Tuesday's Happenings

A new week and a clean slate for this week....how exciting is that????

We had a packed full week last week and this week is wide open - for the moment.  I am sure it will fill up quickly, but it is fun to anticipate all that I could accomplish.

Last Thursday we had an exciting visit to downtown Los Angeles.  It is funny that I have lived here for so long and have never really explored the history of downtown L.A.  It was a walking tour directed by a friend whose great grandfather was an architect and designed many of the buildings so the walk proved most interesting. 

Of course City Hall was on the list of must sees.  I have read recently that they are going to renovate it and open it once more.  It has been closed for many years, I believe since the 1994 earthquake.  There is much history there including the Charles Man*son trial, the Sir*han Sir*han trial, and the autopsies of Marilyn Mon*roe and Bobby Ken*nedy.

From there we toured a few more of the older buildings.




The old L.A. Times building



The outer wall of the new building recapping history.



Wedding, divorce....the choice is yours.  There was also a sign saying they did taxes.  That's what I call one stop shopping.



The stark contrast of old and new with the winged Dis*ney Concert Hall.

One of the most interesting of all was the gorgeous Bradbury Building.  It was unusual in it's day because it had an open skylight rooftop.   Now used as an office building, many of the gorgeous elements remain.  The iron work on the inside is AMAZING!!!  My pictures do not do it justice.



Still working elevators.




A little brighter view of the amazing iron work.



Along the route was the historic theater district with the million dollar theater of Sid Grau*man.  Again, the building was gorgeous. 

With all of the walking a beverage stop was welcomed and what a stop it was.  The pause was at the Edi*son.  This was once the power source for much of the downtown area and has been converted into the most incredible bar.  One descends two flights down into the heart of the old coal burners and workings of L.A.  It was discovered during renovations of a building and they decided to keep it as it was and do the conversion.  It was quite dark inside and the pictures that I took really do not show its beauty, but if you ever get to L.A. be sure to make it a stop.

A bit more walking and then it was off to dinner at the private California C*lub.  We had our own table set up in the library and the food and service was amazing.

We then had a couple of little ones for a few days which kept us jumping. ....and cleaning!!!

Saturday evening we had a small dinner to celebrate some momentous events in my family.  The evening was warm and we ate outside and had a great time. 




The 65ers with their new Medicare cards!!!




My retiring sister and hubby.




Married 25 years!





The gals - sister, baby sister, SIL, me, DIL#2 and my mom




Standing - brother, son #2, BIL.  Seated - BIL and hubby.


Sunday afternoon I locked myself in my sewing room and didn't come out until I had to cook dinner.  It felt fabulous!  It is amazing how much I miss just a little bit of creativity.

I finished my ALQS quilt.  There is still time to work on one if anyone is interested.  They have to be finished by October 3rd.  I needed to get mine finished because September is going to be really busy for us.   The flowers are origami and the quilting is a try at some swirls that Wendy had given instructions for on her blog.  She does the most amazing FMQ on her Bernina.

I only added three more flowers to my garden this week.  I decided to give a purple one a go this week.  I just couldn't wait to see how it was going to look.

I am planning on heading to my "fun room" now and play a little.  I am planning on finishing up the binding on my Christmas Cactus quilt so I can use it this year.