required (weekend) reading
how i became a hipster (nytimes)
most dangerous neighborhoods (huffington post)
word of mouth: columbus (cool hunting)
new york elsewhere (the morning news)
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Morangis Retirement Home by Vous Êtes Ici Architectes
Photography by 11H45
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msgm love
last week, i joined my mother and sister in chicago for some wedding related shopping (rehearsal dinner, bridesmaids luncheon, honeymoon, etc.) and we kept coming back to the racks filled with pieces from msgm… one of each, please?
bead & fringe jacket | memphis print dress | print & tweed jacket | laser cut dress
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Merricks Beach House by Kennedy Nolan Architects
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thebaucompair asked: Hi! Our soon-to-be house will be 100 years old next year and I'd love to get my hands on the blueprint of the original home. As you can imagine, much has been updated since it was built. Since you had some success with your new apartment (congratulations!) and because of your profession, I thought you might be able to point me in the right direction. Is this mission impossible?
hey! congrats, again, on the new place - v. exciting! some ideas of where you can find plans:
- first stop, your realtor. assuming that was already deemed a no-go.
- head to the city building department. any kind of mechanical, electrical or plumbing work / additions / interior or exterior alterations made over the past 100 years should have been (if past residents were going by the books) reviewed and permitted by the city - meaning (most likely) that plans were involved.
- another place is the local library archives. that will probably require a lot of digging, but could yield some interesting info.
- if your neighborhood is filled with other similar bungalow style homes, there’s a possibility that the area was developed within the same time frame / by the same architect. knock on your neighbors’ doors (w/ baked goods in hand?) (especially anyone who has been around for a substantial period of time) and see what they might have!
good luck - can’t wait to hear more about the house!
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spring wknd in new york
the highline | gang’s all here: vanessa (the birthday girl!), alyssa, me, kelsey & amelia | space invader (i think?) in the east village | cherry blossoms for sale on the upper east side | orange on hudson street | scene near our new place | scootin’ on the ues | teeth in the west village | bike envy on gay street | our beautiful birthday girl in front of olde good things in the east village
not pictured: dinner at the lion (w/ martha & liz, too) | sleep no more | happy hour at the mermaid inn | palm readings w/ tina in the east village (!!!) | saturday night at weather up (drinks) & locanda verde (dinner) | brunch at orsay
[happy 30th VAF! we love you so much… thanks for giving us a chance to celebrate you!]
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happy (almost) friday!
boskke sky planters | $39
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![black magic
our new place is super cool, but not huge (relative to our most recent spacious, midwestern digs) so we’ll be doffing much of our furniture and stuff in favor of a cleaner, uncluttered scheme. and while it’s a rental (read: i refuse to put in any sweat equity) we are planning to be there for longer than a year - so i will happily wield a paint brush to get the look i want.
that look being chalkboard paint. that thick, textural, inky black paint i love. the moody, cozy effect may seem counter intuitive to small spaces, but i find saturating space in one color, especially a dark one, can make a room seem bigger.
and for those who feel it’s overplayed (as i did), here’s a funny story - on par with a lesson repeated by every creative who has ever taught me in design school and in practice: there’s no such thing as an original idea.
my former boss (as of last week) is one of my style icons. she’s chic in an effortless way and a master of high design. i take every cue i can from her. to set the scene, this was a few months ago while chatting about ideas for a prominent wall in a project.
me: what about chalkboard paint?
her: yeah, that could be good…
me: meh, but it’s everywhere. everyone uses it. it’s so, like, mid-2000s.
her: [hysterical laughter]
me: what?
her: honey, we were overusing it back in the 80’s.
[counterclockwise from top left : jenna lyon’s former brooklyn bedroom via | photo by heather mcdonald via door sixteen | olaf hajek’s berlin kitchen via the selby | bathroom via india mahdavi | living room via the fickle fox | roel vaessen’s home in the netherlands via remodelista]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/b86af511fe457f5779fb5a4cc0aa3801/tumblr_mlryh2BKDk1qhcdrao1_1280.jpg)
black magic
our new place is super cool, but not huge (relative to our most recent spacious, midwestern digs) so we’ll be doffing much of our furniture and stuff in favor of a cleaner, uncluttered scheme. and while it’s a rental (read: i refuse to put in any sweat equity) we are planning to be there for longer than a year - so i will happily wield a paint brush to get the look i want.
that look being chalkboard paint. that thick, textural, inky black paint i love. the moody, cozy effect may seem counter intuitive to small spaces, but i find saturating space in one color, especially a dark one, can make a room seem bigger.
and for those who feel it’s overplayed (as i did), here’s a funny story - on par with a lesson repeated by every creative who has ever taught me in design school and in practice: there’s no such thing as an original idea.
my former boss (as of last week) is one of my style icons. she’s chic in an effortless way and a master of high design. i take every cue i can from her. to set the scene, this was a few months ago while chatting about ideas for a prominent wall in a project.
me: what about chalkboard paint?
her: yeah, that could be good…
me: meh, but it’s everywhere. everyone uses it. it’s so, like, mid-2000s.
her: [hysterical laughter]
me: what?
her: honey, we were overusing it back in the 80’s.
[counterclockwise from top left : jenna lyon’s former brooklyn bedroom via | photo by heather mcdonald via door sixteen | olaf hajek’s berlin kitchen via the selby | bathroom via india mahdavi | living room via the fickle fox | roel vaessen’s home in the netherlands via remodelista]
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thedetroitfoodie asked: Glad you visited Detroit & thanks for spreading positivity about the city! Come back to visit again soon!
my pleasure! we will be back for sure… and what a great resource your blog will be!
friends, have a look at ‘the detroit foodie’ if you’re planning a visit - foodie or otherwise!
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24 hours in detroit
even though the tigers have a swanky new stadium, the city left the diamond of the old stadium sitting - like a ruin - just east of corktown.
years ago, when my brother and i traveled around europe for the summer, we were digging around a thrift shop in copenhagen. drew found an old detroit tigers t-shirt (just my size) which he promptly held up and declared i had to buy in honor of our dad.
you can imagine my excitement to not only finally wear the shirt to a game, but to have the chance to see the old site.
i was surprised by how oddly emotional it was. thinking of my wonderful father as a boy, growing up and visiting his beloved grandparents, going to games to see denny mcclain, al kaline and norm cash play.
running the bases left me breathless - in every sense of the word.
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24 hours in detroit
a few weekends ago, pat and i decided to make a quick trip up to detroit to see his beloved yankees play the tigers - the team my father rooted for when he was a little boy. between not having plans and having a good friend who is a scout for the yanks (with the ability to snag us some great seats!), we knew this would be the perfect way to spend our last free weekend in the midwest.
we drove up saturday and caught the last tour (all to ourselves) of the edsel & eleanor ford house in grosse pointe. i had been once as a little girl and it was a formative moment in my love affair with architecture. i was beyond myself with joy to have a chance to revisit and show pat. it’s absolutely worth a trip - though preferably from late spring to early fall when the grounds are lush and green.
going off of this bon appetit article on corktown (a very small - but very cool - revitalized section of downtown) we had drinks at the bar and then a fabulous dinner at slows bar bq. post-dinner, there were more drinks at sugar house followed by breakfast the next morning at the beautifully funky astro coffee. each of these spots are destinations in and of themselves, but i think the fact that all of this innovation, activity and industriousness is emanating from one block is a sign of the good things that are happening in detroit. the people - the locals - i saw coming in and out of each establishment were interesting, creative and eager. it felt like an epicenter of regrowth.
[due to the last minute-ness of the trip, i couldn’t get a room at honor & folly - but, next time, we’ll plan ahead. you might know this b&b from their blog, designtripper?]
there were other things i would have loved to put on the itinerary - like the noteworthy detroit institute of arts - but had to be saved for our next trip as we eventually needed to make our way to the game on sunday afternoon.
i can’t find the words to properly describe the city. even though i toted my camera with the intention of photographing it and its now famous emptiness, once we actually saw the scenery, it just seemed… i don’t know, tasteless? wrong? i’ve never seen anything like it. it wasn’t necessarily poverty - because i saw that everyday on the south side of chicago (where i worked) and in south bend (where we lived this year). it was simply abandoned and overgrown, a modern day ghost town. it rendered me speechless.
[that first photo is of the michigan central station - a hub that once had more than 200 trains a day arrive and depart on its tracks - is a good example of this jarring reality of then vs. now. my great-grandfather managed auto factories in dearborn (hence my dad rooting for the tigers) back in the day and so from photos and stories, i’ve seen and heard proof of the vibrant, thriving city it once was.]
so i’ll leave it to the talent of people like kevin bauman - with his project 100 abandoned houses - and detroiturbex to describe it.
i just hope people will make a note to visit sometime and get to know detroit.
i’m so glad we did.
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easy does it
these shoes are the best things to happen to my closet since 2009’s discovery of the j.crew macalister.
the chic, comfortable slip ons have prompted more ‘excuse me, but where did you get those?’ questions than the aforementioned wedges (which i didn’t think was possible). plus, they’re under $60 in an array of colors.
just in time for spring / summer…
chinese laundry easy does it flats | $59.99
