Instagram: July 4th Week in Review

I hope you all had a wonderful July 4th! 

This past week has been filled with new adventures around here: floating a river, painting rooms with bright colors and chalkboard paint, and experimenting with a few new art forms.

Here's how Instagram caught what we've been up to:

The Old Capitol Grill in Golden, CO

We escaped the heat of Denver and headed a bit west into Golden to float the very cool Clear Creek, just outside Golden, Colorado.  The boys and I had never floated a river before, but it sounded like a lot of fun!  

Floating Clear Creek

We loaded up our car with four heavy duty tubes (inflated-yeah, that was a full, squishy ride on the way up!), river shoes, sunscreen, towels and a cooler, and spent the afternoon riding a few rapids downstream.  We aren't sure what was more fun: floating, or watching all the other people float.  When all you have is a little tube between you and the river current, you can get into some funny predicaments!

After our long day floating, we headed into town for our favorite happy hour at The Old Capital Grill.  This building is one of Colorado's most famous historic buildings, and was once the original capital building for Colorado.  Not only do they have a great price on local Coors beer, they also showcase the state's original safe still in the wall of the building!

Back at Home....(oh the projects!)

Painting boys' rooms, with magnetic chalkboard paint

Both boys needed a major room makeover this year.  We started by adding a bit of color with paint, and giving them a magnetic chalkboard to inspire some creativity.  The paint colors went on without a hitch.  The chalkboard wall required special primer to make it magnetic.  It was awful!  It spattered everywhere and was impossible to clean off.  

At the end of the day, it really isn't that magnetic, but it holds up some light papers with some light magnets.  After "conditioning" the chalkboard paint (which means you get to rub chalk all over it, getting profuse amounts in your eyes, nose and mouth), they finally have a fun spot to doodle and hang up their artwork.

Having fun taking care of two little boys this summer

Though having the boys home from school for the summer affects my work schedule, I am grateful for this time to have with them.  I find the moments where Mickey, Bowser and Luigi end up watching late night television with us to be precious.  We've also spent time upcycling cereal boxes into wall art (I'll share more about that in a later post), and sometimes I get an hour or so by the pool to catch up on my reading and writing.

Living the Artful Life with Elysian Studios

I'm dabbling in all sorts of handmade projects this summer that I will be sharing here on the blog.  I hope these are ways I can show you how easy it can be to add a little handmade to your lifestyle.  Did you catch the post on Grilled Pizza? Mmmm...those are yummy!  What about my tutorial on creating a Tasseled Origami Crane Mobile?  It's amazing how relaxing folding those little cranes can be, and so beautiful when you group them together to display!  I've also been sending out some Art Mail correspondence.  It's been a fun way to connect with both new and old friends this summer!

That's what kept us busy this week.

How is your summer going?

I hope you are enjoying it!