My first YOTA post and lots of non-stitchy photos!

I just joined a new stitch-along, YOTA (Year of the Acronym), which is a UFO SAL on the Pull the Other Thread blog.  We will post update pics on a UFO on the first Saturday of each month.  I have chosen my oldest cross stitch UFO, Universal Unity, to use for this challenge.  It's also in my Turtle Trot SAL so I'll post update pics on this one twice a month.  I started this in 1998 and then it sat for 15 years!  I finally stitched the squirrel and some grass and started the tiger.

Here is the before pic from last month:

(before)

And here is my first photo for the YOTA blog post:

Universal Unity update #4

I got about half of the green roof on the left side done on Halloween House, my Friday SAL.

Halloween House update #26

Last Friday the 22nd, I didn't stitch on anything at all because my son came to visit.  He lives far away in a different state.  My son, daughter, and I went to Los Angeles (an hour away) and saw the Space Shuttle Endeavour, then we saw costumes from the movies at FIDM (the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising), and then we went to LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art), then out to eat at a nice Mexican restaurant.  What a great non-stitchy day!

I really do enjoy seeing non-stitchy pics on other blogs too, just to see what you do for fun where you live.  I hope you like these photos!

DD Christina, DS Christopher, and me!

The California Science Center is a great science museum to visit and see the Space Shuttle and best of all, it's FREE!

Space Shuttle Endeavour

We saw a great 3D IMAX movie about the Hubble Space Telescope and I highly recommend it!

Model of the Hubble Space Telescope

I took my kids to JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) in 1996 where we saw them building the Cassini space probe, which was sent to Saturn in 1997.  It's still orbiting Saturn today.

Model of the Cassini spacecraft

They had some of the actual space capsules to look at.  Oh boy, talk about a tight squeeze!

Mercury space capsule (the real thing!)

Gemini space capsule (the real thing!)

What a great idea to use the space shuttle over and over again, instead of the one-time use space capsules above.  The Endeavour flew 25 missions into space.  The 26th mission was to move it from the airport in Los Angeles to its new home at the museum.  Here is a photo of it going down the street.  You can see the Hollywood sign in the distance.

I took a video with my camera of the museum video of the actual trip of the space shuttle through the neighborhoods on the city streets.  You can see it here on YouTube.

Then we went to FIDM (the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising).  My daughter graduated from this college.  It was a beautiful February day in Los Angeles in the 70s, but today it's in the 80s!  There is a grassy park area behind the college, and the only wildlife you'll see are these statues! Haha!

There was a great view of some of the buildings nearby.

The FIDM museum displays the costumes from the movies every year.  This is also FREE admission!  We saw the costumes from the movies Argo, Lincoln, Les Miserables, Django Unchained, Anna Karenina, The Hunger Games, and many more!

These are the costumes from the silent movie, The Artist, which won the Academy Award for best picture last year.  My daughter said we were lucky to be able to see the actual clothes in color, since the movie was in black & white! This was the poster outside the museum, since we couldn't take any photos inside.

Then we went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see the Stanley Kubrick exhibition. He has directed lots of movies like The Shining, Lolita, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, etc.  They had props and costumes from the movies and scripts all over the walls.  Here is the typewriter from The Shining, where Jack Nicholson typed "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

Then we went into another building with a Pablo Picasso exhibit.  I took this picture of "Weeping Woman with Handkerchief" from 1937.

"Weeping Woman with Handkerchief" - Pablo Picasso

Other buildings had modern art, but I just don't understand why they devote one big room to something like this!

This outdoor exhibit of a bunch of light posts was a big hit.  Don't ask my why!

Now it's time to get back to cross stitching!  I hope you enjoyed seeing what I did on my day off!