Sharon Stangenes

Chicago area lovers of china and crystal are experiencing a Viking invasion as three visiting artists show skills that have made Scandinavia famous. Hand-painting wild flowers on china at Georg...

As the Midwestern growing season starts, some savvy sorts are planning to grow herbs for more than eating. Patricia Henschen, owner of a shop by the same name in the...

''It`s not easy work,'' says Estelle Elliott, an ebullient ''over-60'' who is a student in the horticulture department at Triton College in River Grove. Elliott and her younger classmates recently...

Stepping into Joanie Hall and Mary Anne McIntyre`s tiny shop at 1939 N. Lincoln Ave. is like stepping into spring in full bloom. Hall and McIntyre have crammed floral-motif home...

Color and tension play a big part in the art of Los Angeles artist Peter Shire`s work. One of the few Americans to show furniture in the Memphis design consortium,...

Consumers willing to wait until this summer for design help will have a new reference book. Toney Architectural Digest magazine is joining the ranks of those publishing an interior design...

Move over, Batman: Bart Simpson has arrived. In the fashion and fad sleeper of the season, T-shirts and other clothing items featuring characters from the fractured cartoon family ''The Simpsons''...

In a matchup made in prestige heaven, Chicago`s Oxxford Clothes Inc., a company that takes pride in the number of business executives who wear its suits, has been purchased by...

Smiles, not significant style messages, are the point of the recently opened Trend House at Marshall Field`s State Street store. ''It`s an exercise in whimsy and smile,'' says David Snyder,...

Slick and sophisticated, the glass top coffee table pictured against the backdrop of a black leather sofa beckons. ''Take a good, close look,'' invites the brochure for a new store...