A Short Chicago Getaway

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Life is good.

On Easter Sunday, I spent the day in West Michigan enjoying the sun and grilling some hand made burgers in my super impromptu tulle skirt purchase.

That night, I headed to Chicago. I had a client meeting in Evanston on Monday morning, and my husband was traveling for work himself, so I decided to make a short trip of it and catch up with a few people.

After my morning meeting, I headed to Lakeview where my girlfriend from High School lives. We walked to Uncommon Ground and had a pretty delicious lunch with a side of pomegranate mimosa. Or should I say... some pretty delicious pomegranate mimosas with a side of lunch.

Once we walked back to her apartment, it was time for her to head out and I made my way downtown. My oil light kept going off - like to the point that it was beeping every few minutes and driving me nuts - so I finally pulled over and grabbed some oil. Once I got to River North, I was "that girl" with her hood up, trying to fix her car. Sorry I'm not sorry.

Eventually, I walked to my old office. I met up with my aunt and chatted a bit and then went to visit my old department to catch up with a few people in the last few minutes of the day.

Afterward, I walked back with my girlfriend who works there to her loft in River North. Let's just say I have friends with good taste. Her loft is like a Restoration Hardware showroom.

Told ya...

We were pretty starving, but it was raining out, so instead of dealing with that, we opted to order in from Epic. But, then we realized we needed wine. So, despite not being willing to walk to a restaurant for dinner, we were totally down for a walk to Binny's. It did not disappoint, and neither did the food once it arrived.

Wine consumed pre-dinner = blurry dinner pic.

Once we polished off a bottle of wine and dug into the second, time sped up (as it tends to under those circumstances) and it was suddenly time for bed. My girlfriend had work the next morning, and I was looking at the drive back to Michigan followed by work, so we called it a night between 11 and midnight. I sleepily slipped off my jewelry and makeup and had a super deep sleep.

The next morning, I took some nespresso to the face and gathered my stuff. One great thing about short trips is that you never fully spread out your stuff, so it's easier to throw things back together and hit the road.

I love this dog! P.S. oil swishing is making my teeth whiter - see?!

I picked up the pup on my way back home and it was a joyous reunion! Nothing like a happy dog to make you excited about a drive home. We got home around noon, so I prepared some lunch and worked like a dog (ha) for the rest of the day, until I had done enough that I justified a long walk and sitting by the dock...

 

Did I mention life is good?

WHAT ABOUT YOU?

• Do you do short weekend trips? Where to?
• Thoughts on turning business trips into pleasure (don't read too much into that...)?

Let's Talk About Desks, Baby

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I'm a desk person.

I spend an obscene amount of time doing the following activities: Writing Blog Posts, Writing an 80k Word Novel, Editing an 80k Word Novel, and Facebook Stalking My Friends... (kidding). 

In short, I spend a good amount of time at a desk - when I have one. Since graduating from college, however, I haven't had a proper desk in my room. So, when I moved into this new apartment, I was determined to make the whole desk thing happen. Put it on the NEED list instead of the WANT list, if you know what I'm saying.

We went on a craigslisting spree about a month ago, and this desk caught my attention big time. It used to belong to some railroading company (choo choo!). What's good: It's the right size, very simple and doesn't take up much visual space (important since it's going smack dab in the middle of a large living room - not in a den). The clean lines mesh perfectly with the rest of the Mid Century Modern furniture in the room.

The perfect desk set up item # 1: A comfortable chair. Seriously. This is very important, especially if you're like me and intend to spend a lot of time there! We've currently got one of the Setu Lounge chairs there, with a blue pillow, just in case your butt gets cold.

   
The perfect desk set up item # 2: Natural light. Some of us work at offices all day with artificial lighting beaming down from above. On a Sunday afternoon, as you sit in your chair with a big cup of tea, you want natural light. If you live in a city, you want to be able to look out the window and see your neighbor's cute red door and the vines growing up the side of the old brick building. Such is the romance of a good desk set up.

The perfect desk set up item # 4: An Orchid. I wanted some symbol of life to be sitting out. Something fresh and green. But, I'm not so good at watering things daily, and I desperately do not want to be stuck picking up dead flowers all the time. So, we opted for an Orchid. Actually, I mentioned it once and then Justin had it sent to me at work. 

Answer to the "Are there really blue orchids?" question (because I've been asked so many times already): No, there are not blue orchids by birth, so to speak. BUT, a certain type of nutrients can turn a white orchid blue. So it's a combination of being the right color to begin with (white) and having a certain reaction to the nutrients the florist feeds it. Boom, roasted.



The perfect desk set up item # 5: Candles. Because, natural light or not, candles are always there for you. Even when the power is out. They make everything smell good and I find candles to be surprisingly comforting. 

I gathered 4 or 5 candles of varying heights (only one of which is scented - beware of completing scents!) and placed them on a cute silver serving tray I snatched at a garage sale. That way, if I ever need more room on the desk, it's easy to move all the candles at once. Plus, just in case the candles spill, the desk is protected.

I also enjoy the notion that I can write a book or a letter by candlelight and connect in some odd way to those who wrote books and letters by candlelight before me. Earth to Ernest Hemingway, are you there? Come in, Ernest?

I'm sure you're wondering, "But what can you see from the desk, Carly?" Because you know I've thought about it, since this desk has become my oasis of sorts.

Well, part of the magic of this desk is that you can also see the T.V. Because it sits at an angle in the corner, facing the room, it has a pretty open view of the television. Once we mount the TV to the wall, it should be able to tilt and swivel, meaning the angle at which you watch can be adjusted. What does this mean for my desk oasis? That I can turn the TV so it's perfectly viewable from my seat. Meaning I can watch Nikita or Alias or Homeland (I'm a serious spy/CIA nerd, just read my book...).

Also "viewable" from my desk oasis is the wonderful, the fabulous, the infamous... color coded bookshelf. Roy G. Biv called. He said he wants his shelves back.

So what do you think? Does it look serene? Could you sit here sipping tea (or coffee) on a Sunday afternoon, typing away?

Where is your oasis in your home?

You Know Roy? Color Coded Bookshelves

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Roy G. Biv. Gotta love him, right? Such an inspirational man. So many great deeds done in his life. So many people helped.

Eer. Wait. What's that you say? He wasn't a real man? He's just a fictitious acronym my teachers invented to teach me the colors of the rainbow? BLASPHEMY! 

When we moved in, we decided to not only color block our bookshelves (which we did in the last apartment, too), but also put everything in rainbow order. Enter Roy G. Biv.

You see, we started out with this...

I know. They look sad. And color-less. Not to mention the random grocery and laundry basket next to it with odd computer cords hanging out...

Finally, we decided to give it some life. Before putting anything on those beautiful shelves, we laid it all out on the floor. I started by loosely color coding in an arc around the spot where I sat... (Kind of looked like me in college, studying for a test)

I based the color coding not on the front of the book, but instead on its spine. Why? Because it's what you see when the book is on a bookshelf, silly!

Each time I withdrew a book from the seemingly endless boxes, I placed as close to its family as I could. Granted, as I mentioned before, this color coding on the floor was fairly loose. I just wanted them near their basic color block.

Finally, I had something that looked like this (though there were many more books).

When I was finally ready to start shelving things, I played around a bit. At first, I planned to start with black on top and end with purples/browns at the end, moving/slinking horizontally throughout the rows of shelves as I added books in between. Here's an idea of how that strategy started:

It looked pretty...

But I ended up opting to do it a bit more sneakily. Because for some reason I enjoy making it a little more secretive. Like, how cool will it be when some random friend comes over and says, "Oh yeah, I forgot you Roy G. Biv'ed your bookshelves!" You know what that tells me? That awesome badass chick reads my blog. Boom. Double best friends.

So, for the good old before-and-after phenomenon (one of these days, I WILL try phenomenon right on my first try! And omg there it was. So... second try), here is the naked bookshelf:

And here's the beautiful, Roy G. Biv'd bookshelf (Yes, Roy G Biv'd is a verb - wait, crap, maybe not. Move on).

Yay! Looking for more posts about my obsession with my apartment? Tutorials and images and house things, oh my? Check out my house&home page, where there's now an interactive map you can use to navigate rooms! It's like Harry Potter magic!

A Room With No Name - Apartment Progress

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Ok, so this awesome Monday morning post is about my dining slash living room slash den area. You know, like the room that's supposed to be a dining room, but then you decide you don't need a dining room anyway, so you make yourself an awesome desk to... sit at. And write books. And be fancy. And not smoke cigars because you hate how they taste but you can pretend.

You know, like that kind of stuff.

If you're catching up...

Here were my grand plans for this apartment, and here were some nudie shots (OF THE APARTMENT! NO NUDE HUMANS WERE INVOLVED IN THE MAKING OF THAT POST).  The first "done" room (sort of - working on an update post) was the Living Room, which you can find here.

So, the dining slash living room slash den area. Here was the initial plan, as predetermined by Type A Carly (not to be confused with Type B Carly).

And here we are now, progress and all. Our little sweet child is growing up. 

For the most part, this room went as planned. A month ago, we snagged that awesome desk off Craigslist, which is the perfect height to work with the Setu Lounge Chair. 

For now, we've set the Setu Ottoman in front of our huge, larger than life mirror. That way, while I'm checking myself out in the morning or fixing my hair, I've got a place to set my huge ass bag. Perfect.

That amazing mirror? Value City, people. Yes, seriously. We randomly walked into Value City when hitting up Gurnee Mills Mall a few weeks ago, and spent a moment admiring the mirror. The following weekend, when Justin went to buy some pants, he bought it on a whim for $160. Not bad for something that's taller than your 6 foot 7 man, right?

Note: Huge mirrors are awesome. Why? Because they're huge. And it makes the room feel so much bigger. Like it goes on forever. And maybe it does. It's like the 8th Narnia Book. The Magic Mirror.

The wonderful desk corner. You see, I so desperately wanted to have a place where I could sit and write. Whether it's working on blog posts or writing my book, I end up spending a heck of a lot of time typing away on the computer. So, I wanted to make it something beautiful. 

Beautiful Desk = Orchids and candles. And a cup of tea.

With a desk that has no drawers (okay, it has one small drawer in the front -- enough for some pens and a pad of paper), we needed some storage. Storage for cords and papers and pens, etc. So, we purposely put the shelving unit with cabinets behind the desk. That way, all the storage you need is right behind you!

Oh, see that On Air Box? Here's the tutorial. I'm still loving it. Especially combined with the old camera we grabbed at a vintage store in Holland, it adds a retro air to the MCM decor.

We kept two bookshelves on the left, lined up against the wall. Almost all of these books used to be smashed together on one shelf. Now that they're able to spread out onto two, there's room to stick in the extra nick nack here and there.

So, what's left to do?

• Get rid of that pesky white box
• Make some window treatments
• Hide that ugly darn cord

What about you? Where's your special place in your home?

PROgress for the sake of Living Room PROgress

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Does anyone remember the scene in Harry Potter 5 when EVIL Dolores Umbridge says "PROgress for the sake of PROgress MUST be discouraged?" Well, ever since then, the word PROgress has been pronounced with a very dominant "PRO" in my household. And by that, I mean just me.

Anyway, I'm sorry to break the spell yesterday's naked apartment tour cast on you (I know, you're in love. It shouldn't have taken its clothes off on the first date. Bad apartment. Bad). But, the apartment decided to get a little more dressed up. Well, some of it, at least.

Disclaimer: This is by no means finished. It's PROGRESS. So keep posted for the decor - because I just spent my life savings on Etsy. And by life savings I mean not really. But still a lot. The mail room delivery people are starting to hate me, I can feel it.

<--- Enter the Living Room!

As anyone who's ever moved can tell you (so... almost everyone?), the simple act of adding furniture can make an apartment feel much less nude. We brought in our new couch (in gray, on the left), which I'm sort of obsessed with still. 

I'll take more images to highlight why exactly I'm in love with a couch. But in short: Clean lines, retro feel, and those legs! Ha.

Sidenote: Yes, that would be me watching Avatar on my first night in the new apartment. It's just so pretty!

You may also notice the black futon from the old apartment. It seems to play well with the new couch, too. They both have tufting in the seats and a similar era feel with clean lines.

By the morning after furniture placement, we were semi cleaned up. We decided to swap the gray pillows from the couch to the futon to tie the corner together a bit better.

This retro side table was already at Justin's old place. It wasn't getting much glory there, because there wasn't a purpose for it, but here, it fits purrrrfectly.

To top it off? For now, a few funny comic books, A Book of Luminous Things (Poetry from my Uncle Toby on my birthday), and a random stick I painted bright colors.

See that TV? Yea, it's special. That was my first big girl purchase after getting my first big girl job. It's been sitting in my bedroom at my parents' house ever since (because the Wicker Park apartment was so small that an oversized TV would have made it impossible to breathe).

And this wonderful credenza is also a wonderfully special piece. It was my first huge furniture purchase. After perusing Craigslist for weeks, I finally stumbled upon Department Chicago. It's run by a young couple that finds old pieces (mostly mid century modern from what I've seen on their site) and fixes them up (cleans them and makes sure they're in working order) to sell. So, this is a true 1950s piece of furniture. Most 1950s credenzas are going online for $1,000-2,000, but we snagged this for the upper $400s. Thanks to Department Chicago for getting us such a great value.

Stay tuned for the rest of the apartment!

Naked Apartment Tour

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You know, like the apartment is naked. Get it? Geez. I wonder how many bizarre search hits I'm going to get with this post title. Bring it on, Google.

So, I moved this weekend. We were "good little workers," as my mom would say, and have the place pretty much set up. There are still a few projects we're looking to do over the next few months, but for now, at least all the furniture and art is in place.

But how can you appreciate something beautiful without seeing how barren and empty it once was? Answer: You cannot. [Okay, not always true, but here it's quite important!]

Let's start at the front of the apartment. I've highlighted in yellow where you enter the apartment.

This is how the entry looked on Thursday evening, when we first showed up to move things. The front door opens onto a tiled platform.

From the platform, you step down onto the wood floor. I'm not sure how recently these were done, but they're beautiful. So beautiful :)

On that beautiful wood floor, immediately accessible from the entry way, is the living room. 

This is the Living Room wall after stepping down from the entryway. We're planning to keep this corner couch laden (as you can see in the floor plan above). You know, so people actually have a place to sit down when they hang out (instead of the last place, where you practically had to stand around).



Okay, so we just turned around and are now looking back at the front window. On the first day we were there, literally while I was snapping these pictures, the couch I bought last weekend was delivered. Here's your first snap shot of the space with real live (or not live) furniture. Hopefully the couch gives you a bit of a sense of scale.



"Look at me! I'm a sexy looking couch!" (And now the combination of this post title with the word sexy in that couch quote will lead even more people to show up on this page and find out it's just some crazy lady talking about her apartment. Sue me.)

Next, in the same general space as the Living Room, we have a second space.

Past the Living Room is what I'm pretty sure was meant to be a Dining Room. But we're not doing it that way.  Instead, we're trying to keep a lot of this space open. Imagine a cute little desk in that corner, diagonally facing the rest of the room (so you can see the TV from your desk, what a treat).

From the Dining-turned-desk-room, there's a cute cut out to the kitchen. Again, you could be cutting onions in the kitchens and watching Revenge at the same time! Life is good, folks. Or... it will be.

To the left of the cut out to the kitchen, the hallway begins (dun dun dunnn!). Let's walk down it, shall we? Come on!

This hallway stretches from the bedroom door (behind me as I took this pic) to the kitchen (up ahead to the right). Straight ahead is the door to the washer and dryer (in unit, people. Don't be jealous). To the left is a smaller hallway to more storage and a bathroom. To the immediate right, however, is some wonderful display space.

I thought you wanted a closer look. There's no lighting inside the display shelving, but I'm excited to spice it up in there. We have so many random nick nacks (is that how you spell it?) that I'm sure it'll be obnoxiously cluttered like your grandma's piano in no time.

Next, turn right to the kitchen...

After walking down the hallway, this kitchen is to the right. Tons of storage. We'll be putting a table and chairs to the left, inside a little corner nook that's hidden in this pic.

Here we are from another direction. See the cut out that lets you see out the front window? I love it. Because, yet again, it means I can watch Revenge while cooking. Or any other show. Like Nikita. Alias reruns. Modern Family. You know the drill.

Here's a shot going back down the hallway. There's a tiny little glimpse on the right into the bathroom. We'll go there later :)

Here's the bedroom...

Here's a view from the back corner of the bedroom toward the door. You'll notice on the left that they installed a white ledge that extends a few inches from the ground and floor. Might pose a problem, as we're planning to line all the furniture up on that wall to avoid cluttering things up near the door.

Here's a shot of the closet (which spans the whole width of the room, amen).

And last but not least, the wonderful bathroom...

And back in the bathroom, her I am! Proof that I really did take these pictures. And proof that, in true style, I moved into an apartment without taking off my suit jacket. 

Stay tuned for pics this week. Get excited - they will include... drumroll please... furniture!