About Me

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West Virginia
When I started my retirement travels in 2009, I wanted a way to share it with family and friends as it was happening. Hence, "My Travel Journal". However I realized I wouldn't always be on a trip and wondered what to do with the blog in between times. My daughter pointed out, wisely, that travels can also include trips to the kitchen to try a new recipe, trips to visit family, trips to my neighborhood Starbucks, or a fun day trip with a friend. You're welcome to join me on any of these journeys! I've set up individual pages for each of my major trips (see tabs above).

Also, I have an Etsy shop where my current needlework resides. The last pieces I posted here were in 2013! So if you'd like to see what I have accomplished recently, go to (and I apologize for having to copy and paste):

www.etsy.com/shop/thedollhouseneedle

I recently added an "Italian Word a Day" thingie which shows up at the bottom of every page. You see the word and can click to hear it pronounced. I've been enjoying it and I think my accent is improving as time goes by.

December 08, 2016

Lazy as usual!

I ended my Thanksgiving day post saying I would post about the rest of the trip in "a day or two".  Is anyone surprised I didn't??

Anyway, I'll make this brief.  Friday I awakened to what sounded like a gunshot and was kind of freaked out a little.  My room phone wasn't working so I had to stumble around trying to find my cell phone while hoping that whatever insane killer was out there wouldn't shoot again.  Got my phone and the motel's number and crept into the bathroom which I thought was the only safe place if there was going to be any more shooting.   There wasn't any more, of course, and as  I was walking out of the bathroom, talking to the desk clerk,  I noticed that the fridge door was slightly open and there appeared to be something on the floor in front of it.  Turned out one of the soda cans I put in the fridge had frozen and exploded!  So I told him that, hung up and then mopped things up, leaving the fridge open so that the remaining ice slush inside would melt.  What a mess!

Went out and found a Waffle House for breakfast.  It was truly the busiest one I have ever been in and my egg and raisin toast was very tasty good.  Got to the Columbus Museum of Art with no problem and spent a very enjoyable afternoon there until I finally just sort of gave out.  Since I had a late breakfast, I didn't get lunch in their very nice cafe but did sit down for some yogurt to which I added some crumbled up sugared walnuts.

They had two special exhibits which you got to see for an additional $6.00 and I did that and was so glad I did.  One was a photography exhibit with all the photos/videos involving the sun in one way or another.  It was beautiful and fascinating and I really enjoyed it - made me wish Chris could see it since photography is his passion.  I took some pictures but am not going to post them because they just didn't give any idea of the exhibit.  Oops, just found one...  It was one of a series that showed the transit of Venus around the sun.



The other exhibit featured the work of Ruben and Isabel Toledo.  Ms. Toledo is a fashion designer who created Michele Obama's inauguration gown which I thought was so beautiful, as was she.  Ruben is I'm not sure what - a painter? a designer? an artist with multi talents?  Anyway, the exhibit was fantastic!  And why I only had my cell phone for pictures, I don't know.

This was Ruben's work.  It's a
display of the creation of a dress which I loved.  The sewing machine is a real one covered in a protective black fabric.  Her mother brought it with her from Cuba when they came to America I think back in the 40's.  And I loved the use of just the torso for the seamstress.

There were black legs and arms laid out on the table (not sure why but it looked great) and then the finished dress looking pretty fabulous.

The painting/design on the back wall would be Ruben's work also.






Then on the opposite wall was a display of 12 life-size (although tiny model life size) dresses that were just so fabulous it would make anyone who loves fabrics yearn to feel them.  The only one that seemed out of place in the display was the very bright orange (not so bright in the photo) on the right end of the top row.  The rest of them just made you wish you were fabulously wealthy and constantly had to attend various magnificent balls.
In the photo, they don't show up too well against that patterned wall but standing there admiring them, I didn't even really notice the wall.  Almost all of them sparkled, shone, or whatever.  Just so gorgeous...


I guess you couldn't really call this one gorgeous but it appealed to me because as you can see from the enlargement, the "fabric" seems to be thick strands of yarn woven through some kind of netting.

Made for a fairly "hippy" looking model but it's just so inventive - who would ever think of that?

That white-ish band under the black band at her waist is all the fringe ends of the yarns.



So that was the end of the special exhibits and then I managed to pretty much see the entire rest of the museum.  One of two rooms I didn't spend much time in but they have a lot of wonderful art.

After my little cafe sit-down I visited their "Think Outside the Brick" exhibit and was completely enchanted.  It is a huge Lego city, based on Columbus but branching into fantasy at one end of the display with robots, space ship, pirates, etc.  I asked the docent in the room if this was permanent or if they would actually take it all down.  She said they have one every year but they're all different.  They do use some of the buildings over which I'm glad because otherwise I'd think all the creators would end up shooting themselves.

But it was fabulous, fun, fantastic and I'm going to quit trying to think of more words starting with "f". :)

When I first walked in, I thought the 5 or 6 very tall skyscrapers were "cheats" that they had made out of foam core or some other material.  But when I got around to the other side where I could see them closely, no...they were Legos.  Hopefully, they get a price break from the Lego company or it would be one of their most expensive exhibits!!

Here are a few pictures of Columbus in Legos.

Lots of Legos, right?
The people standing around the skyscrapers gives some idea of how big they are.





























































They also had some "art" on the walls in the Lego room.  A Warhol and I think the other is a Mondrian. :)





























And one of my favorite paintings was in an exhibit that I think was about women although I can't remember what the exhibit was supposed to show. Anyway, a picture or two here...


I must have taken the one of the right at such an angle because of glare or something.  She's a name I recognized but, of course, I didn't make a note of it.
And then my favorite - Barbie's Mom

Ain't she somethin'?!  Don't you just love her?

They also had a Chihuly which I thought was not as beautiful as the one at the Huntington Museum of Art.
It looks almost like it's under a glass dome but it isn't.  I found my picture of HMOA's and here it is  for comparison.  I've always thought the setting for ours is perfection.

The rest of my stay was just as pleasant.  I had dinner at a great restaurant in Westerville (the town where my motel was).  It was very busy and happily noisy and my home-made tomato soup and grilled cheese were just the thing.  Noticed a lot of nice looking, locally owned shops so Saturday before I started home, I went back to "downtown" Westerville and had breakfast and did a little shopping.  And that's all folks - not very brief after all...

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