What Happens In Vegas...

Last Wednesday afternoon, Farzad called me and told me to pack. We were going to Las Vegas for our 27th anniversary on Thursday morning! What a sweet surprise!

In three-and-a half short days we packed in a lot of adventures. Here are a few snippets from our trip:

We stayed at the Bellagio. What a beautiful hotel! Farzad knows how to travel in style.

Here's a view from our room:

On our anniversary (Thursday night), we went to Wolfgang Puck's Spago restaurant and had a 9-course meal (their "tasting menu" which gave us small portions of 4 appetizers, 2 main courses, and 3 desserts). Absolutely divine food. We spent the rest of the trip visiting two other of the 6 Wolfgang Puck restaurants in Las Vegas in search of a meal to equal that first one.

On Friday we visited the Grand Canyon. We were supposed to go on a helicopter ride and then down into the Canyon for a boat trip on the Colorado River, but there were some weather issues, and the helicopters couldn't fly. No words can describe the beauty of this place, so I'm not even going to try. Just two words: awe-inspiring and breathtaking--literally.

Yes, I did get on the Skywalk, and yes, it was terrifying! But thrillling! The most amazing views.

Here's where we had lunch. Talk about a "nice table.":

And here's another view, from the other side of the cliff, to show you just how scary-exciting it was eating on the edge of that cliff (the arrow points to the table where we ate):

On Friday night when we got back, we got to see Cirque du Soleil Ka at the MGM Grand. (Sorry no pitures. No cameras allowed. But if you click here, you can see a tiny snippet of the spectacle we saw--make sure the sound is turned up.)

On Saturday, we went on a Hoover Dam tour and got to ride on a pontoon boat at the bottom of the dam, apparently a very restricted area that only this one tour company is allowed to visit. Just awesome seeing that engineering marvel from so many different angles--from the top, from the side, from the inside, and from the bottom--doesn't get any better than that!

We're not gamblers, but we did manage to spend a grand total of $5.00 between the two of us on slot machines!

It was unbelievably hot in Las Vegas--112 degrees on Thursday--but we had a wonderful, whirlwind time. I have the sweetest, most thoughtful husband to surprise me with this amazing adventure. I can't wait to start scrapping my trip!

A Couple of Pages (and the mission continues--or, Hey, I used a Poemstone!)

Farzad decided to take the weekend off, so we went out and about. Because I was short on time, I combined some of the challenges I had to do. I made this page for the Color Combos Galore blog. Janet challenged us with a gorgeous combo of dark slate - wasabi - milkshake - hibiscus. I also made it for the How Much Is Too Much? blog--Paula challenged us to use 25 stickers on a layout.

If you read my last post, you know that I've been on a mission to include at least one really old supply on my layouts. I used these old photo turns that I got several years ago:

And I made this page for the Sketch This! blog. I rotated Janelle's sketch. I combined this challenge for the Double-Dog Dare Ya! blog. Here, the challenge was to use a label, a photo corner, a stamp, some buttons, and some ribbon or trim.

I used a couple of oldies but goodies here--a Cosmo Cricket chipboard photo corner, from their original lines and--can you believe it--a Poemstone. I remember when those things came out. I HAD to have them. Farzad drove me all over creation looking for those things, and when I found them, I had to buy every kind--I think there were six kinds. I never used them in all these years, until this page--see it tucked in behind the flower? I can't tell you how excited I was when I put that thing on the page! (Doesn't take much to get me excited, huh?)

Something Old, Something New...I'm on a Mission

One of my summer projects has been to clean and reorganize my scrap room and try to purge some stuff, and I have realized that it's really hard to get rid of things. I mean, I bought the stuff because I loved it, and I still do love most of my supplies. So, I've been on a mission lately to include at least one really old supply on my layouts.

On this page, which I made for the Color Combos Galore blog, I used a lot of new stuff from the latest Studio Calico kit, but I also included some things I've had for a while, like the air mail labels and the really old brads:

And on this page, which I made for the Sketch This! blog, I used some brads I've had for years. I don't know if Making Memories even makes these anymore. I have a ton of them, and I'll be sad when I use them up.

And for this page, which is the start of a new mini-book I'm making about my numerous pet peeves, I was using mostly new stuff from the Scarlet Lime kit I just got, but I included this ancient wooden flower. I made this page for the Double-Dog Dare Ya! challenge:

My Cat Knows How to Tell Time

It's true. Farzad and I usually eat in front of the TV (bad habit, I know). When I'm finished with my dinner and put my plate on the coffee table, down comes Little Brent from upstairs. Every time. I don't know how he knows it's time to warm my lap but he does it every single night. I call him my time-telling kitty. Here's a layout I made for the Sketch This! blog. I just love this Cosmo Cricket line! (Please pardon the not-so-great photos. I took them when he was sitting on my lap and he kept moving his head every time I tried to take his picture. These two were the best of the batch.)

Patriotic Pages

This week, for How Much Is Too Much? and Color Combos Galore, we had to use a patriotic palette and theme. I've been wanting to capture some 4th of July stuff in my books, so this was a good opportunity.

I'm so terrible at remembering to get photos at celebrations because I get caught up in what's going on. Luckily, my sis had some pictures from a few years back.

Here's my page for the Color Combos Galore blog. I plan to do some journaling on the back of the page about how grateful I am to live in the U.S.A.

And here's my 2-page layout for How Much Is Too Much? That photo of my nephew on the second page cracks me up. He's got the ov-glove on. We're not sure whether he was trying to be the Statue of Liberty or just being patriotic.

The Perils of Purging

So, I've been cleaning and reorganizing my scrap room for over a week. I have WAY too much stuff and I'm running out of space. I'm always hesitant to "purge" because, well, I'm a packrat. These thoughts plague my mind when I consider getting rid of stuff: I spent so much money on this! What if I get rid of it and decide later I need it? I COULD use this old paper to make cards...

But after reorganizing my paper carts and getting EVERYTHING in alphabetical order and trying to squeeze everything in, I realized...I have no more room for even ONE more sheet of paper! So I took the plunge and decided to purge.

I went through each and every folder and pulled out stuff that I didn't absolutely LOVE. (Some of the stuff was butt-ugly and got me thinking, why on EARTH did I ever buy this.) In the end, I had a stack of patterned paper 12 inches high (I actually measured it). And now I have space to accommodate all the new paper I'm going to inevitably want to buy...

Which brings me to the whole point of this post.

I sat down two days later to make a layout. And wouldn't you know, I ran back to my purge pile! My sister had given me this Bam Pop paper and--sorry to offend any Bam Pop fans out there--I think it's pretty god-awful. But it was JUST the perfect paper I needed for this layout:






















So you just never know...

Our Newest Visitor at the Tehrani Kitty Buffet

Yeah, I'm the crazy cat lady of the neighborhood--I feed all the strays. It started with just this one cat who had made a home on our deck and a bag of cat food that my inside furbabes didn't like. Well that stray cat apparently told another...who told another...and so on and so on and so on... So now we have over a dozen who visit the Tehrani's Kitty Buffet at different times.

There are a few regulars, like "Scary Cat" (derived from "Scaredy Cat"--Farzad has some pronunciation issues) who really is quite an ugly, pathetic-looking cat, but she's sweet, and she's the only one who will let me pet her--she's not a scaredy cat like she was at the beginning.

Anyway, we recently discovered that Scary Cat had kittens, as evidenced by her nursing two little babes. One's, shall we say, not the most attractive little mottled calico but the other is this most precious little fluffy ball of sweetness. Farzad wants me to grab her, but she skitters away whenever I get too close. And besides, we already have three cats who probably wouldn't appreciate an intruder on their space. But it sure is tempting....

Here's a layout I made for the Color Combos Galore blog this week. I absolutely loved these colors. When Janet sent them to me and I saw the gray, I immediately grabbed my camera and called out for Baby Fluffball. She came and was a bit camera shy, but I got a few cute shots--love the one of her with her tongue out! (I'm actually not sure of her gender, but she sure looks like a girl, doesn't she?)