The Hunt

Every year for as long as I can remember, I've had an egg hunt on Easter Sunday. This is not your typical egg hunt though, kids. This is a Pep style egg hunt, complete with clues. The past few years, she has tried to get out of it and I've thrown a fit. "But Kate, we've lived in the same house for 19 years now. I ran out of hiding spots YEARS ago." 'But Ma, it's TRADITION!" And sure enough, she comes through, each Easter better than the past. Here is how it works: I come over a few days before Easter for the dyeing process.

Then, on Easter morning, I rise and shine, put on my Easter dress, (and this year) loaded up my own Little Bunny Foo-Foo and hopped over to Pep's house. She wasn't ready for me this year, "You're always late!" Um, not when there is candy involved. She gives me one clue at a time, I find 11 eggs and then my final clue leads me to my basket of GLORY! Let the hunt begin.



(And these are my mom's new teacups...a gift from Sam, aren't they beautiful??)
And my personal favorite of this year...

My final clue this year was a sentimental one. It read Mom + Katie and it led me to a ceramic plate I had painted a few Mother's Days ago that she keeps up in the guest room. My basket was everything I dreamed of, Cadbury Mini Eggs, Peanut M&M's, York Peppermint Patties, alongside a cute wind chime, gardening gloves and a gift card to Old Navy. I am one happy bunny.
Thanks, Ma. As always. And don't worry, someday there will be grand kids and then you can start recycling some of those clues :) Love you.

The Annual Hunt

The Easter of 2013 was the very first I spent without my mother therefore, the egg dying and most importantly, the hunt was up to me this year.

Luckily, I have friends who like to play along so on Easter Sunday, before our reservations at Table 6 (a new tradition), five friends came to help me keep the tradition alive.

The tradition involves clues - this isn't just your run-of-the-mill egg hunt here, my loves. You need to figure out the clue to find the egg, then on the last egg - you'll find your basket (or in this case, eggs filled with candy). Clues like "Larry can get you what you need." (Larry is the llama bartender who sits above my bar - see below) and "Hope the cat doesn't poo on me" (bathtub, if you know Sienna).

It was a beautiful spring day - one of the very few we've had in Denver so far this year (much to my dismay), so we walked to Table 6 where our afternoon was filled with mimosas, delicious food and even this guy....

So here's to Easter - to tradition, to brunch and to good friends. 

Martha Lies.

So every year, Pep and I get together to dye Easter eggs for the annual hunt. Since we are now on year 26 (give or take the first two years), we try to get creative. Correction, I try to get creative. Pep is perfectly satisfied with bold colored eggs. I want to make them fancy! And sparkle! So who do I turn to? The master, Martha Stewart, of course!

So I fall in love with two - well really all - of the designer eggs but there are two in particular that seem do-able. In Pep's kitchen. With supplies that you don't have to special order. There are the lace eggs, found here and then the swirly eggs, found here. As we are in JoAnn's looking for lace, Pep is telling me, "Kate, I really don't see how this is going to work." "No Ma, Martha said we just need to rubber-band the lace around the egg and BAM beauty." "Ok..."

Well, come to find out, Martha lies. The lace eggs turned out to be not-so-lace like and the swirly ones using electrical tape worked on a FEW (meaning the ones that my mother did). Here are the results...

Q1 2014

January marked my first month of not blogging since this baby was born back in 2008. Then February marked the first time I had gone two months without blogging. And then came March, my first time not posting for three months.

So, let this post mark my very first QUARTER POST! This isn't to say that I'm going to start posting only four times a year, I miss writing, but I was in need of a break. As my last post shared, 2013 was one helluva beating and I just needed to find my footing in 2014.

In January, I got to seal off the nightmare formally known as #19, now known as my gold tooth. I skied, embraced yoga, cheered on the Broncos in the playoffs, drank wine and celebrated Juanuary (before we knew better). I crafted with Pengs. And I told a man that I loved him and said goodbye to a friend of ten years, all in the same conversation.

February forced me to close my eyes during the Super Bowl. Dancing to Lord Huron, brunching, attending the Banff Film Fest in Boulder and shopping at Colorado's first Trader Joe's (cause, snacks) made up for what the Broncos could not. I traveled to NYC for more than 24 hours for the first time and checked something off this list (post to come, told you I wasn't giving up). In NYC I enjoyed a lovely Valentine's Day with my one and only PY and worked some PR magic at Toy Fair. For the day that I spent to myself in the city, I shopped, sat in an Italian cafe where I ate pizza, sipped on wine and read a book as the snow fell outside the cafe window (hello, perfect life moment) then got lost in the Met. It was a perfect afternoon. Two weeks later I was lucky enough to reunite with the Knochs for a weekend filled with laughs, skis, wine and games in Steamboat.

Finally, in March, I was able to catch my breath. I celebrated all the March babies (Andy, Suzy and Linz), experienced Monkey Town 4 with LJ, danced my ass off at our new favorite Friday night in Denver, ate my weights worth at Work + Class, went on some dates, learned that two Scorpion Bowls is two too many, drank Veuve (always worth mentioning), sang-a-long with Beyonce and skied.

April brings happy with a trip from Pep and Sam, Easter (a long-time HSCOOC favorite) and some neon nights with Suzy.

...and more blog posts :D

Life is for Livin'

One month from today, I will either be in Nashville because the Kings of Leon just couldn't say goodbye to me OR I will be heading back to Vegas, hopefully with a signed copy of my open letter with lots of x and o's.

What can I say, the people have spoken (sorry X and Pep) and I do think it is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Dawn and I are ready to party and ready for whatever this trip brings us which hopefully includes backstage passes and a sound check before the show (fingers crossed!).

I was really struggling with this decision because I know that it certainly is not the smartest thing for me to be spending my limited funds on. HOWEVER I have not done anything irresponsible and reckless since I flew to Chicago after meeting a guy at Body English one night. I knew this guy via text and email and one hazy night in a nightclub and FLEW TO CHICAGO to spend 4 days with him. That is crazy. I love you, bub, but that was crazy. My point is, look how that turned out. Nearly three years later, Cory is now one of my favorite people and that trip is definitely on the top 10 list of my life experiences. I met GREAT people (Chad!), saw the Chicago river GREEN, saw the city from an insider's perspective, experienced St. Patty's Day in one of the best cities to celebrate that glorious holiday, got my Easter Adidas and oh I could just go on and on...but I digress, the point IS, I threw caution to the wind and it turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life.

So here I am again, throwing caution to the wind. Just maybe, maybe I'll get a kiss out of it this time. But I would certainly settle for more life experiences and friends along the way.