Did I ever mention my distain for football? No, well, it’s only equaled by my aversion to bad (read: completely personality-less) motel interiors. I practically have an allergic reaction to the game—and it’s not because it’s a sport. Apart from a few cute QBs and running backs, where’s the finesse?
On any given weekend, when I’m […]

I’m not getting to personal, am I? Actually, that’s not my intention. As you ponder the “grown up” question, think less about chronology, or even maturity, and more about your state of…style.

For example, do you have tell-tale signs of high school lying around? An ‘83 yearbook on your coffee table may be cool, but your […]

Just a few cover-the-waterfront recommendations. About half are from my personal collection. The other half I researched.  
1. An Eye For Color by Olga Gutierrez De La Rosa. Harper Collins, 2007. Hardcover, 240 pages.  Both a show-and-tell (examples from real masters) and DIY guide (a simple “system,” complete with perf-off color palette cards to help you build […]

Every fashion designer has an indelible one in his or her seasonal collection. And every fashionista has one in her closet, whether it’s a dress, hat, pin, pair of shoes…So, doesn’t your home deserve one, too—a sofa, wall art, table sculpture, lamp or vase that jumps right out and shouts “I’m the most YOU of […]

I was getting my nails done in a Vietnamese salon the other day, one with a particularly fine sound system I might add, and wanting to hold my hand out to examine the new copper shade I had eschewed for my usual Lincoln Park After Dark, when out wafts the most intriguing, almost-but-not-quite familiar music.
Turns […]

As this is an election year, and it’s been—what?—ten minutes since you heard the results of the last one, let’s take a poll. Try to be as honest as you can with yourself. Remember, you are among friends, and there are no wrong answers.  1. How do you identify yourself—as a city person or suburbanite? 2. Are you […]

Every couple of years, I make a wise decision to revisit what in a relatively short time has become a self-help classic. It is entitled The Four Agreements: A Toltec Wisdom Book. In this 140-pager, author Don Miguel Ruiz outlines four ideas that help put things in perspective in our modern world: 1. Be impeccable […]

No, it’s not a typo, but it is a reason to visit Chicago in the dead of winter. You with the earmuffs. You heard me right. Now start packing. P.S. If you’re a local, you’re in luck. Here’s why. First picture Millennium Park—the affectionately nicknamed Bean (aka Anish Kapoor’s massive Cloud Gate sculpture), Frank Gehry’s […]

Do people really live the way it looks like they do in magazines? Of course not. You’ve watched enough HGTV to know that.
 
Still, while I’m not going to be one of those countless, cold-hearted “organizers” who tells you to purge in yes-no-maybe piles, getting rid of everything you own and shopping for all new stuff […]

In a New Year’s resolution to reduce my carbon footprint (as well as—ahmmmm—other body parts), I’ve taken pen to paper to conduct an environmental survey of my home: what’s good, what’s so-so and what’s so heineous Ed Begley Jr. would personally come a-knockin’ at my door.
First the good. LED lightbulbs? Check. Paper, plastic, can recycling […]