Weekly Wrap Up

Ah Friday, you have finally made it.

Isn’t strange how your first week back from vacation is either insanely fast or incredibly slow.  This week has been the latter for me. Monday felt like Wednesday, and that’s never a good sign.

Sorry I missed last week, but as mentioned I was away working at a camp, there wasn’t a lot of Instagraming happening.

However, this week I’m taking you all the way back to two weekends ago, to get all caught up!

My first ever Smash pages!  I love Smashing so much (have you picked up a Smashbook yet?)

I thought these cupcakes looked so pretty in the morning sunshine, Strawberry Lime, not my best work but reasonably good.

Cinnamon pancakes!  I shared the recipe here.

My roommate and I went out to a tea shoppe that makes food that is all made with tea.  I got pulled pork sliders, yummy!

I tried to “competition” at a Food Truck party, not to have an ego or anything, but I win.

Camp cupcakes!  Malted Chocolate, Spicy Mango, and Orange.  They were all gone on Friday afternoon

After I got back donuts sounded amazing.  So that’s what the roomie and I did, they were delicious!

We had an insane downpour here in Denver on Saturday.  I just waited it out in my car while waiting for my friend to show.  We got new ear piercings )

Banana nut bundt anyone?

It’s pretty much a miracle that my full sized cake came out, but it did, and it was gorgeous!

This picture is not as exciting as it looks.  Hooray Casa Bonita!

A lovely day in the park listening to some free music.  I love trumpet players (there was one that was potentially attractive).

My lovely hair pins from Petunia Blooms.  I love them!  (You can also see the new piercing )

And last but not least, I died a piece of my hair blue.  Finished pictures when I have a finished hair do!

Have a lovely weekend!

Love,

Keely

Weekly Wrap Up

Happy Friday!  The weekend is in sight lovelies!

How was your week?  What were you up to this week?

I sadly don’t have a lot to chat about this week, it was just an average week.  Nothing super amazing in anyway and nothing horrible, it was just, life.  It was nice.  It was a pretty relaxed week full of a LOT of baking, which is a lot of fun but a touch tiring when you’re always doing it around 11 at night.  You know how some bloggers are morning people?  That is so NOT me!

I am always up super late at night doing all sorts of things, mornings are just not for me, as much as I would love for them to be.  Such is life.

My friend has a bunch of Where’s Waldo books, and check it out, I found Waldo, woohoo!

Told you I did some baking.  Vanilla raspberry anyone?

Getting ready for camp this week, isn’t this sun great!

Ah, I love the park across the street from me, it’s so wonderful.  Too bad it was 100 degrees out that day.

Oh wow it has been SO hot!  There have been some thunderstorms recently, it’s been better!

Ah!  Getting ready for our first, in home Martini Monday, I have a slight obsession with that bar cart!

See that, that’s not a cloud, that’s some smoke from one of the fires.  It’s crazy.

It’s totally normal to take cupcakes on a .8 mile walk, right?  That’s what I thought.  Dulce de Leche cupcakes (recipe soon).

So there you have it.  Hope you had a wonderful week as well!  What was your favorite moment?

Love,

Keely

Weekly Wrap Up

Happy Friday!  It’s almost the weekend, we’ve almost made it!

My picture taking has significantly slowed these past few weeks, I’m sorry!  I don’t know what ‘s going on with that, but I still have some great moments to share with you today!

Nothing super exciting has happened this week, and it’s been SO busy but it’s been good.

I would also like to take a moment to thank you so much for all of your support this week!  It’s been a record week here on Hair Bows and Butter, I am so surprised and so blessed for all of your support!

Green River Ordinance!  Amazing live, such a great show.  If they come to your city you should definitely go see them!

A pretty summer pasta salad, leftovers from Father’s day, yum!

I got this great headband from Petunia Blooms, check out her store, it’s amazing!

Martini Monday!  My roommate and are going to start a new tradition (just one each ).

My lovely roomie!  Cheers to Martini Monday!

Creme brulee cupcakes? Yes please!  Look for the recipe on Friday, June 29 over on Dragonflight Dreams.

Waiting at the courthouse…so bored!

My friends and I went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean in a parking lot, super fun!  They went all out, check out the pirate ship!

Mini bundts!  Yes please!  If you live in Denver, Birds and Belles is having their grand opening party TONIGHT at 6 and these will all be there!  Yum! (Nutella and salted caramel, spiced apple and blackberry, maple bacon chocolate and spicy mango!)

Hope you enjoy!  Can’t wait to see what this next week holds!

Love,

Keely

Weekly Wrap Up

Wow!  This week has been crazy!  Moving is quite the process (the best part is that it’s such a good reason to get rid of SO much stuff!).

I have now found myself in a wonderfully wonderful apartment with an equally wonderful roommate and although it hasn’t even been a full week since our first night here, it feels like it’s been forever, it’s just so lovely and we have so quickly made it into a home.

There were nights with friends, and a lot of nights with the roomie stay up late chatting, planning trips, organizing furniture and often ignoring that we have furniture and either standing or using the floor.  How charming, it’s such an adventure!

Also!  With all this Instagram sharing I’ve never mentioned before that you can follow me on Instagram too!  My handle is @bowsandbutter, look forward to see you there.

Before I was actually moved in I had to christen to space with a cake (one thing done from my 22 before 23 list!) This is all the space I had.

Here is the finished product!  Thank you Joy the Baker this cake was fabulous! (Recipe to come).

And the classic slice shot, yum!

Here is our in progress living room, a fabulous blend of IKEA and vintage.   Love!  Those pictures resting on the couch are now hanging on the wall.

We replaced an ugly fixture with a Chinese lantern (FYI that is a jar of cupcake liners sitting on the dining room table!)

Here is the small tree that sacrificed it’s life for my job.

Molasses cupcakes with brown sugar cream cheese frosting!  Recipe sometime in the near future

This is my house!  The light in the morning is so gorgeous and peaceful, wish I was more of a morning person so I could just sit there and drink my coffee, it’s so perfect!

Me and the roomie planning a trip, we’re hoping to go to Nashville!  Instead of using chairs and couches we sat on the floor, and ate strawberries out of the carton, it’s the right way to do things.

This caught my eye, the street light lit up the trees and it was such an amazing view, the picture doesn’t do it justice.

This is in the lobby at my office and I’ve been meaning to take a picture of it for forever cause it’s so cool!   I want one in my house!

There it is folks.  I’m sure there will be more pictures of my new place as we get even more settled, but that was my week, relatively peaceful all things considered.

Love,

Keely

Weekly Wrap Up

Wow! What a week! There has been so much happening.

I got the keys to my first EVER apartment and I bought a car (guess that makes me an adult?)

It’s pretty insane. I had the week off of wok so there were lots of work out pants and tank tops. There was a lot of eating, lounging, packing and MOVING!

It was insane!

I love that food trucks are blowing up in Denver! I got this delicious pizza at a food truck party, it was so delicious! And there was so much else going on, so fun!

Living in Colorado, there is so much great beer! I decided that this summer I’m going to embrace it, so me and a friend headed down to the Breckenridge Brewery and enjoyed a few drinks.

I wasn’t always lazy, I did get dressed once or twice.

My friend is a bartender at Chili’s, he makes me yummy drinks.  I went and hung out there for a while to read my book (I still have another 350ish pages to pound through by Thursday…sigh).

Here’s the EMPTY apartment!  I just went over and hung out for a bit while it was empty, because it’s mine and I could.  It was pretty fun

Here’s my car!  A 1999 Subaru, so excited about it!

 

I have some idea of what the organization of my kitchen will be, so I put my dishes away.  This is my favorite cabinet

Brunch!  I love chocolate chip pancakes and I love good time with friends.

So if you ever come to Denver, it’s a requirement to go to Casa Bonita, and it’s not because of the food (beware of the food).  The experience is ridiculous!  Especially if you go with my friend Dan, he makes this experience so amazing (margaritas are also helpful )

Look, I got dressed again!

Thrift find!  I kind of love this thing.  I want to put glasses and bottles on the bottom and then have the top be a “mail station” since it’s right by the front door.  We’ll see how it works.

I bought this jar at IKEA and am using it to store my many cupcake liners (idea from Pinterest).

I have a friend who is opening a small, consignment boutique and I went over to help her out.  I got to use a price gun, it was great!

Does your city have something like this?  It’s called Canvas and Cocktails and you go to this place and they teach you how to paint, and you get to drink wine!  We were doing a take on a “Denver Starry Night.”  Great fun.

So there we have it.  My week has been filled with fun, stress, craziness and a potential lack of hygiene (TMI?  Sorry about that, my bathroom is a little unorganized, I fully intend on shower tonight!).

Love,

Keely

Weekly wrap up

Hi friends!

To be honest, this week was not quite as lovely as others have been.  There has been a lot happening and I haven’t really felt “pretty” all week, I’ve just been off!

So I got in a car accident on Friday (I really don’t recommend it!)  So I’ve been car shopping all week long which is just exhausting really.  There have been tears, and laughter and a 14 hour work day (with lots of jokes and slap happy laughing).

Overall, the laughter is more powerful than the tears and joy prevails (as long as you let it).

Thrifty, thrifty, thrifty!  I was so excited about this dress!  I bought it at my local thrift store and knew I had the perfect accessories for it at home!  I had a party to go to Friday night and I wanted to look awesome! (Dress from Savers, Belt from Goodwill, Leggings from Kohls, Boots from Savers…I love thrifting!) Part of the Working Closet’s 30 days of getting dressed challenge.

Last Friday the Colorado governor came to my office to sign the Film Incentive Bill which will hopefully creative more jobs in television and film in Colorado. *fingers crossed*  It was so cool to see history happening in my own backyard.

Speaking of that party, it was at a Mexican restaurant, doesn’t this just make you hungry?  SO yummy!

Before going out, however, I hung out with the coolest 11 year old ever (the girl I mentor) she and I played Uno while drinking coffee and smoothies.

At my birthday party (that was shared with two other birthdays) we played croquet!  I wanted to play badminton or volleyball but I couldn’t find a net, croquet ended up being awesome anyway

Two occasions meant two outfits.  The one on the left for my outdoor party, the one of the right for a night a of swing dancing!

Oh fun!  I love swing dancing!  It’s my favorite thing, we had such a great time!

A casual outfit for a casual day of training for a week at Royal Family Kids Camp.

My friend took me out for frozen yogurt (a week after my birthday).  The tables were white board tables and I had to write something, so since it was technically a birthday treat I figured I would just go with it.

Another getting dressed photo, just another day.

I had to run an errand for my sister and it sent to one of the most gorgeous parts of Denver.  I love all the big, old houses, they are so pretty!

My 14 hour work day was fun!  I got to do some food staging.  Doesn’t this watermelon look delicious?

Before the day on set we had a meeting at the Denver Film Center.  I love my job!  It’s so fun to have staff meetings in a movie theater!  (Free popcorn is pretty great too )

So there you have it.  As I’ve said the best part about Instagram is allowing me to see the beauty if the world around me, even when my week isn’t so amazing, and looking through everything it reminds me that my life is amazing even when I forget!

Love,

Keely

Weekly wrap up

So we’re back and I’m sure you’re sick of me saying this but this was a wonderful, beautiful week!  Nothing helps to teach you how loved you are better than a birthday!  People band together to celebrate with you and love on you.

I had a great week of outings, great food and drink and fabulous community!

I am so blessed!

Check out the beautiful flowers for sale at Whole Foods.  I didn’t buy anything, but like any devoted Instagramer I did stop for a photo

After work on Friday I went out for a coffee, I loved the flower on the table

Birthday party prep (I’m the nerd who bakes my own cupcakes).  That right there my friends is a lot of cream cheese, butter and sour cream, I’m making about 60 cupcakes for the weekend!

My niece and nephew stayed at my parents house on Saturday night, what a cute moment they had on Sunday morning.  They’re kind of my favorite.

I love when I get to snuggle a bit with my niece.  She’s such a sweetie!

I did some gluten free baking and what a smashing success!  They actually rose!  (Recipe coming in June )

Here are those same gluten free cupcakes nice and frosted.

Working Closet challenged us to a 30 day “get dressed” challenge.  This was day one (conveniently my birthday, so I totally wanted to look adorable anyway!  Can you believe that dress is from a thrift store, love!)

My sister took me out to lunch and grabbed me this finger tattoos from a vending machine.  So much fun to be had!

Look at how crafty my co-worker is!  She made this bouquet for me out of duct tape for my birthday!

All the wonderful treats I got on my birthday

The wonderful people who went out for birthday drinks with me.

Get dressed day 2

Get dressed day 3 (playing with stripes, I think it works).

I got to do some shopping!  I’m moving out, hooray!  Check out all those towels (I bought everything for my bathroom this week at Ross and TJ Maxx, score!)

A delicious birthday treat with my wonderful friend.  Thank you Keegan Gerhard!

Get dressed day 4

My sister and I out at my birthday dinner, I posted this picture a bit late.

Ah what a week!  It’s been so busy but so wonderful, I wouldn’t trade it for the world.  There is so much more to come!

I hope you had a beautiful week as well, and if not then I hope that next week you can find joy even in just the small things. Enjoy!

Love,

Keely

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weekly Wrap Up

This week was so lovely!  The weekend was so busy and full of such great community!

I headed down to my city’s “First Friday” at one of the art districts, there was a Cinco De Mayo party, cupcakes to be made for my pastor’s son’s 13th birthday, brunch to attend and that was just the weekend!

Again, it is always so fun for me to look back at the pictures that I have taken and posted to Instagram in a week to remind myself of everything that happened!

On Friday my co-workers and I headed to Noodles and Company for what ended up being a LONG lunch, the drink machine was amazing!

I spent a bit of time on my own before heading down to first Friday.  I armed myself with my journal, my nook and a nice cup of tea.

Livin’ in a hipsters paradise.  My friend and I had so much fun hanging out at First Friday, we know we’ll be going back in June!  We saw an amazing wall of doors, we ate from a delicious food truck and we saw Brazilian Martial Arts Dancing (then we left the art district and got ourselves some ice cream, who can say no to ice cream made with beer?)

Every good Cinco de Mayo party calls for some sangria, right?  Ok, well maybe not but I made some any (recipe coming in June).  I kind of love sangria

To make up for the non-Mexican-ness of my sangria I showed up at the party with a platter of these guys, Mexican chocolate mini-bundts!  Mini-bundts are my new favorite thing, they’re so adorable and tiny!  I’m still working on getting the frosting situation just right but I’m always up for a challenge.

Real-life baking.  I always make a huge mess and then have to tote everything around in unattractive carriers from place to place in my car (the box of cupcakes were for my pastor’s son’s birthday…Mexican chocolate cupcakes and vanilla with salted caramel buttercream cupcakes…yum!)

This was a total hit at the brunch I attended!  We settled on a “Mexican” theme due to Cinco de Mayo and so I made a tres leches baked French toast with a banana caramel sauce.  I was worried it would be too sweet but it was just right! (Recipe coming in June!)

When I don’t go to the grocery store I force myself to be creative.  I was going to make orange bundts with some sort of raspberry topping, but I didn’t have any sour cream so I subbed in apple sauce.  I ended up with an apple orange mini-bundt with brown sugar cream cheese frosting and raspberry orange glaze.   I heard good things about them

More solo time, me, a park bench, a cup of iced coffee and my nook (not pictured).

My church is unique.  We meet on Tuesday nights and we meet at a concert venue.  This week I was on “bartender” duty (no alcohol was served) which meant that I was behind the bar for the worship portion of the night.  Ever sang worship from behind a bar, give it a try some time

Mini golf!  I took the girl that I mentor mini golfing, she had never been before.  It was so fun to watch her get so excited about the little dorky things that us adults are so jaded by.

A “beauty” shot of the completed sangria, posted a few days later.  Wish I was drinking some right now.  (Again I REALLY love sangria!)

Well there you have it.  Another week down and another look behind the scenes of my “glamorous” life.

Love,

Keely

Instagram Wrap Up

Hello lovely people and happy Friday!

So I’ve decided that Friday’s are a perfect day to do a little weekly wrap up via my Instagram photos!  I’ve had Instagram for about 6 months now and in the past month or so I have decided that, in order to help myself see the beauty in my world, I will take at least one photo a day and post it to Instagram.

I didn’t really realize how much fun I had this weekend until I started gathering all the photos for you here.  What a brilliant way to find the beauty!

So here you are, my super glamorous life via my Instagram photos.

Nothing like a nice cup of tea to get you through an afternoon at the office.

My friend decided that we should throw ourselves a 2nd Thanksgiving.  It was a wonderful success, so much fun!

After the above Apples to Apples game my cards told me that I am apparently “Obscenely Fun.” Yeah…I’m that awesome.

Brunch? Yes! Always in! I’ll bring scones!  I made strawberry scones and some lemon curd to spread on top…delicious!

I had an eating day, the night after brunch we went to a food truck party that was a fundraiser to support a local food bank.  I got a pulled pork sandwich with sweet potato fries.  My sister, nephew and I all had popsicles for dessert.  Everything was delicious!

So I take a lot of pictures of food.  Might as well confess that this muffin and tea was definitely my dinner while I took some time to myself to read.

April 30th was Oatmeal Cookie Day.  I wasn’t going to bake that night but I was so inspired that all I could think about was making an Oatmeal Cream Pie cupcake.  Success! (recipe to come in the future).

Those cupcakes needed a place to go.  My church is currently doing a series called Swingsets and Suffering.  There is a lot of truth in it and a lot of painful moments, but it’s such a healthy way for the community to grow!

Hair bow!  I made this one following a tutorial from A Beautiful Mess.  A tutorial for this hairstyle to come soon.

At work we have these editing keyboards that are all colorful and fun!  While I was sitting in front of them the other day I realized how beautiful they are.

One of the ladies at work always gives out these little chicks for Easter.  My friend just gave me the yellow one cause she’s going to be gone for a few weeks.  Now I have a whole family!

Mocha Cupcakes!?! Yup, I did it.  Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache filling and coffee cream cheese frosting.  The perfect thing to bring to book club.

You know how book clubs are, right?  We really like wine!  I brought the makings for a blackberry-lime sangria.  It was so light and refreshing.

Book club was such a great night last night.  A bunch of fabulous women gathered together, it’s my favorite Thursday of the month for sure! (I’ll be doing a little book club wrap up in a few days).

And a great end to the week of Instagram.  My mini bundt pan came in the mail!  I’m so excited to experiment with it!  (I believe I will be making Mexican chocolate mini bundts for Cinco de Mayo.)

So there you have it.  My humble life through the eyes of my cell phone camera!  I really enjoyed wrapping this all up, it reminded me how many special moments I’ve had this week.  If you have a smart phone I would highly suggest downloading Instagram and taking the challenge to look at your life through a different lens, it can really change your perspective.

Love,

Keely