Memorial Day in the Mountains

It may be spring in the rest of the world, but here at 8500 feet (or so) it's still acting a lot like winter. But am I complaining? Nope!! We've enjoyed sun, clouds, rain, thunder and hail - all in the space of 24 hours. But Mr. H. and I - and Puddin' - are happy to be back in Grand Lake, Colorado for a few days. I would say "of rest" - but Mr. H. hasn't found too much resting time so far!

Now. My contribution to the trip has been finding delightful new items for our mountain home. Since the coffee table was looking a little bare, I picked up this copper tray and then harvested a few teeny pine cones from our "yard" to put inside. (With babies on the brain, I tend to think "unbreakable" these days!) I found the tray at a wonderful store in the area called The Bronze Elk. There is also a store called The Silver Moose (they sell jewelry) - so I guess the metallic animal theme is de rigueur these days! At least in the mountains. I thought the copper blended PERFECTLY with our knotty pine coffee table so I am a happy mountain person today!

Since we completed the addition to the house (finished the walk-out basement making two more bedrooms/family room and an extra bathroom) of course one faces the REALLY BIG challenge of finding furnishings and we accomplished most of that during a trip to Denver. The door that exits from the basement has a small window so when I was still in California I looked all over for a nice valance that would go with our mountain home theme. I finally found a suitable plaid valance at the large linen store (BB&B) and wouldn't you know it - it was the last one. So I begged the clerk to sell me the display valance because they'd discontinued carrying the pattern and - Hello!! What were they going to do, honestly, with a display of a product they no longer carried. Seemed like a no-brainer to me.

But THEN...wouldn't you know it. I went to the really neat-o hardware store (Ace Hardware in Granby) and dang if I didn't find the valance in the picture above. Now, the photo doesn't do it justice, but trust me - it's very cute. Shows a little house amongst the pines and says "Welcome to the Lake...Welcome to the Lake...etc." Why didn't I wait until I got here to look for my valance - but really - a HARDWARE STORE??? That carries curtains??? Yep, they do, and they are darned cute, too!

The other neat thing that happened yesterday is that the homeowners association where our house is located was having a free seedling give-away yesterday! Every homeowner was allowed 4 seedlings of a Colorado Blue Spruce (state tree) plus another variety of pine called the Englemann Spruce. So on top of all the work Mr. H. has on his plate, he took on the task of planting these little babies yesterday afternoon. (Note the four holes all in a row above)

I know it may be hard to see, but there IS a little tiny tree in that red cup and today said tree is resting comfortably - we hope - in its new home. May it grow tall and strong!

Finally, yesterday brought another nice event, which is that I finally met our next door neighbors. They are a beautiful young family who live in Denver and travel up to their mountain home here in Grand Lake on the weekends. Our houses are quite similar and were built by the same contractor. Their names are Andrew and Dayna (or Dana?) and they have a 4-year old daughter named Skyler and a 2-year old son (just 4 months older than our Gracie!) named Tanner. I am happy to see a nice young family for all the visits to come by the Stromberg and Wagner families. Kinda like seeing into the future :)

Tomorrow is the "real" Memorial Day (Monday) and at 10am there is going to be a parade in the village of Grand Lake. I'll be there with my camera - hoping for a few fun photo ops!