Post-Christmas Decoration

In my house, Christmas isn't over til it's over, and by over, I mean May. So early in January I made this cute wreath (I think it's cute) out of random evergreen clippings which I likely found on the ground. The wire frame is leftover wire from the IKEA curtain hanging project, and I tied it on with dental floss. The rocks are from Lake Michigan, either the dunes or maybe from the Upper Peninsula, and I learned on a recent trip to the Field Museum that the holes are actually caused by small crustaceans slowly burrowing through! I strung them on library cord when I had that library job where I spent hours in chilly stacks shelving forgotten European dissertations and re-wrapping Indian books from the 70s.

Studio Life: A Tour of My Stuff

So I did move into my own studio -- first time living alone, etc. I now camp out at boyfriend's house a lot and use the internet, because (gasp) I don't have it at home. No internet, no smart phone (that is now a lie because I got a blackberry from work), and no TV. But really, my sweet little baby apartment is too small for a TV.  

I feel like my windowsills are too cluttered with random stuff. But I like it all! My plants are loving all the sunlight, and I can display all the glass and lantern-like things that I own. You can't really see, but I made hanging vases out of old lightbulbs like the Pinterest-addict that I am. And yeah, I have Christmas lights around the windows. I put them up during the first snow fall in November and I think I'll keep them up forever.

My wee kitchen! It fits in the closet. After much delay and frustration, and with the help of boyfriend who almost gave up, I installed a curtain wire from IKEA and put up these IKEA-via-Craigslist curtains so that when I'm not using the kitchen (aka almost always, basically all I do is use the water kettle I got for Christmas, thanks mom & dad!) I can close it away and not look at it. I think boyfriend worries about the potential fire threat of curtain near the burners but I tell him I move it out of the way (and then I don't, good thing he doesn't read this.) You can also see so many other things I like in this photo-- the great sunlight, the dishtowel I bought at the Appalachian crafts center, the green & blue painting I got at STOP thrift store, and the perfectly-sized wall-mounted dishrack I got at IKEA. We went nutz at IKEA this last trip. Oh, and the keffiya that I use to cover up the random stuff in the bottom shelves of my little kitchen storage/counter furniture PIECE. (What are those things called?) (Relatedly I think its funny to call things a "piece" like they're a piece of art. It's like when the friend of my old hipster roommates said she wanted to open a "space" for artists or performances or whatever and I made fun of her to her face, or certain old hierarchicly-superior coworkers constantly saying "utilize" instead of "use" and I died inside constantly, or basically whenever most people talk about "culture." I am a terrible snob.)

Me, the snob, picking at the broken zipper of an old (vintage. ok, it's vintage) dress I want to sell on etsy. My apartment is tiny, but not too tiny for an ORB and a vase full of Christmas tree branches that I picked up from the ground outside of Big Star. Folding chair and stool: IKEA, blue chair and plaid blanket: grandma's house, bookshelf: left from previous tenant at previous apartment. On the bookshelves are my small collections of cookbooks, journals, fashion magazines I should stop reading, thermoses, and glassware with shiny rims.

New Studio Apartment

So, I'm off to a new apartment AGAIN. Let's see... this past place didn't make the blog because I was too busy to care about posting anything and I only lived there for 6 months. Before that was the apartment with dirty roommates in Pilsen, where I lived for about 8-9 months. Before that, my last place in Hyde Park (1 year), the brownstone with basement bedroom (1 year), my first post-college apartment  with a tiny purple bedroom (1 year), my college apartment (2 years), dorm II, and dorm I. Add in the mix a variety of non-Chicago or temporary living situations, but that's a lot of moving, y'all. Anyway, I signed up for 16 months in order to get a discount & no security deposit. And for the first time ever I'm living on my own!

 I went over to the new place and took some pictures while the previous tenant was packing up. She wasn't home but I totally judged her (kidding. not really).

The main selling point of this place, besides the ALL MINE aspect, is the window. I know it doesn't look like much in this terrible photo, but it faces south over some lower buildings and trees and notably nothing that seems like it will be remotely annoying (flashing police light and alley people were the major offenders, as was the loogie-haucking showering man about 5 feet away from my bedroom window in the most recent apartment). There is a lovely view from the 5th floor and tons and tons of sunlight. Seriously, this is all I've ever wanted. (It really is! Small: check, light: check, quirk: check, see kitchen, radiator: check, also, heat included BONUS POINTS, laundry: on site, check, cheap: check!)

The kitchen is literally in a closet. There is zero counter-space, but don't worry! I am making plans for various IKEA-related storage solutions (like a hanging dish rack) and I got one of those rolling kitchen storage / countertop bar things from my old apartment for free, so I can put that where that sad excuse for a futon sofa is right now. And the fridge will go in the obvious nook where it belongs and the closet doors will go back on the closet where the fridge is now. My sewing machine table and piles of related sewing crap will go in that closet where I can close the door on them.

The red wall and questionable scroll-y painting thing will need to go, to be replaced by "cocaine white" if I have anything to say about it. I have already made this request to the property manager but there appears to be a slight language barrier. I didn't use the word "cocaine" when I spoke to her, if you're wondering. I don't like off-white. Also, there is a bike room in the first floor of the building so I'm not sure why this tenant used crucial studio space for her bike, but whatever.

I probably won't use a rolling clothes rack as this girl did, given my previous failures with such things, but will put my lovely dressers in this walk-in closet / hallway to the bathroom. I think that I'll put my lavender boxes above the first shelf in this and the other closet to extend the vertical storage space, and also because there is no floor space for them.

My own bathroom! I got so excited last time I had my own bathroom and now I have my own WHOLE APARTMENT! Seriously this is all I think about these days. The walls in the bathroom are currently pink and I have requested them to be painted back to white. No pink.

I have not gotten to move in because the apartment does not become empty and painted and clean and available until this weekend. I had to be out of my old place last weekend so I am executing the famous and grueling TWO PHASE MOVE. Yes, it sucks. I hired the pros for Phase 2 because even though some of the most awesome friends ever came out to help in Phase 1 I was still all "never again." But once I get all moved in (and I have big plans -- or small plans, as the case may be -- either way I am blowing up Pinterest at amyinegypt -- that's how I waste my internet time these days) then it will be the most stylish studio the world has ever seen and maybe I will take some after pictures.

Color Inspiration at AIC: Ceramics

 Went to the Art Institute Museum awhile ago and actually remembered my camera. I've loved the ceramics in the Asian wing since my long-ago ceramics class but have recently gotten into them more for the colors. Unfortunately due to my own incompetence I forgot to fix the white balance but you can pretty much figure it out. The last three are in the Middle Eastern art wing.

 This one claims to have a "pseudo-inscription." The only thing I can guess that means is that the writing means nothing. It doesn't look to say anything to me but I'm no expert. Anyway what a cool idea! I used to be, as a kid, very into gibberish writing but to just stick it on your plate seems... awesome.

 I'm obsessed with the roughly-painted blue glaze over the low-relief high-detail background.

Next up: kimonos.

1970s Indian book cover design

 I used to work in a library and was in charge of the India and Pakistan collection. Apparently, back in the Cold War, the US offered a deal to countries they were afraid would fall to Communism: give us your books (in key subjects like religion and science) and we'll give you food. I think this is how it went down; I don't have any sources but my memory. We had a collection mostly from India and Pakistan, with smaller collections from Yugoslavia and Indonesia and maybe somewhere else, mostly from the 70s. Anyway a great number of these books were pretty boring but as I had plenty of time to shelve them, I spent a lot of time looking at the interesting ones. A lot of the ones below I just liked the design of the covers. I don't know the languages involved or the subjects, but a lot of the more colorful ones look like pulp novels. (It was through this job that I also learned about weather modification, Rabindranath Tagore and Zainul Abedin). I've posted one of these covers before, but here's the whole of my photos.

 Some cool marbelized page ends

 vivid color everywhere

Sorry about the poor picture quality. These were taken with my cell phone camera on the sly!

Storage for Rainbow Shoes

This is my room! I've been very excited about this shelf I made-- since it got cold and I took my sweaters out from under the bed, I needed to make room for them. The boxes where the sweaters now live was busy holding my shoe collection. So I found some IKEA brackets I'd squirrelled away and my friend got me a board from Home Depot. I figured that it made sense to put it up high so you don't have a moment of "am I gonna hit my head" fear when you walk in the door. It's too bad that short people can't see the rainbow of shoes unless they stand on my bed.

Also pictured: a print I got at Renegade several years ago, candles from Athenian Candle in Greektown (they're made in the back!), birthday cards, an absurd amount of earrings, random crap. Someone told me once "Wes Anderson would have a field day in your room." I'd be a terrible Quaker, I love clutter too much.

Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle

I went to a movie by myself yesterday for the first time ever. I went to go see Pillow Talk, a Doris Day movie, but it turned out to be preceded by a long college lecture so I snuck out and went across the hall to see the Eric Rohmer movie Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle, which I'd wanted to see too and was much more fun. It's about two young girls who meet randomly and end up sharing an apartment in Paris and how their new friendship holds up as their value systems clash. It was made in 1986 and I found myself laughing at the absurdity of 80s fashions even in super-chic Paris.

The girl with the lighter hair is Mirabelle, the Parisienne, and while she wears some crazy stuff, I won't lie and say that I don't now want some high-waisted jeans, oversized sweaters and little canvas sneakers. I also like the ridiculous polo/turtleneck teal shirt thing she has going on in the last photo, and the giant quilted coat, Wellies, and black tank top she wears when she meets Reinette out in the countryside. I also like her attitude: she's the one telling off the snobby art dealer above.