Kane Country.

On Monday I went and visited my friend Karen and walked around her yard a bit to get some inspiration for my own. The varying colors, textures, heights and patterns were wonderful to soak in. Disappointed I didn't take a shot of the flowing rocky creek in the backyard. The property is beautiful and also peppered with interesting wood and iron sculptures.

On Sunday I plan to visit the nursery and have Jose over to estimate some planting. I am leaning toward putting in 3 evergreens and a colorful deciduous in the back left corner, and possibly some hydrangea for the back right. This will be the big push this year in addition to dragging out the railroad-tie border and then extending and reshaping it to create a more organic flow.

Stonehouse on Cedar.

I went to the best little store on Saturday. Everything in it was perfect. The house itself was perfect. The weather outside was perfect. The woman who owns it was delightful.

As I browsed around inside for a while, I thought to myself, I bet I could buy all my Christmas gifts in this one place. I didn't want to leave. I need to go back. As I drove away I couldn't believe I didn't take any pictures.

Stonehouse on Cedar, St. Charles, IL – for antiques and simple objects.

The Deck.

I should know myself better by now than to just go with my gut when choosing a stain or paint color. I absolutely need to test anything before I apply it full-blown. But the weather was so perfect this weekend, and I didn't want to waste a day of it "testing", so I bit the bullet and just went for it. I should just ignore the fact that I about fainted when I opened the can and this was what it looked like.

So I went around the side and started applying it in an inconspicuous place and when it dried I thought, that doesn't look so bad. Man it's a pain to paint spindles. It took me over 2 hours just to do that little section. As I was painting the spindles, I kept stepping back and looking – I didn't hate it. It was the right tone if not exactly the right tint, so I kept going with the floor.

You can see here why I almost fainted a second time as I was applying it and this is what it looked like going down. After I did the short spindle section, I got panicky about how much of it I was going through. I wanted to at least coat the main floor with it before I ran out – I only bought one gallon. That's all the paint guys said I'd need. Thankfully, my trusty neighbor Jim was there to let me know why it didn't max out on coverage, "You went through a whole gallon already?? That dry, neglected, previously-never-treated wood is really soaking that up!" Thanks, Jim.

Anyway, you can't tell from this picture, but as it dried it got better. When the sun isn't beating down on it, bringing out the blue, I don't hate it. It looked okay this morning, but I don't love it at all. In fact I feel defeated a bit. But I have a plan. I'm going to trade in the $45 gallon of Benjamin Moore clear coat for a second gallon of stain to finish up the areas where I ran out and touch up some of the bad blends on the floor next weekend. Then I'm going to let it weather all winter, only semi-protected, and revisit this project again in the spring.

Power-washing.

Power-washing may have just replaced vacuuming as my favorite household chore. Except I'm not re-staining the deck on a regular basis – nor do I have a power-washer at my disposal for use on a whim. But talk about gratifying! This is what the deck looked like when I started:

It's so precise! The water shoots out of a little wand at 4000x pressure so exact you could write your name with it (see the swoop below). So it takes a while to cover a surface, but the results are like instant.

I remember when Dave got one a while back and called me to tell me to go get one – that I'd love it. He was right. Now I want one. Check out these spindles. The ones on the right are done, the left not. One straight concentrated swipe up and bam! practically new lumber.

I really can't get over the results. I want to power-wash everything! It already looks like new. I can't wait to see it with the stain.

Yellow Stonecrop (aka Sedum Kamtschaticum).

My wonderful Mother surprised me Friday with a sweet card and a check for "Flowers, etc." Every Spring, since I moved into my place almost four (!) years ago, we'd spend a weekend shopping for plants and flowers and working on the yard. But this year, there were some scheduling conflicts – she couldn't come – and then also the rain never let up. Basically, I never felt like picking up the slack on my own.

So then this weekend hit, and with some extra cash in my pocket, the sun shining bright but not absurdly hot, I felt ready to make some progress. Several flats of flowers, a new pot for the front stoop, bags of potting soil and mulch later, and I was sort of on a roll. I trimmed some bushes, sprayed for weeds, and tried my best to clean up the front yard. I also put flowers in pots in the back. I can't even begin to deal with weeding the backyard border – it's a jungle. But I did make some improvements.

I also discovered strawberries growing on the ground in my front yard? And more ant hills. And then I sat on the deck and surveyed my progress after I filled the bird feeder so I could watch them all come have some dinner. It was a nice day.

Anyway, while I was at the nursery, I walked around for a while. I need to remember that this is much more fun earlier in the season when there is much more to choose from! But I did come across this pretty ground cover. The color is my favorite. I didn't get any because I couldn't figure out where I'd put it, but I love it.

Purging and Organizing.

Spent the weekend, almost the ENTIRE weekend, going through drawers, cleaning out cabinets, dusting, sweeping, organizing closets... the works. Baked a loaf of bread and made meatballs and spaghetti sauce, too. I'm tired!

My hands are like, raw. Must have washed them seriously about 950 times.


I also organized my books by color (not the bottom over-sized). I've been wanting to do this for a long time. Finished putting them on the shelves, turned around, and an entire stack of black ones didn't make it in there.

Speaking of 2012...

I've started planning for the future. My brother is finishing his basement. I figure we're all better off as a unit (tribe)... and the mountains seem like a good place to be. But, we're really going to have to define and hone our individual skill sets to establish a truly cohesive unit.

Happy New Year: The 2011 Version.

I've spent the last week or so thinking of goals for 2011. Thanks to sitting in seminars taught to me by Bob T. during age group swimming, I definitely recognize the importance of verbalizing, writing and visualizing goals in order to accomplish them. You may recognize some of these from previous lists, but I think 2011 has a lot going for it for seeing some of this stuff happen.

Ok, so here's a few things* I have been thinking about lately:

1. Rent a cottage on Geneva Lake for a week this summer. I miss it and love it and can't imagine how I'd feel to have a week off spent on the lake. Pure heaven.

2. SAVE some cash. I mean really. For once.

3. Remodel my bathroom. Also includes a week-long staycation so I can "help". I have folders of images saved but with ALL the options out there, it's so hard for me to make firm decisions. I have narrowed it down to black & white with green accents. I desperately want a tub I can take a bath in without freezing to death. And I want some intricate, small floor tiles.

4. Re-learn print-making. I definitely did this in art classes at school but I haven't done it since. I really enjoyed making those linoleum block prints. And I remember liking a lot the process of carving them, the way that material felt... And most? The smell! It may also facilitate my deep desire to put some paste ups around the city when I am feeling really adventurous and bold. (I'm dying to do this!) Watch the first artist Swoon in the documentary Our City Dreams.

5. New York! I missed NY in 2010 and it's just not acceptable not to get there once a year. Along these lines, I need to get to Philadelphia at some point. Both easy to do if I just plan a long weekend... But in direct conflict with goal #2.

6. The Gym. I'd like to break this goal into 1/4'ers. Like shoot for 3x/week January – March. I think it will help to have some things planned along the way, like signing up for the Shamrock Shuffle. I'd really like to get into a couple of yoga classes as well.

7. My yard. I basically spent a day or two on it at the beginning of this past summer and then just let it fall apart. I'd like to plant a tree. Then expand the border to make it more organic in shape. I'd like to create a green wall around my backyard that will eventually overflow with leaves for some privacy. I'd love to start the development of a really surprising hidden wonderland.

8. Field Trips. I am still dying, DYING to get a tour of that quarry in my neighborhood. In the winter running errands, I have the most amazing views of it through the empty trees and I don't know why, but I think it's SO COOL. I am also completely fascinated with the Illinois Brick operation I drive past on my way to work. I don't know what it is I find so soothing about the enormous piles of cement chunks-turned-to-cement rocks-turned-to-cement pebbles-to cement powder... And then when it all runs along conveyor belts and gets put onto train train cars or river barges... I am obsessed with watching the whole operation.

*This is a work in progress.

Image of a bathroom at The Soho Grand in NYC designed by William Sofield, 1996.

Renegade Craft Fair.

This looks like it might be good. I've glanced around at some of the artists doing it, and I'm pretty sure I'll find a gift or two for people on my list. (Lucky People). If you're free Saturday or Sunday, and in the area, check it out? Then go eat brunch at Flo or get the burger from Branch 27.

Weekend plans.

These are some nice brushes. They remind me of a book I read once about a painter who was so particular about her brushes she wouldn't even let her assistant touch them. At the time I was like, That's obsessive? They're just brushes? But now I sort of get it. I've had the majority of my brushes since college, and I have definite favorites. Some of them are starting to fall apart. The ones I really love are sort of irreplaceable? Like really broken in tennis shoes or blue jeans.

Anyway, this image makes me happy. I really need to do something creative that's not done on the computer. It might be cleaning out the garage and rehauling the studio. I feel the need for a major purge and reorganization. I also really need to nap in the hammock. After I mow the lawn. I love laying there smelling the freshly cut grass.

Image by The Mountain Label, via A Thing For, via Lobster & Swan.

Things happening in my yard right now.

Daffodils planted in the front yard? A bit of a disappointment. Of the 80 I put out 40/40 over the past two years, who knew that so many would come back without a blossom? I refuse to hate on them tho, because the ones that showed up were THIS PRETTY!

Backyard is another story and where I spent my time this weekend. (I think that thermometer in the direct sun was reading about 80º. It was really about 65º).

It's so Spring-y here this year. Everything is blooming and not getting destroyed by rain in the process. Like these little delicate blossoms...


And all this shaded green stuff... I swear someone is making up for last year. And it's happening so significantly in the past few weeks, I honestly feel we're making up for lost time. In my opinion, last year was such a drag weather-wise that we've practically already made up for it in nice days.

I feel like we are in for an incredible Spring/Summer season. Surely this tree outside my bedroom window is optomistic!

New Chair.

A lot of people are going to think this chair doesn't match my living room, but I disagree. I think the ice blue of it pulls the blue out of the rug, as well as backgrounds of two paintings in the room, and is an interesting and surprising accent color. I love it with the rust.

What's even more fabulous? On a break from work today, I browsed the Floor Sample Sale at Luminaire. Their version was $430 (on SALE!) compared to the one I bought from Room & Board at $39 (also a floor sample). I know one's a designer, and one's not, but I swear the only notable difference is the rubber stoppers on the bottom of the legs!

Wood-burning Stoves.

Now that it's officially winter season again in good old Chicago, and I feel totally gypped out of the kind of summer I needed to help survive the next 7 months – ah? and where's the anticipated 80º Indian Summer to soften the blow? – I'm trying to focus some positive energy towards things that will make the freezing cold bearable. Like scheduling manicures and getting some new clothes, I think I need a stove.

I have to say one big draw back to ending my loving relationship with my rental apartment of 8 years for the house I have now, is the loss of the fireplace. A crackling fire (even the fake kind with the Duraflame log) would be such a nice reprieve from the cold, windy, snowy, dark nights that seem to be stretching out endlessly ahead of me.

Last year, Katy and Steve installed a free-standing wood-burning stove in their living room, in lieu of a full-blown fireplace, and it's proven itself as a fantastic addition to their home. I'm trying to figure out how this could work in my place. Where? When? How much? I have no answers to these questions, and realistically can't do anything about it for this winter season. But I can supplement my need for a while by figuring it all out, and daydreaming about what could be. So here are three of my favorites I found browsing the worldwide internets. If you have any idea where to actually BUY anything like any of these, please send tips my way. I really prefer these design styles to any of the more modern examples I've been able to find in my browsing. The top one is my favorite.

Loving Wallpaper.

I feel the need to wallpaper something, especially since this happened. Crazily I think I could do my kitchen? This Julia Rothman pattern for Hygge & West called Daydream* might go well, and it's relatively neutral. But I can't decide if I think the whole bird obsession is too trendy?

A much bolder option, Crested Fireback, from Anthropologie caught my eye in the recent catalog. This would be really dramatic, and go well in the kitchen, but would clash I think with the general groove of the rest of the place.

For starters I think doing something a little smaller and less important in the grand scheme of things would be a good move. Like the linen closet. I could choose just about any pattern by Ferm Living, also for Hygge & West. This one is Wildflower.

And then there's this one A Bloomsbury Life posted a while ago, by Timourous Beasties, called London. What's especially wonderful about this is it looks all old school French toile, but the vignettes are actually contemporary depictions of general life you'd see today. Skateboarding. Cellphones. Punks hanging out. I love it.

And then I go back to an all-time fave, ROMO. These blossoms have always pleased me...

...until I just saw this. Again with the birds. What can I say? I like them! These colors could quite possibly be a perfect compliment to the rest of the stuff going on around my little house. I need to order a sample somehow to be sure. And then reconsider doing the little hallway instead of the closet. How do you ever decide?

*via Simple Lovely

I'm Grinning.

This is really very exciting. The fabulous Lisa Borgnes Giramonti, who keeps the blog A Bloomsbury Life, arguably my favorite blog on decorating, travel, and attitudes about life in general, has agreed to use my design as her banner!

I've been a regular reader of A Bloomsbury Life since January and had often thought about designing a banner for it because her posts are filled with gobs of imagery and inspiration for creating one. She writes with such personality and has impeccable taste in decorating, fabrics, shops, art, travel, literature... I could go on and on. It's like she takes you on a little journey with her as she continues to design and enhance her home. And she's so REAL about it – it totally adds to the allure. I've written before about her here and here. But really you should just go read it for yourself.

Chicken and Normandy Cow.

Picked these two* up from my frame guy this week thanks to a surprise visit from my parents and I'm absolutely in love. I'm guessing I've had them for about 6 years. The price tags on the plastic sleeves were worn yellow. Not sure if you can tell but the wood frames have a little detail and are both brown and black. This morning I got a little sidetracked before work trying to fit them into the wall they belong on without hammering in any new nails. The placement isn't right yet, but they go so well with the room and what's up there – and I am so crazy about them – I wanted to share.

This wall is all sort of farm and old west stuff. That little black and white photograph on the bookshelf is my Mom on a tractor, about 3 or 4 years old. She's wearing those old school leather, sorta like high-top, little kid shoes. Also on the wall is my "Cowgirls at the Round-up 1911" framed poster** that I also love. The message underneath it reads, "The emancipation of women may have started not with the vote, nor in the cities where women marched and carried signs and protested, but rather when they mounted a good cowhorse and realized how different and fine the view. From the back of a horse, the world looked wider". Oh, how I love a big sky.

*The artist is Julian Williams, but they are actually greeting cards from the company Two Bad Mice.

**Photo adapted from a portrait taken at the second annual Pendleton Round-up in Oregon, courtesy Hamley & Co., Pendleton, Oregon. Quote from The Cowgirls, courtesy Joyce Gibson Roach.

Regrouping.

I spent another amazing weekend away from home in Michigan and thankfully took today off to float back to earth. Last week didn't count, as I continued as if I was still on vacation while going to work, and let everything else slide. Lots of cleaning, laundry, wrapping up projects, a trip to Target, groceries and rearranging my bedroom in my future.

On a side note: In part of my dream last night, I was in an old, rusty Bronco or Range Rover with one of my childhood friend's mothers at the wheel. She was wearing a straw cowboy hat and barreling through a field of tall grass, taller than the hood and reaching at least half way up the windows. The noise of that grass as we burst through it was incredible. And the thrill of being unable to see where we were headed as we bumped and bounced forward in the sunshine and blur of maize is something I'd like to carry around with me today.

Image by d.jane.85 via Flickr.

Sanna.

I may have to order this chair. (Christmas present from M&D). For the living room. First one that's made me really ready to act.

In this fabric. Can't tell here really, but it matches perfectly. And it's shockingly comfortable.