Random Thoughts and advice on Las Vegas (a little riske!!)

My hubby and I just finished getting home from a long-awaited, much needed trip away. Where did we go? We took an fun and fabulous trip to Sin City, Las Vegas and we loved every second, except when we got the flu on our way home. We are now recouping from our poor sleeping habits and buffet overload, and catching up on a few things while we were gone. 

Before this, my hubby was a Vegas virgin. He'd never seen it's enormity and me being now a third-time veteran, I was happy to show him the sites. But despite being there a few times, I never fail to learn something new there and even remind myself about things I forgot. 

So, here is a little rundown of things I learned. I hope that you learn something too or at least you can relate to many of the things I say. And most of all, I hope you get a little chuckle along the way. 

 

1. Leave crap weather like this at home. Don't hesitate. Yes, I know that the desert can be cold this time of year, but after leaving a mess like this, any measure of sunshine and the opportunity to walk out of a building wearing less clothing and sunglasses is something you will appreciate. 

2. Go get a good cut and color before you go. Give yourself a manicure and a pedicure. Paint your toenails. You'll feel sassy and new. It sets the tone for the whole trip. 

3. If you think you brought good shoes for walking, you are lying to yourself. Your feet will feel pain. Lots of pain and when they do, you'll be looking longingly at the folks that are riding those scooters with envy. Visions, will pop into your head about knocking them off and stealing them. Resist the temptation and buy the most orthopedic runners you can find. No, they won't mach your outfit, but after a while, you won't care.

4. Nothing is free. Your friends keep bragging about the free drinks or dollar margaritas, but in the end, they have a teaspoon of booze in them our you are spending your life savings on a nickel slot to obtain them. Stick to the free-poured half yards of booze for $15- $20 a pop and you'll get a good buzz on.  

5. The guys wearing any Edmonton Oilers paraphernelia are always carrying a big-ass drink. 

6. Vegas can be tacky. Embrace the tacky. Love the tacky. This may be the only chance to wear that rhinestone-encrusted shirt you bought on a whim and now look at in utter disgust and you will look normal. 

7. You will be sucked into listening to a time share spiel at least once. Why? Because no matter how intelligent you are, if you are over 28 years old and live with your significant other, when you first arrive they secretly stamp "sucker" on your head at the airport. Don't worry, it slowly washes of in the shower. 

But how can you not? Cheap show tickets, cash and all for 2-hours of your time to look at a time share. And we would have done it until they asked for a $40 refundable deposit to make sure you attend.  Please refer to point #3.

There is no way in hell that I would ever place a deposit to see something you are trying to sell me. So after a while, even if you look 80 years old, you start to tell them you are under 28, and no, you don't live with that guy on your arm, you are just sleeping together. 

8. With all that walking, you may think you are losing weight, and you may be, but after one buffet, it will mean absolutely nothing. 

9. There is such a thing as "too much buffet".

10. There is no such thing as silence in this town. The slots, the music, the people. You will not escape it. You will begin to wish you were deaf. 

11. After 5 minutes at the Fashion Show Mall, your ears will begin bleeding after listening to Apple's Ipod advertisement. It is so annoying, that you will run into the mall to escape it. It's quite a devious ploy. 

"I tried to do handstands for you, I tried to do handstands for you. Every time, I fell on you, every time I fell, for, you-ooh-ooh, you-ooh, ooh, ooh  ooh. For you." 

You've been forewarned.

  

12. Dress up in that sexy designer booby shirt you found at Winner's and have previously had no occasion to wear it. Make yourself up like a million bucks and have a night on the town. Avoid the buffet and have a nice sit down dinner. Toast each other. See a show. Make a whole event out of an evening. It will be exotic. It will be romantic. You will feel youthful and sexy. It will spice up your love life.  You'll thank me later. 

13. If you are going to gamble, don't spend your time wasting away at a penny slot. Staring at a screen is not fulfilling. 

Learn one or two of the casino games before you go and gamble at a table or two.  You'll end up meeting a ton of people and have a great conversation or ten. We met people from Texas, Ireland, Toronto, and all over. 

The dealers are a hoot too. They share in your joy when you win and share in your angst when you don't. And, if the dealer is too stuffy, run for your life. Their attitude sets the tone for the table. You will not have fun. 

I got an old school dealer at one table, and can you believe the dude smacked my fingers not once but twice? I never did anything but raise my free hand to high, which wasn't any different from what I had done at any other table. Needless to say, I found another table quickly.

14. Go be a tacky tourist. Take a ton of pictures. Go see shows, exhibits and attractions. Like I said in #3, nothing is free, but if you don't stop and spend a bit of money on these things, I think you are missing out on a little bit of the magic. 

There are simply a lot of cool things at those pricy little attractions. Wax figures (c'mon, I got to pose with the President!), shark reefs and touching real stingrays, seeing a 15-ton portion of the actual Titanic and real recovered artifacts, dolphins and tigers and lions close up, the list goes on. 

It's fun, it's touristy, but you are missing out. Because really, where else in your lifetime are you ever going to see those things in that way again? You simply won't. Say what the heck and go.  

If you take my advice, bring your Canadian Auto Association card (CAA, AMA, AAA, whatever). You'll save yourself a little bit on admissions because you'll need the extra cash where you can (again, see point #3).

15. Even of you don't plan to buy a ton of things, go shopping. Enter those designer shops tall and proud and like you bleeding cash. Pick things up, try things on.  It is your one chance to play dress up, grown-up style. It is a fun fantasy and you are most likely never going to that chance again.

16. In the end, I liked the purses and scarves on the street better than most of the pricy, fancy-schmancy forum shops.  Nothing wrong with that, eh?

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed!!!!

Digi Scrapping Meets Techno-Geekery: A Tutorial

The last time I had a cell phone was about 2 and a half years ago. 

No. I'm not kidding. 

And honestly, I think it was just me being stubborn. And a bit stupid. Well, considering that I sometimes get a message from my sitter a little later than I should and my winter commute can be fairly treacherous, particularly this past winter, I figured that maybe it was time to cave in. 

And well, since I like staying atop of of all my forms of communication, I caved and got myself a smart phone. In fact, I got myself a pretty, girly Blackberry Curve 8330. 

And I am in love. There is a lot to this little machine and to learn to master it, I have been spending a little time at Crackberry.com. I learned how to do many things and one of them is to get my Blackberry looking exactly the way I want. 

And then as a digi scrapper, I pondered the idea of bringing the two together. How can I apply my scrapbook geekery to my techo-geekery. Surely the two could be harmonic. Of course, the answer to this is a resounding YES!

Here's my wallpaper......you like?

Want to learn how to make your own personal scrapbooked wallpaper for any type of smartphone?

I am going to show you how to do it on Adobe Photoshop Elements. To start, you have to have a little bit working knowledge of this program and know how to place digital elements on a page. If you don't, you can get a crash course by watching SIStv webisode #63. 

You also need to gather your some digital paper and embellishments. All my digital elements are courtesy of Prima Hybrid but if you want some free digital elements, I suggest taking a look through the Ikea Goddess blog.

Once you have some digi elements, you can get started. Here we go!!!!!

Open up Adobe Elements.

Go to "File", then "New" and click on "Blank File". 

Next you need to name the file.

Then, you need to set the pixel width and height of the picture. My Curve has pixel dimensions of 320 x 240, so for this example, that is the size I am using. However, you will size your file to fit your smart phone screen. 

To find your screen size for your Blackberry, go here.

If you don't have a Blackberry, a good reference for other phones is right here.

Start assembling your design. 

Lay down the digital paper, your photo and the digital embellishments. 

Considering that I have a tool bar that defaults on the left side of my screen, I made sure that I didn't place much detail in that particular spot. 

Once you are done creating your design, click on "File" and then click on "Save for Web".

 

This is where we will make your creation's file size as compact as possible without losing its crisp appearance on your phone. 

On circle #1, ensure 2 things:

1. The height and the width matches your screen proportions.

and

2. "Constrain Proportions" is checked off. 

Then press "Apply". 

Next, go to the "Quality" portion as shown in circle #2. Click on the number and a slider will appear. Move the slider so that the quality of the picture increases. As you do this, your file size will increase in circle #3. Slide the slider so that the file size is about 100KB. 

Then press OK (circle #4), name the file and save it on your computer. 

Lastly, send the picture to your phone and make it your new wallpaper according to manufacturer instructions. 

This Is What We Do In Sylvan Lake on a Nice Winter Day.

This past weekend has been absolutely gorgeous and so was the weekend before that. I am more than happy to have a little reprieve from the deep cold that we have been experiencing, as cabin fever tends to set in just a little too easily. 

This past weekend, Jake and I joined the neighbors for an afternoon weenie roast in the backyard, which was filled with good conversation and screaming children running and screeching in delight as they wore themselves out. But last week we ventured a little bit further than just our back yard. It was time to head out to the lake. 

So, I donned my trusty winter boots. 

They aren't too girly, are they? I guess this shoe shot is a far cry from the majority of the she shots you see. Usually they are a little more dainty and colorful, and trust me, I miss those kind of shoes, because these bad girls are about 5 pounds each!

Off to the lake we went. And I love seeing the lake during the winter, because it is the one time of year that you see a true sense of community. In the summer, we are there, but being a busy tourist destination, that sense of community tends to be masked. It is only winter, when the tourists seem to hibernate that we town folk emerge and take the lake to ourselves. 

This year, besides the ski-dooing, ice fishing and skating, there is a new landmark in town that we are enjoying..........

 

AN ICE CASTLE!!!!!!!!

This is the first time I have ever seen one and it is cool, literally and figuratively. 

The creator of this beautiful structure is an Edmonton sculpturer named, Delayne Corbett. 

The ice castle made from 300lb ice blocks that had to be imported from Vancouver. They are specially made in a special flash freezing process. 

The optimum temperature to construct this is approximately -10 Celcius. Any colder and the ice becomes too brittle to work with. The mortar to solidify the structure was a mix of water and snow, and its windows, doorway and detailing was created using chainsaws, chisels and torches. Cool, huh?

It even came complete with ice benches to rest our weary behinds! Made for some chilly and damp butt cheeks, but that is always cured by several things. Walking in my 10 pound boots, having a nice steaming cup of hot chocolate and sinking into a warm bath. 

So, no harm. Sit. Watch the town marvel and laugh and enjoy. 

And now, I must escape outside again. It is another beautiful winter day that we have been granted. I must go seize it! Later!