St. Rose Employee Dinner

So, I'm not a St. Rose employee, but I have a best friend, April, who works in the E.R. at the hospital and she invited me to be her guest at their annual employee award dinner on Saturday night. The dinner was at The M Resort Spa and Casino in Henderson, NV in the Milan Ballroom. Fancy...I know. The night started off with a cocktail hour, followed by a three-course meal. The food we had was delicious: salad, chicken, and three desserts! After dessert, they served coffee, which was also very delicious! After the main course, the award ceremony began. It was very nice listening to the stories of the employees and the lives they saved. I think my favorite part of the night had to be the fact that before dinner began, St. Rose Hospital opened with prayer. Now, I know that the St. Rose Hospital branches are Catholic based, but it was just so nice seeing a hospital whose business is to save lives stop, pray, and give glory to God. It was awesome!

{April and I}

{April and I}

{St. Rose Employee Award Program}

{Inside the Milan Ballroom}

{Pineapple Upside Down Cake. I honestly couldn't drink half of it because there was so much alcohol. Not very good, but then again I'm not to big on drinking either.}

{The Dessert! Chocolate cake, Cheesecake, and Fruit Tart.}

My favorite part of the meal...

{Close up of the raspberry cheesecake! So good!}

After the ceremony was over, April, some of her co-workers, and I went to the Hostile Grape. The Hostile Grape is a wine cellar, bar, and wine tasting room at the conference level of The M. I am not a big wine drinker (or drinker at all for that matter) mainly because I don't know anything about wine. There are so many different flavors, that it's hard to know where to start for a newbie 21-year-old. So, I thought a visit to the Hostile Grape would be a very educational experience. One thing I learned from the wine tasting was that for newbie wine drinkers a good place to always start is with sweet white wines and then gradually move up to the darker reds. It is kind of like when you first start drinking coffee - you use lots of sugar and creme at first, but after you've been drinking coffee for awhile you gradually have less and less sugar and creme and instead drink the coffee black. Same kind of concept is used when drinking wine. Pinot Noir is a red wine, but is also a good place to start if you are new to drinking wine as well. At the Hostile Grape you pay by the ounce.

It was pretty cool, not going to lie. You begin by adding an amount to a card, there was five of us so we each put in $5 bucks each - at the Hostile Grape you pay by the ounce, the average cost of an ounce is about $2.50 so we each had 2 oz. The Hostile Grape is broken down into three smaller rooms filled with wine. Each wine bottle has it's own little station within the group it belongs to. For example, all the Pinot Noir's are grouped together in one section and the white wine's in a separate location. After you fill the card, you select your wine and insert the card in the section of wines you want and press how many ounces you want of that specific wine. The wine spurts out and you taste away! Now, I know my explanation doesn't do justice. There's nothing like actually seeing what it is you're trying to explain. The wine was delicious and I recommend if you ever get a chance to go to the Hostile Grape, you should go! I'm thinking about taking my husband there for Valentine's Day because he likes wine much more than I do, plus it has a very romantic atmosphere. In summary, April and I had a wonderful and fun Saturday evening together!

What did you do over the weekend? Any new places that you've gone to, that you enjoyed?

Valentine's Day Crafts!

On Saturday morning my mother, sister, and I went to a craft day hosted by the wonderful Melinda Lanier. All the crafts were holiday crafts for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day. I decided to do both Valentine's Day and St. Patty's Day crafts because my husband and I have no decorations for either of these holidays. My mom, sis, and I had such a wonderful day together and we had so much fun making our crafts. Here are some pictures of the crafts I made, I will show you pictures of the St. Patty's crafts in a later post in March.

{12x12 wood plaque - red paint - white vinyl}

{White plate (you can get these at the $1 store) and pink vinyl}

{3.5x7 block - brown paint - pink vinyl - pink toile}

{3x4 block - red paint - white vinyl - white toile}

{3x4 block - red paint - white vinyl - white toile}

{I put both of the 3x4 blocks on either side of my seasonal blocks to decorate.}

What do you think of the crafts? What crafts are you working on for Valentine's Day?

If I Were...

-If I were a season, I would be fall.

- If I were a month, I would be August.

- If I were a day of the week, I would be Sunday.

- If I were a time of day, I would be the sunset.

- If I were a planet, I would be Neptune.

- If I were a tree, I would be a coast redwood.

- If I were a land animal, I would be a golden retriever.

- If I were a sea animal, I would be a dolphin.

- If I were a bird, I would be a peacock.

Source

-If I were a piece of furniture, I would be a bed.

- If I were a liquid, I would be coffee.

- If I were a stone, I would be Turquoise.

- If I were a tool, I would be a pencil.

- If I were a kind of weather, I would be sunny.

- If I were a musical instrument, I would be drums.

- If I were a color, I would be red.

Source

-If I were a facial expression, I would be a smile.

- If I were an emotion, I would be love.

- If I were a sound, I would be laughter.

- If I were an element, I would be fire.

- If I were a flavor, I would be chocolate.

- If I were a scent, I would be vanilla.

- If I were an object, I would be a garden.

- If I were a body part, I would be arms.

-If I were a song, I would be “You are Everything” by Matthew West.

- If I were a pair of shoes, I would be stilettos.

- If I were transportation, I would be flight.

- If I were a fairy tale, I would be Cinderella.

- If I were a holiday, I would be Christmas.

- If I were a superhero, I would be Batman.

-If I were a shape, I would be a heart.

- If I were a state, I would be Texas.

- If I were a cartoon, I would be Rugrats.

- If I were a car, I would be a Lexus Convertible.

- If I were a food, I would be chocolate.

- If I were a place, I would be a beach.

-If I were an accessory, I would be a purse.

- If I were an insect, I would be a butterfly.

- If I were a plant, I would be a flower.

- If I were a flower, I would be a rose.

- If I were a fruit, I would be a strawberry.

- If I were a direction, I would be up.

- If I were another person, I would be me.

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Friday Rewind!

Every Friday I will be hosting Friday Rewind, where I will recap what I did throughout the week. This week it seemed like I got ABSOLUTELY NOTHING accomplished because I was sick the entire week! Boo! Next week, I have a feeling I will be feeling better and will be more motivated to get things done.

With that being said...this week I...

*Started reading this book

*Will finish reading this book

*Found this cute D.I.Y headband tutorial for Valentine's Day!

*Decided I want to start making these for spring/summer 2011!

*Read this article, which answers the question, Does the Bible Condone Abortion?

*Watched this awesome woman's pro-life testimony on an unexpected TV show!

*Decided next week's menu recipes will be coming from The Boss!

*Found these yummy cookies to bake for my husband for Valentine's Day!

*Thought a quick trip to this place would be a nice Valentine's Day gift for my hubby!

*Saw the arrival of my new nephew Isaac!

What do you think of the new Friday Rewind? What did you do this week?

My Very Own Craft Binder!

In a previous post I gave you all a teaser as to what craft I've been working on lately. To recap the teaser was a stack of magazines...quilting magazines to be exact.

I got these quilting magazines from a dear family friend who loves quilting with a passion. I just recently started sewing and quilting (I made my first quilt a few months ago for my sis-in-law's baby shower you can view some of the quilt here) last fall. After showing Shirley the quilt I had been working on, she have me a HUGE stack of quilting magazines. As any quilting newbie would be, I was excited and a little overwhelmed with the sweet gift. I honestly didn't know where I was going to store the magazines (I hate magazine clutter), how I was going to read through each one, or accomplish each craft. That's when I decided to create my own craft binder!

In this craft binder, I would only keep the quilting patterns and directions that I liked and recycle the leftover magazines. Yes, this would mean having to flip threw all the magazines, but after two weeks I finally got it finished! I also decided that any other crafts I find along the way - it doesn't have to be sewing/quilting related - would be put into this binder as well. I was so happy that I came up with this idea because not only would this free up magazine clutter, but I would now have my own craft binder that I could go to choose crafts that I may want to make and I know I would like any of them because I chose them all by myself!

Here is my craft binder appropriately titled: "Sew Little Fabric, Sew Little Time...A Craft Book By Brittany Morgan"

{Cover}

{Spine}

{Back cover - I wrote verses from Proverbs 31 around the edges of the paper}

{Dividers}

{Table of Contents}

{Close-up of ribbon bookmark}

Divider Sections for My Craft Binder:

*Reference - Tips, skills to learn, etc.

*Templates

*Quilts - DIY, Patterns

*Wall Hangings

*Table Runners - tabletop

*Children

*Seasonal

*Other Crafts

What crafts have you been working on?

Zappos.com Speakeasy Party

Yesterday, my husband and I went to the annual holiday party for Zappos.com. The theme for the party was Roaring 20's and was held at Pure Nightclub at Caesar's Palace. It was so much fun complete with a live band playing Jazz and Ragtime hits, professional swing dancers, and free party favors! The best part of the night was the fact that we got to dress up of course!

{I had my sister and her friend Suzi do my hair up using the finger wave technique.}

*Here is a tutorial on how to do the finger wave

{Can't forget the flapper headdress}

{The shoes I wore - they matched my headdress perfectly!}

{Had to wear Chanel}

{My modern day flapper outfit completed!}

{Do the Charleston!}

{The hubby and I}

My Flapper Look

*Black Cocktail Dress: Rhapsodielle $20

*Long strand of faux pearls: Party City $2.99

*Sea water pearl necklace & earring set: gift

*Fishnets: Macy's

*Fuchsia satin stilettos: gift-Zappos.com

*Headdress: Party City $7.99

*Fur stole: great grandma's

*Bright red lipstick

*Rose Blush

*False eyelashes

*Lots of black eyeliner!

Ray's 1920's Middle Class Look

*White dress shirt

*Grey slacks

*Suspenders: H&M $9.99

*Summertime Fedora: H&M $5.00

*Black dress shoes

What did you do this weekend?

Five Question Friday

1. Where did you meet your spouse and did you instantly know it was love?I met my spouse at Green Valley United Methodist Church seven years ago at a Vacation Bible School my church was holding. It was the last night of VBS, on a Friday, so all the children, their parents, and VBS teachers & leaders were there for a fun carnival experience - complete with food, games, pictures...the whole shabang! I remember my best friend Amie and I were talking, and this really tall, really cute, really familiar-looking boy walks over to us. Come to find out he had been helping at VBS during the morning session with Amie, I of course worked the evening session so I never got to see him throughout the week. So Ray walked over to us, mainly to talk to Amie, but we did introduce ourselves to one another as well. I later found out that he had recently moved to Las Vegas from San Diego. I also found out that his mom and my mom used to work together in the same church office when I was around 5 and he 7 - this would explain why I thought Ray looked so familiar. His family was always moving between Las Vegas and San Diego, but once Ray and I started dating they stayed put! When we met I was 13 and he 15. When we met I knew there was something very special about Raymond.I can't say that fireworks blasted and I instantly knew he was the one...I just had a feeling that I knew I was supposed to be with him. As we started dating and got to know each other more, this feeling was all the more confirming in my heart and I knew Ray was the only one I wanted to share my life with. He was the boy I was going to marry!

2. What is your favorite room in the house?

My favorite room in the house would definitely have to be the boudoir! Aside from teal, my favorite color is red. My bedroom consists of red, gold, and brown decor. We have cast iron sconces on our walls, candles, floor length curtains, and pictures of us on our wedding all around the room. The look I'm going for in this room is romance elegance (I made that up myself). I think your bedroom should be a place that is calm, relaxing, a sanctuary, and it doesn't hurt to add a little romantic to the mix.

3. Can you wiggle your ears?

I've tried wiggling my ears and it doesn't work.

4. What is your evening ritual?

4:30-5: Begin prepping for dinner

5-6:30: Cook dinner, set the table, and get ahead start on washing the dishes

6:30-7:30: Eat dinner

7:30-8: Clean up the kitchen

8-10: Hang out with hubster

10:15: brush teeth, take out contacts, and get ready for bed.

10:30-10:45: Goodnight world!

5. How many hours of sleep do you need in order to function?

In order for me to function rightly I need between 6 and 7 hours of bedtime.

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