I went girlie this week with a makeover to honor the fat, nimble fingers of Martha Washington and her circle of sewing/bandage makers. This was nearly a rummage sale reject. I arrived late to the sale, the sellers were closing up, the table was one of the last things left, and I couldn’t just leave it [...]
August 1, 2010
The mysteries of the sewing machine—the needle goes down, comes back up and miraculously there’s a stitch. Bob it up and down twenty times fast and you have a seam; lots more times and you have a Project Runway dress. The first electric sewing machine for the home was introduced in 1889 by some real men [...]
July 23, 2010
Kudos to Nadeau for bringing this small-space friendly piece to market. It’s less than a ruler in width and 53″ long, so there are lots of possibilities where it can fit in–in the hall, a bedroom sized dining room or on the back side of a couch. Then, when you have a free Saturday [...]
July 18, 2010
The Edgewater Beach Hotel, that big pink building on the skyline near the bend at Hollywood, was once a glamorous, swinging destination. A guest list of stars from movies to world politics vacationed, dined and danced on the marble floor that extended out to the beach. Gandhi, Babe Ruth, Marilyn Monroe, Nat King Cole… The [...]
July 11, 2010
Not that anybody I know needs a console table, but this apartment-size table looks like the kind of piece you use for awhile, then pass on to the next person who might have space in their hallway or behind the couch. On a new route heading toward the Loop, I came upon the table hanging [...]
July 9, 2010
Grout Fun Fact! There are two basic types. Use unsanded grout for spaces less than 1/8″, like in between the subway tile in your bathroom. It resembles plaster of paris. Use sanded grout when the space between your tiles or mosaic pieces is larger than 1/8″, or it’s uneven. From what I’ve read, most [...]
July 6, 2010
Even the metal scrappers take a few days off apparently, because this wrought iron frame was in plain site in a north side alley. A good score. It could have been the flimsier metal– the kind with a tendency to lean or the type that’s bent into silly embellishment. This one’s heavy and straight. Making [...]
June 1, 2010
There’s a silver painted bed in The Painted Lady in Bucktown that will no doubt provoke some very chic dreams. I wish I had a photo to show you, but didn’t take a camera along on my store visit last month. But I have carried a mental picture of the lovely look of silver paint [...]
May 16, 2010
I thought shabby chic was old hat til I made a trip to Bucktown and The Painted Lady. Love at first site. One of a kind, hand-painted, extraordinarly beautiful things. Chests, tables and chairs are jumbled back to back in the store as if they were just delivered or on there way out the door–both [...]
May 4, 2010
Since I use it every day, I thought I’d revisit the story of my home office desk. I remember the day I came upon it like it was last week. I also remember feeding dime after dime in the xerox machine at the library to copy the border patterns. They came from an oversized book [...]
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August 6, 2010
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