FMTSO: Entrances

I know this is a late entry but I wanted to participate even after my frustration with Blogger and Chrome the past couple of days. So, here is my late entry of entrances in my town.  These are all from my archived photos, 2009 or 2010.  It was the best I could do this week. Hopefully, I will get some fresh photos very soon.

 

This entrance is padlocked to keep the animals in and the people out.

 

 

Entrance into Bonnie Springs Ghost Town in Las Vegas.

 

 

Entrance to the cemetery and the restaurant.

 

 

Not the greatest picture, but this is the entrance to the chapel at Bonnie Springs.

 

 

The door to one of the shops at Bonnie Springs.

 

That's it for this week. 

 

Please visit more participating photos by checking out the home page of the Friday My Town Shoot Out blog. And if interested, we'd love for you to join us for next week's theme.

 

 

FMTSO: Space

Hello my fellow town shooters. I'd like to take you on a tour through Red Rock Canyon located in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Most people who have never been to Las Vegas have a preconceived notion about the city. After all, we are considered the city of Sin, what with all the gambling, drinking, strip clubs and 24 hour non-stop partying going on. It must be quite hard to imagine quiet neighborhoods, serene mountains and beautiful canyons with a variety of wildlife.  Let my pictures be proof that there is another side to my town.

Most people who come out to Red Rock Canyon are local hikers, rock climbers and photographers. There are some tourists who come and are awestruck by the view.  There are big rocks to climb on and  if you squint, you might be able to see the city in the distance.

There are also wildflowers that sprout up in the desert spaces at Red Rock Canyon.

Of course, it's always windy when I try to take a photo of the flowers.

There are cave-like spaces where some birds dwell.  I believe I've heard the vocalization of quail around these parts  but I am not 100 percent positive on the type of bird noise I've heard.

There are spaces in the rocks where critters can hide, such as this lizard who is trying to blend in and not be noticed.  this little guy was very hard to capture because he was moving all over the place.

I was amazed at how much space this tortoise covered in such a little amount of time as I followed him around.  He was quicker than I thought he would be. The group I was with tried to give him some water.

The three guys in the foreground are in my camera club.  They are very serious about photography.

I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Please check out some more open/closed spaces in other towns by clicking on this whole sentence.

Thank you and have a fabulous weekend.

FMTSO: What Light's up your town?

It's been awhile since I've posted and I've been feeling the pull to come back for some time now. My desire for going out and taking fresh photos with my camera is still lacking, however, I do take lots of photos with my phone.  I will be posting some archived photos for this weeks FMTSO theme, and since it's close to Christmas, I will be posting images that convey the Christmas spirit, the winter holiday, etc.

This photo was taken in 2012 and is a photo of a Christmas village.

It looks better in black and white because I forgot to adjust the white balance on the camera before aiming.

A sunburst of natural light.

This is at the Resort at Mt. Charleston.

The same area where the sunburst was shining, only this was taken from inside the resort.

These photos were taken with my phone just over a week ago.

Playing with fire.

This was taken in March of this year with one of my photography groups that I belong to.

Wrong time of day for a photo shoot!

All of these photos were taken in outlying areas of Las Vegas, Nevada.

Gosh, I kind of feel inspired to get out there and start taking more pictures.

Thank you all for viewing my participation.

I appreciate you stopping by.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.

Midweek Mail Check

I guess I got a little distracted last week and forgot to publish my post on Friday until earlier today.

:)

I've been getting a lot of postcards from postcrossing and swap-bot but I haven't received any letters

from any of the persons I wrote to for LetterMo except the ones I've already showed you, which really was about a 15th of what I sent out.

 Do I sound ungrateful for saying I'm a bit disappointed? I hope not. I'm just mentioning it because I'm wondering if you all had the same experience or did all or most of your letters get reciprocated? I'm just curious.

 I enjoyed writing the letters nonetheless and it was a fun challenge.

 

 

Original artwork and poem by me! (2009)

 

 

Now on to the mail!

 

Here's what has been delivered to me the past few days including today.

 

A Postcard from Bulgaria.

This is for a swap I joined awhile back called I Love Postcards #3.

 



A Postcrossing from good ol' US of A.

This is personally one of my favorites that I've received so far.

The sender writes:

Here is a vintage funny postcard for you that I found @ the local Raleigh, NC farigrounds/flea market.

:)

Crystal.

 

 

This is from a Group  Swap on Swap-Bot, Quick Notecard Swap #3

The cards are really cute in person.

I do like them a lot.

 

This amazing mini journal for another swap, One Sentence A Day February.

I was blown away by the creativity of the person who made this.

I have to share some of the inside with you as well.

 

 

This precedes the actual journal writing.

So cute, don't you think?

 

 

At the end of the journaling, this little surprise was sewn into the pages.

Lift it up............

 

 

To reveal a secret compartment with a treasure hidden inside.

 

 

A very nice bottle and key pendant and I love it.

The creativity of the maker of this journal has me in awe and I am so appreciative of this gift, not just the pendant tucked inside, but the love that went into making this journal.

So nice.

 

 

I love postcards with images of dogs.

This one is so sweet.

This is a postcrossing from the Netherlands.

The sender writes:

Hi JarieLyn,

Do you have examples of your mail art and snail mail.

I don't know what it means.

I try to do some scrapbooking besides being wife and mother of 2 sons.

My sons are 5 and 3 years old.

It's busy but fun most of the time.

Wish you the best.

Regards,

Grietje

 

Another Postcrossing from USA

(it is a resend because his first one never arrived)

The sender writes:

Hi JarieLyn,

I scanned the card begore I sent it to you so I printed it and hope yo liike it.

Best wishes from your Postcrossing friend-David.

(Lost Card)

 

I love the stamps too.

Notice that the postoffice didn't cancel the stamps.

Oh no, they had to put their little cancellation mark on the front of the card.

Ugh!

 

 

These lovely postcards came from another swap, Postcard Scavenger Hunt.

My favorite one is the black and white gallows and the other sepia toned one.

 

 

A PC A Day Swap.

My husband and I actually went here two years ago while on vacation so I was glad to receive this postcard because I don't have any from that vacation.

 

 

I received one of Julie's (La Papiere) postcards from a swapper for PC A Day Swap.

It's pretty cool because I ordered some envelopes from La Papier not too long ago and this was the sstyle that I ordered.

 

I have several more postcards, at least five but I'm not going to photograph them because you might get impatient scrolling through my blog post.

 

But I will post my outgoing now:

 

 

I finallly joined a Round Robin on the Postcrossing forum.

This is a march postcard pals.

I send one pc to 3 different people once a week in March.

I thought it would be easier to send them all the same card.

These are headed to Russia, The Netherlands, and Estonia.

 

 

These are for the Quick Note Card Swap, two partners.

 

 

I believe this is for the 3 card swap USA.

 I forgot to take a photo of the cards inside.

 

 

The mini journal swap.

Again, I forgot to photograph my handy artwork.

But compared to the one I received mine pales in comparison.

 

 

A Postcrossing on its way to Russia.

 

 

A Postcrossing on its way to New Jersey.

 

 

A Postcrossing on its way to Germany.

 

 

 A Postcrossing on its way to South Africa.

 

 

Fast & Easy Notecard Swap.

Also the front of the envelope of my original artwork and poem.

 

 

A Postcrossing card on its way to Turkey.

 

One of my pen pals had a birthday recently, (I guess it's been a month already)  so I will be wrapping up a small gift and writing a long letter to her tonight.

 

And tomorrow............

 

more pen pal letters to write.

 

Oh, happy days are here again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday My Town Shoot Out ~ My Town's Premier Attraction

(Please enlarge photo to see a more detailed image)

Believe it or not,

the sign that welcomes visitors to Las Vegas

is one of my town's premier attractions.

The sign was first erected in 1959 and was designed by Betty Willis.

The circles that encompass the letters that spell Welcome,

represent silver dollars because Nevada is nicknamed

The Silver State.

According to Wikipedia,

the design is characteristic of the googie architecture movement.

Over the years, the sign has been moved several times

farther south on Las Vegas Boulevard due to the city's growth.

It is so popular now,

that it has its own parking lot so that visitors can stop

and take pictures of this historical landmark.

Other premier attractions include casinos, shows,

helicopter rides, hiking in Red Rock, Bonnie Springs Ghost Town,

Valley of Fire, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas Raceway, Mt. Charleston,

And

One of my favorite places in the summer time

is boating at Lake Mead.

(CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE)

Lake Mead is one of the largest man made lakes in the world.

It spans over 247 square miles of shoreline.

When the lake is full it can hold over 28 million acre-feet of water

  the equivalent to about 2 years of normal average river flow from the Colorado River.

(that's about 9 trillion gallons)

There is an abundance of fish in Lake Mead

and ducks too.

This is a fisherman's dream.

(Click to enlarge)

There was even one fish who thought he was a duck.

I think in addition to the attractions I have already listed,

one of the most popular reasons people come to Las Vegas

is to get married in the wedding chapels.

We even have drive-thru wedding chapels.

I wanted to get photos of all the chapels

but I just did not get around to it.

Well, I hope you all enjoyed my perspective on my town's premier attraction.

To see more town attractions

please visit here where you will find a list of participants

on the sidebar of the main page.

This week's theme was chosen by Kent in Montana.

Mosaic Monday ~ Color

(CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE)

Mosaic Monday is hosted by Mary at Little Red House

Please visit her to see a list of participants

and to view some creative mosaic collages.

Mosaic Monday ~ Desert Views

I'm joining in on Mosaic Monday once again.  It's hosted by Mary, at Little Red House.  Please visit her blog to see her beautiful mosaic.  It really is stunning.  She is very talented. 

Here is mine. 

Las Vegas isn't all fun and games.

All photos were taken October of this year in and around

Red Rock Canyon

A great place to get away from the usual touristy places in Las Vegas.

Next time you come to Las Vegas

and you get tired of the casinos,

inquire about Red Rock Canyon

and Bonnie Springs.

(CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE)

You'll see a side of Las Vegas

you never thought existed.

Thanks for visiting my blog.  I hope you enjoyed.

Now, please visit Mary.  Her mosaic is absolutely gorgeous.

Mosaic Monday ~ Sail Boat Races

(CLICK ON PHOTO TO SEE DETAILED IMAGE)

This is a Remote Control Sailboat Club that meets here every Sunday for boat races.

It takes place in a community of Las Vegas called Desert Shores.

I get the priviledge of seeing this every week because I have endermologie

every Sunday right next door.  See the palm trees in the top photo second to left?

That is a public beach area and right next door to that is where all the little shops and salons are located.

My endermologist is on the second floor so sometimes I look down from the balcony and just enjoy the view.

To enjoy other perspectives on Mosaic Monday visit Mary at Little Red House to see a list of participants and to see her gorgeous mosaic.  She really has some beautiful photos this week.