The Museum that is Anthropologie

Well, I climbed out of the artistic rut I've been in, long enough to make another trek to Anthropologie. This time in Houston. My friend came in from Ohio and we spent a couple of days catching up. We also made a trip to two of the "fancy" malls in Houston for some retail therapy. Mostly looking for photo opps...but we did drop a few bucks in the Paper Source. I hope you are not sick of Anthro photos, cause that's all I got for now!!

Curved archway made of stretched frame of fabric. I'd love a wall of staghorn ferns.



Loved this bird wallpaper.


Pewter Animal Totem.


Hubby saw me drooling over this plate. I later saw him with an Anthro bag and then even later, found such bag in the car, including the plate.


Bicycle wheels with clear lights on them.


This was clever. Made from plastic spoons. Looks so cool in store, at home would be really fun to do an outside wall with lights shining up through the spoon globes.


Outside looking in, after dark. These circles appeared to me to be cut from waxed papers, vellums, glassine. It was really pretty, and so were the lightbulbs.

LIFE IS ART

But sometimes life just gets in the way of art! When there is more "life" than art, I tend to get a little cranky. Ideas are still bouncing round in my head, but the facts are, just not enough time to get them physically done. Out of balance, that's what it is.

My last two trips to Anthropologie were still on the camera, so I got them loaded and organized enough to post a few. A trip to Anthro usually gets me so enthused I come home and make something right away, but I didn't this time. I have to get some of the ideas out of my head before I can stack new ones up in there.

SAN DIEGO ANTHROPOLOGIE
Palms reflected, and garlands in window, made of PVC pipe. Clever, but not really beautiful. However I think they would be great outside.



Candles and Onaments



Wooly trees.



Didn't we make these with our kids?



Made of plastic swizzle sticks. Actually looked much better in person.

A Sampling of ICADS

Here's a few from September. I keep finding these cards stuck everywhere, in books to flatten them, some finished, some barely started. What's wrong with me? I am so scattered and disorganized...I may be finding these index cards in weird places for quite some time. Some of them I didn't even date, so I'm sure I have more than enough to account for every day of the month. Some of them I really like, and some I can tell my heart wasn't really in it. My mind is still processing that dilemma.

I am not totally satisfied with my photos from today, but here they are. The light wasn't good, maybe I should take the others outside tomorrow. I uploaded them to Flickr as well.

I'm Still Trying to ICAD

I haven't given up on doing my Index cards, but I have fallen behind a bit. I missed almost a week in Sept. and have been playing catch-up ever since. I have taken two trips to be with family because of illness and there was a subsequent death in the family as well.

I have a stack of cards that I still need to photograph and get posted to Flickr. I've been visiting the site regularly and not very many people are posting now. Maybe the 3 month summer challenge did everyone in. Come on, where are y'all? Anyhow, I still enjoy the little index cards. Since I have a lot of them left, I will continue to carry them around with me and try to continue to create a bit each day. Even if some days it's only my shopping list. Some days are better than others, but it's all ART..right??? Well, it may be CRAFT, but these days, the line between the two seems more blurred than it once was.

I tossed these in a chair by the window, tomorrow I hope to get them individually posted.

Anthropologie in Downtown Chicago

Remember, I've told you that I love the stores because you never know what you'll see in each one. They all sell the same merchandise, but their design teams do different things with the same materials. This one is on two levels. Each photo is clickable to view details. There are a lot of photos, so if you are not totally enthralled with Anthropologie, I understand if you opt out. I tell hubby all the time that I need a living space this large to hang all my "treasures". He agrees, but we haven't quite quite figured out a way yet that we can make it happen.

UPSTAIRS:
Central area of store

Orange Hat

Smashed beer cans on orange wall

LOVED this window. It was over 3 feet deep

Me, on the inside

Hubby, on the outside




DOWNSTAIRS:

From top of stairs

First wall at bottom of stairs

Pale collage tucked in a corner under the stairs

Low ceilings, recessed lighting

Cool signs

Mixture of "stuff"

Close-up

Fixture made from large pots.

Lots of dishtowels

Let's go to Anthropologie

I haven't done a post about Anthropologie in quite awhile. I visited two of the stores while in Chicago. One was in one of those really nice malls in the city of Geneva. The other was downtown. I'd like to have gone to more of them, but just ran out of time. They were both interesting, and each one different. Remember, images are clickable to view larger.
In Geneva Commons:
Rather ordinary exterior for an Anthro store.


A huge installation of wooden hangers over the registers. Photo does not do it justice, it was much cooler in person.

On a narrow post they had used these for photo display.


Wall of torn fabric strips.

Close-up torn fabric strips, the fabrics were very opulent.


Always love their mirror displays. Always!
Reflecting light fixtures in center of store.

Hubbys legs & boots.


This clipboard display wall would be fun to use as an Inspiration board.


Big board of spectacle frames.

My favorite of course.



I'll do Downtown Chicago store in the next post.