Just Because Packages

We love getting surprise packages in the mail. Holly received this special guy yesterday. Thank you, Brandon. She loves him and I do too!

Inspiration

Thought we'd share this amazing find for the shop (look for it in next week's shop update). It's a vintage Nature Sticker Book from the 50's or 60's. We're not sure the illustrator, but it looks a lot like Charley Harper. So fun to find these obscure paper treasures.

New Blooms

The zinnia seeds that Stu planted for me have started blooming. I love these flowers they bloom in all colors and the more i cut the more the flowers bloom. They also attract many butterflies to our garden too!

Summer Days

We were busy this weekend preparing the shop for a big update, that is up today. Lots of vintage items just added, see what's new before its gone. Summer is surely here and we celebrated by running through the sprinkler and eating messy popsicles on saturday. Fun!

Squawk!

Hope everyone enjoys the weekend! We'll be updating the shop with quite a few items on Sunday/Monday, so please be sure to check-in. This image is one of the many items included in the update - an antique handcarved placecard holder, made in italy. Can't tell if the bird is yelling at the guy climbing the tree or maybe they're in some sort of race, but the guy does have a big smile on his face.

Summer Dresses

Someone got this giraffe dress as a birthday present this year. She likes to wear it everyday. We call her our jungle girl.

Cherry Top, Scary Mannequins and Other Tales

Today I took a daytrip by myself to do some procurement for the shop (which fared well...good stuff coming to the shop very soon!) and a few things kind of blew me away. Let's discuss: But, before we do, on a side note, let's take a look at this awesome menu from the Luca Brasi deli in Hoboken. What, no Medium Petey?


1. Cherry Top - Driving all morning I was getting sleepy so when I arrived in this small town I stopped at a Dunkin Donuts for an iced coffee, egg'n'cheese and toasted coconut donut (mmmmm...). As my eyes scrolled around the donut racks, I thought I was delirious with sleepy eyes, but it was all real. Cherry Top donut. Peanut Butter 'n Jelly donut. Kreme D'Lite donut. I've never seen these before! I checked the official DND website and it doesn't even seem like any of these are officially sanctioned. Wow, I feel like such a tourist in these small towns sometimes - they're like some weird Twilight Zone episode.


2. Scary Mannequins - Everyone has their own taste in antiques, of course, but when I turned the corner in this tight dim lit section of this old market today, I got totally spooked out and jumped back into the shelves behind me. And what's with the velvet rope?


3. Driving by Yourself - Now that we're driving a lot more and longer distances, I'm starting to buy-in to the whole satellite radio thing. No good songs and when you do find one, they don't last and get busted up by the fuzz. It's really frustrating. Here's a pic of me imitating a slow motion cry of "Noooooooooo!" after Van Halen's "Panama" got fuzz-busted mid-way through.


4. Detour - I got lost on my trip (as always) and had to ask for directions. This really overfriendly woman described what seemed to be some kind of strange detour route. She was smiling really widely the whole time, describing all these offbeat landmarks. I asked her if this was the quickest way and she replied, with a pause....."it's the best way". Well, I'd like to say thanks because this detour was awesome! I passed an amazing old log cabin lodge, an old Bates Motel-like "Holly Inn" motel, and these beautiful rolling hills filled with apple and cherry trees. I quickly snapped a pic and when I got home I realized that it had this weird-looking car in it. There's gotta be some kind of word (like a Sniglet) for when people replace large pieces of the car body with unmatching colors. Anyone? Anyone? I remember that Volkswagen put out a car like this in Europe and Japan in the late-nineties. You could mix and match the colors of the various pieces of the car. Sounds like a good idea, like the Patchwork Elephant, but they mostly ended up tragic messes.

daddy day

since she was born, holly has always looked so much like stu. her face is so his, with just a touch of my filipino traits. she's a little stu in looks and in her personality. she's even inherited his unique and sometimes weird sense of humor. i love that.

happy father's day, stu! we love you, you are our favorite and our best.

Teacups for Oprah

This sweet tea towel in our shop by JamTart was featured in the summer edition of Oprah at Home magazine. A perfect summer addition to your evening barbeque and summer party. You can purchase them with us here. The article features lots of amazing summer tea towels by some of our favorite fellow artists such as Snowden Flood, GoodShape Design, Heather Moore, Hable Construction to name a few.

P.S. Look for an update tonight (EST) to the shop. Have a lovely Monday.

Stu Rabbit

My jaw is still on the floor after accidentally stumbling upon the back cover of this really cool 1970's cardboard press-out book (similar to the ones in our shop). We were set to put this up in the store when I turned to the back and couldn't believe it.... Stu Rabbit. I've always thought that I had an unusual name - whenever I met someone new they'd either say, "I never met anyone named Stu before" or.... "I know a guy named Stu....he's really weird". Well, I definitely agree on both fronts. I've never really known anyone else on a personal level named Stu and the ones I've heard of were definitely...not so normal (including myself, which I've recently come to grips with - I guess you always kind of grow into the name you're given). But you can throw that all out the window cause this Stu Rabbit is awesome and has given me a new perspective on my name. Not only is this rabbit named "Stu", he's pink, and if you attach the press-out legs to the body, they spin around like Fred Flintstone driving in his car. To boot, he looks like a kind of an amazing rejected Jay Ward cereal mascot!Okay, I just now breezed through the rest of the book and it's confirmed. The name "Stu Rabbit" shares company with "Hattie Beaver", "Kooky Klown", "Packer Elephant" and "Nutty Squirrel" among others. Awesome. I love my name.

No Power

Yesterday we were hit with a big thunderstorm with tornado like winds and all last night and today (still) we are without electricity. It was my sister's birthday yesterday and luckily we were still able to have a bbq dinner via our grill for her with a yummy birthday key lime pie by candlelight. This morning we awoke to still no power and now the three of us are sitting in Starbucks so we could access our email and tend to the shop.

If it doesn't come on by tonight, we will be having another candlelight dinner again - which will actually be kind of nice.

Sunday Night Update

Hello Monday. How was your weekend? Don't miss out and see what's new in our shop today.