Chihuly Installation, Missouri Botanical Gardens

I had wanted to save the best for last of my pics, but with the way blogging works, last in is first seen.  When Misty took me to see the MBG, the installations of Chihuly glass were a complete surprise.  Dale Chihuly is a fabulous glass artist from the Pacific Northwest and I have been to many of his installations, most memorably those in Seattle, at Gonzaga University in Spokane, and the Morean Art Center in St. Petersburg.  At the MBG were two sets of orange glass flowers in the Climatron, yellow covers on two gates, Walla Wallas in several of the ponds and the hanging display in the front entry. Walla Wallas are what Chihuly calls the glass onions floating in the ponds, named after the sweet onions from Walla Walla, Wash.  So, here we go.  Click on any picture for details, then back to return.

These are two of the gates into the rose garden (sealed shut, so go figure) with Chihuly glass on top of them.  Rising suns!

 

Detail.  Flames?

Two glass sculptures (I hesitate to call them snakes!) in the Climatron.  One in the shade, one in the sun.

The pond next to old entrance to the gardens.  The Walla Wallas are tethered somehow.  They bob and blow about a bit in any breeze, but not much.

Naked lady riding a porpoise!

Skinny couple.

Sun and shade.  So pretty.  Love the blue flowers.

In front of the Climatron.

Last, but not least, the hanging sculpture in the front entrance to the gardens.  Dark blue at the top, down to white at the bottom.

Because I can and because I looked them up on line, here’s two pics I found.  First is the Red Chandelier which permanently occupies the interior apex of the Chancellor's Room at Gonzaga University.  Saw this shortly after it was installed.

And to get you to go to St. Pete to the Morean Art Center, here is the Mille-Fiore, the gloriously lit, mirrored-bottom garden.  Saw this, too, among many other gorgeous sculptures by Chihuly.

Loved everything about St. Louis, the food, the flowers, the River, but will miss my good friends more than anything else.  sniff

Comments welcome.

(-: .·´* .·´*¨¨)) –:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy~.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

Missouri Botanical Gardens

Dear Misty and Bob are members of the MBG and Misty took me as her guest the morning after we had done the Arch.  We wandered the gardens all morning and had a good lunch before we went home.  Lots of gorgeous flowers, even if the biggest show of summer was past.  Here we go.  This was the first pic Misty took in the garden.  She loaned me her MBG brolly as my sunshade!

Me on a throne in the Ottoman Garden.

Me and Misty on the throne.

 

Schoenberg Temperate House has a gorgeous tiled garden on the lower level.  Here we are overlooking it.

 

Linnean House, this brick conservatory built in 1882, is the oldest continuously operating display greenhouse in the United States.  Why this is crooked, I have no idea. Inside it is full of cactus and other succulents.

Outside is a pretty water garden.

Huge, Santa Cruz water lilies.  Pads are about a yard across, all sprouting out of a central core.

Huger, Victoria water lilies.  These pads and buds were covered with spikes.  No froggies wanna climb on those!

Here’s the Climatron from the pond with the huge lilies in it.  This is patterned after something by Buckminster Fuller.

Here’s some pics from inside the Climatron.  The Pitcher Plant is only thing I know name of.

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This is a waterfall in the Climatron.

Outside the Temperate House was a surprise!   Autumn Crocus.  Who knew!

There was a garden set aside for the blind with touchable plants and Braille signs.  This bed of marigolds had something long and fuzzy in it, no idea what.  Intriguing, no?

That’s it for the MBG, except for Chihuly.  Comments welcome.

(-: .·´* .·´*¨¨)) –:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy~.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

St. Louis, Gateway Arch National Monument.

I’m really glad we got to go see the Arch before the shutdown closed it.  It was worth the trip up and down all those stairs.  No way Russel could’ve done it with his bad knees.  Stairs up from parking lot (he did those), stairs down into basement under arch, stairs down to pods to ride up, stairs up from the pods to viewing deck, stairs down to the pods down from viewing deck, stairs up from basement.  Sheesh!  I was pretty much wiped after that!  More steps than any puny little lighthouse!

This is the view from the parking lot down by the Mississippi River.  I’m assuming these are the three flags that flew over Missouri at one time or another.

  

We all worked hard to hold up the Arch!  Misty and Bob, Russel and me.

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This is two views of the Eads Bridge over the Mississippi.  Looks like it is being restored.  I think it is the first bridge across the River at St. Louis.  Finished in 1874 for vehicles and trains.

From below.  I just like the swoosh!

Teeny tiny plane.  Click to enlarge and back to return.

From the top, PNC ballpark, home of Cardinals, a barge in the shadow of the Arch, the Old Courthouse.

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Misty and me at the top, 630 feet!

Quite an adventure to go up to the top.  Those pods were a tight fit for five, four minutes up, three minutes down.  That’s it for the Arch.  Comments welcome.

(-: .·´* .·´*¨¨)) –:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy~.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

St. Louis Vacation Pics!

For my early birthday present, my darling Russel drove me up to St. Louis to visit our good friends Diana (a/k/a Dee and Miss Dee, and Misty) and Bob.  Misty and I met on Splitcoaststampers in July 2005.  They’ve been down here several times, but we had never been up there.  We’ve been home for a couple weeks, but I took a lot of pics and they all needed to be sorted through, resized, named, organized, etc.  I remember in growing up years Dad corralling whomever he could to watch slide shows of our travels in Germany and New England.  If you hadn’t been there, it was BOOOR-RRING!  Cue Joanne Worley.  I’ll try to sort things and not be too verbose.  I think I’ll make separate entries for different attractions.  Skip what doesn’t interest you and look at the albums if you’re interested.  Whatever, I hope you enjoy these.  

ST. LOUIS SCIENCE CENTER

On our first full day, we all went to the Science Center, wandered around and went to the Imax show about Monarch butterflies.  Poor Russel fell asleep!  There was a cool contraption in the main entryway called the Energizer, with croquet-sized balls going all over the place powered by people walking in the whatever it was.  A few times around and a ball would head out to the top on a conveyer belt. Very cool.

We all did our part to send balls on their way, except Bob!

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There was a cool T-Rex section, with him roaring and moving his head over his just killed prey, a poor stegosaurus.

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AROUND ST. LOUIS

The following pics defy any sort of category as they are usually singles or just a few, so here goes.  I don’t care about the beer, but I do love the Clydesdales.  We went by the Grant Farm and Misty snuck through the closed parking lot to take the pics of horses at supper time.  The mural is on the side of the brewery downtown.

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A must stop was Ted Drewes for some frozen custard.  Everything it was supposed to be.  Saw it on Food Network many times.  Yumm.

We went to Kimmswick, MO, to have lunch at the Blue Owl, another place I had seen on Food Net.  Great comfort food. No pics of food, just friends.

 

We had to go by the Saint Louis Bread Co., Bob and Misty’s morning hang out.  This is the place that started Panera’s!  Menu and atmosphere exactly the same.

I have three more sections I want to do separately, the Missouri Botanical Gardens, the Chihuly glass installations at the MBG and the Arch.  Hope you enjoyed these.  Comments welcome.

(-: .·´* .·´*¨¨)) –:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy~.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)

October Creative Images Meeting

Last Wednesday’s stamp club meeting had good participation and lots of things going on.  We had our “Bicycle” exchange cards, challenges and an early Christmas card project.  It had been planned for November, but Jeannie and I switched months.  So, here goes.  For details, click on a pic, then click back to return.

First is Therese’s antique bicycle, matching the one stamped behind it.  This black die cut bike was popular this month.

Ella’s good times combined red honeycomb embossing with hexagons punched out of bicycle DSP.

Genny pieced an interesting embossed bg under her large Top Note diecut before stamping her bike on there.

 

Here’s Jeannie’s really bright birthday card with lots of details with the antique bike die cut.

Here’s my black and white version with the antique bike that Jeannie die cut for me a while back. 

Pat R. made this cute little bike card with a nice sentiment about happiness being “a way of travel, not a destination.”

Tange glittered up her bike die cut and used her favorite sentiment, LLL. 

Here’s the four entries in our challenge to do something with either a small lunch box or Cricut package.  First, is Therese’s mermaid treasure box to keep favorite things, covered with seashells. 

  

Next is Pat R.’s Christmas box which opens to a really special scene of a fussy cut Christmas Tree and presents and Santa through the die cut window.

Pat J. made this darling little birdhouse with lots of fussy cutting.  Love the tiny sparrows.  Pat cut the roof line off her Cricut box with an exacto knife! 

Last, but not least, Tange made this sewing collage in lovely Fall colors with lots of details, including the die cut scissors she made a bunch of to give away.  Thinking outside the box, Tange only used the lid of her lunch box.

Pat R. won first place, Therese second, Pat J. third and Tange fourth.  We voted to award a fourth prize, same amount as third, as so much work went into all of them.

My project was a bendy card, from a tutorial by Emma Fewkes, here.  All the pieces except the base and snowbanks were done with my Cricut.  The Christmas Noel cartridge has everything but the deer which were on the Wildlife cartridge (thanks, Pat J, for loaning them to me).  A lot of detail, but everyone finished it as it was easier than it looked.

  

Even Jeannie finished her card!

This is the bendy card I made back in July and kept as a sample for this project. 

I saw this butterfly tree at My Favorite Things shop in Eustis.  Hmmm, I thought.  Could be a nice project for January’s stamp camp,with punched flowers or, hey, snowflakes!  Ta daaaa.  That’s a little candle stand under my tree.

I found another piece of the blue snowflake DSP and another snowflake punch, so my final version will have less white showing.  Took hours to make, but larger butterflies or flowers would be quicker. 

Pat R. made me this lovely trip-tych birthday card.

 

Genny pieced this cute little owl for me.

Pat J. made me this colored card with my birth flower, the Calendula, although she didn’t know she did!  I looked it up.  here.  Pretty close!

My sister sent me this bright pot of flowers for my birthday.

Finally, Genny brought in this cute card for show and tell.  That SU owl punch gets around!

That’s it for this month’s meeting.  Looking forward to next month’s meeting when the exchange theme is “Angels.”

Thanks for stopping by.  Comments always welcome.

(-: .·´* .·´*¨¨)) –:¦:- *** ((¸¸.·´*~Kathy~.·´*)****¨¨)) -:¦:- ·· ((¸¸.·´* .·´*((¸¸.·.·´ *-:¦:- ... :-)