Florence and The Machine: Rabbit Heart Lyrics
Ever listen to a song about 50 times and then finally after singing loudly in your vehicle to lyrics (that you thought were the words that whole time) happen to NOT be in fact be the words? Well, that’s what happened to me on Saturday during our drive to Toronto, while listening to “Rabbit Heart” by Florence and The Machine. :)
Preloved.ca – Recycled, Reinvented, Sustainable Clothing
Bobby and I aren’t exactly the fashion experts, but today we learned a little bit about smart consumerism and sustainability. Not sure if you’ve ever heard of Preloved clothing line, but we hadn’t yet and now we do. ;)
Great Weekend, Condo Update, Studio Space ;)
Hello!
Bobby and I (and Kurty) had a great time I had this weekend with Mom + Dad Fiocca! They were literally only here for 1 day but it was really nice to see them and hang out. They stayed in a corner suite at the Dana Hotel and Spa looking down State Street with floor to ceiling windows…it was pretty cool (more pictures here). We spent the day walking around the area and eating good food. We came back to the hotel in the afternoon and watched a movie. haha. It was really fun and I’m so glad we spent time relaxing and hanging out because that’s exactly what I was hoping for. :)
The photo to the right is us standing on the bridge near our new condo building on Saturday. We took a cab over there to show my parents and they were really excited to see it. I almost forgot how excited I was 2 months ago when they pushed back our closing…but since we went back I’m super excited again. :) We are literally a week away from new closing date. WOO HOO. Lets see if we really get to close this time! ha! Continue Reading →
Quick Trip to NYC
Guess what?! I have a few minutes to tell you about my trip to New York - the short version: Flight was good, nice hotel, had some drinks at a neighborhood pub with Andy, Frank, & Jill (photos), got some grrrrreat food at a Landmarc resturant – best filet I’ve ever had in my life (Ding~!), more drinks, zzzzZZZZZ, little dizzy waking up at 7am, showerd in a tiny bathroom, walked down to McCall Pattern Company, had a great design meeting, got the full-on tour of all the inner workings (which was super fun and interesting), ran over to the SOL for a quick photo op, and headed back to Laguardia for a pretzel wrapped hot dog and some juice and a early flight back to Chi with Jill! Quick trip, quick story~haha!
The nature of an obligation; compulsory
Time for my obligatory update of the week. hehe. ;)
Finally got some time with Large this week – went to Penny’s Noodles for dinner, walked around wicker park and watched movies and worked on the Greatest Expectations website for a bit (soon to come ~ a blog!) which is very exciting! …she’s just in the brainstorming process now, so I wont ruin the surprise by telling you everything about it. And P.S. congrats to Large for how far she’s come in the wedding/events industry in just about one year. It’s been a lot of work and I know she’s been trying really hard to get everything just right for her brides! I’m so proud to see my friends doing well.
Yesterday I went to Bridget’s Typography class and was very impressed with the student presentations as I tried to give some good feedback and suggestions to their work….then I headed over to Mirror Mirror to get my hair done (it was good to see Jessica H….haven’t had a proper hair cut in about 3-4 months.) She said I did a pretty good job of cutting my own bangs though. haha. :)
Then Bobby met up with me and we took the train to the Old Town Art Festival to meet up with Justin and Mandy…it was just a quick couple of hours, but with all of our busy schedules I’m just glad we got to see each other and kinda get the update on each other. Congrats to Mandy on her new job!!! There were some great artists/art pieces/photography at the Art Fair and I wish I had tons of cash to buy everything I wanted…but we just did some window shopping and ate some awesome bbq pork sandwiches! Yum! Its one of the most popular art festivals in the city though, so it was super packed. Allison Roadruck showed up right as we were leaving but it was nice to get to chat with her for a bit too!
After that we headed back over to Bridget and John’s place for a very nice and relaxing bbq on their back porch….met the neighbors and Sachin also showed up which is always a delight…it was soooo nice outside and as always the food was amazing! Bridget made a citrus and avocado salad that was really good and we had chicken and roasted veggies…and watermelon for desert!! YUM!
Today we’re just resting up because yesterday we were up so early and didn’t get to bed til real late. Plus, I love relaxing. ;)
In the next days and weeks we are REALLY looking forward to a number of things: 1. Kurt is visiting in 3 days ~ yay! 2. Orbit slumber party and Mario Cart extravaganza at Lee’s place on Tuesday (well, that is more me than “us”, but you get the idea). 3. Orbit office party at Uncommon Ground in Wrigleyville on thursday. 4. Nell and Bryce’s wedding reception next weekend!!! 5. July 4th weekend – Amy and John will be here! Yay! Can’t wait!!
Finally, the family meets!
So I know I’m about a week overdue on updating you guys about last weekend AND didn’t write anything about my birthday yesterday yet…but I’ve just been busy doing all kinds of things so I haven’t had time yet. If you didn’t know though, last weekend Bobby’s brother Lenny and mom Suzie came to visit and so did my parents! We did all kinds of stuff, went to the Shed Aquarium, the Architecture Tour, to a bunch of restaurants and bars and walked around the neighborhood and did a lot of relaxing, talking, and drinking coffee. :) I think everybody had a good time and got along great so I’m so happy about that. I’m also happy Bobby got to spend some time with his brother and mom – he’s always happy when he gets some quality time with them. Lenny left a few days before Suzie and we wish he could’ve stayed longer. My parents brought food and wine and birthday cake and it was all really great. I’m really happy with how last weekend turned out. I had lots of fun! Here are some PICTURES FROM THE WEEKEND that Lenny took!! (Check out Lenny’s other pictures too, he is an awesome photographer!)
Yesterday was my birthday and Jess took me to get a manicure at Pinky Nails early in the morning before her big wedding event (which I hope went really good!) and then Bobby and I made lunch at home and talked and actually ended up going out to the burbs to try and sell the car, but didn’t work out…then came home later on and rode our bikes all over the city and down to Navy Pier and there were some fireworks going on, so that was a nice surprise. :) Riding our bikes in the city seems to be one of our new favorite things to do…it’s always interesting and we always see new things we’ve never seen before.
Today I’ve been hanging out with Bridget – we went to Feast for lunch (which by the way had a delicious spinach and pear salad – YUM), got pedicures at Pinky Nails and went shopping for plants and pots for her and John’s garden…. Tonight we are making BBQ’d salmon and corn on the cob and sitting on the porch to enjoy the fabulous weather. Yay!!! Bobby is working all day in the burbs or I’m sure he’d be with us. :( Too bad he has to work!
Anyway thanks to everybody for the birthday wishes and gifts. My nails are looking good all around! You made my day! Hope everybody had a nice weekend!
Colorado Update
So just got back from Colorado on Sunday night…had an awesome time with everybody…it was so nice to see Amy + John + Graeme (haven’t seen them in forever!) Everybody had fun skiing except me, haha. I ended up sitting it out the whole weekend with a pinched nerve in my shoulder. The sharp pains started happening on Friday and gradually got worse and then Saturday they were still there but they were fading. I felt like a bit of a lame-o but I had fun drinking beer and periodically hanging out with everyone as they came down the mountain for breaks. We went to Vail on Friday and A-Basin on Saturday, In Vail we met this so-called famous bull rider champion, John Baker, that supposedly was having a million dollar winning streak. (See above photo with weird guy with big mustache. haha.) He was nice and we all hung out with him that evening thinking he was really cool and interesting, but then we got back to Frisco and googled him and found out we had been punk’d. Couldn’t find his info anywhere, so he was obviously pulling our leg. WHAT A WEIRDO!
Made for a funny story so I’m satisfied with that. haha.
Saturday night and Sunday we were in Denver…had a crazy dinner at The Corner Office Denver including things like Lobster Mac n Cheese and Chicken and Waffles….”World Comfort Food” its called. I also might add that my Coors Light was very tasty. (Guess you had to be there to think thats funny.) haha. After that we came home and played guitar hero and talked til the early hours of the morning. :)
Sunday I had my first ever Bloody Mary and then we hit up a Rockies game in some very nice weather which was lots of fun. Afterward sadly we had to head home. A big thank you to Amy and John for their hospitality and lodging. We had a great time and hope to see you guys in Chicago this summer!
Oh yeah P.S. I’m going to upload my photos tonight and I’ll update this post with a link to them. So check back for more pics. :)
Lucky Bean Tree
I went out to IKEA with Bridget today since she was looking for an outdoor table and some curtains and I got this Lucky Bean Tree…it is so cute! I just googled it though and found out it can get to be really big. Crazy…I guess I might have to get a larger pot than the one I bought today.
This weekend was Lance and Casie’s wedding in New Orleans! So sad we couldn’t make it, but Bobby had to work all night on Saturday night (midnight to 9AM)….boooo! I’m excited to see pictures, I hope everything went really well and they are happily married. I’m sure it was a fun party, knowing Lance!
So, Friday night, unexpectedly I went to the Long Room with Rene, Lee, Barrett, Bridget and John and ended up going to Swig in Wicker Park after that to meet up with another co-worker and friend of mine, Jessica Schoolman and her boyfriend Chris. That bar ended up being way more expensive than I thought, but I did have a fun time and they have awesome tater tots. Then Saturday morning after Bobby worked all night he came home in a strangely good mood and cooked my breakfast! yay! Eggs, toast, grits, and coffee! His big work weekend “deployment” went better than expected and he told me all about it. :)
Then we went to help Mandy move the rest of her furniture over to Winget’s place. It was so cute, Justin got Mandy roses with a little note that said welcome home! I’m so happy they are happy, I really like Mandy too. :) Then they took us to lunch at Blackie’s Bar & Grill for some delicious burgers and came home for a much needed nap. I just love sleep when I need it so bad….that nap was awesome! Bobby slept until 7:45PM and then I woke him up so he could experience “Earth Hour” with me and turn off all the lights for an hour and do our part for the environment. We actually went for a drive to see if we could see any difference in the city skyline….and it did look dimmer but I think there were a lot of people that didn’t know about it and didn’t participate. Still Chicago decreased it’s electricity usage by 5% over that one hour (8-9PM) which is equal to 840,000 pounds of carbon dioxide not being emitted into the atmosphere. So good job Chicago…but from the looks of it, we could’ve done a tad bit better….
Then today I went to IKEA in Schaumburg with Bridget and braved the masses (I swear that place is like the suburban vacation spot on the weekends…it was a traffic jam at every corner) but we had a great time and found some good stuff! I’m ofcourse in saving mode because we’re buying the condo so all I bought was my Lucky Bean…but I was really holding back. IKEA has so much cool stuff that I want!
It was a really nice weekend! yay! I’m really looking forward to this Friday…going out to Colorado to see Amy + John and do a little skiing (although I’m still just as terrible as the first time I skied.) I may need to take a lesson this time, instead of just taking pointers from Bobby. I can’t seem to find the “free as a bird” feeling everyone else seems to have on the slopes. I”m more like a scared little chicken hopping around and falling and getting upset. haha. We’ll see how my skiing goes…if all else fails I’m sure it’ll still be a really nice weekend to hang out and talk and catch up with old friends. :)
I’m gonna go watch some serious TV and then hit the sack. Goodnight ya’ll.
Replenishing Body Kiosk – London Design Museum
Bobby and I went to the Design Museum today in London…in South Bank (near the Tower Bridge) and it was so awesome…wayyy better than the Tate Modern. :)
This design work was created by Ross Phillips, head of interactive at SHOWstudio, the online fashion broadcasting company, founded by Nick Knight.
It was inspired by the fact that the human body is made up of 60% water, used a 25 section, touch screen video grid where visitors were invited to make a one-second video recording of a close-up section of their body, which was added to a constantly moving, composite video portrait.
Stuck in Bloody London ;)
Bobby and I got up this morning thinking we were going to the airport and were surprised to find out that our flight had been canceled due to weather…and that there weren’t any flights to Chicago until tomorrow. Although it’s not so good for our pocket books…we did get to stay at a cooler hotel in a different part of town and we got to go to the Design Museum, which I was really sad we had missed. It was raining like crazy today so it wasn’t as fun walking from the tube…but it was well worth the wet walk.
There were lots of really amazing designed objects/furniture/fashion but our favorite at the museum was this interactive video installation. I’m going to post a video of that above this post if you want to watch it. Basically you could hit “record” and choose a spot on the screen and you’d record a one second video of yourself that would be placed on the projected screen. The coolest part about it is that you’re little video stays there until someone comes in behind you and chooses that same square to replace you. Until then, you really are a part of that art work. :) You can see in the video (that I’ll be posting next) that Bobby and I are doing some silly stuff…it was really fun!
