Weekend Recap (photo heavy)...

We took a little family outing this weekend into St. Louis and visited the Union Station. The original building was built in the late 1800's and is absolutely gorgeous. It ceased operation as a train station sometime in the 1970's and in the 80's was converted into a shopping center with a hotel and restaurant still occupying the upper floors so that all of that amazing architecture has been preserved...

Most of these photos have been taken in the Grand Hall which is this amazing lobby....just breath-taking!

Click on the photos to see them larger...

The ceiling of this room was domed and every square inch of it is painted and gilded. It was fairly difficult to get decent photos of it because it is fairly dark. Every time I took a pic with Kat in it, she ended up being this ghostly blur because my camera had to leave the exposure open for so long in the dark circumstances.

This is the railing of the stairs going up to the Grand Hall. As you can see, every little bit is ornate and carved...so beautiful!

This is the stained glass window that you look at as you climb the stairs. Do you see all the gold gild shimmering in this photo...just Wow! It was all so beautiful and so over-the-top Victorian.

This is one of the views from the outside...see the Arch in the distance. If you are looking for a hotel in central St. Louis, this one would be amazing...not only because it is absolutely gorgeous, but it is absolutely central to everything in downtown St. Louis.

Even the exterior lights were over-the-top ornate. So many gorgeous vignettes. I took 100 photos so you are lucky that I am only sharing a few with you! ;o)

The inside of the train station has now been turned into a shopping center and since it was in downtown St. Louis and near all the different pro-sport arenas...yes, we have 3 pro teams...Football, baseball, and hockey...the mall was full of sports memorabilia stores. The boy was in sports heaven!! He is all about sports these days!!!

This little one was happy too as long as she didn't have to get into that dreaded stroller. She LOVES the independence of walking and will do anything you say to include ALWAYS holding your hand and not touching anything just so that she can stay walking.

I love this photo of the two of them together...I have big scrapping plans for this photo this week...assuming that I can get my printer working again!

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And while we were in St. Louis for the day, the etsy inspired girls were hosting a day full of fun challenges and inspiration. When we got home, I found time to play in one of the challenges, Jackie's sketch challenge. Here is my card that I created using the Unity February kom. I just got this kit in so you are probably going to see quite a bit of artwork done with it over the next couple of weeks.

Supplies used:
*Unity Feb. Kom
*Sassafras paper
*Martha Stewart border punch
*Marvy Uchida scallop oval punch
*CTMH inkpad (Ocean or Breeze)
*ribbon

And now it is March so that means that there is a brand spanking new Unity kom and once again...it is so darn cute!!! You don't want to miss out on this and it is a bargain at only $24/month (these are still available after the month is over, but the price goes up to $45 so you don't want to miss out on the bargain price!!!