Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Walking in the neighborhood, art on the walls


Color!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Side streets off Milwaukee Avenue in Wicker Park.



Big Eyes.


Long view.






Bakery window, Nightmare Before Christmas display

Neighborhood bakery had big, sweeping, exuberant foundant and cardboard(?) window display.
Great attention to detail.

Funnily, names of other bakeries appeared on tombstones.
Division Avenue reflected.

Previous displays featured disturbing batchelor party cake(?)
 consisting of headless, armless, legless female torso in corset.

Under previous ownership, my favorite Christmas cake on display was one that resembled a tree trunk with concentric rings that were formed as the cake was rotated on a spit while it baked. You ordered by weight and a portion would be sliced off for you. Very eggy and pleasantly spongy.

Wisteria and Clement were ready to crawl inside and play in the tempting diorama.

Stuff made from other stuff, SOFA show

Tiny chairs made of bones.
Reminds me of a painter, who the the 1400's painted elaorative still lifes made up of fruits and vegetables
arranged to resemble a human figure.
Skulls!

Love quilts.  Anything I would make would be shoddy and lumpy.

Walking in the neighborhood, St. Mary of the Angels Church


St. Mary of the Angels Church in Bucktown neighborhood, modeled after St. Peter's in Rome.
Fiberglass angels made in the 1990s to replace beautiful, weathered, and allegedly unsafe (since they were crumbling) original terracotta ones.  I wish the originals would have been repaired or remade.  The current ones are sad imitations. No disrespect to the artist who made them.
The scaffolding, seen in the upper righthand corner, hints at the major project going on, which is called "Save the Dome."  Maybe the gentry that moved into the area will contribute.
The parish is attempting to raise millions of dollars towards this effort.
The original 80-some year old terracotta got leaky some 20 years ago and was replaced with some white stuff that looked plasticy. 
 Now it's being clad with what looks like copper.


As part of the big renovation some 20 years ago the stairs on the east/Hermitage side were rebuilt. They used to extend north (where the planted area is now) and south.
They seem scant and less welcoming, especially as some parts of the stairs bounded by railings lead to a dead end/column at the top.


More scaffolding against a gray sky.
The bells used to ring 4 times a day, at 6 am, 12 noon, 6 pm, 12 midnight.
Newer residents protested the late night bells, so now it's down to 3 times a day.

I feel wistful seeing that building as many of the families who attended have moved on.  
The ladies of my mother's generation have sold their houses to pay for nursing homes or they have passed away.  The garbage cans in the alleys become repositories for memories.
Crocheted afgans, canned tomato sauce, needles and thread languish until Streets and Sanitation trucks pick up. Some things come home with me.  An animal print pillow cover, letters shining light on past intrigues, a large Weck jar that used to hold dog food for Rocky 2 now washed, holds rocks and sea shells. The former homes of these ladies pass into memory as well as they are bulldozed, the sites "developed" into cinderblock mansions. 


Monday, December 19, 2011

"Flotsam and jetsam"

My two favorite words from The Borrowers--"flotsam and jetsam."  Very influential on my decorating perferences, thriftiness, collections of oddities.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Beach still lifes

Who made these prints? Gull or boy?

In your face typeface.
Tiny jellyfish, the beach was strewn with them.
Random letters? Or artist signature?

Tourist Attractions

Bad Ass Coffee.
I had my husband pull over so I could take pictures. 
 Love the simple, lazy name; tight, red typeface crowded over the doorway.
Taken October 2010 when visiting family in California.

Giant eyeball sculpture.
Downtown Chicago summer 2009.


Redwood Forest, Armstrong Woods, California 2010.
Air smells amazing.  Feel oxygen making every cell of my body sing.
Depressingly, about 96% of original forest cut down in California.
Sadder yet, compare with Illinois, 1/100th of 1% of original
prairie and oak savannah remain,
on fringes near railroad tracks and old graveyards.

Stare down. Big dinosaur. Field Museum, Chicago, 2009.



Lake Michigan, Chicago lakefront.
Windy day bridal party,
taken near Alder Planterium, 2008?







Sunday, December 11, 2011

more Fernwood, Niles, Michigan photos



Fernwood Gardens in Niles, Michigan

Lovely miniature railroad in Fernwood Gardens, Michigan this past golden October.

Volunteer posted nearby, watching families watching trains. 
Wonder if some have been stolen or vandalized in the past?
Imagine that might be irresistible to some, like the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel.

new use for binder clip

Today was a big deal family ocassion that called for dressing up.  My dress was a smart navy with white trim maxidress from Village Thrift.  I may have been a sailor in a past life.  Black tasselled shoes new to me from the Salvation Army. 

My underpinnings however left something to be desired.  Sturdy underwire brasierre, check.  However my baggy assed worn out undies topped with black nylons with nonelastic elastic had me worried.  I could feel them sliding down & over various deposits of stored energy.  Over the course of the afternoon they could easily find their way to my knees and ankles.  Le horror or chuckles aplenty. Not quite enough time to change.

In our tea drawer at home live a collection of binder clips in various sizes.  Normally they clip potato chip bags and the like.  I had the idea of using one to hold up my sagging drawers.  Several tries, then attached it to the midpoint of the front of the underwire and drew up the waistband of the nylons to it.  Clipped together and success!  As a bonus, even though I forgot about the arrangement when I had to go to the bathroom--no accidents.  The front stayed together & the back, er, well, everything was fine.

Unlike MacGywer, I don't have that many opportunities to engineer clever solutions.  I felt rather proud of myself for this little success.