Vintage bike love

I love this bike! I walk by it all the time to and from the train. Love the color and the vintage style and of course the wood wine crate as cargo holder.

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

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.

Understated, Modern Family Room Mural

I'm an artist, when I have the time. So even before we moved into our new loft last year, I knew I wanted to paint a mural. In the TV area was a big beautiful (at the time white) wall. It spoke to me. It wanted something inspired by the city, not an ordinary framed picture, but an abstract painting right on it. I decided to do a contour outline of downtown Chicago. The adjacent wall was back at the time, so I first thought continue the black as the line to help tie the two together. Then we decided to paint both walls grey (see the post here). The mural kept getting put off.

About a month out from my best friend's visit for the first time since we moved in, I decided it was time to get lots of projects finished, including the mural. (Nothing like company coming to get you to finally check off your to do list. ;) ) I searched all over the internet for a great reference picture and finally went with a photo my husband took while on a sailboat in Lake Michigan. 

I brought my projector from school home for a long weekend. I set it up on one of our height-adjustable stools and plugged it into the computer. I had to play with the sizing on the screen till I got it just right, and then it was just a matter of tracing on the wall in pencil. Pretty easy, just don't rush. I was going to go with a  white paint for the line, but my husband convinced me to use the gold paint that was left over from our paint sample buying extravaganza. I tested it out just behind the tall shelf on the side. IT WAS HOT! I ended up having to do two very careful coats of the gold to get an even consistency, but it was worth it. We love the result so much that we are going to continue the mural to the wall behind the TV (eventually).