My Famous Garden

Over the past week, my porch container garden from last yeart have been featured on two of my favorite blogs
Not Martha and Chicago-Apartment Therapy

It has been really exciting. Gardening has been a passion for as long as I can remember and last year was the first garden I did all by myself. There was definitely lots of trial and error. My tomato plants grew huge, but never bloomed. My herb plants and jalapeno pepper plants grew huge and were delicious all summer long. The one difficulty with a container garden is the amount of water it requires. I have to go out every day and water my plants and beg my bf to water them when I go out of town. In the end all of work was worth it. My porch became an oasis despite its proximity to several dumpsters.
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Go to my flickr account to see more photos of last years garden and this years garden

Style Found

I am one of those people who has the hardest time deciding what style they like because I like pieces from many different of style. As I get rid of the cheapo college furniture from my apartment, I am finding it harder and harder to figure out what style I want my apartment in. I guess my style is similar to what Domino Mag features (bits and pieces of different styles combined in one conhesive look).

I recently discovered the grail of mixing different styles of furniture-"Found Style" by David and Amy Butler. My favorite part of this book is how they mix mid-century modern/modern with flea market finds to create a conhesive look. All the interiors in this book are beauiful. Every time I browse it, I find something else I missed in it. This book also gives me tons of inspiration for objects to look for when I go to the flea market on Sunday mornings. Over the this week and next I will features some of my ebay/flea market finds.

I'm back...

Wow, time does fly. It seems like just yesterday was march, but now it is almost june and I haven't posted in 2 months. Opps. To make matters worse, I am literally losing my mind. Along with crazy work, I am attempting to get my portfolio/resume updated and online, finish up the freelance design work I'm doing for my cousin, spring/summer clean my clothes, etc...



Anyways, enough of that. I am totally excited about the Rotring 600 Old Style Pen/Pencil Set I just bought off ebay. I have never spent so much money on a pen and pencil, but they are sooo cool and I love the weight of them. I discovered them through a freelance designer at my work. After a quick web search, I discover that one of my favorite bloggers loves Rotring pens/pencils too! Hopefully I will get them soon and the creativity will flow.

Pretty Pink

Last night when I couldn't sleep and was channel surfing, I came across the movie Pretty Persuasion and was instantly sucked in. I managed to completely miss it when it first came out. Evan Rachel Wood was awesome in this (I managed to miss Thirteen also). I especially loved her makeup in this. It was very springy/fresh/pink in contrast to the black comedy feel of the movie. This is a look I am definently going to go for this spring.

Lets Dance!

The past couple of weeks has been hellish. Too much work, too much stress, super cold weather... This video makes me smile and forget about stress for a minute. I have a feel Mika will be the next big thing.

Winter/Work Escapist

The weather in Chicago has gone from cold to worse over the past weekend and to make matters worse, I have been working crazy hours at work. To escape from thoughts of work and attempt to relax, I headed to the Schaumburg on Saturday to window shop at Ikea and Woodfield Mall. While at Woodfield I got to check out American Eagle's new spin-off store "Martin+Osa".



I absolutely loved the visual merchandising, color pallet and the quality of the clothes. It reminds me of a marriage between J.Crew and Patagonia. I love the different shades of gray sweaters and the thick sweatshirts. It seems like so many retailers are skimping on the quality of the fabrics they use in their lines, which was not the case here. The jeans and wool sweaters were thick and sturdy. The price point is very similar to Banana Republic and J.Crew, but since their Spring 2007 line is coming into the store this week, practically everything in the store was 60%. I definitely took advantage and invested in some gray sweaters, jeans, etc...



Be sure to check out their website. It has a beautiful clean, crisp design. Unfortunately a majority of the line is not online and you cannot purchase anything online. I love the "worth a look" section. It is a great resource for interesting books and music.

Images from www.martinandosa.com

Run Baby Run

After stuff myself with too many xmas cookies and sitting in front of the tv too much, I decided to get back to the gym. Nothing makes the miles go by on the threadmill than listing to musci with my trust red iPod nano. However the standard white ear buds keep falling out of my ears when I workout which can be annoying when you are gasping for breath. The solution? The Sennheiser MX 75 Sport Buds. Not only are they a super cool neon green color, they use a new "twist-to-turn" design to hold them in your ear. Basically the top portion slips into the space above your ear. I will admit it took me 20-30 mins to figure out how to use them, but know that I know... simple. Sennheiser also has 5 other types of sport headphones, check them out. Now all I need is my Nike+ kit and new running shoes and I will be set.