My co-worker and friend, Brad, entered his 30's over the weekend. Ahhh, I remember 30. His adorable girlfriend, Christina, planned a surprise birthday blowout at Cody's Public House with family and friends. Happy Birthday old man! (ha!)
What better way to spend an evening than with 10 friends and 1600 strangers dining along the Chicago River? The second year of Chicago in White dinner's secret location was the Merchandise Mart! Kendra was a little bummed - given that she works there - but after getting all set up, I think even she was impressed! It was a beautiful night! And I cannot wait to see what super fabulous location they will choose next year!!
Seriously action packed Friday! First stop was the Art Institute to see the Lichtenstein exhibit (finally), which I thought was pretty good. I nice collection of his work. I was not crazy for the "brushstrokes" but thought they were a good representation of the progression an artist goes through. Becoming know for a "style" would be hard, I would imagine you would tire of doing the same thing over and over again. I loved the room of sketches - process facinates me! I think my favorites were the landscapes.
We managed to sneak into a couple of other galleries to see some other famous works. As crazy as it is, Marcey hasn't seen much beyond the impressionists at the Museum. She needs to spend a lot more time there - so much to see!
Then we hit the City Target - I needed vases for tomorrow night and I wanted to see how they designed the store to fit within the old Carson space. I think they did an amazing job - looks clean and fresh and they kept the Sullivan decorated columns. They actually look good with that Target red. And another Marcey moment ... she had never seen the old Sullivan ironwork on the building. She worked downtown, blocks from there, and had never seen this stunning building.
Last stop was champagne and sweets with the girls at RM Champagne Salon. It's a new place, literally located around the back side of a building that you have to access thru the alley. It was lovely despite the fact that our waiter was extremely awkward.
So after my KUAA event Teri, Nikki and Will invited me to join them for the rest of their day's adventures ... so glad they did and cannot thank them enough for such a fabulous day!! We had the opportunity to meet the general manager of Soldier Field and have him give us a personal tour of the stadium! He was so nice and full of great stories - it was a true pleasure and an experience I won't soon forget. Now maybe I need to actually go to a Bears game huh...
Attended a KU Alumni Association event at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday. We had an artist (from Pilsen) take us around to certain works of art and give her interpretation of it's meaning, which I found to be a great change compared to a docent. She was really good with our small, but diverse group of people. The museum was completely full and the exhibits right now are superb. I thought the Skyscraper rooms were particularly good! A really powerful display around 9.11. Thanks to the KUAA for putting this even together - it was so great meeting Teri and Nikki, both in from Lawrence.
Finally getting to posting photos of beautiful little Sloane from her 7 month shoot ... she's almost eight months now. (oops!) But how cute is she in this blue dress? Such a good pick daddy! She's crawling now too, so she kept coming toward me to get the camera. I had to clean a couple of smudges and as you can see in the last photo, she did finally manage to get the strap.
Dropped in on Elliot's not-birthday party in the garden this morning. Kendra had set up a very designer table of rainbow flavored fun. Only sad I had to leave before the rainbow jello arrived.
Saturday with Sloane. And Bella. And Holly. And Emma. It was photoshoot day with the little ladies of Chesterton. Just finishing up processing the 5D photos, but cannot resist an iPhone pic too!
... via iPhone ...
I attended a little film premiere called Outliers, Vol. I: Iceland. The work of a couple of my old photoblogger friends and a really talented group of their friends. Six guys from the US and Copenhagen meet in Iceland with the intent to capture the beauty of the people, landscape, architecture and anything between. Sounds simple, but was apparently a real trip. The film was visually stunning and the audio, just awesome. Check out the soundtrack here. And teasers of the film here.
... via iPhone ...