An Elegant Evening Out

My husband and I recently enjoyed a magical evening at the Chicago in White event (inspired by Diner en Blanc). An elegant picnic where everyone wears all white, brings along their own table, and dances to a live jazz band under the stars. The fun part is you don't know where you are going till you meet up with your group.

I made my own white wrap skirt out of a beautiful white satin with a silver brocade design. The simple tablescape included elements from my wedding (the small white vase and the LED light inside it). We ate our gourmet food from Whole Foods off real china and drank from real glasses. To start off the dinner, everyone twirls their white fabric napkins in the air.

The Meet-up

Before the train got more crowded

The table and you can kind of see my skirt

Waving napkins

Tuck in

Everyone puts their tables together in a row, like one long banquet table

Surrounded by city and siting by the river at the Merchandise Mart

Geometric Painting for Bathroom

The bathroom in my loft is stark white. It was done up really spa like when we were house hunting. We moved in and put up a white shower curtain and our set of towels in two colors that don't match the bath mat we had (didn't get the upgrade for the mat when we got married). At best the room felt spartan, at the worst if felt like a bachelor pad. Oh, and the cat box had to go in here too.

I wanted to paint the whole room a warming taupe. My husband disagreed. With family coming to stay for the first time at the end of summer, I knew I had to do something. One of the biggest problems was tying the colors in the room together to each other and also the rest of our loft. After being inspired by another blogger's geometric painting, I decided to do a painting similar to a type of project I would do with my art students. Instead, this time I would keep my lines white by employing painters tape. 

If you saw my painting post, you know I have 13 paint samples leftover from our "great indecision".  I decided to put some of them to good use for m painting. I only had to buy a canvas from my local art supply store, the rest of my supplies included the paint samples and leftover painters tape and or course my own brushes.

I chose four colors: the gray from the TV area and a small accent wall, the deep teal in the entryway, the taupe I wanted for the bathroom, and a muted purple (we love purple).

Tips: Use different thicknesses of tape for interest. Trust your instincts and your eye for your own composition.

The whole process took me just a couple hours.

at the beginning, used a chair for an easel 

just starting to paint

done!

After hanging it in the bathroom, I upgraded the shower curtain to match the taupe in the painting and now even have a matching bathmat. 

before...all white

 Now where the painting is installed, across from the mirror

Creative Idea for a Broken Necklace

I noticed a woman standing in front of me on the bus wearing a nice chunky gold necklace. I noticed it was tied with a ribbon and upon closer inspection, realized she had used the ribbon because the clasp was broken. I thought it was so clever and simple, and also very pretty. My only note would be to keep updating the ribbon often so it doesn't look tired.

It's amazing where inspiration can come from; you just have to keep your eyes open.

The Baseball Themed, Baby Boy, Baby Shower

As I posted a few weeks ago, I hosted a baby shower for my friend who is having her first baby, a boy, in September. I didn't want the usual theme of Baby Boy Blue. Inspired by my southern view of the stadium the White Sox play in, the fact that it's baseball season, and that my friend and her husband are die hard Sox fans, I decided on a black and white baseball theme. I made the decorations myself, mostly just a simple pennant design I created on the computer. I had a large banner of the flags which read "BABY BOY MAS" (short for their last name, and what they are calling him for now). I had welcome pennants on my door so guests knew they were in the right place. Finally, I made small flags to stick in food and to wrap on straws.

I found the perfect plates and napkins at Michaels, plus a cute deck of baseball playing cards. You can see them under the glasses. I scattered them all around like giant confetti. 

After I got home from the big shopping trip for food the night before, I realized I had forgotten to buy flowers, so I made a ballon bouquet. 

We had baseball themed food: nachos, peanuts, homemade soft pretzels, hotdogs, and cupcakes decorated like baseballs. Even the specialty drink shared the theme; it was a lemon chill slushy. 

I used a tall cylinder vase as a stand for the hotdog buns. Can you see the little ducky floating in it? It's a cute baseball themed ducky from the same section of Michaels. I mean it's like my theme was meant to be!

I used Alton Brown's recipe for homemade soft pretzels. I had never done anything like it before. Not necessarily hard, just very different from any other baking I had done. The boiling water part with baking soda sure makes a mess. Here's a link to the recipe.

I used some techniques and ideas I found in the book Hello Cupcake that my friend gave me for Christmas. I softened the frosting in the microwave for like 10 seconds and then dipped the cupcakes face down in it to create a smooth surface. I did give it a layer of icing first before dipping so that there was a good amount on the finished cupcake. For some reason, the nearest cupcake in this picture doesn't look like it got dipped. Then I cut strips of Twizzlers (make sure it's the kind you can peel) to form the red laces. Simple design, but effective.

DIY: Custom Copper Curtain Rods

Living in an industrial space brings ups challenges when decorating your home. We decided for not just aesthetic reasons, but also for better energy efficiency that we needed drapes. We picked out beautiful champagne/mushroom (nice neutral) colored curtains with a great raw texture to them. The color really complements the brick it's against and blends nicely. We didn't want a color that screamed, "Hello you have lots of fabric over here!" These curtains also have blackout lining that helps to significantly block the heat from the afternoon sun.

We decided to mike some out of plumber's pipe to get that industrial feel. Because we were making them ourselves, we spent the extra money to upgrade to copper pipe. My husband just LOVES copper; I think it's because it matches his hair. On our trip to HD, we got funny looks from the people in the plumbing section. I guess where we live, people don't do DIY projects like this with unconventional materials. Finally the guy figured out what we needed a showed us to the adapter that connects copper pipe to a floor flange. We found out copper pipe that says 1/2" is different than 1/2" steel pipe and you need an adapter to bridge the gap since floor flanges are sized to the steel pipe. Because of the amount of stuff we were getting, I caved and signed up for the HD card. With our savings, we only spent around $120 on all the pipe and fittings for two 8' and one 4' wide windows. That doesn't include the pipe cutter at $11 and the hammer drill my husband ended up buying to drill into the impossibly hard concrete. I did the measuring and marking, he did the drilling. I cut the pipe (once I got the pipe cutter, before it was him with the Dremel) and polished everything with Barkeepers Friend.

Supplies:
3 - 10 foot copper pipes, 3/4 inch, Blue type (meaning sturdier)
8 - Floor Flanges for 1/2" pipe
8 - 3/4" to 1/2" copper adapter with threading (not sure of technical term)
6 - Elbow joints
2 - T joints
Screws (get appropriate mountings for your walls, in our case masonry screws)
Pipe cutter
Barkeepers Friend
Drill and bits
Measuring tape

My Dremel is in the shot because initially we used it to cut the pipe. It's fine if you only have one window and only a few cuts to make. Way too time consuming for more. So after first small window was completed, I went and bought a pipe cutter. Worth it! The adapters I was talking about are in the foreground between the screws and drill bits.

Installing the flange, the adapter, short pipe, and elbow. Great thing about copper is you don't have to thread the pipe. It just slides right into the fittings. We didn't even solder or anything so we can still take the curtain down, but everything holds together without it.

Cutting with Dremel and polishing. Wear gloves and read directions.

Final pictures. They are a little dark because it was night when we finished and we still need to get more lighting for our place. In the pictures, the curtains almost look pinkish, but trust me, in real life they are not at all.

So in the end, I have converted my husband into a man who wants to figure out how to make something instead of buying it. Finally! Now he wants to tackle all kinds of other things and loves the feeling of a power tool in his hand!

Little story about getting all this home without a car:

We walked to our local HD. We're lucky we have one just over a mile away. We picked out all our supplies and then I waited outside the entrance with our big cart while my husband went to the corner to try to flag down an appropriately sized taxi. After about 10 min with no luck, I called my favorite cab company. They said it would be a hour! So I called another. They said I would get a call when one was on the way. Fifteen more minutes went by with no call. Finally a Scion cab came and was dropping off a passenger. After a little convincing on my husbands part, the driver and he tried to fit the 10' pipes in diagonally from the corner of the windshield on the passenger side to the back corner of the trunk. The trunk closed with not a millimeter to spare! Once we were all inside and on our way, the cab company called with  an automated message that our cab was there. Gee Thanks! 

Weekend Street Fair and 2nd Bedroom Sneak Peak

I went to one of Chicago's summer street fairs this past weekend. I just love summer in this city. Each neighborhood will host it's own festival one weekend of summer. This one was in Wicker Park. One of the most memorable things I saw was this beautiful booth. Not only was the handmade jewelry pretty, but the booth itself had a great set up. It has inspired me to make more jewelry!

 I just love the natural stone!

Aqua Jewelry's Etsy

Here's a sneak peak at what's been going on in the second bedroom! (by no means a finished and staged shot) It's still a work in progress. Whenever you reorganize all your clothes, things have to get messier before they get cleaner.

This work surface was created using our two file cabinets and the door to the laundry closet that we have removed. Like many second bedrooms, ours is filled with mismatched furniture. I'm going to be sewing in here this summer, so I need a big clean space. All I did was re-purpose furniture we already had and used some textbooks to even it out. (The grey cabinet is a bit shorter.) This project was free! It also makes the room feel bigger for some reason; I think it's the long white surface that unifies the pieces into one.

Notice the black frames above? That's one of my eco-friendly, DIY, cost saving projects. I had white frames from our wedding and one other, so I painted them black (artist paint and brush, I can't spray paint in Chicago). Then I scanned pictures I had used previously for my "family wall" and sent them to Walgreens to print out black and white. Plus, I ordered a few wedding pictures in black and white as well. Because they were all just 5x7, I went for symmetry, something I've avoided in the past. It took lots of measuring, a little math, and a level to get them up. But now the small frames seem to function as one larger piece. The total cost of this project was free for the frames and only about $8 for the 5x7 BW enlargements.

Busy Miss Lizzy

Things have been busy around here, and they will get even busier this week. I have the curtains up and the 2nd bedroom had a big overhaul. Now, I just need to finish straitening up and take some pictures. I'm thinking there won't be a custom painting for the bathroom by the party this Saturday. Oh, well. It also seems we just won't have space for an indoor herb garden, unless it's on the window sill behind our bed, but I just don't see that working.

I love getting things checked off my list, it makes me want to get even more done. Of course the beautiful weather in Chicago this time of year helps.

Hope to post all the juicy details soon.

Finding Home Design Inspiration in a Hotel

My husband works for a hotel in downtown Chicago. He had to stay there for the weekend of the NATO conference in Chicago and I got to join him for the weekend! I love staying in hotels, especially fancy ones. I knew the hotel had undergone some renovations in the lobby and restaurant. I met him downstairs and he gave me the key to the room. When the elevator doors opened to my floor, I was stunned. I was expecting the traditional old world hotel look it always had. I had no idea the entire floor had been remodeled.

Everything was done to my taste: beautiful greys, accents of purple, a mix of textures, and shinny things. It continued into the room. I didn't post any of the room itself because while pretty, it was very small. The bathroom is inspiring me to start work on my own. Everything is white in my bathroom: walls, tile, cabinet, counter, sink, and curtain. I want to do something to warm it up. 

 View I had from elevator. We already have the cream colored, leather couch.

 Don't you just love the chandeliers!

 This picture doesn't do it justice.

Love the dark wood contrasting with the white stone counter.

I love the textured wallpaper they used with just a bit of shimmer. I'm thinking of doing some kind of painting technique. I'd also love to darken the cabinet, but who knows. My husband isn't too keen on doing much for the bathroom right now. I might have to settle on my idea of making a painting and finally getting a bathmat to match our towels.

Where do you find design inspiration? 

**Over this past weekend, my husband worked on a big project. I'll be posting about it soon.

Space saving, back of the door, laundry system

I used to sort my laundry by darks and lights in 2 hampers. Since I started sharing living space with my husband, that just didn't work space-wise anymore. Moving to one big hamper for myself (we still don't mix our laundry together) resulted in me not doing laundry till I was out of clothes and then taking over an hour just to sort it.

After moving to our new loft, I realized it had gone on long enough. Before, I would haul all my clothes downstairs to the community laundry room and just do everything at once. Now, we have the luxury of an in unit washer and dryer. One big laundry day just wasn't possible anymore.

Hanging anything behind a door is a great space saver that most people know about. I toyed with the idea of making my own bags to hang, but then I saw these pretty colorful oversized shopping bags in the window of TJ Max. I bought simple hooks at Home Depot, and in total I spent under $15 for everything.

 Can you figure out which bag is for what?

The straps were too long, so I pinned them to the shortest length that could still work. I intend to sew them, eventually.

First, I figured placement. Hung the top hook as high as I could and still have the door close. Then, with the bag hanging from it, I placed the lowest hook as low as I could without the bag dragging on the floor. Last, I placed the center bag hook in the middle of the other two.

Just some simple marking, drilling, and screwing.

Now, it's so much easier doing laundry. When a bag is full I just take it to the washer and pop everything in. Done.

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