Twenty Steps to Bliss
1. Get up early on Saturday morning.
2. Call best friend.
3. Have a quick bite at the Flying Saucer in Humboldt Park.
4. Head to the secret store.
5. Remember that there’s no electricity, no heat and guard dogs.
6. Thank God you brought gloves.
7. Find twenty or so crates of vintage restaurant-ware.
8. Realize that said ware is covered in dirt, ice and paint chips.
9. Worry about asbestos exposure.
10. Stomp feet to keep warm.
11. Perform acrobatics to get to each crate.
12. Sift for over an hour.
13. Find an old laundry basket, fill it to the brim and bring it to the front.
14. Get quoted $20. Don’t even bother to haggle.
15. Drive home on Cloud 9.
16. Throw away gloves.
17. Use hot water and bleach on your dishware.
18. Lay out overnight.
19. Photograph with glee.
20. Plan a giveaway for Wednesday.
Did you find anything good at the thrift this weekend? Happy Monday!
Categories: thrifted
Tagged: caribe china, junk store chicago, mayer china, shenango china, vintage china, vintage dishes, vintage restaurantware
Dedicated to Okunola
Happy Friday! I’m closing out the first week in February with lots of good things on the horizon. Spring is definitely not right around the corner in Chicago but we’re inching closer and closer and I swear I can taste the fresh warm air if I think on it hard enough.
The word of the weekend is: shoot!
I started a photography class at the Chicago Photography Academy this week and the first assignment is to shoot 36 pictures of a Chicago block and to tell a particular story with my photos. The rules of the assignment? No deleting!
Not only am I doing homework for the first time in years but it looks like I’ll be cheating, too.
I’m really excited because I love cities and this is a neat opportunity to see how other people in the class view Chicago. I’m planning on taking pics along Division St. in Humboldt Park.
If I was in Milwaukee, I’d shoot Center St. in the Riverwest neighborhood of my youth (pictured).
If I was in New Orleans this weekend, you know where I’d be:
Bourbon St., WHO DAT?
What block in your city would you head to? What story am I telling anyways? I guess I’ll figure it out when I get there. Have a beautiful weekend!
Categories: positive friday
When my husband and I began searching for apartments last year we knew one thing: must. not. live. in. a. loft. Tired of trying to make our industrial loft into a home (an entirely new post, but my thoughts can be summed up in the hilarious Unhappy Hipsters blog), we were ready for a vintage Chicago apartment with all of the “perks”: wonky heat, uneven floors and shoebox-size bedrooms. A year later, and we’ve yet to actually do any serious work in those tiny bedrooms and it’s time to get started. My thoughts are all over the place execution-wise, evidenced by the photos that are inspiring me to get it together.
I love the striped floor and girly headboard. The floors in our bedroom were painted brown by previous tenants. Since the room is so small, it’s a good candidate for a first try at floor painting.
In love with these pillows, the unfussy bedding and the little sconces above the bed.
This is a much bigger bedroom than I could ever hope for but the colors are calling me. Not quite sure how I feel about the headboard. Is it leather?
The oversized headboard just might work in our space but the bench at the foot of the bed is a no-go. Our queen size bed fits into a tiny nook with no space at the foot of the bed for anything. Finally, the lace coverlet is completely impractical. Still, I’m loving the overall design of this cheerful room.
Which one is your favorite?
Categories: inspiration
Tagged: small bedrooms, tiny bedrooms
I spent part of the weekend combing through old copies of Elle Decor for little photos to put in my twenty cent thrift store frames. One of my favorite issues featured Nate Berkus’ apartment and I recalled immediately falling in love with the piece in the right hand corner that reads “God Bless America” over and over. While I’m betting it cost a pretty penny, I think you could easily mimic the writing in your own home with chalkboard paint and a piece of wood. If you’re just looking for black and white text with no fuss, check out some cool posters.
$770, Restoration Hardware (YES, $770!)
$38, The Love Shop
$18, The Love Shop
$18, My Sweet Prints
$18, Field Trip
Categories: inspiration
Tagged: black and white posters
February 1, 2010 · 1 Comment
Hello, internet! I’m off to take my first ever photography class so I can figure out how to use this thing. Back tomorrow!
Categories: personally speaking
I’ve been participating in a weekly Postive Friday post on a website for about eight years. Each week, folks post up only the positivity in their weeks and I’m going to start doing the same here. Please join me in the comments!
Dedicated to Aziza and Bridie
Positivity abounds, y’all. I’m feeling happy that we’ve reached the end of another work week and can focus on the finer things in life this weekend… like thrifting and painting and helping an oh-so-dear friend unpack in their new apartment. After that, it’s up to Milwaukee for a day for my baby sister’s twenty-second birthday. Happy Birthday, Bridie!
The name of the game this weekend is allow. I’m going to allow myself to have a little too much wine (okay, beer but that doesn’t sound as good as wine… I’m a midwestern gal, I love beer, sue me), a little too much fun and maybe spend a little too much money on that baby sister.
What are you up to this weekend? Let me know in the comments…
Categories: positive friday
Tagged: positive friday
tam + sam posted about the iPhoneography group on Flickr this week. That got me looking at some of my own iPhone photos manipulated with Shake It Photo, Best Camera and Photoshop Mobile. Since receiving a Nikon D3000 for my birthday I’d kinda forgotten that, like all things iPhone, there are some great apps for photography. I had also forgotten about my Snaplog. Snaplog is an app that allows you to upload photos that it automatically maps and posts with your location. My husband and I started using it in late summer and attempted to post a photo a day onto the site. I gave up after about a month. Maybe this is the kick-start I need to begin again? All of these photos were taken with Shake It Photo in August and September of 2009. Seeing leaves on the trees is really making me jones for summer…
Categories: photography
Tagged: iphoneography, ps mobile, shake-it photo, the best camera app
Note: To keep myself sane, and to make sure I keep you, dear reader(s), entertained, I’m trying this little schedule thing out. A few days a week, I’ll always post on a specific topic. Like a weekly. A weekly feature. I’m still charting my path through this world of blogging and I figured giving myself a bit of structure would do me some good. Let’s see how it goes.
Welcome to the first “Thrifted.” I thrift. A lot. So much that my friends seem to think I can’t spend money on anything that’s not thrifted. (They are partially right. I have a weakness for IKEA and Target but don’t we all?) About 75% of the items in my house are from thrift stores or craigslist and it’s time I start posting my weekend finds and telling you where you can find them, too. The places I link to will probably hit your wallet a bit harder but if you’re not out there in the trenches sifting through aisle after aisle of crap to get to the good stuff, you miss out.
This weekend I found an entire set of Sheffield Golden Meadows dishware from the 1970s at my favorite Salvation Army. Eight pieces of each dish. Three different sized plates, two different sized bowls and a few serving platters. The damage? $35.
Over on eBay you can score one of the small bowls for $2.50.
Or two of the larger plates for $9.99.
Aren’t they gorgeous? No chips, no damage, a little bit of fading.
Oh, and puppy says hello!
Did any of you folks find something special at the thrift store this weekend?
Categories: thrifted
Tagged: sheffield golden meadows, thrifting chicago
What three independently owned businesses would you miss if they disappeared?
I would miss Milk and Honey, my local coffee shop. Every weekend morning, my little pup and I are there at eight on the dot (okay, most every morning at eight, very rarely at eleven and they notice when I’m late) for my four-shot, one pump vanilla latte. On Sunday afternoons, after a lazy movie and nap with my husband, I walk over again for a four o’clock pick-me-up. I so look forward to the ritual, the walk with the dog, the first sip. The summertime patio is comfortable and surrounded by flower boxes, with sun-bleached vintage tablecloths on each table. Milk and Honey is so ingrained in my weekends that I would only consider apartments within walking distance when we were thinking of moving.
I would miss Diana Shoes. They’ll give you a deal you will not get at any Foot Locker if you buy two pair of Air Force Ones, or any other shoe. Bargaining is encouraged and they have a huge selection.
I would miss North Coast Video with its snappy signage, battered red carpet and the clerks who let me sneak my dog inside when no one is around. Yes, Netflix is great. But when you want to watch something right-now-this-moment, North Coast Video is just a block away. It’s super nostalgic, actually browsing the aisles of an independent video store (I can’t even bear to call it a DVD store). When was the last time you actually did that? Touched the case, looked at the back?
The 3/50 Project has been around for about a year and I’m glad I finally heard about it. Here’s the deal, straight from their site.
3 What 3 independently owned businesses would you miss if they disappeared? Stop in. Say hello. Pick up something that brings a smile. Your purchases are what keeps those businesses around.
50 If half the employed population spent $50 each month in locally owned independent businesses, it would generate more than $42.6 billion in revenue. Imagine the positive impact if 3/4 of the employed population did that.
68 For every $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll, and other expenditures. If you spend that in a national chain, only $43 stays here. Spend it online and nothing comes home.
Pick 3. Spend $50. Save your local economy.
What are your three?
Categories: small change
