We started watching House Hunters on HGTV at our younger daughter’s house while we were looking for our condo in Chicago and then we became hooked. So after we moved to Chicago and a new show premiered on HGTV called Windy City Rehab we were excited to check it out. We had watched a few episodes and when our niece who we knew liked to watch International House Hunters came to visit, we asked her if she’d like watch an episode. That episode turned out to be pretty exciting because the entire house fell down! “They didn’t brace it all!!!!! What did they expect?” my niece exclaimed. We figured they must have wanted it to fall down so we weren’t too surprised when we began to read of complaints from people (whose houses were in the same neighborhoods as the ones that were being remodeled) about the show and the cohosts HGTV personality Alison Victoria and contractor Donovan Eckhardt. It was a little more surprising when the city issued Stop Work Orders for several of the homes and when lawsuits involving both buyers and subcontractors were filed. The house with the unpaid subcontractor turned out to be in my neighborhood so of course I had to go take a look.
I have been meaning to check out the Ryan Learning Center at the Art Institute of Chicago for awhile so when we went to the Andy Warhol exhibit on Sunday I stopped by. And it turned out it is all about to be “enhanced”. One room that I think had been for the youngest children was already closed and nothing was happening in some of the studios. The Family Room was still open but I think it was scheduled to be closed the next day.
Families were building with blocks and looking at books.
An invitation to create a shadow box inspired by the exhibit “Photography + Folk Art: Looking for America in the 1930’s” was set up on the tables.
I don’t think there was a facilitator in the space (no one approached me – a grown up with no children taking pictures) but there were some families creating.
There were many completed shadow boxes hanging on the wall.
I liked these lines and clips as a way to save and display art and will be interested to see if they remain after the remodeling since it looked like there had been some which had been removed outside one of the studio classroom spaces. It will be exciting to return in a few months to see the new space.
YAP programs usually run for about 2 months but for December and early January Liz planned two different ones. First texture rubbings – such a simple idea but so much fun. We collected many items including plastic doilies and placemats (especially good were the pieces of honeycomb plastic that come under the pizza in our Friday night pizza box), fabric with texture (the museum has lots of donated upholstery swatches), and pieces of a clear pliable plastic cut into shapes. Then we supplied paper and “muffin crayons”. Muffin crayons are made by melting crayon ends in muffin tins. We supplied a recipe for these as we get lots of questions about how to make them.
One week guest artist Ione who creates prints with found texture pieces talked about her art and set up a texture area for large rubbings.
In mid December we introduced cake decorating which we had done last year and it was just as popular.
Cake Decorating will probably return next December and texture rubbing may return again this year.
While we were exploring shapes in the Young Artist program at the Chicago Children’s Museum guest artist Shawn Smith came to introduce his mural shape characters and help guests create their own out of foam shapes.
While others are taking down their Christmas decorations those of us who celebrate Christmas well into January are leaving ours up. My husband and his siblings take turns hosting and this year as with many others we will be celebrating on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. Two years ago we celebrated in Maryland and I took these photos of my sister in law’s Angel tree.
One of the highlights of Christmas in Chicago is the opportunity to see more of the James and Emilia Govan Creche Collection at LUMA (the Loyola University Museum of Art). The collection comprises more than 500 collected and commissioned Nativity scenes from around the world.
Since we also have quite a Nativity collection several years ago my husband bought me a beautiful book called Art of the Creche: Nativities from Around the World for Christmas. The first time we went to the LUMA exhibit we realized that we were seeing the Nativities from the book.
The Govans donated their collection to LUMA in 2009 and James Govan continues to aquire or commission and donate new pieces. Each year the museum features a portion of the collection. There were less displayed this year than in other years but I think they were all ones I hadn’t seen before. The Chicago Nativity was particularly fun, I love the little angels flitting around on the skyscrapers.
I think this one from Kenyan artist Daudi Makungu was my favorite this year. Although with over 100 on display it’s hard to pick just one.
I have always made my own Christmas cards. At first I made linoleum blocks and printed each one but in 1983 I began creating with a partner – a copier! So now if I make a block print I only make one and then I copy it. I don’t just use block prints though, I’ve used pen, pencil, and marker as well as cut paper and collage. With my limited artistic ability I usually adapt or alter images I happen on or search for. I often attach embroidery thread to my cards turning them into ornaments which many recipients save and display. The other day I received three photos over text or email featuring them.
I decided to go big with the living/dining room window decorations again this year.
I learned how to make these Nordic Stars from Erin of the Francois et Moi blog. She makes it look easy but I found them pretty challenging. Each point is made separately and I never did figure out how to do the last fold so they became a collaborative effort. I could put all the points together though and I like the way they turned out but I wish they didn’t have a tendency to hang a little sideways.
They look great from the street though.
I decided to hang the garland over the kitchen sink again and filled it with gnomes inspired by those on Tauni Everett’s blog.
We found some new ornaments for the kitchen when we went to the Andersonville sidewalk sales. The coffee pot and pan aren’t actually made of metal like the colander or the pan we bought last year but they do add some sparkle.
Sam Taylor, a Massachusetts potter, once told me that people think he will be upset when they tell him that a mug they bought from him has broken. He explained he wasn’t upset at all because it meant that people would be ready to buy a new one – a plus for him!
I got to remember that again this morning when I broke my current water cup. Instead of being upset I thought, with a toast to Sam, now I get to use the one pictured above that I bought at the Evanston sidewalk sales this Spring.
Last year I bought a unicorn matroyska doll set from stocking stuffer display at Michael’s. I had thought about giving it to my oldest granddaughter but never did so I decided to keep it. When I opened it I fully expected another unicorn but instead there was a mermaid!
Oh okay I thought, magical creatures. But when I opened that one I found a sloth. Not really magical!
And when I opened that one I found a polar bear.
I didn’t think it made any sense at all so I decided I should make them all magical using some stickers from a Dover Emerald Isle sticker book and Mod Podge. I’d never used Mod Podge before so that was a new experience! Since it dries as a clear coating I thought that’s what would happen on the wood surface as well as the sticker surface. But it turns out it is a glue as well as coating so it was all a kind of gluey mess. But I was able to get that off.
Here’s the new set. Now the third one is a Brownie and the littlest one an angel or fairy. The littlest one worked better because the border around the angel/fairy is the same color as the wood. But I kind of like the Brownie even though he doesn’t work as well. There weren’t any characters that would cover the sloth entirely so there is a thatched house on the back of the Brownie one.
A pretty strange matroyska!
Collections and Other Stuff I Like 