Day Trip with The Girl
Aug. 16th, 2015 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elizabeth_mnThe day started out a little rocky, with everybody being crabby, especially me. But eventually we got mobilized and started out on the road.
All ready to go!
We took the interstate to Reproduction Fabrics, which turned out to be a pretty tiny shop in the second floor of a bank and office building. I would never have found it if I hadn't been looking.
We spent a little while looking around. It's mostly cotton prints, organized by era, but there are also a few linens and some nice yarn-dyed checks and plaids. I was mostly interested in the earlier prints, 1770s-1800, and the mid-19th c ones, but I did enjoy looking at all the cheerful 1930s prints with their soft sorbet colors. One day I will make a 1930s quilt.
I am not sure what is going on with this pose.
Here is the fabric I ended up with:
2 1/2 yd of red print for a Little House dress for The Girl. She chose this print; it wouldn't have been my first choice but it'll do. The blue is 1 1/4 yd of Dutch chintz print for a jacket for me, and a yard of the yellow stripe woven for an apron, both to combine with my curtain-along skirt for a crazy print-mixing ensemble. Probably I will make this for next year's 18th century picnic.
Northfield is a town of about 20,000 people, and had some cute little shops. We browsed in an antique shop and walked around until we got hungry. I loved this silverware tree we passed by.
There was a little farmer's market going on in the town square park and we brought our picnic lunch down to eat in the grass. Some guy was playing a guitar and singing unintelligibly. It was hot but we found some shade.
This one is "take a picture of my sandwich, mom!" It's her favorite sandwich: white cheddar, butter, and sauerkraut on squishy whole wheat, for those who must know.
We got back on the road and headed to the candy store. We got stuck at a train crossing at the Malt-O-Meal plant and took a car selfie while we waited.
Google maps took us through the winding little roads of the countryside. It's beautiful down there; rolling hills and lakes; areas of dense trees separating pastureland and fields. I kept wanting to stop and take pictures but I never found a good place to pull over while I was thinking of it.
So finally we reached our trip highlight!
It's really too big to get a proper photo of; I think you'd have to be across the highway to get the whole thing. I've only been there once, a couple years ago, and even since then they've expanded.
One section of the store had these hot-air balloons going up and down on wires from a ceiling painted with clouds.
There's so much that I know we didn't look at everything. There are 4 aisles of saltwater taffy, and probably as many of licorice. There are cookies and chocolates and house-made pies. A lot of it is novelty stuff, like toy cars filled with that nasty candy that tastes like chalk. I steered F away from those and encouraged her to choose candy she actually wanted to eat. There were also several aisles of little mints and things in novelty tins. We didn't buy any but had to take a picture of the Mustache Mints.
The whole place was full of crazy stuff like this robot:
They also sold hundreds of different hot sauces, pickles, jams, and noodles. And jigsaw puzzles, for some reason. There were puzzles everywhere, including this huge closet:
They only take cash and checks, so I brought a 20 and hoped I could restrain myself. We met our budget pretty quickly, and we didn't even get a pie! We could easily have spent $50. Here's what we got:
Nothing too exotic. Nowhere near me sells Zagnut anymore and I love them. And Toblerone and M&Ms you can get anywhere but whatever, we like them. We got a couple house-made items, some Dutch white chocolate, caramels, chocolate coins, a strawberry cream hard candy stick, and a marshmallow Hello Kitty.
The Girl ate about 1/3 of her M&Ms in the car and then decided she was done. Candy pusher that I am, I tried to talk her into some more sugar, but she apparently knows her limits. Good for her, I guess. When I was that age I frequently ate myself sick on candy. She is obviously smarter than her mother, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed that nobody wanted to have a crazy candy-eating free-for-all with me.
When we got home, she wanted her Hello Kitty, though, and I suppose that'll have to do.
I accomplished absolutely nothing productive with my day; we got home at 3:30 and loafed on the couch until bedtime. Isn't that great!?
All ready to go!
We took the interstate to Reproduction Fabrics, which turned out to be a pretty tiny shop in the second floor of a bank and office building. I would never have found it if I hadn't been looking.
We spent a little while looking around. It's mostly cotton prints, organized by era, but there are also a few linens and some nice yarn-dyed checks and plaids. I was mostly interested in the earlier prints, 1770s-1800, and the mid-19th c ones, but I did enjoy looking at all the cheerful 1930s prints with their soft sorbet colors. One day I will make a 1930s quilt.
I am not sure what is going on with this pose.
Here is the fabric I ended up with:
2 1/2 yd of red print for a Little House dress for The Girl. She chose this print; it wouldn't have been my first choice but it'll do. The blue is 1 1/4 yd of Dutch chintz print for a jacket for me, and a yard of the yellow stripe woven for an apron, both to combine with my curtain-along skirt for a crazy print-mixing ensemble. Probably I will make this for next year's 18th century picnic.
Northfield is a town of about 20,000 people, and had some cute little shops. We browsed in an antique shop and walked around until we got hungry. I loved this silverware tree we passed by.
There was a little farmer's market going on in the town square park and we brought our picnic lunch down to eat in the grass. Some guy was playing a guitar and singing unintelligibly. It was hot but we found some shade.
This one is "take a picture of my sandwich, mom!" It's her favorite sandwich: white cheddar, butter, and sauerkraut on squishy whole wheat, for those who must know.
We got back on the road and headed to the candy store. We got stuck at a train crossing at the Malt-O-Meal plant and took a car selfie while we waited.
Google maps took us through the winding little roads of the countryside. It's beautiful down there; rolling hills and lakes; areas of dense trees separating pastureland and fields. I kept wanting to stop and take pictures but I never found a good place to pull over while I was thinking of it.
So finally we reached our trip highlight!
It's really too big to get a proper photo of; I think you'd have to be across the highway to get the whole thing. I've only been there once, a couple years ago, and even since then they've expanded.
One section of the store had these hot-air balloons going up and down on wires from a ceiling painted with clouds.
There's so much that I know we didn't look at everything. There are 4 aisles of saltwater taffy, and probably as many of licorice. There are cookies and chocolates and house-made pies. A lot of it is novelty stuff, like toy cars filled with that nasty candy that tastes like chalk. I steered F away from those and encouraged her to choose candy she actually wanted to eat. There were also several aisles of little mints and things in novelty tins. We didn't buy any but had to take a picture of the Mustache Mints.
The whole place was full of crazy stuff like this robot:
They also sold hundreds of different hot sauces, pickles, jams, and noodles. And jigsaw puzzles, for some reason. There were puzzles everywhere, including this huge closet:
They only take cash and checks, so I brought a 20 and hoped I could restrain myself. We met our budget pretty quickly, and we didn't even get a pie! We could easily have spent $50. Here's what we got:
Nothing too exotic. Nowhere near me sells Zagnut anymore and I love them. And Toblerone and M&Ms you can get anywhere but whatever, we like them. We got a couple house-made items, some Dutch white chocolate, caramels, chocolate coins, a strawberry cream hard candy stick, and a marshmallow Hello Kitty.
The Girl ate about 1/3 of her M&Ms in the car and then decided she was done. Candy pusher that I am, I tried to talk her into some more sugar, but she apparently knows her limits. Good for her, I guess. When I was that age I frequently ate myself sick on candy. She is obviously smarter than her mother, but I have to admit I was a little disappointed that nobody wanted to have a crazy candy-eating free-for-all with me.
When we got home, she wanted her Hello Kitty, though, and I suppose that'll have to do.
I accomplished absolutely nothing productive with my day; we got home at 3:30 and loafed on the couch until bedtime. Isn't that great!?
no subject
Date: 2015-08-16 04:08 pm (UTC)I showed the boys the candy part of this post since they LOVE candy and their eyes bulged out and their mouths hung open when I read about the isles of taffy. Finally C said "stop mom, I'm dying for candy now!"
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Date: 2015-08-17 01:23 am (UTC)Kidding!
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Date: 2015-08-17 12:26 am (UTC)What an awesome day! Looks like you guys had a wonderful adventure exploring!
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Date: 2015-08-17 01:21 am (UTC)We had a great time!
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Date: 2015-08-18 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-08-18 11:51 am (UTC)