Catching Up

It's been a little bit since I've sat down and done a post.  We've had a busy couple of weeks and it's time to play catch up!  Two weekends ago, Lloyd and I decided to celebrate our 10th anniversary a little early by spending the weekend in Chicago.  We hadn't gone on a vacation, just the two of us, since our honeymoon!  His mom came early Friday morning and stayed until Saturday afternoon and my mom came Saturday afternoon and stayed until we got home on Sunday.  We had a wonderful time and it was a much needed getaway.  Some highlights of the weekend were the shopping, the Field Museum, The Emerald Loop restaurant, our fancy date night at Ruth's Chris, the dueling pianos bar, Howl at the Moon, and our hotel room, which had an awesome window seat hat was big enough for us both to lay in and look over the city.

Last week was busy with getting ready for Halloween, a costume party and Lauryn's birthday.  On Friday, Lucas and I went to Lauryns school and watched the costume parade.  It was a lot of fun and we loved seeing all of the different costumes.  Later that afternoon we had friends and family over for trick or treating and a get together/anniversary party.  It was a fantastic night!  Yummy food, tasty drinks and lots of laughs with great people.  Saturday night, we went to the costume party at Candlestone with our friends, Cheryl and Alan.  We were dressed as Flo from Progressive and Mayhem from Allstate and they were Alice in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter.  It was another super fun night!  Those two are a blast to hang out with and there's never a dull moment! ;)  Sunday was Lauryn's 6th birthday.  We decided to keep it low-key this year and have dinner, presents, cake and ice cream with our moms and this coming Saturday the four of us are going to have lunch and play games at Chuck E. Cheese's.  Lauryn requested spaghetti and meatballs for dinner, strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and Neapolitan ice cream.  She got a lot of nice presents and it was a very special day for her.

I think sums up our last couple of weekends pretty well.  I'll add a couple of posts soon with the recipes for the seven layer dip, crock pot hot cocoa, and the caramel apple sangria we had on Halloween night.  They all were a hit! :)  I've been having trouble getting my pictures downloaded too so I'll post them once I get the kinks worked out. :)

Wine & Canvas Part 2

After going to the Wine & Canvas class with Cary, I couldn't wait to do it again!  After talking with my friend Cheryl, we picked out another one and told a few friends about it.  Cheryl, her friend, Jennifer, and I signed up for the Black, White and Red class at San Chez Bistro.  We had a fantastic time!  We had a couple of sangria's, yummy food, and lots of laughter.  Anyone who knows me, knows I don't like red, so I got some blue paint on my palette and mixed up my own purple for the flowers.  I absolutely love how the color turned out.  I think I have a new addiction!  I absolutely loved the whole experience and hope to do it again soon!  I just wish I had the talent to do my own, original pictures.  Here's how the  night went:

The original.

 

[caption id="attachment_4996" align="aligncenter" width="300"] My colors.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4997" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Getting started on the background.[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_4999" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Adding the flowers.[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_5003" align="aligncenter" width="300"] On to the stems.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5005" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Finished product.[/caption]

Wine & Canvas Part 1

I'd been seeing pictures all over facebook about these Wine & Canvas events, for quite some time.  They looked like so much fun but I am not artistic whatsoever so I didn't think I'd be able to produce a decent painting.  Turns out, you don't have to be super artsy to be able to bring home a pretty neat looking painting.  The instructors give wonderfully detailed directions and by the end of the class, everyone has done their own take on the original picture.  A few weeks ago, Cary and I decided to give it a whirl and we had such a good time.  They played great music, we had a couple of drinks, split an appetizer and laughed the whole time.  I took pictures of my painting as we went.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Blank canvas.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4985" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Starting on the sky.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4986" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Adding color.[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_4988" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Starting on the mountains.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4989" align="aligncenter" width="224"] Here's comes the sun....[/caption]



[caption id="attachment_4991" align="aligncenter" width="224"] The beginning of the tree.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4992" align="aligncenter" width="224"] One painters "interpretation" of "Autumn Sunset." I'm pretty sure he only came to the class to humor the girl he was with. :)[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4993" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Tada![/caption]