My grandfather passed away a few weeks ago. It was sad and hard on our family (especially my grandmother), but he was 93 and lived a long, happy and simple life. He was a strong and caring grandfather, father and husband. He will be missed dearly. A few years back, he and my grandmother moved into an assisted living facility. When they moved, all of us grandchildren were encouraged to go through their home and take things that we wanted (the things that they weren’t moving with them). It sounds a little morbid but it was cool to go through…
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so we finally finished the new pantry! …and learned in the process that sometimes it pays to hoard. David pulled out of a secret stash that he’s had tucked away somewhere – bin a piled high with vintage hardware: vintage towel bar,ancient meat grinder,iron wall hooks,commercial utensil racks,and a fabulous random decorative iron wall mount broom organizer. and I pulled out of the nether regions of the basement:every possible commercial kitchen appliance imaginable.(i had no idea where we got a milk pasturizer, or a commercial deli slicer, but now it takes pride of place in the pantry.where i might use…
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sometimes you meet folks who are so gifted and productive in life that they make you feel like you are standing still. (how do they manage have families, a social life, and open up businesses before even hitting 30?) shops like fleur. buckshot sonny’s. the indo projects. stone blitzer. sparrow. threefold. goodbeerhunting. the green bean. post27. the post family. winter session. bladon conner. suitorlife. land and sea dept.(far too many to continue listing, so i’ll have to do another series of posts on inspirational folks that we love) it blows my mind.and motivates the hell out of me to get off the couch. we’ve been blessed with…
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Crain’s Chicago business has a new feature series: Style Profiles of Chicago Business folks. It’s the brainchild of Jan Parr (former editor in chief of Chicago Home and Garden and current exec editor at Crains) When she asked me if I wanted to talk about my style, I thought she was kidding.I could have given her a dozen better more stylish options. (bascially, every girl I work with at the office) I couldn’t fathom that readers would want to know the reality of where my clothes really come from:yardsales. thriftstores. flea markets. (and a few scary places I won’t even admit to…
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how- to films. DIY films. behind the scenes films. …as part of the new year’s resolution of getting organized-we finally got around to updating the film channels with all of the trouble we got into in the past year- stuff like: * bobcat + outhouse = moving day* behind the scenes – saving a building* DIFFA camp film* Styleseek retreat film* DIY cocktail for Glossed & found* DIY dessert how to for G&F* DIY apple + arrow project for for G & F* Frankie in the pictures CHECK IT OUT HERE
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mary’s dad was quite ill when he walked her down the aisle…so when I read the title to her post: “A great New Years gift: getting to see video of my dad walking me down the aisle at our Camp Wandawega wedding” …i knew i would probably cry even before i watched the film. and so of course i only made it the first 10 seconds in…i watched it and now im crying… because i remember dad walking me down the aisle, too in the same spot. and that he could only manage the last 10 feet, so i met him halfway. a…
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some love from PHOTO DISTRICT NEWS magazine- covering a story on the baby shower pinterest series we shot at camp this summer. this earlier post and this one has all the pix + ideas… thanks, PDN!
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but she’s not getting one.unless its stuffed and fits in her crib. we spent the holidays at the family’s stables-(the one that got the 24 hour thrift store makeover in this earlier post) they board, train, breed, etc. 30+horses.so charlie went crazyface deciding which ones would bitevs which ones she could pet…. she found a minature horse (named ‘skittles-snicker’) that she decided to chase relentlessly: Some scenes from the barn… My brother Sam with one of the favorite horses…
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Sometimes I get fun little projects to do at work. Instead of carpeting our conference room, we painted a rug on it! I commissioned Jeff Zimmerman to mimic a vintage rug that I found online. Jeff projected the design onto massive sheets, pounced it out (perforating the paper) then transfered it onto the floor with chalk, traced it out, and THEN painted it (actually, I’m making this sound much easier than it was–it took a week from start to finish). Here are some snaps: Stay tuned for the rest of the room…coming soon.
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Our basement is a hellhole. Really and truly…an episode of Hoarders without exaggeration. It’s that dark space that we try to hide when folks come over. We deny that it’s there but they always find it. So, last weekend after nearly a decade of failing to avoid the ugly truth, we put on gloves and hip-waders and literally dug ourselves out. Out of the mind-numbing culmination of 80 years of old trash that consumed our basement: skeletal mice, canisters of hardened cleaners from the Hoover administration…really, too painful to get into much detail here. The good news? There is a plan! Inspired by the parred-down simplicity of…
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