painted lady

This is why we’ve been married 14 years …

August 29, 2012

… because even after all this time, he’ll go along with my requests to visit my favorite design stores in the city when we head down for a 24 hour anniversary getaway …

(the new … and 4x the size Painted Lady on Grand Ave.! Swoon!)

Artemsia

State Street Salvage (love those chain lamp bases!)

Vintage movie reels turned wine storage?

… and because on a Sunday morning, he’ll walk around Randolph Street Market in the rain with me carrying this big heavy wooden bowl I wanted to buy.

And because he took me out to the restaurant I’ve been trying to get into for 3 years …

(It was worth the wait!)

And because we’ve chatted over our morning coffee … or bottles of wine … more times than I can even calculate …

Sometimes it’s nice to act like the couple we were 14 years ago …

While still appreciating all that 14 years together brings.

Anniversary weekend in the city

August 30, 2011

Yesterday was Dan and my 13th Anniversary … for the past several years we’ve decided that our “gift” to each other is to get away for one night in the city. We look forward to it all summer.

So my parents graciously arrived Saturday morning to stay with the boys and off we went.

After 13 years, Dan knows me well enough to guess that I would want to go visit a few of my favorite home stores while we were there. Our first stop after lunch was to West Grand Ave. … and you guessed, The Painted Lady … and she didn’t disappoint.

How sweet is this lamp that is shaped like a knight’s breastplate? I would have snatched that up in a minute when we were decorating our nursery years ago with it’s subtle fairy tale theme.

A cluster of old demijohn’s in the window …

So many soft and wonderfully vintage-looking grainsack pillows …

I totally loved this driftwood inspired candelabra. What a statement piece for a dresser like this, or a dining room table.

I checked out a few of the other stores along Grand Avenue too, but the Painted Lady is still my favorite.

After checking into the Hotel Dana and enjoying a couple of mojitos on their rooftop lounge we worked our through River North and over to the Mag Mile. We decided on a meeting time and place and then split up a little bit so we could each do a little shopping. I was anxious to check out the new Anthropologie just off Michigan Ave. on Chicago.

Anthropologie is one of my all time favorite stores. I love their clothes but I also just love the overall vibe of each store. There’s a warmth and quirkiness … a laid-back elegance, a wonderful patina to everything … I kind of want to just move in! It’s always amazing to see how they transform a new space into something that looks like it’s been around forever. This one has a wonderful street level entrance and then you actually walk down a grand staircase to the main part of the store. (Swoon.)

Again, more driftwood inspired candle holders … and the large tin bottle is a vintage perfume storage bottle, believe it or not. I love how they tag some of their vintage pieces and tell the story behind it.

After shopping it was back to the hotel to put our feet up for awhile before heading out for our night on the town. We primarily picked the Hotel Dana for its great, walkable location to so much great nightlife.

Our first stop was Studio Paris, the lovely rooftop lounge atop Paris Club.

Rooftop bars seem to be the place to be in the summer and we were happy to go along with the trend on this lovely evening. Our next stop was the rooftop of Epic (appropriately named Epic Sky) with it’s great skyline views. (By then it was getting dark and I forgot to take any pictures.) Finally, for dinner we headed to Roka Akor … one of the “hot” new openings of the summer … everything was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

Sunday morning the game plan was to sleep in as late as we could (why is it that once you have kids, your body is somewhat incapable of sleeping late?) head to brunch at Orange (I talked about it in this post) and then head over to the Randolph Street Market one more time before summer is over (and while we could take our own leisurely time sans kiddos.)

I didn’t take a lot of pictures this time (I truly was trying to not “work” and just enjoy the day, but I couldn’t help snapping a few …)

If the time were right, I would have loved to snatch up this table and chairs for our dining room and then reupholster the backs of the chairs in a fun print.

Cool old door turned mirror ….

Authentic old fishing floats.

So what did I get? A few fun little treasures …

I spotted this vintage metal T in this great coral color with a rich patina. There was only a T, so I think it was fate. I love the pop of color on our mantel and how it ties in with the other pops of coral I have in the room.

Dan found this baby and I was so thrilled.

As a writer and former journalist, I love its symbolism and like to imagine what wonderful novels or newspaper articles were created on it.

Someday it will sit prominently on the built-in bookshelves of my newly remodeled home office.

Have you seen these sugar molds in the NapaStyle catalog?

I’ve always liked them as a centerpiece to fill with candles, flowers, or … as they’ve shown … some “nibbles” for your guests. Plus I like how it can have a dramatic effect, yet you can still have eye contact with the person sitting across from you. The price for the long one? $189.

I picked this one up for $30 and it’s even longer …

For now I’ve got it on my buffet … and I still need to get some glass inserts, but I can’t wait to use it over the holidays.

Scary to think they’ll be here before we know it! Yikes!

A New “Lady” I Love …

March 21, 2011

Yesterday was a day of family cooperation. My husband needed to drive by and take pictures of various retail sites in the city for his job, on a day when there’s not so much traffic. So we promised the boys a yummy breakfast downtown … strawberries and cream pancakes, fresh squeezed pear juice, and crispy bacon … at a place that used to be a favorite of ours when we lived downtown. Then I drove around while my husband got out at various points to take pictures. It was a gloomy, dreary morning with sudden sporadic downpours.

Then I got to do a little “work” myself. I’ve been dying to get to what is being called the Grand Ave. Design District. So many unique interior design stores have taken up shop in the old storefronts and warehouses lining Grand Ave. both east and west of Damen that it has become a destination in and of itself.

So my three boys graciously allowed me to go in a store called The Painted Lady on Grand Ave. while they sat in the car with all of their various iPad, iTouch and Nintendo DS paraphernalia.

This is the kind of store that literally makes me swoon upon entering. There is just so much visual interest … things I haven’t seen before, so many one-of-a-kind pieces. It’s like ahhh … where do I begin? I’m kind of like a dog … I have to circle the place at least 3 times … sniffing things out and making sure I haven’t missed anything.

You know how there’s a lot of stores you go in, you see something you like, you pick it up to “casually” glance at the price tag, are quite startled by what you see and then you try to just as casually set the item back down?

Well this store is so NOT like that!

Quite the opposite actually. Every time I picked something up and saw the price I thought “Really?!? Wow. I like it even more!”

Besides all of the interesting accessories and furniture, I fell in love with much of their lighting.

Especially these vintage looking lights with what I like to call Thomas Edison lightbulbs.

They come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Ok, now isn’t this one just adorable?

(I don’t know if I’ve ever called a lamp adorable before.)

What a great nautical lamp. I’d love it for my son’s room.

Anyway, I did purchase a few goodies for a client I’m currently working with. (If you are reading this and know who you are, you should be very, very happy!) But after the amount of time I spent in this one store, I didn’t want to push my luck, so unfortunately I didn’t make it to any of the other stores on Grand Ave.

This will definitely have to be a future day trip for me!