Meeting Bette at Caesar's Palace

Bette Midler is about to end her run at Caesar's Palace at the end of this month. I've had the opportunity to see the show 3 times and I have loved it just the same each time. It is really great!

Well, last night, Bette was doing a book signing after her show, so I went to Caesar's and stood in line for about 2 hours to get a chance to meet her. Let me just say, she is an absolute delight! So nice, so sweet and so chatty!

To give you a little background information, all of the backup dancers for Bette's show are called the "Caesar Salad Girls", served with as little dressing as possible. So as a promotion back in April of 2009, I read in the paper that there was a competition at Whole Foods called the Bette Midler's Salad Competition and it was being judged by the Caesar Salad Dancers. Well, you know that I got busy writing my recipe and submitting! I created the "Christopher Todd Divine Italian Taco Salad", and it was chosen as one of the 5 finalist! Being a finalist, I was given tickets to Bette's show, but since I didn't win first prize, which was a sit down meet and greet with Bette, I was still a little upset!

So, at the signing, I printed off a copy of the recipe and took it to her. Not knowing if it will ever happen or not, she said, "that sounds absolutely divine and I assure you I will try it"! She then signed my book, To Christopher--Can't wait to try that Salad! It was great fun and a great memento to keep forever!

Thanks Bette for the great experience!

VIVA LAS VEGAS, VIVA CITY CENTER AND VIVA ELVIS!

The biggest and most talked about building project in the world recently opened to great reviews. Las Vegas City Center is now open for business. While the property is beautiful and very impressive, it really has a bit of an airport feel. It is really modern and very big, but it is also very well done. They didn't miss any detail in building this place! The main hotel tower, ARIA hosts the properties only casino, but it took about 2 hours to walk through the property and I still need to go back a few times to take it all in!

The new Cirque show "VIVA ELVIS" is a great and exciting addition to Las Vegas and is the 7th Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas. Although Viva Elvis isn't my favorite Cirque show on the strip, it is certainly a fun and exciting trip through the life of the King of Rock and Roll. The show takes you on a journey from Elvis as a child, his movie career, his marriage to Priscilla, and on to Las Vegas. A couple of the songs are a little bit of a snoozefest, but the show is still in the works. Hopefully they will make those changes!

As a lover of shows, I have seen all 7 of the Cirque shows on the strip and I thought I would give you a ranking of my favorite, from best to worst. . .for what it's worth. . .

1. LOVE
2. ZUMANITY
3. MYSTERE
4. VIVA ELVIS
5. KA
6. "0"
7. BELIEVE

Happy New Year!!! (a week late)

We are already 7 days into the new year and new decade and I finally have a few minutes to sit down and write a few things! I hope the remaining 51 weeks of 2010 are as good to me as the first one has been.

I started the new year off driving down Colorado Avenue in Pasadena, CA. It was a fun experience having corn tortillas filled with shaving cream tossed at my car as I drove through the mob of people that had camped out for a great seat to see the Rose Bowl Parade that was happening in just a few hours. I had reserved seats for the parade, so I just enjoyed the ride (and my heater) while everyone else stood in the cold! The parade was great fun and part of me missed being a part of the design team, so I may do that again in the future.

To reflect back onto 2009, I have to say it was a pretty great year. I was able to do some great fun jobs as always, and I also had the opportunity to meet some incredible new people from all over the country and world. I designed beautiful flowers for weddings, coordinated events for the CineVegas Film Festival, created visual displays for vendors at the Las Vegas World Market Center and also decorated a Christmas tree or two. . .

Thanks to the help of my friend and wonderful PR assistant Kelly, I was able to make some really great contacts throughout Las Vegas and I had the opportunity to create a full page spread in Luxury Magazine and I also appeared on Fox Television, NBC and ABC. I hope to be making regular TV appearances throughout the year. Hopefully this is the first step until National TV and then onto my own show. . .keep your fingers crossed!

I also taught a series of classes at Whole Foods Market in Las Vegas about entertaining for the holidays. We had great fun doing those and I posted all of my topics to my blog. It was a great experience and I met a great friend, Shelly while working on that project. Also this year, I created a fan site on Facebook for my friends to keep up with what is going on in Christopher Todd Land. So far, we are 427 fans and growing.

With the over 400 fans that I have gained on Facebook, I lost the biggest fan of all this year when my sweet mother passed on August 6th. If there was anyone proud of their child's accomplishments, it was Annette Hall. She will be missed, but in her absence, I feel that it is making me work harder to honor her. It's funny that when a major player in your support chain is missing, you have to work much harder to make up for the void. . .that is the attitude I am trying to keep at least.

In closing, I want to say thank you to all of my friends and fans on my page. Some of you I don't even know, but I appreciate you wanting to follow me and my work. Please share my page with your friends and help me build my site.

Thanks so much and I wish you all a happy and prosperous NEW YEAR!!

Wow, I'm really running behind. . . .

I have gotten so far behind in my blog. . .Like everyone, the month of December is so busy! I don't have a lot of time to sit down, much less sit down and make blog entries! I will try to catch up with a few entries over the next few days before my schedule gets crazy and hectic again.

Market season is about to start up in full swing, so I am going to be bringing you a lot of information about latest trends and new and exciting things that are going to be introduced this year at the trade shows. I am going to be attending many informative classes, taught by some of the most powerful people in the business, so I plan on bringing home some exciting information!

Moss Pots!

Terra cotta, stone, and concrete containers and sculptures all lend themselves nicely to having moss grown on them, giving each one an antique look and depending on what kind of garden or yard you have, sometimes it's fun to make new clay, stone, or concrete container look old.

Of course, terra cotta and concrete pots will age into beautiful works of art after years of sitting in your garden, but why wait, when aging and antiquing techniques are fast, easy, and inexpensive to do.

Not only are these containers beautiful in your garden, they also make great gift for someone you know who is an avid gardener. What better holiday surprise than to deliver a beautiful garden plant in a aged container that you created yourself!

Here is the easy recipe for creating moss covered clay pots:

*Blend pieces of dried moss or purchased moss spores into

*2 cups yogurt or buttermilk.

*Paint onto your pot with a paintbrush.

* Put your pot into a plastic bag to create a humid environment for the moss to develop.

*Set the pot and bag in a cool, shady spot until the moss begins to form, which will be about 10 days.

* Make sure to plant the container so you will be watering it regularly, which will keep the moss alive and growing.

Christopher Todd on KTNV Las Vegas ABC!

If you didn't catch me live, this is the video of me on Las Vegas ABC on November 3rd 2009. We discussed table settings for the holidays. Hope you enjoy!!

Happy Holidays!!

This is probably the only free second that I am going to have for the next few days to make any entries to my blog. This is officially the busiest time of my year. . .decorating Christmas trees, planning and decorating parties and also decorating a Las Vegas resort. I can't wait to share all of the beautiful trees that Christopher Todd Design has and will be decorating this season. We have already done some beauties, and the work has just begun!! I'll catch everyone up with pictures in a few days!!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Eat lots of turkey, watch some TV and relax! Log on Thursday evening and check out some helpful Christmas tree decorating tips!