The last week of April

Last week was an interesting one, so I thought I would share a few images from it.

On wednesday President Obama was next door at Harpo studios. Several news vans were outside with cameras set up to document the arrival.

I watched the motorcade drive up and into the studio garage, there were at least a dozen vans and cars. All the streets for several blocks around the building were closed to through traffic for 3 hours. The street below was filled with secret service guys, it was reassuring to see there was a lot of care done to protect the president.  I was not able to really get any photos because the secret service guys waved us off the balcony shortly after the president arrived.

Friday morning I stepped out of the shower and heard groups of women shouting out their love of Oprah. When I looked out the window I saw the sidewalk below filled with brightly dressed women in dresses and hats.

Then I realized this was an episode celebrating the royal wedding that had just happened that morning.

On the weekend, Nina and I went downtown

 to the Merchandise Mart. It is such a massive building.

We went to Artropolis, a huge fine art venue, on saturday and then the Antiques Fair on sunday. 

Both events were a lot of fun, but I really loved seeing the decorative arts at the Antiques fair. It was amazing to see so many pieces; from paintings, prints, renaissance period parchment manuscripts, furniture, to suits of armor, that one would typically see in museum exhibits.

One booth had several original paintings on canvas for old Guinness ads.

Another had doll molds, don't these hands look like they are doing the royal wave?

I adore these hand painted floral engravings!

A truly exciting thing that we saw was a French traveling salesmen's cotton fabric sample book from the 1820's. It was huge, probably 18" x 24" and at least 4 inches thick and it cost $35,000. The fabric swatches were in perfect shape and could easily be used to reproduce new fabric since it was old enough to be copyright free. What a treasure trove!

I love this view of the Chicago river from inside the Merchandise Mart.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo!

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