An Amazing Find: Sharon Stelter Sculptures

By now you all know that I absolutely adore animals. So, needless to say, anytime they are combined with my other passion of art and design, I become giddy.

The other day as I was walking through Lincoln Park, or Lakeview for that matter since I cannot really remember where I was, I spotted these beautiful animal sculptures by Sharon Stelter. Each of her animal creations exudes individual personality and demeanor. I cannot help but anthropomorphize them into tiny characters with long, story-filled lives. They feel adorable and sophisticated at the same time, which is hard to do with art.

I am so glad I jotted her name down in my iPhone because these are a REAL find. I could see a small collection in my future.

*Each photo is from Stelter's website, which you should all visit to see more of her work.

Owls (In Progress)

Here are the owl illustrations I am currently working on...

Longman & Eagle

Sometimes you just walk into a place and let out a HUGE satisfied sigh because you know that this place is a place to remember. I had one of those rare "special" moments as soon as I walked into Longman & Eagle last Saturday. We had been reading about the Logan Square bar, restaurant and soon-to-be inn for months now, but had not made the time for a trip up the blue line. My brother being in town was the perfect opportunity to hit up this much-hyped about locale especially since we wanted to sell Lee on living in Chicago.

Now, I am not a food critic nor do I ever want to pose as one, but I will say that all three of us were quite content with our meals. The brunch options were unique, seasonal and appetizing. The Bloody Marys the men got were "words-cannot-express" fantastic, and I always love a good ginger beer. On to the good stuff and the good vibe that L&E projects...


Any place that has a pumpkin carving party with PBR has to be awesome, right? The answer in my opinion is a unanimous YES! Plus when you walk up to the door all you see is a large metal ampersand (pictured above). As a lover of all things type, I really appreciate good usage of the ampersand. The ampersand becomes the "icon" for Longman & Eagle and appears everywhere from the menus to the shirts. The place is filled with great, contemporary art, design and letterpress – check out their Awesome blog if you want to see more art and design inspiration. Plus they have a Wurlitzer Statesman jukebox from 1970. It is breathtakingly kitchy with its mountainscape background and captured my attention for most of the meal. Sadly, I couldn't get my own picture because of the glare, so I took one from L&Es website.

Below is an authentic Wurlitzer Statesman ad just to give you a little laugh.

All in all, our trip to Longman & Eagle was pretty incredible. I think we will be back in the near future!

Feliz Dia de los Muertos!!!

(image via New York Times)

Really, is Halloween already over? Maybe it's because it was on a Sunday, but the holiday didn't capture one ounce of my attention this year. The only thing we managed to do was attend the annual Boystown Halloween parade. Once we got there I felt like a complete slacker – some of those costumes were so creative and inspirational. Other than that small glimmer of Halloween festivity things were quiet and Halloween quickly drifted away in the brisk Chicago fall.

However, today is Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), a beautiful Mexican holiday that celebrates and remembers loved ones (and animals) who have passed. Artistically and culturally this is one of my favorite holidays of the year. There is so much beauty to be seen in the cultural celebrations, the sugary deserts and the abundance of brightly colored skulls.

I have been inspired by Mexico and Mexican culture since I was a little girl. Here are a few glimpses of Day of the Dead inspiration...


Niki de Saint Phalle is an amazing artist and feminist. Her sculptures engage the viewer asking them to become a part of the piece both inside and out. I was lucky enough to see her work a few years ago at the Atlanta Botanic Garden. The use of color, texture and reflective material make this piece stunning! (image via)


Mondo Guerra, from this seasons Project Runway, used Mexican inspiration beautifully in his final runway show. The detailing on this skull is breathtaking. I only wish he had won!!!

These are awesome vintage inspired toys from Etsy seller, illustratedink. Too bad they already sold. Thanks Modern Cat for the inspiration.

Animals + Photography = Tim Flach

How have I not heard of Tim Flach before? Thanks Joanna from Cup of Jo for the inspiration! Flach is a British animal photographer who truly captures the emotion, strength and beauty of the animal kingdom. Above I have shown a brief sample of two of Flach's series titled Dogs Gods and Equus. Each photograph is stunning so I highly recommend checking out his website and watching his Animal Planet video (on his website).

Food and the Tango

First things First, I apologize for not posting yesterday. I realize I may only be apologizing to myself, but when I started the blog I had a goal of posting every weekday. Yesterday got a little crazy – my brother, Lee, was flying into town and we also had a birthday dinner with one of our friends, Braden. Which leads to today's inspiration...

Last night after fighting the extreme Chicago wind and the filming of Rachel McAdam's new flick Vow, we arrived at Tango Sur, a fantastic and authentic Argentinian restaurant. As you can imagine the menu is full of extremely large steak dishes plus an appetizer of melted cheese on a plate (it was delicious, if you were curious). Tango Sur pleases its customers, me in particular, with more than just its food (especially since I am not a red meat lover). The vibe of this place is straight out of a movie. The moment you walk in the door you are transcended into what I imagine Buenos Aires being. It is crowded, lite only by candle light, and has a guitar player serenading the place. Can I say – inspiration overload. This post goes out to the Tango, the cow and all things Argentinian.



This poster is weird and beautiful at the same time. It was hanging in a very prominent location of the main dining room of Tango Sur, so I can only imagine it is a famous Argentinian film. However, nowhere on the world wide web can tell me much about it, including Wikipedia. All I know is its a romantic drama from 1946. Seriously, is the man's arm hiding behind buildings or has it been ripped off? It's hard to tell. How many of us can remember a time when we couldn't draw a hand or foot in art class so we covered it with something "creative." Also, why is he blue? Beautiful complimentary color palette but blue is never appealing as a skin tone. All that said, there is something weirdly beautiful about the poster in a 1940s kinda way.

There is just something about cowhide this year. I have seen it everywhere. Maybe it's the Texas in me, but I love the look. It is rustic, woodsy and natural. This Canyon Cowhide rug is stunning. I am just not sure I could take looking at the poor cow hide everyday – not to mention, its way out of my price range.


While looking for Argentinian textiles, I found this fantastic gallery in Buenos Aires. Arte Etnico is a gallery full of hand-crafted art and decor. "Me encanta!"


The tango is sexy and so is this dress by ADAM. Red and black scream seduction which defines the Argentinian dance. However, because of its short length you may not actually want to do the tango in it.
I have been day dreaming about these shoes by Deena & Ozzy since I saw them in the Urban Outfitters window a few months ago. Guess what, now they are on sale.

Window Shopping Inspiration: A Literate Mounted Animal Head

I needed a little break today after work, so I stopped by Anthropologie to do a little window shopping and inspiration searching. Anthropologie consistently has innovative and creative display design. Today, in the back corner of the second floor, I spotted these beautiful paper mache animal heads. Each is made by hand in Haiti out of used cement bags and old French books. They are made to pay tribute to Haiti's French heritage and culture.

What a great re-use of vintage books and cement bags that are normally thrown away. How cool would one of these look in my studio? Each one makes me want to get out paste, water and old newspapers for a quick trip down paper mache memory lane.

Above is a close-up, just so you understand how beautiful they really are!