one monday ago, on a warm, well-lit evening, our dear friend nicole came and watched ramona so jp and i could celebrate my birthday w a night out on the town (or at least the lohi neighborhood). we had an excellent evening and i’d suggest the following things on your own lower highland date night:

• start w cocktails at williams & graham (old fashioned for him, original st. germain for me)
• walk down the hill and over the pedestrian bridge to sushi sasa. sit at the chef’s counter and order omakase.
• walk back up the hill via the 15th street bridge to linger for a night cap. everyone goes wild for the roof-top patio but i think the bar is a far sexier place.
• p.s. a shout-out to secondlove who just keeps getting better and better. the blouse and jeans i’m wearing are recent purchases from there.

the photo my mom posted on my facebook wall this morning to tell me happy birthday.

last year i wrote a list of 27 things i wanted to do in my 27th year.

nevermind that i still don’t know how to change my own bike tire and we never took off for a weekend road trip (though a fair amount of air travel happened). 27 was a good year. this past year has been full and good and busy and rewarding. and 28? well, here’s to it always getting better.

rather than a list of 28 things that i’d rather not stress about completing in the next 365 days, here are some things i’ve been thinking i’d like to accomplish, ideally before i turn 30.

• have a second child
• pay off student loans
• use financial freedom to explore other business opportunities (i would love a shop of my own)
• continue to grow my blog & the solid interweb community of other writers, artists, and like-minded women i feel blessed to be a part of.
• keep reading lots of books
• get my butt outside more.

jp has to work today (but he spoiled me rotten the past two days). so i will be celebrating by taking ramona to the children’s museum later on (free day!) followed up by happy hour w a dear friend. cheers all!

dear lovely readers,

if i could give you all a yummy baked good and sit down w each of you for conversation over coffee, i most certainly would. over the years and as this blog has grown and i’ve gotten to meet some fabulous people — both near and far, in real life and just through the interwebs. i want to thank you all for your kind words, thoughtful questions, and support for me as a mama, writer, documenter, and sometimes over-sharer. your involvement and participation at this little space has been encouraging, affirming, and welcoming. thanks for being a part of A Denver Home Companion. this place is a lot better with people like you!

as a big believer in the power and necessity of community, i’d like to open up this space to other voices. i would like to strengthen this web presence by including words from, perhaps, you!; i’m looking for contributions from writers/readers/bloggers/whathaveyou who may want participate a little bit more on my blog. it doesn’t matter if you’re based in denver or australia, male or female, single or married-with-children: if you have something you’d like to post about that makes sense for this blog, i’d love to hear from you.

i’m not sure what this will ultimately look like — or if i’ll even get any submissions! but i wanna give it a shot. if you are interested, please send your idea for a post (or a draft of one) to me at emily [at] adenverhomecompanion [dot] com. i cannot promise i’ll be able to accept and publish everything as it’s important to me to remain true to the relative energy and character of this space, but i’ll certainly consider everything. and, though i can’t pay you in moola, i promise to plug the crap outta you on the social platforms i utilize. woohoo!

again, thanks for everything. thanks for stopping by, whether that’s daily or weekly, or just here and there. thanks for saying hello. thanks for reading!

+emily