Andersonville, Chicago – White Attic – Brimfield- Brownstone Antiques – Ann Sather – Icosium Kafe

There is no doubt I like beautiful things. I also like to be thrifty and buy things used and inexpensively, if at all possible. Occasionally, however, I come across beautiful things that are crafted so well that purchasing them seems like a logical and good thing to do, no matter the price. A large percentage of the items in White Attic fall into this category. Moreover, they also sell beautifully refurbished vintage furniture, which meets my “used” criteria, but by no means my “inexpensive” one.

To have some fun, check out White Attic’s online lamp bar where you can construct some beautiful virtual lamps. Also, they carry Voluspa Candles, which, if I had a significant other, I think I might have been rather tempted to plunk down the $20-30 per candle, or whatever it was they were asking. They had one which smelled exactly like flowering jasmine or “Raat-ki-rani” (Queen of the Night), as we called it in Pakistan.

Finally, they also feautured huge prints by Chicago artist Ben Holiday, several of which were really stunning, and it was lucky that we were traveling in a car and not a van!

This image of lamps was taken from outside, and, so, I was also able to catch the reflection of the street lamp.

Oh, and if you are in Andersonville, make sure to check out the even cooler Brimfield next door, which specializes in items from estate sales (like the dad in While You Were Sleeping did), and where I actually bought something! Catty-corner from these stores is Brownstone Antiques, which is a bit of crowded jumble but great fun to browse through. And if you are really, really hungry be sure to catch a huge Swedish breakfast (with monster cinnamon rolls) at Ann Sather. Then walk around a bit and come back for Algerian crepes at Icosium Kafe (oh.my.goodness). Yup, that is what my friends and I do when in Chicago: eat and walk and shop! Sleep. Repeat.