featured...

Tonight I discovered that I was featured on Modish, a design and style blog.  It was great to find out that Jena, the blog's creator, selected my work - and was also great to discover her blog!  She features a lot of beautiful, original design and handmade goods - check it out...

not-so-instant gratification...

This is a cup of espresso I enjoyed when I took my mother out to lunch for her birthday recently.  I will not be having another cup of espresso for at least another 27 days.  This is because I am three days in to, what I call, my 30 day "Get it Together" plan.  You can laugh now.  It does sound like a bad infomercial, I know, but I reached a moment when all the mundane, life maintenance kind of "stuff" that I had been neglecting started building up around me like sludge.  This brought me to the thought, "What if I just took the next 30 days and focused on getting it together?"  So here we are.  What are some of the things on my list for the next 30 days?  *Taking my car in to the shop (seriously, anyone who knows me understands that this has been an area of MAJOR neglect for quite some time.  A good question might be, does surviving 3 Chicago winters in a row with no heat make you a stronger person or a stupider one?  Let's hope I get the AC going for the summer)  *Going to the dentist (confession: I can't exactly remember my last visit, but it's been at least 3 years.  What's that?  No, I don't floss).  *Bring my lunch to work every day (a yogurt parfait from Starbucks does not constitute a good midday meal).  There is a variety of other to do's, but the biggest challenge will be the next one: for thirty days in a row, workout every day.  It's not that I'm lazy, it's that I'm too busy doing other things.  Or that's the excuse anyway.  But now I'm going to attempt to build a new habit so it's no longer something I have to drag myself to do.

So... what does this have to do with espresso?  Well, the whole spirit of this goal is to energize my life; to feel fresh - not in a dehydrated caffeine hangover.  I really enjoy coffee and espresso, and I do not plan on eliminating them from my life - but I think I need to loosen my grip on them (or their grip on me) just ever so slightly and let the exercising do the energizing.  I'm already passed the withdraw headache stage, so I think I'm on my way!!

birthday...

Today we celebrated my mother's birthday.  Thankfully, it was a crystal clear, sunny day (those have been rare in Chicago lately).  We headed downtown and had lunch at Terzo Piano atop the Art Institute, then walked around the modern wing and the garden in Millennium Park.  For her gift, I made this necklace.  The strands are made up of delicate Thai silver beads.  The pendant is made up of gold rings, labradorite and a hand made hilltribe gold fish bead from Thailand.  When I was finished making it, I wanted one for myself!

new...

Yesterday I spent most of the afternoon and early evening working in my studio.  I made a few new necklaces - and spent this afternoon doing a photo shoot (in my kitchen: see my "sophisticated" photo studio set up below).  To see the full selection, check out my shop.  

no terms necessary...

Have you ever seen the Thomas Crown Affair (the newer one with Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo)?  I'm thinking specifically of the scene in which Crown is sitting on a leather bench somewhere in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; early morning, no one around but the security guard... he opens a white, crisp pastry bag and pulls out a croissant (which I'm sure is delicious).  His posture relaxes, he bites into his croissant (which does not flake apart all over his expensive suit), and studies the Monet painting on the wall in front of him.  

This is his morning ritual.

This is the kind of moment I was wishing I could have when I recently visited MoMA, but I'm not so sure those hushed, solitary moments in the gallery of your choice are easy to come by in the big city art museums in reality.  Even on the days I have managed to hit the Art Institute early, it always seems to be the same morning that 75 junior high students are visiting.  Which provides it's own entertainment.  On one of my recent visits there, I wandered into a gallery where a chaperon on her last rope was yelling at 4 kids, "Where do you think you are going?  I'm not going to come searching after you!  We are NOT here on YOUR terms!  We are here on MY terms!" and she marched out.  Sufficed to say, she scared the crap out of them.  

So, maybe I can't have a gallery all to myself, and maybe I can't eat my breakfast quietly on a leather bench in front of my favorite painting...  and maybe I will never be able to eat a croissant without getting light, buttery flakes down the front of my shirt.  But, I still enjoy experiencing art museums - no terms necessary.  Here's a few shots of MoMA from my recent visit.