Craftyminx

Getting Ready for Vegas!

My birthday trip to Vegas is quickly approaching (my birthday is on Monday)!! This will be my third trip to Las Vegas with Sheldon and since it will be my 30th birthday I decided we had to be proper Vegas tourists this time around. We usually stay with or nearby family while in Vegas and only have a day or so on the strip. This time we are staying on the strip at New York, New York and we're going all out on shows and food and shopping. I'm sooo excited! One of my 30 before 30 list items was Vegas and Disneyland, but I couldn't talk Sheldon into Disneyland. I'm kind of bummed but know that we really won't have time for both. We'll have to take a Disney trip by itself sometime in the near future.

Here are the things I really want to do:

• Shows: Jubilee, Zumanity, Blue Man Group, Jersey Boys (we'll see what we can get tickets to at the half-price booth)
• Food: Bouchon, Mon Ami Gabi, Bacchanal Buffet, Bahama Breeze (there's a dessert here I love and haven't had since they left Oklahoma ha), Sin City Brewery (their Light beer is the best ever!)
• Shopping: LUSH, Bettie Page, Kate Spade Outlet, Cosmetics Company Outlet, MAC Pro Store, Inglot, Original Penguin Store (for Sheldon). We are so very sad Ben Sherman isn't in Vegas anymore it was the only place I could talk Sheldon into treating himself to fancy clothes. Thankfully they have a Penguin store and their clothes are awesome!

We're also planning on going to Eli Roth's Goretorium (This is soo for Sheldon and not me but I am looking forward to their bar.)

We have to go to the Double Down Saloon just because it's awesome and they have old photobooths!

Drink and Drag - I haven't been here before but it's like a bowling alley/bar with drag queens. I can't wait!

I'm going to get an olloclip for my phone so I can post better photos to instagram during our trip. I just hate carrying around my big camera. Follow along here on IG or here on Flickr :). 

YAY VACATIONS!

* The photo is from our 2011 trip. I'm a big fan of the vintage neon on Fremont Street.

Solo Roadtrip

So this weekend I took advantage of having three days off and came down to Texas to see one of my best friends, Bri. Sheldon had to work so this was my first solo roadtrip in 3 years.  I used to take solo road trips all the time -- really long ones to see John in Louisiana. While I like to have Sheldon or another friend in the car with me sometimes it is nice to just drive alone getting to listen to what you want to listen to and stop where and when you want to stop. I made a few stops on my drive down and snapped a few photos to share with you. 

I've been wanting to try these fried pies for ages and it seems like it's always too late when we get to Davis so we don't stop. So I decided to stop to get some presents for my hosts this weekend.  If you haven't had a pecan fried pie, you are missing out. Joey let me try the chocolate one and I can say that it was amazing as well. Somewhat funny story - After taking that bite from the picture above, I totally choked on a rouge piece of flaky pie crust and thought I was going to die in the parking lot. I coughed for about 15 minutes. It was scary at the time but I laughed afterwards because I got very dramatic in my head about being alone and choking alone and someone finding me hours later. Watch out for the rogue bits of pie crust!!

I was also able to stop at my favorite Thrift Store in Ardmore, OK. It's huge and I always find fun vintage things there. I'll share what I bought later :) I couldn't get a great pic of everything spread out in my back seat. 

My weekend has been lovely! It has been very low key and has included many of my favorite Texas hobbies shopping and eating (I got In 'n Out for the first time since our Vegas trip in July).  Today I bought the pattern and fabric for a dress I hope to make on Monday for my birthday party next Saturday. We're having a Madmen theme party! It is going to be so much fun. 

Uncovering gems

Remember back in July when I went to Las Vegas to see my new niece? Well you might not, because I totally dropped the ball on uploading photos from our trip. This is a common occurrence in my life, especially when they are family photos. I take too many, get overwhelmed by all the editing work, and uploading to flickr ahead of me and then forget about them. When I was gathering photos of our last year for my end of the year post I remembered that I never shared anything from our trip. These photos have been on my laptop quietly awaiting seeing the light of day. 

We went to the Grand Canyon on our way to Vegas. I was so very excited about all the photo opportunities I would have there. I even rented a wide angle lens just for the occasion. And then it  rained the entire time we were there. It was really cold and windy too. In July! All of these reasons made me a really awful person that day. I was grouchy and pouty because my plans didn't go as expected. I took a lot of photos of the canyon, but they were all flat looking on my camera. It was really cloudy and foggy and did I mention rainy?

* I just had to edit this to add this photo. It perfectly documents my feelings at the time. Cold and Unhappy.

My photos just didn't have the color in them that I wanted them to have. Sheldon was really patient with me as I was grousing about how sucky the day was. He and his brother were having the time of their lives and he didn't understand why I was so upset. "Those photos might look crappy right now, but once you get them on the computer and can edit them a little they'll look great. Besides, everyone can get good photos here when it's nice out, these photos will be different because it's so cloudy." 

So I uploaded them all to flickr last night. All 5000 of them from our entire trip. I'll weed through them on there, my computer tends to be slow when dealing with a lot of photos in findr. And I ran a few through picnik (these are a little more edited than I would normally do but I like them). The colors started coming out and the clouds really do look pretty good (before and after below). My husband was right. (He'll love that when he reads this haha... You were right Sheldon.) They still aren't what I envisioned but they capture the day and I guess that's all that matters.

I don't think of myself as a photographer at all. I'm just a blogger with a camera, but I'm glad that these photos are starting to look better and show me that my grumpy attitude was really unfounded. So one of my projects for the next few weeks is to go through all these photos edit them and make them pretty. They deserve that. I also have photos of us with Charlotte that need some work too. I'm not going to blog them (probably) but I'll make a flickr set and direct you all there when they're ready for some browsing. 

I hope to get an eye-fi card for my camera for my birthday. That way all photos go directly to flickr and I might be more likely to work with them right away. Do any of you have an eye-fi? What do you think of it?

What we're doing for our anniversary

Today Sheldon and I leave for our Anniversary get-away. I'm super excited because we are staying in a tree-house (enter our excited faces above)!! 

Neither of us has ever been to Eureka Springs so this will be a really fun trip. We really just want to relax a lot and enjoy our awesome treehouse, but we have a couple of fun things planned, like visiting a working mill, and taking a dinner train. 

And of course I'll probably scouring the many antique stores hoping to come across something that isn't too overpriced in this tourist destination. 

Be ready for awesome treehouse pictures next week :D

Happiness is... snippets of Vegas

 
1. Making my mark at carhenge!!, 2. Cool Texas rest stop, 3. Laguna Burger, 4. Hottie... He told me to make sure to include that the wind did that to his hair ;), 5. The grand Canyon,
6. 4th of July nails!, 7. Mollie Makes Magazine!, 8. Make mine a venti!, 9. Family Vacation T-Shirts, 10. 99 cent margaritas that taste like lime otter pops,
11. Good morning Vegas!, 12. Bloody Mary? Don't mind if I do!!, 13. going out on the town!, 14. a night out in vegas, 15. I heart las Vegas!,
16. Watching cartoons, 17. Floppy hat by the pool, 18. In-n-out, 19. New Bettie Page Dress, 20. Sin City Brewery,
21. New Eccos, 22. Checking in at the golden nugget, 23. There's a TV in the Bathroom!, 24. I'm not leaving this spot., 25. Our dinner view.,
26. Rainbow, 27. Mr. Clingy, 28. Sonic favorites, 29. A pretty bow belt, 30. Studio cleaning

So many phone pics from a very fun week! Okay, the last four photos are from after we returned. I took a lot of video too and hope to figure out how to make a little montage of our trip -- New territory for me, but I think it will be fun.

Music:

First of all, I love Samantha Crain. I'm a little biased because she's a friend from college, but still her music is awesome and her voice is very lovely and soothing. This is one of the only videos she has made and this song always reminds me of road trips. My friend John and I drove to Santa Fe once and decided to make a playlist of only songs entitled or about Santa Fe. It's crazy how many of them there are. People love to sing about Santa Fe. So when Samantha released this song, it made me grin. Another song to add to my Santa Fe playlist. :)

Vegas Bound!

Freemont Street - from our first trip to Vegas together in 2009

We're on the road and going to Vegas to visit our new niece Charlotte and her mommy and daddy :).

I have some blogs set to post while we're gone so the blog doesn't have to go on vacation with me. I even crocheted all my squares early so I'm taking a REAL vacation from everything. I may not even take yarn. This never happens!! I'll have my phone and like our Austin trip, I'll most likely be posting Instagram photos and things on twitter. So follow me there if you wish.

We're driving out with Sheldon's twin and his wife. We're taking the Route 66 tour and going to the grand canyon for a couple of days before we head in to Vegas. I am sooo excited! I even rented a wide angle lens to take with us so I can practice photography.

Here's my agenda. We're traveling with other people so some of it may not happen, but this is what I really hope to do!

- Stop at the Cadillac Ranch and create some art :). My pink spray paint is ready!
- Eat at the 66 Diner. Of course I NEED to eat at this landmark 50's diner.
- Take photos in front of the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. We didn't even think of doing this the last time we were there and I'm sad that we didn't.
- Go to the neon boneyard. I have been wanting to go here for AGES!! Seriously I'll be very sad if we don't make it there this time. However, it will be VERY hot while we're there so we may skip it and wait until we go back in April sometime for Viva Las Vegas. I mean it's a museum, it will still be there (I hope haha).
- Eat at Hash House a Go-Go. You know we have to go to a Man Vs. Food place. Sadly, we can't go to the place where he had the challenge in Vegas because it was at the Nascar Cafe at the Sahara which was torn down earlier this year. :(
- Swim with Sharks! Ok not really, but we're staying at the Golden Nugget and they have a shark tank in the middle of the swimming pool. So cool!!
- Get the bananas supreme dessert at Bahama Breeze. This is a really weird one, but we used to have a Bahama Breeze in OKC and this is my favorite dessert ever! I haven't had it in 5 years and Vegas has a Bahama Breeze and I'm determined to go there this year! haha
- MAC Pro and Inglot I always hit up a MAC pro if I'm in a city that has one and I really like the one in Vegas at the Forum Shops. I've heard a lot of really great things about Inglot and there's also a store at the Forum Shops so I am really excited to go there and check it out.
- Eat at In and Out Burger as many times as we can stand.  No explanation needed amiright?

I would also like to do some thrifting and vintage shopping, of course, and hopefully go back to Williams Costume Co. That place is amazing and the retired showgirl in her 80's that owns it (I think she owns it, I could be wrong) is a hoot. I am really sad that Retro Bakery will be closed the week we are there. I'll have to seek out another fun dessert destination to try out.

Have you been to Vegas? What is your favorite non-gambling thing to do? Some people think Vegas is not for them, but I really think it has something for everyone. There's a lot to do off the strip that people don't think about.

What happened in Austin

We had such a wonderful time in Austin and I've been working on these photos all week. That's the part I hate the most after a big trip. Editing photos for myself and picking out ones to share. Sometimes, I just "forget" to take my camera so I don't have to worry about it and then I get mad for missing good photo opportunities. Anyway, here's some snapshots of our weekend...

The drive down to Austin was horrible! It rained the entire trip just like it did last year, and there were many times where we had to stop because we couldn't see out of the windshield. Our 6 hour drive turned in to an 8 hour drive and we were so exhausted after we arrived in Austin we didn't really want to do anything.

We stayed at the Austin Motel again in Room 260 (the Americana). I don't think we'll ever stay anywhere else when we go to Austin. We love the Austin Motel! It's in a great location (right in the middle of south congress) and the rooms are fun and clean and aren't expensive.

Our main reason for going to Austin was to go to the Renegade Craft Fair. We had a blast there last year and knew we had to go back this year. We had an even greater time there this year! I met Twinkie Chan and Erin from Sunshine and Carousels along with many other of my favorite crafters/bloggers.  We decided to rest a lot during this trip so we didn't do a lot of running around. But we went to a few of our faovorite Austin places: Toy Joy, The Continental Club, and Thrift Stores. We saw Junior Brown at the Continental Club and he was amazing! Neither of us had ever seen him live so it was a real treat.

We also went to plenty of awesome places to eat.

I didn't take photos of everything we ate but there was lots of imbibing in tasty beverages and food that was bad for us! We went to Gueros for Margaritas and tacos and the Texas Chili Parlor for beers and Nachos because we love Death Proof. Seriously, the Nachos at the Texas Chili Parlor are just as good as they look in the movie. We finished our tour of Man Vs. Food Austin by going to the Salt Lick since we didn't make it there last year. It is so worth the drive out there. The food was amazing!! 

We went to Frank for brunch on Sunday and had wonderful food and the best Bloody Mary ever! It has bacon in it. Enough said. We go there every time we're in Austin not only because we know the owner, but because the atmosphere is really great and the food is even better. 

Hey Cupcake was a block away from our hotel so we walked down and got 4 cupcakes our last day. Their cupcakes are really dense, moist and flavorful. Soo good!

On our way home we had to stop at Round Rock Donuts to get a few Texas sized donuts to bring back for friends. We ate on ours all week afterwards. They are great for days. :)

We love Austin!!

And we can't wait for next year!

So that about sums up our trip! I have an outfit post to share tomorrow -- What I wore in Austin -- you can see a little peek above. :)

Layouts and fabric banners used in the post are from Pugly Pixel.

 

A Honeymoon Memento

It rained the entire time we were in Montreal. This made for some interesting sight-seeing, because we weren't prepared at all for rain. The first day we went out I saw a girl with the CUTEST brown polka dot umbrella with a ruffle trim. Sheldon said he would offer the girl money for her umbrella since I obviously fell in love with it. I talked him out of it. It wasn't that big of a deal and besides, how were we supposed to get a full sized umbrella home?

The next day while sheltering ourselves from the rain in a mall, I saw it. MY UMBRELLA, In red and on sale!! I'm pretty sure I jumped up and down with glee. I bought it and thankfully it was big enough for both of us to use when we were caught in the rain. We still wondered how I would get it home. It was much too large to fit in our luggage. And it had a pointy end. Would they let us through security with it?

My umbrella made it safely through our train ride back to Niagara Falls without hitting too many people on accident in the train station. It is three and a half feet long after all, not the easiest thing to maneuver through crowds. The morning we were to fly back home, Sheldon asked if I was ready to leave my umbrella behind if they wouldn't let me take it on the plane. "Hell no, " I said, "I'll mail this baby back home if I have to!"

I held my breath as I placed my umbrella on the table in the security area and went through the metal detectors. After I walked through a TSA agent walked towards me with my umbrella, then I heard him laugh and say "what is this Mary Poppins?" to one of his friends. Then he asked me if it was mine and handed it over still laughing. Apparently TSA agents in Buffalo have a sense of humor unlike the ones at many other airports. Sheldon overheard everything and chuckled to himself. He was probably thinking the same thing the whole trip, but loves me far too much to ever make fun of my need for cute things.

Once we got home, I waited for it to rain so I could show off my umbrella. It never happened :( Finally, this past Thursday, we got rain and I proudly carried my Mary Poppins umbrella. I don't care if it's over the top cute. I love its red polka dots, its ruffle trim, and its curly q heart handle so much. It is definitely my most beloved souvenir.

P.S. I finally got used to the Slushied (OPI Sephora Glee collection) nail polish I put on the other night. It is what I'm wearing in the photo.