Christmas 2009

It was that time of year again to visit home for the holidays. I had such a great time visiting with family and friends and really enjoyed my nieces and nephew. I spent most of my time playing old maid, barbies, candyland, life and phase 10. It was so much fun! I can't believe how much they have all grown. Ethan is talking now and his favorite word is "mama" and actually put a pretty good knot on his head from running around instead of walking. You can see it in the picture. Raylin just has the prettiest eyes. Clara will give you a run for you money and is so funny and Bailey is just the sweetest little girl ever! She saved up her points at school from being good and exchanged them in to get Christmas gifts for everyone. It just doesn't get any sweeter than that.

Keri's Wedding Weekend

Katharine and I at the wedding

After much anticipation and planning Keri's wedding weekend finally arrived this last weekend at the Flamingo in Las Vegas. The weekend was full and started off with a rehearsal dinner on Friday night at Margaritaville. I started off with a guava margarita which was so yummy! The food was also great. On Saturday I went to get my hair and makeup done. Thanks Emily and Jackie! Then, I was off to the Flamingo to Keri's suite to help her get in her wedding dress. Why do they make wedding dresses so complicated? I swear you need a degree in engineering to get in and out of one! The ceremony was outdoors in the garden area at the Flamingo, which was beautiful. I can't believe how many weddings were going on at the same time. I must have seen at least 5 brides in their dresses. I need to own a vegas wedding chapel. After the wedding it was pictures and off to the Hofbrahaus for the wedding reception. It was quite the party for those of you familar with the Hofbrahaus. Then it was back to the Flamingo for a party in the hotel suite. Whew...I'm exhausted just writing all of this. The next moring I barely made it to the farewell brunch. I still had my hair in curls and Keri mentioned that it looked like my hair had just rolled out of bed. Probably because I literally did just that. Congratulations to Keri and Dave!

Los Angeles Bachelorette Party

A couple of weekends ago my friend Anne and I flew to LA for our friend Keri's bachelorette party. The day started off by boarding a chartered bus and driving up to the Santa Barbara area. The drive was gorgeous most of the way as you could see the ocean out of the left hand side bus windows. Bridlewood vineyards was our first stop followed by three other vineyards. The weather was beautiful and the scenery was breathtaking! We ended the day with a trip to Butterfly Beach. What a great way to spend a Saturday. I would highly recommend it.

Birthday from Amanda, Chris, Bailey, Clara, Ethan and Raylin

Today I received the most wonderful package in the mail. It was filled with homemade Amish peanut butter, yum yum and hand painted jars that I am going to use to hold my paint brushes in my craft room. In one of the jars there are little slips of paper that are folded up that are written by everyone in the family. I am only allowed to open up one slip of paper per week until they are all gone. The first one I opened up today was written by my brother Chris. It said "remember the time we tried to sneak a cat in the house and dad said nice tail boy". It has me cracking up. Seriously, this is the best gift ever and I will look forward to many weeks ahead of opening up the different messages. I can hardly wait!

Birthday Presents

A big thank you to June and Jackie for the lovely handmade birthday presents. They disobeyed a strict order to not make me anything since I'm behind on making presents for the jewelry group. I still have June and Betty's to do from this summer not to mention the September b-days. Oh well! Jackie made the gorgeous wild necklace out of copper. I just LOVE it and like to think of myself as wild even though I'm probably really not in that category hehehe. June made the beautiful earrings that I just adore. Thank you so much ladies!

Wizard of Oz Birthday

My mom knows how much I love the Wizard of Oz so she made me these pillows for my birthday. Thanks mom for all of your hard work on these. They are so cool and I love them. Dash seems to love the one with the tassels too so I had to put the one in my craft room for now.

My Dear Friend Angela

I thought it only fitting to put a post on my blog for my dear creative friend Angela who so often commented on my blog posts. Angela passed away unexpectedly on Friday. She was a mentor, colleague, friend, confidante and huge supporter. I first met Angela at UNLV where she was a faculty member in the Hotel College. I went into her class to do a guest lecture and our friendship began. Angela saw a passion in me for teaching so the next thing I knew she had recommended me to the Hotel College for a part time teaching position. We started going to lunches and also realized that both of us had a creativity streak running through us. She introduced me to altered books and my creativity was sparked. She told me about ArtUnraveled and Las Vegas Art Stamps. My first "art" workshop Angela invited me to. It was the weekend with Julianna Coles. We also started an informal altered book group of our very own. Angela meant the world to me as so many of my friends do. I will miss her smile, her creative energy, warmth and love. May you find peace and comfort dear friend knowing that you will be missed and loved from afar.