Buy it
Besides bringing pause, drama, inquiry and other instruction to one’s prose, the “shift keys” (on a keyboard, typewriter) also happen to be quite graphic and compelling from a visual standpoint. The folks at grandinroad (online retailer and cataloger with a few stores but none in Chicagoland) also thought so. They gathered artwork from a handful of artists who likewise find creative inspiration in humble punctuation. The result is Shift Key Prints, a group of nine prints (on canvas and stretched over a wood frame). We’re partial to the exclamation mark (because it confers passion) and ampersand (it’s inclusive), but there are seven other images to choose from including the asterisk, semicolon and quotation mark. Prints come in two sizes, 16 inch square ($119) and 24 inch square ($159).
grandinroad.com or 800-491-5194
— Karen Klages
Attend it
Chicago interior designer and sculptor Kathy Taslitz debuts a new line of sculptural furniture this week [Friday to Feb. 15] at Wright. Called “Pieces of Ourselves,” the 14-piece collection uses materials such as blackened bronze, glass and stainless steel, and forms such as roots to draw on nature and the natural course of human life. Viewings by appointment.
1440 W. Hubbard St., 312-787-7899
— Shaila Wunderlich
Survey it
We would like to meet the 45 percent of survey participants/women who said “a clean bathroom beats out a bouquet of flowers” for Valentine’s Day. Or the 56 percent who said they “would rather have their homes dusted by their loved ones than receive a box of candy.” Or the 21 percent who chose “a kitchen cleanup instead of a dinner out.”
Perhaps they were lured into this domestic trance wholly — albeit unwittingly. Women did not know that the esteemed, Racine, Wis.-based SC Johnson company was doing the asking.
Perhaps the multiple-choice format was too limiting.
Perhaps we just take a moment here to write in more palatable choices for all domestic goddesses and wannabes. How about: a clean bathroom and a lovely, arching, flowering white orchid. How about a freshly dusted home and a box of ethel’s lemon meringue ganaches. How about a kitchen cleanup and a romantic fondue dinner out on the town, where you splatter oil all over someone else’s kitchen.
Why not shoot for total domestic bliss?
— K.K.
See it
Green is gold these days, and the Old House New House Home Show next weekend is emphasizing more sustainable products this spring. Among the 300 exhibitors are sellers of kitchen cabinets made of fast-growing bamboo; porous concrete that lets rainwater soak in rather than flow off into storm sewers; geothermal heating systems; and tankless hot-water heaters. You’ll also find firms selling siding, windows, shutters, gutters, landscape design, dog training and many other products and services. Brice Cooper of HGTV’s “Design on a Dime” will present his “Guide to Going Green” at 2 p.m. each day; Habitat for Humanity of the Northern Fox Valley will show off its ReStore recycling center, where homeowners can buy or donate lightly used building materials; and you can learn about worm composting at the University of Illinois Extension booth.
More Top Picks Best Pressure Cooker
Cost: $7 ($6 with coupon you can download at the show’s Web site); $4 for seniors; free for children under 18; free parking. Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Friday [Feb. 8] and Saturday [Feb. 9] and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday [Feb. 10] at Pheasant Run Resort, 4051 E. Main St. (Illinois Highway 64), St. Charles, 630-515-1160, kennedyproductions.com.
— Beth Botts
Surf it
Call me a goofball (others have) — all my life I’ve fallen for things some might call “odd” (that patchwork denim blazer in college). Things others call “eclectic” (the piano innards that hang as art on my dining room wall). I call the thread that connects my attractions “character” — character that often is magnified by being made by hand.
Well, guess what happened when I saw a “stuffed” moosehead that one can create with one’s own hands by fitting interlocking pieces of pre-cut cardboard together? Of course, I fell for it.
No, you don’t want a houseful of these character-filled, eclectic oddities. But one moosehead, proudly mounted on a naked wall with no distractions vying for the spotlight? Kinda cool.
You can find Cardboard Safari’s kit to make Mr. Moose (deer heads too — as well as stationery, vases, soaps and more) at the Web site thinkrockpaperscissors .com. It’s the Internet version of the rock paper scissors “paper boutique” that’s been in Charlottesville, Va., since 2002.
Cost: $14 for 6-inch moose, $26 for 11-inch and $48 for 21-inch (available in mid-February)
— Elaine Matsushita
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