The only way to have a friend, is to be one. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
FREEbie Friday – Adult Coloring Page & Typographic Print!
This is my first Friday Freebie post! I’ve been working hard on creating some fun things for you guys. I hope you will enjoy them. With the weekend and the holidays coming up, I think this is the perfect time for me to introduce these to you. If you read my previous post, I will be posting free adult coloring pages and typographic prints every first and third Friday of the month, to start off with. Since I started this in the middle of the month, I will be giving away two today! These prints are 8.5×11 paper size and can be cut down to fit into an 8×10 frame. Just click on the images below which will open up a pdf file that you can download! **Edited 1/19/2017** In the future, however, you will need to have subscribed to my newsletter in order to get the printables. Please subscribe below!…
How to Make a Paper Garland For a Photoshoot
I’m excited to share this post with you as I love making things with paper, I do it a lot! My love for paper began when I got a job working for a stationery design company and had to make a lot of things by hand. Over the past few years, I’ve learned it’s a lot easier and cheaper to make certain things yourself rather than to buy them! In this post I’ll show you how to make a paper garland that you would pay more than $5 for at a store (for even the simplest one). But before I show you, I want to tell you a little bit about birthday celebrations in my house (because this garland was obviously made for a birthday). Birthdays were never a big deal in my family. Our celebration was my mother making our favorite foods at home and us eating together as a family. There were…
Open House Chicago 2016 Series – Part 4
This is my last post about Open House Chicago which I attended a few weekends ago. If you’ve been following along, you know that this one is going to be about the home and studio of the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I was the most excited about visiting this space because I studied a little bit about him in my interior design classes. He was a modern architect who wanted to steer away from European style architecture and build a distinct style for America. This style was known as the Prairie style. His home and studio in Oak Park is considered to be his first architectural masterpiece. This style emphasized homes with low, pitched roofs and long rows of casement windows which were made with local materials. The wood was always unstained and unpainted to focus attention on natural beauty. Unfortunately, on this tour, we were not allowed to take photographs of the inside but I did manage to take…
Open House Chicago 2016 Series – Part 3
The next stop on the Open House Chicago was the Nineteenth Century Club House and Oak Park Art League. Nineteenth Century Club House in Oak Park, IL This clubhouse was established by a group of women who believed that education, charitable activities, and civic involvement were an important elements to a prosperous community. (Girl power!) This neoclassical structure was built in 1928 and designed by James L. Fyfe who had ties to the club through his wife and mother-in-law. The clubhouse is still used to support educational and cultural endeavors. At the time of my visit there was a dance class going on, which was fun to watch! Oak Park Art League in Oak Park, IL The Oak Park Art League was founded after World War I and this structure was designed in 1902 by Eben Ezra Roberts. (I like how colorful and fun this building’s exterior is) It was a place for artist collaboration…
Wednesday Wisdom – When you can’t change the direction…
When you can’t change the direction of the wind – Adjust your sail. -H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Dearborn, Michigan
Our final stop on this reunion weekend was Dearborn. My friend had been talking about an amazing place to get kababs from and it only seem fit that we go! So this place is located in a butcher shop. It’s called Dearborn Meat Market. Basically, they sell meat in the front and then in the back there is a small room in which they BBQ kababs! So you know you’re getting fresh ingredients! Being amateurs, we ordered like 2 or 3 orders. But apparently that’s not enough, even for three people. I don’t remember how many orders we got, but here is a picture of all the kababs! And of course, there is also hummus and tabouleh! Yea…it was pretty great. And even though we left feeling satisfied, we couldn’t leave Michigan without having custard because apparently it’s a thing there. And so, we went to The Custard Hut. Okay,…
Madinat Jumeirah – Dubai, UAE
Imagine being able to stay in a place that takes you back to ancient times. The hotel, Madinat Jumeriah does exactly that. It’s designed to make you feel like you are in a traditional Arabian town and I absolutely loved it! I came here solely to check it out as I did with so many other hotels during my UAE travels and I think this ended up being my favorite one. You will know why as you continue to look through the pictures! We walked in from the entrance and through the hotel to the back. (I don’t even know if it was the back or not because it has so many different areas.) Regardless, we came to the part with the canals which have boats that take you on a tour of the hotel. You even have a good view of the Burj Al Arab from here! Honestly, I don’t even…
Yas Island Viceroy Hotel, Abu Dhabi, UAE
The Persian Gulf is known for a lot of man-made islands, one of which is Yas Island. It was being constructed during my visit and even though it was not complete, the Viceroy Hotel was finished and opened to the public for the first time. This was one of the places I looked up before going and once again, I dragged my friend there on a hot afternoon. I wanted to see it during daylight and nighttime. I like to get the full experience! lol It’s main focus is the diamond mesh that covers it, like a veil. This steel and glass panel structure stretches 217 meters over the hotel which is what attracted me to it in the first place. You are able to access what is called the Skylite, a poolside restaurant/bar area which is directly under this beautiful grid-shell. After touring around and seeing the contemporary interior as…