Solar Eclipse
Solar Eclipse : The solar eclipse is the main reason I came out west for vacation. I have seen a partial solar eclipse before, but never a total solar eclipse. It was like Continue Reading →
Snorkeling in Alaska
Snorkeling in Alaska : While planning for my vacation in Alaska, I learned that there is a company, appropriately named Snorkel Alaska, that leads snorkeling tours near Ketchikan. If there is a way for Continue Reading →
Carrie Blast Furnaces
Carrie Blast Furnaces : I’m in Pittsburgh for the long weekend. Today I took a tour with Rivers of Steel of the Carrie Blast Furnaces. The area is part of the former U.S. Steel Continue Reading →
Nuttallburg
Nuttallburg : I started exploring New River Gorge National Park today. It is second on my list of things to see in West Virginia after the capitol. The park is really spread Continue Reading →
Bridge Walk
Bridge Walk : I spent today doing more exploring of New River Gorge National Park, but I started the day by walking across a bridge. The walk across the bridge was under the Continue Reading →

Reykjavik

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I previously visited Reykjavik while on a two week visit to Iceland. I’m back for a short visit in hopes of seeing the aurora borealis. Thus far the weather and solar activity has not cooperated for that. Today I walked around a bit and took a few more photos.

In the middle of Reykjavik is a large pond, but in winter it is completely frozen over, except for a small corner. All the waterfowl are congregated in that area waiting on people to bring them bread. (On my Reykjavik post from 2014, there are photos of Tjörnin and the area in front of City Hall in May to compare how they look in winter and summer.)

Tjörnin (a pond or lake), which is almost completely frozen over

Birds congregating when people with food arrive

Swans came to determine if the reason I came to the water’s edge was to feed them

Monument to the Unknown Bureaucrat

The water in front of City Hall is completely frozen

Entrance to the Icelandic Punk Museum, which is located in a former public restroom

Little Purse

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I wanted a purse, mainly for when I travel, that was light weight but would still hold the essentials. I thought I designed this purse well. I measured my Kindle and my phone to determine what size pockets they need. Then I designed a series of zippered and unzipped pockets for everything. In one of the zippered pockets, I added a card holder for easy access to cards, for example, a public transit card. My design was both a success and a failure. The purse is really cute in my opinion, and it does hold what it was designed to hold. Unfortunately, once I add my wallet and a few other essentials, it is too small. I like to be able to carry my eyeglass case with me, and I can’t put that in here as well as a few other essentials, like a rolled bag for unexpected shopping buys. I should have added a couple of extra inches, but I was trying to keep the bag as small as possible. It was a good learning experience though, and I think if I add about an inch in width and perhaps two inches in height, the bag should work as designed. Thus, that will be next sewing project, to make another that is slightly larger.

The front has a large pocket for my phone, which has a buttoned flip-over piece to hold the phone securely. There are also two zippered pockets.

Front of the purse

The back of the purse has a pocket designed for my Kindle.

Back of the purse

The inside of the purse has a pocket that runs the entire length. My idea for this pocket was to put receipts.

Inside the purse

The top zippered pocket on the front has three card holders.

Front zippered pockets

Springfield, Illinois

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This past weekend, I went to Springfield Illinois to see the state capitol. I took the train from Chicago, so I had a bit of time to wander around based on the train schedule. There are a couple square blocks that are now a national park where Abraham Lincoln’s house is, as well as many other maintained old houses. I didn’t have time to really explore the park, but the houses are neat to look at from the outside. Lincoln features prominently across the city, which although I understand he was from there, is still slightly ironic in that there is also a Lincoln, Illinois. Downtown, at least, is very small and walkable, and I enjoyed seeing many of the old buildings.

Old State Capitol

Restored street across from the old state capitol

Restored building in downtown Springfield Illinois

Abraham Lincoln’s house

Illinois State Capitol

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Yet again, I have traveled quite a distance to be confronted with a state capitol where part of the building is off limits, and no one bothered to post that on the website. I am in Chicago for the weekend, so I decided to take the train to Springfield for the day (3 hours each way). Once I got to the capitol, I saw that half of it appeared to be under renovation. Upon entering, it was confirmed that the entire Senate side is under renovation and off limits. This was not a surprise renovation. It has clearly been ongoing for a while. Did they post this on their website? No. I do understand that many people would not care if they can only see half the building. I am not one of those people. So as with Connecticut, I will have to come back here in several years, once I can confirm the renovation is over.

With that gripe being said, the building itself is gorgeous. It is really ornate. In many of the capitols I have seen thus far, there is a lot of symbolism in the ornateness. Either there is not in this one, or the guide did not mention it. Symbolism or not, it is beautiful. The building interior is covered with lots of different stone, mainly marble, in many different colors. The dome is spectacular. The House chambers has lots of dark wood with crystal chandeliers. As is my habit, I asked how the light bulbs were changed. A pulley system is used. Finally one detail I noted is that the exit signs have a fancy font. I found that slightly amusing and a nice touch. With a building this ornate, no plain font with do, even for the exit signs.

Illinois State Capitol exterior

Grand staircase

Interior stone walls

Interior of the dome

Interior of the dome, zoomed

House Chambers

House Chambers ceiling

House Chambers gallery

Atrium above grand staircase

Orante ceiling

Ceiling of hearing room, which used to be state supreme court

Door in hearing room, which used to be state supreme court

Lincoln statute with chair with one-legged eagles for legs

Christmas decorations

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I am thoroughly getting into decorating my house for various holiday by sewing decorations. Similar to other holidays, I sewed a table runner for the dining room table and for the buffet. For the buffet table runner, I quilted it with a snowflake stitch that came with my sewing machine. I free-motion quilted the dining room table runner. For the dining room table runner, I used all the triangle fabric pieces left over from sewing the Christmas trees on the top to make part of the back. I also sewed pillow covers for a pair of pillows that I switch out the covers for each season. Finally, I sewed a door decoration hanger for my front door. Most of the fabrics are from Dear Stella.

Buffet Christmas table runner

Fabric in buffet Christmas table runner

Christmas dining room table runner

Back of Christmas dining room table runner

Christmas pillow covers

Christmas front door hanger

Thanksgiving decorations

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I found some fabric that I loved from Dear Stella that is Thanksgiving and fall themed. I used it to make table runners, pillows, and a front door hanger for Thanksgiving. I created just a simple design for the table runners. I used machine fabric appliqué for the pillows and the front door hanger. The appliqué pattern is from OESD.

Thanksgiving table runner for dining table

Close up of Thanksgiving table runner for dining table

Thanksgiving table runner for buffet

Thanksgiving pillows

Thanksgiving front door hanger

Late Summer Door Hanger

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I have really liked decorating my front door for various holidays such as Mardi Gras and Easter. Last month I used some fabric from my Independence Day table runners and the Thanksgiving table runners I have started making to create a door decoration for later summer. No holiday to celebrate. Just a celebration of the season and flowers. I found a nice sunflower appliqué, and I added a button to the center, and it created a perfect focus for the hanger.

Late summer door hanger

Sunflower applique on late summer door hanger

New Hampshire Telephone Museum

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While touring the New Hampshire State Capitol, there was inexplicably a telephone booth in the Governor’s Reception Room. A sign near the booth said it was on display courtesy of the New Hampshire Telephone Museum. This museum was not something that I knew existed, and yes, this grabbed my attention. I needed to know more about this museum. Thus, after visiting the capitol and surrounding area, off I went to the New Hampshire Telephone Museum.

At the museum, I learned that they are not in fact the only telephone museum in the country. Clearly I need to do more niche museum research. The museum was founded by people who built a New Hampshire rural telephone company. It is actually quite interesting as they have telephones from various eras. They also had interesting displays about the various components that make up the telephone system and equipment used to repair and construct the system. They also had a working set of telegraphs powered by modern batteries, which I found funny.

New Hampshire Telephone Museum with front door painted like UK telephone booth

Original type telephones

Telephone operator desks

Candlestick phones

Old intercom phones

Not quite modern anymore phones

Telephone system repair equipment

Telephone system wires

Telephone system circuitry

Elevator painted to look like a UK police call box

New Hampshire State Library

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While visiting the New Hampshire State Capitol, our unofficial tour guide highly recommended walking across the street to see the state library. He said it was a beautiful building, and that also there is a portrait of Daniel Webster that is the scariest painting he had ever seen and belongs in a haunted house. He was right on both counts. The state library building was originally built for the state supreme court to be on one side and the state library to be on the other. Eventually the supreme court got its own building. The building has gorgeous marble fireplaces and other lovely touches like skylights.

New Hampshire State Library

Room formerly used by the New Hampshire State Supreme Court

Skylight over room formerly used by the New Hampshire State Supreme Court

Fireplace on first floor

Second floor hallway with fireplace on left

Stacks room on second floor with skylight

Giant relief map of New Hampshire. One inch equals one mile of distance. One inch equals one thousand feet of height.

Famous scary Daniel Webster portrait that everyone agrees belongs in a haunted house

New Hampshire State Capitol

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Today I visited the last New England state capitol that I hadn’t seen yet. [Sort of, as I still will need to go back to Connecticut when I can see the Senate chamber.] I toured the New Hampshire state capitol. Unfortunately, they did not have guided tours, but they had a nice pamphlet explaining what to see. Then while visiting the Governor’s Reception Room, we met a couple of very friendly, informative employees, including a man, whom I think worked in facilities, who took us to see a couple of sites not printed in the official guide.

New Hampshire’s state house is the oldest state house in which the legislature still occupies its original chambers. I almost feel like some praise should be given to the original builders and designers for building a capitol that has fulfilled its original use for so long and also not managed to burn down like so many other capitols. Similar to other New England state capitols, it is not overly ornate, but it still has some nice touches. It is fairly small. The House representatives don’t even get a desk. Their chamber is essentially an auditorium. New Hampshire has the largest number of state representatives with 400 elected, yet is in the bottom fifth of states by population. However, New Hampshire has the fourth smallest Senate with 24 elected members. The printed guide did not give any explanation for why there is that dichotomy.

New Hampshire State Capitol

New Hampshire House chambers

New Hampshire senate chambers

Artwork in New Hampshire senate chambers

New Hampshire Governor Reception room

Hall of flags at entrance to the capitol

Our unofficial tour guide who works in facilities, took us to see this painting of Daniel Healy. The reason he took us to see the painting, is it appears he has six fingers on his right hand. Our unofficial guide had no insight if the man actually had six fingers or if the artist just painted the hand weird or what. I can’t find any information on this man. Thus, I am sharing this mystery with anyone who reads my blog.

Portrait of Daniel J. Healy, longest serving state representative