the new dresser

One of the things that we desperately need is more storage. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to not have enough space to put all of our clothes. Anyway, we have been needing a good dresser that would fit in with the rest of our dressers and after looking everywhere for months I finally found one on Craigslist.

We drove up to Marin to a woman who runs a vintage dresser business. She buys up dressers in need of repair and she overhauls them and then resells them. We drove 30 minutes north for a dresser that looked perfect via email. When we arrived it was clear that the dresser was WAY TOO SHABBY CHIC! Luckily we found a sad looking dresser that had not been cleaned yet. The seller said that she pulled it out of an old hotel in San Francisco and was planning on painting it white. I guess we felt like we needed to save it so we bought it and brought it home. Below you will see a little before and after the cleaning.

Before is on the left after on the right

I sprayed each drawer with bleach and scrubbed each one with Murphy's Oil Soap. Then I rubbed on the miracle wax stuff called Revive.

The photo at the top shows the finish product. The other dressers seem to like it and so do we.

terrarium fun

When I was a kid my mom and I use to make terrariums together. She owned a plant store called the Elemental and she would sell all sorts of plants, pots and terrariums. For the past 2 years I had a great terrarium project in mind but no container. A while back I found this great Pyrex container at a flea market for $5.00. I have been wanting to turn it into a terrarium and the stars finally aligned to give me the time and opportunity to put it together with my friend Stephanie

We bought all the necessary terrarium mish mash and set about making our terrariums.

Once we started I realized that I want to make a ton more. I have all these great ideas now for little terrarium villages. The end results for our first attempts are shown below.

I can't wait to see how the terrarium fills in. I also need to hit the hobby store for some little miniature inhabitants for the terrarium. SO FUN! If you haven't attempted a terrarium yet you really need to get on it.

Thanks mom for the inspiration.

chitown at a glance

I am happy to report that we were able to enjoy some of the truly unique food that Chicago has to offer. If you end up any where near Chicago you have to make it to Hot Doug's. Here is photo of the best hot dogs I have ever tasted.

While we were in Chicago we stayed at the James Hotel. The first night we could hear a party going on through the walls of the hotel. When we couldn't take it anymore we called to ask if we could be moved to another room. They bumped us up to the penthouse suite. I never wanted to leave. Here are photos of our SWEET set up.

Notice the nice computer area on the left. We were able to dock our ipod to the sound system and customize volume for each room and area.

You can't see it in this photo but when sitting in this two person tub you can either watch t.v. or look out at the city of Chicago.

Opening night of Richard's show, Opening Pink.

Installation add on

Here are two more pictures that show the installation progress.

chicago show

I have tried to blog about our trip to Chicago for quite a while now but everything has been on fast forward since our trip started and this is the first real moment I have had to attempt an update.

The easy version of Chicago at a glance is that is was really fabulous. I love Chicago and the people who live there. I was able to help Richard and his team with the installation of his show at Phaiz gallery and that was really fun! This was the first time we were really able to work together and it was great. What follows are photographs of different stages of the install. I am also following up with a post about the city and more installation right after this one.

Richard and his friend James Marshall working on the first day.

The walls after the painters finished priming everything.

Rich unpacking some of his pre-painted tiles.

Rich starting the install.

KC helping out with the install.

The sections are almost all up

End of the first day

Robin, the owner of Phaiz looking at the installation at the end of day one.

Off to Chicago

Back on the 24th. I will try to do a few posts before then. Have a great weekend!

Casa Kelsey

Eric

I drove down to Los Angeles a few weeks ago to scout for fabric. I stayed with my good friend Kelsey, his boyfriend Juan and their little guy Eric. They have decorated their apartment so beautifully I just had to take photos. What follows are just a few of the great little details in their apartment.

One of the best portrait collections ever. They have invented a story to go along with each portrait.

Thanks for looking! Have a great weekend!