A Bride-to-Be Shopping Spree and a $100 Gift Card Giveaway!

I went on an exciting "before store hours" shopping spree for gifts for my bride-to-be daughter last weekend!

I saw so many wonderful items .... please come on over to my Review Blog at this link to see more photos of what I bought, and for a chance to win a $100 HomeGoods gift card for yourself by leaving a comment there between June 20 and 30th, 2011! (click here for official rules)

Also, until June 30th, 2011, BlogHer is giving a chance to win one of ten $25 gift cards to HomeGoods on the BlogHer Prizes and Promotions Page that I know you'll want to enter, so you can have another chance at a mini HomeGoods shopping spree! Click here to enter! (Here are the official rules to enter)

The Art Institute of Chicago

On a recent visit to Chicago, Illinois, I decided to spend a cool rainy day at the Art Institute of Chicago.  The web site states: "The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879 as both a museum and school, first stood on the southwest corner of State and Monroe Streets. It opened on its present site at Michigan Avenue and Adams Street in 1893. Built on rubble from the 1871 Chicago fire, the museum housed a collection of plaster casts and had a visionary purpose: to acquire and exhibit art of all kinds and to conduct programs of education. The collection now encompasses more than 5,000 years of human expression from cultures around the world, and the school's graduate program is continually ranked as one of the best in the country. Within the next decade, a new complex will continue this process of growth."

( All photos in this post will enlarge if double clicked on)

I was thrilled to find a room full of works from one of my favorite painters, Vincent van Gogh. Above is his 1887 self portrait

Other van Gogh works on display were from top left to right :
Fishing in Spring, the Pont de Clichy (Asnières), 1887, Terrace and Observation Deck at the Moulin de Blute-Fin, Montmartre, early 1887, Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle (La Berceuse), 1889,The Drinkers, 1890
Middle left: The Poet's Garden, 1888
Bottom left: A Peasant Woman Digging in Front of Her Cottage, c. 1885
Middle and bottom right: The Bedroom, 1889

There were many wonderful paintings by the American artist Georgia O'Keeffe

Works by the American artist Edward Hopper including this painting: Nighthawks, 1942

Works by Mary Cassatt. Above are The Child's Bath, 1893, on the left and On a Balcony, 1878/79, on the right.

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte -- 1884, 1884-86, by Georges Seurat

Many magnificent works by Claude Monet

Including one of my personal favorites by Monet:  The Artist's House at Argenteuil, 1873

Two Sisters (On the Terrace), 1881 by Pierre Auguste Renoir

I'll leave you with this iconic portrait by an Iowa native, Grant Wood, called American Gothic, 1930

Who is you favorite artisit?  I took many, many, more photographs of the collections at The Art Institute, but I will have to save the rest for another post in the future. 

One extra little trivia tidbit:  Across Michigan Ave and Adams Street, directly across from the Art Institute of Chicago, is a marker for the beginning of the historic and legendary Route 66, which travels a total of 2,448 miles from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California.

I'm linking to the  weekly "Mosaic Monday" event on Mary's blog Little Red House. Please go over to Mary's blog to see Mary's beautiful photo mosaic and the links of all the blogs participating today!