Goodwill Industries of Denver: Home Store Grand Opening

Like it has been all summer, it's been a while between my posts.  But I've been way busy with work. Really I have. In August and September I had two store Grand Openings and a golf tournament. But now I finally have time to catch up on blog posts.

In early August Goodwill Industries of Denver opened a Home Store in South Denver (located at 8230 S. Colorado Blvd. Centennial, CO 80122 in case you feel the need to visit) that sells furniture and home decor items.  The grand opening was a huge success and the furniture donations at the store still continue to be amazing finds at great prices. See the photos below if you don't believe me ;)

Stuart Davie, Goodwill CEO, and John the Store Manager cutting the ribbon

The crowd of customers that lined up outside

My favorite part of the day was having three amazing companies there to give ideas to the shoppers on ways to up-cycle some of the older furniture pieces that we have. 

Rit Dye had a table set up with ideas on using their dyes to update an old piece of furniture. They dyed that green table on the left and everything they wore! They also gave me a booklet of ideas and some sample dyes, look for posts with that later. 

Re for your home was there to give a tutorial on using Annie Sloan Chalk Paints to update items. They had a full table all day long!

 Here's just a few examples of the furniture we had. 

I Bought a House!

Well, it's been a crazy few months. The housing market in Denver is definitely a seller's market right now.  I'd see a place and that evening it would be under contract. But I finally found a great place and started the process of home buying. After a month of calling mortgage lenders, real estate agents and insurance agents almost non stop I signed my name on the dotted line. Many times over.

I decided it was easier to paint all the walls, and update anything else I wanted to do before I moved my things in. Luckily I have great family and friends who were very helpful.

My stairwell is about 20 feet tall so my dad and I had to build scaffolding so I could paint all the walls.  I thought I was going to fall off every time I moved. 

Family Room

I can't wait to do more decorating. I really need artwork for the walls. 

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

 Master Bathroom

Second Bedroom and Bathroom

I have a roommate moving in so there's no furniture there yet. 

Engagement Party

Recently my family threw an engagement party for my sister and her fiancé. The party came a few months after the proposal but we wanted both families to get together so we could get to know each other, since we're family now.

We decided to have a BBQ for the bride and groom's immediate family members, and the bridal party. (See below for the directions on the last minute ice breaker game we played.)

I made a banner with the wedding date on a Cricut I borrowed from a friend, and I am addicted!

The groom-to-be with the garland of photos of the couple

Me, the maid of honor, and my sister the bride-to-be :)

My sister with her bridesmaids. 

My dad, and my uncle BBQing for the masses.

All the bridesmaids had buttons to denote their role...

And Zach was jealous he didn't have one, so we had to get him one ;)

We decided to have everyone play a game to break the ice. We wrote names of famous couples on labels and put one on each person's back.  Then everyone had to go around the room and ask each person 2 questions to figure out who they were. Once they knew they had to wait for their "other half" to figure out who they were. The first pair to both figure it out won!

Famous couples we included were:

Ross Gellar and Rachel Green from Friends

Lucille Ball and Ricky Ricardo of I Love Lucy

Fred and Wilma Flinstone

Barbie and Ken

Mickey and Minnie Mouse

Superman and Lois Lane

Me, my sister, and the groom's three sisters all together :)

Baby Shower: Mom to Bee

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending a baby shower for a very special family friend.  The shower was  so adorable I just had to share the pictures on my blog. The two ladies who threw this party are amazing and I wish I had a reason for them to throw me a party!

Me and Maggi, the Mom-to-Bee 

I loved this cake!

With adorable edible bees :)

Bee Stinger Lemonade had alcohol

No Stinger was just lemonade

Bit O Honey, and honey sticks as sweet treats

Honey soap as our favors, it smells soooo good. 

The parents-to-be opening presents

Mom to be in the middle of her sisters, the party planners

All the women in the family :)

Bridal Shower Gift: A Year of Wine

Hi everyone! Tis the season for weddings and bridal showers... and I love it! One of my sorority sisters is getting married in August and for her wedding shower in May, I wanted to give her something that wasn't on her registry. A few different blogs had variations for giving a year of wine, for the special occasions that come with getting married. I listed the blogs I used as inspiration at the bottom of my post.

I chose to give a 4 pack of wine, other posts used more, and had different events. 

Left to right: Soul Sister wine for the Bachelorette Party, House Wine for the first night in their new home, Clean Slate for their first fight as Mr. and Mrs., and Bliss for their first anniversay. 

Bachelorette Party Wine:

Friends and sisters together as one

This is your weekend to have some fun

Enjoy all the lovely ladies in your life

and celebrate the journey of becoming a wife

New House Together Wine:

Turn that key, carry your bride through the door.

This house is yours, though your bank account is sore.

So enjoy this bottle of wine, and party it up,

for tomorrow the moving begins. 

First Fight Wine:

Love as you might, 

You'll have your first fight...

Drink this wine,

While you make up all night.

First Anniversary: 

Time flies when you're having fun,

one year of your marriage is done.

This bottle will help you celebrate

time that has passed and love that awaits.

All of the labels I made can be downloaded here.

Just print, and cut out the labels, including the white circle.