Hello The Rug Company Chicago

I am so excited that today The Rug Company is opening up a Showroom in Chicago. We all know their rugs. We see them everywhere from our favorite homes in magazines to our favorite movie sets (Sex & the City's). They've got it all from traditional to completely modern. The space will show off their rugs, wall hangings and cushions (pillows for us Americans!).

I will definitely be visiting this space asap as I've never gotten to see any of their products in person and I can't even imagine how amazing their showrooms must look up close. Here are some of my favorite images from their website.

Have you seen their wall hangings?!

And now for some rugs.

This rug (Swirl by Paul Smith) is one of my all time favorites - it makes for some very dramatic photos.

Here are some images of The Rug Company's Showroom in New York. The design and styling of this has me so pumped to see what they have done with the new Chicago Showroom.

All images of the New York Showroom are by Heather Clawson at Habitually Chic.

The Rug Company Showroom Address:

320 N Clark St.

Chicago, Il 60654

Doors open at 10 AM. Now, Go!

Hello New York

Whew - the past few days have been so many things - exciting, exhausting, and fast! Now that I've given you my Nate Show recap I figure I'll give you a little view of my overall New York trip. I've only been to New York one other time and it was for a very quick, short weekend. I flew out from Chicago to New York Monday and returned Wednesday evening. I brought along one of my best friends and we were lucky enough to be able to stay with another great friend which gave us the opportunity to catch up and for her to play tour guide.

Myself, and Atalie (who allowed us to spend two nights at her place).

Jenny and I - Jenny is the friend I mentioned that joined me from Chicago for the trip.

Below are the great views from Atalie's buildings rooftop.

On Monday night we headed out to the meat packing district. We had a really good, family style dinner at Spice Market and then Atalie took us on a tour of different neighborhood bars. This one was a little speak easy, the outside door is unmarked. This drink we shared was delish - vodka with cucumber and mint.

Atalie's favorite part about this place - ice cubes the size of your glass!

Tuesday morning Jenny and I took a walk through Central Park and made a stop at Dylan's Candy Bar - I have a huge sweet tooth and Jelly Belly's are one of my absolute favorites - sour flavors to be exact.

We then headed on to our next sweet stop - Serendipity. There is actually a movie with this title starring John Cusack, it's a corny love story but I really adore it. We ate in the upstairs section and here is a view of the ceiling and the chandelier.

Serendipity is famous for their frozen hot chocolate and I must say it was absolutely delicious. It really does taste just like frozen hot chocolate!

On Tuesday night Atalie took us to her favorite pizza place located in Brooklyn - Grimaldi's.

The pizza was extremely good - super thin crust, and very fresh ingredients. Between the three of us we almost finished off 2 large pizzas and Atalie, who was flying to Chicago the next day for work, picked one up to bring to her mother.

Before we ate we took a small walking tour through Brooklyn to see some of the amazing houses and also check out the view over the river.

Wednesday morning prior to our flight home Jenny and I spent a few hours walking around touring more of the financial district, including Ground Zero and then we headed on through Tribeca before calling it a day.

My Nate Show Recap

Finally recovering from my spur of the moment New York trip - which the absolute highlight of for me was Tuesday afternoon and evening. I know there have been a lot of different views being blogged about this day but I must say, for myself, I really enjoyed it. Yes, it would have been great for Nate to have acknowledged us bloggers on air - but for me the overall experience was well worth the trip. Both Emily Henderson and Christian Siriano were guests on the show and being the reality TV junky that I am I was thrilled. Between those guests, Nate himself, and the ridiculous amount of talented bloggers in the audience I loved the experience.

Prior to the show this cute woman kept us entertained - she also did her absolute best to keep up the energy - this was definitely the most clapping, smiling, and whoo-hooing I've done in - well ever. Nate did a Q&A after the show which I really enjoyed. He was much more relaxed and I felt his answers were very honest. There was a time during the Q&A where some of his employees in the studio were trying to tell him it was time to go and he made the point that he knew how far some of us had come and he felt the least he could do was sit with us a little longer and answer a few more questions - which he did.

Picture borrowed from Erika at Blu Label Bungalow - all of my Nate photos were blurry.

Next stop was the event hosted by The Nest and helped made possible by Camila. I had a great time here despite being exhausted and starving and probably a little wired from all of the champagne and mini desserts! It was an amazing opportunity to have so many of my favorite bloggers all in one room.

Here is a photo with Stefanie from Brooklyn Limestone. Her blog is an absolute favorite of mine and probably the first I really followed and read beginning to end. I was delighted to meet her and she was so sweet - in the photo she's trying to shrink down to my sad 5'2" height. Behind her you can see a glimpse of Teresa from the Stamford Wife - adorable, and extremely talented woman!

Here we have Lakeitha, Janell, Jade, myself, and Marianne.

Other bloggers I had the pleasure of meeting included Emily from Emily A. Clark, Lindsay from Everything LEB, Carlee from Deliciously Organized, Amanda from recycled consign and design, Cristin from Simplified Bee, Jenny from Little Green Notebook, Bryn from Bryn Alexandra, and Camila from High Heeled Foot in the Door, I'm absolutely certain I've missed people - so please let me know and I apologize ahead of time - it was so many amazing people in such a small amount of time!

Maybe I have a little bit of a different take on this day because I'm pretty new to this blogging world and because it was my first time being at anything like this - so more than anything I was honored and excited to even be invited to attend the taping as part of a bloggers audience and the after party. Everyone I met seemed genuine and sweet - especially the ladies that let me share a cab with them 2 minutes after meeting me. It really is so great to meet these people whose lives, work, and dreams you read about everyday. So for me this trip was absolutely worth it and I am so glad that I made the decision to go. My only regret is that I did not take anywhere near enough photos. I truly hope we can all do something like this again soon!

Hello Sleep

I had planned on arriving home last night and getting a post ready for this morning full of pictures and stories about my New York trip. But that 48 hour whirlwind has left me completely drained and all I managed to do was catch the Gossip Girl episode I missed and pass out.

I figured I should at least leave you all with something pretty to look at.

Photography by Ashlee Raubach

This gorgeous fireplace is by Caitlin Wilson Designs. And if you don't already know, she has a pretty amazing blog found here. All of her work is clean lined and fresh - and she is an absolute master with throw pillows and fabrics.

Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with a full post on The Nate Show, the blogger event which I attended afterwards, as well as my other random New York outings.

Hello Martha Stewart Kitchens

Martha Stewart now has a kitchen line available at Home Depot. I really want to redo our kitchen cabinets someday in the distant (but hopefully not too distant) future and this gallery has me hoping for a lottery win so we can get started asap. As with everything Martha creates - I am loving what I see.

I think this gray might be my favorite.

These are a close second.

Love how she has provided both traditional as well as modern options.

Another great thing about this line is the details. There's everything from open shelving to corbels to really convenient custom looking cabinets and drawers for common kitchen items.

And of course in true Martha fashion - tons of organization options!

Later this week I'll be doing a post on my day as an audience member at The Oprah Show where the special guest was none other than Martha Stewart!