One of my favorite things to do on the weekends is to find a new restaurants and coffee shops where I can write and be inspired. With the move to the north side of Denver, its so much easier to get up to Boulder to explore what shops are that way. It used to take over an hour to get into Boulder but now I’m just a 20 minute drive down the road. Boulder is home to University of Colorado which means most of their coffee shops are used to a regular crowd of students working together.
When I came across Alpine Modern, I knew it was going to be one my new favorite places to work. Their Pearl Street location has a beautiful wooden work table cut right out of the middle of a tree. The space is big enough that a large group could work together or enjoying a cup of coffee with a friend.
The shop is the perfect creative spot to be inspired to write, with a mid-century modern vibe and the coffee is both fresh and flavorful. Surrounded by cookbooks and fun gift ideas you could even pick up a little trinket to take home from the trip. You can’t beat writing about food with by bright and colorful cookbooks on hand to inspire.
I visited Alpine Modern on a busy Sunday afternoon in Boulder. Despite the crowd on Pearl Street there was plenty of room to work and the space had just enough ambient noise to help get the creative juices flowing. I’ll definitely be back to Alpine Modern for an afternoon work session again!
What are your favorite out of the box places work work? Bonus points if its in the Denver area and I can check it out!
Thank you so much to Rose Devore Photography for checking out Boulder with me and capturing these fun photos in Alpine Modern with me! Rose just recently moved to Denver and is an amazing Boulder photographer.
We moved into the new house just about a month ago and boy has it been a whirlwind. We learned from the old house that big projects like painting and carpet needed to be done as soon as possible otherwise we might end up waiting for years before getting things rolling. Painting the kitchen and bedrooms were the first project we wanted to check off the list to make sure that we had a blank slate to decorate. Our new house came with a bold choice in colors and covering those up allowed us to put a personal touch on the house and feel more like home immediately.
Once the project was done, we needed to get rid of the many buckets of paint left from the previous owners. Leftover paint can be hazardous, especially if its old enough to have lead, so throwing old paint away isn’t an option.
I just recently learned that in 2014 Governor Hickenlooper signed the PaintCare program into action, providing services to collect paint from drop-off sites throughout the state to processing facilities where it can be repurposed. Thanks to PaintCare, there’s no need to keep gallons and gallons of paints around to collect dust because there is nothing else to do with it. Dropping paint to PaintCare completely free, thanks to a fee small added to the sale of paint throughout the state and there are over 150 drop-off sites who accept any brand of paint regardless of where it was originally purchased.
PaintCare Accepted Products
- Interior and exterior architectural paints: latex, acrylic, water-based, alkyd, oil-based, enamel (including textured coatings)
- Deck coatings, floor paints (including elastomeric)
- Primers, sealers, undercoaters
- Stains
- Shellacs, lacquers, varnishes, urethanes (single component)
- Waterproofing concrete/masonry/wood sealers and repellents (not tar or bitumen-based)
- Metal coatings, rust preventatives
- Field and lawn paints
Empty cans are not accepted by PaintCare and can instead be dropped off in regular recycling or disposed of in the trash. Paint cans should be completely empty and any paint inside must be fully dry.
Dropping off paint is easy, and there are over 100 drop off sites throughout Colorado (and several other states). If you have paint you’d like to recycle, you can find a location near you on the PaintCare website location search. Lucky for us, the Sherwin Williams where we bought the new paint is also a drop off location so we could easily drop off all the old bold paint colors at the same time as picking up the new ones. Just like that, its out with the old and in with new!
Now that we are done painting, I’ll store some of the paint for touchups and in case we want to paint any other rooms, but all the extra stuff I’m going to hand off to PaintCare. Why trip over something I don’t need?
What are some of the projects you did when you first moved into your home? How did you prioritize where to start?
Photos courtesy of PaintCare.
After college I lived for a few years in Dallas where while I couldn’t stand the humidity, I fell in love with TexMex. I could easily eat Mexican food 7 days a week and there are plenty of days when I will happily eat it three meals in one day (Breakfast burrito, lunch burrito, tacos). While I was in Texas I’d heard about how amazing Chuy’s was, but I’d personally never experienced it because I didn’t spend a lot of time outside of Dallas.
When I heard Chuy’s was opening in Colorado, I knew I needed to check it out. With two locations, one in Westminster and another in Lakewood, there are now plenty of options to get my TexMex fix without heading back down to the Lone Star State. Continue Reading…
When I first became a homeowner, decorating my porch for the holidays quickly became one of my favorite things do to. A door wreath is a fun low maintenance way to show off your personality and add a touch of decor that can be updated throughout the year. I’ve written about how to make a DIY Felt Flower Wreath in the past and now thats its been a few years, I wanted to change up my spring decor for something fresh.
Ever since seeing the movie Steel Magnolia’s I’ve been in love with Magnolia flowers but here in Colorado, they are hard to come by. Even at the peak of Magnolia season its rare to see them in the store.
When I came across this Artificial Magnolia Wreath on CommercialSilk.com I knew it would be the perfect refresh for my front door. The flowers and leaves are textured, giving the appearance of a live floral arrangement but ensuring that no matter how long they say on your door, they won’t wilt before the season is over.
I love how many layers of petals each flower has. This detail really lends to making a silk floral arrangement look more authentic!
The door wreath itself is very sturdy, ensuring that while its attached to the door it will hold up to the daily use of family and friends visiting our home. The colors add just the perfect amount of brightness to our otherwise neutral color palette and gives our home a fresh spring look.
Artificial plants are a great away to add some color into your home without adding the maintenance of a living plant. There’s no need to water, repot or keep the animals out of a silk fern making the the perfect option for anyone with a ‘brown’ thumb.
What are your favorite ways to jazz up your spring decor?
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