FUN IN VEGAS

We just returned from a few days in Vegas. We celebrated our anniversary (32 years) and spent a few days with our youngest son who has been working in Las Vegas this summer. Below, we are at Lake Mead before we visited the Hoover Dam.

The Hoover Dam is amazing. It was started in 1931, the men earned 50 cents a day and worked in blazing heat for 4 years.

I loved this sign spray painted on the edge of the dam. "DANGER" ................ no S # * $! 750 feet high and no barriers. I guess they assumed back then you were smart enough not to climb on top of the dam. In the distance you can see the river in the canyon.

And this is the new bridge they are building next to the Hoover Dam. It is made of concrete, not steel and it is HUGE! How do you pour concrete in an arch? It should open soon taking visitors to Arizona.

This is the Turbine Room below the dam which provides electricity to several states in the SW. The whole room looked like something out of a 007 movie. I was expecting Sean Connery to pop out at any minute.

Here is our view from our hotel room. We stayed in the Las Vegas Hilton. This is the hotel where Elvis performed for so many years there. The hotel is one street away from "The Strip" and has a monorail that you can ride to all of the casinos.

Here is the strip at night looking at the Paris casino.

This is the NewYork NewYork Casino with all of the famous New York buildings crammed into one block. Oh, and also it has a roller coaster running through the whole area.

Excalibour Casino with it's Disney-like roof.

Below is the lobby of the Bellagio. Notice the Dale Chihuly glass sculptures on the ceiling. This was by far the most elegant and beautiful casino. I was expecting Brad Pitt and George Clooney to walk up any minute.

Every night the Bellagio has a fountain show choreographed to music. Just beautiful!

This is the interior of the Venetian. They have recreated St. Mark's Square.............everything except for the pigeons. It's weird because the ceiling is painted like the sky and after a while you start to believe you are really walking around outside!

The outside of the Venetian...............gondolas and all............

Interior of the Caesar's Palace casino. It was probably my second favorite casino. I don't know anything about gambling, so I judge on the beauty of the interior. And the probability that Brad Pitt or George Clooney might walk up at any minute.
We did play a few of the slots................and Gregg got cheated!!!!! They stopped the number right in the middle. What kind of place is that? We plunked down $20, lost $20 and that was that.
Circular escalator at Caesar's Palace. Isn't that crazy? These places were so over the top I couldn't wait to see the next casino.

This was the High Stakes room at Caesar's. I bet you get treated very well in there!

Donnie and Marie were performing at the Flamingo. We wandered around and saw the real flamingos behind the casino near the pool area.

I was kind of disappointed I only saw one Elvis impersonator, and he charged to take his picture. But, Las Vegas did not lack in crazy people or impersonators. Here is a Storm Trooper in front of the Bellagio being attacked by a little girl.

and............

and of course Michael Jackson. Actually he looked even better than the real Michael Jackson!

We had a great time in Vegas celebrating our anniversary, seeing our youngest son and people watching. We did take in one show, "The Blue Man Group". It's nice to be back on Eastern Time!

HAND DYED SOCK YARN + DOS EQUIS =

My brand new sock yarn that I ordered from MeiRose (www.MeiRose.etsy.com) arrived in the mail today. It is a superwash Merino/Nylon mix called "Fairy Dust" and is a yummy color combo of pink, light green, pale blue and cream that I plan to knit into lace socks. My husband volunteered to hold the yarn while I rolled it into a ball tonight.............the Dos Equis helped! About half way into the winding, he got a business phone call so he transferred the yarn to his feet while I kept winding.

DEAR MACBOOK,

Dear MacBook and iPhone,

I miss you dearly! I cannot wait until we are reunited and things are back to the way they used to be. I know it must be scary being E-jacked, someone else touching you and going to weird websites like Monster and LinkedIn. You must miss looking at the art blogs and knitting websites, looking at your friends on FB and having photos uploaded. I'm sorry you have to ride in that black car all the time and sit in classrooms and meet strange people. Hopefully it won't be much longer. As soon as Gregg gets a job you can come back to me and we'll be reunited! At least you didn't go the way of Kelly's computer.............out the broken driver's side window...........never to be seen again! And Gregg IS taking good care of you. Remember he took you to see the Genius Bar last week when you had the hiccups. I'd better go before someone sees me writing to you. Keep iPhone close to you and we'll be back together soon.

Love, You Know Who :)

SUNFLOWER FESTIVAL IN RUTLEDGE, GA

If you don't have anything planned for the 4th of July weekend next year, you should go to the SUNFLOWER FESTIVAL in Rutledge, GA. It is located east of Conyers and Madison, which is about 1 1/2 hours away from Woodstock. The driver of the golf cart that took us to the entrance from the parking lot told us that they average about 5000 people a day on that weekend. As you approach the entrance you can see the sunflowers in the background.

Since we arrived around noon, we decided to stop and eat some bar b q first. We sat down and a lady just plopped down her freshly cut sunflowers in front of me. You can't even take a bad photo here, even if you try!

Lots of photo ops with the great old trucks, tractors, barns, and of course sunflowers! (Me and Gregg)

Bluegrass bands playing on the stage in the shade all day. Bar b q tastes better with Bluegrass!

I mean who could pass up Finger Lickin, Bone suckin, lip smackin, great tastin bar b q?

And of course there were funnel cakes and cotton candy. This reminds me of when I was little and walking around with a bag of cotton candy dipping my hand into the bag until my fingers were red eating that sugary goodness. Come on, you remember doing that!

Everyone had on Red, White and Blue..........

I couldn't resist this adorable little girl at the petting zoo! I'm not sure who is cuter, the little lamb or the little smiling girl..............

This was the "Crazy Hair" stand. They put a SOLO cup in the middle of her hair to make it stand up, along with a ton of hair spray. When finished, it is painted and furry feathers and glitter added to make it look very Seuss-like.

Cute little cubby cheeked girl again on the pony rides........

And who is this cute Sunflower Couple but Gregg's brother (Gary) and his wife (Lynne)! Great photo ops everywhere! (Ummm, FB profile pic)

There are several acres and types of sunflowers. My face is getting burned but we were having a great time cutting the sunflowers.

The guys holding our vases of cut sunflowers.

My niece, Maddy. Love her braids!

In the background you can see the white tent where we picked up our vases and cutting shears. There were a couple of cut roads but mostly you just make your way through the fields of sunflowers. If you want something different to do on the Fourth, check out the Rutledge Sunflower Festival next year. It is worth the drive!!!

........and I couldn't help but take a photo of this girl driving along next to us at about a 70 mph clip! Notice her left foot on the dashboard and one hand on the steering wheel. Yikes, where did she take driver's training?

ROCKING AT WOODSTOCK CITY PARK

Downtown Woodstock (GA) was rocking tonight with the free Summer Concert Series and the Atlanta Rhythm Section. People were packed in from Hot Dog Heaven down to the Nursing Home! People, chairs, blankets, coolers, kids, dogs and lots of fun! It was a great concert and brings back memories of 1970 and "Doraville"!

WATERCOLORS OF ITALY

Our new grey wall color is a nice backdrop for artwork. I decided to frame a few watercolors I painted in 2008 from our trip to Italy. I had these unframed watercolors in a gallery in Rome (GA) but they never sold. Now I enjoy looking at them and remembering our trip!

VENICE

I thought I would post a few photos from our trip to Italy a couple of years ago. Venice is so beautiful! I have been trying to organize photos on my computer, ordering prints to frame and deciding which ones I want to turn into watercolors. Here are a few shots I took in May 2008.