Donate it
Here’s a real way to help the thousands of Myanmar cyclone victims. For an indefinite period of time, eBay is funneling cash donations, plus a portion of sales on certain items, to the distressed country via their charity program eBay Giving Works. What a great way to make use of all those items you’ve cleared out during spring cleaning. Visit ebay.com/myanmarrelief to donate money, designate 10 percent to 100 percent of the proceeds of your own auctioned items, or purchase items whose proceeds have been earmarked for the cause.
— Shaila Wunderlich
Celebrate it
Congratulations to Evanston-based industrial designer Charles Harrison. He won the prestigious Lifetime Achievement award from The Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, which recently announced winners and finalists of its 2008 National Design Awards.
“I’m just delighted and surprised,” says Harrison, 76, who was one of the first African-Americans to enter the professional design field where he earned himself a stellar reputation as a designer in touch with average Americans at home.
Harrison spent three decades, starting in 1961, as in-house product designer with Sears, Roebuck & Co., where he later would be named chief designer and create an incredible range of 750 products for the home — from radios and sewing machines to hair dryers and his personal favorite, a plastic garbage can he developed in the late 1960s to replace metal drum cans.
“We explored and expanded the technology of blow molding,” says Harrison of the plastic can. “And we contributed a lot to the comfort of American citizens” for whom garbage day “was a noisy event. People were [now] able to sleep later and longer.”
But rest is not on Harrison’s agenda. He’s still working, teaching product design at Columbia College Chicago.
Other National Design Award winners include: Google for its Corporate Achievement; Seattle architect Tom Kundig for Architecture Design; and the Philadelphia-based Olin Partnership for Landscape Design.
Although the awards are announced now, they officially will be conferred on Oct. 23 at the Cooper-Hewitt in New York.
— Karen Klages
Hear it
Allan Armitage, internationally famed author, plant proponent and horticulture researcher, will chat on “Crazy Plants for Crazy Gardeners” from 9 a.m. to noon May 18 up in Lake Geneva, Wis. A professor at the University of Georgia and author of “Armitage’s Native Plants for North American Gardens” (Timber Press, 452 pages, $49.95), “Armitage’s Garden Annuals” (Timber Press, 368 pages, $49.95) “Armitage’s Garden Perennials” (Timber Press, 324 pages, $49.95) and other books, he is known for his opinionated but authoritative discourses and encyclopedic knowledge of plants and how they behave in the landscape. The event is co-sponsored by Northwind Perennial Farm in Burlington, Wis. (northwindperen nialfarm.com) and The Garden Hoe consultants in Springfield, Wis. (thegardenhoe.com).
Cost: $75, includes continental breakfast. Hawks View Golf Club, 7377 Krueger Rd., Lake Geneva, Wis. For reservations, call 262-248-8229.
— Beth Botts
Shop it
Nadia Rahmani is heading this June to her home in Morocco to visit family and stock up on new furnishings and accessories for her Andersonville shop, Marrakech Treasures. What’s in the shop now must be cleared out to make room, which means big price incentives for shoppers. From now until “whenever things start to clear out,” Rahmani says, every piece of furniture is 70 percent off, and every non-furniture item is 50 percent off. Pick up a 6-by-3-foot cedar buffet embellished with Berber silver and camel bone for $1,200 (normally $4,000) or a hand-painted Safi vase for $25 (normally $50).
5416 N. Clark St., 773-271-2930, marrakechtreasures.net.
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— S.W.
Shop it
Barrington fabric institution Finn’s Fabrics by Dyllis is going out of business after 38 years, as owner Dyllis Braithwaite prepares to retire and possibly write a book on her signature “wearable art.” All inventory — including the rich wools and silks and unique buttons the shop is known for — will be marked down 80 percent on May 17 and 18.
113 N. Cook St., Barrington. 847-381-5020 (sale days); 847-381-2853 (non-sale days).
— S.W.
Shop it
Leather’s on sale until May 20 at Roche-Bobois in River North. Shoppers will find savings of up to 15 percent on leather chairs, sofas, lamps, beds — anything and everything leather. Prices generally start at about $2,500 for a leather occasional chair, $5,700 for a sofa. Roche Bobois is a French company that sells European-made furnishings. Style runs the gamut from contemporary to 17th and 18th Century French reproductions.
222 W. Hubbard St., 312-644-9080.
— K.K.
Shop it
Through Saturday [May 17] everything on the floor at Lee Weitzman Furniture in River North will be 20 percent to 75 percent off to make way for new introductions. Some items: a Santiago club chair upholstered in microfiber was $3,600, now $1,200; a Brace dining table in a dark-stained mahogany was $10,230, now $6,575; a Coronet small storage cabinet in mahogany was $8,500, now $5,900. The store is the atelier of Chicago furniture designer Lee Weitzman. Select pieces by other furniture artists are sold here, although most items are designed by Weitzman. To view sale items now, visit lee weitzmanfurniture.com and click on the “Available Now” link.
233 W. Huron St., lower level, 312-243-3009.
— K.K.
Shop it
Through May, Bedside Manor is staging its Annual Spring Linen Sale. Shoppers will find prices reduced 10 percent to 25 percent on sheets and coverlets, bath towels, down pillows and comforters, accent pillows and accessories. Both in-stock and custom-ordered items are included.
2056 N. Halsted St., 773-404-2020; 38 S. Garfield Ave., Hinsdale, 630-655-0497; 192 E. Westminster Ave., Lake Forest, 847-295-8370; and 929 Green Bay Rd., Winnetka, 847-441-0969. www.shopbedside.com
— K.K.
Read it
It’s hard to find flaws in Maria McBride’s new “Party Basics for New Nesters” (Collins, 239 pages, $39.95). It’s lovely and filled with beautiful, new ideas. And though the well-known wedding stylist wrote this 239-pager for newlyweds, it is well worth the price tag for those going solo as well as those who have said “I do” a very long time ago. Included are tips your mother would have (and should have) shared had you grown up in the ’40s or ’50s to flower arranging how-tos to surprising cocktail garnishes — and more. The bulk of the book, actually, is “and more” — 80-plus decorating ideas and recipes for themed parties throughout the year. Don’t miss the “twelve sweet grapes” recipe for New Year’s Eve and the stunning “grapes and rye centerpiece” for Thanksgiving.
— Elaine Matsushita
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