Chicago vacation

 Last year we all went to Chicago for couple of days before Christmas and decided to do it again this year. We live so close to the city and just don't get there as often as we'd like so we act like tourists when we're there fitting as much as we can into a short amount of time.

 We started off at the Kris Kindle Market which is outside and it was very cold when we were there. So the first thing we did was enjoy a hot cup of mulled cider.

 

Towering over the Kris Kindle Market is Picasso's sculpture.

 Of course we had to go to the Art Institute where the lions out front are always decked out in their holiday finery!

 This is an awesome new display on the grand stair case.

 The next day we went to Navy Pier to the Winter Wonderfest. Our kids are a little old for it but they still have a lot of fun. The place is decorated beautifully. There's no way anyone could leave there not feeling the Christmas spirit!

 We ended our trip with the Zoo Lights at the Lincoln Park Zoo. They are truly beautiful! My camera does not do them justice!

 We arrived just in time to see the ice sculptors work their magic.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Cake boss kids!

 My cousin is excellent at baking and especially decorating cakes and cookies. So when my daughter became obsessed with the show Cake Boss I asked my cousin if she would be able to teach them a little. Well she went all out and they had a blast making cupcake snowmen and decorating their very own small flower basket cake.

 Our "fondant" was rolled out starburst and laffy taffy!

 The finished snowmen!

 This one is Rose's....

 And this one is May's.

 I remember when I was younger my cousin Pam made me the most beautiful cake with this same basket weave and filled with frosting flowers. I think it's so wonderful that she has taught my kids how to do it now!

 Not bad for a 12 year old first timer!

 May's totally decked out cake.

 Rose's elegant cake.

What a fun day we had! Thank you so much Pam for doing this for the girls. It was a great Christmas present and they made a lot of great memories that day.

And this is the squirrel Emily who paid us a visit while we were decorating. Pam's husband Tom very patiently trained this cute little squirrel to take nuts from his hand and we got to see it for ourselves when we were there!

Spoiler Alert Mom



Spoiler alert! If you are my mom and you are reading this then look no further or else you'll spoil your Christmas gift. These are just so beautiful I just couldn't wait to post!



 So now that I have gotten that warning out of the way I have to tell you that I am so excited to have my very own Otchipotchi pot! I ordered a pebble vase pictured below for myself and my mom and I also got her a gingko herbarium stone. They are wrapped in the prettiest little packages so the gifts to my mother remain wrapped. But I couldn't wait to open mine!  

If you've never been to see the Otchipotchi blog you should definitely take a look. Paula's work is so delicate, organic and smooth. I just love my little vase. Now I just need to find some thing pretty to put in it!

Art Faire today!



Here's what people saw when they first walked in.

 

This is the first table with student photography on the wall above.



Here are my mugs and you can see part of a scarf that was knit by one of my students with some help from grandma!

 

The chess board and the cutting board are beautiful. They were made by an art club student who is currently in the wood class. Too bad we didn't have time to make the chess pieces!

This is the second table that is in a niche in the wall under the stairs.

These display racks are tomato plant stands that I basically garbage picked! Tacky? Yes! But they work. I turned them upsidedown curled the wires on top and spray painted them gold. I'm pretty happy with my recycling!

We had necklaces, crane ornaments and the little crane earrings on the recycled tomato plant stands.

This last table held all the note cards and more student photography as well as some prints of student work.

Well this is it! We had a lot more stuff than I realized. It all just looked so small when it was all packed up in my office. But now that I see it all set up we have a considerable amount. I really hope it all sells! I figured since this is the first time we are doing this that the people coming to the Madrigal might not have money with them. The only kind of advertising I had was in the school newsletter and on the art department facebook page. But there are two more performances tomorrow so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Art Faire sneak peek

student work

teacher art work

Well I finally finished organizing and printing all the note cards for our art faire. And I'm spelling it with an "e" because we are having it during the Madrigal performances with the whole renaissance theme.

The first picture is of all the cards that are printed with student work and the next photo features work by me and the other art teacher. Thanks Kelly!

They are all bundled and ready to go along with much of the other artwork I've posted in the past like the earrings (which were stolen :( but I made a bunch more) the nutty seed pod things and the mugs. The students have printed a whole bunch of photos and made lots of bracelets and necklaces and other pottery. Hope we have enough work to last through all three performances!

Snowy Saturday

Well the first real snow of the year just fell and it's still snowing. I literally woke up and leaned out the back door and took some pictures of the back yard. Of course the goats are nowhere to be seen! I'm glad it snowed on a Saturday though so I didn't have to drive in it to work!

This now makes me realize that the kids still need snow pants and mittens so off to the store we go! And maybe I'll be able to get in some more Christmas shopping too.