Attend it
Looking for an excuse to go enjoy those fabulous fall leaf colors in southwestern Michigan? Call it research for your eventual remodel. Tour seven kitchens, including a spectacular outdoor one overlooking Lake Michigan, on the Designs 4 Dignity Kitchen Walk Oct. 18, starting in Union Pier, Mich., and going north along the Red Arrow Highway. Designs 4 Dignity provides free design services to non-profit organizations in the Chicago area.
Cost: $100 in advance, $125 at the door; raffle tickets $20. Info: 773-293-3259 or designsfordignity.org.
— Beth Botts
Tour it
More reasons to head north and soak in fall color: two upcoming Wisconsin art studio tours. The Kettle Moraine Studio Tour (Saturday and Oct. 12) runs through the towns of Dousman and Genesee in the southern end of the Kettle Moraine State Forest. Five studios and 20 artists working in glass, ceramics, sculpture, wood and photography are featured, including Lombard’s own glass blower, Robert Lee Fritz.
Can’t make that weekend? Head up the following one (Oct. 17-19) for the Fall Art Tour, which winds through Baraboo, Spring Green, Dodgeville and Mineral Point, Wis. This tour features more than 25 studios, 50 artists and a variety of media.
Both tours are free. Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (both tours). Info for Kettle Moraine tour: 262-495-8003, kettlemoraine studiotour.com. Info for Fall Art Tour: 608-356-7805, fallarttour.com.
— Shaila Wunderlich
Tour it
You could hop in your car and start driving, coursing the streets of Chicago’s North Side, craning your neck while you steer and try to flip through your guidebook, dead-set on finding the page that says something about those squat brick houses you love, the ubiquitous Chicago bungalow. Or you could hop a bus — a bungalow-bound bus — and take in the wit and the wisdom of those ever-fine docents of the Chicago Architecture Foundation, as you leave the steering to someone who knows the way.
What better way to spend an autumn Sunday than beefing up on your Bungalow Beltway, the historic swaths of the city consisting of more than 80,000 bungalows. The Historic Chicago Bungalow Association and the Chicago Architecture Foundation team up to take you on the latest Bungalows By Bus Tour: North Side. It starts at 9 a.m. Oct. 26. The four-hour tours depart from the Chicago Architecture Foundation, 224 S. Michigan Ave.
Cost: $35;reservations recommended. Info: 312-902-1500 or architecture.org.
— Barbara Mahany
Shop it
In honor of their 100th anniversary, Toms-Price is extending its annual floor sample sale from its usual one week to one month (Oct. 4 through Nov. 2), and from partial floor inventory to the entire floor. Everything at all three locations will be marked down 40 percent to 70 percent as the retailer prepares to restock with new collections in early winter. A Bradington-Young recliner, regularly $1,080, is on sale for $599. A Stickley Duanesburg king-size pencil post bed is on sale for $1,329, marked down from $3,110. Selection varies from store to store. Though the 40- to 70-percent mark-downs pertain to floor samples only, customers can take 40 percent off custom orders as well.
303 E. Front St., Wheaton; 630-668-7878; 725 Milwaukee Ave., Lincolnshire, 847-478-1900; Old Orchard Shopping Center, Skokie, 847-675-9400; tomsprice.com.
— Shaila Wunderlich
Peace wins
After reading about Walt Egan and Jay Kalberg’s Ravenswood peace garden [” Give Peace a Chance,” Sept. 21] — and their dilemma of what to do with the space next spring — 83 percent of our poll participants voted in favor of keeping a floral symbol going. Seventeen percent voted to plant a tree instead. Egan thinks he might just do both. “Maybe I’ll plant a tree off center, farther north, so that I can keep the circle garden too,” Egan says.
Meanwhile, over in Markham, readers Kathleen Phelps and Raymond Murdaugh tell us they, too, have a peace garden. “It seemed the right thing to do when the 30-foot-round pool was removed,” Phelps says. “It is lovely and I hope the planes flying over to land at Midway also enjoy it.”
— Shaila Wunderlich
Attend it
Inspiring and sustainable furniture and fashion design are the main event at MoSS: Museum of Sustainable Style. The exhibit takes over space in Fulton Market’s Brickermade, the studio of local furniture designer Joshua Height. His furniture will be part of the exhibit, as will Robert Wayner’s Aardvark coffee table and 11 additional pieces from local artisans. Today is the last day of the four-day event. Free. Hours: noon to 6 p.m. 1109 W. Fulton Market. 312-243-4754, mosschicago.org.
— Shaila Wunderlich
Learn it
Sign up quick if you want to learn to tape drywall from Rich Cowgill and Dawn Tusky, co-hosts of the “Your House Chicago” show on WIND-560 AM. Their workshop from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday will be the first of series at the ReStore, Habitat for Humanity’s home-improvement resale shop in Elgin. The classes are good not only for do-it-yourselfers but also for those who want to learn about terminology and technique before hiring a contractor. Later topics, unrolling at 10 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month, include installing doors and windows, ceramic tile, and refinishing kitchen cabinets and furniture.
800 N. State St. (Illinois Highway 31), Elgin. Free; reservations required. Info: restoreelgin.org or 847-742-9905.
— Beth Botts
Attend it
The Green Homes Fair at the Chicago Center for Green Technology opens its trade show of sustainable building, remodeling and living products and techniques, as well as workshops and short talks, to the public on Saturday.
Chicago Center for Green Technology, 445 N. Sacramento Ave. Hours: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Free. Info: 312-746-4678 or cityofchicago.org/Environment/ GreenTech.
— Beth Botts
Read it
Countless children have rooted a sweet potato or started an avocado plant from seed. But what about a chayote? A kiwi fruit? An Asian bitter melon? Why not try? “Don’t Throw It, Grow It! 68 Windowsill Plants from Kitchen Scraps” by Deborah Peterson and Millicent Selsam (Storey Publishing, 154 pages, $10.95) makes it almost irresistible to start rooting around in the produce bin. Some of these projects sound pretty elaborate, so it might be best to start with something easy. Like a carrot. Or a daikon. Or a sapodilla.
— Beth Botts
See it
Rather than hearing the growl of power mowers, wouldn’t it be more charming to have a sheep? “Mower,” a whimsical sheep-shaped robot lawn mower, is toddling around Millennium Park this fall cropping at the grass while playing “Mary Had a Little Lamb.” The invention of Osman Khan (osmankhan.com), an artist based at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, the sheep — “Moe” for short — is part of the Wired NextFest, a showcase of technology and ideas that runs through Oct. 12. Watch battery-powered, remote-controlled Moe at youtube.com/watch?v=Mcvcc9mc3yw& feature=related). Sadly, Moe is a one-off work of art you can’t buy, but there are robotic lawn mowers on the market for $1,500 and up (lawnbott.com and robomower.com).
Millennium Park, Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue. Hours: 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays to Sundays, noon to 8 p.m. Thursdays. Free. Info: wirednextfest.com.
— Beth Botts
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ebotts@tribune.com; swunderlich@tribune.com
