Fun in Vegas - Locals Edition I

I thought I'd try something different and highlight fun things to do in Vegas. I know when people visit Las Vegas there is a whole list of popular things to do and must-see tourist attractions. Living here is a different story and usually when we go out we avoid the strip. This week, however, J and I decided to try something new. We ventured down to the MGM Grand and tried a new place.

West Wing Bar

So we had a hard time finding the bar at first as it is literally hidden. We walked through the hotel side of the casino, literally alongside hotel rooms on the first floor, passing random elevators and after about 10 minutes of walking down a long narrow hallway, ended up at the entrance. The bar itself is really dark inside and has a lounge-y feel to it. It was quiet and intimate which is rare to find in Vegas. The con was that drinks were $14 (ouch) but on the upside, they serve you a dish of pretzels when you order a beverage and who doesn't like a snack?

Awkward self-pictures

Overall Impression

I would definitely go back here but only on a weeknight.  I have a feeling this place isn't nearly as quaint on the weekend and the though of being packed in a small, dark, crowded room is somewhat unappealing. 

the most WONDERFUL time of year

Autumn is hands-down my favorite season.  I was lucky enough to grow up in Berkshire County which is arguably home to the most beautiful foliage in the country.  I remember people parking outside my high school every year and taking pictures of the landscape.  We used to make fun of the "leaf peepers" and I really don't think I understood just how special this part of the country is until I moved away. 

Yep, I grew up here <3

It's hard to feel like it's autumn when it's still in the 80's here in Las Vegas so I made this collage to reference all of my favorite autumn things:

And just because it's 80 degrees doesn't mean I haven't been enjoying pumpkin spice lattes at Starby's.  Love.

Cue the bridal freakout

Last week marked the three month countdown to our wedding. I'm not sure why, but I have started getting really overwhelmed. I keep thinking I have 3839458340 things to do but when I go over my lists (yes, I am a crazy list maker), I don't even know what else I could be working on right now. In many aspects we are ahead of the game. For some reason 3 months just seems so close and I may have suggested once or twice (or maybe more like 12 times) in the past week that I wish we just eloped. I hope that once the wedding gets here I am able to just relax and enjoy it, but I know how my anxiety gets out of control and it's something I struggle with.

I want so badly to enjoy this time but the truth is that I just wish we were married already!

On another note, I got my hair done the other day and I love it. My hairdresser is the bomb and she took this nappy mess:

And turned it into this:

Now if only she would agree to do my hair for the wedding...

(she hates bridal hair/up-dos unfortunately...)

Philly Love

Philadelphia holds a special place in my heart.  I went to school there, J and I fell in love there, and after 3 years of living in Center City, we moved across the country and left it all behind.  My family all lives in the greater Philadelphia area and while I didn't necessarily love living downtown, it was a fantastic experience that left me with a lot of great memories.With our time in Vegas potentially coming to an end soon, we have started to wonder where we'll end up in 2012.  J starts interviewing for residency in a couple of weeks and has an opportunity to pursue a program in Philly.  There are other interviews he will be going on around the country, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't secretly hope we wind up back in Philly.

There is just something about this place that makes it unlike any other place I've lived before.

City Skyline

City Hall - I used to walk right past this gorgeous building everyday

South Street - home to the weirdest people you will ever meet.  Also a lot of boutiques, restaurants and tattoo/piercing shops 

LOVE Park

Christmas in Rittenhouse Square

Philly is home to the #1 children's hospital in the country! I doubt I will ever have a job I enjoy more than I did when I worked here. It truly is an amazing place.

The famous art museum

Kelly Drive - best place to run in the city (located directly behind the art museum)

 So we won't know where we are moving until February but for the time being I'm trying to keep an open mind about all of our options.  I hope this next move brings us closer to family and somewhere we can start a family of our own...and if that happens to be Philadelphia I think we will both be very excited :)

What is your signature scent?

I was talking to a friend at work awhile back about this other girl we work with (ha, who doesn't talk smack about their coworkers?  Anyone??)  Said coworker is a huge bitch, but that is not what we were discussing (in this particular conversation...)  You see, this girl wears some sort of perfume/body spray/lotion or something that smells really strong and fruity.  We aren't sure what exactly it is, but it smells so good (and strong) that you always know when she is just around the corner because you can smell her!  Which got me thinking, what is my signature scent?  (and do people smell me before I enter a room?!)

I am a perfume snob.  I love trying different fragrances and the various types of bottles they come in.  I like the cheap stuff from Bath and Body Works, and I like the designer perfumes they sell at the department stores.  These are the current perfumes I own:

I got the cute crystal tray thing at Hobby Lobby.  Had never heard of the store until I moved to Nevada and I flipping LOVE it.

1. Light Blue - Dolce and Gabbana
2.  Brit - Burberry
3. Paris Hilton - no clue...one of her 9348123098 perfumes.  Probably called something like Sparkle, Diamond, Fairy, or Small Dog in a Purse
4. Poppy - Coach
5. Deluce de Cartier - Cartier

My absolute favorite at the moment is Poppy which I got for my birthday and cannot get enough of.  If I had a signature scent, it would be that.

so vain

This week I had the brilliant idea to get my teeth professionally whitened.  I failed to do any sort of research and decided I'd just wing it.  After working all last night and sleeping for about 3 hours, I went to the dentist to get Zoom whitening.

Prior to this I had only tried at home teeth whitening.  I did the Crest white strips and wasn't terribly impressed by the results.  So because I have no shame and ugly pictures are funny, here's the before and after...
BEFORE:

AFTER:

The process itself was ok.  It took 45 minutes broken down into three 15 minute sessions using the UV light.  It was only uncomfortable during the last 15 minute session but shortly after leaving the dentist my bottom teeth were THROBBING.  The pain has improved but I still feel quite sensitive and have been taking ibuprofen which helps.  Regardless, at this point I would recommend it if you can stomach the cost (it is usually around $400 but my dentist was having a special for $240)

And because I can't end this post looking all busted, I have to talk about our engagement photos which were taken last weekend!!  We still haven't seen them and are anxiously awaiting our photographer getting them edited and up on her website.  I tried fake eyelashes for the first time and they were surprisingly awesome.  They looked a lot more natural than I had anticipated and I decided that they were just so fabulous I need to wear them for wedding (which is exactly 3 months away!!)

Do you think they look real?

bling.bling

I posted awhile back about my engagement ring and the wedding band that I had found to match after a lengthy and stressful search.  I literally went to like 5 stores, numerous times, to find the "perfect match".  I had a hard time matching the setting because my engagement ring has a thin band and most of the thin bands I looked at were not super exciting (ie sparkly and fantastic).  I originally thought I'd do a thin band of diamonds on each side of my engagements ring, but when I tried it on I felt like it took away from the solitaire.  I finally settled on a band and while I originally wanted more diamond, I though it fit perfectly with my ring.  This is what my engagement ring looked like with that band (which I purchased):

Fast forward about six months (to yesterday) when I was shopping at the mall with J.  We popped into Ben Bridge to have my engagement ring cleaned and that's when I happened to spot this lovely thing:

I literally died a little and was like "I NEED TO TRY THIS ON!"  I felt bad because I didn't want J to think I was trying to "upgrade" my ring, I just needed to see what it would look like on.  And then this happened:

It was literally stunning.  I told the lady at the store my sob story about how we had purchased a ring that I liked but that I NEEDED this ring.  The store policy is no exchanges after 90 days (which we had far surpassed) so after a few phone calls were made, everything was approved and this baby was going to be mine :)  We ran home to get wedding band #1 and made the exchange.  I freaking love Ben Bridge.  And I lovvvve my rings!!  I'm glad I only have to wait 3 more months to wear them together!

Invitations are out!!

The invitation fiasco is officially over.  Invites are out and now we officially have to hold a wedding on January 20th - no backing out now!  When J was away over the summer I looked into different invitation options.  Originally I bought a DIY package from Target, only to find onse I liked better at Joann Fabrics.  I later returned both and decided some things are better left to the professionals which brought me to WeddingPaperDivas.com. 

Omg people, this website is amazing.  Basically they have 198390824 templates that you can personalize to fit your wedding needs.  You can search different catagories, colors, theme or season.  I clicked through their blue invitations and also explored their winter wedding options.  I setteled on 5 and ordered samples.  I'm not going to lie, some of them were nicer/uglier in person so I would highly recommend ordering samples before placing an order.

We eventually narrowed it down to this baby :

It fit our theme, although we were not crazy about the red.  We were able to change all of the font to black (not an option on the website, however we requested this in our order and they were extremely accomodating).   Our invitations arrived literally less than a week later!  We ordered invites, response.menu cards and another plain card with directions. 

The pictures really dont do any of this justice.  We ordered 60 invitations with cooresponding response cards and shimmery lined envelopes (as well as 10 extras)  for $360 total.  We didn't really have a budget for invitations, but I thought that was a reasonable amount of money. 



We *l.o.v.e* Seattle

Last week, on an (extremely) rare long weekend off together, we flew to Seattle to visit J's family.  We hadn't been there together for nearly a year and it was so nice to visit in autumn; arguably the best time of year to explore the city.

We <3 Southwest



One of the coolest things we did was visit the museum of flight.  There they house numerous historic airplanes, military memorabilia and a whole section of the museum dedicated to NASA/space exploration.

 You walk inside and are literally in a huge warehouse with planes suspended from the ceiling

They even let you sit in the cockpit of a fighter jet and take pictures :)

They had planes outside that you could go inside of which included an actual retired Air Force One from several years back.  We also went inside a Concorde jet which was terrible and I just about had a panic attack and died.  So stuffy and clausterphobic.  I was a big weiner and tried to leave but there were people behind us and literally you had to climb over people to make your way through the plane.  Awful.

Air Force One.  This plane was so baller inside.

Longest/skinniest plane ever.  You literally feel like you can't breathe inside.  Evidently you can fly from New York to London in just 3 hours, however some things are just not.worth.it.

So if ever you find yourself in Seattle with some time to kill, The Museum of Flight is so worth the $16.  You won't regret it.  Also, they hire retired veterans to provide free tours and talk about their experiences.  It's basically the coolest thing ever.