Daily Art - Foto Friday, Meerkat Edition

Why meerkats?  Why not.  Here's some meerkats I photographed at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago.  They look like they're having a great time.  Hope your Friday is just as fun!

Daily Craft - More tiny stitches

I am very impressed that, only 3 months after starting the project, I am so far along with my cross-stitch birth announcement. Cross-stitching is a labor of love, that's for sure. The advantages for this particular pattern are that there were big areas using the same thread that didn't involve switching between colors or having to repeatedly count to make sure that a single x wasn't missed. The background is complete....but now I'm working on the back-stitching.

I should note that I have a bit of a love hate relationship with back-stitching. I love how it looks, but I hate the fact that you think you're done with the piece, and then realize that you still have a ton of tiny outline stitches to do before it's finished. These stitches that seem like they'll take as long as it did to do the background.  You can see how much difference it makes in this picture though - all the definition and detail comes through.  So, I'll keep stitching on and with any luck I'll be done by the time we head to the hospital (although I swear I'm not going to feel bad if I'm not!)

Daily Travels - Preggo on Safari!

Even though I went to college in San Diego, I never took the opportunity to visit the Safari Park.  We got some tickets half price through Living Social earlier in the year and with all the first trimester nausea, then summer heat, we never quite got to using them.  This weekend, we decided to go while I'm still mobile and take our last little excursion before the arrival of the little one.  We didn't quite manage to avoid the heat as the weather still isn't playing fair in So Cal right now (although starting to cool off a little it seems).  Despite the heat, it was a really nice 24 hours away and I had a great time hiking around the park!

So cute to come across this dog and cheetah on a walk.  Apparently they're best buds.

Flamingos with their babies	Pelicans
Rhino going for a walk	This guy was crossing the street in front of the tram!

A gigantic lion paw!

Elephants getting some shade	Check out the little baby  :)
What you lookin' at?	Regal looking male

Husband befriended this larakeet...who then promptly pooped down the back of his shirt!

If you've never been, I highly recommend it! It was a lot of fun (even with all the hiking while 7.5 months pregnant.) It's not cheap, but they offer some cool packages too - like the option to zipline across the park, or the "Snore and Roar" where you get to stay overnight. Those will have to be for another visit though... :)

Daily Craft - Stitching away!

Husband and several of his guy friends were away this weekend on a "boy's trip", leaving me to my own devices.  Naturally, this ended up being a jam packed weekend having fun with my girlfriends - watched "Magic Mike" (eh), grabbed lunch at a tea house (yum), pedicures (divine), an impromptu sleepover too (hilarious!)  Unfortunately, all the fun I was having meant that I made absolutely zero progress on packing up all my craft supplies in the nursery so that we can make a start with painting.  Good thing there's a national holiday this week!

In the meantime, while I also didn't get any further with making stuff for the little one, I finally got around to snapping a quick photo of my cross-stitch in progress.  It's a zoo themed birth record, which is actually working up pretty quickly.  I think the blocks of color without complicated shading and color changes are helping that.  I actually bought it a couple of years ago on clearance at Joann for $3 and stashed it away...then promptly forgot about it.  The little guy doesn't have a name yet, but I'm looking forward to being able to stitch it on here eventually.

Daily Travels - Chicago! (Part 1)

In an effort to get in a short trip while I'm still able to travel comfortably (i.e. not hauling around an extra 30lb of baby, water and blood volume), husband and I decided to take a long weekend in Chicago.  Neither of us had been before and I do love a good adventure in a new town.

I will say that TSA was surprisingly helpful.  Both LAX and O'Hare have the new back-spatter x-ray machines, which I was electing to avoid so as not to subject Peanut to any weird radiation.  At both airports, I told the TSA agents that I was pregnant and would like to bypass the machine, and they nicely obliged both times letting me go through the regular x-ray machines with not so much as a pat down.

First stop was actually doctors orders - get some deep dish pizza!

 Then we went straight on to Wrigley Field.  I'm only familiar with Dodgers Stadium, which is massive in comparison.  The game was relatively uneventful, but a nice experience to check out the stadium.

 
Day 2, we hopped over to the Skydeck at Willis (formerly Sears) Tower.  I'm not afraid of heights, but when you're suspended in a glass box, 1,300 feet in the air, it is vertigo inducing.  In fact, you almost have to question the sanity of whomever thought it was a good idea to build said box and, no matter how big the rivets that are holding it together, it's unnerving!  There is another picture of me standing and kinda freaking out (which husband found highly entertaining), but I discovered that sitting and then scooting backward on my butt was better.  Looking down was absolutely not an option. The views were truly amazing though, despite it being a little hazy.

After grabbing a Chicago staple - an Italian Beef Sandwich - for lunch, we headed on over to Lincoln Park.  Walking through that area really reminded me of some of the neighborhoods in London, and definitely seemed like somewhere I could live (months with several feet of snow, and other months with hot, humid weather notwithstanding).  We decided to check out the zoo - one of the oldest zoos in the country, with the added bonus of being free to visit!

We'll leave that as the end of part 1 for now.  We saw a lot in the 72 hours we were in the city, and I have 350-ish photos to process, so another installment to follow...  :)