Fantasy Game Shop Board Game Day

As long as I'm in St. Louis, I will always look forward to the second Saturday of even numbered months.

Why? Because The Fantasy Shop (in St. Charles) has a board game day that lasts from noon until 11 pm, feeds you lunch and dinner with nearly infinite snacks, AND you get raffle tickets -- all for 15 dollars! It's one of the most amazing things I've been to.

Early August, my boyfriend and I went with some friends. We got there and I quickly shot some photos of the wall of games:

and the candy bowls:

The High Line

A few years ago, I was stumbling on the internet and came across a fantastic architectural design idea: take an old railway and turn it into a park! I looked at the renderings and drawing and imagined how lovely a space like that would be. Little did I know that space exists now in New York City.

When I visited the city, MG told me I must go to the High Line because it was a very Hao-like place. ED and I met her there on Sunday evening after our trip to find the little red lighthouse. Walking up some stairs onto the High Line made me feel like I was being transported into a different NYC -- a more environmentally friendly futuristic idealized city where greenery and construction were perfectly integrated:

Donuts!

Everybody loves donuts! Well, at least most non-health freak people I know. :P

When I was in NYC, MG took me to the most amazing donut place! It's called Doughnut Plant:

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge

I like strange adventures, and this one I had was one of the more interesting.

One of my best friends took a children's book class in college and was assigned to read The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge by Hildegarde H. Swift and illustrated by Lynd Ward. This friend of mine grew up in New Jersey and crossed the George Washington Bridge every time she went into New York City. She read the book but refused to believe the light house actually existed.

When she moved to the city after college, she wanted to figure out if the children's book was inspired by fact. She found the Little Red Lighthouse.

When I went to visit, E.D. told me her story about the book and the lighthouse. She wanted to take me to the lighthouse. I agreed on one condition: we would go read the book first.

Ikea Ferry

I love IKEA. It's one of the best places to get random cheap stuff. I love it so much I try to go there every chance I get. Unfortunately, I live in St. Louis -- a tragic city that is desperately in need of an IKEA. So... when I went to visit friends in NYC, I secretly  hoped we would get to go to IKEA. I was in luck. My friend needed a new bed and asked me if I wanted to go wit her.

There are multiple IKEAs in the NYC area. My friend, MG, lives on Manhattan. She told me there's a ferry from the piers to IKEA Brooklyn and we would take the ferry.

An IKEA FERRY? Who has ever heard of such a thing?! We walked to the docks and I managed to snap some pictures of the boats there. MG really liked this little tug boat:

Look how small it is compared to the neighboring boats!

We walked towards Pier 11 and waited for the ferry. I really liked these wooden columns bound together with metal wires. I also really liked the view from the docks.

The ride over was pleasant too. We saw cranes that reminded us of giraffes:

a Snapple plant:

the Statue of Liberty in the distance:

more tugboats:

and a fantastic view of the city:

We ended up eating dinner there and then shopping until it closed. During dinner, I saw a bunch of school buses. I'm not sure why, but it made me excited and I had to take a picture:

I told MG that she needs to take the Ikea Ferry at least every month. :)  She agreed.

<3
Hao

Details

I went to NYC last weekend and visited two of my friends and saw three more. It was awesome and wonderful.  At the end of my journey, I took the A line from the natural history museum stop to 125 to catch a bus that would take me to laguardia. As I was waiting for my subway train to come, I noticed lots of details about the station I liked.

NYC subway stations are often filled with cool details like this. Usually, I didn't bother taking pictures, but this little guy made me take out my camera so I could capture him for my cat loving friends:

Isn't he adorable?

Stegosaurus Pillow

About a month ago, I was over at my boyfriend's place. His roommate was hosting a movie night. One of the movies we watched was Labyrinth. I had never seen it before and decided it was weird and strange and wasn't really sure how I felt about it. Everyone there obsessed over David Bowie. By the end of the movie, I decided it was amusing enough.

Anyway, in one of the scenes, the main character flopped onto her bed and my boyfriend's roommate noticed she had a stegosaurus shaped PILLOW. He yelled at my boyfriend, "That's what we need! One of those!" They decided then and there that they needed something like it for their living room. I told them I could try to find a way to get them one... somehow.

After much searching online, I finally gave up and decided to make my own pillow for them.

I drew a large stegosaurus on paper and cut it out. Then, I took two pieces of  blue felt and pinned the paper on the felt. I cut about 1-2 cm around the paper, leaving room to sew later. I also cut out some circles for decoration and sewed the circles onto the felt. I took the two pieces of stegosaurus shaped felt with circles and stacked the together circle side in and sewed about 1 cm around, leaving a little. Then I flipped it right side out (through the bit that was left -- it was difficult) and stuffed it. The last bit of sewing was done by hand. All in all, it took me 4 hours: between 11 pm and 3 am. :D

Here is a picture of the stegosaurus on a couch:

And a picture of my boyfriend's roommate and his sister. She's pretending to bite him. He's ignoring her to hug the pillow. :D I'm not sure what he's looking at. o.O;

I am proud.

<3
Hao