Off to the Windy City

The Player and I are heading to Chicago on the train tomorrow, for a couple days of R&R.  We have some tickets (train tickets and baseball game tickets), a hotel reservation, and some general plans.

The plans include

1.  The Green Mill on Monday night to see Patricia Barber tinkle the ivories,

2.  Bookstores galore.

3.  Good cheap seats for the Cubs game Tuesday night, thanks to a losing season!

4.  Did I mention bookstores? 

5.  A visit to the Chicago Mosaic School and their store called "Tiny Pieces."  I expect I might feel I've passed through the pearly gates when I walk in their door.

6.  Good cheap ethnic food, preferably near a bookstore.

See you later this week!

No Cohesive Theme to This Blog. Does that stop me? No.

This little fellow was on my deck the other morning digging through pots of soil.  I don't know if he was burying nuts and seeds for the winter, looking for more stuff to hide away, or getting ready to try out for the backyard whiffle ball tournament:

 

By the time I got my camera out he was out in left field warming up.

***********

I've been mosaic-ing again.  The last couple of projects have taken me a while.  Here is one that's  hanging on the wall above The Player's desk:

 

 

My favorite part of this piece was breaking plates and cups to create the background of the Peace Sign.  Irony is better than ironing any day!

Here's my latest effort, still need to figure out what to do with the outer edges and then it will need grouting.  I think it will live outdoors in the garden area.  It's a tree, not a scorpion.  In case you were worried.

Any suggestions on what to do with the outside sections are more than welcome.

A Smattering

Sisi's school celebrated Spirit Week last week.  One day was Crazy Sock Day.  Sisi usually wears unmatched bright colored socks anyway, so she borrowed One Halloween sock and One Christmas sock from her mama.   Crazy hat day she wore her usual blue bandana.  Crazy Hair Day - she took OFF her bandana. 

Finally School Colors day rolled around.  Black and Orange.  Sisi decided (the evening before) that she would like to splatter paint a t-shirt for school.  We drove off to the Dollar Tree and bought her a $1 white t-shirt with black sleeves.  Mama already had some fabric paints.   She painted the front that night and we hung the shirt to dry.  The next morning she painted the back and we hung the shirt in front of a fan to dry.  The results were pretty satisfying:

 

A closer view of the back:

 

 

AND now that Spirit Week is over, she has the shirt hung on her bedroom wall, like the Art that It Is!

 

 

 

The Writing Is On The Wall

Many times as I've driven through downtown Bloomington I've wished I had my camera to photograph some of the old fading ads painted on the sides of brick buildings.  Yesterday I had my camera in my purse for some reason.  In fact, in the morning I found it there and thought to myself "Why the heck did I bring that today?"   I found myself driving through downtown Bloomington with a little extra time on my hands. 

 

Madison and Center Street

 

South Main, just before Oakland Avenue.  (Pianos packed and moved!  Wow!)

 

 

Barber shop at the corner of Front and Allin. 

 

 

Meanwhile, on the home Front:

 

 

J-dude gives new meaning to licking the pan.

 

 

 

Sisi rocks with her homemade bow, quiver (from duct tape!) and arrows.  But she still spells archery "Artchery."

 

 

 

 

Who Loves Ya?

Here is who loves the weather lately:  The Hibiscus Sisters (sextuplets?) !

Since we got lots and lots of inches of beautiful rain followed steamy tropical temperatures my hibiscus has gone wild.  I love those red wild flowers, even if I don't much enjoy being outside in the steam bath with them.

Here is my latest mosaic project, ready for grouting tomorrow.

 

 The picture frame will hold Sisi's school picture when it arrives as she is wearing a royal blue t-shirt in her photo.  I have long since given up on hoping she will do her hair up and wear a nice shirt for picture day.  This year it was a Parks and Rec Grade School Basketball t-shirt that is about 2 sizes too small, a blue bandana over her hair, and a blue sweatshirt that I believe she draped around her shoulders.  She is definitely Her Own Girl.

Now Where Was I?

I seem to have some difficulty attending to my blog these days.  I don't seem to roll out of bed bright and early as I once did, brew up some java, and start up the blogging machine.  I can attribute this desire to stay in bed longer to the warm body in the bed next to me and new curtains that keep more of the early morning light!  Thank you IKEA! (For the curtains, of course!)

The Player is in O-HI-O this holiday weekend visiting his kids, other family, and friends.  My kids decided that even though it's a holiday I should get up at the usual time.  Hmmm.  Well, here we are.  I am blogging and they are working on their homework.  Sisi has to write a 2-page essay on the topic of Respect.  Her entire class was given this assignment after some unfortunate occurences in the classroom on Thursday.  She maintains her innocence in the scandal (I think too much talking out loud was the problem) but is working diligently on her assignment.  I suspect there will be a sentence or two about not punishing the innocent in the essay.  When her teacher asked us to write something about what she should know about our child, I wrote "Sisi has a mind of her own."  I wrote much more of course, but that was the topic sentence of my paragraph. 

J-dude has some science homework which is to decorate his science folder with 10 drawings of "things related to science."  The point, of course, is to get the kids to realize that almost anything can be related to science.  For J-dude that translates into "I can draw pictures of every kind of sports equipment and be finished."  Oy.

I have been working on mosaics more and more.   AND I found, while surfing the net looking for mosaic ideas and materials...The Chicago Mosaic School!  They offer workshops and classes.  So one weekend soon I hope to trek north and actually learn from some more experienced mosaic makers! 

At NCC we are coming up on our 20th anniversary as a Community.  One of our hopes is to create a display of mosaics that everyone will participate in.  I'm pretty excited about that!  More to follow as the project gets underway.  We have a couple real artists who are willing to coordinate and teach and build.  It's gonna be amazing to work on this together!