Home By Way of Columbus

The time has come my friends.All good things must come to an end and we eventually had to come back home. We left Cleveland early-ish to start the trip home. It was supposed to take a little over 8 hours. We made a few pit stops of course.

Like at this field of corn in Dublin, Ohio! It is in the middle of an industrial park, so weird. Apparently it is a tribute to the inventor of hybrid corn. There are 109 ears. While we were there a girl about our age pulled up and proceeded to take corn selfies. It was a hot spot on Sunday morning.

We got to Columbus around lunch time and made our way to Dirty Frank's Hotdog Palace. What a place! What a town! We planned on just making a quick food stop but ended up staying for a few hours.

Everything about it was cute. I need that Freddie painting.

I got the picnic blanket. It was a veggie dog with slaw, baked beans, relish and crushed potato chips. Geeze! It was a little too much for me, I like stuff pretty plan usually, but it was good.

Travis loved it so much!

I  don't even remember what he got. He might be by soon to edit this post and tell you. Haha! He comes after me and fixes all my typos. A little behind the scenes for you!

We made our way to the Big Fun location in downtown Columbus so we could get another photobooth strip. Parking was awful and Travis dropped me off then took about 20 minutes to find a spot! It ended up being good though, because on the way back we found all kinds of cute shops to look in. It was such a nice day. I felt very happy and in love with life. And that Pee Wee sign.

Here is what we bought. I love the two photo strips we got this trip. And that Pee Wee fun pack was amazing! It temporary tattoos, a lenticular picture, sticks, a toy and an activity and every single thing was awesome! I wish I had bought a few more! The Addams Family cards were for Travis, obviously. He is obsessed. He keeps talking about getting a THIRD Addams Family tattoo.

We did some vintage browsing too. All I bought here was a little spun head guy. I wish I had bought this Elvis bust.

I heemed and hawed about buying this Life Magazine and now I wish I had! I haven't found it that cheap online. I need to see the Pee Wee party tips!!

More cute shops. Made the long walk to our car much more fun!

One shop had this awesome chicken machine, for a quarter you got an egg that had a button made with a vintage illustration! I got an owl and a squirrel! Made for me!

After we got back to the car we drove to 16 Bit, recommended to me by my buddy Jane Boston. It is a bar that is full of arcade games!

It was so fun! We had a bunch of quarters (I got a roll for tolls) but soon realized you didn't have to pay for most of the games! Really all you had to pay for was pinball. If we lived in town I'd love to come back. We didn't even end up getting drinks because it was early and we were about to get back on the road.

Travis loved the Simpsons game, and Time Crisis. We played Marble Madness too, it was so hard!

We got back on the road, and had about 6 hours left to go.

I got this at a coffee shop in Columbus. I love it! I need to find it somewhere around here.

We made great time until we got to Louisville and got stuck in stand still traffic! It made us too late to eat at Heart and Soy, which really is a tragedy. We finally got out of traffic, got pizza at Mellow Mushroom then high tailed it home. We got back at almost midnight and had to leave the pugs with my aunt another night. But for that, and the rain in Salem, our trip really went off without a hitch! I'm so thankful I have a partner who loves to go on trips like this with me. We had such a wonderful time, I can't wait for our next trip! We're thinking either Austin, Tx, or Portland and Seattle next fall!

Lorain Antiques: Probably the best vintage shop I've been to, EVER!

Happy Thanksgiving! We're probably on our way to Bowling Green as you read this, ready to eat lots of field roast and vegan mashed potatoes! I thought I would celebrate today by posting about something I am thankful for, this amazing shop!

We hadn't done much vintage shopping on this trip. There was just so much to see! I read about this place on the Modcloth blog a few years ago (I keep extensive notes on places I want to go someday. Nerd alert.) Now you all know I have been to many vintage shops and antique malls over the years. And I've become a little spoiled with the great estate sales in Nashville. But Sweet Lorain's was something else! The best vintage shop I've been to EVER!

The first thing I saw was not one, not two, but SIX poodle bottle covers! You know, the ones I collect. It was a theme, if you were interested in something, they had 10 to 100 of that thing to choose from! It was incredible!

 Want some vintage necklaces? They have hundreds! There was a three tier display of enamel flowers too! I was zipping around with my mouth hanging open, not even sure where to look first! The guy working there said "Are you in your happy place?" Oh was I ever!

 I wondered if they had knee huggers or Dream Pet deer. They only had a bin full of each.

 Since it was close to Halloween they didn't have much Christmas out yet. i can't even imagine!

 And I know what you are wondering, how were the prices? They weren't flea market cheap of course, but everything was very reasonable! No price tag made me call the vendors delusional, which is something I do a lot. I never quite figured out how it worked, was it like an antique mall with different vendors, or did the owners of the store buy all this amazing stuff!

 I still can't get over it. I'm so used to the experience of walking through an antique mall and seeing one cool thing every few booths, with an occasional booth full of stuff I like. This whole place was full of stuff I like! I could have spent my entire souviner budget here!

 Even the bathroom was cute!

 So pink! So cute! The stalls were painted pink.

 The walls outside the bathroom were lined with vintage bathroom stuff. Loved every bit of it.

And the furniture! Not just one dinette set, I bet they had 10! And couches! And LAMPS! They might have had over 100 lamps, all cool! My head was spinning!

 I was very tempted by this poodle lady, who stores a set of curlers in her skirt!

 The last thing I need is vintage bar ware, but I love to look!

 And then there were these fish bowls FULL of vintage photos! Woah! I think we looked through six or seven. I didn't even get a close up look at the salt and pepper shakers. I just didn't have the strength!

 How many sections of vintage dog figurines can one store have??

 I didn't even get to the vintage clothes, which was probably a third of the store! I'm not much of a vintage clothing shopper, as I'm not really a vintage size. But I can't even imagine what is lurking in there! Travis found a BUNCH of cute men's jackets, but they were a little out of our budget, us being at the tail end of our vacation.

 I was tempted by this apron. Who is Larry? Who made him this apron? Is it a self portrait of him in just underwear, glasses, and boots?

 Here is just a tiny portion of their purses. You could spend hours digging here! We were going to go to a movie about an hour and a half after we got here, but I told Travis to forget it! I'm not sure how long we ended up staying, but it was hours!

 The man working there (might have been the owner) was great too. He sussed out my taste within moments and kept bringing me things I loved! He also printed off a list of his favorite places in Cleveland. Actually, Cleveland was the friendliest place we visited on our trip! Everyone was so nice and gave us tips on places to go and let us pet their pugs (I might have stopped two people and asked to pet their pugs. I was missing my girls!) Sweet Lorraine was amazing. We will be back for SURE!

 Here is what I brought home. The two best poodle covers of course, a POODLE TEA POT! I've seen lots of deer ones like it (I have two actually) but never a poodle! Two pennants and a pile of photos. The pennants are the start of our redo of the "Jesus hallway" in our house. I want to fill it with pennants and plates of places we have been.

 Close up of the poodle set! The cream and sugar bowls are missing the tops but I don't care! Beautiful!

A Christmas Story House and Museum

 Do you love A Christmas Story? I really do. If you haven't seen it but are a fan of vintage stop what you are doing and watch it. The story takes place in the 1940's and is full of the most amazing sets and costumes (not to mention it is hilarious!) I can't wait to watch it! I might not make it all the way to December.
The film takes places in Indiana, but a lot of it was filmed in Cleveland. A man who owns a company who now produces the famous leg lamps bought the house used in exterior (and some interior) film shots and renovated it to get it as close to the movie house as possible. And you can tour it!

 There is a little museum across the street full of great photos and costumes and props.

Apparently there was a deleted scene with Ralphie and Flash Gordon. And there is the famous snow suit. That chenille robe! When the movie was made they didn't know it would become such a beloved classic so lots of the costumes got absorbed back into the Warner Brothers costume department.

 I was always so jealous of Flick's cool aviator hat! They actually sell reproductions of all the kids hats in the gift shop, but it didn't look as cool on me as I always imagined. Ha!

 The gift shop was really great. There were tons of leg lamp themed souvenirs.

 The hats! They had the hilarious elf hats from the movie too! And Randy's bib!

 There was also a section dedicated to Christmas Vacation, which is Travis' all time favorite movie. He was in hog heaven! He got this apron: Save the neck for me Clark!

 Cousin Eddie hat.

 Then it was time for our tour! The guide makes it seem like they tried to make all the furnishings match the movie exactly. Not true, but they have lots of period stuff and they let you touch everything and take photos! We loved it!

They have all kinds of props. Like a bowling ball and a bee bee gun under the tree. You get about 30 minutes to take all the photos you want. Most people clear out quick so we were able to take as many as we wanted!

 "Fra-gee-lay, must be Italian!" That scene makes me laugh every single time. And there is Travis posing just like Ralphie when he had his bunny pjs on. He is always a good sport when I want to take photos, but he was just as happy I was while we were here.

 He even put the soap in his mouth! Ha! Real soap! I love that they had a hamper by the toilet with a decoder ring, Little Orphan Annie comic and that "Drink more Ovaltine" message.

I especially loved the kitchen. There was a group of ladies in the doorway watching us take pictures. They were laughing and encouraging us and one lady said "I want YOUR pictures!" Ha!

 "Daddy's gonna kill Ralphie."

 Can you believe they let you touch everything and sit in the chairs and jump on the beds? I loved it!

 "Meatloaf, feet loaf, double beetloaf."

The Christmas story house and museum is definitely worth a visit! We had such a wonderful time!