Go Retro!

Nooks.

There are some little views from around inside my house that make me especially happy.

 

Everything in the photo above was less than $1.

Above: Chair from the Furniture Lounge. Picture frames from Target, on clearance for about $1-3 each. Prints from a children's book about Alaska for less than $1 at a yard sale. Racoon pillow from someone's garage sale for 25 cents.

 

Above: Wall art mural by my mother, from robynsgate.blogspot.com. White-frames prints from a vintage children's book of nursery rhymes for 25 cents. Frames from Target on clearance for $1-3 each. The art in the center frame is a drawing by my mother in the 1970s.

Above: Fabulous vintage baby clothes for 25 cents each!

 

Seasons

It feels like just a couple days ago that our garden was bare and more mulch than green and now it's bursting with late spring/early summer color. Just in less than 3 months, our garden has exploded! And there is so much more to come.

Some flowers have already came and went, and won't bloom again until next year. Tall purple tulips that I planted last fall, what I think might be a non-fruit-bearing quince bush, and a purple clematis vine.

Right now, the peonies are in bloom. I've got vases of red and pink all throughout the house. The heuchera (coral bells) are huge and happy, some in bloom, some not, the 'Sweet Kate' spiderwort just started blooming, the salvia and catmint are big and flowering purple huge and covered in bees already, the yarrow is big and just getting color, and the giant purple allium bulb is THIS CLOSE to bursting open.  

We still have some monarda/bee balm, sedum, hydrangea, speedwells, euphorbia, russian sage, sea lavender, smaller alliums, coreopsis, lavender, coneflower, vervain, cobald, milkweed, yellow and green wizard black eyed susans, more salvia, honeysuckle, day lilies, and baby's breath to look forward to.

 

Go Retro gets even more crafty ...

  I'm pondering restructuring this blog a little bit so I actually use it more. Morphing retro-love with crafty mom stuff. The "Go Retro" title I've been using for YEARS is just too good to let go. But my current life is more about frugality, domesticity, craftiness, and convenience with some retro coolness thrown in when I'm not working 12+ hours a day. But what would I call it? I'm sticking with Go Retro. It's been at least 5 years that I've been using the name and it's pretty catchy.

Possible posts coming soon:
Making christmas stockings out of old tshirts (in progress)
Baking/Making Christmas gifts for friends and family
DIY tree skirt from vintage curtain panels
Retro Christmas wish list
Craftsman Home Christmas Style

Peekaboo.

I've been so busy with the family and work, I've lost time for my blog for now. But I'm up late on the oouch with the cat and a bottle of Pinot, preparing for my quiet return to DJing tomorrow night. Slapping together some Roxy Music, Thee Oh Sees, 999, T. Rex etc etc ... but I'm nervous, and not sure I'm mentally prepared for a long night 'out'. I may be hiding in the DJ loft all night long. But I may not.

Give Me the Simple Life by Rosemary Clooney

 

Our Summer in Champaign, Illinois

   Camp at The Point Fencing Club via the Champaign Park District

  Also through the CPD, our eight year old also attended Painting and Drawing classes at Springer Cultural Center, and took swimming lessons at Spalding Pool.

    Grady's Family Fun Park in Bloomington, IL.

   Free events at the Champaign Public Library (We stumbled into a free traditional Dixieland ensemble New Orleans Jazz Machine performance on this particular Sunday last month).

   Two week long day camps: Medieval Mayhem Camp and Camp Explosion! Both at the Community Center for the Arts in Urbana.

  The weekly Farmer's Market at the Square in Urbana. (I just discovered the Farmer's Market blog, too.)

   The Annual Washington Street 4th of July Parade in our neighborhood.

   Meadowbrook Park, playground, gardens, and trail.

   The Illinois Shakespeare Festival at Ewing Manor in Bloomington, IL.

   Baby's first ice cream at Jarling's Custard Cup.

   My annual company picnic at Chanute Air Museum in Rantoul, IL.

   Petting the animals at Prairie Farm.

    Monkeys, Tiger, and Bear. Oh my. The Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington, IL (with free outdoor water playground area right outside!)

   The Viper and his Famous Orchestra play a show at the Children's Orpheum Science Museum.

   Enjoying our front porch.

   Road trip!

   Lots of rain ... lots of puddles ... welcome to the Washington Street West neighborhood Watershed.

   Enjoying our first attempts at gardening.

   Lake of the Woods Botanical Garden and Early American Museum.

I'm sure I'm missing something! This doesn't even include our trip to Pennsylvania or the family events and milestones this summer, like the baby's first birthday party!

   Now we're ready to enjoy all of the great Autumn events in Champaign. We've already made our first trip this season to Curtis Orchard, and this month the 35th Annual Sweet Corn Festival, and the CU Folk & Roots Festival are fast approaching. I'd also like to go out to Hardy's Reindeer Ranch, and of course, more trips to Curtis Orchard. They have a new play area and some other features like a giant rocking chair, in addition to the usual kid play area, inflatables, pony rides, goat petting, maze, u-pick apples and pumpkins, and DELICIOUS apple cider and doughnuts.

Wolfram|Alpha Widgets and Widget Builder

Finally! It's always nice to have the project you've been involved in get released. The Wolfram|Alpha Widget Builder is here! My two readers should check it out:

Wolfram|Alpha Widgets HOME

My Widgets

Here's one of my favorites:

Arts & Crafts twin houses in Champaign, IL

These next door neighbors have some cool porch railing and posts going on!the blue one with brick, the yellow one with stone. Both found in Champaign, IL:

 


 
 

Architecture Around Town

I've decided to snap pictures of some of the cooler architecture I've spotted around town. I'm especially interested in Arts & Crafts style architecture. Here's a beautiful window I spotted on a house down the street here, there are matching entry windows as well. New siding, looks like some of the windows are new, fresh wood steps but the old decorative windows are thankfully still in tact. I hope they plan on renovating rather than removing them. Looks like a rental house, so it will likely just sit in this condition until it sadly deteriorates.

 

I am not a robot

vintage camera robots

nerdbots

nemomatic

adopt-a-bot

Go Retro Goes Home!

I've been very quiet on my blog, I know, but for good reason.

One, I did have a baby just  months ago.

Two, I just became a homeowner for the first time!

We've finally settled in and have been discovering the 'joys of homeownership', including second week plumbing woes and most of all, garden discoveries.

Neither of us has ever gardened much before so we've been reading up and figuring things out as we go along.

I've started a new sub-blog called Go Garden! to document our discoveries, photographs, and adventures in our new hobby.

Check it out! Go Garden!

I'll probably be transitioning more toward the home goods and retro domestic finds again as I've taken back to the domestic life, new baby in tow.