chocolate, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Cream the butter and 2 sugars until light and fluffy in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the vanilla, then the eggs, 1 at a time, and mix well. Add the cocoa and mix again. Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and add to the chocolate with the mixer on low speed until just combined. Fold in the chopped white chocolate.

Drop the dough on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, using a 1 3/4-inch ice cream scoop or a rounded tablespoon. Dampen your hands and flatten the dough slightly. Bake for exactly 15 minutes (the cookies will seem underdone). Remove from the oven and let cool slightly on the pan, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

hibernation

2008-09-02T10:44:00.000-06:00

i can tell it's turning to fall because i'm in the mood to clean and clean out. i think i'm getting ready for winter hibernation. i cleaned out my pottery shelf on sunday. i have so many of the same size bowls! my intention was to put them all in a tote in the crawl space but roxy talked me into try to get as many out around the house as possible. i was able to save about 10 of them from a crawl space future and i gifted one at a bbq and i even threw one away! it had a bad bottom. sad.

corncob cupcakes

2008-09-02T10:39:00.001-06:00

i've been wanting to make these corncob cupcakes for a while and when better than a labor day bbq. the "kernels" are different flavors of jelly belly's and the "butter" is a smooshed starburst. of course, in the magazine they had cute little corn plates that they set them on. i used a broiler pan. clever.

2008-08-28T16:07:00.000-06:00

i was stung by a wasp on monday and apparently he had bacteria on his stinger and he gave me cellulitis. three trips to the doc, three shots and two prescriptions and i still look like this:

i wrote a story about the wasp. my friend angie thought the moral of the story was that i got an STD. ha!

once upon a time there was a dirty little wasp named harvey. harvey liked to stick his stinger in places he shouldn't, taking little to no precautions to keep his stinger clean. one night harvey had too many bee-tinis and became agressive for no apparent reason beyond being drunk and stung an innocent girl, we'll call her lucy, who was just trying to peacefully co-habitat with harvey and his unruly friends.
unbeknownst to harvey, lucy had an extravaganZZa(R) to attend but due to harvey's behavior, lucy was going to have to cancel.
maybe if harvey had known about lucy's plans he would have been more kind
to her but who knows.
we all know what happens when you have a dirty stinger and too many
bee-tinis.

thrift/art gallery finds from hazen

2008-08-22T09:34:00.000-06:00

all of this came from the cute little art gallery in my town except the two little painting which are from the arc. i'm most excited about the typewriter. i've wanted an old one forever and it was only $12 and it works.

aprons!

2008-08-22T09:24:00.000-06:00

the first one is a bday present for my friend brooke. (i hope she doesn't read this because her bday isn't until next week) it's reversible although in these two pics both sides sort of look the same. it's really really cute in person. i don't think these pics do it justice.
the second one i made for my friend angie. she loves gardening so we made her a garden apron.
thanks for the help roxy!

pics from nodak

2008-08-20T10:57:00.000-06:00

the first pic is of our dinner guests on saturday night. we made indian tacos in honor of angie's bday...and also because i love them! i'm going to have indian taco night soon. second pic is nate's new el camino, which is very pretty but isn't working so well and the last is of my dad's pride and joy, which is parked in front of my mom's pride and joy-her grain bin gazebo.