Trip: Las Vegas (Feb. 16-18)

Oye -- it's been more than a week since I've blogged!

But considering the consecutive drives back-and-forth from LA to the OC and back and, of course, the trip to Las Vegas with the boyfriend, which all took place in the last two weeks... it's no surprise that (1) I've been busy, and (2) I've got lots to share.

I don't want to overwhelm you (or myself for that matter), so I'll just take the next couple of days to play catch-up. But here's some of the things you can look forward to reading about in the next couple of posts:

• Love Bazaar
  
• Peekage at Commonwealth Collective [Louis/Thomas]
  
• UCI's Make-A-Wish Benefit
• Packaging
• Custom Paintings
• New Wood Art Pieces
  
• Decor/Craft Space Make-Over!
• New Monster Machine [it's in the mail soon!]
  

I'm so eager to share it all now... but because I just finished uploading the photos, here's a few photos of our trip to Las Vegas!

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Morris and I wanted to celebrate our 4 year anniversary (2/17) and Valentine's Day in a big way, so we crossed the border to Nevada (despite warnings of snow and road closures), and survived through the spastic rain and big-truck sandwiches. Thankfully, we chose to head over on Monday, which was the same day everyone and their mom decided to head back. Let's just say that the grass was definitely not greener on the other side in terms of traffic that day. But better for us!

A little look into our driving situation:

A little bit of rain on the road;
A little bit of snow on the mountains;
A little bit of something called NO TRAFFIC...

Nice.

MGM hooked us up.

Taking a cheesy high school "star shots" photo
in our kick-ass bathroom before going out.

Want to know just how kick-ass?
Check out the panoramic pans!


Buffet at Bellagio.

King crab legs, pasta, sushi, and creme brulee?
OMG -- yes, please.


David Copperfield's (amazing) magic show; View from our seats.

If only I could count how many times I said "HUH?!"/"WTF?!" to Morris...


The nights were chilly, but the sky was beautiful.

Bellagio observatory:
Celebrating Chinese New Year.

Everything was absolutely beautiful...
but I ALMOST DIED when I saw the PANDA BEARS!

If you know me or anything about my work, you know I'm a little obsessed. So, yes, died a little... of happiness. Yes, I did.

I spy panda belly!

He's my favorite! How cute is he?!

Ah, love his expression!

How fitting that I was sporting my new "Panda Face" messenger bag!

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Speaking of messenger bags, I've got a couple made and a couple that have already sold, but they're not up in my shop just yet. I'm in the works of getting a whole new handful done, and am in search of a model... anyone down? lol.

More updates coming soon!

xoxo,
Steppie
http://steppie.etsy.com

diy book-binding.

If you couldn't tell from my last post, these past couple of days have been uber hectic. Good hectic, but still very hectic. So, 'xcuse the lack of blog posting, and the lacking that will be happening in the next couple of days (I'll be in Vegas!)...

BUT! I was able to get some R&R in today before the big 4-year-anniversary trip with the boyfriend, and while I was supposed to dedicate the day to cleaning out my car and packing up a bag of clothes and toiletries... I ended up spending the day crafting. Big surprise, huh? I did a little research on a little-monster-of-a-machine I will be investing in soon that will be bringing a WHOLE new spectrum of product to my shop (I'm giddy just thinking about it!), then a little doodling and sketching for future projects, and then got carried away with learning how to bind mini-books...

I know...
Random.

I've always been really fascinated with the whole craft, and while I'm not a big fan of regular novel reading, I am a big fan of understanding how they're physically put together. I'm in no means about to invest in some big book-binding machinery -- I'm already all over the place as it is! But, I am finding even the simple DIY journal binding to be very addicting. Who knows... maybe I'll throw a few in my shop someday... and with my new mystery "monster" coming in... the possibilities are endless. Anyhoot, it's a little rough because I was more excited about testing it out with the materials I had on hand than getting it perfect... but here are the results:

Inside book pages

The fabric was recycled from an old IKEA pillow case!

So... what do you think?!

I'm hoping to experiment more with journal/book binding once I get some needed tools. And you know what this calls for: an excuse to make a trip to Joann's! I've always loved fabrics, and maybe I'll have a reason to use them now.

Anyhoot, this is all credit to the numerous book binding tutorials I browsed on youtube, but this one in particular by micheleva was simple enough for me to get the basic ropes around how to do it but awesome enough for me to say I now know how to make a basic journal:

As an added hint for the future collab projects I have stirring up currently... this new experimenting will help with some "stuff" I'm whipping up with Jennifer Chung... Nice.

OK -- I'm off to a night of packing! And even though we'll be in Vegas while it all happens... happy early 4 years, babe. I... "kind of like you... a lot." (;

xoxo,
Steppie
http://steppie.etsy.com