Little Things and Big Things

Here are some life highlights since my last post.

• My design wall is no longer empty. Hooray!  More on that in another post, but here's a sneak peek. (Apologies for the bad lighting.)

                                                   

• Docent training for the upcoming exhibition Object out Loud at the Katonah Museum of Art, featuring Arman and Nick Cave.  Many of you may know Nick Cave, but many may ask, who is Arman?  He's a French-American artist that I hope you'll get to know.  He was a contemporary of Rauschenberg and Warhol, yet didn't get recognition by the NY art critics at the time; that said, he is in the collections of the Met and MoMA.  (He was very well regarded in France from the almost the start of his career.)  It's going to be an exciting exhibition.  It's great to work with a museum that so often creates its own exhibitions and, therefore, furthers artistic scholarship. The exhibition opens October 15th.

The home page banner announcing the exhibition.
L: Detail Nick Cave, Hustle Coat
R: Arman, detail, Big Parade

• A trip to Chicago and Indiana to see my parents, spend a bit of time with our oldest,

Fun graffiti in her neighborhood

Sweet Piper, who was a foster and now has a home with my daughter.  At 9 years old she was having a hard time in the shelter, after being surrendered when her original owner died.  Now we're having fun speculating about her genetic makeup.

• and visit our youngest a Notre Dame.  We also tailgated with the in-laws and friends who's daughter is also at ND.  A fun-filled weekend.

• My mother-in-law's 75th birthday:  Somehow, I forgot to take pictures when we had 10 people over to celebrate.  I have to get better about taking family photos. I don't know why I always forget.

• Simple pleasures: I'm enjoying reading and taking pictures on walks and in my garden.  It seems there are a lot of praying mantis in my garden this year, though I'm not quite sure why.  My reading is keeping step: The Good, Good Pig by Sy Montgomery and The Queen Must Die by William Longwood.   Anyone read either of these? My book group is now reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn so I guess I'm switching to coming-of-age stories. (We just finished The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane. Anyone read that?)

Praying mantis giving me the evil eye when I jostled "his" leaf.  I'm certain I blinked first in this stare-down.

Up next: October break with my two college-age children.  I'm so looking forward to spending time with them!