The Windy City Beneath our Wings

August 25, 2015

We're currently in transit to Chicago! Home of deep dish, Wrigley Field, and us - for the next five days. Eric's traveling schedule has been nuts, and with a business meeting in Chicago scheduled on his b-day (Wed the 26th!) we decided to take what could have been a "whomp-whomp" situation and turn it into a positive, fun family getaway.

I've been dying to visit The Windy City for awhile now, after hearing it constantly referred to as a Boston or San Francisco of the Midwest. It has cranked out some pretty influential people (POTUS, anyone? OK, touchy subject), Oprah, Robin Williams, Hilary Clinton, MOST IMPORTANTLY - Fred and Ben Savage - BECAUSE WHERE WOULD WE BE WITHOUT THE WONDER YEARS AND BOY MEETS WORLD?

Also - Nate Berkus anyone? Enough said. (Tour his Chicago home here).

We're staying downtown at the Hotel Monaco - hope we get this room!

If not, Ms. Avery Etta and I will just hang out in the lobby.

Doesn't it seem that vacations always come at the best times - when you feel like you just really really can't take one more day in your current surroundings? It's such a refreshing change of pace and always invigorating to step away for a little while and come back to work feeling more refreshed, inspired and motivated.

Honestly, you don't even need to go on vacation if you're feeling restless and blah. Sometimes all it takes is some fresh air and a walk around the block. Maybe a staycation, or just a "day cation" where you take a day to go off and visit a spot in your neighborhood that you know is there and you take for granted. Get outside of your comfort zone and routine for just a minute and just look around. You can find design everywhere.

Even if you're not a travel or design aficionado, it's super important to get up and away from your screen. Don't get swallowed up by the black hole that is your laptop! And just as I finish this paragraph, Passion Pit's Take a Walk fittingly begins to play on my Spotify mix... Take a deep breath and take a walk around the block! Seriously, it can cure more than you think.

When the opportunity came up for Tiny Human and I to travel with Eric to Chicago, my gut reaction was to stay behind, even though I really wanted to jump right into his suitcase! But realistically, I could find a million reasons not to go. I'm busy with work. I'd have to cancel scheduled appointments. Avery would have to miss daycare. We'll have to find a place for Bear to stay.

Then it occurred to us. This is the wrong attitude to have. There's no day but today. There's never going to be the perfect time to travel anywhere - especially with a toddler! But even when we're out of toddler-dom (if we make it out alive) there will always be excuses around to take the easy way out and get lazy, stay in the comfort zone. The truth is, LIFE will still be here when we get back. And let's face it people- we're sure as hell not going to visit Chicago in the winter. Better get it in before we're snowed in.

:: this is when chi-town turns into chi-beria ::

I would much prefer to go when it looks like this.

Ms. Avery Etta and I will definitely be hitting up a beach - she's obsessed with sand - and water. And although we were just recently at a lake, I have a feeling these urban lake beaches are just a little bit different.

I am CLUELESS as to what to do in this city - especially with a toddler in tow! (Although according to Tony Bennett, Chicago is That Toddlin' Town). No but really - I know nothing about Chicago except for Roxie Hart and Pizzeria Uno references...

I compiled the below round up of Chicagoland must-see's (in NO particular order) by asking around and trolling the world wide web a.k.a. Pinterest. I then enlisted my design twin Sara Losonci of @Shelfienyc (natch!) to help - she's from Detroit and that's basically Chicago. She put the kibosh on some of my touristy to-do's, and now #msaveryetta and I will be rollin' like the locals...

:: big star tacos :: this place looks amaze...

:: this ceiling! this is actually the interior of macy's ::

:: hot dawg hot dawg hot diggity dawg ::

:: the rookery. completed in 1888. frank lloyd right redesigned the lobby in 1905 ::

:: intelligentsia coffee on broadway :: will need about 40 shots of espresso due to traveling with toddler.

:: wicker park :: voted one of the best hipster neighborhoods. as a brooklynite, must see.

:: art exhibits at the magnificent mile ::

:: the art institute of chicago - features a huge impressionist and post-impressionist collection ::

:: the crown fountain and millennium park ::

:: lori's shoes - the soul of chicago ::

So, what do you think? I would love any recs on how you Chi-Town! Leave them in the comments section below.

~L.S.

oldskool

August 18, 2015

As we're coming up on these last August weeks, I can't help but reminisce about COLLEGE!

Guys, we had it so good, and we didn't even know. College is where I met some of my best friends and formed relationships that are even stronger today. And 10 + years after graduation (eek!) I'm still wishing we could go back to school.

I should have known I was going to be an interior designer when my heart would skip a beat on the dorm decor aisle at Bed Bath & Beyond each summer. My freshman roomie Liz and I even scheduled a call before we moved in to make sure our decor would coordinate. We ended up getting the same multi-colored striped duvet covers and shams. I can still picture them, and our little room, clear as day.

My stomach still flops in nervous memory of those butterflies the morning that my dad drove the family SUV up, up, up and around the winding road of College Hill up to campus. No joke, we had a mini U-Haul hooked to the back of our SUV coralling endless boxes of my worldly possessions. In classic DiBiase style, we took a wrong turn, and Dad ended up barreling across the quad, U-Haul in tow, until we made a hairpin turn and screeched to a halt in front of the freshman dorm.

Greeted by big brawny football players who were put in charge of moving us in, I immediately regretted the U-Haul. I can still remember these guys half-laughing, half-ranting, half-panting as they shlepped my boxes up the stairs in the August heat.

Football Dude: "Jeez, what the heck do you have in these boxes?"

Me: "Oh, um, they're just my books from home!".

Football Dude: "Why did you bring books to college, you're gonna get enough of them here!"

Oops. I truly had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I just needed my pretty books on my bookshelf! Good thing the concept of a #shelfie didn't exist yet or I would have blown it up.

Our dorm room keenly resembled a jail cell with its yellowed cinderblock walls and linoleum tile floors, but Liz and I didn't care. Those striped duvets, a hot purple carpet and a classic Wassily Kandinsky poster over my bed made our little slice of campus a happy home. Add in some classic Van Gogh computer wallpaper and a hot pink cork board and we were good to go.

It was a perfect haven for some snood-filled procrastination, and 7th Heaven re-run binges coupled with some Easy Mac made in the Micro of our MicroFridge. (Did anyone else have a MicroFridge?) There may have been some finishing of a strawberry flavored handle of vodka (ugh!) on my 19th birthday but I'd rather not talk about it.

All I can say is that I'm SO glad that Facebook didn't exist yet, and a digital camera was only on the horizon. We all had Zach-Morris style flip phones or Nokias where the most sophisticated game was Snake (God, I loved that game! Can we bring it back?). Now, anything a kid does at college is basically emblazoned on their Instagram feed or Facebook page. It's terrifying! In just a decade - a blip on the radar - it seems that college life has transformed drastically.

At college age, we're only just coming off (and often still in) our most self-conscious, self-obsessed and cringeworthy years. To have the added pressure of having to look like you're the coolest and having the time of your life, no matter how you really feel, is just adding to our self(ie)-obsessed media-crazed world. It's no wonder kids are cracking. And where do they squeeze their actual school work into this jumble? It truly boggles my mind. If you're interested in more on this topic, there's a good article here.

As a parent, I already worry about what the pressures of school will be like for Avery. (And college? Whoa! One day at a time people.) I guess all we can do as parents is raise our kids the best we can and hope they are equipped with the tools they will need when they're on their own in the world.

I just finished reading Brene Brown's Daring Greatly, and she talks about the power of being the type of adult you would like your child to be. Her Wholehearted Parenting Manifesto could not have resonated with me more:

Wow. There is nothing more vulnerable then those first few moments that you're on your own. My jumbled emotions as I watched my parents drive off with the empty U-Haul that day were a tangled mess of fear, sadness, anticipation, excitement and hope. I couldn't wait for them to leave and to be on my own, yet once they hit the road I had to stop myself from sprinting after the car, and screaming "Wait! I don't like this feeling! Take me back to comfort!" But what I didn't stop to think was the pit that they must have felt in their stomachs leaving me behind. Good thing they had my little sister, #jillofalltrades, to keep them more than busy!

I know that to tie this emotional milestone of life back to interiors seems mismatched. You may even think it sounds superficial and materialistic. But here is why it isn't - and why I love what I do. This is precisely why I work only in residential design. I love the story of the person behind the room. I love the emotion behind the design. Home is wherever you make it.

A thoughtfully designed room feels like a homey retreat, regardless of where you are. The dorm room, although transient, is often the first taste of freedom. It's where you get one little extra-long-twin-sized sliver of a space. It's a wish of creative freedom granted, completely yours, free from parents, siblings and teachers. It's where you'll laugh, cry, dream, and likely more than once pass out. It's where you'll wakeup at 11 am with the worst hangover ever and have to drag yourself to a two and a half hour art history class. It's where you'll wake up from your subsequent afternoon nap at 5pm in a pile of drool to several AIM instant messages from your besties wondering where you are - it's almost time for dinner.

In the class of 2005's case, it's where you'll wake up around 8:45 am on September 11, 2001 and pad down the hall of the freshman dorm to see why there is a crowd in your friend's room, where everyone is silently glued to the television, arms around each other as they stare at the screen, slack-jawed, at a tower with a giant hole burnt through its center.

It's important to have this space be as comfortable as it can be for you as you make one of the biggest emotional transitions of your life. You come back to it again and again - first, physically, and later, in your memory. It ends up being a metaphor for the friendships you form during these formative years.

If I had the resources then that I do now, I would have gone beyond the Beyond of Bed Bath. There is so much more out there now - so many ways to embrace the dorm decorating challenge. It's like a teeny blank canvas, just waiting to be painted with removable wall decals and plastered with memories. So, let's take ourselves back to school by reminiscing with this inspiring collection of dorm decor inspo (which can easily be translated to your current petit a.p.t., teensy space or rental apartment).

And although we can't really go back, it doesn't matter, because we've already taken what we need with us.

~L.S.

And, just for fun... 19 Reasons Your College Friends will be Your Friends for Life + Some Back to School Ikea Stylboards

Clever Spaces

August 13, 2015

So excited that Clever Spaces has featured my navy, green and neutral nursery mood board originally done for The Honest Company on their blog.

I recently found out about Clever Spaces and I could not love their products more. They are Copenhagen-based company Ferm Living's official retail partner in the US. The word "Ferm" means "Clever" in Danish, and these products are just that - encompassing style and function while embracing the fun yet minimal Scandinavian aesthetic.

What I love even more about Clever Spaces is that it is founded and run by two best friends who consider themselves "fully recovered ex-lawyers". Hah! Couldn't relate more to that, having spent a year in law school before deciding to go into the entirely different field of design. (That's another blog for another day).

I especially want to marry their pillows (sorry Eric!) starting with the one I used in the featured nursery style board:

It's little - only 12" x 12", so perfect for you petit bebe's room. At only $45, it's 100% organic cotton with a down fill. Check out their organic collection here.

Next up, totally digging their kelim pillows. I used two of them in a recently completed digital design project for a bachelor's living room on Laurel & Wolf:

Retailing at $82, they're pricier, but larger at 20" x 20" and made from a hearty blend of wool and cotton, with a down and feather fill.

I was going to list my top ten favorite products of theirs, but I honestly couldn't narrow it down. You just have to visit the Clever Spaces and Ferm Living sites to decide what yours are!

Maybe it's having some nordic genes that makes me drool over these clean, simple geometric designs situated in light and airy interiors. But I just love decorating with their vast array of products. Whether you're doing a kids room, or just want a pop of fun in a more serious interior, these happy prints and colors lift the spirit.

So, I'll leave you with some inspo I found featuring their products while trolling the web.

Are these spaces "ferm" enough for you?

~L.S.