Happy Labor Day Weekend!

Oh man, this has been a long (yet quick) week. Does that make sense? Work is picking up for the 9/15 deadline. Zachary is back from Pendleton, but it's still an adjustment going from single mama for a month to having the family back together. I love having him back but change is always hard. 

What are you doing for this long weekend? We are going camping with the in-laws and I'm super excited! We're taking the pups and it should be a nice relaxing weekend full of campfires and smores, long walks, and plenty of pinnacle. Sunday/Monday we are also heading to my parents house to see my aunt and uncle! I haven't seen them forever so it will be really nice. 

My baby brother also has his first football game as Quarterback Coach for the Linfield Wildcats! Go Dude!

Are you excited for football season like the entire Boehme/Kane family is?!?!?! GO HAWKS! GO CATS! GO ZAGS! GO DUCKS!

Have a great weekend!

Photo found here via Poppytalk

Gettin' Our Bob Ross On

We had a blast painting one of our favorite landscapes last weekend - the Seattle skyline (although it didn't have any trees or little squirrels). Painting, combined with wine (and healthy appreciation for mustaches - ahem, Colleen, ahem) made for an awesome night at Canvas! - a paint & sip studio in downtown Kirkland! I'd been wanting to go for a while now and even though I'm not the best artist (I'm no Bob Ross - definitely far from it) I love being crafty and creative. 

We had Thai food before we went and then wandered down to the Kirkland waterfront for a quick photo. Sutira turned me on to Thai Iced Coffee! Have you had it? You MUST try it. It. Is. Amazing. I already decided I have to order it every time I have Thai food from now on. It's that good. Think sweetened (and strong) coffee with a dash of heavy cream on top (I never said it was the healthiest thing on the menu).

I really hope that is not a cat on a leash behind us in the above photo... kinda looks like it, no?

On to the wine and painting! It's a little spendy coming in at $40, but Sutira found a living social deal that ended up being about $27/each for a party of four! The deal included two bottles of wine between the four of us and painting, so it wasn't a bad deal at all. Plus, it's more for the experience, right?! And I'm all about experiences. 

We were the first ones there at 6:30, which meant we got the best spot with a view of the instructor. They had very light appetizers (think chips, salsa, grapes, cheese + crackers, pound cake) and a bar with beer and wine. Since we had wine included in our deal, I'm not sure if you have to pay extra to get a drink or not beyond the $40 regular price.

They give you four paintbrushes in various sizes, then you fill up on all your paint. The instructor then teaches you step by step how to paint! It's like a grown up paint by numbers. Pretty awesome. And as you can see, all of our paintings turned out pretty darn amazing (ifidosaysomyself).

Getting our paint on! Colleen is not impressed...

Ready to paint!

The sweet set up (Rule #1: Don't mistake your wine glass for the water glass to clean your paintbrush).

I don't remember what was so funny... but we sure had fun!

Here's a bigger and more elaborate version of what we were painting.

On all the walls they had inspiration of all the different painting they teach. You could actually paint whatever you wanted, but we all figured it would be better to just stick with the instructor. :)

Me and my masterpiece! Yes, my space needle is ginormous (that's what he said?). I just wanted to make sure if was the focal point... totally planned it that way. :)

Sutira and Colleen.

Colleen's masterpiece (can you spot the mustaches?).

Sometimes you just have to turn is upside down.

Ellie's masterpiece.

And here's Sutira's masterpiece already up on the wall at her place!

The whole group!

The whole process went surprisingly smooth since the instructor gives you each step. When you layer all the different pieces like they show you, it's actually pretty easy! Although, with two doctors-to-be and an accountant in our group you probably won't be surprised that we were the last group to finish up our paintings (perfectionists, much?!).

We had a blast, and I would highly recommend going if you want something fun to do with a group (and have the bones to spend). There was even a bachelorette party painting right next to us! I know there are a few other similar places around the Seattle area, too.

And one more time because we did so awesome.

Have you ever been to a place like this? If so, what did you paint? Did you find it easy? Challenging? Frustrating? Do tell!

The Perfect Summer Smoothie

Since I was a kid, I have always loved smoothies. Mostly in the summertime just because they are so delicious and refreshing. And they are healthy! Jam packed with fruit, you can't go wrong. Here's my recipe for my favorite smoothie: Strawberry Banana.

Ingredients - 1 Smoothie

1 Cup Orange Juice

Handful of Frozen Strawberries

1/2 Banana

1 8-ounce yogurt (I usually use orange or vanilla)

For two, use a full banana and adjust the strawberries and orange juice to the amount you want!

Directions

Pour it in, blend and enjoy!

What's your favorite summer drink?

Pacific Galleries Antique Mall

Hello! I hope you all had a lovely weekend. I had so much fun this weekend hanging out with friends (and watching an unhealthy amount of Downton Abbey Season 2). Saturday Kim and I went to the Pacific Galleries Antique Mall in Sodo after a delicious lunch at Cafe Macrina. We split the Buttermilk Waffle with peaches and a brown sugar whipped cream. It was yummy.

From there we went down the street to the antique mall. It was so much fun! Such a cool place filled with rows and rows of antiques and curated vintage finds. I loved it! We must have spent 3 hours in there just browsing every row and every booth. Some of the stuff was a little tacky, but most of the booths were great. 

The only bad thing is that some of the items were a little pricey. Some understandably so, but some we were surprised at the price tag. Here's some of the items we found...

We saw a ton of these old rusty utility baskets. These were the cheapest ones we saw for $26 each. Whey would be so cute in one of those IKEA square shelving units.

I loved these vintage botanical prints - for $325 each(!).

This cool old soap dispenser came in a set of ten and went for a few hundred.

There were two of these lovelies for around $800. I loved the aqua with the red piping!

I loved this dainty little chandelier. I think you could only put candles or tea lights in there, which wouldn't be very practical, but I loved the shape of it.

I loved this cool industrial table lamp.

And then there was this guy...

These huge vintage light bulbs were $20 each (the bulb fit in the palm of my hand for size reference), but I thought they would be awesome in a cluster as a chandelier.

I was eyeing these antlers for $35. They were pretty small, which I liked, but I just couldn't pull the trigger for the 35 bones.

They had a huge showroom area with a bunch of furniture. The styling was amazing! Kind of Anthropologie-esque. I was in love with those aqua chairs!

This collection of bottles went for $300!

This mirrored window reminds me of my chalkboard window, just on a much larger scale. Loved it (and the antlers). 

I'm a sucker for vintage books - this collection had such great detail.

I wanted this set of drawers so bad! Only $725... but perfect for more craft storage!

We hadn't seen anything like these lavender bottles. So pretty and dainty. They would look so cute in a cluster in a little girls room.

You know I love my German beer! If only we had a man cave.

There were tons of different vintage glass sets. We both loved this one with the gold stripes for display on top of a cute bar cart.

I really wanted to find shudder like this one - but not for $75.

This quilt was so pretty. I haven't seen one like this before with only two main colors (aqua and white). I loved the aqua color (of course).

And then there were the letters. Tons and tons of letters of all shapes and sizes. I wanted them all, but decided that I shouldn't since I already have our yarn letters, $1 art, and a couple other items. No more letters for me... unless I had found one that was sublime, but there was a shorter supply of Ks. 

 

And last, but not least - what we got! There was a flea market outside in the parking lot that day and Kim scored this awesome head version of the Statue of David. It was $20 and she wants to spray paint it a fun color like white or yellow. Since she just got back from her Italian honeymoon, it was an extra special find!

I bought the little bottle on the right for $12.50. I loved the two colors and the text on the bottle. 

Afterwards, we were on a antique-high and went over to Fremont (crazy with all the traffic) to hit up some of our favorite spots - one being Deluxe Junk. We found out when we got there that it was out of business! Apparently they were evicted! Unfortunate since they had some pretty good stuff. 

Instead we wandered to a few other places and wound up at Sweet and Savory Pie, which is a little pie shop that sells well, sweet and savory pies! We each got a little pie (I got the mac and cheese and Kim got the chicken pot pie) and split them. They were delicious! We had to refrain from going back for the sweet pies!

Such a fun day. Even though I didn't get much, it was so much fun to get inspiration and see what's out there (and of course to spend some QT with one of my besties, Kim!). I can't wait to go back!