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11.21.18

3 Day Guide To Las Vegas

I love Las Vegas, but not for the reason you would think.

I love Las Vegas because I grew up there. I went to high school there, I know the city as more than just the strip, which is why I can give you guide that only a local could.

Las Vegas is a city that you can’t fully see in three days, but I’m going to give you some of my most memorable favorites.

Day 1

Drive the famous Las Vegas Blvd. at night. It’s why you came to Vegas right?! So do it. Indulge in the touristy part! Drive the whole strip and start with the famous ‘Welcome to Las Vegas’ sign.

After your drive there are a few things on the strip that are totally worth seeing.

The fountains at Bellagio
The atrium at the Bellagio (and make sure to note the multimillion dollar light fixture in the main lobby)
The canals at the Venetian
The Forum Shops at Ceasar’s Palace

Day 2

Get off the strip. Go out and see some or all of these, but at least see one. Las Vegas has too much natural beauty to spend all your time right on the strip.

Red Rocks
The Valley of Fire
The Hoover Dam
The Grand Canyon (yes, I know this isn’t technically IN Vegas, but it’s a short helicopter ride away and helicopters go out every hour or so!)

Day 2: Night

Option 1

Go down to Fremont Street Experience. It is crazy, and you will see the whole gamut of what Vegas can be. But it’s also where Vegas started, and although it’s not the glitz of uptown, it used to be and it’s worth seeing. It’s also had a revival in the past few years with a lot of historic elements restored.

Option 2

See a show. Almost every single resort/casino has a show inside. The big casinos have Cirque De Soleil shows, and the smaller casinos have their own smaller shows. Several musical artists have residency at one of the casinos as well, so make sure to see who is playing during your trip!

Clubbing

Vegas is full of nightclubs. While it’s not my favorite part of Las Vegas, if you like clubbing this is the place to do it. Especially for ladies, who typically get in free AND drink free.

Day 3

Shopping. If you like to shop, this is the day to do it. You have seen everything and you know what you want so you don’t have to tote it around with you all day. Here are my shopping recommendations:

The outlet mall – it has all the usual stores and then it has some high end stores as well
For designers shop at the big resorts. Vegas has so many designer stores that you’re bound to find that bag or pair of shoes that you couldn’t find anywhere else

Day 3: Night

Go to one of the restaurants overlooking the strip. The view is amazing especially at night, and the atmosphere in most of these restaurants is electric.

There is so much to do in Las Vegas that you really couldn’t do it all even in a week. There’s natural beauty, museums, history, shopping, RESTAURANTS (so much good food!), and sights to behold. The important thing is to try and pick a few really memorable experiences and if you do that, you’ll have a great time!

11.12.18

Five or Five

Five years or five minutes?

I’ve recently been trying to follow the idea that if it’s not going to matter in five years, I shouldn’t spend more than five minutes worrying about it.

This is a hard one for me, because I can get worked up about things so easily and so quickly. But I realized that one of the things I would regret most as I got older was the time I wasted being angry about things that didn’t matter. Which means that every time I feel myself getting worked up I have to try and decide if it’s important enough to be angry about.

Let’s be honest, even when we’re angry, we know if it’s a big deal or if we’re just making it a big deal. It can be hard, trust me I know, to try and talk yourself out of being angry about something. But the reality is that there just isn’t enough time to make it worth being angry without a legitimate reason.

Here’s how it works.

I feel myself getting angry/mad/irritated/annoyed about A/B/C
I recognize what’s happening and try to be objective about whether or not A/B/C is something that will matter in five years (Mostly it’s not something that will matter in five years)
Here’s the coolest part – after I take some deep breaths – I can pretty much just let it go! Because I just decided it wasn’t worth getting upset over! It wasn’t worth wasting my precious time on!

It’s not always easy to be rational when you’re in the process of getting worked up about things, but I’m finding that I feel much better when I can stop it before it really takes ahold of me.

Hoping this will help you when you feel like you’re losing it. How do you keep perspective?

10.24.18

“Am I Doing It Right?” and Why It Doesn’t Matter!

I know I’ve asked myself this, and I’ve definitely asked this in school, in art classes, and in many other scenarios I’m sure…”Am I doing this right?”.

But I recently came to a wonderful realization – IT USUALLY DOESN’T MATTER. Occasionally it does – if you’re a doctor, your cooking raw meat, or it’s life or death, or you’re driving a car; but those situations are different because it’s a legitimate concern. In day-to-day life or in creative endeavors it’s not actually about whether your doing it right or wrong – it’s the FEARof making a mistake or the FEAR of being wrong. So what does matter?

Are you doing your best?
Do you have good intentions?

That’s usually all you need to be focused on. It’s not about getting it right. It’s about learning to enjoy the journey, the experience, etc. Save yourself the stress and stop worrying about “right”, what does that mean anyway? That your wine and painting class masterpiece will look exactly like the instructors? Does that matter? It will you uniquely yours and it will be because you didn’t worry about being “right” and just enjoyed the process!

We can all give ourselves a little more grace and compassion when we’re learning and trying new things. A good measure stick is to say, “Does this have serious consequences if I get it right or wrong?” and if the answer is “no” then you can stop worrying about being RIGHT.

10.22.18

What’s Your Legacy

Going to the Louis Vuitton exhibition got my mind thinking about what kind of legacy people leave.

Not just when a life ends, but when you move to a new country or city, when you leave a job, when you end a friendship, when you end a relationship, what will your legacy be?

What I realized that made me so excited is that it’s TOTALLY up to US! We get to DECIDE what kind of impression we make on people, the choices we make, how we carry ourselves – it’s all SHAPED by us. It doesn’t have to be a globally recognizable legacy, it could be more similar to the song sung by Brad Paisley, “The World”.

Then I started thinking about how a legacy is created and I realized it’s made of a few simple things.

Your Thoughts

which lead to

Your actions

which leads to

How you make others feel

which essentially makes up

YOUR LEGACY

A legacy isn’t something you have to stress over and it doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It’s simply the long term impression you leave people with – typically after you have departed the situation. You can start building your legacy TODAY! It’s as easy as considering your choices and how the impact the perception of you and is that perception aligned with who you are and who you want to be.

10.05.18

Getting a Better Connection

Two weeks ago a crazy windstorm arrived on our doorstep around 9pm. About 30 minutes later the power went out…and stayed out…for almost 3 solid days.

We were a little frustrated especially when we realized the water wouldn’t work because of the power being out, but it wasn’t that bad. What I noticed over those three days though was even though we had a lack of connection – no power running through the circuit connections, no wifi connection, no satellite connection, we had a better CONNECTION…to each other.

We saw more of my family because they still had power, so they invited us over for meals. Most of the town had power even though the homes didn’t. Which meant lots of people were in town to eat, use the internet, etc. Even just in the house we had more communication because we weren’t distracted by our devices. My favorite connection was the one with myself, where I had time to just think, because I wasn’t “required” to be online, on instagram, working on something, or some other excuse I impose on myself to give myself stress about social media.

No one wants to give up electricity indefinitely. But not having it for a few days really gave me an appreciation for connection – and for the simple luxury of electricity when the power was restored. Now that I’ve had this experience I’m going to work on a couple things to try and take what I learned from those three days:

Try not to lean on technology so heavily as a distraction for my mind.
Enjoy the COMMUNITY AND CONNECTION with my family and people I care about and put my phone away when we’re spending time together.
Appreciate the little things – like electricity. Sometimes it seems so commonplace, but it really is amazing.

What do you do to unplug?

09.21.18

Kleinfeld Experience

I’m changing it up today and sharing a very special moment.

About five minutes after I got engaged my mum said to me, “So, when are we going to KLEINFELD’S?!’ We love to watch Say Yes To The Dress together, and so when it was my turn to be bride it was something we both were so excited about. So here’s the play-by-play of our days at Kleinfeld Bridal.

We went to Kleinfeld’s in Manhattan and we got a last minute appointment. When we arrived we checked into the waiting room and then after about 5 minutes Diane, the consultant, came out and started calling “Stevie!”. We then proceeded to the famous gray sofas and chatted all about what my wedding was going to be like and my “bridal vision”.

After that we strolled around the salon oohing and aching over Pnina’s and Hailey Paige’s designs. Diane pulled three dreamy gowns of varying styles for me to try, each of which was beautiful. I followed her back to the dressing rooms and we began the whirl of tulle, taffeta, lace, and sparkles!

It was truly a whirlwind. The hour and a half appointment felt like 5 minutes and an eternity all at the same time.

I ended up trying on three dresses (I know, just three!) the first one was almost all lace details, but it had long sleeves and as soon as I came out to the main salon we knew it wasn’t the one. Which was a little concerning, because it was the one I had been thinking of! But then I put on the second dress. As soon as I came out the dressing room door people in the hall were telling me “this is your dress!” and then when I saw my mum and she saw me, I think we both knew at that moment – it was the one.

They were filming an episode of Say Yes To The Dress so we got the whole experience of what being on the show is like, but without the pressure! I’ll share my fitting experience in another post, but to summarize – Kleinfeld is where bridal dreams come true. They act like every girl is truly a princess and they treat your day as if it’s the only one they are thinking about.