Cee’s Fun Foto

Kid’s Art, Shandong Art Museum

Each week Cee of Cee’s Photography challenges bloggers with a fun prompt. This week Cee has evacuated to get away from the Oregon fires. Obviously, she couldn’t provide a prompt as she usually does. So I’ve gone with Colorful Wildcard.

ibid.

Ibid

Ibid

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Another Getty Museum Challenge

twitter.com/thealiceroberts/status/1250320138009604106

My fascination with people’s recreation of masterpieces tagged with #gettymuseumchallenge continues. You just can’t bottle up our creativity.

Getty Museum Challenge

I just discovered the #GettyMuseumChallenge meme. Folks are getting quite creative during the quarantine.

 

National Museum of Mexican Art

Our Lady of Guadalupe drivin’ along

I spent the day in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago with my friend Maryann. Before our walking tour of Pilsen’s famed murals, we had time to explore the National Museum of Mexican Art, which has a good collection from many eras.

Cross

Tree of Life

The Trinity Interesting how the Father, Son & Holy Spirit look like triplets

Dia de los Muertes

I like the size of the museum. It’s got a well curated collection and doesn’t take all day to view. You’ll still have time to explore the neighborhood’s many significant murals.

The National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 19th Street, Chicago

Admission: Free

Hours: 10 am – 5 pm

Street parking

Tell Me Something Good

Tell Me Something Good is a simple challenge that prompts bloggers to share a nugget of positive news or wisdom and it’s started by the creator of A Momma’s View.

So for all of you who would like to play along and stick to the rules, here they are:

• I’ve found the program Victorian Slum House fascinating. It shows how complex life was back in the 19th century. My Great Books group discussed Karl Marx’s writing about “Alienated Labor,” which was published in 1844. The program, while maybe not perfectly comprehensive, shows a lot more of the history of the era.
• I’m reading Keeping it Halal, a book by a sociologist on Muslim boys growing up in the US.
• I’m continuing to work on a novel. It seems that a few pages were lost, but I’m still moving forward despite this loss.
• Here’s a quotation by Norman Vincent Peale:
  Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they haven’t half the strength you think they have.

It’s easy:

• Mention something that you consider being good in the comments

• Or write a post about it on your blog (please don’t forget the pingback if you do so I don’t miss out and also share the link to it in the comments below). Something good that happened to you recently, or something good you will experience in a little while, or something good you know will happen soon. Something that makes you feel good.

• Share this post and invite your followers as well.

 

Tell Me Something Good

Tell Me Something Good is a simple challenge that prompts bloggers to share a nugget of positive news or wisdom and it’s started by the creator of A Momma’s View.

So for all of you who would like to play along and stick to the rules, here they are:

• I enjoyed the neighborhood Monday cocktail (or wine), appetizers and conversation. I love that the neighbors or a few of them gather regularly in the summer months. Everyone brings their own drink and an appetizer to share.
• I’m getting excited and planning my short trip to New York in a few weeks. I’ll be going to my sister’s wedding on the 26th and will be there till the 30th.
• I’ve been enjoying volunteering at two different libraries. In Northbrook, I get to help out in the maker space and at Skokie I’m helping in Readers’ Service and A/V. In both areas I am learning a lot.
• I savored the elegance of Gilded Age portraits like these at the Drieshaus Museum’s member’s preview of their newly opened exhibit.

It’s easy:

• Mention something that you consider being good in the comments

• Or write a post about it on your blog (please don’t forget the pingback if you do so I don’t miss out and also share the link to it in the comments below). Something good that happened to you recently, or something good you will experience in a little while, or something good you know will happen soon. Something that makes you feel good.

• Share this post and invite your followers as well.

 

Cee’s Which Way Challenge

Jinan, China

Hanging Temple, China

Drieshaus Museum, Chicago

On Friday’s Cee challenges bloggers to post photos that depict ways, paths, roads, taken and not. To see more Which Way photos, click here.

Sepia Saturday

This week Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to post on living rooms, tables, chairs and such so I’m posting some of my favorite historic homes: Charles Dawes House in Evanston, and the Richard Drieshaus Museum in Chicago.

Charles Dawes House

Charles Dawes House, Living Room

I wish I had such a living room. Below are chairs from the Art of the Chair exhibit at the Drieshaus Museum.

For more Sepia Saturday photos, click here.

Bourbon, Bowties & Bonnets

Friday I went to a party at the Richard H. Driehaus Museum called Bourbon, Bowties & Bonnets, which celebrated the Kentucky Derby. My friend and I went with colorful, spring outfits, but we didn’t don bonnets because we just didn’t have any. Next year, we will. Still a lot of guests got into the spirit of the festivities and dressed up from head to toe. Many women had spectacular hats, but my favorite was a straw hat with a wide brim decorated with flowers, a small plastic horse and an old ticket from the Kentucky Derby.

Mint Juleps

When we arrived we were given mint juleps, the cocktail most associated with the Kentucky Derby. A bona fide mint julep comes in a pewter glass and has crushed ice (not cubes), sugar (not syrup), bourbon and mint leaves (recipe here). Bourbon is the first alcohol invented in the U.S. and must be made up of at least 51% corn and be made in fresh oak barrels. After their first use, the barrels are sold to Scotland, Mexico and elsewhere. Those countries use the barrels to make other alcohol. Though distilled in Kentucky for the most part, Bourbon got its name from Bourbon Street in New Orleans, where bourbon became popular.

With our mint juleps we listened to music and nibbled hot appetizers. We learned about the derby’s history.

Then we went upstairs and could taste three different cocktails: The Brown Derby, Old Fashioned and Boulevardier. My favorite was The Brown Derby with the strong Old Fashioned and Boulevardier coming in a distant second and third.

Beautiful bonnets

A bit pricey, but handmade

We could wander around the museum checking out this stunning Gilded Age home and the current exhibit on the history of chairs in America. In addition, they had a real life milliner selling gorgeous hats and fascinators, which would be perfect for anyone going to the derby or a royal wedding. Some of our fellow guests were planning on going to the Drake Hotel’s viewing of Prince Harry and Meaghan Markel’s wedding and got their hats here.

Amplified: Chicago Blues

Chicago History Museum

Recently the Chicago History Museum added over 45,000 photographs of Blues musicians to its collection. Now it’s hosting a terrific exhibit of a small selection of Raeburn Flerlage’s photography of Blues musicians taken in the 1950s and ’60s.

As a member I was invited to attend the preview party which included informative welcome speeches, live music, food and drink. First my aunt and I took advantage of the curator’s welcome speech which heightened he exhibit’s explanation of how the Great Migration spread the Blues to various parts of the U.S. We also learned how and why the museum acquired Flerlage’s vast oeuvre.

Afterwards we viewed the museum, which features opportunities to interact including a special guitar that gives you a brief introduction to playing Blues guitar. There’s a stage where you can sing the Blues, solo or with friends.

This informative, fun Blues exhibit goes through August 10, 2019.

Tickets: Groupon Discount (eBates 9% discount also available),
Chicago History Museum several discounts available

Hours: 9:30 – 4:30 pm