Making Merry

Happy Christmas Eve, everyone! Thought I would share a few festive snaps from being out and about last weekend celebrating the season and some vacation time to spend together. Above and below, the bar at Lindey's in German Village.

Above, bar at the Worthington Inn and below, the starry ceiling above the bar.

Also Worthington Inn.

My kind of Christmas tree at House Wine in Worthington.

Cozy little bar at Harvest Pizzeria in German Village.

We are spending Christmas in Champaign, but will be back in Columbus to ring in 2012. 

I've put Little Green Vintage in Vacation Mode until after the New Year and I'm not sure if I will be back here until then either. But in the meantime, I'm going to be daydreaming up exciting plans for both shop and blog for next year. And maybe even actually starting to act on them! In the meantime, have a really great rest of the holiday season!

♡,

Erin

X-Mas Décor

As promised. Starting off with our Charlie Brown-est of trees, actually a windfall branch from the maple out back, 

stuck in the urn I bought once-upon-a-time for some verdant curly willow that kicked off shortly after transplant. We decided not to commit to hauling home and finding a place for a big tree, and most all the little ones we saw on last weekend were a little too rotund for this corner. Unfortunately after it was all said and done I did come across a few ickle ones that would have worked. Definitely next year we'll look harder to start with me thinks.

We did drag in some greens (cedar, ivy, boxwood, and blue spruce, thank you previous owners of our house for your excellent evergreen planting choices) from the yard and made little bundles for the front and kitchen windows. 

With double faced satin ribbon and white lights (in the front) things came together nicely, inspired by this image from Anthology mag via Apartment Therapy.

(Kitchen window.)

I set out my grandmother's sled each year. Used by she, my dad and aunt, and then myself, it's got three generations of snowy child entertaining and probably 100 years under it's belt. 

Paperwhites are blooming. Excellent timing.

Greeting card display as horizontal space is at a bit of a premium in the living room.

Greeting from a different time. Postcard sent to my great grandmother in 1918.

Decided to leave the antlers I found on Old Worthington Market Day au natural for now and finally just hung them up over the telly. They seemed game for a bit of adornment.

And finally last but not least, this Santa with his sack of presents, sled, and reindeer have been around in my family forever.

I've had so much fun scoping out holiday decorating ideas on Pinterest and around blogland this year. Sort of makes me hope I catch the holiday spirit earlier next year so that perhaps I can tackle some of the fun projects I've saved.

For a couple more lovely holiday décor blog posts check out junkaholique and lobster and swan. They're two of my faves any day of the year, and both ladies have given me serious sweet little tree envy. :)

♡,

Erin

My Bag, Baby

I was in need of a new bag a few weeks ago, and though I'm coveting this one, or this one (whichever, I'm really not picky), unfortunately neither is in the immediate cards. I happened to be in Target and spotted this perfect-for-winter, fuzzy, Fair Isle hobo and snatched it up for $19.99. Muted, but with a bit of color it works perfectly well with my winter coat (in saddle).

Outside is plain, save for this little side pockets which would be perfect for keeping sunglasses out of the fray, if I ever remembered to use it for such.

Open and zippered pockets inside... 

roomy enough for a couple mags or even an iPad.

In short, I endorse this bag for your budget winter accessorizing needs.

We did manage to decorate for x-mas over the weekend. Can't wait to share, I'm really happy with how things turned out, sitting here in my merry, slightly sparkly and shiny living room.

♡,

Erin

Festive First Friday

Beginning in the summer, downtown Worthington restaurants and businesses started staying open later and offering special goings-on the first Friday evening of every month. Greg and I, wanting to stay local and work on getting further into the holiday spirit, decided to head down and wander around a bit. And here are some snap shots, taken experimenting with camera and camera apps on my new iPhone 4s.

Above is the sleigh which makes an appearance every year on the porch of the Worthington Inn.

Lights in the courtyard/patio of the Worthington Inn.

Train display in the window of the hardware store. (At this point I was thinking "Really, can our town get any more freaking quaint?")

All the trees lining High Street are wrapped in lights and the light posts are decorated too, not to mention what individual businesses have done. And Friday there were luminaries lining the sidewalk to boot. Very pretty and bright!

We stopped into Fritzy Jacobs, a sweet little shop with a cheery, fun mix of home décor and gifts and got a couple little presents for our nieces, browsed through Pure Cottage, a shop right next to the village green specializing in English and French antiques plus new things for the home and other gift-y items, and we checked out the huge just-completed addition to Worthington Jewelers, then ended up in House Wine for some refreshment, with a final stop at Igloo Letterpress to oggle all their pretty paper wares.

So now I'm already to make our space nice and festive, but of course am short on time this week, and under the weather to boot. But I think besides attending to Greg's work Christmas party (#1, another one the following Friday), decorating will be the focus of this coming weekend. I'll be sure to share the results, inspired by way too much time spent on Pinterest lately.


♡,


Erin

What Was for Breakfast: Homemade Granola

I mentioned in my last post about undertaking an in-between holiday detox and workout regimen. Well, I actually followed through pretty well this past week, hitting the gym and trying to eat less and better. 

I've sort of been obsessed with finding the perfect granola since being treated to an absolutely delicious and ever-since elusive version of muesli at several bed and breakfasts on our trip to Ireland in 2009. Then on our vacay in Michigan over the summer, a good friend brought along some granola that she had made from scratch to share for breakfasts. It too was yummy, and after she emphasized that it was way cheaper to make than buy (hit up the bulk bins) and totally customizable, I decided I finally had to try my hand at concocting my perfect blend of healthy, breakfast goodness. I did a little bit of research and wound up cherry-picking ingredients and techniques from various recipes. Here's what I ended up with roughly. (Measurements don't need to be exact by any means, it's more about finding the proportion of ingredients that you like. And substitute away!)


2 cups rolled oats
1 cup almonds or walnuts
shy of 1 cup coconut
shy of 1 cup sunflower seeds (raw, not roasted or salted)
shy of 1 cup flax seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons salted butter (or if unsalted, add a bit more salt than the 1/2 teaspoon)
4-5 tablespoons honey
1 cup golden raisins or chopped dates


Combine first six ingredients well in bowl. 
Melt butter in microwave (or on stovetop, then remove from heat) then stir in honey. Pour butter and honey over oat mixture and stir, stir, stir thoroughly until everything is well-coated. If the mixture isn't looking at least slightly glisten-y throughout, melt a bit more butter, stir in a bit more honey, and mix in.


Line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and spread oat mixture out evenly. Bake for 30 minutes at 300° stirring every 10 minutes. Keep a close eye. You want everything to go a nice golden brown, but once this starts to happen, it happens quickly. Enjoy the sweet, delicious perfume coming from your oven


Let cool a bit and add raisins.


Serve with Greek yogurt and an extra drizzle of honey if you like (I do). This turns out slightly sweet, but not as sweet as what you would buy in the store. More raisins or dates up the sweetness quotient too.


Makes enough for one person for a week plus of breakfasts.


Totally worth the effort. Making and eating will have you feeling good on multiple levels, I promise!


♡,


Erin

Growing Gifts

I hope everyone in the States had an excellent Thanksgiving yesterday. We are in Illinois for the long weekend. We had a traditional turkey dinner yesterday with Greg's family and today we're on to a beef roast with mine. Monday I think I will be on to some sort of in-between-holiday detox and workout regimen. As today is Black Friday, tomorrow is Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday will be here before we know it, I wanted to share the paperwhite forcing gift sets I put into Little Green Vintage earlier in the week. 

I have two single bulb sets in these lovely silver goblets. Just the perfect size to snug the bulb in with just a bit of room below for water. They are engraved "Gene & Shirley 10-1-83", probably wedding favors once upon a time, and come tied off with vintage red and blue taffeta bows. 

I also have one three bulb set in this frosted Diamond Point pattern Indiana Glass compote, finished with a big bow of vintage silver ribbon and polished creamy colored river rocks for nestling the bulbs in.

All sets come gift wrapped. (And I'll soon have a gift wrapping option with the same basic materials available for everything else in the shop too, should you want to gift any of the other vintage goodies I've got on offer.) Inside a lidded gift box, vintage dictionary and silver tissue shred keep things padded and safe (compote will be bubbled and wrapped in tissue for extra protection). Bulbs are wrapped in tissue and tied up with twine and forcing instructions.  

Gift then comes wrapped in silver tissue and embellished with jute twine, green and white sparkle-infused baker's twine, a silver chenille stem star, white gift tag, and sprig of fresh cedar. 

All right, it's official, I've got the spirit. Bring on the rest of the holly-days!

♡,

Erin

Enjoy Co

Greg works in Granville, OH which is about 30 miles east of Columbus. It's a lovely New England-esque town (it was founded in 1804 by a group from Massachusetts and Connecticut)in a beautiful setting on the western edge of Appalachians. Granville is home to Denison University, a small liberal arts college, a picturesque downtown full of shops, restaurants and old churches, and loads and loads of gorgeous historic homes. (I will take you on a tour sometime after warm weather comes back around.) And Enjoy Co., a very nicely curated home and garden shop which I finally visited for the first time last week.    

Lovely leaves at the side of the shop.

Enjoy Co. sums up their aesthetic as "vintage, industrial, natural, and contemporary". The bright space the shop occupies showcases a neutral palate of silver, steel, bronze, wood, glass, jute, wool and leather with green accents in the form of lush potted plants. 

Wish I was a knitter so I could have justified a skein or two of this yarn. Have to try it out sooner than later.

Love, love, love the mini tinsel garland! (Getting closer to having that holiday spirit.)

I wish I had taken more store-wide shots, but I just kept zooming in on all of their great little vignettes. 

Reusable wooden gift boxes. ♥ 

I also wanted to bring home this porcelain votive house...

and this plushy, faux mossy wreath. Perhaps next time.

I did come away with some sparkle-infused bakers' twine for wrapping up holiday things...

and a few paperwhites for forcing. I just got this one nestled in today to my "Best Scholar Freshman Fencing 1934" cup, the lone specimen in my vintage trophy collection, but my peepers are always open. 

I am going to have on offer in Little Green Vintage a few paperwhite forcing gift sets of a similar vintage persuasion in the very new future. I've been wanting to have the "green" in Little Green Vintage refer to growing things for awhile now, and I'm super excited with how they're turning out as I put them together. I hope you'll like them too!

If you ever find yourself in central Ohio, do visit Granville and if you visit Granville, do stop into Enjoy Co, located just east of downtown and open Thur. - Sat. It's a beautiful, inspiring place. In the meantime, check out their website, as it is likewise!

♡,

Erin