Are We There Yet?

Lord help me, is it the weekend yet? All I want to do is curl up with a crocheted blanket on this couch in this room with this dog (actually, with my dog) and read my library books. My first world problem of the day: All the ebooks I had been on wait lists for became available at the same time and now I have to make sure I read them all in the next 12 days. Poor me, right?

Living In: The Great Outdoor...Shower.

Ahead of our trip to the beach in a couple weeks, I have been pining for outdoor showers. My family rented a beach house in North Carolina when I was younger, and I always loved rinsing off in the outdoor shower below the deck. It wasn't anything fancy, just a pipe with a cheap showerhead. Cold water only. A spigot to rinse the sand off your feet.

Here are some outdoor showers that make me extra anxious to get to the beach again.

Source: remodelista.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Source: None via Lauren on Pinterest

Source: re-nest.com via Haley on Pinterest

Source: aquavitaedesign.com via Brandy on Pinterest

Living In: An Outbuilding.

Building on my last two Living In posts showcasing a beautiful pool house I would move right into and my yearning for a small backyard, today's post is all about outbuildings. Not outhouses. Outbuildings. Having spent about 14 hours a day working on a project in our office/den/guestroom this week, I was really drawn to these little, separate studios. I am never going to need a potting shed in my back yard (brown thumb), maybe just a place for hubs to stash a lawnmower. It may be the little girl that always wanted a playhouse speaking, but a separate space for an office or studio would be divine.

modern landscape design by sllasf.com

traditional landscape design by other metros general contractor Jo-Anne Peck

traditional patio design by seattle landscape architect Lisa Port, APLD

eclectic exterior design by san francisco general contractor BMF CONSTRUCTION

Making it Home: Hanging Art.

I will admit that I have not felt the urgency to settle in to this apartment. It may be that I am road-weary from having lived in three apartments in one year. I feel that the next move is always right around the corner - why get comfortable? But chances are we will be in this apartment for a year or two, so it was time to make the place feel more like home.

The easiest way to warm up our cookie-cutter, beige walls-on-beige carpet apartment was to hang the artwork and photographs we have collected over the years. How to fit it all in? Our walls were large, but our art was plentiful. Luckily, I'm a sucker for a good gallery wall.

Source: baltares.blogspot.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Source: youaremyfave.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Source: madebygirl.blogspot.com via Lauren on Pinterest

My friend recently put together a gallery wall in her new Denver apartment. On her blog, she wisely calls it the family memory wall. It includes photographs, meaningful song lyrics, a letter her husband wrote to her when they were 14 years old (oh my gosh, awwww, right?), her Chicago Marathon finisher medal and other items that hold personal value to them as a family.

In our Chicago apartment we had a wall of black and white photographs, mostly from our then-recent wedding. Because we are now living in a very blank space, I thought black and white photos would be too stark. Besides, we have so many great pieces that we have collected, been gifted, made, or inherited. Each of these pieces hold such meaning to us for different reasons. So this is our memory wall:

1. This photograph was given to me by my aunt and is of my grandfather's family. He is just a little boy, and you can barely see him sitting at the far end of the table.
2. A reproduction of a painting hubs fell in love with when we lived in Chicago. The artist, Bruce Holwerda, frequently showed his work at a gallery up the street from our apartment, and we would see this painting as we'd walk home from dinner or the grocery store. My sister and her boyfriend gave us a reproduction for Christmas the year before we moved out of Chicago.
3. Two paintings by Chicago artist Nancy Rosen. Nancy is a good friend of a good friend. She is a great artist and fabulous person.
4. One of my most beloved items - the thing that I would grab if my house were on fire - a painting by my grandmother. This painting sat on the top of a bookcase in my parents' room for my entire childhood. I would look at it when my mom would brush and blowdry my hair at night, when we'd open stockings in their room on Christmas morning, or after borrowing a necklace off of my mom's jewelry stand. Three years ago, my mom had the painting framed and gave it to me for Christmas. I forget if I got anything else that morning. It doesn't matter.
5. A painting I did in high school. I love it and it picks up the color of the quilt we have on our bed.
6. I made this painting/collage for hubs just a couple weeks after we started dating. It incorporates pictures of items that were already meaningful to us in that short time: a coffee advertisement, a science textbook, a picture of an airplane. It also includes part of Pablo Neruda's Sonnet XVII ("I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where..."), which three years later would be read at our wedding.
7. I gave this print to hubs on our first anniversary. It is by artist Brian Andreas and is titled One of Us.

Living In: Small Backyard.

When temperatures are above 65 degrees, I try to spend as much time outside as possible. When we lived in Chicago, our apartment had no outdoor space. Our current apartment has a very small deck off the living room, which we have been using quite often, but what I'm really dreaming of is a backyard. I don't need a sprawling estate. I would just love a place to spend relaxed summer nights, sit by a fire with friends and family, sip an iced coffee in the shade of a pergola, or read a book with a dog at my feet.

Source: jennalfarro.blogspot.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Source: superherodesigns.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Source: myhomeideas.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Source: myhomeideas.com via Lauren on Pinterest

Living In: Country Pool House

As a long-time apartment-dweller, I truly appreciate small living spaces. I really think I could get comfortable in this pool house in Litchfield County, Connecticut, designed by architect James Crisp. Who needs a main house when the pool house looks like this?

by architect James Crisp

Those slate floors could sure use some wet paw prints.

How We Came Together.

The first time I saw a vintage transit scroll used to decorate a home, I was smitten. I love public transit. I love bold, graphic text. It was a match made in heaven.

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Then, as these things go, transit scrolls started popping up in every interior design blog home tour, prompting Apartment Therapy to ask, "Are vintage transit scrolls the new Keep Calm?" No matter. I was still in love.

Though I have been on the lookout for a vintage transit scroll since I first fell, I have never seen anything in person that made me want to plunk down my hard-earned cash. Scrolls I found being sold online were outrageously expensive. And, though I grew up near New York City and have traveled to England and Boston and Richmond, I prefer to display more personal items in my home. Nothing I saw seemed to fit.

As I was writing the post about decorating with vintage maps of meaningful locations, I realized I should create a print based on a vintage transit scroll. Using a bold font (Bebas) in black and white, I made a print that chronicles all the cities in which I have lived. I also made one showing my husband's migration.

When I looked at the images side-by-side, it made me smile to see where our paths had converged.

So then I made this:

As you can see, we are back in the town where we met. And there is no place I would rather be.

Vintage Maps.

I love the idea of decorating a home with maps.

This is a beautiful example.
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Especially maps of locations that have special meaning.

Since I left home for college, I have lived in quite a few places. Maps of Chicago, Indiana, New Jersey, Atlanta and DC make my heart go pitter-patter.

I love the perspective of this map of Chicago.
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I fell in love with a vintage Indiana map similar
to this at Eastern Market last weekend.
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Always a Jersey girl.
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I have seen beautiful vintage maps at flea markets and antique stores. Etsy seller bananastrudel has an impressive selection of maps, prints and etchings. My mother-in-law bought us this map of Washington, DC, from the shop after we decided to move back to the area.

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Looking at these maps made me reflect back on the many states and cities where I have lived. I am amazed at how many times I have moved since I first left home at 17 and how each of these moves brought me into touch with some of the most important people in my life. I will post later on a design project sparked by this reflection and inspired by vintage bus roll posters.