Sketchy

I've always enjoyed drawing. I've never had any formal training, and I wouldn't claim to be an artist or anything, I just like to do it. When I was a kid, I drew things all the time and once or twice entered my drawings in the fair. I still doodle, especially while I'm in class, as you can see by taking a peek inside any of my notebooks.
My mom and stepdad always encouraged me to draw, and once invited a friend's daughter who was a trained artist to give us a lesson in drawing faces. Stony kept things I had drawn hanging in his office at our house, and for my 20th birthday, he sent me a sketchpad and a drawing kit with pencils, charcoals and chalk to remind me that I hadn't been drawing enough.

When I read that my cousins Mandy and Denise and their mom Jane were participating in The Sketchbook Project, I knew I also wanted to do it. I signed up a couple weeks ago and received my sketchbook in the mail last weekend. My theme is "... you'd be home now" and I imagine that I will interpret that quite loosely. I decided that I will dedicate my sketchbook in Stony's memory, since I know he would be just delighted by this project.

I still have the drawing kit Stony gave me. (I still haven't been drawing enough.) So that is what I used for the the first drawing.
I'll post some more updates on the progress of the sketchbook before I have to send it in. I hope Chris and I will be able to go to San Francisco in June to see the Sketchbook tour.

Laurnesto does Vegas

A few weeks ago, our friends Ernesto and Laura were both going to be in Phoenix and we really wanted to be there, but we couldn't make it happen. Luckily, Chris was able to join them in Vegas a couple days later ... but since Chris never writes blogs anymore, Laura agreed to write a guest blog. Enjoy!

So Ernesto, my cousin Eddie and my friend Nikki made a short but very sweet trip to Vegas to feed our (or mine mostly) Vegas itch. Short is an understatement as we were there for just about 24 hours. So the question was how much trouble could we get into in such a short amount of time. After a long car ride that consisted of a lot of “ would you rather” (in which we all learned a little bit more about each other) and lots of pictures of the new Hoover Dam bridge we arrived.

So we had a crazy fun night of boozing and gambling.When we woke up the next morning Ernesto was missing, there was a tiger in the bathroom, Chris was missing a tooth......oh wait I am thinking of a different trip to Vegas.

Ours was not as crazy as the Hangover, the highlight of the night was when I sat next to a fun old lady who helped me play Pai Gow Poker. After I was up $100 dollars, she said to me, “raise your bet el cheapo.”

The rest of the night consisted of some dancing in a bar, me outlasting everyone, then everyone thinking I got lost when I was just out gambling still, taking a short nap, getting breakfast at noon at Denny’s,a little bit more gambling and a very long car ride home.

In other news Ernesto and I got engaged 2 days earlier, if you know who we are or just want to see something that might make you cry in a good way, check out this video.

Go Team

Last weekend was Homecoming and since I average about one game a season and since Nevada was hosting San Jose State, we decided to go. My original plan was to create a hybrid Nevada-SJSU T-shirt, but I couldn't find a Wolf Pack shirt at the thrift store, so I went with this instead.

Before the game, we joined our friends for some tailgating festivities.
They were anxious for Chris to arrive with the Baggo, of course.
Did you know Chris was such a multi-tasker?
As for the game, the Wolf Pack won, as was expected, but the Spartans scored in the double digits, which nobody really expected, so that was a victory-of-sorts in itself. (Of course, yesterday was a bad day for both teams.)
Good times. See you next year, Mackay stadium.

Miguel's Meat Cake!

Guest blog brought to you by Tammy's sister Marina:

I love to bake. As you can tell by Tammy's posts, it's somewhat of a family trait. But the problem is Miguel has more of a savory tooth than a sweet tooth. So this year for his birthday I thought I would try to make something that he would enjoy eating as much as I would enjoy baking it. A friend of mine had the solution - a meat cake! It was perfect, I found a good recipe online, and got started.

6 lbs of meet, prepped and ready to bake

cooked and cooling, tops cut off

filled with gravy made from the drippings

(the recipe called for ketchup glaze but I thought gravy would look and taste better)

some boxed mashed potatoes and a little food coloring...

and ta-da - it's a cake!

Happy Birthday Miguel!

Guess what!? It's meat!

I knew it was a smashing success when Miguel tasted it and said, "this is the best cake I've ever eaten."

Rain Shower

Remember when I told you it rained last weekend? Well it started during Kat's baby shower. Showers at a shower must be some kind of good luck, right? Lluckily we were inside at a cute little bakery that used to be a tea cottage.
Kat and Matt are due in a month or so, and their baby's gender has remained a mystery despite two attempts to find out, so now it will be a surprise. The decorations are in a bee theme and everything was so cute.

Kat is so cute as a momma-to-be and it was fun to see the girls for a few hours and visit and catch up! I only wish Dre could have been there, too!

Fall!

Last week it was hot. Like, record-breaking hot. For five days straight. Friday's high temperature wasn't just the hottest day on record for Oct. 1, but for the entire month of October. Still, the leaves started turning. It appeared fall was here - cool temps or not.

Saturday it started to cool. And rain. Seemed like a good day to pick up some pumpkins on my way home.
Butternut squash soup for dinner seemed like a good idea, too.

And since we were having a few friends over for dinner on Sunday, I thought it was a good idea to make some of the little white pumpkins I picked up sparkle, ala Jaimee Rose. Spray glue + glitter and voila!
Glittered pumpkins, friends, chili, cornbread and apple pie. What could be better?

And now, back to the homework ...