Ohio Road Trip

Hey Blog Buddies,

How has August been treating you?  It's winding down!

This week we went on a road trip to Cleveland.

It seems strange that I've lived relatively close to Cleveland all my life but had never visited there before.  When I told people where I was going, I did get asked:  what's in Cleveland?

Well there are a lot of things,

but this was definitely my main attraction.

It's big--a music enthusiast can easily spend the entire day there.

And, once inside, there is music everywhere.

Heavenly!

 

There are larger-than-life photos of rock stars

(they were so young in this photo!)...

...lots of displays featuring genres, artists

and geographic locations...

...and tons of cool videos which are hard to photograph.

I got lucky with this one.

My two purchases at the museum store were...

...a T-shirt with this design on it.

The clerk said that a lot of young people don't know what this is.

I still have some of mine, since I kept all of my old 45's...

...and this little gem.

Rock and roll and crochet DO go together well!

DH spent some time with me in the museum,

then he went off to visit the submarine next door.

 

  

There's a radio room in the sub,

 and DH got to make some contacts

on their ham radio.

He had to climb down the hatch to access the sub,

not something I was inclined to do.

Besides, he couldn't pry me away from the music.

Cuyahoga National Park is just south of the city.

It's very pretty and has several waterfalls.

Brandywine Falls is the largest.

Beaver Marsh was my favorite spot:

This is on the way to the marsh.

This used to be a junkyard,

then they removed all the cars and the beavers just moved in

and created this lovely spot.

If you look hard enough,

you can see DH walking on the boardwalk

on the far left of this photo.

I did manage to schedule a short visit here:

They have a very lovely store in Cleveland Heights.

This is their Hallowe'en tree--so cute!

There were lots of painted canvases...

 

...threads...

 

...and stitched models.

My stash enhancement was limited to

these two items.

It's hard to tell from this photo,

but I haven't stitched the bookmark yet.

The design is painted on.

That ends our mini-tour.

Hope you enjoyed the Cleveland area!

To all my US friends,

have a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend.

Thanks for traveling along with me!

 

August Turtle Trot: A Milestone

Hey Blog Buddies,

How's your weekend been going?  It's been cloudy here all day but no rain, so I'm not complaining.  The clouds are probably keeping the temperature down, which is good, because I like the cooler weather we've been having.

It's time for the monthly Turtle Trot update, organized by Claudette over at BAP Attack.  We all picked ten WIPs to work on at the beginning of the year, giving monthly progress reports about them on the 10th.  The reason that I keep showing only the same four is that four of my original TT pieces are finished, and the other two are just not calling to me now.  But I do have my hands full with these four because they are all large projects.

First up is (let's get this one over with) my hardanger table topper, Pristine by Cindy Valentine.

 

This is what I did last month--I filled in this triangle with all the eyelets that you see in the photo.  I'm doing these little slices of the project because if I took a photo of the whole piece, it would be hard to see what's been accomplished.

 

So this month I did another triangle's worth of eyelets.  Quite a bit harder to see!  I'm somewhat embarrassed to be putting these photos up because this project is a hot mess.  I started it on 2006 and wasn't going to do the eyelets at that time, so I started cutting.  (Any eyelets in a project like this should be done before the cutting starts, but oh well.  Nothing "bad" has happened yet!)

Second is Rosewood Manor's A Tree by Itself:

 

Here's where I was last month.

 

And here's this month.

I love all the rabbits and birds in this one.

And the Quaker-like trees.

And the Native American saying.

Third, we have the bottles.

 

Yes, it's 99 by Ink Circles.

Here's where I was at last month.

 

This month, I put up another six-pack.

I certainly hope they don't "happen to fall"

before I can get the shelf constructed!

Sorry, my corny sense of humor

got the better of me.

Finally, I'm still plugging away at Cross My Heart's Mates.

 

This is last month's photo.

Has anyone been wondering about the "milestone"

in the title of this post?

Well, here it is...

 

Yeah, baby, that's what I'm talking about!

I'm so excited, you'd think I was done with the whole piece.

But Wolfgang is all done.

There is not one stitch missing--that I can see--

in his slightly menacing face.

I still have quite a bit of work to do on Wanda, though.
(Of course I've named my wolf friends!)

I'm beginning to think that this project

will actually be finished sometime in 2015.
We'll see.

So that's it from here.

Hope you had a fun weekend.

Thanks for visiting!

Fun at the Fair

Hey Blog Buddies,
How has your August been going?  It's Fair season here in the Midwest, and the Lake County (IN) Fair is going on all this week.  DH and I made a trip there today--here's some of what we saw.

There's always a flower show.

They have a whole building devoted to it.

I cruised through the building next door...

and saw lot of pigeons...

...and rabbits.

No Fair would be complete without a carnival.

 

Any guesses as to what these are?  No?

They're "coin blouses" -- one size fits most, 

they stretch to fit.

I found them in the Industrial Building.

You never know what you'll find there.

No, I didn't buy one.

 

 

You didn't think I was going to skip the Ag Building, did you?

 

What a beauty--all 890 pounds of him.

That's a lot of pumpkin pie!

 

I thought this bug was cute and clever!

So did the judges.

 

You can win a ribbon for your baled hay.

 

Who doesn't love gourds?!

If you're a gourd and you're big enough,

you even get your own chair!

 

I couldn't tell what type of produce it was

that they turned into Miss Piggy!

Peppers!

 

I thought that this mixed produce display 

that came in 2nd

was much more creative than the one 

that took first.

C'mon, tomatoes atop Greek columns with

peapods hanging off of them!  Genius!

But that's the thing about judging--it's subjective.

I have many more photos from the Ag Building,

but I'll spare you because

you're probably not as enthusiastic about this stuff

as I am.

Let's move on to Family Arts and Crafts.

Here's what I entered...

I was quite happy with my results,

even though I didn't win a ribbon

on everything I entered.

There are a lot of talented exhibitors out there!

It's just so much fun to participate,

and to check out how all your friends did

during Exhibitors' Night.

My large Newfie/St. Bernard friend

who works with the guy who makes animal tags

says "Bye--see you next year at the Fair."

Thanks for coming along!