Two years ago on a street a few blocks west and south of my daughter’s house a neighbor erected arches covered with lights over the sidewalk to enhance their Christmas decorations. The next year surrounding neighbors began erecting them too.
And this year they spread even further into the neighborhood along the same street and on the parallel streets and the cross streets. We’d see more every time we went to visit and one day when we arrived our son in law and his neighbors were installing them on their street. In the daytime you can see that they are PVC pipes wound with lights and at night they become truly magical.
For the most part we decorate the same way every Christmas but each year I make new decorations for the windows. In Chicago I’ve been making one large decoration for each north facing window and this year I made Swedish snoblomma – snow flowers.
In the kitchen I’ve hung the garland that used to hang in our kitchen window in Northampton above our kitchen sink above our kitchen sink here as well even though we have no window here in Chicago. This year I made Christmas Tree Farm signs and hung them with purchased red trucks and a red car carrying Christmas trees. I saw the signs on a blog post I could never find again but I remembered pretty well what to do. I found the small unpainted sign boxes and stained them and then downloaded Christmas Tree Farm signs from the internet and sized them to fit. I glued them in and covered them with mod podge.
Maison Marcel my favorite place to go for coffee and a treat is ready for winter. I love the painted designs. So European!
At the beginning of the Stay at Home order I began to notice something new in our neighborhood – elaborate balloon creations installed on fences or banisters marking momentous occasions. They were especially noticeable in May and June for graduations. I finally got a photo of a birthday one several weeks ago.
Last year I wrote a post about Halloween costumes and how while my younger daughter was fine with buying character costumes for dress up she thought people should be recognizable animals for Halloween. In keeping with her beliefs she was a cat this year, but due to all the things children have had to give up in the Time of Corona and due to the uncertainty of whether there would be trick or treating at all, when her older daughter wanted to be Mal of The Descendents in a store bought costume this year she said yes to Mal and yes to Evie for her younger daughter as well.
They did get to do some trick or treating this year. Due to the social distancing aspect of it the fact that people might not know what characters they were was less of an issue.
A few days later my younger granddaughter said, “Next year I want to be Mal and you can be Evie.” My older granddaughter replied, “No, next year we have to be animals again.”
My Birmingham niece has been participating in her community’s Day of the Dead festival for years. Like everything else it will be different this year (no big crowds so probably no Port o Potties named in honor of dead men named John) but there will still be an opportunity for her to bring her altars to the public space. This year she will carry a new altar she made for her cousin, my oldest daughter to “add our beauty to everyone else’s”
I saw the vintage candy corn label in the October issue of Country Living last year and thought it would make a good tag so I searched for and found it online. I didn’t know what to write on it (after I thought of gobble gobble and realized that is what a turkey not a rooster says) so I googled “Rooster Halloween Joke” and found “What did the rooster say on Halloween? – Cock-a-doodle-boo”. Perfect so I wrote “Cock-a-doodle-BOO!” on the back. Due to the coronavirus I don’t see many people these days so I made less than a dozen using the Halloween cellophane bags I had left from another year.
My trick or treat tags are meant to be ornaments and I hang them on my Halloween trees along with other ornaments I’ve made or purchased.
Last year I was lamenting the fact that most people ignore my tags and only comment on the candy (candy corn got a better reception than I was expecting this year since it seems to get pretty bad press). I figured it was because Halloween trees aren’t really a thing. But that may be changing. My younger daughter bought a Halloween tree at Target this year and hung some of the tags and other Halloween ornaments I have made over the years.
I started decorating for Fall at the end of August when I put the lotus pods and the Fall runner back on top of the yellow dresser at the end of the hall. That led me to bring out the Fall pillow for the hall bench. My youngest sister had made several of these patchwork leaf panels before she died and her daughter gave one to me and one to my other sister. I made mine into a pillow and I love bringing it out each Fall.
One of the bloggers I read posed the question, “Do you ever have an internal struggle between the ease of doing the same thing you did last year or mixing it up a little by adding something new?” Well, no I don’t struggle – I like doing the same things every year AND adding something new. This year I put my velvet pumpkins in a basket and put them on the bench that had belonged to my older daughter and now sits below our gallery wall.
And when I got a cute little pumpkin person from my Birmingham niece I knew it belonged on the top of the china cabinet which hosts pretty much the same pieces as last year.
The Day of the Dead decorations are new to the top of the china cabinet. I gave the doll made by my Birmingham niece to my older daughter for her birthday a few years ago and bought her the Day of the Dead cat in front of the blue vase at a CVS. The Day of the Dead cat mask displayed on a pumpkin was made by my Birmingham niece and I wore it for Halloween the year she sent us all Day of the Dead masks.
I had moved Batty Girl and the Wicked Pumpkin over to the CD case last year and this year they were joined by the new skull fabric pumpkin I bought at Target and a skeleton arrangement we bought at a store that is going out of business (more on that in a bit).
Around the corner I hung something new – a skeleton I downloaded from the Ella Claire Inspired website.
We put the black trees in the dining room area windows again and decorated them with the Halloween and unbreakable Day of the Dead ornaments. They posed somewhat of a challenge in the beginning as it turns out Mr. Burns is one of those cats that thinks felt ornaments are cat toys.
Our biggest challenge this year was finding a branch for our Fall ornaments. Since we had a derecho this year (this was a new term to me – it turns out it is a storm like a tornado but in a straight line) and a lot of trees had lost their branches that we would have been able to find lots of possibilities for our Fall branch in the park. But because the park was such a mess with not only branches but trees all over the place and because many regular park activities are suspended in the Time of Coron, the park workers have been diligently cleaning up the branches so none remain. I had no idea how I was going to hang all my Fall decorations but after I saw my Birmingham niece’s daughter’s bird ornament wreath (see last post) I had an idea for some of my leaves and nuts.
But the wreath only held a small portion of the Fall ornaments. The store that is going out of business that I have mentioned a few times is both a gift store and a floral arrangement store so I thought maybe they would sell us some branches from one of their arrangements. They would! We bought three stalks that resemble grapevines but seem a bit sturdier and hung them up.
We were only able to hang the rest of the leaves and acorns and the pinecones and fruit. There was no room for the owls, foxes, and other Fall ornaments although we did squeeze in the three breakable Day of the Dead ornaments- one for each window. Each window also got an anthropomorphic leaf or acorn hanging above the branch.
We hung the leaf/ light garland in the window between the wreath and the branches.
A few more old favorites and our decorating was complete.
For Indigenous People’s Day my Birmingham niece texted me greetings from her Navajo and Seminole dolls who are displayed with her dolls from Guatemala, Peru, and Mexico.
And then when I sent her a felt owl I made a few years ago she texted me a picture of it hanging on her daughter’s bird ornament collection wreath.
I also sent my niece the black felt cat ornament and she texted a picture of it hanging above her Halloween castle display of felted monsters.
That started an exchange of photos of our Fall decorating. She decorates her fireplace and her piano for Halloween and Day of the Dead.
She has a Frida Kahlo corner.
And a Day of the Dead tree.
And I thought I had a lot!
For one weekend at this time every year the Chicago Architecture Center (CAC) sponsors Open House Chicago – an opportunity to see inside buildings all over Chicago that are usually not open to the public. We’ve picked a few buildings in or close to our neighborhood each of the last two years and have really enjoyed the chance to peek in. Of course this year in the time of Corona changes had to be made. This year they are offering virtual programming and self directed tours for two weekends and the week in between. We downloaded the app and did a few of the walking tours this week.
On Monday we headed to Wicker Park to go on the Beer Baron Row Tour. Our first stop was the Weinhardt Mansion. This Queen Anne was built in 1888. The gingerbread trim was amazing and it even had a Little Free Library with its own gingerbread trim.
Another Queen Anne built in 1877 for Herman Plautz who owned the Northwest Brewery Company was decorated for Halloween like many of the houses in the neighborhood.
The next day we did a leg of the Tales of the Gold Coast Trail. One of the highlights was the Charnley-Persky House designed by Adler and Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright who still worked there in 1891.
Another interesting house was the Holabird and Root 1928 -9 Art Deco house. The CAC app states that “it is a rare example of a single family Deco home in Chicago”.
We took Wednesday off and on Thursday we headed out to see the Historic Mansions of Prairie Avenue. These included the Clarke House oldest house in Chicago and the Glessner House the only H.H. Richardson house left in Chicago. I didn’t take any photos on this tour but while we were there we found a Prairie Avenue Walking Tour Guide pamphlet with lots more of interest so I think we’ll go back soon.
No tours today since it was raining but while I was writing this I got an email saying that Open House Chicago has been extended for another week so I’m sure we’ll do at least one more next week since it’s been fun – in this time of Corona it is so great to have somewhere to go!
Collections and Other Stuff I Like 