mani monday

Happy Monday!
Did everyone have a good weekend?

The Man and I had a great Sunday together.  We ate lunch at Jerry's Sandwiches, which was so delicious and a nice break from the healthy food kick we've been on lately.  Then we popped over to Edgewater Antique Mall where I scored a pink Pyrex divided dish.

They had quite a few things I would love to have in my home, but I didn't want to go overboard so I stopped myself at 1 piece....although, I think I might go back for this set of glasses:

I can't stop thinking about them and their blue scalloped gradient gloriousness!!

Anywho, on to my nails. This week I went with a simple pattern...

I love a little black a pink!

Next week Wild Ones and Typhoon are playing a show in Chicago, I'm so excited to see them play and paint their album art on my nails!!

randolph market festival

Hello All!
The Man and I were pretty productive this weekend.  We.... left the house!!!!!!!!!

We went to the Randolph Street Market Festival, which is an outdoor antique/vintage/handmade/art market with food and music held once a month from May to September.  I had never gone before, although I've been hearing about it for years now, so it was fun to finally check it out.

It was really similar to the Brooklyn Flea (remember when we went last year?).

We walked around for a bit but had to stop for a bite once we passed all the food vendors.  There were some amazing smells wafting around, but as soon as we saw the huge vat of Pulled Pork we knew what we had to do.

It was so delicious that The Man was in an eternal state of thumbs up!

(he wasn't doing it on purpose, but I thought it was hilarious)

After satisfying our stomachs we went searching for our friends.  First we ran into the lovely ladies of Lost Girls Vintage.

Out friend Sarah and her partner Kyla re-vamped this awesome camper van and travel around selling their vintage wares.  Their RV is named Winnie, and she's a lovely shade of orange with chevron stripes and inside they've fitted her with clothing racks, shoes shelves and even a dressing room!

Not to mention all the other merchandise they display on racks and tables outside of Winnie. (So many bags!!)

(Sarah, Kyla, Me!)

 We said our goodbyes to Sarah and Kyla and just a few steps later we found Brett!

Brett Whitacre is a fantastic artist.  I first saw his pieces 4 years ago when I was working with his wonderful wife Kate. He uses reclaimed objects like old windows and suitcases and spray paints images on them.  I love his window pieces.  I've seen people try to paint in this technique (painting on the back of the window so you're creating your image in reverse) but for most people the image always comes out flat and dull.  Brett's window paintings and have so much color and detail and humor, I want one!!! 

After we saw Brett we decided it was time to head back home to Geoffrey to cool down for the day.

checkin' out the neighborhood {scout and brimfield}

Ok, that wasn't very nice of me, but I didn't want to overwhelm you with so much house-goods awesomeness all at once, so I thought I'd spread it out a little.

Alright, back to what I was saying yesterday:

We left The White Attic (drooling in check) and headed one door down to Scout:

Scout has a lot of furniture and large pieces, like this cool row of lockers in the window.

These dining chairs were pretty sweet, you can't tell from this photo but the fabric was dark green vinyl (and if I remember correctly they  also had a bit of sparkle)


Our last stop for the day was Brimfield:

This place was really fun, and if you like plaid and tartan fabrics then this is the place for you.

They have kitchen items, lighting, home accessories, furniture, and taxidermy.  They also reupholster furniture, and many of the pieces are of course done up in more plaid.

Brimfield is pretty large compared to it's next door neighbors, there were many little rooms shooting off from the main area. I didn't even realize until I was looking up the website to get a link that there is a downstairs! So, next time there will be even more to check out.

I totally want this for when my office/studio is set up . . . when ever that might be.

And my favorite part of this store:

Blankets! Blankets! Blankets! The Man wouldn't even let me think about blankets right now since it's been so darn hot outside, but I'll be back . . . oh yes, I'll be back.

checkin' out the neighborhood {white attic}

We've been living in our new apartment for about six weeks now.  We're learning it creeks and squeaks, and loving every bit of it.  But I must say, my favorite part of our new place is it's spiffy location.

Our apartment is in Lincoln Square, close to Andersonville, and right across the street from a beautiful park with huge willow trees and baseball diamonds. There are so many shops and restaurants, cute corners and sweet spots to sit and relax, and slowly but surely we're checking out every nook and cranny.  So the other week we set out to Andersonville to check out some fun shops.

I wanted to go to Clark St. in Andersonville because I had heard of this place called Scout, and, as it turns out, Scout is perfectly sandwiched by two other great shops!

The first one we stopped in was The White Attic:

 The White Attic finds vintage furniture from the early 1900's and mid-century and refinishes it in fresh contemporary colors and stains.  Every piece in this store was gorgeous, and I wanted to take all of it home.

 This dresser/credenza was The Morning Man's fav.

 There were so many great pieces but my favorite part of the store had to be the lamp bar.

 They had 16 or more base styles to choose from and from there you "build" your lamp.  They have various glaze options for the base and fabric options for the shade, so you can put together your perfect lamp.  The prices range from $245-325, which is a bit much for me right now, but I'm saving up, because these are beautiful!!

After we were done drooling over everything at White Attic, we walked one door down to Scout:
  . . .
And I'll tell you about that tomorrow!

home and garden junkie

I am an HGTV addict.

It's one of the only reasons I have cable, and probably one of the main reasons I never get around to blogging :).

There are so many great shows.  I am completely in love with Genevieve Gorder. Sabrina Soto's show High/Low Project is super fun to watch (especially when The Man gets all fussy about how cheap the "High" furniture is).  Scott McGillivray from Income Property has made me want to be a landlord, and now one of the newer kids on the block has also got me hooked. 

Meg Caswell was last years HGTV Design Star winner, and her show, Meg's Great Rooms, is based here in Chicago.  It's so much fun to watch, because she's always going to new places around town that I've never heard of. 
A while back I saw an episode where she goes to Nadeau.

Nadeau is a furniture store.  But instead of mass-produced or "assembly required" pieces they house a variety of furniture pieces found around the world and brought back to the good ol' US of A.  Their store in Chicago is right by Architectural Artifacts and we decided to check it out a few weekends ago.

I saw a lot of secretaries that I loved, 

and everything is very decently priced.

There were even some printing blocks that I almost snatched up, but since it was right before the move The Man and I weren't really in a buying mood.

The Morning Man is pretty determined to make all the furniture we need for our new pad, but now that we're a little more settled I think we'll head back to Nadeau soon.

I'll also keep watching Meg's Great Rooms for more Chicago shopping advise!!!

brooklyn bonanza {part two}

So, as I was saying, the Brooklyn Flea!

It was really fun, although it would definitely be more fun if you actually live in New York, and don't have to think about getting the things you want on a plane.

like this wood pig I wanted for some reason . . . and still do!!

There were tons of booths to look through and there was a good range of kitchen stuff, furniture, clothing, jewelry, toys, art, books, and other sweet antiques. And on the other side of the Flea was a bunch of food vendors, everything looked great, I really wish I had been hungry enough to try something.

And look at this completely awesome miniature Singer sewing machine.  You use the hand crank on the side to make the needle go up and down.  The guy selling it said people would use them to mend clothing on ships. I'm not sure if he made that up, but it's a fun story. We asked him how much it was and he told us he sold the other one he had for $200 . . . sooooo, I didn't buy it.

Sweet Star Wars Glasses!!!!

We had a blast and I even bought a few things

Some Earrings

And some Deeeeeelicious Pickles

 On our way home from the Brooklyn Flea we stopped at an ice cream truck with a beautiful menu.

And then The Man made Chicken Fried Steak for dinner! And Sausage Gravy from scratch! And Dana made Garlic Mashed Potatoes! It was SoOoOoOo Good!

It was an awesome day and I still have the sunburns to prove it.

And somehow the next day was even more awesome.

Right now you might be thinking "Wha? How can you top antiques and sausage gravy?"

Well, it's possible, but guess what. . .

yeah, you guessed it:

I'll tell you about that tomorrow!!!

sunday funday

This past Sunday The Man had his first day off in almost a month.  It was a beautiful day and we had planned on going to a pumpkin patch but we woke up and realized that the Chicago Marathon was going on, so getting most places was going to be quite a hassle.  Instead we opted to go antiquing!! Unfortunately some of our favorite spots we're a little to close to the Marathon Course, but we were still able to make a few stops.

First up: Architectural Artifacts!

Now this isn't the kind of place to find some fun trinkets to take home, unless you think trinkets are $1,000 chandeliers and $2,500 mantels.  But it is a fun place to check out.  

You can easily spend a few hours walking around their 80,000 square feet of antique objects.  They have everything from a single door knob to six huge corinthian columns.  If you have lots of money and want some really cool old stuff in your house, this is the place to go.  If you have some time and want to explore a giant showroom of really cool old stuff, then this is still the place to go!

This is an enormous copper pot filled with wooden letterpress letters!

Hey Mom! Look at this! You want an awesome old wardrobe trunk? It's only $895!

They also use the atrium connecting the two buildings for events, like weddings. They clear out this area, and you can also use . . . 

The courtyard, it makes a beautiful ceremony space.

If I had $2,400 laying around, this would come home with me, as well as this lamp . . . 

Just a measly $1,800!  I think it's beautiful though.

After we were finished realizing how empty our pockets were we went over to a place with everyday folk prices and items.

Next Up: Hoard Antiques!

We love this place, we found it about a year ago. It's a small antique shop in Lincoln Square, run by a really friendly guy who knows his stuff.

They've got a little bit of everything here, it's a fun place to rummage around, and it's completely affordable.

What a cute pitcher with matching glasses!

And my favorite part of Hoard Antiques:

Layla!! She's the sweetest and most mellow pup I know.  If she's not taking a nap then you'll catch her following her man around the shop.  At this point I caught her doing the former. :) 

We didn't make all our usual stops, but that doesn't mean I walked away empty handed. 

 I bought myself a crazy fish necklace!

 At first it just looks like an elaborate gold fish, but then . . .

It Opens!!!!

After Hoard we went home to make Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches! YUM!

How was your Sunday? Do anything fun??