A Day Downtown

Hey Blog Buddies,

Hope you've had a great weekend with a little time for some stitching, too.  I've managed to get a little cross stitch in this weekend, but earlier in the week DH and I took the train to the Loop for a day in the city.  I brought my camera with, and thought I'd share a few photos of my neck of the woods.

It was a gorgeous day, so we took a walk up Michigan Avenue, starting at Millennium Park.  

 

This is Cloud Gate, designed by

British artist Anish Kapoor,

but everyone here calls it The Bean.

You can walk right up to it and take a selfie!

 Another fun feature of the park is Crown Fountain,

designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa.

It consists of two glass block towers

with images of 1,000 Chicagoans projected onto them,

and a little reflecting pool in the middle.

Further north is the Tribune Tower,

completed in 1925 and designed by

Raymond Hood and John Mead Howells.

It's neo-gothic in style with flying buttresses at the top.

One of the many cool things about this building

is the fact that there are almost 150 stones

or fragments of structures from around the world

 embedded in the outside walls of the building.

 Nope, not gonna make you look at all of them!

Right across the street from the Tribune Tower is the Wrigley Building.

This building was designed by the firm of

Graham, Anderson, Probst and White 
for William Wrigley, Jr. (the gum guy).

It was the first major office building built north of the Chicago River

(it was built just a couple of years earlier than the Tribune Tower)

and the first one to have air conditioning in the City of Chicago.

And speaking of all things Wrigley....

Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs)

is celebrating its 100th Anniversary this year,

and you can find these decorated seats along Michigan Avenue.

I wasn't going to take a photo, but DH urged me on
(I'm so not a Cubs fan).

It's weird--in Chicago, if you follow baseball,

you're either a Cubs fan or a Sox fan--never both.

I will say that the late Ron Santo was a great guy,

just had the misfortune to play for the Cubs!

One of our newest skyscrapers, the Trump Tower.

Those letters are 20 feet high and the Mayor hates them

and is looking for ways to get them removed permanently.

The Donald, on the other hand, thinks that they're wonderful

and enhance the values of the neighboring property!

It was a gorgeous day for a boat ride on the Chicago River!

And here's the reason we went downtown:

Taking photos was strictly prohibited

inside of the theater, so this is the best you'll get.

The musical was great-- there were over 60 songs

made famous by the Motown artists

of the 60's and 70's.

And here's one last little surprise.

It's stitch-related.

The finishes in 2014 on this here blog

have been few and far between,

not because I haven't been stitching,

but I've been devoting a lot of time

to my larger projects.

But I did manage to finish my funky bird.

This is La D Da's A Bird in Hand

using the recommended fabric and silks,

except for the eye and spots on the bird,

where I substituted Gloriana India Ink.

The recommended color was just too

close in tone to the bird's body. 

It's nice to have a finish once in a while.

I have several other smaller bird designs

which I should plug into what passes for

my rotation these days.

That's it from here.

Thanks for visiting!

A New Start, and a Birthday Gift

Hey Blog Buddies,

I've put CT13 aside for now and decided I needed something a little smaller to balance it out, so I started "I Stitch..." on Monday.  Here is my minuscule progress:

You may be wondering why I skipped

over the "IT" in STITCH.

This is a very old freebie from 1997,

and the directions said to use

SNC Sherbet, "a special 1997 edition color."

Well, no one at the LNS was quite sure

what color that was, so we guessed 

and picked out a variegated light orange.

I know it shows up great in this photo,

but stitched in real life, it just didn't pop--

especially with all the ecru in so many of the bands.

I had stitched the STIT in the coral/yellow,

then I tried the bolder variegated on the CH,

frogged the STIT, 

went back to the beginning of the word, 

and that's why I ended up with

ST   CH.

Yesterday was my birthday, so we took a trip

to The Lake (by which I mean Lake Michigan).

We spotted a strange-looking (to us) waterfowl

with a white head and a black-and-white

striped body.

He wasn't in my Birds of Illinois book,

so I have no clue what type of bird this is.

That's the only photo I got of him,

he saw me and started swimming away fast.

We had lunch at a new (to us) restaurant,

The Flying Saucer in Humboldt Park,

which is a neighborhood in Chicago.

It may look a little sketchy from the outside,

but the inside of the restaurant was clean

and the food was good.

I love funky little neighborhood places like this.

(I'm a pretty cheap date.)

The day was absolutely gorgeous

and warmed up quickly--no jackets required.

I even went without a jacket,

and I'm the first to get chilly.

At the end of the day, I peeked at my blog

and got my final birthday present:

100 followers!

Woo-hoo!

Watch this space

because I plan to do something special

for one of my followers very soon.

Hope you're liking the weather where you're at.

Thanks so much for visiting!

North America's Largest Auto Show

Hey Blog Buddies,

I've been diligently stitching away on one of my WIPs with not much progress to show, so thought I'd share my day with you.  Here is where DH and I went:

As you may be able to read on the banner,

"North America's Largest Auto Show" is

their description, not mine.  But I'll go along with it.

It sure takes up a large chunk

of McCormick Place.

We're not really in the market for a new car.

But the old flivver (Pontiac SUV)

has almost 100,000 miles on her,

so we thought we'd just look around

to see what's out there.

This was DH's dream:

A Porsch 911 Carrera ($125,000)

Beautiful, isn't it?

...moving right along...

Ford cut one of their vehicles in half:

Those crash test dummies need some clothes!!

We decided to take an actual test drive

in a Chevy Volt hybrid.

It's a little different than a test drive

at your local dealership.

They don't run a credit check on you,

or try to sell you the car.

However.

Everyone who took the test drive

had to take a Breatholyzer test first.

I'm happy to announce that

this was the first and only time

 that I've ever taken one!

(We both passed, in case you're wondering.)

Makes me wonder if this is the

wave of the future for test drives

at a dealership?

Anyhoo, this is the Volt.

It's a miracle that I got a photo

without dozens of bodies surrounding the car.

Probably because it was a weekday.

The car was cute, fun to drive

and had decent pick-up.

But the battery lasts for only

35-50 miles, then the gas engine kicks in.

It's practical (and economical) only

if you do a lot of short trips--

not so much for longer trips.

And then there's the sticker shock:

There was a charming elderly gentlemen

who I waited for for over three minutes,

but he would not move his head (as you can see).

Maybe he went catatonic when he saw the price?

You can get sizeable energy rebates on

both your Federal and Illinois income taxes,

but still.

Yes, it's $40,000, stripped.

Again, moving right along...

A lot of folks have a favorite make of car,

and mine is Buick.

(We had a very, very bad experience

with a Toyota--a total lemon--in the 70's which

has permanently scared us off the

popular Japanese makes.)

My dad had a great Buick Special

for many years when I was growing up.

That dates me, I know.

And I had a reliable Skylark as an adult.

So the Encore caught my eye:

It's quite small for a Buick.

They're describing it as a mini-Enclave.

It won't be out until 2013.

They only had one model on a turntable.

You couldn't touch it or sit in it.

I asked about price and was told mid- to high-20's.

I'll be waiting.

Hopefully, our Pontiac will keep chugging along.

What is your favorite make of car?

Thanks for going to the Auto Show with me!

A Neighborhood Tour

Good Afternoon Dear Blog Readers,

I love Chicago.  It's my favorite city in the entire planet.  (It's a good thing I live closeby, huh?)  Yesterday, DH and I went on a Neighborhood Tour of Bridgeport and Back of the Yards.  For those not familiar with Chicago neighborhoods, Back of the Yards refers to the area directly adjacent to the now-gone Union Stockyards.

All that's left of the stockyards is this original gate--it closed in 1971.  Today the land on which the stockyards once stood contains an industrial park which employs about 10,000 people.  The sculpture that you see beyond the gate is The Fallen 21.

On December 22, 1910, 21 firemen lost their lives fighting a fire in the stockyards.  Their names are inscribed on this side of the sculpture.  On the other sides are the names of all Chicago firefighters killed in the line of duty.

Bridgeport is probably most famous as being the home of the late Mayor Richard J. Daley.  His son, soon-to-be-ex-Mayor Richard M. Daley, grew up in Bridgeport but no longer lives there.  There were actually 3 other Chicago Mayors, in addition to the Daleys, who hailed from Bridgeport:  Kelly, Kennelly and Bilandic.

One of our stops was at St. Barbara, a Polish Catholic church.  The church building is 100 years old and is octagonal, which is very unusual for a church.

Although you can't see it from these photos, much of the interior paint is peeling.  The cost to repaint the church will be between $400 and $500 thousand dollars.  There are only about 600 parishoners on the books, and roughly a third of them show up on a regular basis.

We stopped at Benton House which started as a day nursery in the early 20th century and soon became part of the settlement house movement.  Today it provides many social services for members of the Bridgeport community.  These paintings, which line the wall of one of the main rooms on the first floor, are estimated to be about 60 years old.  That is not old at all, is it?  (Shake your head from side to side in agreement.)

Historically, Bridgeport was predominantly Irish and blue-collar, but now it is one of the most ethnically diverse neighborhoods in the city.  There has been a sizable influx of Chinese Americans, who are expanding out from Chinatown, also nearby.  An unscheduled stop was the Ling Shen Ching Tze Temple, formerly a Polish Presbyterian church and now a Buddhist Temple.

The main chamber houses the statues of many buddhas and bodhisattvas.  There were many colorful tapestries which were embroidered with gold.  (Not hand embroidered--I asked.)

There is even new housing for the Yuppies (does anyone even use that term anymore?).  You can purchase a one-bedroom loft starting in the mid-200's.  And Bridgeport is close to the Loop for commuters!

Here is art you will hopefully not have a compelling reason to see:  this 3-dimensional wall hanging is on the wall of the police station in the 9th District.  The 3-digit numbers are beat numbers.  This was another unscheduled stop for those of us who were interested.  (Our guide was rather zany.)

Last but not least, although we didn't stop here (it's technically not in Bridgeport), I just had to take this snap from the bus window.

"The Cell"

Chicago is one of only 3 cities to have 2 major league baseball teams.

Unfortunately, our other team hasn't done much in the past 100 years.

GO SOX!!!!!

There are many different Chicago neighborhood tours being offered from now until November.  If I have piqued anyone's interest, you can find out all about them here.

I have been stitching, too, and am turtling along on my blackwork piece.

I'm always nervous about putting a close up of my stitching here on the blog.  In addition to being crooked most of the time, you can see every little weird thing that may or may not be wrong with the piece.  Notice how the black squares set on point are attached to the square eyelets (for lack of a better term) on all sides except for the east?  It's shown that way in the chart (consistently), but it's making me a little goofy.  OK, a little more goofy.  I haven't decided if I want to attach that square on the east, or just go with the flow.

Talk about a zany design!  I think I saw something like this in a drawing of an atom in a class I took in school.  Was it the electron?  (I wasn't very good in the sciences.)

That's it for this installment.  Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.