A trip to Grabill

I got off work early the other day and decided to take a trip to Grabill, Indiana to spend the afternoon perusing the giant antique shop and to get a little fresh country air.

Although it's only a few minutes outside of Indiana's second largest city, Fort Wayne, you would never know it. Grabill is a small town known for it's large Amish community. It's main street is home to The Country Shops of Grabill and Souder's General Store. It's like stepping back in time, especially when the horse and buggies clop by.

I've been going to Grabill as long as I can remember with my parents and I just love it. Although the shops aren't the same country shops they used to be filled with everything Amish and country ~ baskets, dried flowers, and potpourri, they still have the same strange little rooms and faux rug flooring that take me back to when my brother and I would wander through the maze of rooms and get lost. The inventory may not be the same, but the memories are still there.

Now that it's an antique store and flea market, the style of what's for sale in the rooms varies from vintage to rustic farmhouse and anything else you'd find at a typical antique shop ~ books, paintings, furniture, clothes, and toys.

I'm always looking for my holy grail of cheap jadeite and a decent copy of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I've yet to find either, but I keep looking!

I'm so very lucky that I live in an area where one direction leads me to a big city with skyscrapers and a booming urban landscape, while the other leads me to a vast expanse of fields, farm animals, barns, and dirt roads. It's really the best of both worlds.

Springtime is a gorgeous time to take a drive in the country with all the trees flowering and spring flowers blooming. It was a bit of an overcast day, but that didn't stop me from enjoying the trip! I can't wait to go back and go to Schmucker's Farm and get some flowers for myself!

Welcome to Grabill, Indiana! Every time I come here there is a little horse and buggy parked here!

Inside Souder's General Store. It's like stepping back in time to Ike Godsey's store from the Walton's. They have classic candies along with homemade soaps and great rustic farmhouse home decor.

The Country Shops of Grabill. I believe at one time this was a hotel and restaurant. It has a very old west look to it and it's very easy to imagine how it was back when it was first built!

This is just one of the many little obscure rooms inside the Country Shops. There are so many different items in these shops. You never know what you will come across!

I love this idea! Flowers inside a teapot. I also just like this enamelware teapot by itself!

Deck chairs from the Titanic?

My mom had this book when I was little! It was filled with all these majorly seventies photos of glam people at cocktail parties eating various jello molds. I used to flip through it all the time dreaming of the day when I too would get to go to a glamorous cocktail party and eat jello! Honestly, it was really the first cookbook I ever read.

After leaving the antique store, I took a drive around the country. Amish don't believe in getting their pictures taken, so I really didn't want to take any pictures of them and upset them, so this is all you get. They don't even have to get their picture taken for their state I.D.'s ~ it says photo exempt where the picture should be.

One of my favorite barns!

Although, this farm was really giving the one above a run for it's money!

This is an Amish graveyard.

Hi horse!

There were a lot of curious animals out the other day.

I love this farm! It's seems like such a typical farm scene with the windmill and the silo full of corn!

I drove by this barn on the way home. It's such a cool, old barn and guess what? It's not even in Grabill. It's inside the Fort Wayne city limits! That's Indiana for you! A surprise around every corner!

Don't forget to follow me on Instagram @ sweethome.indiana for more!

Sunday in the Park

I have a new favorite flower! Tulips!

I've always thought they were pretty, but I never realized how many different kinds, shapes, and even sizes there are! I am in love!

I had been hearing about the tulips in Foster Park in Fort Wayne, Indiana for years and never made it out there to check them out. This year, I made it my mission! And I am so happy I did. We finally went this past Sunday after a belated Easter celebration. It was a perfect day for exploring the park.

Foster Park has bed after bed of expertly coordinated tulips interspersed between gorgeous flowering trees and other spring flowers such as daffodils, muscari, and hyacinths. There are also a few different groves of gigantic light and dark purple and white lilac bushes. Needless to say, the smell there is heavenly!

This trip was so inspiring! My yard goals have officially been upped! I imagine Foster Park is a smaller scale of what Holland, Michigan looks like during the Tulip Festival ~ which I am also dying to visit! (And even more so now!) I'm just so glad I found somewhere closer to home to visit!

If you live in the Fort Wayne area get over to Foster Park as soon as possible to check out all the gorgeous scenery and flowers before the blooms fade!

Foster Park is located off Old Mill Road near a bevy of beautiful old homes, not far from downtown Fort Wayne. You can see some of the huge lilac bushes behind the sign.

The park entrance. Everywhere you look there is something beautiful.

Red and pink are one of my favorite color combos!

I'd live in this house! What a great view!

I sooo love this bed! These colors together are perfection!

This is a replica of Abe Lincoln's cabin. Look at all those trees! And flowers! Gorgeous!

This area just looks so magical! I love the shape of the trees, it's like a set of tree tunnels.

Girls were getting their prom pictures taken and families were taking pictures everywhere. This park is such a gorgeous backdrop this time of year!

These people were getting their wedding pictures taken. They may have even just gotten married here. After seeing this, I was rethinking my decision to have gotten married at the Botanical Gardens.

These giant clusters of lilacs looked like grapes!

I think this is a dogwood tree. Possibly. Whatever it is, I love it!

Ok, so I am definitely going to do this combo in my garden! I just love the colors! I already have the muscari!

This is a tulip! Not quite what you imagine when you think of a tulip. It looks like a peony. In fact, I think it may be a peony tulip! One thing I think I would add to the park is a description of the different tulips.

Purple and red! So many different varieties!

These look like flames!

Very springy colors!

I generally prefer a more rigid color scheme, but all these different colors together have me rethinking that. I think I could live with a bed of all different colors. You never know, something like this might turn up in my yard next spring!

Check it out!

When I was a child, going to the library was an event. My mom would take us to our local branch of the public library on a regular basis and we'd check out as many books as we could! I was, and still am, a voracious reader! I even remember renting a VCR and movies from there as a child. That was always a real treat!

As an adult, I still love going to the library. It's exciting, you never know what you're going to find! Nowadays, you can get almost any type of media there, including magazines, DVD's, and CD's. The main library, in downtown Fort Wayne, even has a 3D printer available for use! And a Dunkin Donuts! Most libraries offer story times and crafts for kids, and book clubs for adults! Our library even offers online access to websites such as Freegal, where you can download songs for free at home.

And these are not your libraries of old, with card catalogs and mean old librarians telling you to be quiet. At my public library, everything is computerized now and user friendly. It's also more of a meeting place and more akin to a Barnes & Noble with places to sit and read.

I am always in the midst of a book, yet I don't actually own very many because I exclusively use the library. Books are expensive, and there is no way I could afford to support my reading habit if I had to purchase them. My life would be very dull without my public library!

Today kicks off National Library Week, and I urge you all to "check out" your local library. You never know what you'll find!

One of my recent library scores! The original Entertaining by Martha Stewart, a brand new cookbook from Food Network, and a really cool and inspiring book by the founder of the website Habitually Chic, Heather Clawson. And of course, a Jen Lancaster book! I love Jen Lancaster! I am on a mission to read all her books, she is so funny! Most are hilarious memoirs, but she also writes fiction. She's also a local girl from Huntington, Indiana!

These are all books just on interior design, decorating, and styling your home! You can pretty much find anything at my public library, and if you can't you can even ask them to purchase it!

My library has a good mix of old and new items! The librarians are always purchasing new items, many times on the day it comes out, so they always have the newest books and movies! And they're free!!!

Some of the magazines you can get. They have back issues that I love going through too. I actually love seeing things in magazines and then finding the exact article/picture on Pinterest now. You know, since you can't tear out sheets from magazines at the library!

 Happy Hunting!

 

All About Julia!

 I love Julia Child! 

I remember watching her TV shows on PBS when I was little and she's someone that truly inspires me. Not only for her amazing cookery (as she called it) skills, but also for her positivity, drive, and the way she handled life, in general. 

 Did you know that Julia really didn't start cooking until she was in her mid-thirties?!? And, she didn't become the "Julia Child" we all know and love until she was forty-nine years old (!) and co-wrote the venerable, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Before that she worked for the US government in foreign countries and then "aimlessly" drifted along in life until she and her beloved husband, Paul, moved to Paris and she discovered cooking. 

Sound familiar to anyone? Aimlessly drifting along, hoping for inspiration to strike? Julia proves that there's hope for us all yet! And that's another reason why I love her!
 

I am currently reading an excellent biography that I picked up at the library about Julia Child called, The French Chef in America: Julia Child's Second Act, by Alex Prud'homme. Mr. Prud'homme is Julia's nephew and co-author of her book My Life In France, which was the basis for the Julia portions of the movie, Julie & Julia (one of my faves and quite possibly one of the main inspirations for this blog!)

The French Chef in America (FCIA) picks up where My Life in France left off. It focuses on the time after Julia left France and settled back into American life (as a celebrity) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The FCIA gives background and insight on Julia's various adventures, including her many TV shows and cookbooks, in a personal way that only someone who truly knew her could. It's also a good book to read for a bit and come back to at your leisure and you won't feel lost.

  
The FCIA offers a lot of history, not only into the life of Julia and Paul Child, but also into the various food movements in America and France from the sixties and beyond. This man has done his homework! It's an excellent read for a Julia Child fan or any foodie in general.

I spent most of last summer reading Appetite for Life by Noel Riley Fitch, which was itself a good and very detailed book about Julia's life. I would recommend that book as well.

On a side note, If I ever fulfill my dream of making it onto Jeopardy, I hope there's a category all about Julia Child! I'd sweep it!

Just in case you can't wait to get your hands on The French Chef In America, here is a really cool website I found (The Julia Child Foundation) that is full of details all about Julia!

Spring in my step!

I've definitely got a little spring in my step today!

As I sit here writing this, I've got my patio door open, a warm breeze is blowing, and the sun is almost streaming in! You can't ask for a better day in Northeastern Indiana in the middle of February. This year (and pretty much last year too) has been exceptionally mild, especially after having the worst winters I can remember the prior few years. It's a welcome change! Normally, we are bracing for a state of emergency type snow storm the week of Valentine's - not this! This whole next week is supposed to be in the sixties!

I went to Meijers and Menards today and saw another welcome sight! Seeds and spring-planting bulbs are out in full force! Could this day get any better?

Seeing all the flowers and veggies has got my mind churning with ideas for my gardens this year! I had to get out and do a walk through of my yard to see what was already sprouting and where I can fit in more plants!

Of course, that led to me working in the yard most of the day - which I love to do! It was one of those great days that come along every so often where you even hate to go inside at the end of the day.  

And it's February! 

So many different varieties! I want them all!

These all look super cute. I've never seen them before. I'll have to do some research!

Phlox! I didn't know they came like this. I planted mine from seed and they've done really well over the years. Although I wanted to branch out and get some other colors (mine are mostly purple already) I might have to try these.

Meanwhile, in the garden...

Some hyacinths that I moved this fall. I'm glad to see they made it. I have only a few hyacinths and I'm not sure what color these are. I think either pink or white, they were given to me as Easter gifts. I'm going to make it a point to get some more.

A bunch of daffodils popping up! I think these are the first ones I planted in my creekside garden before there even really was a creekside garden!

Here come the tulips! These are dark purple, white, and pink (although they looked awfully reddish last year) that are planted at the end of my front porch.

Even my bright orange lillies are pushing through. I don't remember these popping out this early before, but I guess they're usually covered in snow at this time of the year!

Hard to see, but my Jane magnolia is getting buds on it.

These are some of the Irises I planted last fall. Not sure if this is normal or not, I've never had Irises before. They're burnt at the top though. Hopefully, they come through and bloom this year!

 

My daffodils out front look really far along! Like they could almost bloom soon! It's this crazy Indiana weather messing them up! I hope they do okay because I'm sure it's going to get cold again.

Even the lilacs are budding!

The sun setting on a perfect day!