30!

Wow, where have the years gone??  As of Nov. 12, I am 30 years old!  I still can't really believe it.  There is so much to tell, I don't even know where to begin!  I guess it started back last year when my mom and I decided we would have a Dual Birthday Party in Las Vegas.  This is the year that she turned 50 on Nov. 8 and I turned 30 just four short days later.  What better way to celebrate two milestones than in Vegas!  So reservations were made and we were getting all pumped up.  Some of our close friends decided to make the trip with us and it made it extra-special :)
Fast forward to November and let the partying begin:
The first birthday party was thrown at my Grandma's house with a big fancy dinner and gifts galore.  No offense to my other wonderful presents I received, but the highlight may have been the Green Kitchenaid hand mixer I got from my Grandma and Grandpa!
The second party came the day I left for Vegas, I went into work to work my 1/2 day and my co-workers had decorated my cube in an Owl theme (my newest favorite trend right now since I don't dare try to pull off Skinny Jeans) and had a whole spread of treats and gifts to celebrate my big day.  It was so nice, I almost didn't want to leave work to get on the plane! -- notice I threw in "almost"...
The third party was Vegas.  The first night was pretty low key.  We were all pretty tired from traveling but we managed to stay out until after midnight at a bar called the Party Pit.  It's outside Harrah's and I would highly recommend it.  The bartenders are unbelievable and if you want to see for yourself, just click this video that I posted.  The second night was Friday.  We partied well into my birthday (Saturday) at Toby Keith's bar.  It was nothing short of awesome.  I was kind of nervous to look at the pictures until today, but everything turned out OK.  :)  I was reminded of some things and of just how much fun we had.
Saturday night we went and saw the Beatles Love Cirque du Solei show and it was so cool.  I had never seen a Cirque show, but after that experience, I will definitely see one again!
Sunday was time for the partying to end.  I left not winning any money, but a few people in our group did.
Oh yeah, and I almost forgot about my celebrity encounter on Saturday....  While walking through the mall at Caesar's Palace, I saw and talked to Carrot Top.  He was in a little shop that sells t-shirts for around $80.  I went in, pretending to be interested in a shirt, but only really there to talk to him.  I said hi to him and told him I liked his act.  He was actually very nice.  I wanted to get a picture, but he seemed like he was kind of in a rush and I wanted to play the "cool" tourist and not bug him.
Sunday we got home and I started recovering from all the partying of the past week.  My birthday was officially over.  Or was it....?
That's right, it was not over.  What I thought was just going to be a short bridesmaid dress try on at the mom's house of a friend of mine and a "quick" beer afterwards (we both wanted to get home early) on Friday night turned out to be a Surprise Birthday Party for me at Shamrock's in St. Paul.  If I said I was surprised, I would be lying.  I was Shocked.  I  had absolutely no idea.  We walked into this back room where our friend was supposedly waiting for us and I walked in and instead of just seeing her, I see about 50 people that I know and love!  It took me a split second for me to realize what the deal was, but when everyone yelled "Surprise" and I think started singing, it all sank in.  It was so fun and still unbelievable.
I don't have any pictures because of course I didn't have my camera on me but once I get some from friends, I will have to post them.

And a 30th birthday wouldn't be complete without a list of the good and bad things about being 30.  I started thinking about everything the other day and just jotted a few down.  Enjoy!

- your insurance goes down (I already have proof!)

- you now have an excuse why you DON'T want to party in Downtown anymore

- 30 is the new 20 (contradicts above statement)

- people born in the 90's can now legally drink and it makes you feel OLD

- Nickeloden has a special time-slot devoted to people in their late 20's/early 30's with the great shows from when you were a kid

- Getting a Kitchenaid mixer and a Crockpot for your birthday is almost as exciting as getting your license 

- 21 year olds see you as 'old'

- not old enough to be referred to as 'that lady'

- still young enough to be called 'kiddo'

- can wander over to the 'older person' section at Kohl's for work clothes and not feel geeky about it

- your idea of a good time is redoing your bathroom

- KDWB is not a radio station you regularly turn to anymore

- people go to Vegas with you and throw you a surprise party all in one week!

Bloopers!

Everyone loves a good blooper reel at the end of a movie, don't they?  It's pretty much my favorite part.  Anyone who knows me well enough probably will believe me when I say that I've sat and watched numerous FRIENDS bloopers right in a row, even though I have seen them about a billion times.
So, in ode to my love of bloopers, I figured I'd share some of the good, the bad and the ugly out-takes from my 30 Day Photography Challenge.  They may not be as funny or even close to as funny as some of the stuff you'd see at the end of the movie credits, but you will get a hint at just a few of the mishaps that happened along the way of this challenge (note the Great Head Cut-Off on day 13).  The final photos looked pretty good at the end of the day, but when you take 50 or more shots (this is NOT an exaggeration...I think day 1 and day 21 both had probably over 50 shots EACH), you are bound to get one decent looking one, right?
Sorry for the smallness of the reel -- I wasn't thinking and made it a little on the small side.  I didn't want to bog down the blog.  :)     Enjoy!

PinTastic Weekend!

Wow, tomorrow is Friday already and I am just NOW getting around to telling you the excitement that fulfilled my weekend last weekend.  Sorry for the poor blogging now that the Photography Challenge is done...I have a ton o' stuff going on in my life outside of blogging so STBA has kind of been put on the back burner.  I will be sure to be back in full swing after Nov. 15th and will do a major update of the fun events that are about to happen in the next two weeks.

Ok, back to the weekend.  I have mentioned the awesome site, Pinterest before...have you been there yet? If not, check it out.  If you need to get inspired for ANYTHING, I highly suggest taking a visit to that site and start searching.  It's where I found my Photography Challenge and it changed my life (ok, that was an exaggeration, but it it technically did change my life for 30 days).
Anyway, I was rummaging through Pinterest last week and found three awesome things and I ended up doing all three of them last weekend.
I give you My Weekend of Pins.

Saturday:  Newspaper Nail Polish.  Simply dip your fingernails (one at a time) into rubbing alcohol or Vodka for a few seconds, press a strip of newspaper onto your nail for about 20 seconds or so and peel off. The ink stays and you have a groovy conversation piece for your next social gathering!  Be sure to put a clear top coat on so the ink doesn't smudge--you wouldn't want to spread the news...get it??  Wa wa waaa.

Sunday: Spooky Rice Krispie Treats & Pumpkin Carving.
I made these cute little guys for a work function and they were a hit!  One took a tumble onto the floor and a guy decided to spook a few people and have it hanging from his doorway for a few days...  Another great conversation piece!

My third Pin idea didn't turn out quite as I planned, but I gave it a shot.  I saw a very cute pumpkin that was full of 'holes'.  I took out the drill and went to town.

Here is the finished product, along with Jeff & Ashley's Joker Faced Pumpkin and a few random weekend shots:

Ashley & Maize modeling by the pumpkins, Seeds & Cider and Jeff imitating his pumpkin--one could say it's Life Imitating Art.  :)

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 28, 29 & 30

Day 28: Flowers.
Mums the word on these fall flowers that hopefully bring cheer to the mailman everyday as they sit on my front step.

Day 29: Black and white.

McDowell Lawn Service hard at work cleaning up my yard in preparation for winter! 

Day 30: Self-portrait.

That's A Wrap!  My final picture of the challenge.  It's been a fun ride!  Maybe I will make it an annual thing??  Thanks for following along this month.  Be sure to check back in a few days to see the 30 Day Photography Challenge Blooper Reel!

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 26 & 27

Day 26: Close-up.
Can you guess what this is???

Day 27: From a distance.

...you look like my friend,
even though we are at war.
From a distance I just cannot comprehend
what all this fighting is for. 

Okay, now that I have my Bette Midler fix in there, onto the photo of the day.

Did you guess what Day 26's photo was??  If you look close at Day 27's photo below, you might be able to figure out what Day 26's was.

Day 26 is a close up of the Flatiron building in NYC.  The building is on a framed print in my living room.

Day 27 is the Flatiron print from a distance.

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 & 25

Wow, I am behind on my photo posts!  I am sorry!!  I did in fact take a photo a day, I have just been too consumed with other things to dump the pictures off of my camera and blog about them!

Here goes:

Day 20: Bokeh.
Yeah, I had to ask (ok, not ask, but look up) what that word meant too.  I won't bore you with the long description from Wikipedia, but in a nutshell, Bokeh is when you have your main subject in total focus and the background objects are blurry.  Again, this was meant for someone with massive photography skillz and a honkin camera...I won't pretend that I actually knew what I was doing to get this shot--I think I tried 58 times to get the shot below, and even after 58 tries, it's not that great.  You will see some of the other 57 not-so-hot shots when I do my "out-take" reel at the end of the 30 days.

Day 21: Faceless self-portrait.

Probably the most difficult shot to try to pull off.  I don't know if this actually qualifies as "faceless" because you can still see part of my face, but it's my Photography Challenge, I'll use it if I want to.

Plus, this picture makes me think of "Wilson", the neighbor in Home Improvement.  He wore the same kind of hat; although with him, we could only ever see the top of his face, not the bottom like on mine.

I feel like Tim Allen should be popping over the fence any second now to ask for my advice on Jill & the Kids.

Day 22: Hands.

Thanks to my lovely mother and sister-in-law for allowing me to tinker with their hands to get a decent shot.  It would have been pretty tough to take a picture of my own hands.

Day 23: Sunflare.

I was worried about this one--it didn't look too promising on the screen on my camera, but I think it's one of my faves from this Photography Challenge so far!

Day 24: Animal.

My "niece" Ms. Maize Mae.  She hates posing for the camera, so I was very lucky to get this shot.  She prefers sniffing around the yard and barking at the squirrels to having her picture taken.  She sure is cute though, isn't she?  She's Beauty!!

Day 25: Something pink.

I had another "something pink" in mind, but then spotted these golf balls sitting on my shelf and placed them on my pink comforter.  As I was taking the picture, I realized how fitting it was being that the golf balls are for Breast Cancer Awareness and October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!  I couldn't have planned it better, myself!  

30 Day Photography Challenge - Days 17, 18 & 19

Day 17: Technology.

Day 18: Your shoes.

Day 19: Something orange.