Inspiring collection

It's been approx. 2 years since I started collecting books with 'dedica', or some kind of special inscription.

Here's the most recent example - and btw, thanks to Helder for bringing Paul Auster to my attention!!!

Creativity flourishes (but is the baby ok?)

Remember how I started spotting these creative signs about lost something, found something or 'i know you ...ing..bad person who stole my bike"?

Well, here's the most recent entry spotted near my house.

I only hope that the baby is okay!!!

Dead people's treasures, or marriage & death go hand in hand, but art lives forever!

Had a great antiques hunt last weeek (geeez, i have to stop!!! i have an official huge Antiques Fair this coming w/end!)

Will show more of what i got soon, but here's a wonderful find - a Family Register.

What i need now is 2 things: learn how to deal with nailing things onto the walls & deciding what goes where....

P.S. Found, not lost

...and this is the 'unusual' dog i mentioned in one of my yesterday's posts - i hope the owners will show up!
...how about if the dog ran away & doesn't want to be found?

The Top 10 Lost Technologies

Not in a nostalgic mood today (at all!), but this is my general life attitude.
Stumbled upon this:
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-lost-technologies.php

Men on women & women on men

Words, words, words.... but what fun last night with our dinner & after-dinner conversation. Cross-cultural comparisions, gender roles & childhood memories (stories of woes & hardships).
Who needs a shrink after all that?

Outsourcing my way

It's not even a global trend any more: it's simply the way we live & work. So i, too, outsource some tasks, like putting my writable wallpaper on the wall (shown here done by Daniel who works with modeling traffic flows in Paris) & assembling a fan (done by Isabel who just returned to the US after 6 months studying tropical architecture in Shanghai).

Hey, Chicago might not be the tropics, but when it's hot, you still need a fan!

And manually good friends from all over the world always come handy!

Thank you!!!!

Hardworking...feet

Isa-bel's iso-lated feet...

You left your mark in my place!

If i were you (in your shoes), i'd come back to Chicago more often!

Man doesn't live by bread alone (but it could still be of use!)

I had no idea that napking folding (origami-style) used to be an art & a discipline in & of itself: the above photo (taken at MET) is one Matthias Geiger's creations (Matthias used to teach napkin folding at the Unviersity of Padua).* (*details for those who care to learn more at the end of this post).

Bread as a menu holder is from Au Pain Quotidien in Soho. Want to copy it, but don't eat enough bread (or don't offer my guests the printed menu of our intimate dinners?)

************************

(*With the Renaissance and the increase in prosperity and luxurious living, grandiose displays of table decorations became fashionable at the many courts of Italy and the new fashions for display spread from Italy to the northern Europe. One of the customs was to fold table napkins into elaborate centrepiece table decorations in the form of animals, birds, sailing ships and other impressive models. The starched napkins were pleated, first in one direction and then the pleated napkin was cross pleated so that the second pleats were at right angles to the first. The resulting doubly-pleated napkins formed a pliable medium that could then be moulded to form the birds and other creations. Several napkins were often used to complete the creation and they were attached together by being stitched with red thread. This was a long way from our modern idea of folding from a single square of paper without using cuts or fasteners or glue!
Italian books mention the pleated folding of napkins, from the middle of the 16 th century, but the most famous Italian treatise was that of Matthias Geiger, published in 1629. His book, Li Tre Trattati" contained table decorations of most elaborate animals, birds, fishes, dragons and ships in full scale. )

Could you ask for anything more?

Beautiful homes shine brighter when the right people grace them with their presence. And if the right person in question plays the guitar & has the greatest hair ever (along with many other fabulous & random 'talents'), then how I could not miss him???

Open house Chicago awaits old friends!

Very social drinker

Now that i finally have my apartment in place (well, it's presentable, but the work is not over yet in the 'hidden' spaces), I do entertain a lot.

Or rather: I'm being 'entertained' by my guests/friends. Or better still: we entertain each other, for it's a two-way street.

At any rate, as a 'social lubricant' (ugly expression that i never use, so why now?), i have been stocking on wines quite a lot, indulging in my 'let's try as many different kinds as possible' frenzy-weakness.

Still, the most relaxing, exciting & sexy thing is just having the people i love around.

Good humor & no hangover (but i do miss them when they are gone!)

Will kill for work

What does the job market look like in tough economic times like today? Here's my answer, found in the East Village, NYC.

A killer job indeed!

Signs of time

All right, yes, i'm a trend analyst, which is just as well, since i have a natural inclination of noticing these little & maybe not even very important things & trying to make sense of it all (while rarely taking pictures).

So here are some of the recent examples of everyday creativity as seen in Chicago & New York.

What i'm interested in here is how what used to be a boring piece of communication became almost an 'ad': not polished, no, but there's a visible shift.

Why is that? Is it because of the pervasive social media & etsy, which makes us believe we are all potential crafty geniuses?

...2 days ago another sign appeared in my neighborhood: "Dog found", it says. I'm hoping its masters will make their presence known soon!