Busy February

Picture by G. Feiereisel

Wow, it’s been a while… let’s update.

Holiday/birthday season is over for me (husband’s, father’s, daughter’s and numerous friends), and tomorrow our party-hosting blackout month starts. We may be taking a hosting hiatus, but that doesn’t mean we’re not thinking about it. Amidst the celebrating, we started looking for Holy Communion dresses for Abby and planning a lunch reception. We have a little less than two months, which really translates to, I have a little less than two months to reorganize and pull my house back together again.

In the next month, I’ll begin reporting for Craft Critique where I will rediscover and review some of my own crafting supplies and equipment, and be introduced to new and exciting products in the crafting world. I can’t wait! You might imagine I have quite the array of products, but my craft shed is fairly minimal. You’ll see. To jump start my creative juices and “research” current products, I’ve been visiting the local Archiver’s over the last few weekends to see the “make-and-take” projects and see product demos.

Another love of mine is Chicago history and architecture, so to celebrate that my husband and I attended “Chicago in History and Mystery” at our local library. Fabulous guest speakers, wine and hors d’ouevres, too. (Can I tell you how weird it was eating and walking around the library with a glass of chardonnay? God forbid I spill anything!) Back to the speakers: Authors JA Konrath, Gillian Flynn and Henry Perez; Rick Kogan and Charles Osgood from the Chicago Tribune and WTTW personality, Geoffrey Baer.

I’ve never been to an author panel discussion before; it was eye-opening and fun! These authors write mysteries, and being able to hear them speak about their inspirations, how they got started, how they approach their character development was so fascinating. We came home with Afraid by Konrath, who also writes under Jack Kilborn, but I’m definitely looking forward to reading the others. Have to get through my stack of books by my bed first.

It’s amazing enough to watch Geoffrey Baer’s tours of Chicago on tv, read Rick Kogan’s articles and see Charles’s photography, but listening to them when they’re a few feet away from you… incredibly captivating and entertaining personal stories. Sorry to say I didn’t bring my camera, but then again, not many people did. I might be able to link to the library website if they update their event photos. I wanted to tuck every anecdote away in my head to share with friends, but by the time we left (about 4 hours) I was so overwhelmed with factoids and fun stories. I’ll end with a few Chicago tidbits that stuck.

• Louis “Studs” Terkel (Chicagoan author, broadcaster, historian) was one of the oldest people to undergo open-heart surgery at the age of 93. In his own words through Rick Kogan, “I’m a medical miracle!”
• Caldwell Avenue is named for “Billy” Caldwell whose American Indian name was Sauganash which is also the name of the neighborhood that the avenue runs through. I had no idea…
• Park Ridge is not the highest point in Cook County which many Park Ridgians believe. High point is somewhere around Barrington.
• Park Ridge was home to many artisans and craftspeople, and included a workshop called Kalo Arts Crafts Community House where many silversmiths and jewelers started their trade.

Such a rich history in the arts… is it a wonder I feel at home here? We’ll see what happens in the next month since I also applied for a seat on the newly formed “Historic Preservation Commission” in town.

Tags: chicago, craft critique, date night, Friends and Family, library, life

Crafting again at the Chicago Craft Social

This past summer, I attended the second Chicago Craft Social and led a table with this craft, Beaded Book Marks (a.k.a. Book Thongs or Book Wedgies). I had no idea how busy I would be at the table, but it was a great showing. I took no other pictures that evening. I wish I did; it was tons of fun. I really ought to post a tutorial on these, eh?

So, I’m leading a table at this Friday’s Craft Social (Holiday version)! I’m going to tailor my latest obsession, scribble art (or doodling), into something people can learn and take home. From this…

… I started documenting the different patterns I use. Sort of backwards, but that’s okay. Work in progress.

Tonight I took my notes, made a one page dictionary that I can hand out, and I’m planning on demonstrating the more complicated or complex designs on my daughter’s white board. None of them are really that difficult, but they might look incredibly intricate. Makes me feel like I’m brilliant.

From twenty different patterns, you can mix and match (I’m bringing multi-sided dice, more than six sides), do little variations on them, and voila, you too can doodle crazy little things and maybe make a holiday card, gift tags, an iron-on t-shirt applique… the possibilities are endless. I’m working on our family Christmas card in black and white. This picture was a first attempt.

Hope to see you at my table!

Tags: art, cards, chicago, crafting, doodles, doodling, drawing, favorite things, scribble art

Photos in Chinatown

When we’re in Chinatown, I always seem to end up taking more pictures of my kids down the same walkway, in the same square. They love it there.

Tags: chicago, eating out, kids

Happy Earth Day

Had a really nice time at our local Earth Day fair. Look, we took a ride around our nature center park. Made the man work with all of us in the cab! There were more activities than I thought, which was nice for the kids. We also had a great time listening to Rocket J, local band. They covered some oldies and goodies. We KNOW the drummer! So cool. He’s actually the father of my daughter’s preschool friend. Almost needless to say, Ollie rocked out big time. Air guitar and all. He wanted to stay and dance the whole time. Daisy, Abby’s friend, invited Ollie onto the stage, but I don’t think he was quite prepared for that, and politely said, “No.”

We went around and visited the various booths. Here are some highlights aside from the local garden club, soil and water conservation district, National Wildlife Federation and local park district.

Sustainable, handmade paper products, such as wildflower seed notecards, memory books, gift tags, frames and custom wedding invitations at www.womancraft.net,

Soap artisan makes hand made natural Olive oil soaps, body oils and bathing essentials (www.abbeybrown.com),

Fine specialty teas promoting wellness and health at www.senteamentalmoods.com,

Books promoting diversity, creativity and discovery for children at www.readingbarefootbooks.com

Tags: chicago, earth day, family, favorite things, fun, kids

Weekend in Chicago

Two weekends ago, we took a small stay-cation and enjoyed our fabulous city.  Without kids!

It was so nice to sleep in, have coffee, walk around the Art Institute and the Magnificent Mile.  We browsed through stores we really had no business stepping into, but it’s fun to look.  The Art Institute is so incredibly inspiring!  I love Monet’s paintings (as in the movie Thomas Crown Affair, “I like my haystacks, Bobby.”), but it’s the historical and architectural artifacts that draw me.  I could spend hours looking and studying the details.  I took so many pictures (probably too many), and we’re thinking of enlarging, framing and hanging them in our home.

Appetizers: Eno at the Intercontinental Hotel.  A wine, cheese and chocolate bar.  I didn’t try the chocolate covered bacon.  We’ll be visiting again, so there will be a next time.

Nice sushi dinner at Aria, but I think we both agree that we’ve enjoyed other restaurants more.  Otherwise, it was a weekend we definitely needed.  Thanks sis-in-law and sis-in-law’s fiance for staying with the kids!

Tags: architecture, art, cheese, chicago, chocolate, eating out, life, weekend, wine

Our Moto Experience: Picture-heavy post

I took Eastman out for his birthday (2/6) and being the foodie that he is, I thought he might enjoy the likes of Moto. It’s one of those interesting, posh, metropolitan restaurants you might see on tv (i.e. expensive, trendy, food looks too nice to eat?). Actually, I did see it on a review show and on Food Network, too. So, three weeks before his birthday I called and made reservations. I missed a phone call on my cell phone the day of our dinner. They were going to customize a dinner menu with his name on it. Just heard the voice mail today (almost a week after). Oops. We arrived at the restaurant to be greeted by all the wait staff, everyone dressed in black sleek suits.

You have a choice of two menus: 10-course (2 to 2-1/2 hours) or 20-course (4 to 4-1/2 hours). We chose the 10-course.  Service was impeccable and all the servers were fun to talk to.  Ambience?  Artsy, you might say.  Modern, minimalist, sort of?  Music was great.  Eastman asked about their playlist for me.  They pipe in satellite radio!  XM, lounge/chill. Love that!

What do they serve there? See for yourself. Sorry the pics are a little dark, some are slightly blurry. No flash photography, which is totally understandable. The only picture I didn’t take was of the menu which was printed with edible ink on a corn tortilla chip served with a little guacamole and salsa. It was cool! Wish I had written sooner. I’m sure I’m missing some details.

First course: San Francisco bay scallop served tableside with this lemon dust frozen in liquid nitrogen. The server spooned out the dust from a little pot smoking over from the liquid nitrogen. Neat presentation, and it only gets weirder.

Second course: French onion soup. Carmelized onions in a pile with an onion chip and cheese dollop. Hot soup was poured into the bowl tableside.

Third course: Buffalo chicken flavored edible paper and quail.  The paper really tasted like chicken?! Served with homemade tabasco sauce.

Fourth course: Breakfast!  The “egg white” was yogurt that set up, and the “yolk” was a curry custard, but it actually behaved like a yolk… we had pita toasts (shaped like mini-bread, so cute!) that you could dip into the “egg”.  We also had falafel tater tots with homemade ketchup.  Tasty!

Here’s the birthday boy with course #5.  “Cuban cigar”.  This was one of my favorites.  A cuban sandwich shaped like a cigar and served in an ash tray!  Pulled pork wrapped with white bread wrapped with a green and edible paper to look like a cigar band… dipped in crushed black and white sesame seeds.

Had to drink with dinner.  I started with a cocktail.  Sazerac, the quintessential New Orleans drink.  It was strrrong!  This is the Martini Library.  Drinks served in pipettes.  So pretty, and yummy.

Course six had the biggest black beans I’ve ever seen.  You might have thought they were lumps of meat.  There was braised beef and a side of “cold” slaw, as opposed to cole slaw.  Again, there was use of liquid nitrogen to keep the slaw nice and crunchy cold.

Course seven had to be one of the most interesting interpretations… duck “roadkill”.  They drew the center divider line with a puree, the “blood” was another sauce.  The duck, though pulled, mushed up, and completely unappetizing to look at, was really delicious!

First Dessert!  The beach with pineapple “dust” and a fried rice noodle that looked like coral, complete with a starfish (or in Eastman’s case, a seahorse) made of fruit puree-gelatin.  All under a little paper parasol.  Cute.

Second dessert.  This homemade caramel ice cream was soooo good!  Isn’t it cute how it looks like a crab?  It was accompanied by apple cake with souffle and apple crispies on top.

Last dessert was very interesting with a frozen cherry that burst in your mouth and tasted like cherry coke.  And an “inside-out” pumpkin pie.  That might be my favorite dessert… The cold pumpkin outer shell contained liquid graham cracker crust.  Toasted pumpkin seeds garnished the little  pie dollop and it sat on lightly torched marshmallow meringue.  It was a nice end to a very different dinner experience.

Tags: chicago, eating out, family, food, fun, gourmet, restaurants