travel journal: road trip to hopleaf

This weekend Trae and I took a mini-roadtrip to Andersonville,

a small neighborhood several miles north of downtown Chicago. 

The reason to go: beer. of course? 

Hopleaf, a tavern, was featured on the food network,

not only for it's food, but its beer selection.

After watching the episode, Trae decided he may like this city again,

and so it went on our 'chicago bucket list'. 

(the beer shown below is the tallgrass ipa- from manhattan, ks!)

It was a beautiful day, and after a 'healthy' amount of beer and food,

we took a healthy walk along the lake (only a few blocks away).

diary of a designer: the new plaza apartment

You can take the job away from the interior designer,

but you can't take the designer away from her next stint. :) 

My sister Amanda is moving into my old plaza apartment building,

which elates the entire family 

(for a number of reasons).

This past weekend I was emailed this:

and received a phone call asking for any ideas..

while I don't think any of the daugherty girls are inept,

(thanks to crazy and her constant redecorating)

I was happy to send her some concepts

that perhaps she hadn't considered.

The apartment is a deluxe studio, so the problem basically 

boils down to: where to put the bed?

I LOVE a good space planning challenge. Love it. 

Seriously.

(On this note, if anyone ever has a floorplan (or room dimensions)

that they want an opinion on, please feel free to send them my way.)

Therefore, my sunday afternoon (happily) consisted of this:

with the current favorite being this: 

(or something similar)

In addition, she was looking for a little color palette inspiration,
and would like to use the color 'orange'.

 favorites thus far:
Complimentary: shades of orange and blue
Split complimentary: orange and blue green & blue-violet
Monochromatic: all neutral (mostly creams & white)
but with pops of vibrant colors, taken from her plaza surroundings.
(bring the outside in!)

Color inspiration: 

I'll keep you updated and post pictures of the apartment
 this fall once the project is complete.
I think it'll be cute!

a tribute to iowa: the place where this housewife got her start

Since moving to iowa (and the changes that came with it)

became the inspiration for this blog,

I wanted to post a commemorative blog of how I spent my time there

(since I never got around to actually posting all the pictures I took!)

Here's a brief depiction of my many endeavors...

I planted my very first (and very small) garden 

in a flower bed out back:

I actually hosted a get-together where people didn't sit on my bed. 

(Pumpkin 'bowl' from a fall 'chili/soup/our bathroom & house is complete!'

 party we hosted. Bowl used to hold halloween candy.

I forgot to take pictures of the party- 

but I made a beer-cheese soup which I recall tasting ok?!)

First time painting ANYTHING.. including, but not limited to, walls and furniture.

I say not limited because per Trae, I am now about to be banned from spray paint. 

First time planting ANYTHING- including outdoor planters and a tree. 

(linda did my hanging baskets on the plaza- I can't take credit.)

First time using a stud-finder. A wall stud. Not trae.

(good one liz) 

To this day, I still like my little hanging plates, 

although the scale needed to be larger. 

First time tiling anything.

First time selecting finishes for a home- 

some were better choices than others.

Finally, the first time I tried to learn to cook.

(and am very much still learning mind you)

spinach & green apple salad

(perhaps too many apples)

 it looks like meat and potatoes for trae, with a mini-wedge salad. 

I am sure the herbs got scraped off the chicken (oops!)

first and only cinnamon rolls-

looked better than they tasted. 

again, this pretty carrot cake had the classic

baking soda vs. baking powder mix up.. 

wah, wah. 

first and only apple pie

(getting better)

 flank steak pinwheels- (prior to grilling!)

a trae favorite and will be made again

margarita cookies

(for a cinco de mayo party)

at this time I started making things for people 

(other than trae) to eat.

A favorite from our trip to Savannah-

croissant french toast

 nutella pinwheel cookies

diary of a designer: upholstering

Yesterday I recovered a dining table chair.

This simple project took me more time to select the upholstery 

than to actually complete the labor.

( I needed to replace the seat cushion's inexpensive 

cotton fabric with upholstery fabric for durability reasons.)

Overall, the color scheme stays the same. 

the "Friends" aesthetic- with all different seating around the table- the same.

Therefore, the end product is pretty much... the same

 but here are the pictures anyway. 

The chair before:

(The project is this simple:) 

The chair after: 

house proud: tour of our sweet home in chicago

Welcome to our home! 

 

 


Come on in!

 Foyer:

Living & Dining Room:

The shells are my seasonal accents.

Breakfast Area & Hearth Room:

The kitchen table centerpiece changes frequently.

(example: two weeks ago it was a bowl of lemons)

Kitchen:

Hall:

Guest Bedroom 1:





The little pineapple picture is my nod to the symbol of hospitality.

Guest Bedroom 2:

whenever the house gets staged, I will replace trae's comfy huge grey chair 

with my petite, more aesthetically pleasing, but less functional, white one shown above.

i've rearranged it before- it looks much better! 

I broke up the shelves in attempt to create both an office area and to hide Trae's 

(frequently used I might add ;)) workout equipment

Guest Bathroom:

 



Master Bedroom:

Small Master Bath:

Mud Room & Laundry Room

Trae's motorcycle area:

Trae's garage:

I always like to post one of the coyote pass, the pink and purple machine.

A lot of things- absolutely! But he's actually organized them very well. 

It's currently set up, so that he can work on bike number 4.