Colonial Williamsburg is a living history museum. That means that there are lots of things to see and do. Some of my favorites are the craftsmen and women who practice traditional techniques for things like silver-working, printing, etc. Most of these skills are disappearing and I think that keeping them alive is important.

I’ll keep this short and sweet, just headings and photos, enjoy!

Silversmiths

Dressmakers

My Boots and Roses

Print Workshop

Chownings for Lunch

Governor’s Palace

Shopping

I still have have a few more photos to share, but I’ll save them for later!

After a little wander around the Clay Center (there’s a very nice Chuck Close piece there), we headed over to Capitol Market. It’s a wonderful little indoor/outdoor farmers market. The outside was filled with Christmas trees, wreaths, and the scent of pine.

They even had a few flowers still blooming!

Inside is full of shops and places for good food. We ate at a very tasty sea food place. The hushpuppies were so good!

The best purchases I made were: handmade apple butter, local honey and honeycomb, and Holl’s Chocolates.

The next stop was Taylor’s Books. We browsed and waited for some friends to arrive. I found three magazines that had to come home with us. They’re shopping bags say things like “Nap, Snack, Read”.

View from inside Taylor’s. (Photo by Joel.)

Coffees in hand and friends in tow, we walked up the street to The Peanut Shoppe. I’ve driven past this little place for years, but had never been inside. Apparently it’s a Charleston institution that has been around for 50 years!

Treats were acquired and we walked over a few blocks to Mission Savvy. It’s the prettiest little gem of a shop with lots of love in the details. I love being able to spend a few dollars here and there to keep wonderful, small business around.

Me at Mission, photo by Lauren Stonestreet.

PS. Elsie wrote a short and sweet post about supporting small businesses. I think that her perspective as a small business owner is really neat.

West Virginia is my home state but I haven’t lived there since going to college, but every time I go back I feel it tug a little at my heart.

Do you feel that way about where you’re from?

Being back was a wonderful break from our busy schedules of work and grad school and of course it was so so so so SO good to see family and friends. We had some great adventures that I’m sure I’ll be reliving in photo post form this week.

Both of these photos are from our trip to Williamsburg early last week. Look at those foggy West Virginia hills!

I have lots of good things planned for the next few weeks. It’s going to be great!

I would pack a pretty, military-inspired jacket to keep me warm, a camera with lots of film and a few other necessaries.

Shoes from Toast, Military Jacket from FM908, VW bus photo by Junkaholique, Hair Powder by Lulu Organics & Nail Polish by Butter

Thursday, Joel’s birthday, was filled with exploring different part of Chicago that we had never seen before. After presents and coffee we drove down to the city to the Museum of Science and Industry. It’s one of those hands on kid friendly museums which isn’t normally our scene but we had some fun. I love the facade of the building.

I liked the old things, a compass from the maritime display and black and white photos of Queen Elizabeth II and a pink phone. Our favorite exhibit was the Wired Smart house. I want to live there so we’ve been playing around with floor plans.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brentanofabrics/3901069871/

The gardens were lovely and I think that the broken flowerpot bed dividers are pure genius.

From there we went to Topolobampo and had some of the best food I’ve ever tasted. Let’s just say it’s fancy Mexican food and it is too good to describe. I had a dessert which included cinnamon ice cream that I will be dreaming about for ages to come. After dinner we met up with Abby for the Laura Marling concert. It was at Lincoln Hall, the best little Chicago venue I’ve come across.

Friday, we shopped and then had friends over to continue the birthday celebrations with hot toddies, cookies and cheesecake.

The rest of the weekend was for homework, soup making, record listening and walks in the swirling leaves.

The weather was rainy and ideal for  a Saturday morning coffee and breakfast at Barriques. I had some wonderful granola.

Afterwards, Katie took us to my new favorite place in the world, the Sow’s Ear. It’s a coffee and yarn shop, perfection!

We browsed their lovely selection and like always I knew I couldn’t leave without taking some new yarn with me, but it took awhile to decide which skein was the one for me. I always have this dilemma when I find myself in a yarn shop.

I finally picked a skien of hand-dyed, jade green merino wool. Oh it’s beautiful! It’s going to be a warm cowl for winter.

After yarn shopping we moved over to the coffee shop area and had some really great coffee. I’m picking about my coffee and the Sow’s Ear totally impressed. Katie had a chai,

I hade a breve latte,

And Joel had an americano. He was a good sport about all the yarn talk.

Katie and I both picked up a copy of Rowan knit and crochet magazine. The photos and projects are amazing, but more about that another day.

Before I go I thought I’d share a little treasury I pulled together today. It’s a bunch of things that I’m loving right now. I hope you like them, too!

Click here for links to this beauties!

I’ll be back soon with a few travel photos and stories to share. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

We took four different cameras with us and were pretty shutter-happy!

Grace, looking cool

Lunch in Palm Springs

After lunch we made the short drive out-of-town to Mount San Jacinto State Park and took a tram to the top of the beautiful mountain.

Shots from the tram:

Grace on the Tram

this gal has the greatest 50s style!

We spent the afternoon exploring paths and enjoying the beauty of the park:

A few portraits at the base:

I kind of really like how blown out this photo is!

I really enjoyed Palm Springs. It seems like a happy, laid back town with lots of sweet little cafes and shops. The weather was sunny and in the 90s, but because it’s so dry in the desert it was so comfortable! I want to go back some day.

This was the first long trip my iPhone has been on (which is kind of sad because I’ve had it since February!) so I couldn’t resist using my Instagram app a whole bunch!

An upside down portrait, views of LA and travel treats from Trader Joe’s and The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. I had a Black Forest blended coffee drink at The Coffee Bean. It had cherries and dark chocolate covered espresso beans blended in it. Yes, it was AMAZING!

One of my favorite memories was the girls’ day I got to spend with Joel’s mom and sisters. It was so much fun!

We ate outside in the gorgeous sunshine, shopped, ate crepes and I ended up with flowers on my toes!