We’re Opening a Shop!
We are so excited to announce that we are opening a real-live, Brick and Mortar store in September, 2024!
Our store will be in Mentone, Indiana, hometown to our lake house and just a hop, skip and jump from where we live.
We are so excited for the opportunity to share our hearts and ideas within a community that has been so open and kind to us as we pave the way for the new shop.
The Hoosier Vintage shop is slated to open in September. While the idea of the the store is still being ironed out, I’d love to share with you here what our dream for the store is…and then we can see what exactly takes fruition:
We want to create a place that is inviting and comforting: a home away from home. Think iced tea waiting for you, a puzzle in the works for you to peck at, friends to visit with in big comfy chairs by the fireplace. We plan on offering antiques as well as home decor and gift items that are from around Indiana to highlight and support all of the incredible talent around our area. We’d like to offer booth space for antique vendors, areas for local artisans to offer their work, as well as classes and events to be offered.
While we open this part of our store, we are planning on still having a booth at the amazing Dutch Lady Antiques, and be frequent visitors to all of the markets we love to be a part of around the Michiana area. Our hope is that nothing will be taken away, just more will be added and expanded. With having a store, we’re also opening our minds to lots of new ideas…collabs, youtube, online live sales, etc, etc. Basically getting the behind the scenes of a store out of our home and having room to breathe is the goal with the hope that with that can come lots of creative growth and opportunity.
We haven’t gotten into the painting and ripping and forming stage, we’re still in the dreaming and planning, and thinking stage, but we’re making progress slowly but surely. So stick around, friends! We’re so excited to have you along on this journey with us.
Historic Hilton Milwaukee City Center Hotel
For our anniversary Nick and I decided it would be fun to visit a “new to us” city and explore. We chose Milwaukee because it was within driving distance and it had a historic hotel we were wanting to see… The Hilton Milwaukee City Center Hotel.
Photo of the Original Schroeder Hotel, courtesy of Historic Hotels
Constructed during the Roaring Twenties this Hilton stands as a model of Art Deco elegance. Known originally as the Schroeder Hotel, this hotel opened in 1928, boasting of it’s expansive architecture, grand furnishings, and impressive art deco interior.
We arrived and were promptly greeted by Millie and Sadie, the residents pups. These doodles were so precious and we had almost as much fun giving belly rubs as they had receiving them.
After checking in to our room we were whisked upstairs in this elevator that still exudes so much character and charm from years ago. I love when industrial things are embellished and fancy, I think it is so fun!
For our anniversary the hotel surprised us with an upgrade to the Royal Suite which was so sweet of them! It was definitely a room with a view as we could see all of Milwaukee from our room. While we enjoyed the living room and dining room, my favorite thing was the bathtub! It was so nice to soak in after sleeping in on Saturday.
You can see how the hotel accommodations have become quite a bit fancier and more expansive than when the hotel first opened:
Original hotel accommodations, photo courtesy of historic hotels
After an amazing breakfast and a long soak in the tub we were ready to do some hotel exploring. Which usually feels like hotel snooping as we are always just trying doors to see what is unlocked, but that’s the fun of exploring old hotels.
The ballrooms were magnificent. Each one held it’s own sense of elegance and style, varying gently or greatly from the one before. The history that these rooms must have seen is so wonderful to think of. And the details of all of the rooms were gorgeous.
The salon of the hotel, the entrance, was magnificent and breathtaking. With a lower entrance to the grand foyer, it definitely created a moment when you entered the quiet din of the grand room after taking in all of the noise and din from the world outside. The details are breathtaking. The front desk was a timepiece left from another time, with the bank style bars and all of the small details left from a world where the world took it’s time and things were done in a proper, certain way. Those are the details I cherish. Well, those and fancy doorknobs.
All of the small details. I can romance anything, I know, but the time taken to create all of the finial work, the mouldings, the hardware for the hotel, it is romantic and ethereal to look at. It is all a symphony of details that come together to form a masterpiece that has truly stood the test of time, coming out timeless, classy, and undeniably elegant.
Lest I mention my one true love, the lighting. Y’all know I love a good hotel light and this place did not dissapoint. The enormous chandeliers all in a row in the entrance? The wooden art deco circle lights? The stately french chandeliers in the salon? I am not sure which is my favorite but I know I loved them all.
We loved our stay at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center and highly recommend you visit. You will love how many details remain from the Art Deco movement, the peacefulness you’ll feel when sitting in the lobby, and all of the plush accommodations in the well appointed rooms. And make sure to say hello to the puppies for us when you visit!
For some fun historic hotel kitsch at home, shop our fun swizzle stick collections. These are so fun to keep on your home bar!
Girls Just Want to Have Fun
These past few months of moving, putting our house up for sale, and getting settled have often times seemed never ending.
We decided the first of the year was a good time to get our business off the back burner and spend time doing what I love.
Our lives have gotten busy. Mainly Nick’s business of consulting has taken off and while we appreciate how many companies he is helping, it is exceedingly difficult to run an antiques business with the man…
Enter Emma.
Our sweet daughter is a teenager in high school who is hip with the social media, a wonderful photographer, and loves to help stage and arrange inventory. Her stepping in to help was a seamless decision.
She will be helping me (Lindsay) with the marketing, planning, and arranging of a new idea we have. The hopes of this will help me to hopefully be able to spend more time on things that don’t take me forever and a day (unlike social media posts that do take me forever). The other benefit of her helping is that it has really freed me up artistically when it comes to the aesthetic of our office and what I want around me.
I’ve always been a “decorate with what brings you joy” kind of person but when I was sharing an office with Nick I noticed that I was decidedly more tactful with my decorating.
It’s just crazy enough to work.
The Manor’s Moved
The Hoosier Vintage family has moved! Come on in, let us show you our favorite parts of our new home.
Well things have been busy here these last few month. Over the summer we decided to buy a house that quite literally was nothing short of a miracle! It was pretty incredible how it all happened. And while our previous home my sweet cousin nicknamed “The Manor” hasn’t moved, we’ve decided to carry the name with us wherever we go!
We moved from our large Queen Anne home to an even bigger Victorian in Nick’s home town.
The very best part? It’s right next door to his sweet parents!
Nick remembers being babysat in the home. He remembers throwing marbles down the laundry chute and playing in the toy room up on the third floor. Our son’s bedroom has the window Nick shot out with a bb gun when he was young. These sweet memories make me smile so big.
I’d love to show you around. Want to come see?
Here, let me show you around! Here are some of my favorite parts of the house:
Here are some of our project areas coming up soon:
As you can see there’s a bit to do. Wood panelling is ganging up on us. The geese are ganging up on us. We have a stonehenge of boxes in our formal living room. There are lots of projects but we love every little bit of it. We’re currently taking our time to live in the home and figure out how to best make the house our own, and what is our first priority.
Every morning I wake up, throw off the covers, put my robe on, and walk down the stairs, feeling like royalty. And kind of silly because I still can’t remember how many steps each flight has. But I’ll get it!
We’ve been in our new home 2 months and it still feels so special and amazing!
So I hope this explains where we’ve been and what we’ve been up to! The Hoosier Vintage has also given us quite a run for our money. I may one day show you our new inventory system and storage room but suffice it to say, moving makes you have to overhaul and re-do everything. We are slowly but surely getting our ducks in row and making sure we are fully ready before we re-open our shop.
Hope this finds you well, sweet friends!
Lamb Cake
I had never in my life had a lamb cake. They are readily found in bakeries all across our Midwest region but I had never actually tried one.
This past year Nick found a lamb cake pan and requested one. He remembers his aunt making one every Easter when they would visit her house for the holiday in Chicago. So last year Emma and I gave it a go.
Interestingly enough, when I researched these fun cakes I found that they originated in Germany, although it is also mentioned that they are from Austria, Poland, and the Northern Region of France. So we’ll say this originated in Europe ;). These cakes have always been made in a two sided cake pan. While they now are known to have frosting on them they originally had powdered sugar with a red bow tied around the neck. Immigrants from Germany brought these pans and the tradition to America.
Our lamb cake pan did not have instructions so I looked them up. Thank you Google! Interestingly I found that it is not tradition to pour batter into the two halves and glue them together with icing but rather to fill one side fully, placing the empty side on top and letting the cake rise into that.
Who ever would have known?
And how did our lamb came go you may ask? Well friend, follow along…
But here’s how else it went…
One thing I read was to generously grease and flour the pans. I had read that the flour was very necessary. So we did that. Make sure to flour all the way up to the lip of the pan. We used avocado oil in a spray can (from Costco) and that did really nice.
I’m going to tell ya, I straight up cheated and used a box cake mix. It was fine for us. If this had been the star of the show I probably would have gone homemade all the way. But this was our first run and I knew there were 3 other desserts coming…so box cake all the way! Another tip just so ya know, is I buy a lot of cake mixes at Big Lots. They have a lot of the seasonal ones that can be hard to find at other places.
Once I got the cake into the pan and after I put the lid on, I made sure to poke some toothpicks into the little ears. These served to make sure the ears didn’t fall off and it worked! The ears stuck on tight to the head!
Make sure you put it on a cookie sheet. You are filling one half full to the top for goodness sakes and counting on the rising to fill the other half so of course there is going to be plenty oozing out of the pan.
After the cake was done baking (we baked ours for 35 minutes at 350) I let it cool until I could handle the cake without pot holders.
To my shock and the glory of God the top pan came right off! Hallelujah.
Then came the next part!!!
To which the poor little guy’s head came clean off. But by golly did those ears stay on the head!
Thank you toothpicks!
I was a bit dismayed but there isn’t much that frosting can’t fix.
Perhaps I should get a tattoo saying that?
So we got to work frosting with canned frosting. We hardly ever use canned frosting but I knew that easter weekend we would be stretched thin for time (hello putting together easter baskets!) so it was a perfect solution for us. I put the frosting in a disposable piping bag and used a medium sized star tip.
The head went back on easy as pie (or cake!) with the frosting but there was one problem…I didn’t have a pan with a lid tall enough to transport the lamb cake to our easter celebrations.
So lamby went back down on it’s side and it was a laying down cake.
I think it was cute for our first time attempt and am happy that I can say I’ve finally had a lamb cake!
Have you ever tried a lamb cake or made one yourself? We’d love to hear about your experience, friend.
Savoring Simplicity
Happy autumn, dear friends.
August always seems like a crescendo. In wave-like movement, it takes us from the lull of summer up to a heightened frenzy. After all, isn’t back to school the best time of the year? Then after the excitement comes the joyous welcome of autumn which is September. And like a wave crashing down, the air crisps at night and we feel a sigh of relief, and we receive permission to rest.
This past weekend we spent a glorious time at our lake house, The Cozy Cottage. Relaxation comes when we can silence the to-do lists in our mind and turn up the sound of our inner selves. In truth I am one that thrives on quiet and on beauty surrounding me.
While you may be reading this thinking, why the heck is this on a vintage site? Hear me out. I believe in the art of slow living. Of working with your hands. Of noticing the beauty in your surroundings. But more I believe in etching out beauty wherever possible in the every day. Like the victorians did. I believe in slow living which we hone from the pioneer era, the colonial period, where things were simple but well made and in that, beautiful.
Saturday I stopped. I slowed down and made shortcakes. To some that may sound like the opposite of slowing down and instead may feel like a chore to be checked off. However this time was special to me. I had the deck doors on our cottage flung open wide. I could hear my children laughing in the water. The lake breeze came gusting in. The sun shone as I sat at my big farm sink and peeled peaches. Their ripeness gushed through my fingers, and their juice ran to my elbows. A warm scented candle flickered as my kitchen mate. I continued with peeling.
When the peaches were peeled I pulled out my wooden cutting board and my worn Old Hickory knife. I sliced the peaches into thick, sun colored wedges. I piled them in my saucepan and sprinkled sugar with abandon. I heated them while I mixed the shortcake. I used an old childhood friend, Jiffy mix. At the lake, supplies are limited, so I used what I could find at the local grocer. I mixed and stirred by hand, reminding me of my professional max something-something stand mixer and home. But here I found myself humming as I stirred.
I thought of my grandmothers, making desserts for their families 70 years ago. I thought of my great-grandmother and on. And I stirred on. I loaded my tiny cookie sheet with 4 shortcakes to bake in the toaster oven. We designed our cottage without an oven purposefully, but the toaster oven has served us well.
Sunday we had family over. We savored stewed peaches and light shortcakes. It was a simple, peasant type of dish, but one that fit in so beautifully with the life of our cottage. Simple. Meaningful. Beautiful. And perfect.
We’ve Moved to a New Antique Mall!
Well June proved to be a crazy busy month! We can’t thank you all enough for your support as we launched this website and got our feet wet with online sales. To think it’s only been a month is kind of crazy because so much has happened!
On top of starting our website and online store we also moved our booth space!
Our first booth location provided us with a wonderful experience as first time booth owners. We were able to get our feet wet and gain some experience in a wonderful location and with some of the kindest people. However, as time went on we didn’t feel that we were at the right spot…for us.
This antique business is all a learning experience. The thought of moving booths made my skin crawl. I didn’t want to have to box everything up. But after looking at the trends in our booth finances, in the number of sales we were averaging monthly, we decided it was time to try something new.
Our experience (while I had been dreading it!) was wonderful and couldn’t have gone smoother.
Here’s how we did it:
We gave notice to our former antique mall that we would be leaving. They required 30 days notice so we gave notice June 1st to be out by July 1st.
We started our lease with our new booth space a week before the old one ended. We did this because they were literally just down the road from one another so we were able to load items and simply move them to the new location. This week of time gave us breathing room to not have to do it all, all at once. It was nice to space it out.
On Monday of the week we rented a trailer to take all of our big items. This eliminated the need for multiple trips in our truck or having to try to figure out how to even get items into our truck. U-Haul trailers are SUPER affordable by the way! We rented a trailer, fees and everything included, for about $20 for the day.
The next days we were able to go, get a bin of items, take them home, tag them, then take them to the new booth. Visit the old booth for another bin and repeat the process. I loved doing it this way because again, the two antique malls are just down the street from one another so this worked with them being super close. I also loved doing it this way because our actual store space in our home is pretty small so working in batches made it more manageable than had we had all the inventory back in our home.
By the end of the week we were able to move everything out of the booth in a timely fashion without feeling exhausted. We also had time to comb through the inventory we took out of the booth: we reevaluated everything to see if perhaps Goodwill would be a better place for something, or maybe it was more of a spring item that we didn’t need to put in the new booth just yet.
So there you go! We’re all moved and getting settled in. While we miss our old booth space and wax nostalgic about it (I am the most sentimental person ever), we are also excited about our new opportunity and how kind everyone has been at our new booth space.
Want to visit our booth?
We’re now located at Picker’s Paradise in Niles, Michigan. 2809 S 11th St, Niles, MI 49120 We’re located in booth 71. We’d love to have you stop by for a visit!
Thanks for your support and encouragement through this time! We’ll be posting more now that we’ve gotten our moving out of the way.
This is pretty much how we feel after moving booths!