Like lots of blogs by earth-conscious writers and designers, this one is about the RE words:
Reclaim…Recreate…Renew….Revive…Re-use.
Of course, as I was thinking out loud, the comedians in my family came up with their own RE words, such as:
Revel….Regret….Refund
and
Recipe…Request….Reptiles
A page from last year’s calendar in a found frame illustrates my holiday wishes for you.
Relax….Renew…..Rejoice…..Repeat.
How to glam up this institutional looking chair? It came from the large midwestern university north on Sheridan Road, sitting outside the loading dock of a science research building. The upholstery had some rips and frays, but the spring construction in the cushion seat redeemed it in terms of comfyness.
Apt Therapy recently picked up on [...]
Found Item: A round wood framed mirror, about 26″ in diameter
Where: Sherman Gardens condos, Evanston. A post on Craigslist advertised an apartment sale a few blocks from where I work. Nothing listed was a necessity, though the mention of All-Clad cookware was compelling. It was the voice of the writer– enthusiastic without [...]
Celebrating the season at the Blick Art store on Maple in Evanston.
I am loving these fighting flamingoes. They obviously didn’t get the memo about peace on earth, but that’s exactly how some of us feel right now. Lincoln rolling over in his grave. Blagojevich exposed, in jail, then out. Rain instead of snow. And if [...]
I’m working on a chair makeover this week, which will probably take two weeks since there is some staining and a small upholstery stage.
Meanwhile, from the category of guilty pleasures— love the three-way, but what to do with the leftover popcorn tin besides:
a) put it in the recycling
b) put recycling in it
c) use it to [...]
Found Item: Peacock blue cashmere sweater
Where: Alley in the DePaul neighborhood in a bag of clothes
The Makeover: I threw the sweater in the washer on the hottest setting with extra rinse, then line dried it. Next, the sewing stage. As a skill, sewing seems to go through waves of fashionability. Once part of the home [...]
Lucky day. There was a parking place right there on Clark, so I stopped to pay homage to the furniture in White Attic, where once homely storage pieces become swans. Chicago writer T8, the flawless eye behind Strange Closets, wrote last week about the opening of a 2nd White Attic in Bucktown. As I mentioned [...]
Found Item: Cashmere v-neck sweater in one of two bags of discarded clothes
Where: In an alley near the Fullerton, Halsted and Lincoln intersection
This sweater is made of old school cashmere, before the boon of the cheap Cosco cardigan and TJMaxx cable stitch pullovers. A few years ago, these flooded the U.S. markets for less [...]
While in Scout on a Saturday morning, I was thrilled to meet local artist designer Bladon Conner. In a former life he was an architect, but Conner now revises found furniture, chairs and table, into pieces that seem to build on their history. He’ll take a found metal table, add a scrap piece [...]
Found Item: Great find. Three drawer chest in really good shape. Original handles and legs, no knicks or ripply laminate. Could hold clothes, mail or DVDs.
Where: Small rummage sale in the church on the corner of Sunnyside and Hermitage. It’s a shared church, possibly Chinese and Methodist, so the sale featured cricket cages [...]
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December 22, 2008
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