{Out & About} Las Vegas Quickie

Get your mind out of the gutter! At the end of February, I joined my parents for a few days in Las Vegas and managed to do some damage to my credit card and waistline.

I was only there for two full days and spent most of the first day at the outlet mall (I love you, J. Crew!). The second day was spent buying tickets for Cirque du Soleil's Mystere and then circling the mall for an hour to find my dad who had actually left to return to the hotel to meet my brother who was flying in, without telling us he left the mall! We toured around some of the newer hotels since my dad and brother hadn't been in at least 10 years, and I think both my mom and I last went in 2009 (the Cosmopolitan Hotel was totally new to me). We stuffed ourselves silly at the Buffet at the Bellagio and I wish I had left room for more creme brulee! Simply delicious!

I wouldn't mind seeing the registration area of the Paris Hotel every day.

At Mon Ami Gabi at the Paris Hotel: (clockwise) Onion Soup au Gratin (yum!), Beef Bourguignon, Seared Atlantic Salmon, Steak Bordelaise.

Paris and bits of Planet Hollywood and Bally's. I love my camera. Sometimes it makes it look like I know how to take pretty pictures when really I just point and shoot!

Caesar's Palace always freaks me out because it looks ginormous, but it's got about the same number of rooms as other hotels along the strip.

The Northern section of the strip.

Looking down the South section of the strip.

My favourite. Pendant lights at the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

Lots of pretty light fixtures at the Cosmopolitan.

These remind me of the light fixture at the BY_Lissoni Lounge.

Lighting over the casino floor at the Cosmopolitan.

The lobby of the Cosmopolitan was pretty amazing with its electronic art installation of moving elevators and a variety of guests on the large columns.

What's this big white space, you ask?

A freakin' pop-up wedding chapel! According to one website it was only up for January and February, and they even had a faux wedding option which would expire after 24 hours!

Part of the dining area at Mastro's Ocean Club is inside a 70-foot-tall sculptural tree house at the Crystals at CityCenter.

Flower child at the Chinese New Year themed Conservatory and Botanical Gardens at the Bellagio.

It's the year of the Dragon!

The Conservatory and Botanical Gardens at the Bellagio dressed up for Chinese New Year.

I think I lost $22 at the slots. For a while I was up, but then I started over thinking it when I got to the bonus rounds! When I left, my dad was up almost $200, but when he came home he was down $160! It always pains me to gamble though. I'd rather save my $20 since it always disappears so quickly! But you can't go to Vegas and not gamble!

{At Home} Powder Room Progress - Finally!

Holy smokes. This month is going to be a slow month for me on the blog! If I'm not at my day job during the week, I'm going to be at my part-time on weekends (or NYC one weekend) so home projects will be slow! SlowER, I suppose. This potentially means more horrible night time photos because I'm never around during the day. At least I finished organizing my clothes on hangers, but I kept more than I should have and I still have to go through my dresser...

But! A little progress is being made in the powder room!

We last left off with the painted stripes on the walls and no toilet, but now the toilet is installed (pictures to come later since the powder room is a bit of a mess right now).

The yellow baseboards are no more! They're now a nice glossy white to match the door and door frames that we painted a few months earlier.

Finally, 2.5 months later we are switching out the faucets! This faucet screams bloody murder when you turn it on, unless you turn it on full blast, but we always forget to tell guests this so then they get scared while using it and keep it on really low so that it's a mere screeching sound. Either way, it's annoying and we are long overdue for a new set.

We bought Moen's Thea model soon after I finished painting, but got sidetracked with painting the upstairs bathrooms so that we could put the new toilets in those as well.

My dad got started while I was at work and I came home to this:

After removing the pedestal from the base, my dad originally had the bowl propped up with the walker my mom brought home from Barcelona (why? I have no idea), but then removed it and the bowl eventually fell. No damage was done to the bowl but it had to be removed anyway so that the new taps and tubes could be properly configured. Apparently it's a lot more work than my mom or I expected! Not that we're doing any of it...

The bowl is currently sitting on the kitchen table, but everything might be all set up by the time I get home from work again today. I can't wait to use it and not hear it screaming at me!

Here's a look at the to-do list for the powder room:

• Paint stripes on the walls
• Paint the baseboards
• Replace the toilet
• Re-hang old mirror (we thought about getting a new one but this one is still good)
• Finish installing the new faucet and reattach the sink bowl to the wall
• Touch up the paint around the sink
• Buy a new light fixture and install
• Find two pieces to fill the frames and hang them up (I've got one potential, I just need a second)

So at the rate we're going, I'll probably update you all again in 2-3 months? Hopefully sooner than that!