The New Adventures of Peter and Katherine

Big news, and the reason I haven't been posting lately, is because all of my free time has been devoted to house hunting and now house business. YES Peter and I are in process of buying a house. Tomorrow is the inspection and the attorney review should be done by the end of the week. The closing date is not till the end of March so it will be a long two months for us. I do have some photos but unfortunately it is illegal for me to post them on the internet without direct permission from the owners so I will just ad a link to the property listing online. That might disappear some time soon though.

http://www.redfin.com/IL/Chicago/3428-W-Beach-Ave-60651/home/13285603

The one thing we have done recently that isn't house related was this weekend at Navy Pier an event called Snow Days Chicago was held. It was a snow sculpting competition with 15 adult teams and around 12 student teams participating.

The above photo is the winning sculpture. It is impressive but there were some that were even more amazing.  There was a Batman Vs. Jaws that was pretty stellar and my personal favorite was titled Feast or Famine and was a bear and eagle hunting salmon along a river. Crazily enough there were sculpture teams from all over the world. The furthest team came from Czech Republic and oddly enough Mexico City has a snow sculpting team. I imagine it's pretty hard to find snow there.

This city just keeps on getting better the longer that I live here and soon I'll be putting down permanent roots. From that girl who has moved 20 times in 10 years that seems crazy scary but also riveting.

Silly String Massacre

As promised some photos of the Annual Wallace Family Silly String Massacre!!! I'm not sure when this tradition started (perhaps one of my regular readers *DAD* will fill me in) but we have been doing it for a number of years now. It's quite fun as you can see.

Above is my future sister in law Ali. Below is obviously Me and Peter.

Peter doing some clean up mid-battle which is really bad form :)

HA HA! The Camera guy was attacked by moi!

Time Flies

So a whole week into 2013 and I'm just finding the time to sit down and asses how well I'm carrying out my New Year's resolutions.

I never make them because I always break them but this year I'm going to start eating healthier and drinking less. Two things that I should do anytime of the year not just at the beginning. So last week we had a guest (my best friend Ashley) in town so I gave myself a reprieve for her three day visit. I can't exactly eat healthy and not have drinks with my bestie in town. And then we were at my parent's for Christmas Part Duex over the weekend and other than steaks and fried catfish I did ok there. But the time has come for no more excuses. Last night Peter and I had sushi which is extremely healthy so we are on our way. I'll post some photos later this week of the silly string massacre at Chez Wallace. 

On the 1st half of Christmas my true love gave to me...

Peter and I completed our first half of Christmas celebration with the Tullochs officially yesterday. We drank, ate and were merry as I hope that most of you were.

We played a bit of Christmas music as everyone joined in singing and the final gingerbread creations were quite incredible, thanks to Bernice for baking all the gingerbread.

Now next week we have round two Christmas down in Texas with the Wallaces. I'm guessing the weather won't feel as Christmasy. That's something that Peter takes issue with, in most if not all Kringle related tunes they talk about snow and only about a quarter of the world has snow around this time of year. For instance in the southern hemisphere it's full on summer right now but you never hear any sunny skies Rudolph wasn't needed this year carols. Perhaps I'll commission my Dad to write a song about the subject. "Springtime for Santa" "The weather outside is Righteous" "Summer Wonderland"

Happy Christmas EVE

So Peter and I have been out to the suburbs and back again. We got to see Brother Ian and Sister-in-law Lana yesterday for a late lunch as they continued on their trek from Arizona to Toronto. Tonight we are having some friends over for a secret santa gift exchange and a nice dinner. Then it's back out to the 'burbs tomorrow for Christmas with the Tullochs. We will visit my family the first weekend in January.

We did see some wild life out in Naperville though the beast was caught shortly after this running of the geese. 

We also made a gingerbread house and the world's tiniest snowman. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and I'll be back with photos and more to share soon!

Meet Treebert

Peter and I purchased him a couple of weeks ago. Oddly enough I am nearly 30 years old and this is the first Christmas tree I have purchased as an adult outside of my family home. It has been super fun having a tree this year. As last year Peter and I were in Costa Rica for most of December and we really didn't get that old Christmas feeling.

One day I'll get around to putting up photos of that trip and talking all about it but for now here is a fully decorated Treebert beaming in all his glory. By the look of the lighting through the window it's almost the same time as he entered our beautiful home.

And finally this is a photo of Peter placing the very first ornament on our very first tree! I gotta say I love that face!

I hope all of you have a lovely and very Merry Holiday Season!

Sparkle Skull!

While Peter and I were in Spain we found this amazing little jewelry shop where everything was hand made by a different designer. It was filled with the most unique and extravagant baubles and personal ornaments I have ever seen. Once one stepped through the door you would be greeted by a posed jet black female mannequin, arms akimbo in mid-air, wearing a floor length gown made of black silk roses, and the entirety of the mannequin's surface was covered in tiny red Swarovski flat back crystals. 35,000 crystals had been placed by hand by the artist is what the installation notes read. It was stunning. Upon our return Peter told me that he would like to make me something similar for my birthday. Here it is!

This is early morning with the light coming in from our east facing windows. The skull is certified long horn fresh from Austin TX via Ebay. After some 60 odd hours over the course of two and half months and nearly 5000 crystals glued to it's surface it is currently my most prized possession. Peter and I discovered, after he started work on this project, that there is a very famous artist (Damien Hirst) who also had a thing for covering skulls with crystals. 

Here is a full shot. As you move around the room the light refracts from different angles on the crystals and it sparkles. 

When I was younger I used to sit around getting depressed about feeling like nothing is original, that I could never write words, sing music, or create art that was completely unique and had never been seen or done before. It's a lonely idea but also completely untrue. As I've aged I have stopped trying to make something out of nothing and embraced being "influenced" (aka stealing) ideas from every creative source I could find. Unfortunately also as you age you start to have less free time to devote to artistic endeavors. My friends Loves It! say it best in their song Me Alone "it's the great debate to create or procreate" and it weighs heavy on my mind these days. But for right now this is my baby, now what should I name it!?