I found you!

While our weekend trip to Southwest Michigan was wonderful, I found the shopping to be a bit lacking. Shit was crayspensive! On the hunting and gathering scale, I definitely lean toward the thrifting end of things, and this scene was most definitely full-on antiquing.


So, after settling comfortably into window-shopping mode, I really did enjoy myself. And if I had to part with any of my sweaty, crumpled wad of cash, it definitely would have been at Marco Polo. The pretty would just not stop.

More than that, the owners have serious vision, plucking things out of obscurity that I would have definitely passed over a million times. It gave me a whole new focus for re-stocking the shop (which will happen soon). They also happen to be incredibly nice and friendly.


It also made me realize we need to repaint our place. Badly. You can't go buying a beat-up old pie safe and position it on your nicked and scuffed old wall and expect it to look chic. Our house needs paint and it needs it NOW.


The bummer is that we're probably going to paint everything close to the exact same colors the walls are now. It's great that the colors work, but it kind of takes the joy out of such a huge process when there's not going to be any big reveal happening. Then again, maybe it's for the best: We all know how very bad I am at choosing paint colors.


So coming up, mini shopping/restocking road trip with my best pal Shan (who, as a wedding gift, got us a household membership to the Chicago Architecture Foundation. How cool is that?) and paint up to my eyeballs.


Anyone have a killer matte/glossy white wall/trim color combo they're dying to share?

Sprung

Just trying to clear my head. Real flowers would be bad for these allergies, but I love the fresh colors.

Also, I'm trying to ignore the fact that I've been having romantic dreams about Capt. Jim Brass from CSI.

I hope everybody had a great Cinco de Mayo! I made a kind of Mexican lasagna with tortillas and salsa instead of noodles and ricotta. It was...not bad at all.

This: Also acceptable

Sad news, kids. I didn't get the lockers. I may have shed a few tears when I got the e-mail from the lady saying she'd sold them out from under me (hussy!). What can I say? It was a frustrating week.

But it's a new week (and almost a new month!). Craigslist will provide new, better lockers. I'm sure of it. In the meantime, can someone please send this to the market?

I'm in love. I don't know exactly what it is about this storage rack that tugs at me, but I love the practicality of the wire mixed up with the whimsy of the color or some such nonsense. Whatever it is, I want it.

In other news, our halls (well, to be honest, we only have one hallway) are decked in a pretty half-assed manner, but it only took the duration one Nat King Cole holiday record to toss up some fairy lights and fake garland. Why no, I'm not planning to have any guests over in the next month. Why do you ask?

Also, I have class this week/weekend and just now realized I have to find, buy and read the following books by Thursday morning:
"The Appraisal of Personal Property: Principles, Theory & Practice Methods"
"Auctions: The Social Construction of Value"
"A Short Guide to Writing about Art"

Crap. Crap. Crap.

Blocked

Blergh. Every day this week has been the same. If you could only see how many drafts and half-baked ideas I have saved in my folder...

Nothing's really gelling like Magellan for me, post-wise.

Kind of like that almost-there room up there. If I were to walk into it, the first thing I'd do is heave those ugly chairs out the window. Then I'd smile.

Help! What do you champions do when you hit a brick wall creatively?

Can't stand it

As someone who loves hats (in a non-Blossom kind of way), it KILLS me that I can't buy all of these:





No joke, Hats by Behida is knocking it out of the park.

Which has kind of been the theme this week....Becke's house tour....Mariano's shop...Pressure is on, guys. I'll try to keep up.

In other news, we have plans this weekend to meet some friends for lunch, and this is what Marc had to say about that: "I'm going to eat the shit out of some Indian food on Saturday. And you can blog that."

Check. Please.

And. And and! We have a Nutty the Squirrel winner! With an official roll of the dice from my old Monopoly game, Macy of Me Oh My Oh became the proud new owner of the brightest-eyed, bushiest-tailed candy dish on the scene.

I know where I'll be trick or treating next Halloween.

Not even phoning it in today

I'm still down with the sickness* and having a very tough time coming up with a post for today. Does that ever happen to you?

I have a few on the back burners, but they're far too complex (i.e. they involve more than three hyperlinks and one picture) for my stuffed-up mind to wrangle into anything approaching coherence.

Instead, I'll leave you with a picture of the kickass lamp I'm picking up tomorrow night (provided I'm not dead). Thanks, Craigslist!



Netflix was nice enough to send me Children of Men and Away We Go. Which one should I watch tonight as I chug NyQuil from the bottle and bury myself in wadded-up Kleenex? (Sadly, this post is not sponsored by either of those brands.)

* This is about 90% due to a nasty cold and 10% sadness that we're back from San Francisco, where I had a fab time hanging out with Jess and her husband Chris. More to come on that when I can muster the exclamation points that shrimp tacos and Peter Cetera songs deserve.

I'll light the fire while you place the flowers branches in the vase that you bought today

I'm missing my limestone carved woodburning fireplace a lot these days.

A mounting desire

Recently I've been spending a lot of time moaning and whining about how I don't have enough light in my house for more plants (that's me! plants and cats and needlepoint and banana bread. next up: dentures and control-top pantyhose.)

But no, IF I had more light, I'd slap a couple of these above my fireplace, no problem.

My grandmother had staghorn ferns, and I grew up thinking they were the coolest thing this side of Teddy Roosevelt.

I guess this is something I'm finally not alone on. Artists Sean and Stacy Kelly has used them to create the installation A Call to Arms:

"Each trophy-plant is made from spliced scrap-walnut, laser etched with the word victoire, French for victory. When hunting for sport first became a widespread past time for the aristocracy in Europe, its protocol was conceived and transcribed by the French.

These trophy-plants offer a new interpretation that celebrates the symbiotic. The victory is mutual, the trophy is living and growing, and the disconnection between humans and nature is revealed as a societal facade."

Totally, dude.



And also they're just really pretty looking.


Here are some more pictures from the cool people on Flickr.






UPDATE: Oh. Apparently this is an annual thing with me.

Here is a post with almost a trillion pictures of vintage lockers

This is punishment for no one buying the orange vintage lockers and making me fantasize about them.

(Via Spring Globe)

(Via Everyeskimo)

(Via If the Lampshade Fits)

(Via Summer Cottage Antiques)

(Via Antiques & Retro Shopper's Map)

(Via Poppytalk)

(Via Please Sir)

(Via Please Sir)

(Via Mer Mag)

(Via Poetic Home)

(Via Katiedid)

(Via Decorno)

(Via Apartment Therapy)

(Via Poppytalk)

Back at the ranch...

Plants are taking over my house!

It's gotten cold enough to bring in all of the plants from outside. Well, any that the mangy squirrels in my neighborhood didn't eat. Bastards.


They also like to taunt the cats.

I'm realizing I have some BIG plants and not much natural light, so most of them are crowded around the one south-facing window in the living room like Dickensian street urchins begging for more gruel.


Hey! Let's be real cool and throw some in an old suitcase.


Have succulents, will travel.

More in the rarely-photographed office.


It's cozy but cave-like in there.

Will these plants make it to spring? Seriously, I don't know. I'm thinking about sending some of them to Indiana to live with grandma for a while. Unless anyone in Chicago wants to be a plant foster parent...