Nightmare Before Christmas Coolness

In celebration of the 15th anniversary of Tim Burton's incredible Nightmare Before Christmas, Disney is re-releasing the movie as well as offering a site filled with nightmare-ish goodies such as this avatar builder.

You can never have enough Tim Burton. The Jack delivering presents game is cool too.

Las Vegas Girly Trip

My dear friend, Ilena, and I try to take a girly trip every 2 years or so.  This time we went back to Las Vegas.  We've been there twice already together and liked it... so we went again.  Here are some of the highlights.

This is an extremely large (as in bigger than my head) Rueben Sandwich from The Carnegie Deli in the Mirage.  We had to pace ourselves because we shared a piece of their cheesecake the night before and wanted to come back for a sandwich.  We shared this one, but really it could feed a family of four.  The pastrami was excellent! Check Ilena's blog for a picture of me with the Reuben for scale.

Then, of course, we had to see the conservatory at the Bellagio.

Scale model of the Bellagio complete with miniature working fountains...

This low mossy flower bed had water shooting in arcs that was timed to music.  I took about 30 pictures before I was able to really catch what the water was doing.

Gratuitous flower shot....

This is the biggest chocolate fountain that I have ever seen! It has milk, white, and dark chocolate flowing down in three separate waterfalls.

The glass was really thick... so no chance of sampling.

Acres of pastries....

We had a wonderful time and spent a half a day at the spa at Paris getting scrubbed, massaged, and our toes and fingers painted... then it was off to the pool for some R&R, reading, and general laying about.

We went to The Beatles Love. Which was amazing! The stage and the costumes and the music... it was all just beautiful. We were on the edge of our seats! We wanted to see Criss Angel's Believe but they pushed out the preview date... so it will have to wait.... but the costumes are amazing...






Definitely a must see next time I'm down there.

End of Summer

I need to get creative again. Things have been so busy lately that I have completely lost sight of why I started this blog.  My freelance work has remained steady rather than having breaks between seasons, my clients have been rolling them back to back.  I miss the 6 week break between projects.  Things should settle down mid-October though and then I can do other things... maybe I'll finally finish that sweater I've been knitting... since last year.

So here's a recap of some of the summer creativity...
Miss Elsie wanted to learn how to sew. Note to self: almost 6 years old is not old enough to learn to use a sewing machine.


She practiced on paper following lines but really had trouble sewing her little purse. So I had her sew some of the big seams... and then I finished it.


Her attention span barely made it past the fabric selection phase.



It turned out really, really cute. A nice jumble of fabrics, but very rich in color. She picked out the big brass button herself.


... and of course did not want her picture to be taken with her creation.

Then there was the giant flea market that we go to every July for my birthday.

Eye balls, anyone?


Endless supply of seed beads... a river of color sparkling in the sun...


This great display of old bottles....

... and this window vignette...

And this lovely western ensemble with all it's flat chenille embroidery....



My flowers have really been lacking this summer... it has been so cold. But we seem to be having some last minute warm weather so my dahlias are starting to put on a show...

So as you see not many sewing, home, knitting, crafting projects.  With cooler weather coming and the outside work ending, my interests should shift inside.  I also have a bunch of beads that need strung together into a necklace.. but I don't think I'll post that until I'm closer to actually finishing.

Loss

We had to tell our beloved cat, Newman, good-bye today.  His kidney's started to fail last fall.  We were able to keep him feeling good with medicine and fluids until a couple of weeks ago, but couldn't do any more.

We will miss him greatly.