Mod-ern art

I had been trying for a while to find a nice, big piece of art to put above my fireplace.  After reading some of the Marimekko Blog, and seeing that they were having a big sale (still going on, until Jan. 15) I decided to invest in a yard of fabric, which I stretched over a canvas and hung up.  First, I had to figure out who I had lent my staple gun to, years ago, but once I had all of the necessary materials, it went up in a flash.

Cross Stitch Christmas

This post is about a week late, but the sentiment is up-to-date.

This Christmas, I gave my family members some counted cross stitch projects I had been working on.  The first one I did was from a kit I bought last time I was home, at the Mystic Seaport Museum Store, a little taste of home for my dad and my step-mother.

The next 3 were for my sister, aunt and cousin, all with a saying that my grandmother had cross-stitched and kept in her kitchen.  My mother inherited the original and helped me out with a few very detailed photos so that I could figure out the pattern.  

Since my mom had the original cross-stitch, I had to think of something else to do for her.  After a lot of mulling, I remembered what my grandmother used to say to my mom every morning to wake her up for school (and my mother used to say to me sometimes too).  Here is the result.

Another gift I gave to my parents was a drawing for each of them, that I had done in my drawing class.  Here is the finished and framed drawing for my mom, which was perfect for her because she weaves and uses the same spools of yarn as I drew in class.  She has it up in her weaving room.

Gapers Block : Drive-Thru : Chicago Food - Grahamwich for Christmas

On Monday, Dec. 20, my friend Brittany and I headed down to the newly-opened Grahamwich for a little lunch.

I enjoyed the beef shortrib sandwich, with an orange ginger soda. I also ordered g'wich chips (yukon potatoes, fresh herbs, bacon bits, cheddar cheese and ranch powder) which came in a delightfully large serving, so large that I brought it home with me and left it for my friend Ruthie, who was bringing in my mail while I was out of town for Christmas. Ruthie, delighted by the potato chip surprise, wrote about me on Gaper's Block:

Gapers Block : Drive-Thru : Chicago Food - Grahamwich for Christmas

and she just told me the other day that Graham Elliot re-tweeted the article! We're all famous by association.

Strangely, I think everything has come full circle, considering Brittany and I had a Graham sighting when we stopped into the restaurant.

Yum Yum!

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just as he did in The Corrections, Franzen tells the story of a complex family (but what family isn't complex, at some level?) from the viewpoint of almost every family member (I do have to wonder why the daughter never got a chance to tell her story).  Just when you get comfortable with one narrator, you're whisked away to another one, who you learn to love just as much, and you see the first narrator in a totally new light.  This book really makes you think about strange political issues (birds?  you really want me to care about birds now?) and makes you question what you're doing to help the world, at least that's what it did for me.  The characters can disgust you at times, then surprise you when you realize that you love them, then surprise you again, when you realize how much they are like yourself, in their disgusting loveliness.


View all my reviews

Festivus for All of Us.

Friday night was my annual Holiday Party/carol sing/gift exchange.  It was another huge success, with 3 bowls of punch being drunk up by about 20 people.  (that's 2 handles of vodka, 6 bottles of champagne, etc.)  Needless to say it was a long, loud evening and I hope my downstairs neighbors don't hate me!

        Christmas Carols later turned to a Guns 'n' Roses singalong by the piano, and I got a ShamWow from my secret santa, which had to be used soon after for multiple spills.  Yesterday was spent mopping my floors, then lying on the couch for 9 hours at my friend Anna's "hangover party," watching some great Christmas movies and Point Break.  Since most of my party pictures need to be censored (ahem), I will pass on this one little gem, when, late in the evening, I was convinced to get out my accordion.

Gingerbread Houses, of a sort

I've been meaning to blog for a while, and believe me I've had lots of interesting things to write about, but I've been too busy to write!  Worse things could happen, I know.
             Anyway, what I'll write about in this quick post is about a quick little thank-you gift I made the other day for my Architecture History professor, who is writing some grad school recommendations for me.  In the very spirit of our class, I made my traditional gingerbread cookies with buttercream frosting, which I've been giving as holiday gifts since grade school, with a bit of an architectural twist.
            A few weeks ago I bought house cookie-cutters - to cut walls and a roof for a gingerbread house.  I haven't made a 3-D house yet, but I used them this week to make some facades.

I made a gingerbread Frank Lloyd Wright Home (minus the studio):

A gingerbread Farnsworth House, by Mies Van Der Rohe:

and a gingerbread AT&T Building (now the Sony Center), by Philip Johnson:

I hope that the cookies look this good when he opens the box, but I highly doubt they will since they got jostled some on the train ride downtown, which, by the way, was on the CTA holiday express.  I wish I had had my camera with me (I got this pic from the internet) for that magical train ride (ehhhh) but I will have the visual memory forever.