Friday, December 30, 2011

Chicago, 2011

Can you imagine Chicago in December warm and sunny?  This has been a unique year with all the global changes in climate.

I went to Chicago for Christmas and my daughter's birthday. She was born 43 years ago in Bangkok, Thailand and of course we had Thai food to commemorate the connection.  On Christmas, we had Chinese food in Chinatown, which was excellent.

My favorite part of the trip, in addition to spending time with Sheryl and helping her celebrate her birthday, was our visit to Millenium Park with the steel "cloud" or "bean" and the new wing of the Art Institute.  Here are some photos of both showing some views of the cloud and the many reflections from the city and people who are attracted to the site.  The museum is an architectural achievement and houses some lovely artwork as shown here.

There are also some photos here from the Bahai church, which was a beautiful building.

Lee Bontecou

Under the bean

Bean and tourists

Bahai church

Inside Bahai church

City scape from museum

Picasso


Inside the new wing

Chagal windows


Bean




Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Ithaca Garden Club Holiday Decor

The Ithaca Garden club decorates one member's home as part of the holiday celebration and income producing event.  I was assigned to the master bathroom and chose a team to help me convert the bathroom into a winter lotus pond.  We used a lot of natural materials, sprayed silver for one room and gold for another and embellished the scene with locally purchased snow person and skaters.

I think the result is very lovely and the party is this afternoon.  Enjoy the images.

Snow person in the shower

Large arrangement in master back



Left side of the Tub area

Lotus pond with skaters and lotus pods



Lotus pond and right hand side of the pool area

Panorama of the pool that was converted to a winter lotus pond