A (Half) Day at the Museum

Linda, Duane and I had been planning to hit the 'In Living Color' exhibit currently at the Tampa Museum of Art.    Actually, the full title of the exhibit is "In Living Color: Andy Warhol and Contemporary Printmaking."  We went to the museum last Friday and viewed the exhibit before having lunch downtown.  Though there was mostly Warhol's work, there were also some pieces by Keith Haring, Josef Albers, Richard Diebenkorn, Anish Kapoor, and others.

It was a nice day to visit since weekdays are pretty quiet and we took our time browsing the exhibit before heading down to check out the gift shop (Duane bought a set of paint brushes) and then heading out for lunch.  One thing we noticed was how shiny the minarets at the University of Tampa looked in the sunlight.  Tampa U is right across the river from the museum.

Tampa Museum of Art

   

University of Tampa minarets across the river.

I wish I'd gotten a better pic of the minaret on the far right -- the big fat one.  It looked like someone had just hand polished it.  I didn't realize the trees were blocking my view.  Duh.

After we found a local sandwich shop where we decided to have lunch, Linda and Duane were nice enough to accompany me to a local jewelry store.  I had won an auction at a charity event recently for a gift certificate to the Hayman Jewelry Co.  I hate to admit that I'd never heard of them before I won the gift cert.  They're a family-owned company that's been in business since 1933.  Very nice people helped me in the shop.  I selected a pair of turquoise and 14 karat yellow gold earrings.  I love the way turquoise looks with yellow gold.  The Victorians wore turquoise this way.  I own an antique band ring with full English hallmarks from 1880 that's 18 karat yellow gold and has turquoise stones.  Actually, I have quite a few pieces of antique and vintage jewelry -- particularly rings.  I sure hope my nieces are into jewelry when they're older...

As usual, we had a really nice day and managed to get home before some serious thunderstorms moved in by the afternoon.

My new earrings.

Today was the annual Chiseler's Market!

As we have for the past 3 years, Duane, Linda and I hit the annual market held by The Chiselers to keep money in the coffers to maintain Henry B. Plant Hall at the University of Tampa.  This is a fun event to attend but you have to sharpen those elbows because the crowd is huge -- especially in the room called the Bargain Room.  It's all for a worthy cause and there are definitely bargains to be had all over the market.

It's also a good idea to get there early.  We were actually early this morning but the parking was the worst we've encountered so far.  We ended up on the roof of the nearest parking garage.  Mrs. Peel got some sun today!

I headed straight for the Bargain Room (Linda and Duane avoid that room like the plague -- too packed) and scooped up some beautiful boutique yarn and some white twine-type material to use for crocheting baskets.  Duane and Linda both purchased books from the Book Room and they both also scored in the Art area on the veranda.  Linda bought a framed and signed photograph and Duane bought a beautiful framed piece of paper art.  The paper is actually three dimensional under the glass in the frame.  Tried to get a close-up below but it was hard to capture.  I didn't buy art this year but I'm looking at a signed print that I framed from last year of an urban scene in Charleston.  It hangs over my desk.

Our purchases.

Close up of the paper art Duane bought.

 
I took longer than Linda and Duane and we were all three exhausted (it doesn't take much) from the crowd so we headed to the Starbucks near Duane's house.  We had treats and a nice gabfest.  Looking forward to next year's sale already!

Plant Hall at night.

 

The 48th Annual Chiselers Market

If you've ever seen a picture of the Tampa skyline, you've probably seen the minarets of the University of Tampa.

This Moorish style building was originally the Tampa Bay Hotel, built in 1891 by Henry B. Plant. The 500 room building is now home to the University of Tampa and the Henry B. Plant Museum.

For over 52 years, a non-profit volunteer group has worked to restore this beautiful building. This group of dedicated workers call themselves The Chiselers due to the 'chiseling' that had to be performed in the late 1950's to remove paint and mortar from the hotel's fireplace tiles. One of the ways the Chiselers raise money is their annual Chiselers Market. Today was the first time my friend Linda and I had ever attended the Chiselers sale.

Items are collected via donations throughout the year and the market is held one day only from 9am to 3pm. Maps are available as you enter the sale (people line up before daylight for the bargains). Since this was our first time, it was hard to know where to start. Items are divided into different rooms or areas for books, jewelry, furniture, art, collectibles, china, crystal and silver, plants and a room called the 'bargain center.' There's also a silent auction for special items.

To say that you have to be willing to fight a crowd would be an understatement. We made our first mistake by not deciding which area was really the most important for us to check immediately. Linda has been looking for small end or occasional tables so we should have visited the furniture section first. Instead, we headed there much later and groaned at all of the nice tables with SOLD written over the $5, $10 and $15 price tags. Bummer. And those were just the items that had sold but hadn't been picked up yet. Oh, well, live and learn.

I had the best luck in the 'bargain center,' scoring a set of 1960's cocktail forks (in the original box) for .50, a small handpainted (and signed) tole tray for .50 and a Nora Fenton hand decorated bowl for $1. Linda and I both found goodies in the book room. I bought a beautiful coffee table book of the history of the White House Christmas cards (signed by the author) for $5 and Linda found several books and some sheet music from My Fair Lady with a lovely rendering of Audrey Hepburn on the front cover.

All of the jostling made us really hungry so we stopped mid-morning and went out to one of the verandas where the Chiselers had yummy muffins, turnovers and brownies. We treated ourselves to brownies. Many people stay for lunch -- the specialty is the Chiselers' pimento cheese sandwiches.

We know that some of our friends were planning to go but it's hard finding anyone in that crowd. We did see our buddy, Danny, standing in the line outside (before the sale started) as we passed in the car to find a parking space but we don't think he saw us. (Hey, Danny, we honked at you!) Needless to say, after looking in all of the sale areas, we were both tired from all of the neck craning and elbowing but it was a fun experience for a great cause.

The Chiselers are a great group and were very nice to chat with. Besides all of their hard work preparing for this sale, they also worked the booths.  Over the years, they've raised over $4 million to restore this historic Florida landmark. They have a website here if you're interested in finding out more about them.