Just in ….

It was a great weekend for vintage finds …. I'm so stinkin happy that the sun is finally coming out here in the Midwest.  Let the vintage season begin!! Pin It

Beauty and Peace at The Morton Arboretum

One of my newest favorite places is the Morton Arboretum in Lisle.  A place that we visited on field trips as a child but I had never been back to until recently.  It is about 45 minutes east of DeKalb but so worth the drive!  

 I purchased a yearly pass for the hubby and I.  50 dollars per person which is a deal if you plan on going daily, weekly, or even monthly because a single day's entry fee is $12.  We've been going weekly and have already saved money by having the membership card. 

 The Arboretum is so large that it will likely take us years to see it all.  But we've been having fun picking different spots to explore each time we go. 

Things were pretty frosty Friday morning but the sun was shining and there was some great Fall color still to be seen.

 If I remember correctly, this is a Miyabe Maple.  Isn't she pretty?

 Even the Arboretum carts look pretty with their red color against the brilliant yellow.

Happy November!

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classic cars

I have a crush on vintage cars and trucks.  Mostly the 40s thru the 60s.  It's been a great summer for spotting them. Seems like every weekend while out rummaging I run across 3 or 4 of them.  Sometimes I'm quick enough with my iphone to get a good snapshot.

Here are 4 of my recent favorites from my instagram stream.

My husband and I have a vintage 68 Mercedes that we keep stored waiting for the day that we have the time to fully restore it.  It sure will be fun to take it out when its spiffed up.

Hope your summer is going well.  Mine is flying by crazy fast and the next few weeks will be filled with receiving all of the goodies I ordered at gift shows and spending time with visiting friends.  I'm sad that July is over.  August always feels like summer is ending soon.  I'm like a little kid and wish that summer vacation could last forever.  sigh.

Do you instagram??  We are @moxiedekalb.  Hope you'll follow us as we share photos from our daily life and roadtrips.


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summer shopping and vacationing

Summer is going by so fast!!  I've been traveling lots and visiting with friends and family all the time!  Of course I manage to hit estate sales no matter where I'm at!  I've been super lucky this summer and had the great fortune to find lots of fabulous vintage treasures.  These items arrived today and this was last night's sunset.  I took it at about 9:15 over Lake Michigan.  Hope your summer is going great!

To see more photos of this weekends finds please pop on over to our facebook page ... www.facebook.com/moxie.dekalb

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Camp girl

 Dad was a teacher and every summer for most of my childhood the family would get loaded into the wagon (at this time there were 6 of us kids) and we'd head out to Wyoming making stops in the Dakotas and various other states along the way. Then we'd camp for a good 6 weeks straight. No hotels and not even fancy campgrounds. If I had a nickel for every time we had to do our "business" in a hole in the ground I'd have a dollar fifty! The fanciest we got was a weekly trip to the local laundromat to wash everyones duffel bag of clothes. I can truthfully say that as a kid I kind of hated these summers. I couldn't stand, dirt, pooping in the woods, excessive heat or cold, bugs, leeches, ticks (experienced all of these often) and I had so many allergies that I spent a great deal of time with itchy eyes and a scratchy body. I was the kid that dreamt of summers at home with my friends at the park district pool. I was kind of an anomaly within my family. The rest of my siblings loved roughing it. As an adult I've grown to have a much greater appreciation for the outdoors. But I do it my way now. No camping and no real roughing it. More like walks on the beach, nature hikes for photography, country drives, small town antiquing and stays in Lakeside houses with comfy beds and a nice hot shower.

The above photo is one that my dad gave me recently in the form of a slide. My husband surprised me by sending off a bunch of the slides to a place he found online (scanflurry.com) that makes them into photos on a disc.  You then  print as many photos as you like. They did a great job and it was not very expensive. 

I love that in this photo my siblings and I have a slight "help we're stuck in a commune" look about us. Especially Courtney in the yellow and Lara in the white. My brother Sean has a funny choke-hold on Courtney. And the way he has his arms around us you can see he is taking his role of brother/dude very seriously. Also hysterical is the full size playpen set up behind us, with the youngest at the time Adam inside of it. And my mom is behind us not facing the camera. She was probably thinking "I don't have time for photos.... I've got to make dinner for 8 people over a camp fire"

 That is 9 year old me tip toeing around the car to take a peek at a real bear sitting on the side of the road in Yellowstone National Park vicinity. Photo taken by my dad and given to me recently. I remembered the event but had no idea it had been documented on film. This was circa 1976.

Here is another one of the photos (slides) my dad gave me. This one dates to the early 70s as I think I look to be about 4 or 5 and was born in 67. Do you dig my striped pants. I did! I vividly remember this pop up van we had for a year or two as the WHOLE family crammed in there for sleeping and I'll never forget the night we were all awakened by a bear digging around our campsite looking for food. I think I remember it even coming right up to the van although maybe that is my little kid imagination at play. But it really was digging around our site. I had a hard time sleeping after that night. I did feel fear about a giant grizzly claw ripping thru the van and getting me.  If the fear of ticks and leeches didn't cement my feelings of despair about camping the fear of being bear dinner sealed the deal.  

It's been fun seeing the slides turned into photos and we've now framed the three shown here and since we liked how they turned out we are sending in another stack of slides to be converted.  Looking at these images makes me realize that I may not have loved camping and all that it entailed but spending all of that time with my family is part of what made me me and I really wouldn't trade that for anything. 

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Sarett Nature Center

The sun is finally shining here in the Midwest so the mister and I decided to celebrate with a visit to the Sarett Nature Center in Benton Harbor Michigan.  

It costs 3 dollars to get in which is well worth it as the grounds are large (8 miles of trails in 1000 acres)

and well marked with lots of trail signs to keep you on track with your chosen destination.  We picked up a map at the front desk and followed along with it quite easily. 

About 2 hours into our trail hike we came upon this old abandoned boxcar and I was so happy to have my camera with me to capture it.  You just have to wonder how did this old Michigan Fruit Canners rail car get in the middle of the forest in a Nature Center.  I love the color and the old lettering.  

All of the trails and special viewing platforms were marked with little hand made wood signs like this one.

As you can see here, a woodpecker really went to town on this tree!

Fun benches and resting spots could be found throughout the center

While it was challenging to get any good pictures of the birds which were moving about so quickly,  this fine turtle was much more my speed. He seemed to be enjoying the sunshine as much as we were.

Not all of the center was covered in these wooden walkways but quite a bit of it was.  There was even a treetop walkway .  The wood and steel raised walkway is 250 feet long and 55 feet off the ground making for a great treetop bird spotting location. 

We ended up spending 3 hours at the center and hiking many miles.  It felt good to get out in the sun after our long winter.  We spotted many birds, a beaver, a raccoon and turtles.  I'm sure deer and other forest friends could be spotted on different days.  It was great day and well worth the 3 dollars entrance fee.  Hope the sun is shining in your neck of the woods!

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Van Buren State Park --- Michigan

Dear State Park,

Thanks for the good times.

Love, Megan

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Felt Mansion | Anniversary Fun

The husband and I snuck away this weekend to Michigan to celebrate our 22nd wedding anniversary.  And like usual, we spent most of our weekend doing what we do best ... ramblin.  Ramblin involves a number of activities which on any given weekend may or may not include, junking, diner visiting, photo taking, hiking, sight seeing and farm stand shopping. We aren't the fancy dinner to celebrate type.  We really just like getting in the car together for some good old-fashioned road trip fun.  We started our anniversary day off with a delicious road side diner breakfast (breakfast is by far our most favorite meal to eat out and the earlier the better.) and then headed out to explore some Southwest Michigan back roads.  Yee haw!

Saturday it was about 60 and overcast but still a good day for some sight seeing so we choose to visit the grounds of the Felt Mansion which is located between Saugatuck and Holland.  It is a place I had seen briefly before but without camera in hand so I just had to go back to get a few photos

The following is taken from the Michigan Registered Historic Site signs that were on the property.  "Chicago inventor and businessman Dorr Felt built this house as a summer home for his wife, Agnes.  Felt held numerous patents, most notably for the Comptometer, the first machine to do complex calculations.  In 1919 Felt purchased more than 750 acres of land here and named it Shore Acres Farm. The family stayed in a farmhouse on the property until 1928, when this house, designed by Frank P. Allen and Son of Grand Rapids, was completed.  The estate had extensive gardens, orchards, cornfields, a dairy, vineyards, and a small zoo that was open to the public.  Agnes Felt died two months after the house was finished, and Dorr died two years later.  The Felts' daughters and grandchildren owned the estate until 1949 when they sold it to an Augustinian order of the Catholic Church."

"The Dorr Felt Estate became the St. Augustine Catholic Seminary preparatory school in 1949.  The mansion served as a chapel and housed priests and students.  In 1962 the Augustinian order built a school and leased the house to Dominican cloistered nuns.  The State of Michigan bought the property in 1977, using the house as a state police post and converting the school into the Saugatuck Dunes Correctional Facility.  In 1995 the state sold forty-four acres, including the house and the prison buildings, to Laketown Township for one dollar, stipulating that the mansion be preserved and that it be owned and operated by the public.  The Friends of the Felt Estate formed in 2002 and began restoring the house and grounds.  The property is listed in the National Register of Historic Places."

 

We were there on Saturday and the house is not open for touring on Saturdays as it has become a very popular option for hosting weddings and receptions.  I'm sure many a bride has spoken her vows here in the gorgeous water garden. 

This small structure looked interesting and I wonder what it was used for.

This small, old white church is over a hundred years old.  It is formerly known as Gibson Church and was moved to the Felt estate in 2011.  

The Felt mansion is located adjacent to the Saugatuck Dunes State Park which provided us with quite a few opportunities to see wildlife.  I managed to get off a few snaps of some deer but was left wishing for a lens that could zoom in a bit closer.  

If you are ever in the Saugatuck area you might stop by the Felt Mansion to walk the grounds or if you are there on the right days ... take an inside tour.  

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