FONTS - PAINT BY NUMBER - CHICAGO CULTURAL CENTER - Other Stuff - MyShadowProductions #218

 Hola everyone! This is big news, I am trying a different FONT for my Blog Posts this year. (Caveat) ??

Hola everyone! This is big news, I am trying a different FONT for my Blog Posts this year. (Rock Salt) ??

Hola everyone! This is big news, I am trying a different FONT for my Blog Posts this year. (Dancing Script) ??

Hola everyone! This is big news, I am trying a different FONT for my Blog Posts this year. (Merriweather) ??

Hola everyone! This is big news, I am thinking about trying a different FONT for my Blog Posts this year. (Shadows Into Light, Bold is the font I have used since Post #53, July 15, 2021), but who’s keeping track?

I can’t decide, imagine that :) Any thoughts??

It looks like tomorrow, as I write this section, (Friday January 23) will be one of the coldest days this winter here in Aurora, IL so I will most likely be inside with plenty of time to procrastinate a decision :)

Luckily I planned ahead a little bit for the “cabin fever” days. I have a Custom Paint By Number that I have been painting away on :) I ordered one from Canvas by Numbers. I chose a picture I took in Portimão, Portugal on Praia dos Trés Castelos (Three Castles Beach). 

If you were following my Portugal trip Blog Posts you just might remember that there were A LOT of pictures to choose from :) I don’t know if I chose the “best one” but I know that I remember taking that picture and something about the view stayed with me! That trip was last year January 21 to February 6. I really enjoyed it and feel like I found a good bit of variety. 

Click this link for the Portugal Posts. Please make sure to click on “Older Posts” at the bottom of the scroll so you can see all the Portugal Posts :)

Ok, are you ready for my first day trip of 2026? On January 2 I took Metra into Union Station and then walked about 30 minutes to the Chicago Cultural Center. The “main attraction” there is the World’s largest Tiffany Glass Dome, yes, really! The building has a very unique and interesting history and has a second dome that is very impressive itself.

The largest Tiffany Glass Dome in the world is located on the 4th floor of the Cultural Center’s South Wing in Preston Bradley Hall. The dome measures 38 ft in diameter and spans more than 1,000 sq ft. The dome contains approximately 30,000 pieces of Tiffany Favrile Glass, cut in the shape of fish scales and framed in cast iron.

The dome includes signs of the zodiac at its apex. I know I am a Libra and that usually means Scales but I had to google the chart below to find Libra on the Dome. Do you see you? :)

The “other” Dome, is actually a little larger but not “Tiffany” glass. This dome is in the North Wing of the Cultural Center in the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Hall and has 50,000+ pieces of glass and 40 ft in diameter..

Click Here to learn more about the Chicago Cultural Center, also known as “The People’s Palace”. 

This Link will let you “walk through” the Cultural Center in a Video created from my photos.

I hope you enjoyed the Video. Google Photos has added more music choices to their Highlight Video tool, good news for MyShadow. The music I chose for this video (Top of the Morning * TrackTribe) caught my ear, it just sounded a little “different” and as it played I expected Bob Seger to start singing at any time :) 

Remember, my brain is slowly “freezing” with the “fresh cold air”!

Speaking of Bob Seger it has been a long time since I linked one of his songs in my Blog. 

Well, let’s change that, Click Here for “Till it Shines” by Bob Seger. One of several cool lines in the song, in my opinion, is “Like an Echo Down a Canyon, Never Coming Back as Clear.”

Changing the subject a little/lot :), the past few Wednesday and Friday mornings (my usual days to venture into Chicago for volunteer shifts at Garfield Park Conservatory) it has snowed a little bit, subtle reminders for me to really appreciate the “nature” inside those panels of glass.

Here are a few photos that I took while helping out in the Fern Room and the Palm House.

I couldn’t resist, Click Here for a quick Fern Room and Palm House visit :)

It never gets old to hear the kids (“adults” too:) say “WOW!!” when they walk through a door!

Please have a great week and, if it’s on your radar, enjoy the NFL Conference Championship games (be nice BEARS fans, there are a few fellow readers from the LA area, Denver area, Seattle area and the New England area). At least we know that the “best” team is watching too :)

FULL BLOOM AHEAD !!

New Popotillo, The Little Prince, Morton Arboretum & 2025 Photo Review - MyShadowProductions #217

Howdy to all, hope you remember me, I haven’t Posted since last year, haha :)

Welcome to 2026 with MyShadowProductions :)

I ended 2025 sending one of my photos to my Popotillo Guy (doesn’t everybody have a Popotillo guy?) to create a custom “Straw Painting” for me.

This link will show you my previous Post about Popotillo/Straw Art/Straw Marquetry. The post has a link for a Wikipedia history of the art and also a link about the family of Popotillo artists that have made Popotillos for me.

This is the picture I sent via WhatsApp:

Garfield Park Conservatory - Artist’s Garden
Purple Flowers are Mexican Bush Sage

This is the finished product, simply amazing!! Not “exact” but “exactly portrayed”.

Size is 8.5 inches x 11 inches

Enlarged Section to Show Detail

I still kick myself for not reaching out to the Artists when I was in Mexico City in February 2024 and asking for a visit and viewing of how they create the “straw paintings”. This is definitely on my list the next time I am in Mexico City!

Changing the subject, have you ever heard the question “Has the sheep eaten the flower?”, me either until a friend mentioned the book “The Little Prince” (a children’s book for adults :), I googled it and was able to find it immediately and after a quick review I could tell it was my kind of book, short, easy to read, with pictures and according to my friend, “a message”. (Danke schön)

I am not a big reader but once in a great while I can be literate :)

Here are a few “messages” that stood out to me as I enjoyed a quick read on Christmas morning:

“The Grown-ups are very strange.”

“The thing that is important is the thing that is not seen.”

“But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart.”

“One runs the risk of weeping a little, if one lets himself be tamed.”

and

“Has the sheep eaten the Flower?”

Here is the cover:

CLICK HERE to Read The Book.

There is no requirement for submitting a Book Report but the Final exam will definitely have a question or two about The Little Prince :)

Now, let’s start the New Year off right with a couple of Videos created from my photos adventuring around the Chicago area.

Click Here for Morton Arboretum with (Dec 7) and without (Dec 21) Snow, nothing spectacular but for me there is always something that catches my eye. I was fortunate again to spot a few deer and give them something to wonder about :)

For another Video, I went to Chicago and made my way to the Field Museum. I don’t know what it is about me but I find it hard to patiently walk through a “museum” absorbing/reading all of the available information but I still enjoy it. One fact that I remember reading is that Flowering Plants only started appearing 130 million years ago, but maybe 300 million years?? Either way, much earlier than “Humans”, possibly explaining why “flowers” are much more interesting than “humans”, I didn’t say that!, thinking doesn’t count, right?! :)

Click this Link for The Field Museum Video. (Complete with Kazoo music, when is the last time you heard that? :)

I haven’t done this in the past but in this Post I will try a quick 2025 in review using the iPhotos app suggested photos for each month, you might even be able to name the location of the pictures (if you have paid attention to my previous year’s ramblings/posts, haha :)

View 2025 Review now!

                  HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2025-2026 and GPC Desert House & Greenhouse 9 - MyShadowProductions #216

FELICES FIESTAS !! (Happy Holidays) to one and all.

Right on schedule, Christmas is coming on December 25 and you guessed it, the New Year follows on January 01 and it will be 2026.

Thank you to everyone reading the Blog, I really enjoy keeping my “creativity” front and center knowing that Life and Mother Nature offer so many “things” to be grateful for!!

I put together a Christmas Card Video from pictures of random “holiday” sights over the last month and a half and would like to share it with YOU!

CLICK HERE for my 2025 Christmas Card :)

Now, for something completely different.

Over the last 20 months or so I have accumulated some random pictures at Garfield Park Conservatory’s Desert House and its associated Greenhouse 9 (I have been fortunate to help out in both on several volunteer shifts). The pictures/short videos are in no specific order and there is no way I know what every plant is :). Greenhouse 9, when the cd radio player works, has Classical music playing for the resident plants. When the wind is blowing in the right direction I could hear the music while helping outside in Child Wild and the Gravel Garden (took me a while to figure that out, at first I thought I was imagining it :). You might/probably will notice that the 2 spaces have a few quirky/cool “things” going on :)

Please, Enjoy the VIDEO for some desert warmth :)

BEST WISHES for a 

HEALTHY (body and spirit) 2026!

FULL BLOOM AHEAD !!

Late Fall COLORS - Lincoln Park Conservatory - More Lakefront Trail and WHITE SATURDAY - MyShadowProductions #215

Hola amigos, how are things in your neck of the woods?

If I had to guess I would say that I used/overused? the word COLORS in my blog posts during most of 2024, so why stop now? :)

I saw some pretty cool Late Fall colors that I want to share. Actually I just noticed that the word Colors includes all the letters of Cool :) 

Click Here for a Video created from my pictures at the Art Institute of Chicago gardens, areas heading to and at 12th St Beach and Northerly Island.

On Sunday November 16 I tried to take advantage of a nice, cool Fall day by going to Chicago and visiting the Lincoln Park Conservatory (even got a quick behind the scenes tour there from a friend) and then venturing over to the Lake to see more of the Lakefront Trail from Fullerton Beach north to Belmont Harbor and then back south to North Avenue Beach and Oak Street Beach along the Gold Coast area of Chicago.

It was a lot of walking but just what I needed, sometimes things work out that way :)

This Video was created from my photos that day, so grab your umbrella/raincoat? and Dramamine! Hopefully after watching the Video, you will understand that “joke” :) Fair warning, it is eleven minutes long, I just don’t know how to not show a picture after taking it :)

Now, if you read the Title of this Post you might be wondering what is “White Saturday”? Well, I just made it up. After Thanksgiving comes probably the weirdest (in my opinion) day in American ”culture”, Black Friday and this year in “my neck of the woods” there was a Winter Storm Warning for the day after Black Friday, Saturday, with heavy snow (that’s where the White comes in :). So, if the term catches on (doubtful :), if it snows in your area the Saturday after Thanksgiving then you can “celebrate” WHITE SATURDAY!! Remember, I am not all there, that’s why I am here :) I know this “idea” needs some tweaking in order to be “fair” with areas like Florida, California, etc. so please put your thinking caps on! :)

12th St Beach

Northerly Island

Watch this Video to see how I “celebrated” White Saturday! For the record, the snow accumulation varied from 8 to 11 inches.

Just in time for the Christmas Season I came across a new (for me) vegetable during a volunteer shift at the Aurora Food Pantry, it is called Chioggia Beet and also called Candy stripe Beet which could easily be changed to Candy Cane Beet :)

And, who knew, but Pointsettias grow in the Desert House and Aroid House :)

As usual after completing my rough draft of the Blog Post I just took a walk to clear my mind (good luck with that :) and think of any “edits” I might want to make and Mother Nature had a few ideas for me, a calm cloud free sunset and a rising Full Moon!

Have a Great Weekend !!