A New Decade

     Hello there. Apologies for my absence last week. I had the best of intentions on many fronts, but unfortunately my plans were derailed by an unpleasant discovery in the basement.
     We thought we were on the verge of finally putting the finished half to use as living space, when a series of events led to the realization that, as a consequence of the remodel not being done properly in the first place, over the next month we'll be tearing out and replacing portions of framing, drywall, and baseboard and all of the flooring, as all of the above have been exposed to moisture pretty much constantly over the last ten plus years with yucky results. This instead of just finishing off furnishing the space and kicking back and watching a movie.  Bummer. 
     This bad news had me so bummed that I almost called off the trip home to Champaign-Urbana to celebrate my birthday, but I was convinced by my better half to not be a party-pooper and I'm very glad of it. I had a great time on Saturday with family and friends. Got to enjoy the best pizza in the world at Papa Del's on Green St. and then hop around downtown Champaign till it was my birthday no more. (The above is the Champaign City Building from the beer garden of The Blind Pig Brewery. I like that the pic is warm, fuzzy, blurry, nostalgic, and a bit romantic, like a good birthday should be.) 
     So it's the start of a new set of ten years for me, the one where all the ages start with 3. I've found the transition a bit depressing, but I'm excited too, for all the great things I'm sure are to come.
     Hope you had a good weekend and I promise to try to be a more dependable blogger going forward, no matter the extraneous circumnstances. 


♡,


Erin 

High Summer

Another great summer weekend drawing to a close. We went out for cocktails (at Mouton), dinner (at The Rossi. First time we'd tried it. Really good atmosphere, food, and service. Fabulous Deco bar.), and a nightcap at Bodega in the Short North Friday night. For those not familiar with Columbus, the Short North is situated north of downtown and south of the Ohio State University's campus. Centered on High St., it's a mostly commercial district chock full of restaurants, bars, shops, and galleries. It's where we like to go when we're in the mood for that energetic, hip sort of vibe and good people watching.

Saturday morning it was the Worthington Farmer's Market as usual, where I picked up these lovelies. And as when I posted on an earlier bouquet here, I'm not sure of the vendor's name. I will look in to both next time we're there (in two weeks, going home to Illinois for my birthday this coming weekend!), I promise.

Then we took our hungry selves to our usual Saturday brunch spot, Northstar Café in Clintonville. 

Followed that up with an estate sale I'd scoped out on Friday. They were advertising everything would be half price Saturday after noon, so I held out and only ended up missing out on one goodie I really wanted. I'll share what we scooped up in the next couple of days.

Then to beat the heat, we headed to the theater for The Deathly Hollows Part 2. Maybe for the second weekend in a row, maybe not.

We concluded the day by making cherry lemonades (with a splash or two of vodka. Will share the recipe here in the very near future) and a tasty, nearly entirely grilled dinner.

Today was more work and less play, but it ended with a nice big thunder and rain storm as we tucked into tasty chicken sausages, corn on the cob, sliced tomato, and potato salad, topped off with ice cream.

I hope you've enjoyed the gratuitous floral-ness.

This final bloom fell off the main event, but was too pretty for the trash.

Hope your weekend was nice and summery.

♡,

Erin

Treasures on the Green

Wow-y, it's nigh on Wednesday already! Time flies when your motivation keeps melting into a puddle. Extreme heat and extreme cold seem to both have the effect of rendering me motionless.

I thought I'd share a few pics of my booth at Treasures on the Green Saturday, because, well, I remembered to take some, and because they contain a little preview of some of the new things that will be going into Little Green Vintage on Etsy very shortly.

Luckily Saturday was nothing like yesterday and today in terms of temp and humidity. It was quite a pleasant day to be outside really.

\

Greg was wonderful and held down the fort for awhile so I could do a bit of looking around. Not to mention was the muscle behind the operation, brought me breakfast and lunch, and kept me company. I showed my gratitude for all his help by scooping up this little gem, the likes of which has been on both of our wish lists since we developed a serious weekend, fresh-squeezed cocktail habit back at the beginning of summer. 

I also nabbed these lovely paint-by-numbers pieces for a song. I haven't decided whether or not to keep them for myself yet.

But I am particularly fond of this pup.

All in all the show was a good learning experience, though to be honest I think I'll be sticking mostly to my Etsy shop, at least in the near future and at least as far as vintage selling goes. It was quite a lot of work for a Saturday!

Hope you had a lovely weekend!

♡,

Erin

Show Time

I am doing my very first show tomorrow and it's just occurred to me that it might be a good idea to let you know. I will be at Treasures on the Green, downtown Worthington from 9-4. If you by chance happen to be in the greater Columbus, OH area, please come by and say hello! The fabulous Worthington Farmer's Market will of course be going on too, from 9-12. I will be on the southeast quadrant of the village green with my back to Dublin-Granville Rd. I've accumulated a lot more goodies than just what's in my Etsy shop at the moment. I'll be taking my shop down here in a bit and will have it back up next week and will be adding new stuff all the time, I promise! In fact I am on the verge of expanding my offerings to include some handmade things with a vintage twist. Thus the slight name-change on my new card (above). 

New cards are the 2x2" square option from UPrinting.com, which I first saw and liked the looks of here over at the Merriweather Council. I do like my results overall, although, as those with the critical eye can see, the cut was a bit off, resulting in my images and text not quite being centered. But I let them know about it and a fresh batch is on the way.

Hope to see you tomorrow!

♡,

Erin

Have you met Mollie?

So I mentioned I am addicted to magazines. Well, I've added another to my must-have-every-issue list. I discovered Mollie Makes at the bookstore a few weeks ago while there picking up my other international must-have-every-issue read (introduce you to it soon). Mollie Makes is published in the UK, so it's a bit pricey here, but if you're into any or all of the below, it's worth every penny. And it seems each issue is to come with a little craft kit. How great is that? 

I managed to come in on the very first issue (which feels really good as I somehow seem to always be late to discover neat things) and then earlier this week I stopped in to check and see if perhaps the next issue of either this or my other bookstore buy was out, and was just in time to snag the last copy of the second issue. And it's as good as the first!

I was delighted to see All the Luck in the World, of which you already know I'm smitten, featured. 

And will you look at that lovely tea towel on the right there! The editors have excellent taste! But seriously, it's great to discover new wonderful things one loves in mags, but it also feels good to see the shops and items one already loves too. Quite validating. 

There are projects galore. I'm in need of a pin cushion as I plan to kick my sewing hobby up a notch (from 0 to at least 1. But I've just done a project! and I'll show you soon).

I hope I get around to learning knitting/crochet before granny squares are granny again. I do like the look quite a lot at the moment. 

And there are inspiring people and interiors too.

Yessiree, that is a full piano cozy. Love the eccentricity of the idea. (And that deer-head light.)

Whatever the topic, pretty well every spread is pure eye candy.

Mollie Makes is available by subscription nearly everywhere. And for us in the US, though it may seem a staggering sum, I did the math, and a subscription is slightly cheaper than the cover price. I am still considering whether or not to bite the bullet. Maybe as a birthday present to myself.

Do try to check it out though, it really captures the Etsy, craft-y, vintage-y, blog-y vibe sweeping around right now. And as someone trying to really embrace that culture and especially work harder on her crafty-ness, I find Mollie quite inspiring.

♡,

Erin  

Patriotic Nautical-ness, A Fine Sunset, and Fireworks

We had a wonderful time in Michigan with very, very good friends. It's great to be home however. I missed my little house and my sweet animals terribly. I am ready and raring to get going on all the projects in the pipeline. But first some vacay pics, taken with my regular camera and my (relatively) new-to-me favorite thing, the Hipstamatic App for iPhone. 

Above and below, the channel in South Haven     

The Friends Goodwill (see last post)

Natural fireworks before the manmade ones 

Only just working with my little point and shoot sans tripod, but still pretty. Abstract neon jellyfish, anyone?

Hope everyone in the US had a great holiday.

♡,

Erin

Setting Sail

We are heading off on vacay today, returning to our old stomping ground, southwest Michigan. Going to get reacquainted with the lovely lake you see above. There is no internet at the house we've rented (gasp, I know) so I don't know if I shall post again till we return (next Friday). In the meantime, Happy Independence Day.  

For a bit on the ship, whose port is South Haven where we'll be located, see here.