I'm definitely going to check this out...

A book about type? With a gorgeous cover? You had me at hello.

Just My Type: A Book About Fonts by Simon Garfield
{via The Casual Optimist}

Lace headband

I'm currently loving lace (maybe it's my yearning for warmer weather so I can wear my favorite lace dress from last summer!) and found this lovely headband from ban.do. Unfortunately it's $50. Too bad...

Puppies

 Do you ever google image search puppies to put a smile on your face? Sometimes I do.

 Bulldog puppies! Dave's newest ugly dog propaganda. But I really do think these guys are cute. The puppies at least.

Eat, Drink, and be Merry!

Saturday night I got to celebrate Christmas AGAIN. David, Holly, and I went together on buying a cooking class for Dave for Christmas. Lucky for me, I got to go along. Yay!

We cooked a four course meal for ourselves at the Chopping Block in the Merchandise Mart downtown. (Can you say fancy?) It was really fun, especially because everything was measured out for us (my least favorite part of cooking!) and someone else washed the dishes. Amazing! Plus the whole kitchen was fancy-shmancy and we got to use the best tools. Definitely not the kind of experience I can replicate at home... at least without a shopping spree beforehand.

First, we prepared sausage and herbed cheese stuffed mushrooms. Neither Dave nor I am a fan of mushrooms, but we went in with an open mind and these little appetizers were very good. (I'm still not sold on mushrooms, though. I mean, they're fungus. Come on.)

Then we whipped up some broccoli and cauliflower gratin - complete with roux, one of the three French sauces. I love me some broccoli casserole... err, fancy gratin. And then there were the steaks. Mmm. With homemade herbed butter on top. And finally, my favorite part, cinnamon pumpkin donuts. I was on the frying shift for these guys and it was a lot easier than I expected! Maybe it was the chef-supervision and the state of the art kitchen tools?

Our spread at meal time

Puglicious

You might remember that Dave loves pugs. I think they're weird looking and that, apparently, is what endears them to him. Sometimes we brainstorm ridiculous pug names. Things like Pugnacious, Pugly, and this post's namesake, Puglicious. Now whenever I see a pug, I can't help but giggle. Here's your daily dose of pug, courtesy a design*sponge before and after (without the before).

P.S. Did you see the pug pillow sitting behind him?? Too funny.

Pantone Cookies

These cookies made by designer Kim Neill are amazing!

{via d*s}

Oh my Chicago...

I know the Tribune weather report is wont to overreact about the coming weather, but still, this is what they have to say...

"The ice isn’t going anywhere any time soon, as even colder winter weather moves into Chicago this week. Wind chills of up to 25 below zero are expected by early Friday morning, according to the National Weather Service."

Oh yay. Good thing I have a new coat!

Beautiful Things

Ok, how gorgeous is this cake? How does Martha do it?? (here)

I think this cover design by Darren Booth is gorgeous. (book here)

Horse days

 The first weekend of 2011 found all of the Hepburns -- ALL of them! -- in Kansas for my cousin's wedding. It was a very special weekend since I hadn't seen some of them for several years. As life gets busier (and more grown up?) it seems like weddings are the things that always bring everyone together. My Aunt and Uncle and family live on a big plot of land with lots of animals, so we all enjoyed a Hepburn reunion complete with horses and dogs!

Dave bonds with the dogs

 My cousins were nice enough to get their horses groomed and saddled for a trail ride. We walked (and occasionally trotted) around the property and I saw two deer running across the field!

Holly & Scout

 We also took a turn out to the clearing so we could try cantering. It felt so fast and a little out of control (I'm a green cowgirl, I suppose) so I reined my horse in. She wasn't so happy about this and in a fit of miscommunication (equally both of our faults I think) started bucking and I landed squarely on the ground. I'll spare you a picture of my bruise (fear not, I documented it!), but I will tell you that it was large and nasty and I spent the next few days hobbling ever so carefully. My whole body hurt, to say the least.

Me and Queenie before our "miscommunication

 

 

Of course, the wedding that we were all there for was a beautiful affair as well. Everybody got dressed in their finest wintry attire (the boys all donned ties!) to witness Taylor and Kaitlyn's vows.
 
Here are the bride and groom. Aren't they a cute couple? The lucky lovebirds got to honeymoon in Hawaii!

After the wedding festivities in Kansas, our family hopped in the car and headed South for Oklahoma where we saw 2/3 of our Hintz family, too! I don't have any pictures from that on my camera currently, but know that it was a fun filled 24 hours! :)

New Year's Eve

 The weekend of New Year's was a very special one this year (last year?). I mentioned before that I had friends from all over the world reunite in Chicago and let me tell you, it was a sweet reunion. Christa was back in the states for a few weeks from Bangladesh and it was such a joy to see her!

There were also friends from Europe and all over the United States. It was truly wonderful. We celebrated the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011 with  Chicago pizza, Taboo (my favorite game!), laughter, lychee champagne, and general good good times. It was such a good time that there's talk of Fourth of July at the lake... Woo!
 
I spotted this marquee downtown on January 1st. It was so festive! I think that day was one of my favorite so far this year because everybody on the street wished me a happy new year. It was such a friendly day!

Old library books...

...become a sweet desk! Pretty cool, huh? My brother kindly passed this on to me. I love books. Thanks Dave!

P.S. I dropped my computer this morning... I think it's okay but we shall see if the CD drive works... I'm going to add a New Years resolution to my list: back-up my computer on an external hard drive.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2011 to you, and you, and... you! I hope you had a wonderful weekend ringing out the old and in the new. I'll put up some pictures soon from a grand New Years Eve and a most relaxing, refreshing, reunion weekend.

P.S. I wish I had thought of making this book sculpture.

P.P.S. Someday I want to organize all my books by color. It's going to be so cool.

{by paul octavious. via swiss-miss.}