Recipe for Saturday Night Fun

Because our friends, the Rholls, are "foodies" I thought I would turn this post into a recipe on how to make a hot, sultry Saturday night into one cool summer evening adventure. Ingredients: 1. 4 good friends 2. 2 conductors (1 for train and 1 for orchestra) 3. 1 Brown Line train 4. 1 (Jay Pritzker) pavilion 5. 1 large bunch of musicians 6. 2 squirting faces 7. 4 or 5 huge mechanical bugs from Spain Directions: 1. Board 4 friends on Brown Line train. Converse and observe fellow passengers. 2. Get off of train and walk to Millennium Park. Find seats. Sweat while conversing and watching fellow concert attendees. 3. Listen to great concert. Watch the lights on surrounding buildings come on. Applaud loudly when appropriate. 4. Leave concert and cool off in the splashing area by the two tall spewing fountains. 5. Join the hordes of people watching the debut performance of the bugs from Spain. 6. Reboard the Brown Line train and head back to go to bed, exhausted and hot from a fun evening. 7. Repeat next year as needed.

What an adventure - thank you, Carol and Mark! We cooked up quite a night, didn't we?

Spotted: Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion!

This summer we have been having more fun Chicago adventures thanks to a great gift from John and Kari:

50 Adventures on Foot: City Walks CHICAGO

Here one can find 50 walks to take with points of interest listed on the card front and a clear map on the back of the card. We knew of Oz Park in the Lincoln Park vicinity, but didn't know it was actually created for the Chicago Park District thanks to a donor and in tribute to the Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum who reportedly once lived nearby. We enjoyed looking for the beloved characters - but, once again, the Wizard remained illusive here as well. However, a nice playground, tennis courts and open playing fields made up for his absence.

In a week, we have done three walking tours. As we learn more about our city and its neighborhoods, we are also managing to get a little exercise in as well.

Might I suggest this as a unique gift purchase for someone on your list who enjoys city experiences - or as something you could buy for yourself? Put on those red (walking) shoes and say three times:

"There's no place like Chicago. There's no place like Chicago. There's no place like Chicago!"

Dandelion (Copycat Challenge#23)

What comes to mind when you hear the word Dandelion? Is it those pesky weeds growing in your back lot? Salad with greens? Wine? That lion storybook character? For me, it was what I just had to name the little green wooly lamb recently stitched for the ongoing Blanket Statement project (in which I make every project in the said book by Vicki Hanginer in the blogging style inspired in the book/movie about Julie/Julia). The Little Lambkin project was found on pages 66 and 67 . My "tweak" was adding about 100 textured scrap wool swirls to create a truly wooly coat for the little lamb. What a way to use up those little pieces I'd been saving since the onset of the project - and also what a way to eat up time stitching each wool coil to the body of the lamb! Surely Jake and Vienna would be married by the time I finished this stitching...but nope, they had broken up instead with nasty details in the media reports. C'mon, did you really think they had a chance??? While Dandelion appears to relish in the weedage, we did not. They are gone now. Making the dandelion chain to wear around Dandelion's little green neck was actually quite fun. It brought me back to the times on Grandma R.'s front yard patch at Senior Homes making clover chains* to wear as bracelets and crowns. Good times!! *Note to self: do this with Ellie some day!

Happy Birthday, Bird Whisperer!

While still in high school and college, Wes' friends gave him the nickname of Bird. While at the Bird Sanctuary in Hong Kong Park recently, Wes had an up-close-and personal encounter with a feathered parrot friend who thought Wes was absolutely his BEST FRIEND ever!

Let me explain that this was a free-flight zone in the aviary. We saw so many birds perched on tree branches. You can imagine that the birds there were quite different (and more colorful) than those we would see here in the US.

Perhaps it was the red shirt Wes was wearing. Perhaps it was the scent of Wes. Perhaps it was just because Wes was Wes, but this one colorful parrot certainly singled him out!

First the parrot landed on the railing next to Wes. (And I started taking pictures.) Then, the bird hopped closer and closer. Up on Wes' shoulder. (More pictures when I should have been paying more attention to Wes' facial cues.) Then, finally when the parrot started going down into Wes' shirt collar I finally snapped to it and heard his pleas coming, "Deb, get this bird OFF of me!!"

Seeing as I am a non-violent sort and also in a bird sanctuary, I stalled. How does one get an exotic bird out of a shirt collar? By this time those close by are starting to give audience to the situation. I know! The umbrella I'm holding might work! I partially opened it and fluttered it near to the bird and that did the trick...the parrot flew to a nearby tree branch.

Relief for Wes. And, as today is his birthday, I wish him all the best with NO birds for Bird like this encounter in the coming year!

Colorful Night Gift (P*S*C* #26)

Our cabin faces mainly west. This is the view of it - note the windows are glowing a bit. Why? Because a beautiful sunset across the lake was going down. What a gorgeous way to end the day. First, the yellows and oranges...

...then the pinks and purples showed up. Add softly falling raindrops. Peace. Quiet.

Within minutes the soft lavenders and gray blues ushered out the hot colors and the dark sky took over. A very dark sky with pinpricks of bright stars.

To think this show was free for the taking once again proved we live in a world where certain things cannot be purchased but are right in front of our noses if we but take a pause to look for them.

Color Mindful-ness (P*S*C* #26)

The colors, ah the colors, at and around the cabin can be so breath-taking. One expects beauty in the blues of the water and the greens of the foliage, but the colors of the charred black remnants in the fire pit are beautiful as well. And a sunset? Oh my. A sight for the eyes and soul!

What color does a sparkler make...is it white, gold or silver?

I think Oliver's copper color matches the cabin interior paneling.

Is the sundial teal? The brass underneath the paint coat seems to want to make it less so.

The old steel row boat is aged, worn silver with exclamation points made by the rusting of the bolts holding it all together.

Ellie's pink hat rests in the shade of the stroller while she rests inside the cabin at naptime.

The cobalt blue trailer, also in the pause mode, awaits the day when the speed boat is out of the water and cradled once more within its framework. Thanks to the purple noodle, I reign supreme on the raft after the two sons tussle and fall into the lake. Sweet victory!

The beige of the Grandfather's toolbox competes for tabletop space with the splashing baby in her blue bathtub...does it seem possible that before we know it she will beg to go out fishing with her Grandpa as her Mom did many years ago?

Paddling the red canoe is a relaxing way to get out on the lake with a companion. Or alone.

Right in our front yard we have the cheerful white and yellow daisies saying, "Hello! Welcome back!" No grumpiness is allowed in their presence.

Last, but certainly not least, we enjoyed this orange treat while playing a fierce game of Rook! Colors at the cabin are certainly varied and appreciated. Stay tuned for the upcoming colorful cabin finale soon to be posted. Talk about colorful!!!!

Pink Suitcase Chronicles #26 - The Cabin & Celebrating

I hope you and yours had a very special Fourth of July weekend! We certainly did - it was a family time for the Lindahls as we gathered in the North Woods at our family cabin. Especially delightful was having a certain young baby Ellie with us this year as she experienced the cabin and surroundings for her first time ever. She seemed to adjust well to the UP lifestyle and she also participated in THE annual event of the season - the BIRTHDAY BASH!

This is the time of summer when we have five - count 'em - five birthdays within a three week time span. John 6/19, Jed 6/26, Kari 7/3, Anne, 7/7 and Wes 7/12 are the honored guests at a yearly "bash" thrown at the White Stag restaurant near Eagle River, Wisconsin. Ellie and her Great Grandparents readily donned the colorful, tacky flamingo glasses. Yes, the theme is flamingos. Kind of tacky, don't you think? (My idea. And, as host I get to pick.)

The cake didn't have the right amount of candles. Adding up the ages of the birthday honorees would take a whopping 163 candles! Whoa.

Sipping beverages through twisted, curling flamingo candles was an activity as well.

Tissue paper flamingos danced their way down the center of our table. Party! Party! Party!

A quickly deflating blow-up flamingo was a guest at the party also. Ellie was intrigued. John perhaps was not as he had to keep blowing up the thing.

Note the honorees by the White Stag himself! If you look closely, he has the blow-up on his antlers. No respect, I'm afraid.

Aren't we lucky that the generations can celebrate together? Answer: most assuredly, yes!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE FIVE OF YOU!!!

Baby Birds (Copycat Challenge #22)

(Yes, yes, I know...these are not baby birds, but they are awfully cute! Perhaps one day Ellie and Carson "Hawk" will be lovebirds themselves! This picture was taken at LCC this past Sunday.)

It has been quite a while since a Copycat Challenge has been posted here on this blog! I am still stitching away on projects from the Blanket Statement book by Vicki Haninger; still determined to make about 40 projects in a year's time which will end in Novemeber of 2010. This time, I tweaked the Hearts and Flowers Sachets pattern found on pages 56 and 57 to use only the bird part without the heart part...I love this sweet bird with the embroidery details. Besides, it was soon STORYTIME season at the library, and I found a way to use the embroidered birds in a flannelboard activity!

Not only did I use the green blanket to make the bird, but also used 9 different colors of felt to make a total of 10 birds. I also made a large felt tree for the birds to hang out in once the flannelboard story was underway. The story/rhyme goes as follows:

One Little Bird

One little bird alone in a tree, (Place a bird in the flannelboard tree)

He was all alone and he didn't want to be!

So he flew away across the sea,

He brought back a friend to live in the tree. (Place another bird in the tree.)

Two little birds, alone in a tree They were all alone and they didn't want to be!

So they flew away across the sea,

They brought back a friend to live in the tree. (Continue to add birds in the tree until al 10 live there, happy as can be!)

Here we have an "action" shot of the story presented live, thanks to co-worker Patricia who took the picture! (The birds were all stitched in China, by the way.)

Thank You, Color Kittens! And Golden Books.

Is there a book from your childhood that triggers memories of the child you were waaay back when? A book that you read and reread, a book where the illustrations spoke to your very soul?

I had such an experience this week when I went with my friend, Marti, to a special exhibit at the Lake County Discovery Museum for the viewing of original artwork from Golden Books. Seeing the Color Kittens in action - and in the original artwork - made me realize those kittens had a lot to do with my pursuit of drawing, painting and loving colors! These two kittens always mixed colors together in their adventures, and I do remember thinking it was magic that yellow +blue = green or red+blue = purple.

It was also a thrill to see the artwork of Eloise Wilkin, Garth Williams, Mary Blair, Martin Provenson, Gustaf Tenggren and many others whose artwork you would recognize.

I simply adored this book called I Can Fly.

And the wonderful "vintage-ness" of this busy street scene brought back simpler times of transportation modes.

Stroll down Memory Lane with the display of Golden Books at the exhibit. You might be surprised with how many you remember from your past. Consider visiting these 60 original pieces soon, though. The exhibit closes on August 22, 2010.

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