'rado-gourmet food tour

in an effort to do something fun and different while my friend jamie was in town i bought a groupon to a denver food tour. a lovely lady, shelly, decided to start her own food tour company and do what she loved. a great way to start a gorgeous friday with a lady full of inspiration...


after the initial shock that people would wear head to toe baggy sweats to anything with the word gourmet in the title-we settled in to our 3 hour adventure.


we started out with amore gelato-this adorable shop is on the 16th street mall in lodo.

as part of the tour we got to sample just about every gelato you could dream of, and then scoop our own sweet treat behind the counter. we loved it, especially the pistachio!

next, we headed to evoos marketplace with oils and balsamics that were tasty enough to drink. i got a Peruvian lime oil and a pear vinaigrette-unfortunately, this means i will have to learn how to prepare some type of food besides popcorn. ugh. the shop was beautiful and a must stop for those fancy chefs out there.

third, we stopped in to living the sweet life in the highlands which had trays and trays of amazing sweet treats. frosted our own cupcakes (i'd go for the red velvet) and learned a bit about the southern cake.

our last stop on our trip was savory spice shop where our lively guide had us taste dozens of spices for just about anything you could imagine. the knowledgeable and fun staff were great. and in another desperate attempt to force myself to learn how to cook i bought several spices (all at a discount-another perk to the tour).


a fun day, ending with the rediscovery of one of my favorite little shops in denver i thought was lost forever-rejuvanest. it turns out she had just moved to an even better location in the highlands. i can't even step foot in there without buying something so i opted for a great new candle.


i felt very 'rado spending the day doing something new in the beautiful weather on my day off.


shelly has other tours- the denver food cart tour is next on my list.

this girl loves herself a delicious street cart hot dog.
xoxo ashleycolean

that had a little curl.

‘there once was a girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead. when she was good she was very very good, and when she was bad she was horrid.’

it was pointed out to me last night that my blog title may lend itself to confusion about a girl from nantucket. this curly headed nursery rhyme is the reason for my title, and, I think, my orneriness.  

and not to toot my own horn but would you look at this kid-I mean, really.

toot toot.
xoxo ashleycolean

more the wine than the monuments

so in just 7 little days i am on my way to the east coast for the first time (insert gasp).  i'm off to visit the weeders and meet that little baby that i have yet to see. my dear friend amanda moved to dc about the same time i moved to this lovely little city-denver. we grew up at the same time-and by growing up, i mean moved away from what we knew in kansas city and did our 'own thing.' the only difference is she married a handsome man first, but that's neither here nor there. :)


the dear amanda and i have been friends since college-through the drama, the beer and the hair colors (mine, not amanda's lovely brown natural locks)-

 i haven't seen amanda or the hubby, matt since their wedding the summer of 2009...

and i could not be more excited to drink wine, walk around dc, and just catch up with a dear friend somewhere other than my car speaker phone...


can't wait to see you my dear.
this oughta be fun-
xoxo ashleycolean

this is me.

so. this is me. it's yet to be determined if this gals got much to say worth reading about, but hey, i'll give it a whirl. i'm navigating through this crazy life in constant amazement-looking for my thing, and loving most all of it.
xoxo ashleycolean.