Repurposing Furniture

In addition to being able to pitch some old things and update them with new, another thing I'm really excited about our move is being able to put our furniture and art to entirely new uses! 

For instance, I absolutely love this painting that my cousin Jeremy Hansen did for us. It is so special and has been the focal point of our dining area, but rather than put it in the dining room of our new home I'm excited to try it out somewhere else. Maybe above the fireplace in our formal living room, or above our bed in the master bedroom for a real statement.

As for our dining table, we'll move it to our formal dining room and get a new breakfast (everyday) table that will hopefully take wear and tear better than this one. I still really like it but the top is awfully banged up. I'm thinking of painting the top gold to match the gold stripes on the chairs. We'll see...

Collaborating with Kollabora

I first discovered Kollabora a year ago at the Altitude Summit blogging conference. They were a budding company with a cool concept - bring together a community of makers to share their DIY projects and techniques and encourage others to start making by providing easy step-by-step instructions and supplies.

It has been fun collaborating with them over the past year - you may remember the DIY Night when we made these awesome painted bangles with supplies and instructions from Kollabora:

Then we held a DIY Night where several of us took a shot at knitting for the first time while watching Kollabora's step-by-step "newbie" videos online:

Randolph Street Market Summer Opener - Ticket Giveaway!

It's hard to believe Memorial Weekend is only a matter of days away. Just like the last few years, you'll find me kicking off the weekend at my favorite Randolph Street Market.

This outdoor vintage flea market in Chicago is held monthly throughout the summer in the West Loop. There are over 200 vendors, good food, and live music. Never been? Well now is your chance! 

Randolph St. Market are providing a pair of tickets to its May 25-26th market for one of Design Improvised's readers! Just leave a comment below to enter.

In the meantime, here are a few snapshots of treasures I've taken home from past markets:

New Home Ideas

I have been ripping ideas from home magazines for as long as I can remember. Having the new home to plan for has been the perfect excuse to sort through my sea of clippings and organize them nicely in an idea book!

My favorite way to organize magazine clippings is with clear sheet protectors in a 3 ring binder. To make my idea book feel a little more special I covered an old binder in pretty paper. I also got some stick-on tabs from Martha Stewart Home Office and a Sharpie for writing notes on the clippings:

We Bought a Home!

As of May 30th, this will be our new home in San Antonio! Things are always bigger in Texas, and this is definitely bigger than our Chicago condo. It should be quite the change as we trade the city life for the suburb life. I'm just looking forward to some new rooms to decorate!

Lots more photos to come down the road - just wanted to give you a sneak peek for now.

Have a great weekend!

10 Things to Replace When You Move

One nice thing about moving to a new home is that it allows you to start with a clean slate. It's a great opportunity to replace certain things I should've replaced a long time ago - like all our mismatched tupperware!

Ross and I learned our lesson when we moved from Boston to Chicago that certain things aren't worth putting on the moving truck. We ended up paying some crazy amount to have movers pack up our kitchen, including a couple boxes of canned goods that cost probably 3x the amount to pack them than they were worth. There will be no canned goods coming down with us to San Antonio!

Here are the things I hope to update with the new house:

1. Mismatched tupperware - our motley collection consists mostly of recycled deli meat containers these days! I'm anxious to replace them with a nice stackable set like these from Rubbermaid.
2. Dishtowels / dishcloths - with a new kitchen, I would like to replace our worn dishcloths with a bright new set. These brightly printed ones from Target caught my eye. 
3. Pantry items - I assume most people clean out their kitchen items before making a big move. We'll be extra thorough this time around.
4. Toiletries - Same thing for toiletries. I've already cleaned out numerous bottles of stuff I haven't used in years (!). It's amazing how less cluttered my bathroom drawers are. ;)
5. Bathroom towels - when we got our set of towels as a wedding present they were fluffy and white. They are now just dingy. When we have guests stay with us, I find myself sorting through them to find the least dingiest to give them! They are long overdue for a replacement.
6. Bedroom pillows - our pillows are several years old and I haven't been great at regularly washing them. I think it would be nice to update them with new ones rather than pack them.
7. Clothes - There will be a lot less need for wool sweaters in San Antonio. I've been whittling down my winter clothes quite a bit.
8. Old DVDs - Ross might not agree with this one, but we have a cabinet full of DVDs that we brought from Boston and haven't watched in the 7 years we've lived here! I am hoping we don't need to bring those with us. ;)

Help! I realized I only made it to 8 on my "Top 10" list! What else would you add? Anything else that is better to get rid of than pack up and move across the country?

The Land of Nod's 10th Birthday Bash!

When The Land of Nod throws a birthday party, you know it is going to be a good one!

The Land of Nod celebrated turning 10 years old with a big bash at its newly remodeled flagship store in Chicago this weekend. There were lots of balloons and lots and lots of color. I was like a kid in a candy shop.

The new rainbow checkout at the center of the store was the highlight for me. I think it is pure genius, from the lamps at varied heights to the blue spray painted animal backdrop:

Design Improvised is Joining Martha's Circle!

Just a quick post to share some exciting news this Friday. Design Improvised has been invited to join the Martha's Circle advertising network!

As part of Martha's Circle, Design Improvised joins a family of lifestyle and DIY blogs selected by Martha Stewart editors for their dedication to "delivering ideas that inspire, and tools to instruct".

For Design Improvised readers it means I'll occasionally be joining forces with the Martha Stewart brand and its advertising partners to bring you sponsored content about interesting products. You'll also see a couple more ads in my sidebar from companies I hope you find relevant and exciting.

I couldn't imagine a better fit for an advertising partner than Martha's Circle - I hope you agree!