Category: Honor Roll

I still haven’t finished tiling the laundry room! Curses! I caught the reveal of Miss Mustard Seed’s hand-painted landscape mural in her dining room though, and wow. I needed to see a little prettiness brought on by perseverance. If she can paint an entire dang mural, surely I can push through and get some tile on the floor this weekend.

• Susan Harter’s line of mural wallpapers have a similar feel (in fact, they were Miss Mustard Seed’s inspiration) and are an option if you don’t feel confident in your painting abilities.

• I’ve come across the occasional spider while I’m working in the basement, and I leave them be. Charlotte A. Cavatica, is that you?

• I have a style post coming up next week with some of my favorite pieces of the season, but I wanted to alert you to these high-waisted shorts for $16 on clearance because they’re so good and sizes are selling out quickly.

• The average handbag weighs 6.7 pounds.

• Exploring the questions raised and ethics behind a human head transplant. It’s close to a real possibility, but should it be done?

All right. A few more emails to send and then it’s off to the basement for me. (I really want to get the hot water tank back in place.) Have a great weekend!

IMAGES: Miss Mustard Seed

Think of Twitter five years ago, vs. today. Facebook before, during, and after the presidential election. The sense of community I once felt on those platforms has shifted dramatically over the years, and I felt myself pulling back. I still love Instagram. I still love Pinterest. I still love visiting and reading my favorite blogs. And I’m still on Twitter and Facebook and there is love for them too, but I’m not doing the mindless scroll thing I have in the past. I’m not looking to be provoked, outraged, and angered.

In making that switch though, visiting those platforms less, I’ve not come across as many interesting articles. I found myself replacing mindless Twitter and Facebook checkins with Quora scrolling (people are nice! People are thoughtful! People have interesting questions and answers!). Same behavior, better psychological state (less anxiety and anger), but it’s equally bad for productivity.

I realized that as my experience with online consumption changed, so did my publishing output. I overcompensated. I went somewhat quiet here in favor of spending time elsewhere, and that translated to offline too. Plenty of time working behind the scenes and and on big projects, but not sharing enough of the in-between. This space is not and has never been just for the big before and afters. It’s all about the process! And along the way, I’ve loved sharing fun and inspirational things I’ve found in my Friday Honor Roll posts. So let’s get back to those, starting today. And moving forward? Let’s get back to more fun and less waiting for the big reveals.

Back to Honor Roll roundups! More sharing of the steps in between the big milestones! More fun, more fashion, and just a bit more me. I’ve kind of missed you guys. Hi.

• Local lovely lady Marianne of The Savoy Flea has a home as wonderful as you would expect. “Eclectic Parisian Bordello” — is that the most evocative, most wonderful description of a home or what? And her framed photo of the Contessa di Castiglione (above) is perfection.

• Plus-sized models for straight-sized brands.
  “…it’s still open season for discriminating against and marginalizing fat female consumers, even as more brands jump on the body-positivity bandwagon in acts of what could only be deemed size appropriation.”

• Parents: Are you a carpenter or a gardener?

• De Beers basically sets diamond prices. So why would they undercut the market by offering cheap lab-grown diamonds? The better to drown out their competitors, my dear.
  The article had me wondering about the differences between real and fake diamonds, and this was a helpful guide: What’s the difference between Swarovski Crystal, Diamonds and Cubic Zirconia?

• Obsessed with this Heron Wallpaper from Gucci. Pink background! Menacingly beautiful birds!

• Chicago got a Serena & Lily store and I was able to check it out at the preview yesterday! So pretty, and so distinctly on brand (photo below). I’ve recommended so many of their pieces throughout the years — it was great to see everything in person.

IMAGES: The Savoy Flea’s Apartment Therapy Home Tour photographed by Emilia Jane • Serena & Lily store photographed by Dustin Halleck

I’m heading out to get my hair cut after six months since my last appointment. It has grown out all the way down to my… chin? Not even my chin. The bangs can be pulled down past my nose, but in back I’m sporting the most fabulous shaggy mullet style. I’m trying to stick with this whole ‘growing out the pixie’ thing, but blech to the in-between stage! I’m hoping I’ll dislike it less once it’s cleaned up a bit.

• This DIY card-making kit (spotted here) is brilliantly funny.

• Apparently people can’t tell Bubly and LaCroix apart in a blind taste test (with a very small sample size). I’ve only tried two Bubly flavors and I think there’s a weird aftertaste, but the cans are cute, so…

• The BenDeLaCreme shirt you didn’t know you needed.

• For the love of a cat.

• Did you think we’re all eating stuffed or deep dish in Chicago every time we order pizza? That’s tourist pizza. I’ll take my thin crust cut into squares, please.

• Experimental plastic furniture is beginning to drip, bulge, and burst.

ILLUSTRATION: Tyler Feder (Roaring Softly Etsy shop here!)

We’re gearing up to host a Minecraft birthday party for a bunch of 7-year-olds tomorrow, and then I think we begin mission: clear out the house. I don’t know how much I’ll be selling vs. donating, but what’s your favorite way to buy secondhand these days? I’m looking at Facebook Marketplace far more often than Craigslist, and it alleviates some of Brandon’s fears of inviting a completely random person over to pick something up. Do I try to list some of the nicer pieces on Chairish? Round it all up and stick a sign on the front yard that says “come and get these pretty design-y things?”

(I feel like that last one’s a winner.)

On to the Honor Roll!

• How Rifle Paper Co. rose while paper correspondence fell.

• That cheap jacket from a brand you’ve never heard of looks too good to be true. Is it? (Short answer: yep.)

• The $6 million lawsuit awarded to graffiti artists sets an interesting precedent in the art world.

• Bring to me all of the high-waisted pants. Ordering a pair of these from J. Crew and feeling hopeful that they’l be good (because you know I love sister company Madewell’s high-rise jeans).

• The latest (and largest so far) prime number found has more than 23 million digits!

• Better than fake it ’till you make it: Pretend you’re good at it.

IMAGES: Rifle Paper Co.

My sister is cancer-free! I was intentionally vague in writing about ‘someone I love’ but she has shared her story and encouraged us to do the same. She went through a lot of hardship in a very short period of time — changing jobs, a miscarriage, a cancer diagnosis, and now the all-clear. The good news came much earlier than we had expected; what a relief. She is incredibly strong. And she’s going to be OK!

Things feel normal again. Yesterday, I went to parent/teacher conferences. It was August’s birthday and we treated ourselves to milkshakes and ate so much at dinner that we were all too full for his giant birthday cookie — we’ll have it tonight instead. The kids are cozy at home today for a rare Chicago Snow Day. Tomorrow we’ll be with family, including my sister. Things are good. Really really good.

• “Oh no, we’re out of money for our building! How will we add detail and interest?”* Barbara Stauffacher Solomon’s supergraphics to the rescue.
  * Paraphrasing, but you know.

• The marvelous set design of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

• There’s a whole lot of #boymom on Instagram. Not so much for daughters.
  And this is not a perfect post. I think the discrepancy actually says a whole lot more about our perceived gender roles, but it was something I had noticed and not seen articulated anywhere else.

• Very into the locust thorns collection from Barry Dixon for Arteriors.

• Is it too late to follow your dreams of becoming a writer?

• Three years of time-lapse photos show Seattle’s rapidly changing cityscape.

• Fire escape icicles!

IMAGES: Jim Alinder/Princeton Architectural Press and Life magazine/Hall of Femmes via Curbed