Last weekend I went to visit a friend in Chicago. It was my first time in the Windy City. I’ve heard tons of amazing things about Chicago and was happy to go. I would love to go back with ALL of my friends and do everything there is to do. I might need to look into a chicago coach bus company to get about because it would be much easier than all of us trying to get the train. The funny thing is that although I absolutely loved my time there, I didn’t really get up to the typical tourist things so I would do those things with my big group of friends. There was a lot of drinking, chatting, and laughing which was needed. But we did manage to squeeze in a little shopping and check out some great architecture.



When I’m traveling, the truth is I’m usually not a big shopper because these days I can get most of the same stuff at home or online. So when I do shop, I like to check out unique boutiques and especially vintage & antique shops. With that as my goal, I chose to check out the Andersonville neighbourhood, which is home to many shops of that kind.

My favourite shop was The Haymaker Shop. This cool shop was almost a cross between a shop and a gallery – but everything you saw was for sale. Almost everything we carry has been made in Chicago or the Midwest. And all items are created by independent designers/artisans/artists/small studios. It’s always great when you can shop local.

The store is a mix of colourful, quirky, vintage and modern.

I was drawn to these coloured ‘fence’ pieces by iamhome. I ended up taking home the small one on the right.

So no pics of the big silver bean or me at a Cubs game (maybe a summer trip?). We did get to see the famous Frank Lloyd Wright Robie house but I’ll save it for another post.