Weekend Junk Finds

Full disclosure: none of these things were actually found this past weekend. The temperatures here were of the frigid variety and The Mister had to work so I never even made it out of the house. And honestly, I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed by the amount of STUFF in my house right now, so I really don't have any business bringing in more. I do have a few older finds to share, though!

When I was in Utah after Christmas, my Dad and I went to explore an antique mall recommended to me by Shirley of Zetta's Aprons. I had really hoped to find some awesome post-holiday discounts on vintage Christmas stuff but only one booth had anything marked down, and they didn't have anything I wanted! Disappointing, since the dealers in the big antique malls around here have awesome sales after Christmas. I did manage to buy two baggies of old mercury glass beads. I love to use them in my crafting and these are about the size of marbles, which is larger than any I have in my collection.

I also found this cute 1960s Hearts game.

I thought the box would be so fun to display at Valentine's Day, but I also love the cute lettered dice inside!

This globe is from a fun trip I took back in November with some friends. We junked until the car was completely full! I found this beautiful old globe on a really fantastic wooden base. There are websites you can use to help you date your globe based on the names of the countries shown, and this particular model dated to 1939! I sold it in my Etsy shop.

Not too exciting, but I just can't pass up LuRay when I see it! Even though I have ZERO use for teacups.

Last, this cute vintage Bobbsey Twins book was the perfect pre-Christmas find! It's a lovely shade of green with red lettering and white snowflakes all over the front. It was just the thing to use in my Christmas decorating this year.

Did you make any fabulous finds this weekend? I'm linking up with Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday.

Las Vegas getaway

For Christmas, The Mister surprised me with a trip to Las Vegas that he'd sneakily planned and coordinated with my parents. Las Vegas is a six-hour-drive from Salt Lake City and my parents graciously allowed us to leave the kiddos with them for a few days while we had a little getaway!

Because we flew to Utah, we had to rent a car and ended up with a gray version of this beauty:

Pity that it was 20 degrees for most of the way down so we couldn't take full advantage of the convertible top! We did, however, lower the top (and crank up the heater!) on the first evening as we drove down the Strip. :)

We stayed at the all-suite Palazzo, which is attached to the Venetian hotel. Our room was on the 36th floor and it was absolutely gorgeous! It looked exactly like this one.

The room was huge! Easily bigger than my kitchen and living room combined. The living room area was sunken down a few stairs and the big window had shades and curtains that we maneuvered with a remote control. Our window looked out on the back side of the Strip--we had a lovely view of the airport, LOL. But I can imagine having that huge view of the Strip all lit up at night would have been pretty impressive!

Even the bathroom was huge and beautiful. Ours looked just like this, only flip-flopped (the tub was on the other side). I fell in love with that little red velvet bench where I got to sit while putting on my makeup and jewelry. And we watched TV in our bathroom as we got ready, just because we could. ;)

Our trip was a quick one. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and had a fancy dinner that night at a restaurant in the neighboring Venetian called Valentino. The Mister ordered black spaghetti in curry sauce, which I have to tell you looked for all the world like a pile of black worms. He said it was delicious, despite its horror-show appearance!

On Thursday we at pizza for lunch at Grimaldi's (who say they've installed special water filters in all their restaurants so that the water used for the dough is the same as they use in Brooklyn) and spent the afternoon at the Fashion Show Mall across the street from our hotel. The mall is a mix of normal mall stores (The Children's Place, Bath and Body Works) and some very upscale stores (Kate Spade, Henri Bendel). I think that Vegas started to get to me after shopping for a while because I started to wonder why exactly I don't own a pair of sequined hot pants. It seemed like every other store we visited was carrying a few. Do that many people really wear tiny spangled shorts? If so, where are they going in them? And in the winter? (even in Las Vegas, it was only in the low-50's. Pretty chilly for hot pants) It was baffling.

That night we got dressed up again and walked across the street to The Mirage hotel, where we saw The Beatles LOVE Cirque du Soleil show.

We had fantastic seats! I will tell you, it was not my favorite Cirque du Soleil show that I've ever seen. I'm a huge Beatles fan so of course the music was AWESOME, but the storyline was just plain weird! I know that's generally the case with CdS shows but it's never bugged me before, mostly because the acrobatics and other performances were so jaw-dropping that it never occurred to me that there was a storyline I was supposed to be following. There were talented acrobats and aerialists at The Beatles LOVE show, but not as many and not as impressive as some of the other CdS shows I've seen because I think they relied more on the music and visual effects and costumes. If you're a big fan of the Beatles' music, then you may find enjoy it; otherwise, I might try out a different CdS show as there are several playing in Vegas.

Our little getaway was such fun--we have no family nearby and so we don't ever get to go away without our kids (the last time was back in July 2011 when we went to Washington D.C. for The Mister's graduation) so it was a real treat to get to do that! I know my kids LOVED every second of all of the attention and spoiling they got from being under their grandparents' care without their parents around enforcing rules and bedtimes and stuff. We may not have gambled on our trip, but I know we were winners all around!

The Nutcracker

 One of the things I've been looking forward to as a girl mom is taking my daughter to see "The Nutcracker" ballet. I have fond memories of getting dressed up in my fancy Christmas dress and going to see it when I was younger, and I even danced as a Mouse in the Nevada Opera's Nutcracker!

This was the first year that I've felt like Maren was old enough to really enjoy and appreciate the ballet (given the cost of tickets!) but I just couldn't find a time for us to go before Christmas, and then we were headed to Salt Lake City directly after the holiday. Then I realized that Ballet West's performances of "The Nutcracker" extended beyond Christmas and even better, going in Utah meant that my mom could go with us!

We started our outing with a ladies' lunch at the very delicious Blue Lemon and a walk through the new City Center shopping mall, with a stop in Nordstrom to check out the lipsticks at the MAC counter.

 

From there, it was a short walk to the Capitol Theater, where we posed for pictures before heading into the opulent red-velvet-and-gold theater to watch the performance.

 One other nice thing about going after Christmas--the theater was fairly empty so it was no problem to get great seats! We were very close and a had a great view of the show. I purposely chose a matinee performance because I didn't know if Maren would be able to stay awake in an evening show, and it was a good thing because it wasn't too far into the second act when her eyes got heavy!

It was such a fun occasion, one I hope we can repeat for many years to come!

New Year's Eve fireworks

We spent New Year's Even in Utah where (as I might have mentioned once or twice in my last post) it was COLD. Hauling ourselves anywhere in the sub-freezing temperatures held absolutely zero appeal, so instead we had yummy Mexican food take-out and stayed in the warm house. We did manage to inject a bit of festivity in the form of a box of leftover fireworks from my dad's garage. The women and children watched from the bedroom windows while my Dad and The Mister carried out the pyrotechnics in the backyard snow field. I had fun playing with my camera settings to get a few pictures. I'm not sure it transfers over in Blogger, but you can see the sparkle of the snow reflecting the light of the fireworks!

At 11 p.m. we told the kids it was midnight and let them bang pots and pans in the front yard. They didn't go too far from the front steps in the frigid night air! We wore tinsel bedecked hats, shot party poppers all over the kitchen and the kids blew horns enough to deafen all of us. No wonder I dreamed about geese that night.

We didn't get dressed up fancy or go to a sparkling party but as far as I'm concerned, our celebration was just right!

Snow fun

It was COLD in Utah. So, so cold. It's still cold and will be for a while, as they're mired in a nasty inversion.

There was snow on the ground everywhere, but at my in-laws' house it was DEEP. 36 inches, easily. Maybe more.

Because it's so cold it is dry snow, no good for snowball fights or building igloos but just fine for snow angels.

 Did I mention it was cold? Frigid but beautiful, truly a winter wonderland.

My in-laws have a long, sloping driveway. Perfect sledding hill for little kids because the curves mean you can't get going too fast. You can still go fast enough to have fun, though!

Porter held up for a lot longer than I guessed he might, especially since I couldn't find his mittens so he was wearing socks on his hands. They stayed remarkably dry, considering all the playing he did in the snow--let that be an endorsement for Smartwool socks!

It may be hard to judge scale from this photo, but the icicles in the center were a good 8 ft. long. They reached almost down to the first level of the house. In the next two days after I took this photo, they grew another 12 inches. Amazing!

The icicles drip onto these small fir trees in front of the house. The trees themselves are turned into giant ice mounds.

 There were more icicles in the back of the house. These were under the deck.

 And these were on the roof. Don't they look like teeth?

 Brrrr! Frosty, but fun!

pre-Downton musings

Oh, hello!

Happy new year to you all. I have 20 minutes before Downtown Abbey starts so I'm going to have to be quick. Late last night (technically early this morning) we arrived at home after a 10-day stay in Utah to visit our families. We even squeezed in a quick trip to Las Vegas sans kiddos thanks to my wonderful parents who kept the monkeys for a few days for us.

We left on the 27th after spending the entire day of the 26th getting ready to go, so you can imagine the disaster that greeted us when we stumbled through the front door last night! Christmas mess everywhere, plus the pre-Christmas stuff that got shoved out of the way in a last-minute hurry. Add to that the contents of six very full suitcases, and the result is that every single solitary room in my house is a mess. Even the guest room, where nobody even lives! Just about every flat surface in the place is piled high. The mess is driving me nuts!

We did manage to get the suitcases unpacked and put away today so tomorrow I hope to get started on the Christmas mess. It will take days to get it all done, the boxes Tetris-ed back into place under the stairs and the tree dismantled, and I'm honestly anxious to have it all done.

I haven't been a good blogger lately but hopefully I'll have some things to share in the next little while. For now, I'm going to go fix a bowl of peppermint ice cream with hot fudge sauce and check in with the Crawley family!

Greetings for 2013

A teeny, tiny calendar found at an antique store. Remarkable that such a small, fragile thing that was made to be discarded somehow survived for 100 years!

Happy New Year! May 2013 bring you happiness and adventure!

FREE Christmas banner printable!

I have a confession to make: my tree is not decorated. My house isn't either. It is a week before Christmas and my living room is filled with bins of decorations that have yet to see the light of December 2012. I've had a lot going on this month with custom orders and events that all had deadlines, but decorating the tree? No deadline, so it got pushed to the back of the list over and over again. I'm bound and determined to get it done in the next couple of days so I can put the boxes away and finally enjoy my pretty decorations before Santa shows up!

Whether you're all done decorating, haven't even begun (like me), or are still looking for a little more somethin'-somethin' to pretty up your home, check out the beautiful printable banner that Kelli from KCustomables is sharing with all of my readers! Normally this banner is for sale (with a lot of other fun party printables) in KCustomables' Etsy shop, but here on my blog you can access the banner for FREE!

To access the PDF file for the banner, simply click on the image above. You can print out the banner, cut out the letter pieces and string it on the ribbon of your choice (wouldn't red and white baker's twine be darling?). Please be sure to let me know in the comments if you make it--I'd love to see a picture!

Thanks, Kelli!

The Ugly Sweater Run

Saturday morning we rolled out of our warm beds and dressed in many layers so we could go participate in the Ugly Sweater Run 5K. It was a brisk 30 degrees so running in a sweater was not such a bad idea.

 

Some of us even donned mustaches

 

Porter was foul that morning and refused to wear his Ugly Sweater. He compromised by at least wearing his Minion hat.

This is the back of The Mister's sweater. Glorious.

 

We met up with our friends for a pre-race group shot. I love that I have friends who also think donning a hideous sweater and a fake mustache and then running a race sounds like FUN!

 After that, I amused myself by taking photos of perfect (and awesomely attired) strangers.

 

Ack! Misuse of vintage felt goodness! 

 

One of the race sponsors was Samuel Adams and included in our entry fee were coupons for both a pre-race and a post-race beer. I don't drink, but even if I did I'm not sure I could handle drinking a beer first thing in the morning when it is below freezing outside. And then running 3.2 miles. Maybe it warms you up? They were also pouring shots of some vanilla-flavored liqueur. My gosh, you should have seen the lines for the porta-potties all along the race route! Definitely ridiculous for any other 5K but for this one it was perfectly understandable.

At any rate, these folks are demonstrating one of the reasons Colorado is a great place to live. Colorado is known for being very health-conscious and we do a lot of outdoor exercise. We're also know for our beer (Coors, zillions of micro-breweries). So why not combine the two? It's perfectly reasonable in Colorado to run a race while drinking a beer.

 They obviously didn't pay attention to this sign. One of the items in our swag bag was a pint glass with the Sam Adams logo on one side and the Ugly Sweater Run logo on the other. I think it's my new favorite glass. It's pretty cute!

 Folks did not limit themselves to Ugly Sweaters. The outfits were really hilarious.

 Yup, he ran the entire race in Santa & Mrs. Claus slippers. Next year, The Mister wants to wear a pair of red long johns like this one. With the flap open.

 Knitted Adult Onesie. With Attached Santa Hat. I'll just let you enjoy that one for a minute.

I have to tell you, this race was SO FUN! In case it's not obvious, it was incredibly casual. There was no race clock. If you wanted an actual time, you had to keep it yourself. They let us onto the race course in huge waves and there were nearly 7000 ridiculously-dressed people there that morning. There were no mile markers and the race aid stops consisted of various giant inflatables that you could take photos with, a hot chocolate station, and a huge pile of trucked-in snow that people were using for snowball fights. People regularly stopped for photos, waiting in long porta-pottie lines, skipped, and sang. When the race course looped back on itself, we watched people just cut it and ended early (presumable to go snag their post-race beer). The finish line was another giant inflatable with a machine shooting bubble foam in the air. There was a Best Worst Sweater contest and a Best Mustache competition as well.

IT. WAS. AWESOME.

We are already planning our outfits for next year.

And because I love Ugly Sweaters, go here for a really adorable FREE printable of some Ugly Christmas Sweater gift tags that you can print and cut out.