Recently we returned from a long weekend trip to Las Vegas, Nevada. This time we did not stay on “The Strip” (the Las Vegas Strip where the major hotels, shows and attractions are located), instead we stayed in the section of downtown Las Vegas know as Freemont, or the “Freemont Experience“.

Freemont is older and grittier than the Vegas Strip and definitely filled with colorful characters. Initially I took photos in color but then I thought it would be fun to take a series of photos in Black & White and share them with you as part of my ongoing blog post series – Life in B&W.

One morning I went wandering and there were a few interesting metal art installation in downtown Vegas including a heart filled with locks and keys; and a very large praying mantis:

You’ll see the sun in some of the photos – it was only 9:00 am but it was already very hot (eventually climbing to 100 degrees F/38 degrees C) and the sun was definitely part of my walk.

Here are some buildings and street scenes that caught my eye:

Here is a little of the actual “Freemont Experience” section of downtown Vegas:

My favorite discovery during my wander in downtown Vegas was the street art on some of the buildings:

And here was my favorite:

Be a Maker! Not a Taker!

So awesome!

Oh and in case you are wondering – I donated a little money to the slot machines and called it good. I am not much of a gambler. We did take the bus and spend part of one day of the trip on the Vegas Strip and had some wonderful meals at a couple favorite eateries on the Vegas Strip: Eataly and Din Tai Fung.

We didn’t catch any shows this time but we had a lot of fun lounging at the amazing pool at our hotel (Golden Nugget) that had an aquarium in the center.

My partner John was brave and did the water slide that takes you through the aquarium. I stayed poolside sipping on my frozen cocktail!

Life in B&W, tierneytravels

Chicago in Black and White

August 3, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Early July we met my brother, his wife and son in Chicago for a long weekend.

I’ve been to Chicago, Illinois many times, and each time I visit it is like visiting for the first time as I have a different experience each time.

While visiting I took a bunch for B&W photos and this post is a photoessay of my visit.

STARBUCKS RESERVE CHICAGO ROASTERY

We went to our first Starbucks Reserve Roastery while in Chicago and it was so cool! I rarely go to Starbucks and would rather support a small independent coffee shop, but I would recommend if you come across on you should visit it at least once, it is quite an experience.

Here is a photo from first entering the roastery:

MILLENNIUM PARK

We spent a bit of time in Millennium Park which is a “mandatory” place to visit on first trip to Chicago.

DOWNTOWN CHICAGO

Here are some photos from wandering around downtown Chicago.

360 CHICAGO OBSERVATION DECK

On our last day in Chicago we went to the the 360 Chicago Observation Deck at the top of the former John Hancock building. I’ll close the post with these photos from 1000ft above Chicago on the Magnificent Mile.

Life in B&W, Quilt Retreats, tierneytravels

Riptide Retreat 2022 in Black and White

July 30, 2022August 1, 2022 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Well thanks goodness the tierneycreates Beastie got my blog restarted with her two previous posts about the quilting retreat I recently attended in Shelton, Washington: Guest Blogger: Quilt Retreat Report from the tierneycreates Beastie, Part I and Guest Blogger: Quilt Retreat Report from the tierneycreates Beastie, Part II.

She’ll be back tomorrow with Part III to finish the story, but I am slipping in today and sharing ten (10) B&W photos I took during the quilt retreat. I’ve numbered them, let me know which one(s) you enjoyed the best.

From the upper back deck of the quilt retreat:

From the lower back deck of the quilt retreat:

From the back of the quilt retreat on the beach level:

From my walk along the beach:

Black and White photography makes even the most mundane interesting in my opinion. The tire on the beach was sad (the pollution of our oceans) but beautiful at the same time when photographed in B&W.

My favorites of these ten photos are #4, #5, #9, and #10. I do love also the creepy mystery of #8 – the beach house obscured by trees.

I guess if I had to just choose one then I would choose #9. The beach was covered with oyster shells.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, I am just briefly popping in on the story of this retreat, the tierneycreates Beastie will finish up the story of our adventures tomorrow.

Life in B&W

Exploring My Inner Ansel Adams (Lake Tahoe)

November 19, 2021November 19, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

On the first day visiting our friends Kathy and Matt in Northern California, they took us to Lake Tahoe, an area I’ve never seen before. While in Lake Tahoe I took many Black and White photographs.

I’ve titled this post “Exploring My Inner Ansel Adams” as Ansel Adams is one of the most famous/renown B&W photographers. If you are not familiar with him I linked his bio here – Ansel Adams, Photographer.

As mentioned in the Wikipedia entry on Lake Tahoe that I linked above, “is a large freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the United States”. Ansel Adams was renown for his amazing B&W photos in the Sierra Nevada.

So here is my photo essay in B&W of my first visit to Lake Tahoe (and there was a cool fog/mist above part of the lake).

Let me know which # photo you like the best in the comments below! I numbered the photos in the comment field below each image.

Life in B&W, tierneytravels

Wilmington, North Carolina in Black and White

September 1, 2021September 2, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

A couple weeks ago my partner John had a 5 day business trip in Wilmington, North Carolina. Since I am not currently working (see post News) I accompanied him and Mike the Miniature Schnauzer stayed with the dog babysitter (Mike will do a post in the future about his adventures at “Dog Camp” for little dogs).

We stayed at the Embassy Suites on the Wilmington Riverfront, and each morning I went on a walk along the river to explore and take photos, many in Black & White. As some of you might remember I like to pretend I am a photographer and do B&W photoshoots (see my blog post category Life in B&W if you want to see more of my delusional photography…).

Here are some select B&W photos from my trip that I want to share with you (as usual I took a ridiculous amount of photos).

WANDERING ABOUT THE WILMINGTON RIVERWALK

The Wilmington Riverwalk is amazing and I was glad it was right outside our hotel!

Here is the photo that I would call “The Money Shot” (like they do in Hollywood) – it is my favorite photo I took along the Wilmington Riverwalk:

I love the reflection of the clouds on the water!

OLD BUILDINGS

I was fascinated by the old buildings I encountered while wandering around downtown Wilmington one day.

AROUND DOWNTOWN

Wandering around Downtown Wilmington…

THE RAILROAD MUSEUM

I thought I would get time to visit the Railroad Museum while I was there because I love railroads but time got away from me and I will have to save it for next time. I did take some photos though…

THE BEACH

Wilmington is on the North Carolina coast and we did spend an afternoon, when John was able to get out of meetings early, at the beach/ocean. Most of those photos were in color and I will share them on another post, but here is my one B&W photo at the on my way walk to the beach from where we parked.

BLOGGING CENTRAL

Our hotel room had a separate living room/kitchenette area from the bedroom area. Between the kitchenette and the living room was a desk set up. While on the trip I spent a bit of time catching up on reading blog posts as well as writing some posts. I took a photo of the desk I worked from in our hotel room:

I really enjoyed pretending I am a photographer! I also really enjoyed Wilmington, North Carolina!

John will be returning in the future for more business trips and there is a lot more to explore.

I also met some of his wonderful colleagues that live in North Carolina at a company dinner and look forward to spending time with them again. We dined at a place called the Port Land Grille (and yes after living in the Pacific NW I got a giggle over the name…) and I will close this post with a photo from the shopping center next to the restaurant.

Life in B&W, tierneytravels

Cabo San Lucas in Black and White

March 15, 2020August 18, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

In the middle of February, before the reality of global pandemic became something we would be discussing in our daily conversations, my partner and I went on vacation to Cabo San Lucas.

In my next post I will share stories from our “relaxation vacation experiment” but for this post I will just share some of the photos I took in black & white to continue my ongoing series Life in B&W, in which I pretend I am a photographer (smile).

Life in B&W, tierneytravels

Life in B&W: El Paso, Tx and Mesilla, NM

November 12, 2019August 18, 2021 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Continuing my series of posts Life in B&W, I thought I’d share images from a trip to El Paso, Texas and a day trip to Mesilla, New Mexico with old friends. In El Paso we stayed downtown at a lovely hotel called Hotel Indigo.

Let’s consider this post a “photo essay” and I will just share the images without a lot of text.

El Paso, Texas

Mesilla, New Mexico

Yes I have a thing for doorways and windows in B&W. The last photo is one of my favorites – I love the contrast of the white adobe structure to the wooden door.

Postscript

Only in El Paso…

Why drive to Starbucks when you can take your horse? Yes this is downtown El Paso, Texas.

Colorado Bound, Life in B&W

Colorado Bound (Part III) – Colorado in B&W

March 27, 2019March 27, 2019 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is my next installment in my new series of posts “Colorado Bound” which began with this post: Colorado Bound (Part I). It is also a continuation of my series Life in B&W in which I pretend that I am a real photographer expanding my portfolio of Black & White Photos taken with my iPhone camera (isn’t that what real photographers use?!?!?).

I recently returned from a 5 day trip to the Denver Colorado area to visit friends and to tour apartments to live in. We toured 10 apartment complexes between Boulder and Denver and I settled on a place in a suburb of Denver, in the Denver Greater Metropolitan area (this is the web and you never know who is reading so that is as many details as I will provide in this public forum).

I did end up getting a 2 bedroom apartment which even has a separate nook with a built in desk for telecommuting! I was originally going to be very minimalist and thrifty but decided that if I am going to work from home I need space. Additionally it will be nice for visitors and to have a decent space for crafting.

I decided to rent in a “boutique apartment complex” type of place for a year which has included a fitness center, a pool, community activities, and other wonderful amenities. It will be sort of like living in a hotel for a year!

In addition to touring apartments (my friend was incredible driving me around on the first day to tour 5 apartments and loaning me her car the next day when she had to work to let me tour on my own), we went on a wonderful tour of Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey Distillery as well as attended an incredible concert by the Boulder, CO based acapella group Face Vocal Band.

I will feature some photos from Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey Distillery tour in another post.

Oh and if you enjoyed the video by Face Vocal Band above performing a traditional song, here they are again performing a contemporary popular music hit. Note all the percussion sounds are done by voices of the performers, no instruments!

I so appreciate my friends Michele and her husband Blair introducing me to this fun band!

Okay so let’s get to the Black & White photos I threatened to share in the title of this post (smile).

Colorado in Black & White

Michele, Blair and I went for a lovely hike on the Sunday before I returned home. Here are some photos from that walk:

Postscript

I thought I would start with my recent trip to Colorado as it is fresh on my mind, but I have a backlog of other stories and posts to come 🙂

Life in B&W

Santa Fe in Black and White

November 30, 2018December 1, 2018 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

This post is another installation on posts about my trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico in early November. My previous post discussed creative inspiration from visiting the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum for the first time (Creative Inspiration: Georgia O’Keeffe Museum).

Santa Fe was filled with inspiration and I was inspired to dabble in B&W iPhone photography again like in previous posts (see my series of posts Life in B&W).

So indulge me again and check out this photo essay of images from my trip to Santa Fe in B&W!

Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi

The first building I fell in love with in Santa Fe and immediately wanted to photograph in B&W was the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi in downtown Santa Fe.

I took a lot of photos of the exterior of the church and even tried different B&W iPhone filters:

And the amazing door, I had to photograph this door, as well as an interesting structure in the church courtyard:

While we wandering downtown there was a Mass in progress so I did not peek inside of the church, but there I did check out photos online of the interior which were amazing.

Georgia O’Keeffe Museum

During our visit to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum I experimented with B&W photography. Most of the photos are not worth sharing but I do like this one of the windows in a section of the gallery:

Fences and Adobe Structures

I was absolutely fascinated with the rustic wood fences and adobe structures in Santa Fe. Here are some of my photos:

Madrid, New Mexico

As I mentioned in the post Creative Inspiration: Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, on our road trip back to Albuquerque, NM to fly home, we took a detour to visit a colleague of my friend Laurie who owns an amazing horse ranch/equestrian center.

On our route to the horse ranch, we drove through the quaint town of Madrid, New Mexico and stopped to wander around. Here are some B&W photos from that wander.

At the Equestrian Center

And finally, during our visit to the equestrian center outside of Albuquerque, NM, I took photos in B&W. I was fascinated by the displays of horse tack and saddles.

More photos (in color) of my trip to come.

Postscript

Work has been very busy lately with end of year projects. I must admit I have not had much interest in being on a computer outside of work hours lately so although I have many posts in my head I have not actually written them. I also need to catch up on the blogs I follow.

I also need a nap.

Funny when you are a kid you never want to nap, but when you are an adult you would love to have a nap!

Speaking of naps, I will close this post with an image of my miniature schnauzer, Mike, taking a nap in the front window in his cushion that has been moved to the window area per his request (smile).

He is a “Napping Professional”.

Life in B&W, Quilt Retreats

October Quilt Retreat Part IV: In Black and White

November 19, 2018November 19, 2018 tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Here is the final installment of the series of posts on the quilt retreat I attended in October.

If you are just joining us – here are the previous related posts:

This post is the fault of Claudia @Claudia McGill – she encouraged me to share more Black & White photography.

As I warned my readers in the post New York City in Black and White, the “Noir” setting on my iPhone camera is a dangerous thing in the hands of an imaginary photographer!

But Claudia just had to comment on this post:

“You’ve got a good eye. Enjoyed these. More, please!”

And, all I needed was a tiny bit of encouragement and now you all are stuck with some more…

Quilt Retreat in B&W

During the quilt retreat I wandered around the retreat center and the surrounding rural areas and snapped endless photos in B&W. Here are my favorites.