photos…rambling around
Category Archives: cool factor
reimagined wonderful
Today was a fun day that started out at an open house at the Reimagined Style studio. I had the best time.
When you walk into Tracy’s studio it’s a fabulous glimpse into her creative process as an artist. It’s also a wonderfully curated collection of antiques and vintage collectibles including some fabulous vintage and antique textiles. I came away with some fabulous vintage ornaments, and other ideas for gifts.
Reimagined Style will be around during the holidays and be sure to keep an eye out. If anything in my photos catches your eye, message them via Instagram or Facebook.
I am a happy customer. I have not been asked to write this post nor have I been compensated for this post.
#ShopSmall
beautiful progress
In June of 2020 much to my delight, I discovered the old Hershey’s Mill at Hershey’s Mill Road and Green Hill Road in West Chester (East Goshen) was getting a new lease on life.
We passed by last week again, and the restoration continues! This is so refreshing and lovely to see! I wrote about it again at the beginning of 2021.
The work whomever owns this property now has put into this place is remarkable.
Anyway, just thought I would share. It’s really cool!
santa says stop here!!!
I never stopped at this holiday market before today. I always meant to, but today it was pure impulse and OH. MY. CHRISTMAS. Why haven’t I done this the past few years???
The Burkholder Holiday Market is freaking AMAZING! It opened today and runs through December 23rd!! It’s apparently a whole holiday season of festiveness!! There will be not only this amazing holiday market but events through the season and you can also buy your Christmas tree from them! Seriously they are ALL about holiday family fun and their website has the entire schedule!
Now let’s talk about their Christmas shop. I loved it! So much to choose from that is beautiful and tasteful. And it smelled like Christmas in the shop. And the owners were so very nice.
My friend and I had so much fun! We found some really fun holiday decor and super cute ornaments and got some gifts for people. I think one reason why I liked it so much is because what I really love is a vintage Christmas feel, and a lot of what they had although modern, had that vintage emotion to the products they carry.
Burkholder Holiday Market – 359 Paoli Pike, Malvern, PA (Paoli Pike and Sugartown Road, enter on Paoli Pike.)
The Holiday Market runs November 12 – December 23
Tuesday – Thursday: 10am to 5pm
Friday and Saturday: 10am to 6pm
Sunday: 10am to 5pm
Closed on Mondays
art makes me happy
I have written about family friend and Philadelphia artist Margery Niblock a few times before. Her art is just something I have loved since I was a child. She was kind of my first artist.
She was a part of my childhood and I remember her home studio and her prints wafting in the breeze pinned to a clothesline with old fashioned wooden clothes pins at the Head House Craft Fair.
Margery also was one of my teachers back in the day. As a child she taught me to do woodblock and linoleum prints. I actually wasn’t that bad at it. It was a very fun process.
So recently, a very nice friend gave me some prints that he and his wife had collected while they lived not too far from where we lived when I was little. Prints I had literally not seen since I was a child! And three were owls! (I love owls!)
Receiving these prints was so exciting! They had literally never seen the light of day since they were purchased.
I took them over to Framers Market Gallery in Malvern to be framed. (Jayne and Dave the owners do all of my framing and re-framing at this point.) Jayne and I spent a good part of an afternoon about a month ago choosing the framing and mats. The store is so much fun because they have so many beautiful choices.
So here we are! The finished product!
Art makes me happy. And it doesn’t have to be outrageously expensive to have value to you. Buy what you like and hang what you like. Check thrift shops and flea markets and fairs and local art shows. Find your artist and enjoy them.
Thanks for stopping by!
a fun morning with chester county metal detecting
I have always been fascinated with people who do metal detecting and treasure hunting. I think it’s just cool and I also like the history involved. So this morning, Chester County Metal Detecting came out to our home and scanned our property and woods.
Sadly no fabulous examples of local history were found but we did find a lot of really old shotgun and looks like rifle shells. The rifle shells are interesting because one of my neighbors tells me that Chester County is shotgun only.
These lovely people do this for fun there is no charge they’re not treasure stealers and they love what they do! I met them in part because they scanned a friend of mine‘s home and they were at a nonprofit event for the Tredyffrin Historic Preservation Trust recently.
They have a Facebook page and a website if you would like to connect with them and have them come visit you. It’s a totally fun experience and I highly recommend it! Besides, you never know what little bit of history will be unearthed!
Chester County Metal Detecting (Website)
Chester County Metal Detecting (Facebook Page)
estate sale find: history treasure trove of articles and a fabulous book
That is a photo of a history book about Lower Merion Township from 1988. It was this great book that was privately printed that only had 1000 copies ever printed on the original publication, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen this book out there for sale other than on eBay. I bought it for $10 at an estate sale.
Inside the book was a treasure trove of articles mostly about things in Lower Merion Township but one about Radnor Township as well. The articles were from The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Main Line Times when it was still advertised as an independent newspaper.
I have only just started to read the book but I am sharing screenshots with all of you fellow history buffs that I hope you will find of interest. One thing I loved in particular is a screenshot about things in Gladwyne. it was obviously an old map and it was lent to the folks who put this book out by the father of a childhood friend.
There is so much about the history of the Main Line and Chester County the disappears year-by-year. This is why I love when I can get my hands on one of these really good local history books. I don’t know who owned this particular copy of this book but it’s a wonderful book, and the articles are fabulous.
Enjoy!
sunset
Sometimes the sunsets out here are just so cool. I wasn’t sure how yesterday would turn out but the clouds and light in the end, were awesome. There was even a faded rainbow.
blooming good lunch
Today a friend and I finally had a chance to try Bloom Southern Kitchen. Mmm mmm good!
Our waiter was this nice kid named Sam. He was delightful and hardworking. Lunch was so good I forgot to take food photos! We had burgers, slightly edited because I don’t like cheddar on a burger, and neither of us like eggs on burgers.
Also the makeover inside is lovely. And I say that fully admitting I liked the last interior makeover when it was still called the Eagle Tavern.
But this makeover is so pretty. And great light fixtures and details. The booths are gone and the main dining room is more open.
However ask me what one of my favorite things in the makeover is? Give up? I will tell you: NO TVs IN THE BAR ANYMORE!
I wasn’t sure if I was going to like The Eagle Tavern becoming Bloom, but now I think I do. We can’t wait to try dinner there! Oh and they are one of the few places open for lunch on Mondays. We were actually going to go to the Ship Inn and try the lunch menu, but they are only open for lunch on Friday and Saturday.
Check out Bloom Southern Kitchen located at 123 Pottstown Pike Chester Springs, PA 19425
Hours: Monday to Thursday
11:30am–9pm
Friday & Saturday
11:30am–10pm
Sunday
10am–8pm
(484) 359-4144
hello@bloomsouthernkitchen.com
new life comes to historic yellow springs
I have loved the historic village of Yellow Springs down Art School Road in Chester Springs for years and years. I was first introduced to the village by my late father. He loved the art show and the antique show the village no longer hosts in the fall (but should.)
We would come out to the village, attend the art show or antique show and have lunch at the now closed Yellow Springs Inn. At first the restaurant was in the building known today as “The Washington”, then it moved to the Jenny Lind House.
I don’t remember who exactly was in the Jenny Lind House before the Yellow Springs Inn went to live there. But I knew a little bit of the history and that it was a boarding house. Run (and built) by a woman named Margaret Holman.
Truthfully the history of Yellow Springs Village is so very interesting. As a related aside, Margaret Holman is but one of many women who played important and pivotal roles in this village over time and throughout its history. Now we add my friend Meg Veno to that list of historically important ladies. With her renovation of the Jenny Lind house and the amazing adaptive reuse that still nods to the past in process, she is bringing new life and a fresh set of ideas to Yellow Springs Village.
Restoring Jenny Lind is so positive for this magical village. And I was so glad to see people out enjoying the art show and picking up their box lunches from at the Jenny Lind today!
The restoration is not complete there are still at least a couple more months of solid work ahead of them. But today I had the privilege and honor to see the progress and how the renovation was coming along. I was literally almost reduced to tears. I had no idea that once upon a time at a Life’s Patina Barn Sale when Meg mentioned to me that she was looking for another project, and I happened to tell her that the Jenny Lind house was in bank foreclosure and the restaurant gone, that this would happen.
I was thinking today when you mention to people that a great historic asset is for sale you never know if anything will ever happen. A lot of times it doesn’t. And this time it has. And the transformation is as magical as it has been watching Loch Aerie come back to life. Completely different periods of history and styles of architecture but both have these spots in my heart.
Oh and the lunches sold are a preview of what we can expect in the cafe to be? Amazing! And it was all environmentally friendly packaging down to the disposable wooden utensils.
I am including photos I took a few years ago of the Jenny Lind when it was the restaurant so you can fully appreciate the remarkable and painstakingly gorgeous restoration. The Victorian decor of the former Yellow Springs Inn was never right for the structure although for years the restaurant was quite good.
Life’s Patina Mercantile & Cafe at the Jenny Lind House is going to be perfection.
Read more about it on Meg’s blog:
The Jenny Lind House Renovation ~ She is Finding Her Voice Again
Behind the Scenes at Life’s Patina
Design Inspiration for the New Life’s Patina Mercantile & Cafe
