river in lodo (lower downtown) denver

a few weekends ago, we decided to head down to denver during the most coveted art festival in the northern colorado region—the cherry creek arts festival. it's an event i have enjoyed since moving to colorado in 1990 and try to get down to every year. although i missed it last year, i couldn't wait to head down this year in hopes of some much needed inspiration.

heading down, although it started out to be a very cloudy day, i knew reminiscent of colorado weather, that ultimately the sun would shine and the heat would be blazing once again.

in preparation for this long, hot event, i suggested to my daughter that she wear her swimsuit underneath her clothes so we can head down to the river in lodo and get a quick swim.

thankfully after enjoying a delicious lunch in cherry creek, we headed west to lodo for a quick dunk. as you can see, my daughter and my husband shown in the river cooling off (as much as one can cool off without completely submerging your head under water), it was a spectacular view and an enjoying day overall. and most importantly, it ended up being a refreshing, cool day.

a recent patio table(s) transformation

i recently made a somewhat simple transformation of my two patio tables to use as one. as always, i started a search at the beginning of the summer for a large patio table, only to be disappointed (or just couldn't afford). since our dining area is relatively small, i thought why not get a larger table for our large patio, something we could use throughout the summer and warmer months. we have 6 chairs, so a large table would have fit comfortably.

unfortunately, any decent outdoor table that I wanted, cost in excess of $700+. ouch! since that's not really something we can afford right now, i took our two smaller tables that we used on our patio and moved them up together to make one, longer larger table instead. the only downside was since they're both metal tables, they were both in pretty bad shape. one of them had a large area of rust on the top surface, while the other one was peeling pretty badly, making dinners quite a challenge.

after a trip to the hardware store this weekend, i bought some all-weather paint and varnish and voila! a new transformation on our patio. i only wish I would have taken before pictures along with the after, but by the time I thought about it, it was too late. it was a much more cost effective solution for our patio, than buying brand new. and of course, it's the green way to go, as well!