Showing posts with label St. Louis Activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label St. Louis Activities. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Sign of the Arrow

While Alan and I were in Saint Louis, one of my friends there, Lauren Graham, got me interested in needlepoint after seeing several of her husband, Randy's, belts that his mother had made for him. Lauren explained how her mother-in-law, Susie, taught her to needlepoint and told me of a cute little shop in Clayton that had everything you could possibly need for any needlepoint project. It was then that I learned about Sign of the Arrow. It really is the sweetest craft shop you've ever seen and after going in to look around I decided that I wanted to learn how to needlepoint. I went in one day and sat down with a precious lady who works there and who patiently showed me the basic stitch. She also gave me this in case I forgot :)
After learning how easy it really is I decided I was up for a project of my own. I had the best time looking through all the fun patterns and all of the beautiful threads.
I finally chose a Saint Louis Cardinals ornament. I decided that this would be a fun project and Alan and I would be reminded of our year in Saint Louis each time we hung this on our Christmas tree.
There were several colors included in the pattern and it didn't look like anything too hard which was perfect for me as I was just getting started.
I was so excited to begin! I began with the lightest color (white obviously) as instructed and sat down as soon as I got home to begin. This is what I accomplished that first day:
Slowly but surely the canvas began to fill up...
There was a lot of white!
The day my flight to Nashville got cancelled in April I sat down and finished it (not having anything better to do that day!)
So proud of my completed project, well almost that is... once I got done I had to take it back to Sign of the Arrow to have them send it off to the "finishers"
Today in the mail I received the finished product! I absolutely love it and it means so much to Alan and I who both now love Saint Louis so much. Only 6 more months until Christmas when this will go on our tree!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Grant's Farm

Sunday = fun-day and after church this morning, Alan and I set out to see Grant's Farm. The farm takes its name from Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States, who founded and farmed a portion of the 280 acres the farm is on. It is now preserved by the Anheuser-Busch family who has opened it up to the public...and admission is free!
God was so good in giving us another beautiful day!
This cabin was built by Ulysses S. Grant and is one of the few remaining structures in America that was built by a President
this "picture spot" reminded Alan and I of Dollywood so of course we had to take a picture here
Alan had fun feeding the baby goats, he even let them nibble on his hand
Here I am close to one...smiling too...but not touching it. Does this really surprise you?!
we went to a show where elephant Bud did lots of tricks for us
Alan also liked the mini-horse
towards the exit there was a hospitality area where we got 2 free drinks courtesy of Anheuser-Busch!
After going to Grant's Farm, we went across the street to the Historic Site which is actually considered a National Park
The house on the property "White Haven" was the family home of Grant's wife, Julia. Can someone please tell us why "White Haven" is GREEN??
After a busy day of exploring, Alan and I went down to Soulard (Irish community in Saint Louis) for dinner at McGurks...another place we have wanted to "check off the list" of places to go.
Dinner on the patio was a great way to end the day :)

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Saint Louis Science Center

After lunch, Alan and I went to the Saint Louis Science Center. The dork in me will admit that there was a lot of really interesting things there!
Alan and I built this arch, the style of the arch is a catenary arch which is the style of the Gateway Arch here in Saint Louis
Here is Alan expressing his musical talent on a harp with laser strings...the Stokes would have been impressed
There was a prehistoric exhibit while we were there, here is Alan with the T-Rex
This is us standing in the footprint of a T-Rex

Friday, April 1, 2011

New Wheels

Alan and I had a "first" today in our marriage...we bought a car! It took us several months to decide what kind of car we wanted to get and we finally found the perfect one! It is a Volvo s60 and we got it at Weiss Volvo in Saint Louis. I know, everyone says...Volvos are such safe cars! And that is exactly why we wanted to get it. After our accident, I'll go ahead and self-admit that Alan now considers me a "Major Wuss" so that makes this the right car for me! Sweet Alan has driven me all around Saint Louis for the past 3 months and has been SO wonderful to work around my crazy schedule and although I do believe he didn't mind too much, it is definitely nice to have 2 cars again. Here are a few pics of our new ride...

Saturday, March 26, 2011

History & Art

Well I will begin by letting you know that this is like no other March 26th Alan and I have ever seen...we got 5 inches of snow today!!! However, with our time in Saint Louis coming rapidly to a close, we decided there was no time like the present to continue exploring the city so today we went to the Missouri History Museum and the Saint Louis Art Museum. Both are located in Forest Park so I've also included some pictures of the park so you can really see just how much snow we got today. The museums were both free so it was a fun (I will not necessarily say educational) but fun way to spend a Saturday.

Missouri History Museum...notice no snow yet
statue of Thomas Jefferson
Saint Louis hosted the World's Fair in 1904
picture of the fairgrounds...most of this was in Forest Park
street car from the 1904 World's Fair
apparel from the 1904 World's Fair
standing in front of the "Spirit of St. Louis"
Charles Lindbergh
Alan with memorabilia from Sportsman's Park, 1920-1965
Alan with memorabilia from Busch Memorial Stadium, 1966-2005
Saint Louis Art Museum...you can see the snow coming down
Statue right outside the Art Museum
inside the Art Museum
pretty statue
Monet
contemporary art
contemporary art
stain-glass window
mummy
statue at the front of Forest Park
We cannot believe this CRAZY weather!
poor daffodils
We thought that Forest Park looked like Narnia :)
Bradford pear blossoms weighed down by snow