Golden

Everything is golden these days. I took a drive into the country with friends a few weeks ago, pretty much hanging out the window like a dog the whole time.  We rode horses and ate apples and freshly made doughnuts. Simply divine! The sky was blue and bright and it looked so well against the bronze of the leaves and grass.

I had a great walk the other day, kicking the leaves around like the (twenty) five year old I am. The crunch! The smell! Mouldering death! Gotta love it!



Of course it won't last forever. Already most of the leaves have fallen, my legs are freezing waiting for the bus in the morning, and before I'm ready it's going to be down coat time here in Chicago. But that may be what makes fall so lovely.  You have to savor it fast! The gallon of apple cider I bought two weeks ago is drunk. I used the last of the 1/2 peck of apples I bought in applesauce today. And unless it warms up again I think I just wore flats for the last time this year!

I made the most of good weather last weekend with two friends, wandering in and out of some of my city's finest buildings on the Chicago Open House. Burnham, Sullivan and Wright! We saw them all! Clambered around a bridge house, rode in the last manually operated elevator in the city, and took an obscene amount of photographs.

This is Miss Ashley's favorite staircase. And you can see why, its in the Auditorium Building, which means Louis Sullivan (my architecture boyfriend) did it.

And then there's the Auditorium's Ganz Hall. It's like walking into Rivendell, or Meduseld.

                                            Photo from AIA Chicago

Sullivan blows my mind, every time.  The dude had a serious thing for lightbulbs.

Though not Sullivan, the gallery hall in the Fine Arts Building was lovely too. All dark wood with etched glass doors. Beautiful music coming from practice rooms. Art Nuveau murals.

I adore gold leafed skies! Gold leafed anything really...I am the daughter of a Byzantinist after all!

And they had a good staircase too...

I think architecture is one of my favorite types of art. You not only get to look at it, but you get to poke it too! Sit on it! Or lick it if you really really wanted! No one would stop you! (Though it's not a good idea, think of the germs and lead paint.)

It was nice to have such a lovely day in my city, then come home to my own little bit of it.

I made apple pancakes. And watched Inspector Lewis with a cup of tea and my feet up on the poof (lots of stairs).

And didn't update my blog so am now waaay backed up on posts!  So am now going to un-gracefully shove in some photographic evidence of my projects from that jewelry class I took.
Behold!

Pretty Plaque Number One!

Pretty Plaque Number Two! It's got a bird on it! (I found I really liked "punching" things so made not one but TWO hole punched projects! Both are based off classic American tin punching designs.)

And I made a brass band ring, to pair with the wee brass ring I stole off a Kewpie  doll ages ago and wear every day.

It's got a simple hammered finish and a whopping load of solder ghost at the seam but my fingers are strategically covering that! I still have to write up a post on the crazy food night I had with the friends I went galavanting around the coutryside with...but hopefully that will happen soon! And apartment photos! I have not forgotten! I just hate writing in past tense! About my own life! It's like I died! Buh!

Until then just keep listening to this really loud on repeat while staring at this image, because it's the sexiest Sullivan moment of All Time. 

Not mine...