New Bloom

From the Xmas gift from Lisa... Housed in the greenhouse from mom...

Laptop Sleeve

Just made this today - by request of my boss. I had to make one for myself first to see how it would turn out. Next up - an actual bag (possibly messenger) to carry the laptop in. This was my first time buying a pattern (3881 & 4391 by Simplicity) and trying to figure out their instructions... Which took a bit for me but turned out ok in the end :)

Vegas - Part II

SO... I am the type of dork who right away when I got home from Vegas I made a list of everything we saw/did over the 5 days... Problem is, I am also a forgetful dork - thus I had forgotten my list at Gram's house... Luckily, she is thoughtful and mailed my list to me at home, but unfortunately that list must have smelled like her dog Inga, because as soon as Boscoe could reach the list, he grabbed it and tore it to pieces. I tried to repair the damage so I could read what I had wrote, but it looks like I will have to piece my memories together better than that darned piece of paper :)
Here goes...

We arrived in Vegas fairly early in the morning - so we took the shuttle to the hotel and checked in our luggage, then started on our way down Fremont Street exploring. Soon after, we were joined by Kate, who traveled all the way from California with Brad to meet up with us in Vegas. She was a blast - screaming for joy anytime any one of us won a few cents on the machines - the perfect cheerleader :) We had people coming from all over wanting to see the big winners! We became members of the "Player's Club"s at a few casinos, mainly for the free slot play, free deck of cards, or free t-shirts :)

We hit up a few vendors on the streets, had a few more drinks while playing at the casinos, and saw the light show on Fremont (Or Fairmont as Stacy calls it :).












The next couple of days we were typical tourists - spending a few bucks here and there, accumulating coupons for various shows/buffets, and taking pictures along the way. We experienced public transportation at its best - taking the Deuce bus to the strip and back.
Along the strip we checked out most of the hotels - most notably the Chinese Zen gardens, fountain show and ceilings at the Bellagio, lion habitat at the MGM, statues at Caesar's Palace, M&M Factory, Paris eiffel tower replica, and New York New York statue of liberty replica.










Some of the shows we saw included the Sirens at the Treasure Island, acrobats at the Circus Circus, Viva Las Vegas at the Plaza, and we even screened a TV show at Television City (fyi - stay away from the new Jeffrey Tambor series El Capitan - not so good!!!).

Turns out we are all not so good at bingo either - but had a blast (and worked up a sweat dabbing as fast as we could!) The jerky shop across the hall was a welcome break - we left there with lots of things to bring home to MN.

One thing I have to also say was how pleased we were with our hotel, the Golden Nugget - good service and an awesome outdoor pool. It actually had a SHARK tank in the middle of it, with a slide going right through the tank into the water! We were literally about 2 inches from the sharks! The air temp was around 45-50 degrees, perfect for us Minnesotans to take a dip :)
Amid the $1.99 shrimp cocktails, penny slots, and all of the previously mentioned adventures - I am most excited about how great it was to take a vacation with such wonderful people! I don't think I would have had the same experience without my dear friend Stacy and my new friends Corryn and Ruth!

Vegas Part I - Road Trip

As I previously posted - I returned from an awesome trip to Vegas not long ago. Thanks to Stacy - I now have some pictures to prove it (since my camera decided it did not want to turn on on the first day out!). The trip will be divided into 2 posts since I have lots of pics to show (and more later possibly!).

Ok - I will start the photo show with the road trip the Trask girls and I took on our second day in Vegas. Despite a rocky start trying to get to the highway from our hotel, the trip went very smoothly... We started through the Red Rock Canyon - taking pictures along the scenic route:

We stopped at an old west town called Bonnie Springs for breakfast (where there were quite a few dollar bills tacked to the ceiling) - they also had great food!

Heading out of the Red Rocks we stopped at Joe's Cactus nursery where Stacy got some free glass rocks, Ruth & Corryn bought some pretty nifty homemade earrings, and I pet a pig...

After about an hour of driving toward what we thought was toward the Hoover Dam, we were informed by Ruth that we were actually on our way to a tiny hick town in California called Nipton in search of a pirate named Billy the Kid (long story)... Turns out he was out in the fields working on his backhoe, but we had a pretty good time at the local cantina (a trailer with a pool table and a couple of coolers) claiming to have the "coldest beer around." They were right - the beer was definitely cold and we had a great time chatting with Billy's neighbor, Linda (who was missing most of her teeth and lived in a bus down the street with her brother :).

After leaving Nipton, we traveled along toward the Hoover Dam/Lake Mead and took some Dam pictures:


The Dam was amazing - really big and definitely something I won't forget. As you can see - it was a bit windy :) Oh and the last pic shows the new highway being built - and I am so glad we came through BEFORE that was finished - it looked super scary jutting out into nowhere like that!

More about the hotels/casinos, night life and all of the money we won coming soon in Part II of our Vegas vacation!

Tagged

My aunt Colleen tagged me, sent to her by my cousin Steve . Here are the rules...
(1) Link to the person that tagged you.(2) Post the rules on your blog.(3) Share six non-important things/habits/quirks about yourself.(4) Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.(5) Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.
(1) done.
(2) done.
(3) hmmmm
- I have the worst memory and I repeat stories to people all the time
- I was called the "Cisco Kid" in our local paper when I was in high school
- I love reality tv and gossip websites like Pink and the Celebrity Baby Blog
- I have had stitches only once - and a few people know where...
- I sometimes say things that seem completely random, yet there is always a Six degees of Kevin Bacon-type of connection (so far Josh is the only one who can track my craziness)
- I turn splotchy on my neck and chest when I am nervous or warm

(4) I am going to have to fail on this one - Most of the people I know have already been tagged!
(5) Done.