While antique shopping in Tennessee last weekend, I found an old seltzer syphon, Sparklets brand. I’ve never used one of these before but we’ve talked about trying one for a while. So we took this one home.
We quickly realized we were missing a part or two. Most importantly the part that holds a CO2 cartridge / charger. Prairie Moon online carried parts that fit. So this morning we tried it out. Works great!
Cheers!
After brunch today we said our goodbyes to everyone and dropped Gene at the airport on the way back into the city. We ended up staying an extra day, so we’ve decided to spend some of it getting more acquainted with Nashville.
We stopped by the original home of the Grand Ole’ Opry, the Ryman Auditorium.
We took the tour and got to see the stage up close:
And a view from backstage: 
It’s a beautiful venue. Amazing to think about all the stars that spent so much time here…
One more shot from the balcony: 
Then we wandered off to the nearby bars on Broadway. We ended up at Jack’s BBQ for some brisket and pork shoulder – and it was delicious.
Nashville is the “Athens of the South,” and in 1897 they built an exact replica of the Parthenon for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. So, of course, we had to see it. Unfortunately, by the time we made it to Centennial Park, the landmark was closed for tours, so we did not get a chance to see the statue of Athena. But we did get a great view of all 4 sides.
We made it to the Bluebird Cafe, but didn’t get a photo (!)
We ended up a great day at the Pla Mor Lanes. Monte kicked my butt 2-1 … even with the badminton injury 🙂
Looking forward to a leisurely morning tomorrow and (especially) spending the weekend on the boat. More exploring tomorrow, before heading to the airport for our flight home.
Good ‘night!
I made it to Seattle last night 3 hours late but safe and sound. Today Noreen and I shopped for a while then headed over to mom’s. Two of my nephews, Jake and Aaron, are spending the day with her. So I got to enjoy time with them as we’ll.
Aaron came down to Austin for a visit about a year ago. He is lobbying heavily with his mom and dad to come down again soon. This is a picture he drew that he showed me exactly 3 seconds after I walked through the door today. 🙂
I’ve been playing with beads again. I’ve gotten it in my head that pendants that can easily slip onto chains would be fun to make and very versatile. Here are a few I’ve recently made.
Made with (L-R): turquoise, tiger’s eye, swarovski crystal, and howlite.
One last walk around the town before heading home tomorrow. This is a glass ceiling dome inside the Paris casino.
And this is an enormous Dale Chihuly glass art installation above the lobby of the Bellagio.
I finally made it out. I took the monorail up the Strip to see the fountains out in front of the Bellagio. Then I walked back to the MGM Grand.
It was well worth the trip, even with a sore back. I hit Walgreen’s on the way back and picked up some heat pads. Hopefully that will help.
Another thing to celebrate this week… Happy Valentine’s Day!
I found this on the beach many years ago. It is a rock that must have formed out of sediment inside a shell…you can still see some of the lines from the shell on the surface. Over time, it’s been worn into the shape of a heart. And after all those many years, it ended up in the surf in front of me, catching my eye. I picked it up. And now it’s mine. 🙂
I made it to the AT&T store last night before closing, and came out with a shiny new phone. And this one doesn’t flip open! I’d been avoiding getting a smartphone, for fear of losing myself completely into the world of hyper-connectivity. I mean, i’m sitting in front of a computer for 3/4 of every day for work. Then I switch to my personal laptop for blogging, browsing, and other online mischief. Even when traveling, i can get online on a plane, or the nearest wifi hotspot. The only time I’m offline is when I’m out in the middle of the lake.
However, dropping my old phone in the toilet was a sign. From somewhere. To just get on with it. And so I have.
I’m getting used to my new device. I must say, having Julie here comes in handy — live-in iphone tech support.
I quickly loaded it up with all those essential apps. Including the wordpress app. I eventually got on to viewing this blog on my new phone. I do not like how the twenty eleven theme looks on a smartphone sized display. Boring! And, why is the background white? I am going to have to find time to change sheila365.com over to another, more versatile theme. I’ll put that on my todo list. Any suggestions for a good theme for photoblogging on wordpress.com that looks nice on different sized devices?
By the way, I found this page with instructions on how to take a screen shot of your iphone’s display. Then you can just mail it to yourself. Very handy!
Maybe because I’ve been dabbling with beads to make earrings and bracelets, I remembered the other day that I brought home a bunch of sea glass from our trip to the Abacos in 2009. But I couldn’t remember where I stowed it. I guess you can find sea glass along the shore of many beaches. But, I had heard ahead of time that there are certain stretches of beach in the Abacos that are covered with it. It’s kind of sad to think that this is all trash – bottles broken up by the tides over many years. But for some reason the currents deposit a treasure trove of it along the islands.
Well, I found my stash! Can’t wait to go back for more.
As the temps linger in the 30s in our neck of the woods, my thoughts have turned to the beach. I’ve been looking for the sea glass that I brought home from our Abacos trip a couple of years ago. But, I haven’t been able to find it yet. I’ll keep digging. I have found other treasures collected while beachcombing shorelines along the west coast, the gulf coast, the east coast, and the Caribbean. So pretty. And they each bring back memories.
This is a baby sand dollar, or some urchin relative. Collected from the east coast of Florida — many moons ago.
Sand dollars are one of my favorite beach finds. Very rare (for me). Not only are they hard to find, but once found are also hard to take home intact.
I can’t wait to go beachcombing again…
For a week or two near the end of every year the shop outback becomes Santa’s Workshop. This year, Santa gave me some beautiful, hand-cut wooden beads for stringing, made out of walnut.
Today, the first day of 2013, I pulled out my box of beading supplies and tools and set out to make something with the walnut pieces. I ended up stringing together a bracelet. I like how it turned out.
Thanks Santa!
One of the most well-padded packages I’ve ever received arrived today, containing a lovely gift from friends Teri & Jim… a hand-made sailboat ornament. L.O.V.E. I.T.! 🙂
Here’s to friends, family and fun. Embrace them all, every day!
While I was in Seattle a week or so ago, I took a glass fusing class with my sister. We made 5 glass ornaments. I had to leave them there to be fired in the kiln, and then they’d mail them to me. Today they arrived.
Here’s the “after”:
And here’s the “before”:
The copper metal hangars and accents oxidized and turned red in the kiln. The way we made them was to use 2 pieces of glass cut approximately the same – one piece of glass serves as a base, and then the decoration is placed by putting pieces of glass and metal on top of the base, with a little glue, if necessary. And then the 2nd piece of glass is put on top, sandwiching the decoration in between. During the firing, all the glass pieces fuse together. The result is a single piece of very smooth glass with the decorations baked inside.
I had a lot of fun in the class. I’d like to try it again.
I felt like playing around a bit, so I created an animated gif to capture the transformation of this year’s Christmas tree from bare to decorated to twinkling.
To make the animated GIF, I used the web-based tool Picasion.com. Note: before I created the gif, I reduced the size of the original images down to the size I wanted (i used the width of my wordpress theme as the target image width). Then I created the gif w/ Picasion.
Sheila365 