Tempest in a teapot

How bizarre life and the world can be sometimes.  Here we are in the desert southwest, having just returned from a little side trip to Sin City and the weather today is windy, rainy, downright cold (the heat is on) and our friends back home in the great white north are reporting temps in the 80's! (like 27 degrees Celsius). Go figure!

It's so cold here today I can't even go to the "shed" aka my workspace, to condition clay.  So all I have to share in this blog is a picture of this teapot I covered a couple of weeks ago before we went away.  I have been invited to a tennis tournament to display my arty stuff (don't ask) in a couple of weeks, just before we go home, and I was planning on showing the teapot there, as well as submitting it as an item for entry into a show that I would like to take part in this summer.  I guess I will have to make another one because someone at the park was walking by and wanted it then and there.  That is the way things go sometimes. 

As far as life happenings, for the past week, my niece came here for her spring break, and so we spent the week travelling which meant a well-deserved break from long days of claying.  We toured some of the desert and visited a couple of antique towns and then headed (at the end of the week) to Las Vegas.  During that time, I hardly even thought about clay.  I was so 'overtaken' by the shops in the Miracle Mile (Planet Hollywood) and the Venetian/Palazzo that I didn't dare think of my work. It seems a bit 'small' compared to some of the fabulous art work on exhibit there. A couple of the galleries were so fantastic that I was speechless.  We just had to stand and gaze at  the works in a couple of them.  One had phenomenal photography in wall-sized (I am talking 8 feet wide) frames and we simply marvelled at the splendor of the images. Another gallery featured more 'casual' art..but still very appealing to the eye. Some of the kitchsy stuff at a few of the shops was definitely just that, and other stuff was overkill, but the real ART was amazing.  We took in the light/music show at the Fremont Experience the first night and saw a lot of sights both in the 'sky' and at ground level.  For people watching, that sure beats Walmart.

We barely touched some of the other Vegas sites and had no time for shows, but I would have loved to see Il Divo or was it the Canadian Tenors who were performing.  It's hard to take in a lot over the  two days we were there. Of course, we had to do some accessories shopping, so much of our time was spent trying on shoes and other things. Luckily, I found a pair in light turquoise that are just perfect for so many of my clothes.  The style is nothing special, but they're cute and comfy and they fit.  My niece got a few awesome outfits and shoes to match.  They were out of the ordinary and very stylish, but don't know if I could wear that syle.  Ah....to be young again.

As far as restaurants, in Las Vegas, we only went to the Outback on Thursday and took in the fabulous Seafood Buffet at the Rio on Friday.  If you are a seafood aficionado, that's the place to go.  Other than that, we had not much interest in eating, although there were plenty of great places to indulge your culinary palate if you so desire.

We did stop at a little "Canal Cafe" while at the Venetian and enjoyed a glass of wine while watching the  gondolas float by.  I think that the gondoliers must have to pass a singing test before applying  for that job.  Although their voices didn't match some of the Tenors or Il Divo,  they definitely could carry a tune and the acoustics of the canal (even though it's very staged) helped to promote the audibility of the songs.  Speaking of operatic voices, unfortunately we didn't get to visit the Aria, a new place on the strip, but in two days, you can only do so much.  Must put that on my bucket list.

As I look out the kitchen window, I see it is  still windy, thundering and  raining, ...buckets...again, so I will probably devote the rest of this day to rest.  I have a bit of a sniffly cold; my resistance is down after visiting all the bright lights of the big city and staying up w-a-a-y past my normal bedtime!  Or maybe I'll just plan another little teapot...who knows, maybe I can come up with a tennis theme rather than this one that I call Black and White with Purple Pink-a-dots.  The colours are definitely reminiscent of the masquerade shop I saw in Sin City.  Ya think the title sounds kitchy enough?