olivetti studio

stockinged silhouette

2011-01-24T14:08:00.000-06:00

evan rose

2010-12-13T11:19:00.001-06:00

have i ever mentioned my longtime best bud, evan?

this is him.

he was my very first friend in college, and we bought lottery tickets together on a regular basis, ate a lot of chinese food, and made collages. we were roommates for a couple years, and now we live in different cities. sometimes, especially when steven is out of town, i just wish evan could come over and hang out. there aren't a lot of people who i'm comfortable just sitting around with. evan has been to chicago to visit us a couple times and seemed to like it here. i miss him a lot. maybe someday we will live in the same city again.

evan has an amazing blog that i've been meaning to mention for a while. his posts are always thoughtful and interesting, and fairly frequent.

he's very talented, very clever, and very wonderful - and today, he is one year older!

go wish him a happy birthday!

*around when we first met, evan told me this elaborate story about how he had two middle names, and one of them was rose. evan rose robert. he had a reason behind the name rose - he was supposedly named after someone (i can't remember who). anyway, i believed it for a long time. it's not true, but in my head it's real.

christmas bunting in my etsy shop!

2010-12-09T15:02:00.000-06:00

last year i posted about these christmas buntings that i made.

well, i added some of them to my etsy shop!

each one is different, but all are a mix of polka dots, solids, ginghams, and stripes. they're about nine feet long and have 12 flags. we put ours behind the christmas tree this year (and stockings will soon hang underneath it).

in front of the christmas tree

2010-12-03T13:11:00.000-06:00

i wasn't planning to get into the holiday spirit this year, and was feeling pretty scrooge-y in general until it was confirmed that steven's daughters would be spending christmas with us this year. this is a very big deal, especially because steven hasn't been able to see them on christmas in years.

my siblings & i went to my dad's house last weekend for thanksgiving, and did a major attic purge in preparation for his downsizing. my mom LOVED christmas and most of the attic was her christmas decorations, so we divied that up between us and now i can NOT WAIT to get our christmas tree and totally decorate our apartment like a crazy person. i would like to point out that though her childhood family christmas trees were fairly modest, my mom went all out for her kids in her adult life. some years we would have 4-5 live trees in our house, each with their own theme. she also collected snow villages, santas, snowmen, stars, german glass ornaments, etc.

we get to play santa claus this year for steven's girls, and that is pretty exciting. what is more fun than having little kids around for christmas?! we're planning to go pick out a tree tomorrow, but in the meantime here's some family photos from years past, in front of the all-important christmas tree:

mom, c. 1954

my brother & sister, c. 1982

mom, c. 1959 (this was the front of their family card that year)

me during set-up w/ my dad in the background, c. 1987

me during our brief stint in florida, c. 1988

mom, c. 1986

happy ghosty

2010-10-30T12:09:00.002-05:00

happy birthday boo.

2010-10-21T22:37:00.001-05:00

i gave steven this chalkboard for his birthday.

frankie got him some new undershirts, but this was more photogenic.

xoxoxo

ketchup

2010-10-08T20:06:00.006-05:00

it was a long summer.

we had steven's little ladies with us for nearly two months. we did so much stuff! we rode rollercoasters, went on walks, ate dinner on the back porch, saw amazing fireworks, went to the beach, and they were introduced to legos. it was all so fantastic, but halfway through their visit i crashed my scooter AGAIN. what is wrong with me? and once again, it wasn't my fault. but this time i was put in the ambulance - my first time. they wouldn't let me take my helmet off and i had no idea what was happening. anyway, i'm afraid having my arm and leg all busted up really put a damper on our fun summer. i'm all healed now, save for some scars on my knee.

we took this in the backyard the day before grace + ella went back to arizona:

this is all of us doing our impression of frankie's snaggly tooth. frankie is not doing his impression of himself.

after they left, steven and i started planning a vacation that we've wanted to take for a while. we went to brussels, amsterdam, and paris. we were gone for about 10 days. our friend chris stayed at our house and acted as frankie's live in babysitter while were gone, which they both really enjoyed. he even took frankie jogging!

i promise i loved amsterdam more than it looks like i did.

now we're back to normal, and we're all looking forward to more of this:

he's just like garfield.

our apartment therapy house tour

2010-06-11T18:03:00.002-05:00

a few weeks ago, we were contacted by jason at apartment therapy - he wanted to do a house tour with us! we were very excited and said yes immediately (of course). we also spent about two weeks cleaning the apartment. i hope it stays this way.

it was posted today!

even frankie was included.

lately

2010-06-09T15:57:00.000-05:00

lately, i've been:

hanging out with frankie
trying to make our house look very pretty
growing basil
preparing for steven's daughters to visit

more soon...

baby frankie

2010-05-03T21:36:00.001-05:00

this dog has stolen my heart, as i figured he would. he has so much personality and he is so loving; all he ever really wants to do is lick your face, or have you scratch his tummy. he sometimes sleeps on his back with his legs straight in the air while he has sweet doggie dreams.

we love him. he's snoring next to me right now.

the pup hunt is over!

2010-04-26T15:18:00.000-05:00

weekends have been busy for us over the last month. after we got the okay from our landlord to get a small dog, we immediately started searching. every weekend, and evenings during the week, we went to shelters. we got crushes on several sweet little dogs, but those dogs usually had some problems that we weren't really ready for (immediate $6,000 surgery, missing one eye, history of biting, etc.)

it was a discouraging hunt, especially given our apartment's size restriction. i felt like everyone in chicagoland was looking for the exact same thing we were, and it was hard to see the big sweet dogs in the shelter and know that they couldn't come home with us.

on saturday, we drove about 50 miles south to a shelter in chicago ridge. we had seen a little dog on their web site who seemed to fit the bill.

he is a little 11 lb. yorkshire terrier / miniature poodle mix. he's a handsome shade of silvery gray with giant eyes and a snaggley bottom tooth. he has an embarrassing haircut right now, because he was so matted when the shelter received him and all they could do was shave him. he was immediately affectionate towards us both, and was laying on his back within seconds waiting for steven to scratch his chest. with the funny tooth and everything, we think he looks like an irish prize fighter.

we had to leave him there that night so that he could be neutered today, but we are picking him up tonight. we've already bought some toys & a bed & a tag with his name on it.

his name is frankie, short for franklin. we can't wait to spoil him, and we are eager to snuggle him like he has apparently never been snuggled before.

the last of it

2010-03-23T20:05:00.000-05:00

we got out of town over the weekend, which will go along way with getting me out of my winter funk. my grandma's house sold, so we drove to iowa to get the last of the things out of the garage.

it was a quick trip, but we managed to have a little bit of fun. steven is a really excellent jumper.

we saw that 76 sign from the highway on our way back to chicago. the back of the car was completely full of things from my grandma's house, but i said, "i wish we had some more room in the car." steven replied that he would strap it to the roof if we had to.

well, we got closer, and yeah - - it was about 25 feet in diameter. we had no concept of size. we would have needed a special "wide load" escort.

-----

so, there aren't quite buds on the trees yet, but i feel spring is around the corner. i haven't been buttoning my coat, and my mittens have been sitting by the door (and not on my hands) for weeks now.

we have some projects to work on around the house, and soon i will be able to put the battery back in my scooter and get her ready for riding! we've been taking walks at night, and really, i feel a lot better.

i'll be popping in here more often now.

chicago

2010-03-07T17:02:00.000-06:00

i realized this morning that last week marked my three year anniversary with chicago. my sister and i moved here on 3/2/2007, in the middle of a blizzard. though i don't really mind blizzards, they aren't my favorite way to enjoy the city. i can't wait for this again:

(best viewed large - click to go to the flickr page)

when the sun is shining in chicago, it makes the winter worth it.

vintage valentines

2010-01-28T14:32:00.001-06:00

my mom and i found this darling valentine at an antique store 4 or 5 years ago, and fell in love with it. there's even a sad note on the back that even made my mom cry right there in the store! i remember her telling me that it reminded her of sweet valentines from her childhood.

then i found these at my grandma's house over the summer - - sweet valentines from my mom's childhood:

(more vintage valentines on my flickr.)

a valentine for fans of the smiths / morrissey

2010-01-27T14:59:00.005-06:00

there is a light print, available here.

maybe soon, there will be a sequel featuring a ten ton truck.

container poster set

2010-01-15T11:47:00.002-06:00

steven's christmas presents finally arrived on tuesday! they took six weeks to arrive, due to some sort of customs confusion. they shipped from turkey, arrived in chicago before christmas, and then were inexplicably returned to turkey. i was on the phone with usps & customs back and forth for hours (mostly on hold), and i was never able to find out what the problem was. luckily the shop was very accommodating, and even though the original set was damaged once it made it back their way, they express shipped me a brand new set! go visit them - they are so, so nice: antrepo shop.

so i actually ordered these in late november, when i caught wind of the fact that steven had broken our agreement to not exchange gifts for christmas. he had my gift shipped to my work, asked my co-worker to hide it in my car, and then he grabbed it from the car that night! sneaky.

i have had these bookmarked for such a long time - i don't have any recollection of where i originally saw them. all i remember is steven & i loving them, and then going back to look at them about once a week for the last year or so. the problem was that we could never decide which color to get. since then, we have often agreed that they would be the perfect thing to hang above our bed. we wanted something large, somewhat neutral, with no text.

the text on these is pretty tiny & not distracting at all. essentially these are just big gradients - you can't tell what they are until you look closely. perfect.

they are a strange metric size, so framing is going to be expensive. our plan is to frame three, and then switch them out according to our mood/season/decor. i want to start with green - gray - blue.

i think this may be as close as we ever get to living in a house made of shipping containers.

valentine typewriter

2010-01-11T14:34:00.001-06:00

i have long lusted over the olivetti valentine typewriter, designed by ettore sottsass & released on valentine's day, 1969. olivetti typewriters are, hands-down, the most well designed and pedestal worthy machines ever made. i already have the studio 45 model, but when it came to the valentine, i always imagined i would just have to settle for this poster:

(available at design museum shop)

however, at one point (years ago), i expressed my need for a valentine typewriter to steven, who quietly noted my desire like the doting boyfriend he is. in the back of my head, i knew he had spent some time hunting around for one - i had heard stories of him being outbid at the last minute by ebay snipers, thwarted by ridiculously high shipping costs, etc. i never expected to unwrap this plastic baby this year, especially after we had agreed to not even exchange gifts with each other (yeah, my gift for him is still not here).

playlist #27

2010-01-06T09:19:00.001-06:00

listen to all of these songs on a new page at olivetti studio: playlist #27.

1. i knew by lightning dust
2. never had nobody like you by m. ward (featuring zooey deschanel)
3. out of the blue by julian casablancas
4. pounding by doves
5. i can see the pines are dancing by aa bondy
6. home by edward sharpe & the magnetic zeros
7. wigwam by bob dylan
8. island, is by volcano choir
9. i remember by yeasayer
10. a matter of time by leisure society

doing a playlist every week isn't super fun for me anymore. i really enjoyed it when i first started, but it has since become a monotonous chore (with the added challenge of trying to make it NOT monotonous to listen to). sometimes i go through phases with music where i am constantly searching out and listening to new things, hardly able to make it through an entire album before switching to something else. other times, i seriously listen to the same 5 or 10 songs on repeat, for weeks, and still completely enjoy them every time.

all that being said, i don't think i can promise you a new list of ten songs every single week. it's exhausting. so i'm going to stop. when the mood strikes, i'll post new things for you to listen to, and i may have some friends post playlists here, but this won't be on any sort of regular schedule anymore.

a collection a day

2010-01-05T10:57:00.000-06:00

i caught wind of this the day it started via the uppercase magazine tumblr (which is always sharing awesome things), and each day has been awesome so far.

a collection a day is just what it sounds like - lisa congdon will be showcasing a collection every day, either in photographs or drawn. it seems heavy-handed on the vintage office supplies already, which is just my cup of tea.

i am really excited to see this continue through the rest of 2010. i can't even imagine 365 collections!

* also very worth mentioning: lisa's house tour on apartment therapy is one of my all-time favorites, and after looking through it again i can spot many potential collections.

darning

2010-01-04T16:05:00.000-06:00

much of my childhood was spent watching nick at nite, and i remember lucy ricardo always seemed to be sitting on the couch, darning ricky's socks. i didn't know what darning was, then, but it seemed very domestic, especially for lucy.

i like taking good care of my clothes, and i like being handy & capable. i don't know why it took me so long to learn this. i get so sad when a nice sweater gets a hole in it - it makes me feel scruffy and unkempt. this hole started off much much smaller, but i put off the repair because i thought it would be really difficult. over time, it just unraveled more and more because i kept wearing the sweater anyway. i finally repaired it today, and i don't think it came out too bad. this sweater is a heathered light blue, so finding thread the right color was a challenge. i ended up mixing two different colored strands, but i don't think that even mattered.

i always do this. i put things off for months and months, and when i finally get around to them, i realize how simple it was and kick myself for not just doing it right away. i build things up in my head, and then they just stress me out, and then i avoid them. i need to jump right into things more often. maybe that could be a resolution? or maybe that is too much pressure...

steven has some holey smartwool socks that i might work on tonight.

christmas buntings

2010-01-01T17:51:00.000-06:00

i'm really over christmas. i'm sure you can relate. but i took down the tree & decorations today, and decided to share this with you before i put everything away for another 11 months. december really escaped me, though. i started it off preparing for a craft sale, and i ended it with a vacation, so everything in between is a complete blur.

i made 10 or 12 of these, all out of vintage christmas fabrics. there was a variety of ginghams, stripes, polka dots, and solids, but those are all gone and this is the one i kept for myself. this fabric is exactly what my mother used to make christmas stockings for my brother, sister, and me. mine was white with red, my brother's was the green with white, my sister's was that red with white. and i managed to find it on ebay, which was really satisfying & left me feeling very sentimental. i know i'll love taking it out every year.

wednesdays of december playlist # 26

2009-12-02T10:14:00.001-06:00

i was absent last week, partly because it was the day before thanksgiving and partly because i was just too busy. i apologize if you were disappointed. i'm still fairly busy, as everyone seems to be this time of year, so i have decided to just do one playlist for the month of december. it has more songs than usual, and consists of christmas & winter music. i'm sort of a sucker for christmas music, and i especially enjoy when popular musicians record original christmas songs that aren't too cheesy. on the flip side, i'm also a sucker for the really cheesy stuff.

my mom really loved christmas, and christmas music, but even she had her boundaries. her rule was this: it is only acceptable to listen to christmas music starting the day after thanksgiving, and ending on new years day. so, enjoy this playlist often for the next few weeks, but please stop enjoying it on january 1, 2010.

listen to all of these songs on a new page at olivetti studio: wednesdays of december playlist #26.

1. white winter hymnal by fleet foxes
2. all i want for christmas by yeah yeah yeahs
3. sleigh ride by the ronettes
4. christmas time is here by belle and sebastian
5. just like christmas by low
6. look at the lights by granty claus
7. christmas song by the raveonettes
8. happy christmas (war is over) by john lennon & yoko ono
9. the winter solstice by sufjan stevens
10. christmas time is here again by the flirtations
11. little drummer boy / peace on earth by david bowie & bing crosby
12. cold white christmas by casiotone for the painfully alone
13. my little drum by vince guaraldi trio
14. blue christmas by bright eyes
15. baby, it's cold outside by louis jordan & ella fitzgerald

our apartment on rearranged design

2009-11-18T09:50:00.006-06:00

steven & i were interviewed by ana at rearraged design for a house tour about our apartment! this happened a couple of months ago, and we kind of both forgot about it until it popped up on monday!

he answered most of the questions, while i looked over his shoulder and made him take out any parts that i didn't like. our home has changed a bit since these pictures were taken and the interview was done. it's always changing; we love it, but we also love rearranging.

go look

wednesday playlist #25

2009-11-18T09:50:00.000-06:00

listen to all of these songs on a new page at olivetti studio: wednesday playlist #25.

1. twin peaks theme by angelo badalamenti
2. those girls (song for nico) by low
3. dearly departed by devotchka
4. love letters straight from your heart by ketty lester
5. when you're gone by the cranberries
6. neutral ground by sea wolf
7. vincent o'brien by m. ward
8. hanging high by lykke li
9. your ex-lover is dead by stars
10. distortions by clinic

wednesday playlist #24

2009-11-11T10:26:00.000-06:00

listen to all of these songs on a new page at olivetti studio: wednesday playlist #24.

1. lost in the supermarket by the clash
2. venus by television
3. oh! you pretty things by david bowie
4. yer so bad by tom petty
5. tonight i have to leave it by shout out louds
6. sunny afternoon by the kinks
7. in the city by the jam
8. under my thumb by the rolling stones
9. little mascara by the replacements
10. gates of steel by devo