Boulder City, Nevada

I spent the night in Bakersfield after driving down hwy1. I was sad to realize I still had another 3 hours to drive to get to my hotel (and maintain my schedule!), but I drove on and finally arrived around 8:30pm, but I was exhausted and worn out. As I was driving through the desert, it was clear as day, but all of a sudden there was a rainbow. And then as I drove on, there was a double rainbow.

I arrived in historic Boulder City, where I was staying with facebook and Artfest friend, Carlanda. Her home is one of the original houses built for men working on the Hoover dam. The cute little town is chalked full of history. We spent some nice quality time in her backyard, which is very comfortable and sweetly decorated. It reminded me a lot of my grandmother's backyard in California. Welcoming vistor's to Carlanda's house is a HUGE heart shaped rock. It's just cool. Her home is decorated with beautiful antiques. I especially loved her kitchen and dining area filled with beautiful Fiesta ware and all sorts of wonderful vintage kitchen ware. We did some painting on the back deck which was really fun. I was painting on a used canvas that I picked up at a flea market for $3 somewhere along the way. While we were painting, I noticed a little hummingbird who sat on a branch, watching us, the entire time we were out there.

Carlanda and her darling husband, Lee, have two sweet little, adopted fur babies. Rudy and Tootie. Rudy took a shine to me and would snuggle in deep under the comforter and stay with me all night. such a great sleeping companion!

One day we ventured into Las Vegas so that I could go to Gold and Silver Pawn, the pawn shop featured in Pawn Stars, my husbands favorite show, next to American Pickers. We didn't get to see any of the stars and I suspect that they don't actually film the show there. The staff was a bit on the "could care less side", so that was a bummer. I'm sure they tire of all the questions of excitable tourists, but still...........Afterwards we went to Fremont Street for a bite to eat and I got some fun pictures of some of their awesome vintage signery (I call it Doo Wop)

On our way home, Lee decided to drive over to an area where the big horn sheep are known to come down from the mountains to graze. Boy were we in for a surprise! there was a huge flock there and not only that, there was the sweetest little baby big horn. how exciting!

One night we decided to head over to what is called a Pioneer dump. Basically, it's in the desert where after some rain, a bunch of dumped items were uncovered. It was near an old tent city (from the days of building the dam), so we thought it'd be fun to take some shovels over there and see if we could uncover anything fun. We found a bunch of old glass in blues, greens, pinks and purples. Some of the glass was fused to one another. very cool. I'm going to put my treasure out on the back porch in an old metal collander.

finished projects from Vegas

this is my completed project from one of Stephanie Lee's class in Vegas. i made the birdhouse in class and then finished the rest of it at home.
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and this is what i made in one of Jane Wynn's classes. i had a bit of time getting the plexi glass into my bezel, which was a bit wonky - but i think it turned out ok, after jane worked some magic with her vise!

the rest of Vegas

here's a pretty picture of Z overlooking Bellagio's water fountain with Paris behind her.

Pam, Z and i went to see "Love" one evening at The Mirage. what an amazing show! (the dark pics are my illegal camera use before the show. it didn't take long before i was told to stop!)

random photo shots around the event. Z and i bought souvenier Eiffel towers that held 64 oz of margarita's. yikes! they were heavy and it wasn't long before my hand was freezing from holding it like a baby!

More pics of Bellagio's garden area and fountain show when Z and i stopped by after seeing Love. (if you look closely, there is a rare photo of me wearing my glasses)

one evening, Pam and her husband, Ben, took Z and i to dinner at Bolero inside the Wynn hotel. what an incredible meal! it was such a lovely evening and then got better when we were handed free tickets to see La Reve (the dream). i had no clue what we were going to see and sort of thought we were walking into some comedy club scene (which i despise!). however, i was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was a show very similar to "O". it was a beautiful show and i loved the whole aspect of their use of water. what a lucky night!

Bellagio walking tour

after my dad left to go back home, i grabbed a cab from Luxor and headed over to Paris, where i was checking in for 5 days to attend the art retreat, Artnsoul. It was only 10am, but i got to check in - so i was happy about that. i dropped off all my stuff and then i saw our view. we had an incredible view of the Eiffel tower overlooking the pool. i thought it was really pretty.

so i headed over to the check in area for the retreat and ran into a few friends. they recommended that i head over to the Bellagio and check out the hotel lobby and garden area.

so that is what i did. it was a beautiful day, so i headed out in the sunshine and made the walk over to Bellagio. if you've never seen the Bellagio, you must someday! it is simply gorgeous and surrounded by a huge body of water, which is where the fountain show goes on every 15-30 minutes. i took zillions of photos over there and that was before even going inside.

inside the lobby, i was treated for an amazing display of glass flowers on the ceiling by artist Dale Chihuly. you want to talk about beautiful art! and to be displayed like that in such a grouping; it was breathtaking. also, since it was Chinese New Year, they had their garden area and front desk set up to celebrate Chinese new year. again, more beauty, creativity and much more! i enjoyed the quiet time of walking around and shooting pictures of all of it. there will be more pictures of it later, when i took my friend, Z to see it for herself.

home from Vegas

wow, i was gone for a long time! my first leg of the trip started out with spending a few days with my dad. he drove to Vegas from Fallon, Nevada (about an 8 hour ride). We stayed at the Luxor hotel and had a great time. mostly we walked around, seeing the sights in the area where we were staying. lots of walking around! it gets tiring after awhile and wears you out. also, the self parking was so far away, it was always a another long walk to get the car too! finally we found a little parking lot off to the side of our hotel that was so close to the elevators where we were getting off from our room, so we moved the car there. much better! we checked out MGM, New York, New York, Mandalay Bay (very pretty!) and Excalibur. we also walked down to check out the new city center area, but did not venture in.

while we were there, President Obama flew in and we got to see his motorcade cross the freeway. we watched the whole procession from our hotel window and counted 26 cars and motorcycles in the convoy!

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also, i'm having a class here at Lemoncholy's Studio on Saturday, March 20th. you can read about it here. two spots are sold already!

So i Gathered.....

(enameled tintype by Stepanie Rubanio)

My talented art girlfriend, Stephanie Rubanio, is having a blog giveaway. Run over to her blog, So I Gathered, to enter for a chance to win a prototype of her new enameled tintype. I'm quite lucky in that i get to see Stephanie real soon in Vegas at Artnsoul. can't wait!

Also, if you don't mind, please send thoughts out to my art friend, JoAnna. her husband Ron is quite ill again and having a shunt put in on Monday. they've been thru so much. i hope this shunt puts an end to all these unresolved health issues he has had. Joanna was the art friend that i sent the angel, "Acceptance" to over the holidays.