EasterDrawing

Here's how you gained admission to the jelly bean hunt at my house this week: draw an Easter drawing with sidewalk chalk. An impromptu collaboration produced the "Easter Emu."

Grafitti is forever

Iesha lives in a Puerto Rican neighborhood on Chicago's west side. Yesterday, while walking by Lincoln Park's St. Clement's church, I asked her if she'd like to look inside.

At first she hung back, but when we came out she said she'd liked it, "Especially the beautiful graffiti around the ceiling."

Mosaic scriptures circle the golden dome as graffiti circles the el trains. To Iesha, graffiti doesn't deface, but embellishes.

The shape of Crocs to come

The best place to see the Crocs of the future is in the Denver airport. Probably because Colorado invented Crocs.

All children wear them (pink and lavender on little girls, lime and purple on older ones) and there's a balcony dedicated to selling the new styles. Families exclaimed over colorful rubber boots, lined slippers and a rubber version of Mary Janes. Popular decorations included Dora the Explorer and the American Flag.

Today in Chicago, I counted 6 pairs of the traditional Crocs on kids headed to school, and one tiny green pastel pair on a toddler. If you're looking for premium idea, think of new ways to fill the perforations-- kids' eyes are closer to their shoes than adults's eyes are.

April Showers bring Big Baskets

They're featuring pre-packed Easter Baskets as big as Santa's packs in the CVS drugstore on Armitage in Chicago where these kids' mothers shop. Bubble wands have given way to licensed properties like "Animal Planet" and "Build-a-Bear". I had thought that Halloween was the new Christmas. Now there's yet another contender in kids' world of giant gift-occasions.

But beware! A pre-packed basket may be a convenience but a giant one brings an inconvenience. It's harder to hide. I'm not sure that they'll sell.