i am so so so excited to announce a new giveaway!
my friend, paul michel, is a brilliant denver artist who has designed a collection of hand drawn greeting cards and illustrations, under the shop name mountain versus plains. his greeting cards are funny (omigod so so funny), irreverent, sometimes crass, quirky, and always so well-done. his illustrations of notable denver buildings are simple but spot-on and really capture the bones and personality of each place. i plan on commissioning him for a portrait of the powerdriver family in front of our little denver farmstead.
sifting through his collection had me laughing out loud to myself. i’m confident the same will happen to you. (p.s. please click through to his etsy site to get MUCH better photos of his awesome work. my diptich-ing does them no justice).
right now paul is doing a series of 33 cards in 33 days over at his facebook page and on his instagram feed (@mountainvsplains). it just started but these are two of my favorites:
paul has generously offered up three greeting cards AND a framed print (of winner’s choice!) to one lucky reader who comments on this post answering the question paul has for you all: suddenly the city of denver finds itself overrun by thousands of ravenous twenty-foot tall hamsters. what do you do? where do you go? (don’t worry if you’re not from denver; creativity and imagination are encouraged!)
this giveaway is running through july 31st and the randomly-picked winner will be announced in a blog post august 1.
BONUS!: extra entries can be obtained by liking mountain versus plains on facebook AND following his feed on instagram (@mountainvsplains) (which you won’t regret bc it makes for a daily chuckle). just leave an extra comment saying you’ve done so (and make sure to leave your instagram handle, please).
ADDITIONALLY!: paul is offering A Denver Home Companion readers 15% off in his mountain versus plains etsy shop through the duration of the giveaway. simply input promo code olliesvintage15 at checkout.
i can’t believe my dear friend tessa came to town and this is the only photo i have of her. i don’t even have one of her and us or of her and her husband or of her and her little adorable baby boy, august. well, actually i can believe it since the past week was busy busy busy. we had so much shopping and talking and eating and drinking to do! her and her two men were visiting from chicago and stayed with us for the duration. it was a good balance of being out-and-about and lounging on the couch but there was no time for blogging or for capturing these moments (though tessa did snap some photos of ramona and i for my next sling diaries theme). when tessa and i and august and ramona do our chicago-minneapolis-chicago roadtrip we will both be better about documenting it.
so. now i’m back to blogging. and i missed it. but sometimes unexpected breaks are so good for the soul and sanity. because i wouldn’t have missed that last week offline with my friends for anything.
if you haven’t heard about them by now, well, then, i just need to introduce you to this fabulous denver band, the lumineers.
i found out about the lumineers bc i used to work with neyla, the adorable, kind, intelligent and incredibly talented young woman of the band. the band was just getting started (or at least her role in it was) and soon enough, she was often gone on tour. they were a hit wherever they went. their well-known song (and my favorite) is Ho Hey. do yourself a favor and watch it right now right here:
recently they performed on the late late show with craig ferguson and i was tickled pink. not only was this band i love getting some prime time showing but i could also point to the screen and say: “i know that girl!” 
to my friends in chicago, NYC, LA, mpls, pdx…hell, everywhere in the USofA: check your local venues and definitely go see them when the lumineers make a stop in your town.
to check out their new, full album you can stream it for free here. noisetrade is offering a free download of their EP. also, please consider buying their album and supporting these great indie muscians.
first monday of a new month! this is giveaway time, y’all. and yes, it is coffee related again. i just can’t help myself: i have awesome companies to introduce you to.
this month i’m featuring the amazing coffee from my dear friends over at huckleberry roasters. huckleberry is a local, independently-owned company (just two doors down from crema) that roasts some of my favorite coffee (their blue orchid espresso is ah-mahzing). these guys are new and their company small but already there is a growing demand in the denver area for their expertly and lovingly roasted beans. i am confident this business will be taking off in incredible ways and i’m privileged to call these craftsmen my friends.
interested in the chance to have a bag of these (whole) beans sent to your door? please leave a comment letting us know what craft you most admire. me? i have a huge crush on carpenters. oh man, if i could build beautiful things out of wood. i’ll pick one winner on friday and post it here (usa and canada only, please).
for the record, this is not a sponsored post. i am doing this bc i love to help give exposure to small companies doing big things.
kelsey over at rising/shining honored me (a bit ago, embarrassingly) by presenting a denver home companion with the liebster award. she notes: the idea behind the Liebster Blog Award is that it is given to upcoming bloggers (with fewer than 200 followers) in order to create new connections and bring attention to wonderful growing blogs.
so i’d love to pay it forward. i have no idea how many followers each of these blogs has but they’re near and dear to me (meaning: i get excited every time i see a new post in my google reader) and they are written by women who seem to be really great who also happen to write blogs that are wonderful and truthful and creative.
additionally, i love new blogs. and i love smaller blogs. these bloggers seem to write with more honesty and candor. this is what i need in my life!
kelsey has some instructions if you were one of the above bloggers awarded a Liebster Award by me and want to keep it going:
+ choose up to 5 up and coming blogs with less than 200 followers to award
+ write your own Liebster award post and tell the world about the blogs you love
+ in your Liebster post, link back to the blogger who awarded you to – it’s like a blog chain letter, but better!
welcome
