Un-Planned.

Our friends got this adorable puppy (Chico) a few days ago and sadly had to go out of town this week. So, I get to puppy sit. Yay!

Isn't he adorable? He is a bit of a handful, but he is so sweet and cuddly and all-in-all pretty well behaved. Although, the little one is chewing my laptop ... again.


We have been so incredibly busy this summer, but more about that later. I am thinking of you and looking forward to spending some catch up time with all of you and your lovely blogs. Hugs. xox=vv.

This Is Not A PhotoBlog. Really.

Really. It is supposed to be a craft blog. I do stuff. I make stuff. I have projects that I totally get involved in. I don't know why I have such a hard time sharing it with you. I think there are just so many talented people out there that I get overwhelmed. My little projects just can't compare.

I am going to keep trying. I am nearly finished with my Amy Butler Vintage Backpack Tote. There should be a lot of little matching projects in the future. My Moms gets here on Saturday for a week long visit and I can't wait! We are going to sew, sew, sew!

Thinking of you! Hugs. xox=vv.

Spring Greetings.

I can not keep this to myself any longer. I must share. I love this too too much! Isn't it a strange combination of creepy and girly? Mildly perverse and delightfully feminine?

Short and sweet. I hope you all have a wonderful evening. Hugs. xox=vv.

15 Out Of 135.

That is how many posts I still have to repair. Not too bad. Some of the pictures are still earmarked private on Flickr. I will change that next. I think you should still be able to see them though.

Oh this picture is not so great. I took it so so long ago now. I just like the colors and thought I would post it anyway.

We were supposed to do all sorts of things this weekend and yet we accomplished absolutely none of them. Why am I so exhausted then? Hmmm. Strange. I hope you are all having a wonderful and restful weekend! Hugs. xox=vv.

Fruity Chandelier.

Hello Lovelies. I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend! I just wanted to quickly share this photo from dinner tonight.

This is the atrium of our favorite restaurant. Yes, that is fruit hanging from the chandelier. Mmmm ... yummy! Hugs to you all. xox=vv.

This Condo Is A Bit Chaotic Right Now.

Good Day Lovelies. My milk bottle told me this today, "The FDA has approved cloned animals for meat and dairy consumption." Umm ... huh? Does that seem right to you?

On a more positive note, I am daydreaming of summer. I am supposed to be unpacking. What are you supposed to be doing right now? Smile. Hugs. xox=vv.

Closing Day.

Hiya Lovelies. I am sorry I have been really absent this week. I have a pretty bad cold (read: No packing what-so-ever has been accomplished). Hopefully this is closing day and tomorrow is moving day (we have a rental truck reserved and appointments with the cable guy and washer/dryer delivery men). I hope we will be settled soon.

I know I am always saying that. That I will catch up soon. I whole heartedly think that the moment you begin thinking about a feasible new direction in your life that you become unsettled. That is what has happened to me. I have become unsettled and I hope to be on the other side of that soon.

When I am, I have a lot of projects in mind and I have a lot of changes I want to make. I am seriously considering the abolishment of monthly reviews. Why? Well, I always want to hoard every photo for the months end and I always want to save every story for the review. When the time comes though it is a lot of work to get all those photos together and I feel pressure to say something interesting with each one. Which I have been failing at greatly.

Instead, I would like to post more often. I still dream of balance. I want to comment on all of your sites and tell you how wonderful and creative you are. I look forward to that. Until then, please know that you are ridiculously talented and terribly inspiring! Hugs. xox-vv.

Nightmare.

Oh lovelies, I just woke up from a nightmare about the condo. In no uncertain terms the seller's real estate agent told us that we were going to hate living on the first floor (the biggest of the very few compromises we had to make with this place). He said that even though it is technically on the second floor our upstair neighbors would probably be so loud on a daily basis that we could only be miserable.

When I tried to visit the condo again and talk to him about the noise, I could not find the place. Suddenly it became a large complex of condo buildings and shops. There were escalators inside elevators and people behind desks who provided absolutely no help what-so-ever. When I finally found the building and the mean old agent, we had to compete with other people for his service. When I won the competition of helping him bake bread and then cleaning the whole office afterwords, he still helped other people first. When it was finally our turn he informed us that we could only view the condo through a special instrument that would correct the angles of the walls. Then I woke up.

I am still bleary eyed. My heart is still pounding. I came to tell you right away. I don't know why. I guess I wanted to talk about it. I could use a hug. xox=vv.

February In Review.

Hello lovelies. Do you know that this place makes me nervous? I never know what to say or how to say it anymore. I feel overwhelmed and typically when that happens I procrastinate. I want to share with you, but I get scared. So, with that in mind I am going to attempt something slightly different. This month I am going to give you the review in several installments.

I took a lot of pictures today, but this is the only one that came out "share-worthy." This adorable little kitty is from the Lovely Lisa Solomon. As a matter of fact, February was full of AMAZING gifts from the most INCREDIBLE people. Definitely more photos coming soon. Hugs. xox=vv.

News & Reviews.

Oh hello again lovelies! Oh boy, am I ever behind with my January review. Oh my goodness, I apologize! You only have to wait a moment more (I know these reviews are just sooo exciting) because I want to share some nice news with you.

First of all, February 4th marked the first anniversary of the vegasandvenice blog.

Secondly, we put an offer on this one bedroom one-and-a-half bath condo this morning and a few hours later we had mutual acceptance! I am very superstitious (dunno why) so IF we close it will be in a little more than three weeks. Yay! I feel positive that there will be more about that later. Now, lets start the January review.

Sadly, we will be leaving this lovely view behind. What could be better than the city and the mountains and the ocean? Talk about a million dollar view. This is the Space Needle from my pillow. Conveniently, I did not even have to lift my head to watch the fireworks on New Years Eve, which was nice because I was already asleep.

I am starting to see a theme with this whole "review" thing. Trees. Apparently, I take a lot of tree pictures because they always show up in the monthly review. I did not even know I liked trees so much.

Do these pictures even need explanation? Probably not. Cute sleeping Charlie Pup and his grumpy one-eyed side kick (who is really not so much grumpy but instead quite cuddly).

These are from the Press condos in Seattle. We had a great tour and a nice visit but decided it was not the right place for us. Lovely, but not the right place.

Sadly, we felt the same way about the Decatur. It was a bit too far from our desired location, but I loved the view.

You know what else I love? You. Thank you for all of your support. I am sorry that I could not finish this post last night (I wasn't feeling so great). We watched Marie Antoinette and cuddled which was very, very nice. I send you all some of our extra cuddles. xox=vv.

November & December In Review.

Hello again Lovelies. I found some pictures from both November and December. I hope you like them.

This beautiful snow came shortly after we put the house on the market. Six inches of lovely white snow! The whole world seemed strange and exotic. Walking Charlie by the nature reserve at the end of our street we could hear the trees crack and groan as they were overtaken by the ice.

November was a particularly nerve wracking month. Our house went into escrow and my stomach went into knots. I thought that buying a home was a tumultuos experience but I now firmly believe that it is not half as bad as selling one. I took these photos while I stood waiting in the cold for a very thorough house inspector to complete his work.

On the 22nd of December our escrow closed and we left our first home for the big city. It was somewhat bitter sweet. I know the house is in very good hands though, and that makes me feel better.

In November we also lost our beloved family car. It belonged to my great uncle, my grandparents, my step-mom, my aunt and finally my dad before he sold it to us. This is a picture of it moments before the donation company towed it away. We brought a new car into the family which has turned out to be the perfect city car. We named it Link. Charlie likes Link.

Everyday things became less mundane from the front seat of our new car. Isn't it interesting how that happens? How your perception is altered by the smallest changes in your environment.

In the last few weeks though, our entire environment has drastically changed. We love it and we are adjusting well. It has the strangest mixture of feeling completely like home while at the same time feeling completely foreign.

We celebrated New Years in the most mundane way though. We had a tennis championship on our Nintendo Wii. My mom (who was visiting) won by a land slide even though it was all completely new to her. She decided to leave her job to become a tennis pro and is now sponsored by Nike. True story.

This last group of photos are somewhat random. A quick project in our new space, a glimpse of our new kitchen and lastly the most beloved contents of our security deposit box. Hugs. xox=vv.

My Grandmother.

Hello Lovely people! Have I mentioned how lovely and talented you all are lately? Very! Do you want to see someone close to my heart who would also fit into both of those categories perfectly?

This is my granmother, age five. Isn't she beautiful? She is a wonderful woman. She is a smart and talented artist and educator (among many other fabulous things).

Speaking of fabulous things, Hugs to you all! xox=vv.

Let It Snow.

Oooh hi there lovely and wonderful people! Did you know that we had six plus inches of snow this weekend and that it has stuck around for a few days now. We are expecting a bit more. It's crazy and early and delightful.

Of course, when you run out of milk before the snow comes, it is hard to wait for it to all melt before the siren song of Raisin Bran is to much to bear. So today we finally left the house for milk and I took this polaroid to share with you. I hope you like it.

Also, "Shy Monsters Coloring Sets" are re-stocked at Mahar Drygoods just in time for Christmas! We also resolved our scanner issues and the paintings in the previous post are now up-to-date.

I am still working to catch up with you and I am thinking of you all! Hugs! xox=vv.

New Car Day.

Oooh lovelies, today spiraled out of control and ended with a new used car in our driveway. You can read about it here.

It is very well treated and looks brand new. It has a little bit of detailing that I am not fond of, but I am going to find a place to remove it. A Beetle was always going to be my first car and now I have to learn to drive! Hugs! xox=vv.

Update: Has any one tried replacing photos? I wanted to replace this original photo with a scan but I am having troubles. Until then this is a photo of the newest beetle from the vw site and not the actual photo of our silver 2000 glx turbo beetle. This photo may be replaced again in the future. Yes, I am going scanner crazy! Hugs!

Darn. Soon I Hope.

Hi Lovelies! This is a quick note to say that Etsy is still being perfected and I will wait until it is ready before showing you my few little goodies.In the meantime, I will have to do a little painting so that I have something to show you a little later (hopefully tonight). I am getting a new order ready for Mahar Drygoods and I am also working on several packages for lovely people who I desperately need to send things to!

Our car may not be repairable, so I am afraid you may hear a bit more about the outcome of that. I am feeling very disconnected, but still thinking of you all! Hugs! xox=vv.

Why? I Can Not Think Of A Logical Explanation.

Hello Lovelies! You know, I have actually been working on various projects over here. Why haven't you seen them? I have no good reason for that. I think that the idea of photographing them is very daunting. I guess I really need to work on it.

How do you do it? You all take fabulous photographs of your projects! Do you take pictures only if the day is beautifully bright? Do you work for hours to create the perfect lighting, setting, or mood? Did Martha teach you herself? Well, if you have any tips or hints I would love to hear them.

I know that I need to be better at sharing. Seriously, I am always doing something. Soon, I hope to catch up with all of your lovely blogs! Thanks to those of you who took a break this month *smile* The rest of you were awfully busy! Hugs! xox=vv.

Do Not Mourn This Ending For We Shall Carry On.

Well, today’s red, pink or purple entries marked the sad end of our week long friend The Daily Color Project. I am seriously going to miss all of the photos. They were really incredible and very inspiring.

The Random Panty Color Generator and I had a long discussion about where we will go from here. I am not feeling ready to move on and her tears made it all to obvious that she is not ready either. I think we always had an sneaking suspicion that this project would last longer for us. I hoarded my color photos only allowing myself to really share one with you per day. She was very cautious with her colors (I mean did you see “Turquoise” for goodness sakes? That’s crazy cautious!!) We wanted to take it slow with this project. We did not want to move to fast. We liked this project a lot at first, but we quickly grew to secretly love it. Then we became a bit obsessed with it as we considered photographing our own blood for it’s red, pink or purple day. Now that it is leaving us we are not taking the separation very well. There were a lot of tears, hysterical tears. There were some hurtful words. There was even perhaps some begging and leg clutching. Alas it has gone without us and because we are not ready to move on this site will be a shrine to it’s glory until we can.

*All of your sweet comments were saved to Haloscan at the time of original post*

Orange You Glad To See Me.

If you can not tell by the last few posts, I am exhausted. I am completely not dealing with this time change very well at all. I wonder if you are feeling the same way and because you are not here to say how you are feeling, I have decided to just assume that you agree with me 100%, totally and completely.

I have also decided to assume (again since you are not here) that the following will make you smile (or at least roll your eyes) no matter how tired you are. Unscramble the words to get the answers! Great for little ones!!!

1. Where do burgers go to dance? (A taMe lBal)
2. What has a thousand ears but can’t hear? (A norC lieFd)
3. Why did the spider cross the computer? (oT etG oT isH eWb ietS)
4. What kind of glasses do spies wear? (pyS olscaF)
5. What part of your body has the most rhythm? (uorY raE mrsuD)
6. What does mother earth use to go fishing? (hrNto dAn utSho oleP)
7. What do whales like to chew? (rbebluB uGm)
8. Why didn’t the skeleton go to the party? (eH daH oN yBod oT oG hWit)
9. What is a ghosts favorite cereal? (maScer fO tahWe)
10. What did the belt get arrested for? (rFo gHnidlo pU eTh tsnPa)
11. What did the sock say to the foot? (eroYu niuPtgt eM nO)
12. What starts with “e” ends with “e” and has only one letter? (nA elvEpeno)
13. What do you call a fairy who never takes a bath? (Sernkit lBel)
14. What kind of phone never rings? (A aexnSopah)
15. What kind of bank has no money? (A erirv nkaB)

Looking for more questions? Buy these snacks (of course I did not eat all mine, I read the answers through the packaging)!! Do you have any suggestions to get us out of the “time change slumps”? I would love to hear them!

*All of your sweet comments were saved to Haloscan at the time of original post*

Fetal Apron.

This is my belated entry into March’s Tie One On. It is also today’s turquoise photo for The Daily Color Project. Oh, and lastly it is also a submission into the Postcards From Cletus project .

Whoo, I know. Three in one. Pretty darn impressive huh? As if a fetal apron wasn’t impressive enough! Have you tried to make an apron for your fetus? All right, well I guess it is true that my fetus is, ya know, clay and all but he is very, very small. That is of course why he needs an apron. Imagine the day that he gets the scholarship to Le Cordon Bleu, one misplaced lettuce leaf and well ... it could be bad! This apron will surely protect him, not only from a terrible lettuce tragedy but also from the tragedy of terribly drab kitchen wear! What more could a fetal chef ask for?

*All of your sweet comments were saved to Haloscan at the time of original post*