Gallery Wall

I recently got the urge to add some new art to our living room wall.  Jason has long wished to change out the Italian landscape prints we got from Kirkland's when we first got married.  I started thinking and had the idea to make a gallery wall using frames made out of different woods and wood tones.  Our furniture is still transitioning from hand-me-downs and garage sale finds to pieces we actually have bought for ourselves, and as a consequence, we have several different shades of wood in our living room.

 

We made a quick trip to an antique store a few weeks ago and were able to find 7 frames - all of different sizes and styles - for $30 total.  Last week I searched our house for art we already had to see if it would work in the frames.  Sure enough, I was able to scrounge up enough to make it work. 

 

Here's a before picture of the Italian landscape art:

 

 

And here's an after picture of our new gallery wall:

 

Don't mind Jason and the dog.  They are too lazy to move out of the picture.

 

Here's a close-up since it's kinda hard to see in the previous pictures:

From the top left, clockwise:

The first piece is an owl by local artist, Janice Cookston.
The sunflower is a photo print by Jason's mom.
The next is a wooden moose we got in Alaska, which just happened to fit perfectly in a 5"x7" frame.
The long vertical frame has some homemade art using book covers.
The larger framed photo is of my grandfather when he was a child with his grandmother.
The small photo is a picture I took of the old Kennecott mine in Alaska.
The shadowbox includes pictures from our camping trips.   I made this piece for Jason last year for our 5 year anniversary.
The painting of the water well is something Jason got me last year for our anniversary as well.
And the small flower painting we picked up at the antique store when we bought the frames.

Now we have the option to add to the collection whenever we find something neat or switch out pictures whenever we want.

Since I borrowed some of our art from other areas of the house, I printed out some of my photographs from the past few years and put them up.

It was a fun and easy project and I'm looking forward to enjoying it.

El Chupacabra

Last weekend Jason participated in the El Chupacabra de Houston 10k night trail run at Lake Houston Wilderness Park (about an hour north of town).  I decided to sit this one out.  I can hardly stay upright running on trails during the daylight.

 

Even though it was a night race, we got there mid-afternoon to set up our camp. 

 

Shortly after dark, the race started.  The runners ran with headlamps and glow sticks.

 

Jason was the first person to cross the finish line for the 10k.  The girl you see in the picture ahead of him was running the 5k.

The best part of the night (for me anyways) was the beer and BBQ afterwards.  It was a fun race.  Maybe next year I'll participate rather than being a spectator.

Art Car Parade

We finally made it to the Art Car Parade after living in Houston for over 3 years!  I'm so glad we went.  It was definitely the most interesting parade I've ever been to. 

 

 

The low rider above reminded me of home (South Texas). 

 

 

The car above was put together by kids at Jason's school.  How cool is that?

 

Similar to the Renaissance Festival, I found myself thinking, "I need to do this."  Seriously, all I figure we need to do is buy a used car and everyday pick up something random and glue it on there.  It's not like we use our garage for anything else. 

 

Anybody want to join us?

Play Buddy

My favorite play buddy visited this weekend while his parents were in town for work and a friend's wedding shower.  I didn't get to spend much time with his little brother, but he and I got some quality play time in. 

Last year when he visited around this time he was still a squishy little non-walking non-talking baby.

 

Now he's a walking, talking big boy.

 

Glad I got to spend sometime outside on this pretty spring day!

Crochet Hook Roll

We didn't have much planned this weekend, so I pulled out my fabric scraps and completed another sewing project.  This time, I made a case for my crochet hooks.  I still had my crochet set in the plastic wrapping it came in, so I needed something to store it in anyways. 

I got the idea for the design here, but I didn't measure any of my fabric pieces.  Also, instead of using three separate pieces, I just used one big piece for the outside which I folded up for the big pocket and down for the flap and then added another small piece of fabric for the needle pocket. 

About half way through the project I ran out of bottom thread and had to wind a new bobbin.  Somehow when I put the new one in, my tension messed up.  I spend about 3-4 hours this morning trying to get my tension back to normal.  I almost gave up several times, but now I can say I'm an expert and dismantling and mantling my sewing machine. 

Zion National Park

We went on our first true backpacking vacation last week.  We went to Zion National Park in Utah and hiked over 25 miles in about 4 days.

We arrived late Thursday afternoon.  After setting up camp at the Watchman campground, we were able to take the buses into the park. 
 

We got off at the Zion Lodge stop and hiked the short 2.2 mile roundtrip hike to the Upper Emerald Pools.  By the time we got back on the bus, it was getting dark.  We got lost looking for our campsite, by eventually found our way back.  It was the only night we had a campfire (since no fires are allowed in backcountry), so we treated ourselves to steak and mac and cheese.
 

The next day we took the buses back into the park and hiked several short day hikes. Zion is known for two more adventurous hikes - The Narrows (which is hiked through water) and Angels Landing. Since the water was still pretty cold, we skipped out on The Narrows. And well, I was too much of a chicken to even try to attempt the steep climb and long drop offs of Angels Landing.

We did, however, hike the 2.2 mile roundtrip Riverside Walk to see the entrance to the Narrows. Then we did the quick 0.4 mile hike to see the Weeping Rock. The most impressive hike of the day was probably the 2.4 mile roundtrip Hidden Canyon Trail. It had some great views and it was fun to hike into the "hidden" canyon, even though it required quite a bit of scrambling over boulders, toppled trees, etc.  (The first picture is of the entrance to the Narrows, the second is of the Weeping Rock, and the rest are from the Hidden Canyon Trail.)

 

 

 

About mid-afternoon, we left the main part of Zion and headed northwest about 45 minutes to Kolob Canyons.  This is were our true backpacking adventure began.

We started at the Lee Pass Trailhead and took the La Verkin Creek Trail about 2.5 miles to our campsite (campsite #2 out of 13 available in this part of the park).

 

 

 

I think we got to the campsite around 6:30 pm, which was just enough time to rub our sore feet, set up camp, and cook dinner.

 

 

Since there were recent black bear sightings in the area, we packed all of our food in a bear canister and did all of our cooking about 60 yards away from our tent.  Within 50 feet of our campsite we did find these tracks.  I think they are from a mountain lion, which are pretty common for the area.
 

 

The bulk of our hiking was the next day, where we hiked 4.5 miles to the Kolob Arch and then an additional 2.1 miles to Beartrap Canyon Falls (for a total of 13.2 miles that day - a half marathon of hiking if you will!)

 

I really enjoyed the La Verkin Trail.  I thought the scenery was nice, and plus, it's just so much more secluded than the main part of the park, which was nice.  Seeing the largest free standing arch in the US wasn't bad either.
 

 

 

And although our feet were mighty tired by the end of the day, I'm so glad we made the extra trek to Beartrap Canyon to see the waterfall.  We had to cross the La Verkin Creek (which was flowing fairly strong) 15 times between the Kolob Arch and the entrance to the canyon.  I kinda suck at crossing rivers, but got used to it after so many crossings!

We were both surprised to see snow as we entered the canyon.  Midday temperatures outside the canyon were in the 70's, but I guess it was still cold enough in the canyon to keep the snow from melting.  Even though we didn't hike The Narrows, I think this gave us a good glimpse of towering canyon walls.

 

 

It was a really nice trip and I think it went well for our first true backpacking adventure.  Can't wait to plan our next trip!  To see more pictures from our trip, click here.