Chicago trip - post 4: the Museum of Contemporary Art and the day Daniel tried to take my camera away

 The exhibits at the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art were SO. SO. AMAZING.

 After SUUUCH a wonderful night's sleep, Daniel ordered a surprise room service breakfast 

of White Chocolate French Toast and it was sooooooooooooooooooooooooo good!!!

 Another GORGEOUS day! We hit the streets and walked to the Museum of Contemporary Art!

 This spinning "MOTHERS" sign was the first thing we saw and I know it was made just for ME!

Okay..... it is the MCA Plaza Project by Martin Creed, and will remain there through May 2013

(thanks to Tay for shooting these pics for me! xo)

Me probably saying something dorky to make Daniel laugh, and Davy looking so chic in his pea coat.

The main exhibit featured the works of brothers Rowan and Erwan Bouroullec -

IT WAS STUNNING!

huge, textural, colorful, touchable, integrative, creative, expansive, simple, brilliant....... I could go on!

Truly a visual treat of all their work, their creative process, their inspiration, their applications.

(I actually recognized some of their later pieces!)

The semi-sheer "screen" above is made from thousands of plastic clamps used as a room divider.

The tiny model..... the chair.

 The tiny model atop their simply textured ceramic floor tile.

Another example of their creative room dividers - decorative on both sides

 This tightly woven chair is strikingly simple - 

it reminded me of one of my all time favorite chairs: the Womb chair by Aero Saarinan

 More pieces of their integrative works, with concept drawings covering the wall in behind.

 Anything can be an inspiration :)

Concepts turned into reality - the small green, stackable container table is still produced.

The back side of the room divider seen above 

Another room divider with a different type of connector, this time "tabs" are used -

I really like how one color becomes two, then on down the line flows into several more colors. 

Yet another room of the Bouroullec exhibit, taken through their quirky white, transparent divider 

 A "honeycomb" type divider that was so immense, it reached beyond the second floor!

 Some people I know and know and love looking out the expansive 2ond story window :)

 And now through another of their screens, this time black

 The "MOTHERS" sign is down there spinning around

 Look at these awesome buildings! I love how old is against new. 

If I wasn't so annoyed with the word 'juxtaposition' I would use it here.....

 Right about now is when Daniel had finally had enough and asked to "see" my camera. 

I've been around the block enough to know what he was trying. I created him. 

So I kept taking pics :)

Of course there were MANY more amazing exhibits we thoroughly enjoyed!

I particularly liked Color Bind: the MCA Collection in Black and White

 I encourage you to check it out in person or online!

~

Next up: we shopped AND we dropped!

chair of my dreams

Papa Bear chair by Hans Wegner

IN DA HOUSE

*BAM!*

~

Happy Friday Everyone!

Eichler homes

YESSSSS! I've been wanting to do this post for some time now! A while back when we took the Mouse to his banjo lesson, I was stunned to realize that his teacher's neighborhood was a tract of original *Eichler* homes from the 1950's! :-0 I was completely bowled over! Upon asking his teacher about it, I learned that this was one of Eichler's few southern California tracts. Most of them are in the San Francisco area. Out of 150 something homes in this tract, only 50 something remain in their original state. 


Driving through the neighborhood taking photos was a real treat for me - not so much for the leery homeowners who thought I was casing their neighborhood :/ Many of the homes were unfortunately in ramshackle condition :( And even worse, many of the homes had been remodeled and looked downright hideous. HID.E.OUS. But most of the homes that had been carefully preserved or painstakingly renovated to celebrate/accentuate mid-century modern style, were truly stunning.


There are 2 models - one larger with a 2 car garage, and one smaller with a 1 car garage and extra parking pad, and a larger entry way. For those of you who wouldn't otherwise know, the front door does not lead to the inside of the home in traditional style. It leads to a large courtyard that the rest of the rooms of the home surround in a U-shape manner. This was Eichler's vision of "bringing the outside in". Very "California Mod" :D

I chose 5 of my favorites to show you. ENJOY THE TOUR!  

Aren't they amazing? A dear friend of mine, Cheryl, found out that every so often on certain Saturdays, you can sign up for a tour of some of these homes! It is sponsored by the Gamble House (famous Arts and Crafts style movement). If you are interested and would like more information, click *HERE*. It would be a marvelous opportunity to see several of these Eichler homes in one day! (and BTW, the Gamble House tours sound amazing as well) All information is on the above link.

Happy Eichler/Mid-Century Modern Day! :D  

weekend round-up/mayhem

~ Happy 40th Birthday to my dear friend Kerrie! ~

My friend Kerrie celebrated the Big 4-OHHH Friday. She is the president of the young women's organization at church, and she is one fabulous person! She can do anything and everything, and I have never - EVER - seen her without a smile on her face! I admire and appreciate her so much - and I know all the girls love and adore her - so this is what I made her for her birthday. I put it in a turquoise frame :)

~ Congratulations Kacy! Class of 2011 ~

Kacy just happens to be Kerrie's niece! I made one of these for each of the 7 graduates in our young women's program, cuz as you know, I love those girls ever so much... but Kacy is the only one that has hers so far... mua-ha-haaa :D 

Okay - I'm not even going to try to explain this... it's just Matthew being Matthew and generally driving me nutsy fagan :/

~ Mouse Recovery ~

So Matthew goes dirt biking with a friend. He is a wild man. Very skilled, but scary wild. He clears a 90 foot triple jump. He's just not expecting a berm (a walled turn) to be right there as he lands. He hits the berm, flies 30 feet, lands in a heap, dislocates his shoulder, hurts his hip, knocks himself out and gets a concussion..... and the first thing he says when he comes to is "DID YOU SEE THAT?!?! I CLEARED THE TRIPLE JUMP!!!" :/

~ FINALLY! My mid-century modern chair! ~

Okay, you don't even KNOW how excited I am to have this! I have looked for a chair for my bedroom forever! Found on Craigslist after losing several others... original condition and PERFECT! We picked it up Saturday and, as you can see, we ALL love it!

~ that's right: I WIN ~

Remember *THIS POST* and how my boys wreck everything?!?! Well I was not going to let them get away with it. I adore my colorful paper lanterns and so I got these patterned ones on sale at Pier 1 and made them replace the ones they ruined. SCORE ONE FOR ME! HAH!

~ GNOME GNAME GAME: UPDATE ~

Thank you, thank you, thank you for all your gnome gname ideas! They've been pouring in from every which way! Wow, I have some very fun and creative friends! Below are all the names that have been suggested so far..... Keep them coming peeps - I LOVE IT!

* Corky Mugwiggen

* Wimbiddle

* Periwinkle http://www.gnomefrenzy.com/gnome-names.html

* Conehead O'Brian

* Comfortably Gnome

* true to form, my friend Traci went above and beyond:

SCOTTISH NAMES-

Alastair

Angus Podgorney: 

(Monty Python skit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySl_Nk_G-cw) Her personal favorite. :)

Jock

MacDuff

IRISH NAMES-

Alphonsus

Aillén (prnounces All-ayn which means Elf)

Declan

Fergal

Gallagher

Connolly 

O'Rourke

Gnome Names-

Wimfoodle

Elwinkle

Folwicket

Wimwinkle

Boddywocket

Yorkshire NAMES-

Mardybum  :)))

* Lord Bunbury

* Gnomeo

* Mr. Baggins

P.S. I've decided I'm never going to plan on 

relaxing over the weekend again, hehe!