It's A Girl!

If Liberace and Sid Viscous had a baby it would be these boots! LuLu picked these up over the weekend during a jaunt down to Halsted Street Market Days (at least 10 blogs worth of stories, yikes). These are vintage Doc Martens, never worn, stored away in a stock room for the past 20 years. LuLu had her eye on some new Docs that have a non-sparkly gold finish, so we went on a hunt. I remembered this store from when I lived in the neighborhood 100 years ago. I always imagined musicians would pick up their rock star clothes here. When I told my 29 year old musician brother, Toby about the boots and the store, he seemed quite shocked and said "You took LuLu into an S&M store?" Silly boy, of course not, it's the place where rock stars go to get their outfits! Toby said "didn't you notice the leather masks and bondage stuff?" I always imagined a Judas Priest or a Megadeth tribute band from Des Moines picking those up, I said quite defensively. I simply had no clue! I am so glad I didn't tell the young woman trying on the rubber suit that rubber doesn't breath, and she will get very hot.

It's offical, I have completely run out of things to say.

Here is a post from the archives
8/12/08

TMI

I would like to thank the lovely Coco from Screaming for Chocolate for recognizing this blog with an award. I am now required to list 7 things about myself that you will find interesting. Obviously I don't have 7 or even 2 things very interesting to write about, so I will give you 7 less than interesting things about myself.

1. My Granfather Ungaro's dying words to me were:
"Leenda, Leenda come here, why do you look like a clown?"

It was 1986 and I was wearing Everlast boxing type pants and leather high tops while visiting my Grandfather in hospice. I have never boxed before and I mistakenly thought I looked cool in this get-up. Perhaps the other patients thought I was there to entertain them.



2. The last time I rode on a roller coaster was Space Mountain about 20 years ago. I held my black leather Coach bag under my chin as a sick bag.

3. My Dad flunked me when I enrolled in his class at the U of M.



4. I worked in the sports department for a local TV station and I had to cover a big Chicago White Sox event. When I returned to the station the Producer asked me who I had interviewed and I told him I had spoken with Scatman Crothers. Apparently Scatman never played for the Sox or any baseball team. The Producer was getting all red faced when he rather rudely told me that it was actually Minnie Minoso aka Mr. White Sox. Who knew? Not Me, it was the first time I had ever heard of Minnie.
Boy, did they hate me there.
Shouldn't I get some type of credit for knowing Scatman Crothers?

I could actually fill my list up with the unfortunate events during my stint in sports news. This was in the pre -Google days, so when I was asked to get tape of Carlton Fisk and I had no clue who he was, I had to secretly call Gar. Usually Gar's first response to my question went something like this, C'mon are you serious? You really don't know...

5. I am tired of seeing every one's feet. I look forward to flip flops going away.

6.I have apparently injured my Achilles tendons while sitting at the computer.

7. I have made wonderful friends through blogging and I pass this award on to all of you!

Midnight Sun

There is the loveliest Swedish antique shop just north of Chicago called Midnight Sun. I have yet to leave this shop without being inspired to paint everything I own light blue, white or grey.

The Art of Victorian Photocollage

Playing with Pictures: The Art of Victorian Photocollage (Art Institute of Chicago)- Elizabeth Siege

The Marvelous Album of Madame B: Being the Handiwork of a Victorian Lady of Considerable Talent- Elizabeth Siege

The Art of Victorian Photocollage

The Art Institute of Chicago
October 10, 2009- January 3, 2010

The Art Institute of Chicago will be opening the most wonderful exhibit on the Victorian art of photocollage. Victorian women in the 1850s and1860s began experimenting with collage for their scrapbooks and photo albums. " The compositions they made with photographs and watercolors are whimsical and fantastical, combining human heads and animal bodies, placing people into imaginary landscapes, and morphing faces into common household objects. "

Joe "40,000" Murphy

I first discovered the beautiful art of Joe "40,000" Murphy in one of my favorite books, Create And Be Recognized, Photography On The Edge, by John Turner and Deborah Klochko.
Joseph (Cerny) Murphy worked as an usher in Chicago for fifty years and had his photograph taken with just about every celebrity , athlete and politician . He altered the images with pen, gold star stickers and ephemera and displayed them in his Chicago garage.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Murphy got his nickname when he was asked to estimate the crowds "during Chicago's bleak baseball days of the 1920s, he would say there were 40,000 ...(pause)... empty seats."

For more information about Joe "40,000" Murphy (1897-1979), check out Interesting Ideas, it is chalk full of cool information about Joe and other outsider artists.

Architectural Artifacts (Paradise)

Beautiful Colors
Industrial springs, $2.00

"Cici n'est pas une pipe"
Giant pipe from a tobacco shop

Stuart Grannen, Owner and nice guy!

Architectural Artifacts, Inc.

Imagine 80,000 square feet of the coolest, most beautiful one of a kind treasures, inside the most aesthetically pleasing space. Two of my dearest friends treated me to a wonderful day of treasure hunting and lunch, and I discovered my new favorite place in the world! Stuart Grannen was ahead of his time when he started his business, Architectural Artifacts over twenty years ago. This enormous shop is brimming with architecturally significant pieces that have been rescued from the wrecking ball, signs, furniture and funky things you will feel compelled to take home. I can't wait to return to my new favorite place.

Our Home In The Oman Trib!

The Oman Tribune

The Crispell family abode is filled with eclectic stuff by Kathy Kaplan As students at the University of Michigan, Linda and Gar Crispell didn’t have much money and so they bought furniture at local antiques shops. “While we shopped at the Ann Arbor antiques mall out of necessity, we discovered our love for collecting,” says Linda, a collage artist and antiques dealer. Humble things like Pez and snow globes began to attract them. “We found these everyday objects made an impact, a nice graphic,” explains Gar, general manager of American Girl Place in Chicago. Twenty five years later, Linda and Gar are passionate collectors of the sort of things most people either don’t notice or simply take for granted. A delightful mix of flea market finds, junk-store treasures and found objects fills their cozy North Shore three-bedroom home. Items chosen for their unique or historical features became more than what they were intended to be. Toy metal typewriters, croquet balls, sea glass, cucina dolls are viewed as accessories and displayed as clusters of colour or texture. “When I look at the brides and grooms (that usually sit atop a cake), I look at them as a series of black and white and they create a pattern that a piece of art might create,” explains Gar. Similarly, a grouping of little metal souvenir buildings from around the world (Statue of Liberty, Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building, etc.) becomes a reflective element that as a collection feels like a single piece of sculpture. As their collections evolved, so did their respective talents. “I’m great at going into antiques malls or junk stores and spotting something that has been tossed into a corner,” says Linda. “I bring it home and Gar can immediately figure out where to plug it into the house,” she adds. Gar, who studied fine art in college and whose parents were both artists, says, “Even though I have the formal degree, I consider Linda more of an artist than I am now. She has a very good eye and an innate sense of what’s interesting or colourful or unique.” Deciding how to display and move things around is Gar’s task. “My experience in retail (Gar has worked at Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale’s) translates into merchandising the house,” says Gar. Linda considers herself quite lucky. “I’ll go to bed and then come back down in the morning and he will have rearranged the room in such a way that never occurred to me. My friends all want to borrow him.” But a week later the room may be completely different. With all they have, the Crispells are careful to avoid clutter. Much is kept in storage only to be displayed periodically. “We will pull things out because it’s now the right colour or it feels right" says Gar. But no one takes this house too seriously. The ever-changing landscape reflects its owners’ sense of humour and casual approach. Nothing is precious or untouchable. Linda feels the lesson of “collecting ordinary objects is that you aren’t putting importance on material goods.” The Crispells’ two children have embraced their parents’ avocation. Once a month the entire family visits the Grayslake Flea Market. Deke, 10, loves vintage toys and food icons like Big Boy and Green Giant, and thinks that collecting is fun. Lulu, 14, collects junk jewelry and vintage purses, and has recently become interested in political memorabilia.

Happy 4th

We are heading to Chicago tonight to see the fireworks and may even take the kids to the Taste of Chicago. It all depends on how intestinally brave we are feeling! E-coli on a stick and fried salmonella are mighty tempting!!!!
I hope all of you have a wonderful weekend.
Your Pal,
Linda

Shopping In Mayberry

Who's going to start collecting metal toy telephones now?

I would put one of these parasols in a gigantic tropical drink.

How clever to hang old dresser drawers for shelving and display!

Chenille bedspreads galore!

Princess and the Pea

You can imagine that I started feeling a little faint in this very spot!!!

So that's what I should do with my stained vintage tablecloths.

Richmond, IL is our little Mayberry

I piled the kids in the car and headed to the little town of Richmond, Illinois this weekend. There are loads of antique and junk shops in this old fashioned town that sits on the border of Wisconsin. One of my favorite shops is Embellish on Broadway. They don't have a web site yet, so you will have to visit their charming shop in person. My head was spinning with all of the inspiration I was getting from this creative spot. I love the curvy dresser drawers painted with stripes and hung on the wall, and clearly I have no choice but to collect little toy phones now!

Embellish
847-767-1017
5603 Broadway St.
Richmond, IL 60071

I will return tomorrow with pictures from one of the most amazing shops I have ever been to!

Icky Ah, I Don't Think So!

My children have about two more years left on their three year ban of shopping at Ikea. I guess we went there one too many times after we moved into our current home. We cannot bribe them with lingonberry juice or the center parts of our cinnamon rolls any longer. They now pronounce Ikea as Icky Ah! But, I am still mighty fond of these cabinets that we found at the icky place. They were already assembled and being rolled in to the clearance section when we first saw them!!! The colors are perfect and the drawers are lined with light blue felt. I put a matching sheet of paper on the inside of the glass doors to hide the crazy amount of party supplies being stashed in there.
You have to love a place where you can buy a bag of meatballs and two Svjklnsknkr cabinets!

My House With Tunes!

Please check out the Snoopster's beautiful slide show of my home. Everything looks lovelier with a cool soundtrack!