It's time: 10 years!

My BFF (best friend forever), Kathy, and I have always celebrated our Friend-versary. We met at Hendrix College on September 8, 2001. To commemorate our friend love, we give each other the appropriate anniversary gift per the year. Ten years is tin and diamond. 

I found this clock here, and I was inspired to make a "diamond encrusted" clock for Kathy. 

First, I found a clock at an antique store, but it was too shiny. 

So I decided to spray paint it. 

With glitter! I mean, diamond dust. 

Once it was dry, I began adding the jewels: "diamonds." 

I had two different sizes of diamonds around the sides and on the alarm bells. 

For the face of the clock, I used a "diamond" trim from the fabric department. 

Happy Diamond Year Anniversary, Kathy!

Girls paint the town

Last week, my girls group got together to go to a guided painting class. Thank goodness for the guided part because I'm no painter. There were several paintings to choose between, but all the girls chose the same one. This one was painted by the director as the example: 

We could each change the colors to what we wanted. I decided I wanted to paint it to match our guest bedroom. Here's mine in process. 

When we finished up, we took a group picture. I love how they all look so good, but so different. 

Here's my finished one hung in the room. (I didn't work hard enough on this photo because you can see the reflection from the glass-top dresser on the wall.)

I painted that!

It even has fancy texture on the trees.

One final shot of the room. Sorry, with glare again.

Saturday Night

After relaxing at the winery, we headed back to Kathy's place and got ready for dinner. 

We ate at Maria, Maria, which is owned by Carlos Santa.

If you need someone hot to model a cocktail, Anna is your girl.

Thanks for having us, Kathy!!

And yes, you can use this as your new Facebook profile picture.

Dinner was delicious, and we decided to end our night at Eddie V's.

This is one of my new favorite photos of the three of us.

Wait. Did I say end our night?

We decided we would end our night with ice cream, of course!

 

You may not be able to tell, but this was a child's size table. And what is more funny than a child's size table? Small people trying to sit at it!

     

And we ate, 

And ate. I think Anna could model anything at this point.

 Kathy ate too, but sneakily avoided the camera. 

Alas, we were finished, and I went to the trashcan only to find it overflowing with the night's treats. Answer? Take a picture!

And so our night ended. We felt a little bit spunky and a little bit sad. 

And full. Definitely full.

Saturday Afternoon

After our World of Olives Tour, we headed to a cute spot for lunch. It was called The Leaning Pear, and it had a festive fall scene. Photo opt!!

Don't they look happy together?

 

After we ordered our lunch, we took the down time to take pictures together. 

 And we had some wine with lunch, and it inspired me to take an artsy photo of it in its natural environment.

After lunch, we drove to Driftwood Winery, and on the way, saw this sign. We thought we might pop in and try our luck, but wine sounded more appealing. 

The winery had a tasting bar where you got a sip of several different varietals. 

After our tasting, we decided upon our favorite and took a bottle outside to the amazing grounds. There was an extensive bluff that overlooked the vineyards below, and there were lots of places to sit with little tables placed all around. It was really pretty, and we spent quite a bit of time sitting outside, sipping our wine and enjoying each others company. 

Yes, this is how we enjoy each others company:

And the normal way too:

We stayed until the sun began to set. Thankfully the weather was perfect, and we could just hang out together.

I think this is why people own wineries. 

A Saturday Morning in Austin

Kathy planned some really fun outings for us on Saturday. But first, we had to have a group photo. Thankfully, I had my handy dandy tabletop tripod from my grandfather, so it made it a breeze.

Our first stop was an olive orchard, where we took a tour and then did a tasting. It was a ways out of town, but ended up being a pretty drive. With lots of directional help along the way. 

 We made it to the orchard, and it was a beautiful day.

Here are some olive trees.

If you ever need a model to pretend to eat a bruised olive off the ground, Anna is your girl.

Here's the owner of the orchard. He not only told us all about the history of olives, but really the entire history of the civilized world. The man had a lot to share.

FYI: these are asparagus bushes. Who knew?

We got to visit the processing room where they were grinding the olives, which had been harvested the day before,  into olive oil. Here's Anna peering into the whirling grinder.

They grind the olives whole to make oil, and this bucket catching the pumice, or remaining pulp. See? I told you we learned a lot.

These olives were picked just the day before!

And we had a few photo opts. 

Next stop, LUNCH!