Union Terminal

Inside Union Terminal, built in 1933

During World War II, 20,000 rail passengers a day would come through the terminal. The terminal was built to accomodate 216 trains a day, and there is still one Amtrack train stop.

Soaring ceiling, 106 feet high -

And Art Deco.

I used to take my daughters to the Museum of Natural History when it was in another location and remember the cave as being pretty much like it is at Union Terminal. For some reason, I found it scary then, even as an adult. Not so today. Aaron loves it, Nora is still a bit reluctant.

Museum Center

To celebrate Helen's last day in town, Steph treated us to an afternoon at the Museum Center.

I hadn't seen Cincinnati in Motion before. It's a 1/64" scale model of Cincinnati from 1900 to 1940, complete with running trains, cars, and streetcars. Huge display. I'm definitely going back to just study on it. Just for fun, there were 12 little snowmen hidden here and there. I understand that the hidden objects change from time to time.

Nestled behind the display were tracks for kids to play with. The sign said that Thomas engines could be checked out - I didn't tell Aaron that or we could never have pulled him away. It was hard enough as it was.

Tomorrow I'll post a few pictures of the building itself, absolutely fabulous.

Back at Bridget's, we made dinner, including chicken nuggets shaped like snowmen and snowflakes for the kids. I wonder where Bridget finds these kid treats.

Snow Everywhere

Steph and Nora at Perfect North in Indiana. Aaron was at school, not suspecting a thing about the fun he was missing.

Sarah always did manage to look happy as long as she was outdoors. There's snow in western North Carolina, too.

There was a tiny slope across the street from where my grandmother lived and I used to love sledding there. To me, that was the big stuff.

I was surprised when I moved to Kentucky to hear sledding referred to as "sleigh riding." To me, in my mind because I never actually did it, that was riding in the big wagon with runners pulled by a horse or two.

White Today

The top picture is a broken angel yard ornament, the breakage story of which shall not be spoken. The picture is better than the ornament, anyway, since it had aged and needed to be replaced. The truth is, it was a little tacky anyway.

I enlarged the drawing for my homework quilt and sent it off last night. At first I was a little dismayed that the individual pieces seemed so large but maybe I've gotten used to that. I decided to make the cross the focal point and made it a little bigger.

Interesting from a Christian story perspective that there seems to be a dove with a leaf in the upper right and a whale tail right underneath it. Cross, dove, and whale were totally unplanned in the logical part of my brain. The double lines are those that seemed to me to float upward but I don't know why some seemed to and some didn't.

I hope the teacher likes this because I'm getting attached to it. I can't picture what kinds of fabrics or what colors I'd use, but the teacher says not to think about that, or the construction techniques, at this point.

Purple, Yum

A friend asked me to embroider some towels for his girlfriend - I think he's pretty smitten. He requested purple roses and script lettering with an outline color. It's a couple of weeks until Valentine's Day, but I knew he was eager to mail them off so they'd arrive on time. The dishtowel is a little bonus - I had to resize the designs and lettering and wanted to be sure they'd embroider out ok.

And more purple -

I need to hurry if I want to get any wear out of this scarf this winter. I got the luscious yarn at Knit On! in Newport in December. TOTALLY unlike me, I decided to go in and pick out any yarn I loved without looking at or asking about the price. I knew it could be price-y but decided that it was only one skein, how much could that be. Turned out that it was $30. Glad I didn't know ahead of time or I might have talked myself out of it.

I'm sure that people who knit all the time know all about this, but I was fascinated to watch the store person take the clump of yarn and wind it to make a pull skein. One of these days I'm going to take a knitting lesson or two. Scarves is about all I can do. I'm picturing granola-kid hats for the grandkids.

Thin Mints Anyone?

I lifted this picture from Steph - sorry about the small size. It's worth being bigger because Nora is the sweetest little Daisy scout ever.

I remember selling cookies as a Girl Scout and as a Brownie. I wonder how much the cookies sold for then.

Journal Project

I love Quilting Arts Magazine and Cloth Paper Scissors and feel happy looking at the designs and the colors. I even enjoy the ads, in a dreaming sort of way, and like to see what's new and what other people are doing. Rarely, though, do I actually do any of the projects - the last time was several years ago and is one of my favorite little quilts. It took ages to do and involved the pieces sitting in a drawer for awhile (ok, a long while) until I knew how to assemble them in a way that would show them off.

A few days ago there was a post with a little gentle whining that I didn't feel especially creative. As a follow-up to that, I've added a new resolution to do something from one magazine or the other every month. It doesn't have to be a completed project, just enough to try something new.

For January, I decided on this little pocket journal from the latest Cloth Paper Scissors. I'm really drawn to the mixed media aspect of that magazine but almost always end up stitching on fabric.

The little journal is made from a file folder with various papers added and stitched. There are four little pockets inside for tucking notes or pictures or tickets, whatever.

Some of the inside papers I remembered buying at an art store in downtown Cincinnati. I think they are mulberry papers and very sheer and pretty. I did a little stamping inside and a little fusing. The paper on the cover is from an old calendar.

The finished result looks pretty rough to me, definitely beginner's work, but that's ok. The idea was to try something new, and I've done that. It turned my thoughts to journals, which I'm always drawn to. It made me think in different ways, and that's what I really wanted.

Note to self: use gel medium, not gesso, for collaging.