I started doing yoga for physical reasons. I was wondering aloud one day how a person could avoid becoming bent in half like some older people I had seen and my sister and my mother said in unison, “Yoga” so I basically started taking a class at the Y the next day.
I feel so lucky that I had Anna as my first yoga teacher. Her approach eased me into appreciating the mind and spirit aspects of yoga as well as the physical. I’ve since had many other wonderful yoga teachers at the Y in Northampton and at Lakeview Athletic Club, the gym I joined in Chicago, and I can’t even imagine not doing yoga now. So when the gym closed because of the coronavirus I knew I would have to find a way to do yoga at home.
I was lucky again because I found Yoga with Adrienne on YouTube. Just like Anna was the perfect first studio teacher Adrienne is the perfect internet teacher. She’s not new to offering yoga over the internet and she makes me feel comfortable not stupid doing yoga in my living room. I had been going to the gym two or three times a week for classes of an hour to an hour and half long. Adrienne offers a variety of classes including 45 and 20 minute ones so I’ve begun doing yoga more often alternating longer and shorter classes. I think this is a habit that might continue when I can return to the gym so that on the days I don’t do yoga at the gym I’ll take a short class with my new favorite teacher – YouTube Adrienne!
Right before the coronavirus hit the United States and right after an Alexander Girard exhibit ended there Liz went to Palm Springs. Although the exhibit “Alexander Girard: A Designer’s Universe” was no longer at the Palm Springs Art Museum vesitages remained and since she had often heard me speak of Girard and of the restaurant La Fonda Del Sol, Liz texted me some photos.
The exhibit from the Vitra Design Museum in Germany doesn’t seem to be scheduled anywhere else soon but I’m going to check every once in awhile. I wonder if it is the same exhibit I saw many years ago with my parents that led me to plan a trip to the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. In any case I think I should plan a trip to Palm Springs when life returns to normal.
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I saw dry cleaners on the list of essential businesses that are allowed to stay open during the “stay at home” COVID19 order. I was surprised when I first moved to Chicago by how many dry cleaners there are here. In the short 1/2 mile walk to my gym there are three (there actually used to be 4).
And if I turn the other way on Broadway towards the supermarket I see three more. Even more amazing to me is the fact that they all seem to have tons of clothes waiting to be picked up. They also all do alterations and minor repairs. A lot of them also have awesome neon signs.
Spring came on March 19th a day earlier then the earliest I would have expected it. I hadn’t begun decorating yet although we had brought the Spring totes up from the storage room. When I realized it was the first day of Spring I opened the totes and got out the trees and the ornaments.
At the end of the season last year my youngest daughter found two more of the trees I could only find one of so I put them in the dining room windows.
I was excited to hang the last of my Evanston sidewalk sales purchases – the purple and green plaid bunny at the bottom of this tree.
That cute (vintage?) egg basket with the painted cherry design also came from an Evanston sidewalk sale.
I hung the eggs on the wooden tree again this year. I couldn’t resist the one with the yellow duck and flowers when I saw it at Michael’s a few weeks ago. It reminded me of the duck in The Golden Egg Book – one of my favorite childhood books.
Even though we don’t know when baseball season will start this year I added the baseball glove to the kitchen ornaments this year since it’s a bit heavy for the new Spring trees.
I decided to leave the rest of the Spring decorating for another day and went for a walk in the rain since I can’t go to the gym. I was excited to see a true sign of Spring!
Ever since I first started seeing articles about them last year I have wanted to see these trolls by Danish artist Thomas Dambo at the Morton Arboretum but since they’re a bit outside Chicago we never managed to get there. But with everything else closed because of the coronavirus today was the perfect day for a short road trip.
Made mostly of recycled wood the six trolls are 15 to 30 feet tall or in one case 60 feet long. A few of them have hair made from branches.
I walked past this Unitarian church the other day. The first thing I noticed was that it was called The Second Unitarian Church, I had only ever seen “Firsts” before but never thought about what that meant (Another “You’re living in a big city now” moment). Then I noticed that it had a little library that looks like the church. Unfortunately the little library while attractive leaks so all the books inside it were a bit wet including the one I chose.
Since I taught Sunday School classes at the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence for a couple of years, it is fitting that the book is about Godly Play an Episcopalian Montessori Religious Education curriculum I have been curious about since a friend told me about it.
Because it is behind glass it’s kind of hard to take a good picture of it or of the amazing collection it holds but Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle at the Museum of Science and Industry is reason enough to go to the museum or to stop by for another look every time you go.
Colleen Moore, a silent movie picture star, commissioned her dream doll house in 1928. It was planned by set designer Horace Jackson and interior designer Harold Grieve. It took over 7 years to build and cost over $500,000. It can be broken down into 200 modular pieces and when it was finished it toured for the benefit of children’s charities raising more than 650,000 between 1935 and 1939. In 1949 Moore donated it to the Museum of Science and Industry.
The castle follows the standard one foot to one inch doll house proportion and contains more than 1500 minatures including music scores copied in tiny notes by their famous composers, minature books by Noel Coward, Sinclair Lewis, Thorton Wilder, Sir Arthur Conon Doyle, Edna Ferber, and John Steinbeck, a minature painting by Walt Disney, the tiniest Bible ever written, ancient statues more than 2000 years old, and 1/4 inch hollow glass slippers that would fit a 5 inch Cinderella. It also has amazing wall murals, tapestries, ivory and rose quartz and jade floors, and etched glass windows. It really does need to be seen to be believed!
We have been exploring watercolors in the art studio this Winter. In addition to the traditional watercolor palette and brushes on the tables there are also a series of large collaborative floor paintings being created with liquid watercolors and large brushes, sponges, and droppers.
Liz talks to the visitors especially school groups and their teachers about using the brush to create varied painted lines and about the importance of small motor development citing a New York Times article about how the decline of art experiences in childhood is affecting the ability of surgeons. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/well/live/surgeons-hobbies-dexterity.amp.html
When I was searching for Fortune Teller signs for my Halloween treats I came across a Fortune Teller Valentine’s card. Since the “fortune” is written backwards I thought I’d write my message backwards as well. I decided to use the same message that I used on Halloween: “I see you” and I wrote it, scanned it, and then flipped it in the computer. I figured that no one made valentine candy with eyes on it so I bought some hearts wrapped in red and silver foil. And then I remembered the washi tape with Alexander Girard eyes that I bought at the Milwaukee Art Museum. I attached a set of eyes to each of the hearts wrapped in silver foil and then I attached those to the back of the valentines with glue dots (those things are amazing!)
I kept the garland up in the kitchen and decorated it for Valentine’s Day. The new silver mercury glass heart I bought at a winter pop up shop on Navy Pier is hanging down on the right.
Whenever I see a commercial on TV for Lindor truffles I say, “Mmmm!” so guess what I got.
When I was valentine crafting with my youngest granddaughter I made a Valentine card too. I used lots of washi tape!
I know that “ghost bikes” are placed where people have died in bicycle accidents so I wondered when I was riding the bus and caught a glimpse of a white painted shopping cart in front of the Jewel supermarket if a pedestrian had died while crossing the street to shop. Since the cart had a sign with the name Eugenio Escriba, I googled it and the truth turned out to be more disturbing. Eugenio died on November 20, 2019 in the custody of the store’s security after being detained for suspected shoplifting. There still aren’t a lot of answers about exactly what happened and what action Jewel-Osco has taken in regards to the security staff so I imagine that whoever put the ghost shopping cart in front of the Jewel is hoping to make sure the neighborhood continues to ask questions.
Collections and Other Stuff I Like 