I just got an email from the Careful Peach in Oak Park about these soaps by Savon de Marseille. Don’t you just want to eat them? Perhaps I felt this way because it was about 4 p.m. and my stomach was growling when they appeared, in all their lusciousness, in my InBox yesterday. Available in five varieties (including unscented, rose petals, and lavender) these guys are made of Mediterranean sea salt, ash from Mediterranean sea plants, olive oil and, in some cases, crushed flowers or herbs. You can use them not only to clean your skin, but to do laundry, and wash your dishes (just don’t eat them). They come in 300-gram bars (unscented $8, with pressed flowers/herbs, $13). What a lovely counterpart to any sink.

—GINA BAZER

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I just got an email from the Careful Peach in Oak Park about these soaps by Savon de Marseille. Don’t you just want to eat them? Perhaps I felt this way because it was about 4 p.m. and my stomach was growling when they appeared, in all their lusciousness, in my InBox yesterday. Available in five varieties (including unscented, rose petals, and lavender) these guys are made of Mediterranean sea salt, ash from Mediterranean sea plants, olive oil and, in some cases, crushed flowers or herbs. You can use them not only to clean your skin, but to do laundry, and wash your dishes (just don’t eat them). They come in 300-gram bars (unscented $8, with pressed flowers/herbs, $13). What a lovely counterpart to any sink.

—GINA BAZER

" />  

I just got an email from the Careful Peach in Oak Park about these soaps by Savon de Marseille. Don’t you just want to eat them? Perhaps I felt this way because it was about 4 p.m. and my stomach was growling when they appeared, in all their lusciousness, in my InBox yesterday. Available in five varieties (including unscented, rose petals, and lavender) these guys are made of Mediterranean sea salt, ash from Mediterranean sea plants, olive oil and, in some cases, crushed flowers or herbs. You can use them not only to clean your skin, but to do laundry, and wash your dishes (just don’t eat them). They come in 300-gram bars (unscented $8, with pressed flowers/herbs, $13). What a lovely counterpart to any sink.

—GINA BAZER

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Lovely Soaps

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I just got an email from the Careful Peach in Oak Park about these soaps by Savon de Marseille. Don’t you just want to eat them? Perhaps I felt this way because it was about 4 p.m. and my stomach was growling when they appeared, in all their lusciousness, in my InBox yesterday. Available in five varieties (including unscented, rose petals, and lavender) these guys are made of Mediterranean sea salt, ash from Mediterranean sea plants, olive oil and, in some cases, crushed flowers or herbs. You can use them not only to clean your skin, but to do laundry, and wash your dishes (just don’t eat them). They come in 300-gram bars (unscented $8, with pressed flowers/herbs, $13). What a lovely counterpart to any sink.

—GINA BAZER

Pouf!

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These fabulous poufs have just arrived at @Work Design in Forest Park. Think of them as throw pillows for your floor. Frank (red), 13½ inch diameter by 15¾ inches high, $617, and Henry (black), 16 by 16 inches, $317.

—GINA BAZER

Down Under Design

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It’s summer in Australia right now and Chicago’s Aussies are missing the motherland. That’s why this Sunday from January 24, from 1 to 5 p.m., a bunch of mates are getting together at The Trump Hotel for Experience Australia. Dozens of Outbackers will be selling artisanal cheeses, specialty seafood and meat selections, desserts, aboriginal art, and more; there will also be live performances by popular Australian musicians Anthony Snape and Claire Windham. Among the vendors will be one of our favorite Aussies, Jenny Rossignuolo, co-owner of Urban Source, who will display the lovely wallpaper of fellow countrywoman Florence Broadhurst, which is carried exclusively at Urban. Buy a $35 ticket and you’ll get a chance to win two rolls. That would make it a G’day!

–GINA BAZER 

Architectural Anarchy

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Gosia Korsakowski, an entrepreneur we’ve long admired for her keen eye for vintage home accessories and furniture, has started a new venture with an industrial antiques veteran. The new space is called Architectural Anarchy, and it’s next to Gosia’s booth in the Andersonville Galleria. Her partner is William Rawski, who has run Zap Antiques & Props for more than 20 years, outfitting movies filmed in town as well as many local restaurants. The two met when Gosia started shopping at Zap. Gosia says Anarchy will be home to “funkier, more industrial finds.” Friday would be a great time to visit; that’s the night of Andersonville on Sale, an evening of food, drinks, and discounts at some of our favorite neighborhood retailers and restaurants.

—JAN PARR

Blackbird's Salon Series, a New Crate, Fired Up

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Artists and restaurants have always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship—free rotating interior embellishment for the establishment, free exposure, sales opportunities, and maybe an occasional slice of tiramisu for the creator—but it’s not all that often that diners have the chance to meet, greet, and eat with the artists in situ. The upscale, esteemed Blackbird is continuing its Salon Series dinners in the private upstairs dining room next Wednesday, January 27, with a showing…

Nifty Knobs

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Oh, Facebook. What can’t you do? Reconnect me with old friends, make it easier to know what my buds are up to. You’ve also introduced me to new people and things. When I saw that my pal Martin Giese (a talented artist) was in a new relationship with someone named Jude Gries (Giese/Gries: I know, I know!), of course I had to click to see more. Turns out that (among other arty things), she creates custom decorative hand-painted cabinet hardware. The knobs are made of wood and finished so that they look like porcelain or ceramic, but they won’t break, chip, or crackle. What kid wouldn’t love these on a dresser?

—JAN PARR

On the Horizon: Study anticipates stable housing recovery for Chicago in 2011

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After enduring a multiyear decline, the values of most homes in the Chicago area may finally increase slightly by the middle of 2011. Or so says a detailed national forecast issued this past fall by Fiserv, a Wisconsin-based financial services company. According to the report, home prices in the metropolitan region defined as Chicago-Naperville-Joliet will … Read more

Name Your House

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After reading our blog about the elegance of monogramming a few weeks ago, Don Raney and Jaymes Richardson, the duo behind Civility Design introduced us to a new concept. Why not name your residence, they proposed—as in the Vanderbilts’ Biltmore Estate or Nixon’s California estate, La Casa Pacifica—to “add further depth of personality within your home, just as art, family photos, and other personal treasures provide that glimpse into the spirit of its owner.” The possibilities are endless, they say, suggesting putting your home’s name on a cashmere throw, cocktail napkins, stationery, matchbooks, serving trays, and china. Civility Design’s turn-to sources for monogramming are A Little Bit of This and Queen of Cashmere. Like this idea? You’d better really like the name you choose. Raney and Richardson have some tips:

•For a whimsical touch, how about naming your 400-sqaure-foot studio something like “Buckingham Arms?” Think grandiose.

•For an easy option, combine the names of the homes’ owners, a la “Pickfair,” the Beverly Hills estate of film stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Sr.

•Still at a loss? You can always fill in the blanks: “________ more” or “ ___________ haven.” Just insert a portion of your surname and it automatically sounds like old money. Think of “Biltmore,” the famous and legendary home of George Vanderbilt in North Carolina.

Thanks for the idea!

—GINA BAZER