Monday, November 16, 2009

Iowa Bound

Wow, what a weekend!!!! Back in the summer, I told my friend, Dawn, about a blog I'm addicted to called Sweet Repose. We began talking about wanting to visit Sharon, this wonderful blog's creator, in Iowa, but schedules were busy, so we targeted November. The 5 hour drive after work on Friday flew by and there we were! Saturday, we hit Sisters Garden and Bloom a hot spot that features Sharon's wares and other incredible treasures.

The stores are side by side in old homes and I must have spent 30 minutes outside before I even got in the door! Just look at this stuff!

The merchandising here was second-to-none. Just look at the slide reels on the wall and as a mosaic artist, I never would have thought about gluing plates to the wall and leaving big globs of adhesive sticking out here and there -- everything in this place just "works".

This little shed was outside with the worn chair in front -- so indicative of treasures to come on the inside.

I just adored this awesome miniature church. I wish I had room in the car to haul it home for the backyard!

Great combo of floral frogs, architectural elements and holiday cheer.

This is a wonderful sun room off the main area in Sisters. Lots of terrific eye candy.

The sound of the water was so peaceful as we strolled around the shop . . .

Great barber cabinets with all kinds of wonderful goodies. And the place was packed with Sharon's glycerin soap in scents like alfalfa fields, cherry wine, and green tea and ginger . . . ahhhhhh . . .

Sharon has a section upstairs with lots of her stuff. We have very similar taste and I had to snap a pic of this lovely lady.

More pics from Sharon's room. Check out the lampshades stuck on the wall.

Sharon refurbishes old lampshades and this is just one beautiful example.

On Sunday, she was kind enough to take us to the place in Illinois that she'd have to kill ya if she told ya. Dawn and I laughed that she doesn't have to kill us because we had absolutely NO idea where we were!!!!

This was a huge warehouse filled with wonderful stuff at prices we could not believe.

Saturday night, we visited Sharon's daughter's store, Friends Candle Shed.

I finally got to see some "Cracked in the Head" nightlights live and in person!

The little guy on the left with the gaping wound in his head went home with me! Dash is not sure what to think about this one!

I loved the Shed because there were incredible candles everywhere in scents like carrot cake (I took one of those home with me), chestnuts and brown sugar (Dawn's fave), monkey farts (smelled like a fruit salad with extra bananas!), margarita, the list goes on and on . . . The candles were intermingled with fabulous handmade birdhouses and antiques tucked in here and there. So much to discover!

And more great soaps . . .


And I laughed when I asked Sharon to take a pic with me - I felt like I was meeting a celebrity - I love her blog that much!

I made Sharon this frame. She and her business partner own a business called White and they call themselves the two white girls. I had to throw in some old stuff and it's hard to see, but there are some dinosaur bones in the upper left corner to signify their love of all things old, chippy, rusty, tarnished, and cracked. Girls after my own heart!!!

2 comments:

A Wild Thing said...

Girl, what a blast, can't wait for you two nuts to come back, it was so much fun meeting you guys, can't wait till summer(that goes without saying)!!!
Some day in the spring, I'll have t load up the truck and head to Kansas, want to see Curious Sofa and what ever else is on the menu!

It's so much fun meeting other bloggers face to face, this is how we spread the love...and the moolah...Manleys' were thrilled to see ya too...how's that skull doing...ha.

Glad the Crackhead made it home safely, wouldn't want to chip it...ha! So keep in touch and I'll keep me eye open for some funky books for Miss Bookworm...Y'all have a great week, I'll be thinkin' of ya!

sharon n scratchy

ChiPPy-SHaBBy said...

LoVe the pics on "Sister's Garden"!*!*! ~ Thanks so much for sharing... Can you believe I've been less than 20 miles from Sisters & Bloom and BOTH times were on days they were closed!!! Jeanine ~ ChiPPy!-SHaBBy!