Happy Anniversary!

This weekend marks our 9th year here in Las Vegas.
9 years ago we sold everything we owned including our 1st home we ever bought in Anaheim, and packed the dog and 2 cats up in a u-haul and drove to Las Vegas, it was scary to say the least! We bought a home close to lake access so we could still go boating, opened our business and hoped for the best...it was shaky at first, only one claim a day maybe 5 a week if we were lucky, so charlie took a job as a school bus driver, it was great, he could still do the couple claims he got in between driving bus, I still held down the fort, cooking and cleaning and banking and billing. Pretty soon word got around that this independent claims adjuster knew what the heck he was doing! The insurance companies came calling, after about 2 years he could no longer drive bus, we were in business full time!! Some months we are so busy he has to hire help, but most of the time it is just enough to keep us happy and healthy living the life in fabulous Las Vegas!
Although we have had our ups and downs, Woody and Rusty are no longer with us (dog and cat) Hey, we still got Toby the monster kitty, we did gain a grandson, Ethan, who was born here in Las Vegas! Our home is perfect, well, I do need a kitchen remodel (it's on my bucket list!)

We have accomplished so many things and we are so happy here, Charlie has his racecar hobby that keeps him happy, I got my dream of putting in a real swimming pool, that makes me happy!
Life is good, I hope the next 9 years are just as good! See you then!

Lots to talk about!

Maureen and Ralph got Charlie this awesome jersey for his birthday, how cool to have his racecar number and name on an angel jersey!!

We will be so decked out when we go to the games now!! I am working on baseball cuffs and will soon have them in my shop, I have my Napoli jersey and my baseball cuffs and Charlie will have his jersey!

Also, Last night was girls night out at the Hilton, we saw Hotel California, an Eagles tribute band, wow, they were really good! Check them out here: http://www.hotelcal.com/ This is our last concert until they sign some more bands up!

California Birthday fun!

We tried to get to Ethans birthday party at disneyland friday but had way too much work come into the office, we have to get the assignments done as they come in or we get too backed up and then we can lose accounts if they are not handle asap. We rolled into cali about 7:00 grabbed something to eat and went to bed. Saturday we were off to visit Travis and Rebbeca and meet all the grand-animals, then we headed to Romona burritos for lunch and we went out to see my mom. Then we hit anaheim again and took charlie out for dinner.

The first 3 are Travis and Rebbeca's cats, beau, bella, and benji.

Then we had a dinner for charlie at Fire and Ice grill in anaheim, Fun place to eat, you pick you food and then cook it benihana style for you, it was good, I had his good friends Maureen and Ralph show up and we had all of the flores/gray family and travis and rebbeca, they had charlie stand on a chair ad the whole place sang Happy Birthday to him! We left there and headed to Joe and Mary's for drinking, dancing and story telling around the fire pit! Travis and Joe, me and Suzi talking by the fire, I am sitting in the chair. Lido and Merissa presenting an ice cream cake to charlie.

We had a blast and I would like to thank everyone for making Charlie feel loved and special for the day, he works so hard to make everyone happy and I just loved that we could make him stop for the day and spoil him for once!! Thank you, you made his day!

My/Crystal's Harmonica Necklace!

I finally found the time to get the clips together to show you the necklace I sent to Crystal Bowersox, I think she likes it as much as I do, I love to wear mine all the time! Here is april 14th show, then last night she wore it going back home to Ohio and played it on the plane! I have a couple left in my etsy store if you want to play one too!! It is now Crystal and Lee in the finals, I like them both so I look forward to buying their CD's!!

Happy 64th Birthday CHER!

Girls night out! We had tickets to the U2 tribute show, but that got axed when Colleen scored us tickets to see CHER!! Yes, the real Cher! Not a fake! Her show was at Caesar's Palace, fabulous place, I have not stayed there, one of the places on my list to spend a weekend...Anyway, we had dinner in the cafe, then headed to the show, there really is not a bad seat in the house so we were in for a great time.

Cher started out singing "I still haven't found what I am looking for" by U2, which was very cool since we 4 were supposed to be at the U2 tribute show....Hmmm, did she know something about us?? Hahaha....

She took off from there and never stopped, she sang and changed costumes and it was all done in a very smooth way, she took us on a ride through the decades, in between costume changes we had video to watch, my favorite ones were the clips of the movies she has been in, Dang, she is a great actress too! She also had dancers that were amazing, this was one great production, and Cher has still got it, she looks fabulous and sounds spectacular! What a wonderful show, thanks Colleen for letting me see one of the great artisits of all time! Now, if I could turn back time I could have a body like that.....hahaha.......

Happy Birthday Buckaroo!

I wanted to get this put on this morning but we are swamped at work and of course it is because we want to cut out early this week to go to Ethans birthday party at disneyland on friday...anyway..he is 6 years old today!! Can you believe it!!
Happy Birthday buckaroo!!

Pool is open!

Today is the first day we went in the pool! I love to sit on the deck in a chair and eat chips and salsa and drink ice tea! Big Daddy is on the bench enjoying a beer! We are looking forward to many sunday afternoons just lounging poolside! After we cooled off, we grilled some steaks and corn for dinner. We still need to get a quote on building a patio cover over the BBQ, I really need to look into that!
After our pool time, I spent the rest of the day in my studio where I created 4 more guitars for my etsy shop!!
Go check them out, they were inspired by Meatloaf, The Police, Tina Turner, and Tom Petty!
Hey Have a great week and I will see you back here real soon!

More Baseball!

Yesterday was Ethans t-ball game, He is getting to be quite the little Pro! Look at him make a play on his knees! Go Ethan!!

Here I am, all decked out in my baseball cuff! I just love my hat too, it is cute!!

Lots of good stuff planned for this coming weekend, stay tuned!

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks.......

Just a little play on words, Tanya at http://www.beadandneedle.com/ made this baseball cuff and wrote "wear me out to the ballgame" when she posted about her cuff...so "buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks"  just seemed fitting!
We had seen the pattern for these cuffs in the latest issue of Bead Unique magazine, designed by Lisa Kettell, and since we are old, but young at heart, baseball moms from way back...we had to make them!
I am still attending games, grandson Ethan is now in T-Ball, and Charlie and I have some trips planned to Arizona to see the Diamondbacks play, and we will be traveling to Anaheim for some Angel games as well.
This will be the perfect cuff to wear with my Napoli jersey and once I get to Arizona I will purchase a Diamond back jersey, luckily, Diamond back colors are red too! Thank you Tanya for all your help, I just LOVE it!!!!

Busy, Busy!

The Hilton in Del Mar, where we stayed on my trip! I miss it already!

Still trying to recoup from my San Diego trip, my studio is a mess, all my scrapbook stuff still needs to get put away until my next trip!

I will have to pull out some scrapbook pages and post them so you can see what I really love to do, Jewelry is a side passion and a way to earn some extra money but scrapbooking is what I really love! I enjoy getting to travel and scrapbook, that is really a treat! It seems when I am home I tend to get pulled out of my studio for laundry or phone or computer stuff and I get nothing accomplished.Yes, a traveling scrapbooker is what I am!

The pool at the Flamingo Hotel, Las Vegas Nevada!

Our pool is almost ready to be uncovered and opened for the season, but the dang wind won't let up! If we uncover now it will be a lot more work to keep it clean with the dust blowing and the leaves, so we still have the cover on. We had a set back this weekend, the weather has been hot and my salt cell was not generating chlorine so we went green, all fixed now but yuck, that is so gross when that happens, and it can happen in less then 2 days, so I really have to keep an eye on my salt cell functions! It is so nice using a salt system (when it works!) I do not have to put chlorine in anymore, the water does not smell and make your skin all dry and tight. I am really happy with it, I just check my levels on sunday and let the crawler do the sweeping, and cleaning, very low maintenance.

I added a new necklace to my shop, one for the led zeppelin fans. I won't be going to wednesday night this week as it is the doors tribute and I saw that one, we have two more in the series, U2 and Eagles, so stay tuned for more fun in the sun in windy Las Vegas!

Led Zeppelin Tribute...

Girl's night out! Another fabulous show at the Hilton! This time Led Zeppelin was being honored by a terrific band called Led Zepagain http://www.zepagain.com They had the band covered pretty well, after the first 5 minutes I was hooked, the music was amazing...I have to admit I was never a Led Zeppelin fan, my sister who is 4 years older then me used to play her albums loud and party with her friends, I had to go to bed and I couldn't sleep with all that racket and would cry and scream at her to turn it down, she just put zeppelin on and turned it up louder! Hahaha!

Well, I grew up and discovered blues music, I found Stevie Ray Vaughan on a show late one night on the tv, he was playing on Austin City Limits and I was hooked, I devoured every blues gutiar player after that, Jimmy Page is a God, and only Led Zeppelin can play the blues infused with so much rock you get absolutly lost in the sound..here is one of the best songs, and Yes, you can look forward to a Led Zeppelin Guitar and Harmonica necklace to be featured in my store soon! Named: When the Levee breaks! And Christy I forgive you, had I been listening I could have found blues and rock and roll to fill my soul long ago!

Elvis is in the house!

I have some of the funniest friends in the world, they love to spoil me with goodies and trinkets and baubles! My latest addition is Elvis! He was a gift from Tanya and I love that the money used to purchase him went to help rescued donkeys, you can find more info from the most entertaining woman on Etsy.... http://www.etsy.com/shop/pomegranite80

I just love him, he is all decked out in rhinestone cape and sideburns! He will look fabulous attending our next bingo session!! He is 3 inches tall and 4 inches long! I can take him anywhere and always have a hunk-a-burning love with me!

The fun never ends here in Las Vegas!!

San Diego Expo!

First off I would like to say Thank you to my sister and friends for joining me on another fun filled expo adventure, it was a blast! San Diego was beautiful and the food and comraderie was fabulous! Mary NR picked me up from the airport on Thursday, we arrived to see Mary F and Marlene there at the Hilton in Del Mar, we were starving so we had dinner at the hotel restaurant, it was delicious food, I chose the steak which was wonderful with a wine and mushroom sauce, the food there amazed us. Friday morning arrived and we headed to the expo at the Del Mar fairgrounds. We took our seats and christy arrived toting her hubby jeff, he was there for the horse racing part of the grounds.

We settled in to start scrapping:

My Seat!

We scrapbooked all day and then Jeff suggested a fun restaurant called Milton's, right up the road, we dined on Pastrami sandwich and Cheesesteak sandwich, other stuff too, but I enjoyed my cheesteak it was yummy and I did not eat the roll just the filling, I am being good even on vacation!
Back to scrapbooking until 11:00pm then back to the hotel to sleep!

Saturday morning we were up again at 7:00 for breakfast, one egg and an english muffin, the coffee at the hotel was delicious! Back to the the expo.....

Saturday night was Hawaiian night, Mary F was working on tropical theme pages and was able to enter a page layout in the contest...Guess what she won second prize!! Here she is with her page and christy is holding her prizes!! We are very proud of her!!

Then when we thought we could not have more fun..christy's raffle ticket got called she had to go up with about 8 other women and put on a hula skirt and hat and dance for her prize!!

It was so fun to see her cut loose and have a good time, we are very proud of her for sticking it out and enjoying herself!! It was the perfect ending for the weekend!!

Click on the play button and Enjoy!

Christy's prize winning Hula Dance!!!