There’s just something special about little wooden toy trains. They’ve long been a favorite among children and have become an icon for the Christmas season in many countries. They are still a popular gift choice for children and often a collectible among adults. It’s nearly impossible to own just one wooden toy train; many people choose to build upon their cherished toy to create their own toy train system. While the wooden toy train is a popular display at Christmas, some people have whole rooms or sections of their house dedicated to displaying their wooden toy trains.

Often, it can be tricky to find wooden toy trains in today’s society. Most toy trains of today are constructed out of metal and plastic, with decals displayed in order to make the toy look as realistic as possible. Some people turn to the internet to find wooden toy trains, while others scout out live auctions and antique stores in hopes of finding the wooden locomotive they knew and loved as a child. However, it is possible to find new wooden toy trains thanks to a company called Community Playthings.

Community Playthings began as a small organization of young fathers in rural Georgia. These men had one thing in mind – to create safe, durable toys for their children out of wood. The concept soon spread to local schools and teachers began requesting the wooden toys for their classrooms. When childcare became a popular idea among working parents, daycares ordered wooden furniture from Community Playthings. It wasn’t long before the company expanded into a well-known name in the toy industry, and thus the creation of wooden toy cars, trucks, and trains.

How can you put a limit on learning more? The next section may contain that one little bit of wisdom that changes everything.

The toy trains you’ll find made by Community Playthings are simple and certainly nothing fancy. You won’t find exclusive hand-painted detail, battery-operated engines, lights, sounds, or any other bells and whistles. Those are best left for companies who focus on creating state-of-the-art, realistic replicas. The toy trains from Community Playthings are designed for the inquiring child, plain and simple. Without all of the added extras, children are able to use their own imagine and develop motor skills as they push along and play with their wooden toy trains.

Along with toy trains, Community Playthings also makes wooden furniture, children’s lockers and cubby holes, art and sand tables, classic wooden blocks, and a wide variety of furniture for babies and toddlers. It is very easy to purchase anything wooden from Community Playthings. Their website provides a complete listing of all of their available products, prices, and pictures of every item. Several children’s marketing websites also carry items from Community Playthings for reasonable prices.

For a trip down memory lane back to your childhood, or to purchase wooden toy trains for your little one, consider getting your next toy train from Community Playthings. In a society where everything has gotten so modern, it’s nice to know there’s one company out there who can take you back to the “good old days”.

Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.

About the Author
John Cane is a health care enthuaist writer who writes for health care companies around the country. To find out more about one of the companies he endorses go to michigan health insurance quote,health insurance quote,small business health insurance quote

Cats at resalerightsworld.com

We don’t have a lot of details on this event, but here’s what we have. It sounds like a great time to visit Uptown Charlotte, but I’m sure you will have to swim upstream to get where you want to go. But all good things have to be shared with others.

Here’s what we know:

Wells Fargo is proud to present free arts and cultural experiences for all! Explore and enjoy the Charlotte, NC’s diverse arts, science and history offerings through a one-of-a-kind community experience.

FREE admission to many uptown cultural facilities including:

Bechtler Museum of Modern Art at Levine Center for the Arts

Discovery Place

Harvey B. Gantt Center for African American Arts + Culture at Levine Center for the Arts

Levine Museum of the New South

Mint Museum Uptown at Levine Center for the Arts

McColl Center for Visual Art

The Light Factory and more!

In addition to the above, there will be live art demonstrations, a street festival featuring LEGO sculptures, a chalk art competition and a FREE outdoor concert on the main stage with Jazz great Branford Marsalis on October 29th.

For more details and a larger list of participants visit (http://www.charlottecultureguide.com/feature.php?id=21).

Filed under: Charlotte NC Visual Arts, NC Visual Arts, Piedmont NC Visual Arts Tagged: Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte NC, Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts & Culture, Levine Center for the Arts, Levine Museum of the New South, McColl Center for Visual Art, The Light Factory, Visiting Charlotte NC, Visiting North Carolina, Wells Fargo, Wells Fargo Community Celebration
Carolina Arts News

Charlotte ARTery invites people to join them for a Community Mosaic Project, taking place during the Wells Fargo Community Celebration in Charlotte, NC, on Oct. 29, 2011, from 10am-4pm at the Wells Fargo Atrium.

Come help members of Charlotte ARTery create three huge mosaic 3D letters (ASC) for the Arts and Science Council.

This event was made possible through the generous support of Wells Fargo as part of the Wells Fargo Community Celebration.

For more info about the project visit (http://charlotteartery.com/) or visit (www.charlottecultureguide.org) for more info about the Wells Fargo Community Celebration.

Filed under: Charlotte NC Visual Arts, NC Visual Arts, Piedmont NC Visual Arts Tagged: Charlotte ARTery, Charlotte NC, Community Mosaic Project, Visiting Charlotte NC, Visiting North Carolina, Wells Fargo Community Celebration
Carolina Arts News

TribLocal’s midday roundup brings you TribLocal stories that folks are reading and talking about each day. Read on for a glimpse at what’s popular today in the suburbs.

• Teacher, coach’s early death leaves students ‘devastated’

• Algonquin man dies in crash on way home from visiting wife in hospital

• Known burglar arrested for damaging 4 cars

• Pentagon survivor shares his 9/11 story

• Chicago man charged with murder in death of homeless man

TribLocal – Forest Park

This is an old photo of the Aethelwold Hotel in 1910. The lobby has recently been renovated by Tim Hall and will be featured on the TC Arts Council’s Historic Walking Tour of Downtown Brevard.

The Transylvania Community Arts Council in Brevard, NC, is offering a Historic Sesquicentennial Walking Tour of Downtown Brevard on Saturday, May 21, 2011, from 9:30am – 4:30pm. This is a fundraiser for the TC Arts Council and their youth programs. Tickets are . This event is part of the Transylvania County Sesquicentennial 150th Celebration.

Participants on the Historic Walking Tour will walk their way around downtown Brevard and as they enter each block featured on the tour they will be greeted by a history docent who will share information on that area and then invite the participants into that featured location to explore. Highlights of this self-guided walking tour include: Transylvania Heritage Museum, The Red House Inn, Harris Architects-the old phone company, first floor of the County Courthouse, the newly renovated Aethelwold Hotel Lobby, St. Philips Episcopal Church & Graveyard, The Inn at Brevard, Silvermont Mansion, and East Main Street with two homes open to explore: Dottie Marcinko and Mack and Paula McKeller have opened their homes for this tour.  There will be a shuttle vehicle at the end of the walking tour to bring participants back to the center of town.

For more information call Tammy at TC Arts Council 828/884-2787. Tickets are . Call TC Arts at 828/884-2787 to buy your tickets today. This event is sponsored by College Walk, Mimi & Hugh Haston, Audrey Love Charitable Foundation, the NC Arts Council and the Transylvania County Sesquicentennial 150th Celebration.

Filed under: Brevard NC Visual Arts, Fundraisers, NC Visual Arts, WNC Visual Arts Tagged: Brevard NC, Transylvania Community Arts Council, Transylvania County Sesquicentennial 150th Celebration, Visiting Brevard NC, Visiting North Carolina
Carolina Arts News

Gabriel Francisco started dancing in The Bay. He then moved to San Diego where he became a dancer/choreographer for Culture Shock San Diego. He has traveled all over the world teaching various classes, most recently coming from Switzerland. DISCLAIMER: For Inspirational purposes only. Please respect the creative work of this choreographer. Duplicating or recycling these
Guivermans Dancing Lessons

Old Man Winter just won’t let go this spring, but the Squash Blossoms are having none of it. It’s Season 3 for the community garden behind the Buzz Café, and plans are under way for a bountiful summer harvest. First on the list is taking stock of what went well last season—and what didn't.

Probably our most successful crop was cucumbers. And did we ever jar a bunch of delicious pickles, sweet and dill. Dozens of them. We also canned loads of beets using different recipes, including one with orange juice, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves that was to die for. This little gem came to us by way of a private demonstration. (Someone in the group has connections.)

In terms of unsuspected successes, I’m proudest of the fact that three of the four okra plants grew to about six feet tall and produced not only plentiful okra pods but also amazing ornamental flowers. I also learned okra has to be picked about twice a day during its most prodigious period; otherwise, it becomes woody and inedible. Okra harvesting was a nonissue the year before. Those tiny sprouts never made it out from under the shade of the insidious squash.

As for tubers, one of the season’s many highlights was our potato cook-off. At Sunny Hall’s home, we baked, boiled, and roasted eight varieties, judging each for taste and texture. We sat around the dining room table, ballots in hand, and munched our way through twenty-four samples. By the time we were finished, I don’t think anyone wanted to see a potato again, much less eat one. But we arrived at a winner. Actually, two. The Island Sunshine and the Red Dale. The biggest loser was the Carola, with Cathy Busking noting that it smelled like the I-55 landfill in the summer. So we don’t recommend that one.

The season brought us hard-learned lessons too. Probably the biggest one was in plant spacing. We were ambitious and optimistic, to say the least, in planting fifty-one tomato plants in approximately 400 square feet. Mother Nature got a good belly laugh out of that. Maybe our biointensive method was a little too intense, but we did gain a better understanding of air circulation as it relates to aphid infestation.

So this year we will be trying a new method for staking tomato plants: the Florida Weave. This technique involves placing a stake between every two plants, about three feet apart, and then stringing three or more lines of twine between them. As the plants grow, they are weaved in and out of these horizontal supports. As a result, they should have good posture and room to breathe. However, as the astute Francis Bacon once pointed out, “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.” So, we’ll wait and see what the tomatoes have to say about the setup.

The next challenge is watering. Despite the beautiful rain gauge Sunny and Tom built (see the blog for directions), optimal watering practices still elude us. The group’s plan for dividing up the garden will likely be a big help for this tricky issue. In the past, we shared responsibility for the care of the entire garden. And that worked pretty well, especially since some of us knew way more than others about gardening. Now that we all have some experience under our belts, we’ve decided to divvy up plots to have a more one-on-one experience with the plants. We will still share our harvest equally and work together as a team, but we will be captains of our own little regiments. It’s yet another experiment, so stay tuned to see how it goes.

Other big plans for the garden include an entirely new layout based on information we learned at Openlands’ Building Urban Gardens (BUGs) class. This inspired layout will feature more seating area, increased companion planting, thyme as ground cover, and vertical planting. We also plan to have “teepees” for our Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash), as well as a riot of colorful flowers.

Most important, we expect another year of continued fellowship and personal growth. After all, as the garden grows, so grows the gardener.

To learn more about the Squash Blossoms’ adventures in urban gardening, visit http://www.squashblossomblog.com.

TribLocal – Forest Park