hi blue (it's me, neon green) design

my first "official" letterpress good are now available in my tweedle press shop. i made them as the first in what (i hope) will be a series of seasonal fruits and vegetables, with half of the proceeds being donated to my non-profit organization, chicago locavores. here is acorn squash, available as a single card or a 10 card pack:

so i decided to deviate a bit from my normal wardrobe for a fun outfit for a holiday party. i do generally like animal prints, so this taffeta dress from banana republic isn't too out there.

animal print taffeta dress

i'm taking it to the dry cleaners because the front is a tad wrinkly/puffy, and i don't want to look like some sort of weird leopard confection.

bronze leather seccco shoes

i'm fairly certain that i've never in my life owned a pair of bronze shoes though, but these seem reasonable comfortable and the heel isn't so high that i'll be in extreme pain.

soho ocelot handbag

this is my most adorable bag that i got from coach a few years ago, which will look perfect with this outfit. now i've just got to find some copper jewelry (yikes!) to complete things...

hello world! i have returned from the land of moving and vacationing. mostly there haven't been many new condo updates recently because we've had very little time to do a lot of unpacking. but we are beginning to settle in, and the living room is starting to look great. we finally hung the iron wall art i got at pier 1, and i am completely in love with the inhabit fabric window panels i just bought from velocity. i think velocity may be my new favorite place to shop. now all i have to do is become a billionaire and i can buy everything from them. anyway, on to pictures:

living room, shades of green

i put down the rug for the picture, to give the complete effect. in reality, however, we are still in the midst of cat training to prevent them from destroying it. i've been buying them other items to scratch, and once we get a gigantic tower for them i'll try putting the rug back down with this nifty motion sensitive air sprayer thing to keep them off it. hopefully it will work, because i do love it so. also, disregard the current throw pillows. those belong downstairs and SO do not go with the room currently.

new window panels

the inhabit window panels, in their full glory. i can't describe how much i love these suckers. from the fact that they let light through in the day, to the fact that they turn more opaque at night, to the fact that i hung them in about 5 minutes and they are easily machine washable - they are truly awesome. AND they weren't even all that expensive. i'm tempted to get some similar ones for the bedroom now, but i don't want to get too crazy clashy with this marimekko wall hanging i've got for above our bed.

door open to the front balcony

did i mention the window panels fit perfectly? so perfectly that i can still open the door to the balcony and let the breezes drift in through the screen door. well, not today because it's getting up to 88. but in general. YAY!

sometimes i think the only reason i continue my subscription to dwell magazine is for the ads. most of the aesthetic in the homes they feature is too modern and cold for me, but i really do like learning where to get cool stuff. most of it is out of range price-wise, but is good to keep in mind for when i'm rich and famous. here are some finds:

food map container

how cool is this??

(from the food map container website)
"the food map container is a growing space for an edible garden (it could also be used for non-edible plants). The curvillinear form of the container base is specifically designed to let water drain quickly and evenly...the food map container has rubber casters so one could move the container easily to the best growing space as weather and sunlight conditions change...the hdpe used in the food map container is 100% post consumer recycled content hdpe, and the frame is 40-100% recycled steel."

man, i'm really going to want these for growing my mini-gardens on our 2 new balconies.

self-adhesive metal tiles

i have no idea where i'd put these, but the self-adhesive metal tiles from interior 51 make me want to come up with a place.

egglings

definitely my favorite find of the day is the romp store. are these egglings the cutest things ever or what??

birdhouse lamp

oh...if only the birdhouse lamp weren't so expensive and out of stock. also, notice the cool wall decal behind it. romp cuts all sorts of trees, animals, and other objects out of vintage wallpaper and sells them. once again, when i'm rich and famous. or...maybe just a splurge for a kid's room some day.

lock box & blocks

speaking of kids someday...in my fantasy world i want them only playing with simple wooden toys, like this lock box & blocks from romp, for as long as possible.

OK...i think that's enough fantasizing for one day. :)

i just wanted to show you what the film and plates looked like for my current 3-color letterpress job that i'm working on. you design your stuff on the computer, then send it in to be made into film:

film before being turned into a plate

then you take your film and your sheet of photo-polymer, stick it in the magical machine and ZAP!! 20 minutes later, here is what the plates look like:

soo...last weekend we had the cleaning people over to get rid of all the construction mung, and also got the trovata sofa and lounge chair delivered from crate and barrel. we set up the new dining room table and chairs from pier 1, and unveiled the rug from west elm. it turns out our new hallway is a lot longer than i thought it was - and the 2 runners from west elm might not be enough. ian thinks it's ok to have some space between them and i agree - but not if there is more space than rug! trouble is, the rugs no longer exist at west elm. so i might have to do some digging. anyway, here are photos from the place as we transform it into our new home:

if you remember a little while back, i went about explaining the process of registration for a letterpress project i'm working on for my chicago locavores group. well...i got a little sidetracked but finally made the first attempt last night. after working through an odd squeaky roller problem, registration for the first 2 colors went swimmingly! here's what it looks like:

chicago locavores flyer

you'll notice that two of the bottom crop marks are missing - something i had to do to get the piece to fit in pairs on a sheet of paper. since i've got all the other marks, though, cutting these up shouldn't be a problem. i'm pretty happy with how i mixed the colors - the scan doesn't show them 100% accurately but they look great on the paper. if you look closely you'll see how the green and blue crop marks line up fairly well - well enough for this particular registration anyhow. i used french paper speckletone in true white, cover weight.

when i add the 3rd color and the back, i'll post it.

thing #1: needing some retail therapy after we lost one of our furry friends last weekend, i went to pottery barn and bought the green weston trunk i have been eyeing, which was on sale:

weston trunk

although it didn't elevate my mood as much as i would have liked at the time, i'm still quite pleased with it. we're supposed to close on the new place tomorrow, so we'll be brining in the trunk, rugs, and a few other bobbles i've already purchased.

a friend helped me decide that the green trunk and bench would look best in the bedroom - i was trying to be democratic about it, but green is definitely my favorite color. so, now i'm trying to figure out the curtain situation. i've put a few options from anthropologie into the diagram: the ulla looks really nice with that floor lamp, but i'm not 100% sure i'm going to be getting that. the bird reference nicely picks up the green hues from the trunk and bench, but might be a little busy with the quilt. i'm not sure why i'm considering illyria - i just like it. ulla also looks nice with the quilt.

curtain options