Vegas, Baby!

Our girls trip was a blast.  Relaxing and busy all at the same time.  None of us are gamblers, (I think I lost a total of $3 in the penny slots) but there was plenty for us to see and do. 

We saw almost every major hotel.

We stayed at the Paris Hotel, and it was perfect for us.  Very cute and great restaurants.  Not to mention the Eiffel Tower, too!

We ate a ton of food but ironically this was the only picture I had of all our eating.  This was a pretzel from Serendipity 3 at Ceasars Palace.  We also had the frozen hot chocolate...yum!!!

The Cirque Du Soleil show was in a word, AMAZING!!  All 4 of us agreed we would see it again.  It was unlike any show I have ever seen before.   

The Bellagio fountains were across the street and gorgeous to see especially at night.  If only George Clooney would have shown up...

Lots of art to take in...

and lots of beauty to soak up.

Each day, my mom and I hit the pool for a few hours to relax.  Great weather and people watching.  (The book I read was really good too, in case you were wondering :o)

I had a great time with Amy and our moms.  It might be something that we do every other year or so.  New York was talked about for our next trip.  I'm glad to be home and back in a routine though too.  It's good to be a mommy again.  I've got that itch to create and my new sewing machine arrived while we were gone.  I've got just the project to break it in, too.

A Little Break

Taking a short break from the blog while I go on a girls' trip to Las Vegas.  See you all next week! 

I've had flowers on the brain, so I think another tutorial is coming soon :o)

Book Club: Dear John by Nicholas Sparks

I'm sure you've seen the trailers for the movie and you've probably heard of Nicholas Sparks.  So without further ado, our book club thought the book was...meh.  As reviews go, there's not much for me to say.

Was it a bad book?  No. 

Was it an easy read? Yes. 

Was it a page turner?  No. 

Was it a sappy love story?  Yes.

Did it give us much to talk about at book club last night?  No. 

Did we still have plenty to talk about at book club other

than that book?  You bet!

I don't know why I didn't join a book club years ago.  We have such an eclectic group of women and the conversation is never dull.  What we realized is just how many of us have read wonderful books that no one else in the group has heard of.  We voted on our next 2 books: House Rules by Jodi Picoult followed by The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  We decided that after reading those 2 we are going to let each woman in the group take a month and recommend the book for that month.  The thinking is that we will all branch out of our norms and try reading some of these authors that we never would have tried on our own.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Post Nap Rituals

Our daily post nap rituals include Simon trying to jump over my clever pillow barricade, apples for everyone, and running and hiding from each other with squeals of laughter from Ava.  I think if rabbits could laugh, we would hear Simon giggling right along with Ava.  She loves her furry little buddy so much!

Sew Much for That

For Christmas, my dad bought me this little guy from Target.  It's a Brother XL-3750.  I didn't open it until February and a piece of the bobbin threader was broken so I exchanged it for the same machine.  I made Ava a pillow case dress, and I was loving my machine.  I then started Ava's quilt.  I pieced the quilt together, made my quilt sandwich and then attempted to free motion quilt it.

 

That's when I ran into trouble.   

The tension was messed up and I thought I fixed it.  I was getting into a real rhythm and was about 1/3 of the way finished with the quilting when I ran out of bobbin thread.  I put in a new one and the tension was HORRIBLE.  I read the manual thoroughly, several times and still kept getting loops of thread on the bottom of my fabric.   I put my bobbin in several times following the manual to a T.  I adjusted the tension all the way up and all the way down and I was getting the same results...huge loops of fabric on the bottom.  The tension wasn't changing at all.  UGH!!  I decided to exchange it for another machine.  The exact same machine.  Target didn't have any more and they were discounted to $35 bucks so I returned it then and there.  My dad had given me the original receipt, so they gave me the full price for it. 

After reading several reviews, I ordered this machine, a Brother CS6000I.  I'm patiently waiting for it and praying that it will work like a dream as all the reviews say.  Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Lemony Goodness

Lemon Still from KristineNoel Photography

Silkscreened Seaweed Tote from Willywaw

Lemon Sugar Cookie Soap from Anderson Soap Company

I just got this in the mail and it smells amazing!!

Yellow Flower Beanie from Nuxie Made

Ava has one of her hats and every time she wears it people want

to know where I got it.  Best hat ever!

I've been in a bit of a mood lately and for no good reason.  We had a great day at the zoo today which was a last minute trip on a gorgeous day.  We had an amazing Easter weekend.  I have a trip to Vegas next week with my BFF and our moms, so I should be on cloud nine...but I'm not.  I guess that's just part of being a girl....hmmmpf!  Anyway, browsing Etsy always makes me feel better, so I went to their search tool and typed in lemon.  Can you believe all the cheerful things I found.  Yay, Etsy, you made my day a little brighter!

A Blessed Easter

We had a fun-filled, busy weekend with all our family.  Lots of family, egg hunting, eating, and giggling by all the little girls.  I'm still recovering from all the fun so I hope these pictures will do until I can start making complete sentences again!  Hope you and your families had a great Easter too.