Pop-Up Art Loop

Last month, Scott and I visited the awesome city of Chicago.

Like most cities these days, they have a plethora of empty storefronts in the downtown area. It's sad, but just like Boston, they are appealing to artists to pretty things up.

The Pop-Up Art Loop transforms empty storefronts throughout the Chicago Loop area.


Not only are there pop-up art galleries with regular business hours like the one pictured above, but there are installations viewed by the public through the glass windows like the pictures below.


And of course, they force little cute kids to stand in windows and smile at the public as any great city does.

About this picture: These kids had the most pouty sourpusses on their faces until I took my camera out...I think they were in a time-out.

I am in love with Chicago, I encourage you to visit if you can. Don't even get me started on the architecture...that will be a different blog post!

Anticipation

Scott in Brooklyn?

Me in Paris?

One more guess!

I love sparkly shiny things!

Nantucket Window

Some Kerry Hawkins type photographs of a shop window on Nantucket. Kerry has a great eye for window photos, and I thought I would give it a try. This shop had the most wonderful display of cast toys. It was closed when we were browsing the windows.




I love the last photo with the standing frog.

Some More Wedding Photos

Today, I was able to upload some pictures (last night I couldn't...go figure). I must have had a great time at the wedding because I didn't get any good pictures, but here are some anyway.

The table centerpiece.


Doug and Pam joining the guests for dinner.


Pam the bride in the foreground.


Paula and Scott enjoying tiny mint chocolate chip ice cream cones.


This picture pretty much sums it up.

Nantucket

The weekend was amazing. We made so many great memories of wonderful times with friends. The island is gorgeous, I don't know if I totally captured the weekend in photos, but I tried...
Lunch on Saturday at the Rose and Crown Pub.

Some of my boys... Kevin, Andy and Scott.

Saturday afternoon...oops, I have camera shadow in my face. It's still a goodish pic.

It was so windy, but somehow the wedding went on and it was just beautiful.

The wedding was very small, only about 70 guests as you can see by this picture from the third floor balcony, after the ceremony, before they broke it down. (they broke it down very quickly, the next time I looked, the chairs were gone).

Breakfast on Sunday at the Fog Island Cafe.

Kevin, Andy and Eric just after our breakfast.

This is all just a taste of Nantucket, I have a bunch of great pictures to share, but I need some down time first.
It's really an incredible little island with a distinctive look in all the architecture.

Thanks for indulging me. I will post more to follow. I need sleep now.

Quick Update

It's been a crazy week.

Tomorrow is the last day for me to get last minute things done before Nantucket, and boy do I have a whole lot of last minute things. I have to deliver a special order, pack and mail an etsy order, go to the office for a bit, try to find a black slip, dye my hair, get dog food, get Rusty packed and ready to spend the weekend at Jape and Suzanne's house, and a slew of other things. I hope poor Raven can deal with him and his over activeness without going crazy.

Rusty has also been an issue this week. He had to go to the hospital on Tuesday for eating plastic and having diarrhea for 4 days. He is feeling 100% better now, but he is still on medication twice a day until it runs out.

I plan on taking lots of pictures of Nantucket. We are going there for a wedding, and I have never been there, so I am very excited. We also booked our spot on the last ferry boat of the day to the island, which is a bit terrifying to me.

Have a great weekend everyone! Pics to follow!

Las Vegas in retrospect.

I am having a cyber vacation and you all can come along with me. Scott and I wanted to book a trip for this fall, but it seems that it is not going to happen this year. So...enjoy some photos of last years visit to Sin City! I took all these pictures last August.




There is no other place where you can be active 25 hours a day. Yeah, I said 25 hours...I know how many hours there is in a day, but somehow you get more when you visit Vegas. That must be why they say "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" I always thought that was a stupid saying, but after last years visit and being away for a year, I think I get it now.
Here is Scott looking very nostalgic on the balcony of the Venetian.

The hotel in the distance is the hotel we stayed at for 5 nights. The Treasure Island, if we can get back to Vegas, I would stay there again...no question! We had absolutely no complaints.

We never did eat at McDonanlds, but the arches were spectacular, so I had to get a photo of it.

Hopefully we will be able to have another Vegas trip soon. We really had a great time last year, and it should be a tradition....don't you think?

...and we're back...

What a great vacation. Much relaxation, no pressing responsibilities, and an endless supply of nothingness.

Rusty spent a lot of time doing this...


and this...


and a little of this...

Oops, that was a cattle type animal doing what he does. But Rusty did that, too.

I spent a fair amount of time cooking our meals, chasing after the Rusta Bibble, playing various guitar hero's with Suzanne (our band !+*=AAA rocked so hard!), and we watched the whole first season of Rock of Love (yeah, that's right, Rock of Love.)

Some other highlights included a wonderful tour of our immediate part of the ocean with Suzanne in a small blow up kayak that needed constant bailing (we should have brought a cup)...

We visited the Point Prim Lighthouse and got eaten by mosquitoes so bad that I had to do the slappy shakey run back to the car.

We drove around the southeastern most part of the island and stopped at a winery...the vineyard was beautiful, the wine we got left some taste to the imagination...sorry Rossignol.


and we got totally turned around, but not before we found this most gorgeous out of the way cliff.

...and a pic from the other side...


After the 13 hour drive home (we made great time) it was all worth the drive. Even though the weather didn't cooperate the whole two weeks, PEI is the most gorgeous place I have ever been and I am blessed to be able to go there each and every summer.

651 miles to go.

It's after 10pm on Thursday night, and I haven't even started packing. Looks like another year of the grab and pack for us. We'll be ready, we always are somehow.

So, as I procrastinate further, please enjoy some photos of last years 3 day trip up to close the cottage.

The cottage in all its glory.

Moooooo Cows.

Hay bales a plenty.

A drive by sunrise.

More cows...

Now, Kim....do you wonder why I love your paintings so much?

Its almost Island time.

We start the journey up to PEI on either Friday night or Saturday morning, we're still undecided. I have not even started to look through books I want to take or jewelry I want to work on, or even clothes I want to wear. Things somehow work out, as we make this trek every summer and somehow it all works out even if we have forgotten something. Enjoy our backyard!
Suzanne, Jape and Raven are spending the 2 weeks with us this year, as they did in '05 and '06. We will drive up together (in separate cars) with the dogs. This will be Rusty's first time up there, I think he will love the freedom, but I am afraid of him off-leash, so we will just have to feel it out and see how he does. Hopefully we will be able to let him run wild (with eagle-eye supervision) for at least a little while each day. I still haven't totally found out what the code word is to bring him back when he runs, but he has been responding to the whistle very well. So far he always comes to me when I make that whistle noise, but the tests are always in fenced in yards...so you never know.

Perry enjoying some water time in August 2002.

Perry loved the water but couldn't swim. He would just run like mad in the low tide, and during high tide he would hug the shore. I miss him so much! He loved the freedom he had up on the island, and I will never forget him.

Perry's long awaited services will be held sometime between July 13 - July 26th. His ashes will be scattered over the cliff and into the ocean when the tide is in. Hopefully not on a very windy day.

RIP my very good friend Perry 1/96-11/07 I love you!

Mississippi

I am finally back home from my trip to the armpit of america.
No offense to Marsha, her home is like a mansion compared to her surroundings. This is the land that time forgot.
Southern Mississippi is truly a sight to behold. There are a scant few proud homesteads and the rest of the community is just broken down and forgotten. I meant to get a photo of an abandoned gas station we drove by daily on the way to take Jack to school. The posted gas prices made me want to stop for gas, but the pumps were long gone and the station ghostly. $1.45 or so for gas, I can't remember the exact amount, but that is close. So how long has this gas station been abandoned? Well, how long ago were gas prices in the $1.45 range?

I already miss Marsha, Jack and Georgia as if they were my own family. We had a truly bonding experience and I will always remember it fondly. Poor little Jack and his broken arm still disturbs me to no end. I have spoken to him 3 times today, once at JFK on my 2 hour layover and twice at home. The two times at home he needed to speak to Scott, too. So cute!

Jack being a good big brother to Georgia...


More pictures tomorrow.

JACK!

I was minding my own business finishing up a pendant in Marsha's studio/office when I heard the first of many shrill screams coming out of a terrified mother.

Jack broke his arm tonight.

I don't know what he was doing, don't know how it happened, but it looked like a clean break right above his wrist. It looked like he had two wrists actually.
I am sitting here patiently awaiting word of when they will be home. Georgia was a dear tonight, I think she knows something is happening. She quite possibly saw it happen.

Just as we were scrambling in a state of confused horror, Marsha's mom pulled up in the driveway. The three of them went off to the hospital in Poplarville. I got word a bit later that they would have to be ambulanced to the hospital in Hadisburg (I'll have to come back with the proper spelling). Now I am waiting on more word...please word, come!

I had to re-schedule my flight home because of a snow storm, turned out both my flights were cancelled. I am now scheduled to fly home tomorrow at 7:10am which means I need to get on the road by 4am.
I guess that's better than breaking an arm.
Poor Jack!

I'll have to write about the rest of my trip later. I have lots of great pictures.

Mississippi here I come.

I am finally going to visit with Marsha.
I had planned this trip a couple of months ago, but then Perry got gravely ill and I had to postpone.

I leave on Saturday, Dec 8th and come home on Thursday, Dec 13th late night.

So here I am looking at all the stuff I need to take with me. I am imagining that we will have a few good days to work on some jewelry together, and the rest of the time we can both yell at the kids and the dog. I am practicing my loud voice.

It's closing time for the cottage

The time has finally come.

Actually, it snuck up on us.

Scott and I will make the drive up to PEI tomorrow after I get home from work to close up the cottage for the winter. This will be a first for us. We have closed the cottage a whole bunch of times before, but it has always been after being up there for 2 weeks.

This time we are driving up just to close.
I am dreading this, I am not happy.

Perry, along with his pooping problems and the steam cleaner, are staying with Jape and Suzanne. He hasn't had an accident in the last two days, so our fingers are crossed that he won't have another.

I am going to have to get some serious sleep tonight, and possibly a small nap after work tomorrow. I really hate feeling like a zombie, but for this trip, I feel it may be inevitable. We will try to get this done as quickly as possible. Ghaa!

We're Home

We have been home now for a couple of days.
The trip to Vegas was truly an experience I will not soon forget. We have already been talking about getting a group of people together for the next trip. We had a great time alone, but I think having friends/family around would be even better. The last two days my feet hurt (never go on vacation with new shoes) but that didn't stop us from walking many, many miles.

We finally did catch the Mirage volcano eruption. I think because it was cancelled the first time we tried to watch it, I ultimately found it to be less than climactic. It lasted a whole 2 minutes.

Thursday we went to the pool to kill some time, and I had a long island iced tea with nothing in my stomach, I do not recommend this. Scott had a strawberry daquiri. Then we went to lunch at Bill's Gambling Hall, it was just okay.
We had dinner that night at Isla in TI, I had salmon over a cole slaw and tomato salad (excellent!) Scott had roast pork loin (also excellent). We wasted a bit of time gambling at the video poker again, and then turned in early.

Friday we checked out as late as possible because we would be homeless all day waiting for our late night flight. Our flight was cancelled due to poor weather in New England. We flew on standby to Washington DC, and then had a 2 hour layover and flew standby home, we lucked out because we actually made it home (4 hours late). Others didn't fare so well. I am a bit peeved because I spent the money for a direct flight, but since the cancellation was weather related there really is nothing anyone can do for that.

Anyway, we are home now, and glad to be home.
I really missed Perry.
Vegas was a blast!

Full Wednesday on the Strip

Scott and I made the absolute most of today. I don't think we could have done more.
It is now about 3:30am, we just came in from the casino, and this is going to take me about a half hour to list everything we did.

1. We walked the strip from TI to the Monte Carlo and had lunch at the Brew Pub there.

2. After lunch we walked to New York, New York and rode the Coaster...Oh My God! What a rush!

3. Walked to Excaliber and took the tram to Mandalay Bay, went to Shark Reef and spent about 2 hours there.

4. Wandered the casino at Mandalay Bay, and then took the tram back to Excalibur.

5. Walked back to New York, New York and took the footbridge over to MGM Grand.

6. Shopped the stupid tourist crappy stores in that area

7. Went to Bill's Gamblin' Hall & Saloon and stayed for the 'Big Elvis show' Saw four Elvi singing in turn. The headlining Elvis was about 400lbs. At one point three of them sang together...very entertaining to say the least.

8. Hit every casino on the walk back to our section of the Strip. We didn't gamble in any of them, but just wandered around.

9. Stopped at The Venetian to stand on the balcony to watch the Volcano erupt from the Mirage which was ultimately cancelled due to inclement weather. Inclement weather didn't last long at all.

10. Back at our hotel, we gambled a bit on video poker and then went to the Social House for sushi. Yummmmm.

11. Walked back down the strip to Bill's to see a lounge act. The band was called Symmetry. The best part about this act was the back up dancers.

12. Walked back to TI and stopped in several casino's on the way just for kicks.

13. Settled down at the bar in TI to play some more video poker and have some drinks.

Now we are so tired, our legs are jello from all the walking. When we were asking someone directions to somewhere they said we couldn't walk there, but we did! Pooh to them!
I need sleep!
I am so tired!

There are lots more things that I can't think of at the moment that we did today, and Scott is asleep so I can't ask him to remember right now.

Tommorrow we plan on spending some time by the pool and relaxing with a huge margarita.

I took so many pictures today but I am too tired to post them. I will post them later.

Sleep...sleep...sleep.

Lions, Dolphins and Prosciutto

Today was a full day.
We went for breakfast at the coffee shop in the hotel, it totally could have been Bickford's or Denny's, nothing special. Then walked around for a while, took the walkway over Las Vegas boulevard to the Fashion Show Mall, wondered why we were there and headed back immediately. We wandered around until we decided to visit the Segfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. This was a great way to waste some time. I loved this place. I want a dolphin.

Oh! I also want a tiger!

They also had a very rare "push me pull me" I always thought these were fictional until I saw one up close.

After being in the sun for too long once again, we headed back to the hotel to do a bit of gambling and have a couple of drinks, I am down $15 total so far, Scott is down a bit more. We sat at the bar and played video poker and lasted for about an hour until we got bored and decided to go wandering again. We headed over to the Venetian again because that place is just unbelieveable.

We had dinner at Mario Batali's restaurant Enoteca San Marco. Fabulous meal. I highly recommend eating here if you can afford it. It's a $$$$ restaurant, but worth it.
The menu is made so you can have tastes of different antipasti and small meals. We had a cheese plate (fontina, gorgonzola and parmigiano reggiano)accompanied by three condiments (honey with black truffle, brandy soaked black cherries, and dried apricots with mustard/red pepper), prosciutto de parma, spinach and pancetta salad with mushrooms, and bread. Then Scott had Crispy duck & house raisins, and I had Reginette with sausage, broccoli rabe & chili. So good!

After dinner, we walked the Strip. In and out of different Casino's and shopping malls. I bought a pair of shoes. Cute Dansko sandals (Suzanne raved about them) on sale at the Walking store in the Forum Mall.

Later, we caught the pirate show outside of our hotel and then walked to Bellagio to catch the fountain show (Marsha suggested this). We HAVE to go watch this again! We didn't get the best vantage point, but it was just amazing!

This water show is really a sight to see. This picture is when it is just getting started, my camera died so I couldn't get a picture of it when it was full on excitement. I am sad for that, but I have the memory. Incredible.
We must have walked about 10 miles today in total, Scott is now snoring once again next to me and I will be snoring soon, too.
Did I say what a fabulous time we are having here?


More tomorrow!