Paint Your House

Last year for my birthday, Jason got me a gift certificate to Pinot's Palette.  I finally cashed in the certificate and went to the Paint Your House class.  It was a lot of fun.

They took this picture of my house:

And printed it on a canvas:

And I turned it into this:

Neat, huh?

Now we have a painting of our house in our house.  Kinda funny.

Free Press Summer Fest

I know, I know... two years ago I declared us Too Old, Too Crotchety for Hot Music Festivals, but after seeing this year's Free Press Summer Fest lineup we decided we had to go.

Day 1 

On Saturday, we got to the festival just after 2 pm.  Although everyone complained about last year's line situation, we walked right in.  I was glad they didn't make us throw out the ice we brought in our CamelBak and water bottle.  It was nice to have cold water for a few hours during the hottest part of the day.

We headed to the furthest stage to pick up a nice, refreshing glass of Saint Arnold's White Noise (the so-called "official" beer of the festival, even though it was only sold at one booth for us General Admission ticket holders) and watch Paul Banks from Interpol.  After that show, we caught Alabama Shakes and then the Arctic Monkeys at the Mars Stage. 

Alabama Shakes

 

Arctic Monkeys

I realized that this was our 8th music festival over the course of 10 years.  After being to so many, we've picked up a few lessons.  For instance, this year we took our Coleman stadium seats that we had originally picked up for our Alaskan camping trip.  We brought an umbrella for shade and we snacked on trail mix through the shows.  A girl sitting behind us asked, "Do y'all go to a lot of these things... y'all look like pros."  Jason responded, "We used to.  Now mostly hiking has taught us to always be prepared."  Hehe.

After those two shows, I grabbed a quick bite to eat and sat in the shade for a few minutes.  Then we headed back to the furthest stage to watch Iggy and the Stooges.  I think that was probably the best show of the evening.  He definitely had the best energy.

Iggy and the Stooges

Our final show of the night was Postal Service, whose first and only full album came out 10 years ago.  The show was packed, but I was still glad to see them.  I told Jason that the difference between us watching them now vs. 10 years ago is that 10 years ago we would have been front row.  Now that just seems like way too much work.

Postal Service

 

Day 2

 

On day 2 of the festival, we only planned to watch 3 acts, all of which were at the same stage.  We set up our towel and seats around 3 pm, so we had awhile before our first show.  Our friends Paloma and Mike needed some help collecting recyclables (their business got the recycling contract this year), so we got a few extra bags from them and picked up cans and such before and after the performances. 

 

I had been looking forward to the Cat Power performance since I heard she was on the lineup.  I've really enjoyed her latest album, Sun.  However, I think she was battling a cold or something.  I still enjoyed watching her, but I almost just felt bad that she had to perform out in the heat if she wasn't feeling well.

 

Cat Power

 

The second act of the day, Of Monsters and Men, was really incredible.  I'd call it my favorite performance of the weekend.  The Icelandic band had plenty of energy and the crowd danced along to most songs.  Jason and I were surprised how many people knew all of the lyrics.

 

Of Monsters and Men

 

In between this act and our last scheduled show for the day, we happened to catch a few songs from another one of the bands, Milo Greene, on a smaller stage.  Neither Jason nor I had heard of the band before we saw the lineup, but we were really impressed by what we heard.  Jason caught them performing a cover of a Sufjan Stevens song and he thought they did a really good job.

 

We ended the night with TV on the Radio.  I'm usually not a huge fan of their music, but they were really good live.  It was a nice way to end the weekend.

 

TV on the Radio

 

All in all, it was a really great festival.  I am beyond tired today,  but it was worth it.

 

And since I like to take trips down memory lane, here's a picture of us at our first music festival in 2004...

 

And here's one from this weekend...

I think we're faring pretty well.  Hehe.  We look so hot and tired in the first picture.  You can definitely tell we've improved our strategy of dealing with the heat and crowds at these things.

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.