Trail Ridge Road ~ On Top Of The World

Or:

"How I spent my Saturday: A back to school picture essay."

As you might have guessed...this is a very picture heavy post.

We took a drive up Old Fall River Road to Trail Ridge Road through

Rocky Mountain National Park this past weekend.

You CAN take the paved road the entire way to the summit,

but how much fun would that be?

 

Please just sit back and enjoy this photo journey

as my witty repartee is a little lacking today. :)

I went with this guy.  :)

See this curvy ONE LANE dirt road?

It is only one way - UP.

Here it looks pretty tame.

Even this isn't bad.

But we haven't gained much altitude quite yet.

Is this gorgeous or what?

Looking back toward the valley we came out of.

We certainly weren't alone on the mountain.

Here you can see how sometimes there were huge

drops from the side of the road. :)

Here's a better picture showing the distance and depth we could see.

I swear this little guy posed for me.

He climbed right up on that rock and just WAITED for me to take his picture.

I was happy to oblige.  Especially since he's about all the wildlife we saw!

See that white stuff?

Yep.

That's SNOW!

You can see the summit house in this picture...we're almost there.

If you look closely, you can see the dots on the road that are actually cars.

Some of these pictures below...I did nothing to alter the skies.

A little contrast adjustment and levels...it was just that blue.

These two pictures look similar...but this was turned facing the other direction.

Do you know what these are?

Anyone?

Anyone?

Bueller?

They are snow poles.

Do you see those red ribbons?

Just imagine having that much snow to deal with.

Trail ridge road is only open a few months in the summer.

It's no wonder, huh?

Okay, SO, we did see some elk. Kind of.

In the center of this picture you see a whitish dot.

That's actually two bull elk sparring.

There's another lounging nearby, I won't make you play I Spy.

I would have loved to show them to you closer...but...

...that was as far as my camera could zoom.

We were actually looking at them from this distance.

See the yellow circle?

That's the elk.

The only reason we knew they were there was that by some

miracle someone spied them through the viewfinder thingy.

 

Someone remarked that there needed to be little oxygen vending machines around.

 

 

It was about this time that the ugly doll that lives

in my car decided he wanted his picture taken, too.

World traveler that he is.

 

Definitely on top of the world.

 

We stopped at the picnic ground here to eat our lunch.

 

Then took the trail around the lake.

 

Oh, look...there's that guy again.

I think he's following me.

 

Beeeee-u-tiful!

 

Well, after this we started down the mountain.

It was getting late and we wanted to do some walking

around the tourist town of Estes Park before heading home.

 

So here is a parting shot from Scrammy...he sends his love.

And wishes he weren't afraid of heights.

 

Did you enjoy this picture tour?

 

I know my photos are not all great...

but,

if you are interested in any of them for personal use,

please email me and I will be happy to send you a non-watermarked copy.

 

Have a great holiday weekend!

Go find some adventure!

 

©Kelly



Paint your wagon ~ or at least your folding chairs

Sooo, I've got the paint picked out for the half bath downstairs.

I just need to find my motivation to get started and pick up supplies.

Hunh.  Sometimes I put off larger projects by doing smaller, easier ones.

You, too?

Well, here's a good example.

Most of us have a few of these hanging around the garage or basement.

Real beauties, I tell you what!

Did you know that's quite the easy fix?

Yep.

Spray paint to the rescue!

I had seen a picture on Pinterest that linked back to a Flickr feed.

So it wasn't even a DIY thing...it was a photo of a bunch of chairs at some cafe in Europe.

I thought to myself: Self, this is a great idea!

I had two like the one pictured above with the cushion.

I primered the cushion really well with the Rustoleum primer.

Let it dry for at least 24 hours...good to go!

The rest, I just wiped clean and started spraying.

I learned some things about spray paint.

It is NOT all created equal.

I never could find a LIGHT orange so I ended up with two pinks.

However, I tried three different kinds...wanna know my opinion?

Krylon was my favorite.

With the Valspar spray paint there was SOOOO much

over spray dust - the whole garage was coated...along with my feet!

The Rustoleum I used was okay...but still quite a bit of dust.

The Krylon covered well and had the least amount of over spray.

And there's my two cents worth. :)

Oh, and with two coats for each chair...I used one can per chair.

Here's a peek of them at the s'mores party

that I haven't gotten around to posting yet.

Yeah...I'm slow like that.

Whatever.

Teenagers and Twister.

What a combo!

Here they are leaning against the house on the deck.

This deck...but that's a story for another day.

See? It doesn't even have any perty flowers on it.

I really like the difference it made on the appearance of these chairs.

Now they're so much more fun!

What do you think?

Do you have any metal folding chairs sitting around that need a face lift?

©Kelly

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The Prudent Pantry: Smart Solutions

Make Eat Grow Blog Hop

The Dedicated House - Make it Pretty Monday

Fall in Love Spray Paint Party @ It All Started With Paint

See this post featured at Chickabug!

Update:

I've had several questions about priming and sealing.

I did NOT prime the chairs themselves.

I only primed the vinyl cushions.

They've not had a lot of heavy use yet so

they are still holding up well.  I will let you know if that changes.

I might suggest spraying them with a top sealer just to extend the paint life.

Paint gets scratched...especially on stuff like this.

But it should be an easy fix...just touch up with a few spritzes.

Colors:

Krylon: Rich Plum, Watermelon, Raspberry and Blue Ocean Breeze

Rustoleum: Warm Yellow

Valspar: Everglade Glen



Tick Tock ~ A cute little clock

The Daisy Café

Paris 

Circa 1950

This ad might have enticed me to go.

Try out my five years studying the French language on real French people.

source

Once I got there, I might ride around like this...going from café to café

source

However, not bloody likely...

since I would probably be wearing this.

source

Maybe I would get a little friendly with the natives.

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Might even take up dancing along the Seine after a couple glasses of wine!

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I would definitely sit along the river, gazing at the pont neuf while

nibbling some pain au chocolat and sipping my café au lait.

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But I seriously doubt that I would see this adorable clock

at any of these locations during any of my adventures.

But that's okay.

Because now I can see it any time I want. 

Tee hee. Any TIME.

It's a clock.

Oh, forget it.

This arrived at my house this week in an ordinary brown cardboard box.

I have been anxiously awaiting its arrival since the day I ordered it from Antique Farm House. 

I tell you what...this baby did not disappoint.

I'm not a big fan of blue, but it's a little turquoise-y and I love it.

It's about a foot tall and 9 inches across.

The bells don't really function, they're just for looks.

That's probably just as well.

I'd probably pee myself if that thing went off!

It's perfect for the guest bedroom that's slowly becoming shabby.

It might just get finished someday.

Because, as you can see...the chest of drawers this is sitting

on looks like this and has for about 2 years.

I'm sorry.

I'm hoping to finish it this winter.  I still have to change those

drawer pulls on the top and put the knobs on.

Of course then sand and paint.  Chalk paint? I think yes!

So, let's leave that sad story behind and just focus on our little trip to Paris.

and this cutie:

Now, excuse me...I must go and be fabulous.

source

Au Revoir!

P.S. this is NOT a sponsored post...I just really like my clock! :)

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