I'm a hyper hypo

Until I go back to Steak N' Shake to fetch my camera, we're going to chat a bit more about the bazaar.

Just a quick note that Heliopsis,one of the vendors that will be in effect on Sat., has been on the scene like Veronica Corningstone, interviewing a bunch of the vendors who will be peddling their wares this weekend. Stop on over to get a great idea of who will be there and what to expect.

Such a great service, but It's making me nervous that I'm going to want to do more shopping than selling.

Well, hello sailor!

Justin Peddycoart:How I paid my rent by thrifting.


Oooh, and he's a pretty cute cat guy too...

Ditching the hanging cabinets: Off the wall idea?

Kind of old news, but sort of relevant as the unit below this one is on the market for $1.6 million. (I'm thinking I'll probably buy it. No big whoop.)



This Ukrainian Village man cave was created with entertaining (bagging chicks?) in mind, and while I would maim for the awesome rooftop deck and gorgeous staircase (gallery here), I'm not sure how I feel about the kitchen that, in attempt to disguise it's function as an, um, kitchen, has been stripped of its hanging cabinets. It's kind of cool, but also kind of odd looking. Plus, all the BENDING.

Your thoughts?

Some things I do take issue with:
- The outdoor shower on that fancy rooftop deck. Why? Especially in 7 months of icy tundra Chicago. It just seems like a headache to keep from getting destroyed by the elements.

- That an interior designer gets praised as "bold" for putting a lamp on a kitchen countertop. Zzzzz. Wake me when it gets replaced with thee-foot-tall taxidermied mongoose fighting a cobra flanked by A Clockwork Orange poster and an Eraserhead life-size cutout. (This is just me thinking back to one of my childhood friend's brother's bedroom. Which was what I'd call bold. And scary as hell to an eight-year-old.)

- Random people dancing on your counters? Ew.

Pent up

Remember the other day when I wrote about how happy a little pretty packaging can make me?

There's more to admire! The winners of the Pentawards packaging design competition have been announced. Let's look at some pretty stuff, yeah?

The best of show award went to Kimberly-Clark for those fruit slices Kleenex boxes.


Which, if you're interested in knowing, I hate. I don't like associating a fresh slice of juicy fruit with snot. Can't someone make a nice, plain box of tissue so I can deep six my stainless steel holder from Ikea? (not bad at all, Clorox) All I do is get fingerprints all over it every time I replace the Kleenex inside.

On the other hand, here are some other entrants that I love:

12 Inches juice by War Design


Boots body products by Camilla Lillieskold


Johnson & Johnson by Harry Allen Design


Jack Daniels by Mayday

There are tons more to click through. Do you have a favorite?

Roadtrip anyone?

The other day, I was leafing through the October issue of Architectural Salvage News (no, I didn't just make it up) when I happened upon an ad for Unearthed, a salvage shop in Madison, WI.

Guys, they have some pretty sweet stuff. At decently reasonable prices.

Like these stacking storage bins for $6.

This wood and steel coffee table made out of a factory cart isn't exactly a steal at $290, but it's a ton cheaper than the wares being peddled at Restoration Hardware. (psst. If you're looking for one of those wheeled carts from RH that everyone has been freaking over, Urban Remains has a few right now. They're not giving them away at $575, but that's a hell of a lot less than Resto's $1,295, right?)

But yeah, I'd say Unearthed is even a bit more reasonable than your average Chicago salvage shop. They do some neat stuff with their findings too.

Why yes, I would love a lamp made from a porcelain sink leg. How did you ever know?

A table made from vintage bowling floor? Definitely if I had a grand burning a hole in my pocket.


It just wouldn't be Wisconsin without some industrial-sized cheese grates, now would it?


The sold section is really killing me.

Oh the things I would have done for this vintage map. Sigh.

Seriously. I want a road trip. Madison is such a pretty place to visit anyway.

Would it sweeten the deal if I told you I have access to a large cargo van?

Cultural currency

This is a picture of me in the Managua airport with a newly redesigned cordoba.

It has a little plastic circle and you can see right through it!

There's something about traveling that always makes me reassess our own greenbacks. And they always seem a little fusty and boring (sup, dead white guys?) compared to some of the flashier bills circulating.

New York designer Richard Smith thinks so too and has launched a campaign to get things started.

Here are a couple of my favorite submissions he's received:
From Slate: America’s ability to churn out enduring cultural icons makes a popular theme for new dollar designs. Kristofer Layon, a professor at the University of Minnesota, asked his students to design a new dollar. Many of them incorporated classically American cultural figures, such as Barbie, Superman, or, in this bill designed by Christina DiMeo, Billie Holiday.
Many designers built their dollar brands around themes, as Michelle Haft did in embodying different aspects of the economy of seven different bills, including the work force, industrial production, the Federal Reserve, and personal income. While cynics might scoff at a shopping cart on a U.S. dollar, the bright colors present an optimistic view of the economy that is rare these days.

Pick your favorite at the Dollar ReDe$ign Project.

New Slang

Today the New York Times has an article about "The New Antiquarians," young people whose love of vintage swoops right around the straightforward lines of MCM minimalism and curlicues its way into the older--and slightly darker--arms of a more ornate look.

The home of Porter and Hollister Hovey is incredible. Be sure to check out the slide show to all of the homes. These people are living in a Wes Anderson/taxidermist/Museum of Natural History mashup and it's nothing short of striking.

Some of the industrial relics and other ephemera is gorgeous, but I don't think I could live with quite so many stuffed (as in really stuffed) animals.

I did notice, however, that the Hoveys and possibly another home have alliums on display. And to make it all about me (because why wouldn't I, right?), these are just the flowers I purchased and posted about earlier this week.


Thanks to the helpful commenter who identified these beauts! I'm cool and I didn't even know it.

How color bars have shaded my life

The moment I saw these Lauren Saunders pillows on Happy Mundane, I had to scoot on over here and post them.

Harbor Lights. This one is my favorite.

I've always had an affinity for Jeremy Blake's digitally animated paintings, and these pillows remind me of his work. As commonly seen in Punch Drunk Love:


Also of note, the design he did for Beck's Sea Change album:


Which I've always taken as an homage to Bowie's Aladdin Sane:
Which was my Halloween costume! It all comes full circle.

Not to harsh our collective buzz, but Blake's sad and mysterious death is something I still think about now and again. What a talent to have lost. He sounded like a nice guy too.

This speaks to my thrifting heart

Today, Salon has an article about the joys of dumpster diving and scavenging. As an avid Craigslister, I feel like such an amateur.

Not to turn this into a political blog or anything...

...but here are some the lies from Sarah Palin's speech last night.

The Unwatchables

OMG! I know this problem! The guilt associated with returning a Netflix you haven't watched!

In my three years of subscribing, I can only think of two movies I've sent back without watching: Born into Brothels and Blue (just the other day, actually. I felt like such a failure).

Oh yeah, and I lost my copy of The Departed before I could watch it. Whoops.

I think I may have a pretty decent track record because we don't have cable, so there's nothing else for me to watch. Don't get me wrong, this isn't me being all haughty and intellectual or anything. If I were going that route, I'd be all "la di da...we don't even OWN a TV. Blah blah." (As an aside: SO TRUE. Have you ever noticed how people who don't have TVs take great pains to make sure you know it. Most pretentious thing ever.)

ANYWAY, this is me admitting that if I were to let myself have cable, I'd probably be unemployed because I wouldn't be able to tear myself away from "Brett Michaels and Flavor Flav hang with a bunch of sluts" or some other horrible show and go to work. Bad TV is an addiction for me. I can't just have one show, so I sit tight on the wagon.

That being said, I do love Netflix because I can stock up a never-ending queue of documentaries like "Breasts: A Documentary" or "Bingo! A Documentary" Hey, I have breasts AND I play Bingo! I love you, Netflix!

This weekend, we're moving to our new apartment, which is very close to a Dominicks with a red box. We'll see what that does to my Netflix batting average. Both Mike and Marc are excited at the prospect of watching what Marc calls "real people normal movies" instead of spending an evening with me, a bottle vodka and another treatise on America's debt problem.

Guys, what are you watching? What are you pretending to watch but really just returning? Who wants to be Netflix friends with me?

Right up my artery

As someone who

a) lives across the street from a bar that advertises "MONDAY NIGHT ALL YOU CAN EAT BACON" and has seriously considered opening up a concurrent bread, lettuce and tomato stand on her front porch (I'm enterprising like that);

b) has been told she makes the "best bacon I've ever had in my whole life;"

c) was just made fun of yesterday for immediately making an Amy Winehouse-esque stumble/beeline (beehive?) to the bacon upon entering Jewel;

d) found her most favoritest candy bar in Mo's Bacon Bar from Vosges;

this Bacon Mania article has been my favorite of the day. So many great bacon-related links, it's even better than the one about the 71-year-old woman who foiled her daughter's attacker by offering him beer. That one's close, but sorry, bacon trumps all.

Pig in boots

Thank you, Cinders. I can die now.

'I laminate things that don't really need to be laminated.'

Waste some time by reading about other people's procrastination rituals.

Will Alison switch to FOX News in protest? Tune in at 9 to find out!

So I just clicked on CNN to get my daily news dose, and apparently, the more sensational headlines are now being marketed as t-shirts.


Now, I'm not going to try to argue that the stupid, novelty stories will get more clicks than the real news as a result of these shirts--because they already do by virtue of the of the "rile everybody up" headlines themselves. But this seems kind of embarrassing. It rubs me as yet another way mainstream written news (TV news has been this way for a while) is becoming less relevant and more tabloid focused and soundbyte oriented.

These shirts may be even dumber than the one I saw in a shop window this weekend. It depicted a man sitting on a couch in front of a TV, while a woman behind him (his annoying wife, I'm sure) radiated voice vibrations. It read: "Less talkin'. More watchin'."

Indeed.

Helvetica turns 50

From Slate's slideshow "The Helvetica Hegemony": "letterforms were smooth and well-proportioned, with a pleasing roundness that feels friendly yet sleek and efficient, like an amiable, perfectly groomed flight attendant in business class."

Lovely.


"Ultimately, Helvetica is a cipher—and this is the key to its success. It can be authoritative or ironic, sober or idealistic, corporate or cozy. It's the tofu of typefaces: bland in itself but ready to absorb whatever flavors you add to it. It's clean, legible, and well-designed, but its real power lies in its uncanny mutability."

If you're into typography, the Art Institute's Typing for Tomorrow: Modernism and Typography is open through July 31. I can't wait to see it.