This past week I traveled to Colorado to assist my mom. She had to get knee surgery due to an injury at her job. Luckily, I had an opening in my work schedule so I was able to take time off of work. Yay! Mini vacation! Unfortunately, my husband had to work so he couldn’t come with me but it’s okay I got to spend quality time with my mom and also see my brother.
How long has it really been since I’ve been to Colorado? Good question. The last time I remember visiting Colorado was when my brother graduated from high school. Omg, that was about 6 years ago! WOW! Time just flies by doesn’t it. Well, I am happy I had the opportunity to visit again.
When I flew to Colorado, I realized something: I miss the mountains! The mountains use to be my inspiration for most of my art projects when I was growing up. Oh, how I miss gazing at the mountain scenery and watching as the sun sets behind them. The vibrant colors you would see at sunset is so emotionally calming and relaxing. I do not have a picture of a sunset from my trip, but here is the beautiful mountain view I had from my window seat on the plane while we were landing in Denver:
Breath taking isn’t it?
After I left the airport I messaged my little brother to see if he wanted to meet somewhere. I haven’t seen him in 4 years! Once again, time just flies by… We decided to meet at Jamba Juice near the Town Center at Aurora. Jamba Juice use to be my favorite place to get a smoothie when I was in high school. Where I live now we don’t have a Jamba Juice so getting a smoothie from here after 6 years was a real treat. Of course, seeing my brother was the biggest treat of all.
If you ever have the chance to try Jamba Juice you should try the Orange C Booster Smoothie. It contains Orange Juice, Peaches, Orange Sherbet, Ice, Bananas, C and Zinc Boost & Antioxidant Power Boost. It is delicious! Yum!
After a few hours of catching up we decided to walk around the area. I was tired of sitting since I was sitting most of the day on airplanes. We browsed different stores until we decided we were hunger for some dinner. I asked my brother if there was anything within walking distance. He recommended L & L Hawaiian. Huh, never heard of it. I’m willing to try it out since I like to eat somewhere I can’t eat back home. When I travel it is a rule for me to try new things.
At the L & L Hawaiian, I got the BBQ chicken, beef and macaroni salad plate. The plate normally comes with rice but my brother told me he gets more macaroni salad instead of rice since he doesn’t like eating straight rice. I don’t blame him, because I don’t like eating straight rice either so I copied him and got more macaroni salad. I have to say that this meal was very mouth watering and really savory.
I have to apologize that I did not get a photo of my food. 🙁 Sad, I know but this was because we had to take our food to go since the place was packed around 5 pm! My brother lived close by so we ate our food back at his place. It was here that I got distracted and forgot to take a quick photo. lol
The distraction for me was finally getting to meet my brother’s fur babies! If you saw my post about the three cat plushies I made, these were the cats I was finally able to meet in person. They were precious, well except for Tater Tot. This boy kitten meows at you and paws at you to give him some of your food. I had to be firm with this cutey and say no a lot! hehe. I could not be mad at him since he was too darn cute! Blueberry Jam (Blue) and Toast just stood at a distant watching us eat our food. lol
When I got to my mom’s house she had a surprise for me. She ordered a Plastic Canvas Kissers book, Acrylic Yarn , Clear Plastic Canvas, and Yarn Large-Eye Blunt Needles. If you don’t know what Kissers are they are playful pals that you can open their mouths to hold a small piece of candy (usually a Hershey’s Kiss).
My siblings and I use to make these when we were kids. Our old baby sitter taught us how to make Kissers. What better way to distract energetic kids with some arts and crafts. Kept us quite and entertained for hours, plus we got to eat some chocolate too!
I was super excited to spend time with my mom and craft with her. I know I got my creative crafty side from her. 😉 Making these Kissers were a great way to spend quality time and keep us busy while she heals from her knee surgery. Also, with Valentine’s Day around the corner, these kissers are perfect to handout to friends, family and my loving husband. Hehe. Best part is, eating the Hersey’s Chocolate Kisses!
I loved the Plastic Canvas book my mom got. It has 25 designs you can choose from: Deer, Duck, Kitten, Squirrel, Skunk, Raccoon, Dog, Alligator, Clown, Parrot, Zebra, Lamb, Cow, Lion, Monkey, Red Dinosaur, Blue Dinosaur, Purple Cow, Bunny, Duck in Straw Hat, Pig, Bright Monkey, Speckled Dog, Reindeer, and Santa.
I used the Skunk canvas base pattern and the canvas face and mask stitch pattern from the Raccoon to make a Ferret Kisser. Hehe. I kind of made my own color yarn pattern for the ferret and only used the books pattern as a guide for how to stitch the yarn in the canvas. I let my imagination take over, except that I looked at the Raccoon mask stitching guide since I wanted to make sure my ferret would turn out good.
My mom was smart to buy a variety pack of yarn bundles. This way we have more color choices to choose from.
Mira Handcrafts 40 Assorted Colors Acrylic Yarn
I love it, but the only thing was there was one color that the pack did not included and that was dark brown. The pack had light brown but I wanted dark brown for my ferret kisser’s mask markings. I could always buy dark brown yarn but I figured right now I have an assortment of colors to choose from so I’ll just make a colorful ferret instead. This is crafts we are talking about here and it doesn’t have to be the exact color of a ferret. I decided to make a light blue ferret with royal blue markings.
Below is how the Blue Ferret Kisser turned out:
Isn’t he cute?!! I am so happy that I decided to make a blue ferret. I am definitely going to place this little guy on my desk at work. I will even sneak a Hersey Kiss inside his mouth so I can eat it later. 🙂 Lol.
As I stared at the blue ferret I came up with another idea for the next kisser I was going to make: A fox! I would again have to make my own stitch color theme for the face and the body but I can still use the Skunk Canvas pattern to make it! Hehe. I love my creative side!
Here is the adorable fox I made:
Lovable and Kissable!! If you are interested in making this fox you can buy the book here and follow the guide pattern on the Raccoon or Skunk then use my fox face pattern that I created (PDF):
My mom decided to use the dog pattern in the book since she has two Jack Russell Terriers, Peanut and Oreo. Of course, she was like me and used the base canvas pattern but made her own color scheme and stitch pattern. She wanted the Dog Kissers to resemble her two fur babies.
Here is my mom’s Peanut Kisser:
Here is Oreo Kisser:
My mom and I had a blast making these Kissers! They are so adorable. I can’t wait to make more and come up with more of my own patterns that I can share. 😉
Almost forgot, I wanted to mention that I finally got to meet my brother’s fiance. We went out for dinner at Bad Daddy’s Burger Bar where I had the most delicious burger ever! I loved the menu options that they had for different burgers but I decided to create my own burger since I wanted to be adventurist and try new things. Don’t worry this time I took pictures of my meal to share with you. 😉
For the Create Your Own Burger I choose the 7oz beef patty on Multi-grain Bun with cream cheese, lettuce, onion, ketchup, garlic mayo, guacamole and fried mozzarella! I even named this burger the Chris Burger after me. Hehe. Fitting right? Or maybe I could have been a little more creative on naming the burger? Nah, I think it’s the perfect name. Lol.
After dinner my brother and his fiance invited me to game night at their friends place. I was game since they told me that they play off the wall games and I did tell them when I am on travel I like to try new things. Oh boy was I in for a surprise. Lol. Their two friends had so many different games that I have never heard of. Since I was a newbie everyone decided to choose an easier game first.
First up was Exploding Kittens:
Exploding Kittens: NSFW Edition (Explicit Content – ADULTS ONLY!)
This was actually a really fun game. Very different then most card games but I enjoyed it. You draw cards and if you get a exploding kitten card you explode and die (out of the game) unless you have a defuse card which stops the kitten from exploding and you continue playing. There are other cards that you can play to make the game more interesting and strategic. Best part was I actually won this game. Woohoo go me! 😄 I was very sneaky at the end but some of it was also luck. Lol. Warning: Young kids should not play this game since there is some profanity and questionable things that some parents might not want their kids exposed too. I did find that there is a version of Exploding Kittens that is for ages 7+ here.
The last game we played was Betrayal At House On The Hill.
I really loved playing this haunted theme game. It was kind of like Dungeons and Dragons being suspenseful and strategic but you get to build your own haunted house room by room which leads to different designs every time you play. You encounter spirits and omens that indicate what your fate may be at the end of the game. There are two acts in the game. First Act is building your haunted house and discovering items, events and omens along the way until you reach Act Two. In Act Two you discover which one of the group of players is a traitor that you must try to defeat using the omens and items you collected in Act One.
I had a blast playing this game. My brother’s fiance ended up being the traitor and the rest of us were in the group to try and defeat her. At the end our group defeated her and we won the game. Hehe. I guess since I won in both games I am the overall winner for game night. Yay! If I was able to go next week to their game night I would be able to pick the first game to play, but since I won’t I guess my brother will get to choose for me. 😉
My whole trip to Colorado was overall pretty awesome. I ate some great food, played some fun games and crafted some cute Kissers. I say my mini vacation was a hit for me. 😀
Thanks for stopping by!