Day 118

Well today morphed into something very different from what I had planned.  I tried doing a huge abstraction on this door and well it took on a mind of it's own and the result is, I kind of love it.

What I love: When something isn't working, trying something new.  Also I've always loved these doors that are across from LS's house and I've wanted to paint them.  I guess it doesn't really look like doors, but the important thing here is you get the color, because that's really what I loved about those doors.

Day 117

Went to someone's house for the first time for dinner.  We had delicious mediterranean.

What I love: Trying new things, getting to know new people and spring in the city.  This picture has nothing to do with spring, but the trees are budding here in the city and that's promising!

Day 116

Today was a trip to the MFA show downtown at SAIC.  There was some pretty cool stuff there and instead of painting someone else's artwork I thought I'd share with you my memory of the front door because it impressed me as I went in because of how brilliantly the gold letters shone.

What I love: Creativity and art, and being able to be immersed in such a rich environment of so many different creative people.  I feel pretty lucky to be a part of that.

Day 115

Today was a trip out to the Burbs to plant the garden and I'm loving all the negative space here.

What I love: Sweet potatoes, gardens, and my husband's family.  Seriously, people complain about their in-laws and probably for good reason, but mine are pretty much the most wonderful, generous, and loving people and I like getting a chance to spend more time with them while I'm here.  So thanks Chicago for bringing me closer.

Day 114

So the husband and I were out for a walk one night this week because I'm involved in a pedometer challenge at work.  It's pretty crazy competition so I was trying to get some really good steps in that day.  Anyway, we came across this house.  It caught my eye because 1) it was massive and 2) it had no bars around it.  See, here in Chicago, everything is pretty much locked down tight.  There's fences keeping people out...and in?

I'm pretty sure I embarrassed the husband taking a picture of it, but this is a pretty much suburban home nestled in the middle of the city, and when I say nestled it's not really nestled it's more like a giant meteorite that came barreling between the rest of the row homes.  So here you have it.

What I love: Diversity.  I love how diverse things are and how often I am taken by surprise.

Day 113

Today's picture was found dropping off LS at home.

What I love: Chicago has incredible architecture.  I love the transition between these two buildings that is almost seamless, but still in different colored brick and the one on the other side has obviously been repainted recently.  It's such an interesting place.

Day 112

Art lessons with Harley today!

What I love: Going back to the basics.  Contour line drawing with sharpies and teaching someone else about something that I love.  I would have never done this if I hadn't moved here.

Day 111

Today was art lesson day with the kiddos.

We talked about different kinds of lines, how many different types can you count?

What I love: That I hated a place so much that I created a blog about trying to like it better and it turned in to teaching art lessons and bringing art back in to my life.

Day 110

A great way to remember Easter Sunday...with pie.

What I love: Making friends, spending time with old ones, and eating delicious pie.  It was a great way to celebrate the life of Jesus Christ.

Day 109

We spent a lot of time downtown today doing the Art Institute and going to XOCO downtown.

What I love: Delicious food is everywhere in Chicago.  Sometimes I feel overwhelmed with all of the places I want to try, but don't have the budget to get to, but this weekend we got treated to XOCO and it was delicious!  A day filled with art and delicious food is a day well spent in my mind.  Did I mention I can walk outside without a heavy coat.  There is much to celebrate!

Day 108

The husband's bestie came to visit!

What I love: Now that we've been here awhile we have some favorite places to go and it's been fun showing him around.  It doesn't hurt that he always brings us the latest treats from Mars. :)

Day 107

I end up stopping at this particular intersection a lot and I look over and see this building.  I've always admired the colors.

What I love: The beautiful blue-green and red.  Also, this brick was pretty fantastic.  It was a fun one to paint for sure.

Day 106

Kind of a fun one to paint.  We saw this scene on the way home from a friends, a full moon next to the Sears Tower.  Pretty impressive.

What I love: This was really very beautiful.  I've been wanting to paint this for awhile and Wednesday provided the perfect opportunity.  Sometimes, even though I had to stand next to some trash cans that I'm pretty sure had rats scurrying around them, there are some really beautiful picturesque moments.

Day 105

I had an interview today...

This was one of the sides of the school.  I thought the brick pattern was kind of interesting.

What I love: That I could possibly have a full-time teaching position next year at a really nice school.  It would be nice to not float around from place to place.  Also, moving here and having this whole year I feel like I've grown a lot professionally and I've become a better teacher.

Day 104

Art lessons today!  Today's lesson was on tints and shades.  The kids did excellent and I showed them a pretty crude version of this while I was there and fixed it up later with my pen and my own watercolors.

What I love: If I hadn't ever moved here I would have never started doing art lessons.  I actually am loving the lessons with these kids and it's a great chance for me to hone my own skills.

Day 103

This was a view from someone's apartment.

What I love: The red color and the angle.  At that moment, before it started raining it just looked really beautiful.

Day 102

This little squirrel I saw coming out of work one day.

What I love: The squirrel and I had a moment where he thought I might eat his moldy piece of bread and the fear paralyzed him so much I got to take pictures of him for my blog.

Day 101

Pretty much every weekend I get the opportunity to ride the train to go on a date with the husband.

What I love: Riding the train in to downtown.  It's so much fun and so incredibly fascinating.  A perfect opportunity for people watching even when it's sort of awkward for everyone else on the train.  I just love seeing how people react to life.

Day 100

With the kids at school day 100 is a really big deal.

100 days is a really big deal.  That means I have 100 paintings this year.  THAT IS MORE PAINTINGS THAN I'VE EVER DONE.

Take a moment and let yourself be impressed by my awesomeness.

What I love: Our local library that is such a neat little place.  The Chicago library system is really very impressive and while it takes awhile to get books sometimes, they do have a wide variety of books and I get things a whole heck of a lot faster than I ever did in Utah.

Day 99

This is a place I see often and I've felt for awhile that I needed to paint it.

What I love: The colors I see in contrast with that beautiful red-orange brick.  I love the detail on some of these buildings and that despite abuse sometimes, old buildings are valued.  It's something Utah didn't really understand.

Day 98

Today is complete with a poem and a jumprope.

What I love: Hanging out, eating dinner, and trying to jump rope on the sidewalks of Chicago.

Day 97

So today's a little...different.

Every Monday I've started teaching LS' kids art lessons.

It's a lot of fun and I've been teaching them about different kinds of watercolor washes.

So today we did a little application.

I told them they could paint anything they wanted as long as they used all of the four washes we talked about.  The results were awesome and I wish I had taken a picture.

One painted a fish and the other a butterfly.  

I painted a banana.

I should have posted that for today's painting, but I decided to give that one to the kids and this one I like more because of the important lesson I learned.

What I love: Watching kids paint makes me think of the way I paint and I realized that I need a little more creativity in my life.  In honor of both my students' paintings I did a butterfly fish, because WHY NOT?  It's way more interesting than that banana I painted earlier.

Day 96

This didn't happen on Sunday, but I kept thinking about it and the color of the water.

What I love: The beautiful milky blue.  Lake Michigan, you and I have a standing date this summer.

Day 95

This was on a bike ride we took on Saturday.

Such a gorgeous day.

What I love: There's a beach through that tunnel!  Also I love riding my bike.  It's not the greatest bike in the world, but it gets me around and I love that the husband and I get to explore together.

Day 94

This one goes out to E-Mo.

Thanks for helping with the great donut escapade even from 1,500 miles away.

What I love:  That I can still call my best friend and hear her little boy sing "The Oatmeal Song," which he made up himself.  That even though we're far away my Mario game is still saved on her Wii and she dreams positive dreams about my life experiences.  :)

Day 93

I saw this place next to pretty much the best donut place in town.

What I love: There is this little Puerto Rican Bakery that I saw while driving and I happened to need donuts the following day.  I made the husband come back with me and try a donut (because I stopped eating treats for awhile) so I could order them for work.  Work thought they were a big hit and I'm convinced I need to come back.  I feel like Chicago has a lot of these hidden gems.

Day 92

:)

What I love: Stuff got cancelled on Wednesday so we took a serendipitous walk through the park.  I like that the ice has melted and the song birds were so beautiful.

Day 91

A new grocery store opened up in town and that's really what I have to paint about today...

What I love: Deli meat and that I'm now loving turkey, avocado, swiss, and mustang on rye sandwiches.  Seriously though, the new Mariano's is nice there on Chicago.  It was nice to be in a regular grocery store and not Aldi or Costco.

Day 90

Today I had an art lesson and I'm going to let you decide who's the teacher and who's the student.

What I love: That Chicago made me make art again. :) Also that I get to teach art lessons and that instead of getting paid I get dinner, which is better than getting paid...honestly.