Tag Archives: Chicago

11.11.12

Highlight of my life...the YHL book tour

Posted by Christina // 59 Replies

Three years ago I ran across a blog.
Three years ago I don’t think I knew what a blog was.

I stalked John and Sherry Petersik’s wedding and home renovations for days….and those days then turned into everyday for three years.

I have followed their ups and downs and admired their ceramic animal collection from afar for a creepily long time.

So once the creators of Young House Love announced their book release, I prayed and prayed some more that they would visit somewhere within a ten hour driving radius. I don’t like limits but I felt like 20 hours of driving might be pushing it if I wanted someone to come with me.
Then they said the magic words….Chicago.

Game over.

Then of course the nervous list making began.

So here’s the part where most people will think we’re crazy….we left on Friday night at eleven o’clock at night. On three hours of sleep. And drove six hours to Chitown.

I obviously don’t have any road-trippin pictures like I did here since it was night time.
But once we got there….well picture frenzy commence.

I called West Elm to make sure that we could get in since I was unable to RSVP when they announced the tour. The girl was so sweet and told me to make sure I got there super early because some people might camp out, hence my boytoy’s loving text from yours truly. We got there at 5:30 am and there was not a soul around. And nothing was open.

I decided to set up camp since it wasn’t too cold and I needed to save my pep for meeting Sherry & John.

It didn’t stay lonely for long.
We met the most AMAZING people in line and we had a blast passing the seven hours of wait time.

It was so nice to meet all of you, and everyone else that came to meet the crazy girl who showed up at 5am.
The Petersiks really do have the best fans.

West Elm was seriously amazing.
The store was gorgeous.
The people were fantastic.
Joanie and Jeromy, holy amazing.

I also found out, St. Louis is getting a West Elm next year.
I am going to start saving now.

The whole event was surreal, and sweet.

By the time this photo was taken of me enjoying my sweets, we had been there for a little over eight hours.
The line was wrapping around the building, and it was pouring.
Dedication….we got it.

It was so worth the wait.

It was one of the coolest days I have had in a long time. John and Sherry are exactly how you would expect them to be….amazing.

So fun and happy, and the best part was all their fans are the same way.

I also ran into Nicole Balch from Making It Lovely, who also is a co-teacher in the e-course I took with Holly Becker of decor8. After I met Sherry & John I got to leave them a little note in their blank book that they bring to all the signings. Talk about pressure, even my girl Roo has written in this book.

If you all really want to see me geeking out, just watch this video that Tim caught.

He is such a good man…I figured I owed him a little somethin somethin for you know staying awake for 26 hours, driving me to Chicago, feeding me chocolate when I wanted to crash, capturing the magic, and wiping my tears when we got outside and I realized that I just met Sherry and John. Seriously, that happened. Soooo…as promised.

Amendment: As I was writing this post….this happened.

I am not going to deny getting up and doing the cabbage patch as soon as I read this….then I may have cried.
My life is seriously complete. I have to send a HUGE, wet, sloppy kiss to @westelm and @younghouselove for hosting such an amazing shindig. It really was the best.

10.02.12

East Coast Road Trip - Shedd Aquarium

Posted by Christina //

We knew that if we drove straight home from the East Coast we would be seriously depressed…in a car….together….for sixteen hours.
That was if there wasn’t any traffic.
We also knew that Chicago was only a six hour drive (five if your name is Tim).

So we added Chicago to our trip. That cut the depressing drive down by ten whole hours, because we were excited for Chicago for most the way home. Since we couldn’t catch a Cards-v-Cubs game, we went to the obvious vacation destination. Boy oh boy did our cameras get a workout. Hope you like photos! It goes without saying that we had a blast.
But I will say it anyway….we had a blast. We walked right into a show in their main tank. Where do I apply for that job?
I of course oogled the decor. Ummmm hi, where do you all shop?
I got caught oogling a lot that day…. What can I say, I have a real weakness for sharks. Check it. I mean, how do you not love them.
I am totally serious about having a shark tank too.
Luckily, I know where to stock up on sharks. Yes, they had real shark eggs. I have video of them wriggling that I will share later this week.

There was another baby. The baby Beluga was born about a month ago.
Say “hi”

That is my dolphin imitation. It seemed like the theme of the day was large and in charge.
Everything was huge. I know these aren’t the best pictures, unless you are into glare and fuzziness.
The point is look at the size of these monsters. For some reason, this reminded me of Harry Potter. So I ran….fast. Yes, that sea lion was the highlight of my trip.
He knew where the food was, so he would swim three laps then splash out to get some chow.
Everytime he got out I clapped like a….well, sea lion.

My second best friend was this little feller. He was convinced that the rubber duckie was his people.
More convinced that this duck was his BFF forever and ever.

Then there were the jellies. Oh the jellies.

It was what I want heaven to be…and has me convinced our next tank should be a jellyfish tank. That there is the general gist of our aquarium trip…minus about 450 pictures.
Shutter happy people, that’s for sure.

We were not happy to leave Chicago, since that meant our trip was pretty much over.
But we are so glad to be home….planning the next one!

10.01.12

East Coast Road Trip - Chitown

Posted by Christina // 2 Replies

When we originally planned our road trip, we planned on ending in Chicago for the Cardinals – v- Cubs series.
But then I was asked to help with the United Way, so our trip got moved up.

We still wanted to hit up Chitown, even if we couldn’t root for the home team. We didn’t have much time in Illinois, since we still had to drive six hours home. Our main attraction was none other than the Shedd Aquarium.
Where we took over 400 photos.

I decided to dedicated an entire post to all those photos, so you’ll be seeing all the aquarium goodness later this week!
While in Chicago we made a stop at Millenium park to see The Bean (aka Cloud Gate Sculpture). It was yet another attraction that we paid to park, walked to see, and then left.
We enjoyed it while we were there though. It was really neato skeeto….could have stayed and ~~tried to figure out how to take non-blurry photos~~ played for hours. But alas, we had to drive back to the Lou and go to work the next day. So we put our grumpy pants in the car and headed on home.

It was a sad, sad day.