Our trip to Iowa

Yesterday BE and I took a day trip to Iowa.

It was our anniversary and we decided Iowa was the most romantic place we could go...we're crazy like that. lol Anywho, we drove to Kalona. A cute little Mennonite town with a great sophisticated bistro, Tuscan Moon. We sat outside and had amazing sandwiches on cibatta bread and really great wine. Their wine list was pages long. Sorry no link I was sure they would have a web site....but if you are in that part of the country go.

But what really took us to this sweet little part of Iowa was my long desire to visit Sister's Garden and Bloom http://sistersgardeniowa.blogspot.com/. It was worth waiting for and definitely worth the drive.

It is right on hwy 1, two old buildings that are charming on their own but filled with goodies! The garden has treasures everywhere too from chairs hanging on wire to great old motel chairs. All the poor husbands hung out out there.

I however wanted to wander the 2 buildings forever. Every kind of shabby, chippy, rusty, goodie you can think of was creatively and charmingly arranged in multiple floor displays. Mixed in were lots of great smelling candles and soaps.

Can you tell I LOVED it? I am so inspired! Sometimes having my little shop in my home can kind of feel like a vacuum so it was great to see such creativity in work.

I hope to get back yet this fall. I wish I could go visit every week!

After that we wandered around Iowa City. What a great little city. Cute shops and pubs. I'm sure in a couple of weeks when the students are all back it will be hopping.

Dinner was at CiboFusion http://www.cibofusion.com/ in Cedar Rapids. Again amazing fresh interesting menu and a great atmosphere. All in all a very enjoyable day. Day trips can be the most fun we find. Discover some new spots and still be home to sleep in your own bed. So goes another glamorous day in the life of Kath and Brad....Glamour is so over rated.

k

p.s. all images are from the Sisters Bloom blog.

And the Winner is......

On my last post I mentioned a give away for those coming to my shopping and cocktails night. It was a lot of fun and I had a great turn out. I just picked a winner for this great vintage picnic basket filled with melmac dishes and cute table cloth from the 50's. Really cute and "green" right?

So the moment you have all been waiting for (lol)......

The winner is SANDY JONES!

Sandy I will contact you today and we can schedule a time to get your goodies!

New goodies being put in the shop and new staging ideas. Check us out.

New Hours: Thurs-Sun 11-6

I realize I haven't shared any shots of the shop for a while. Here's a peak of what you will see when you stop by now.

I included a couple of shots of my hanging baskets on my porch. They started out as the stack of great rusty baskets you'll see in the shots. Just add moss and lots of flowers and Voila! a very impressive statement for your garden.

I will be closed this Friday at 4 and all day Saturday. Off to a work event with the Hubbs. Back open Sunday.

Please join me if you can this coming Wed night for an evening of Shopping and Cocktails! 5 - 7 July 14th.

Enjoy the Sunshine!

kath

Flower Deals for the Weekend

This weekend is Mineral Point's Garden Tour. http://www.shakeragalley.com/shake-rag-alley-classes/garden-workshops-madison-wi.html.

In honour of this everything FLORAL at Retromantic Antiques is 25 % off all weekend! The pics are just a very small amount of the pretties I have with flowers on them.

Check out some amazing gardens, hang in my (some day to be amazing lol) garden, and take home some of that Retromantic feel to your home and garden for a great price.

Remember Retromantic Antiques is now open every week Thursday - Sunday 11 - 6.

See you this weekend.

Kath

Shiny and Silver

Haven't done the linky thing before so home I am doing it right. My silver in my shop tends to mostly 1950's Aluminum. I love the patterns and variety of pieces and that I can pass them on at such a great price. Galvanized is always great too. The planter is from my yard. It's an old animal feeder bin. Enjoy and if anything is saying "take me home" let me know and I'll gladly send it on its way. kath

New Focus on Freedom and Fun

Well as of Today June 10th 2010 I am focusing on Antiques! Retromantic Antiques is now open at my Home, Thursday - Sunday; 11 - 6. I put in a new window display downtown Mineral Point, I'm letting all my Facebook Fans and the merchants know, and now all you. Is it all perfect? HELL NO! Does it look great? YUP. I want this to be fun. For me and definitely for YOU my customers! No more judgments, no more stress, no more working my ass off for someone else! YIPEE!!!

As you may have noticed I will be open 4 days a week. This is part of my new plan of working 4 days a week going forward. Jealous? I know I always was of anyone who worked less then I did and on top of it seemed to be having a good time. So come on over, check out the pretties, hang out in the garden and if it is the right time of day maybe have a cocktail...

I am not guaranteeing I will always be there those hours but pretty damn close, so if you are coming from a distance or just want to make sure give me a call. 987-3056.

Oh I was going to say sorry but I'm not....I get to swear when I want to now too...I promise to not do it in front of your little kids, but really who brings little kids to an Antique shop? ;)kath

Letting in Joy

I recently have realized that I have not been following my loves, my joys, and all that makes me feel like me. While I firmly believe a person only lets in what they want circumstances creeped up on me over the last year so insidiously that it took a strong shake up of part of my world for me to recognize what has been going on.

I am not trying to be mysterious, I just need to be protective right now.

But while to try and make sense of it all and figure out how I got to where I am I came to the realization that I have let joy and beauty go in my life. Not huge earth shattering projects but little things.

So starting today I am not only going to get it back (while working on the "big" problem) but I want to start sharing this experience with you all. I think too often we think it is all or nothing. That our homes, our bodies, our lives need to be like all the tv shows, magazine pages,catalogs, or even the beautiful blogs we see daily. While they are all aspirational, we need to take them for what they are. The best of the best and sometimes only an illusion. I have been in the fashion/catalog business for 25 years and let me tell you there is lots of illusion out there and often it is not nice or pretty how those images get to you.

But I digress. Lets try for moments of beauty and joy today and as many days as we can. I'll share mine and I would love for you to share yours. Starting today.

kath