A Training Exercise

I went down to see my kids and granddaughter last week, and worked at a fundraiser this last weekend, so not much glassing got done. And before I get started on the new project, let me just run a little plug here.

We just had a Holiday Bazaar Arts and Crafts Fair for the St James Family Center. The center's primary function is a non-denominational day care center. But wait..there's more.. In a very poor county, this is the only licenced day care. The fee schedule is on a sliding scale, and many of the children here are "scholarshipped". They have balanced meals, breakfast and lunch, ECEAP programs (early childhood education..similar to Headstart) Their parents know they are in a safe, clean enviornment, with trained caretakers. If you've been a working parent dropping your kids off at daycare, you know what a concern that is. The SJFC has a bus that takes the children to and from the elementary school. But they also do free nutrition classes for the community as well as parenting classes, childhood health care seminars, children's safety jamborees. They run the only Domestic Violence shelter here, and sexual assualt crisis intervention. For a very small community, and with very little funding, this center has broad shoulders, and carries a very heavy load. You can learn more at http://www.stjamesfamilycenter.org/index.htm . Funding is always difficult and any donation, no matter how small, is a great blessing to us.

And now back to our program.

I think the next project will be a train for my brother, specifically a steam engine. There are a few patterns out there, most of them pretty complicated. I tried to find some pictures on the internet, and there are a few possibilities.

I'm not sure I have the skills to turn these into patterns, but I can try..the worst that can happen is that I decide to buy a pattern from someone more talented than I, or use a free one. I don't know that it's possible to have a simple pattern that doesn't look like a cartoon. Stay tuned...film at 11.