the wall is comprised of nearly 1000 hand made buttons. 3 sizes, of circles and squares. all mounted on nailheads each nail head protruding from the wall at different depths. each button features a photo, or fragment of a photo of a family member or memory. the installation looks like a galaxy… a cluster that spreads & thins as it stretches out to the edges of the wall and the room itself. at the outermost fragments you will find my great grandparents on both sides. and david’s ancestors as well. as we move into the center, it features our grandparents, …
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summer is just around the corner. one of my fav projects:5 minutes to a happy home for fireflys. 1. break the glass insert on a vintage mason jar2. punch holes in the metal mason jar lid3. cut a metal wire hanger, wrap around the lid, crafting a handle4. catch some bugs & hold them captive for your amusement. (yes, it is sorta evil)
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AND- i am obsessed with old engraved spoons. LOVE-ly. AND TEA KETTLES!!
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i am fully addicted.there is no where i won’t go to score a good chair.if it sports good design and is free (or close to it), i have no pride.here are some of the favorites that have found their way into our home: orange upholstered: thrift store windowyellow high back: roadside in wisconsinchrome & leather: dumpsterlodge style: junk storemetal 40’s lawn: neighbor hand-me-downwooden folding: road-side saleoak rocker: yard salewooden folding lawn chairs: found roadside
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my little brother sam is a lineman for the county. literally. in the backwoods of central illinois. which means many times he has to call on some of the most remote areas imaginable, on 4 wheeler, on foot- through some rough territory. one day he was called out rural farmer who’s wife asked him to repeat his last name again. ‘surratt’ he soon learned that this elderly woman was related to him (us), several cups of coffee later — and with sam picking her brain about our ancestors–inquiring about a place he had heard of called ‘surratt holler’…she disappeared into…
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Timeout Chicago’s ‘House Call’ section just did a fab feature on everyone’s favorite couple, William Sherman & William Golden. It includes tons of great shots of all their amazing collections. LOVE LOVE LOVE. check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/4uu3gdc
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the best part about spring cleaning are the photos you unearth. in this case, i proudly present a couple of my favorite discoveries: exhibit A: david as a 5 year old, sporting a perfect bowl cut at camp wandawega. exhibit B: same guy, 15 years later, same place. but now a fantastic curly mullet. exhibit C: the most patient, tolerant, handy guy in the universe, with the do i met him with: none.
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at summercamp, you will find no shortage of these.slates from the turn of the century, easels from retail stores from the 20’s,even the tiny garden variety used to mark herbs. I use them for literally everything from way-finding to menu boards.(as seen here for a past halloween party) but my typography is sorely lacking compared to this brooklyn artist. My friend william sent us her link and we are IN LOVE! BE STILL MY HEART.
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the cool thing about summer camp is that the basics just don’t change.biking, swimming, canoeing, archery, tennis… the shots from ‘now’: my friend’s kids” willow, gabe, juliet, my friends mattie, will and william. LONG LIVE SUMMERCAMP!
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probably.something about toddlers having tea parties in a former sh*thouse is probably unsanitary. or unsavory at the very least. but that’s not going to stop us.(a good power washing and 10 coats of KILLZ can overcome all odds) so-we were driving by a farmhouse in the back roads of the cheese state,& happened across a place that had a fantastic assortment of shacks, shantys, lean-tos and sheds. all filled to the top- a hoarder’s paradise. so of course im eye-balling one of them (no more than 5X6 footprint) for what i envision as our daughter’s future playhouse. all it needs…
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