A few weeks ago, I headed North to Minnesota for a quick girl's weekend.
We made the trip with 2 goals...shopping and a concert. Both proved to me AMAZING!!
There were so many Midwestern girls that emailed, asking me where my favorite stops were...I decided I will post about a few of my must-see places when I head up through Wisconsin to Minnesota.
I am going to jump to the first place I visited when I arrived in Minneapolis...a shop called
Hunt & Gather
Hunt & Gather is the store that has the cabinet I am still dreaming about...
The outside says it all. It is a wacky, eclectic mix of funky, retro, pretty and antique...
When I see a store with stuff piled up outisde...I cannot get my car parked fast enough. Seriously, am I the only one who has their heart race a little bit over a good pile of old junk??
To say this place is "sensory overload" is a complete understatement! I have seen a lot of shops, in a lot of towns, in a lot of states. But this one takes that prize for the most ecclectic array of merchandise and volume of treasures. It was beyond amazing!!
You literally can get lost in this store for hours. It is a maze of rooms that spreads over 2 floors, each stuffed to the ceiling with amazing finds.
The lockers I fell in love with were in a room that was full of 1000s of vintage paper items. It was an altered artists dream room, I tell you!
It is as if they knew I was coming! I walked downstairs and there was a sign...beckoning me home. How in the heck did they know I had driven there from Rockford! I should have bought it just for the memories.
They had 100s of signs. Street signs, old restaurant signs, framed tailgates from old trucks that said Chevrolet or Ford...farm signs, ice cream shop advertisements. I could go on forever. You get the idea. Signs. Lots of them.
If only my husband's name was Steve...this baby would have gone home with me!
It seems every trip I go on there is the one item that is the "kick myself for not bringing it home" item.
Well, this was the one for this trip. I was looking through photos when I got home and could not believe I didn't get this cool old school map for my sunroom. Ugh.
This photo was only part of an area that had frames. Every shape. Every color. All old and beautiful!
One of the rooms down in the basement was a french-lovers dream. Everything was girly. Antique. Ornate. French. And lovely. I love the idea of using an old footboard for artwork!
And the garden area...it was nothing short of incredible! You could even buy live plants!
And look who I ran into while I was there! Jeanine from
Chippy Shabby and her sweet husband. Aren't they just the cutest couple?? So funny we both traveled to Minneapolis that weekend, then run into each other while we are there!
Jeanine sells the most beautiful things...if you ever have a chance to visit one of the shows where she is a vendor, you will not be disappointed! She has the best vintage garden decor and always lots of things with chippy paint!
Whew! That was alot of photos...hope I didn't lose anyone. I just had to show you the awesomeness of Hunt & Gather. And let me tell you, that was only a fraction of the store. I have about 100 more photos I could have posted! If you ever get to Minneapolis, you have to take the time to stop in!
In a blog post before I left...I showed a photo of a cute little tush as a hint to what concert I was going to. I knew a true fan of this person would know who it was just by seeing it. You girls proved me right...I couldn't help but laugh at how many of you knew the man just by the jeans. All of you that guessed Kenny Chesney were right!! The concret was 5 hours of bliss, I wish you could have been there singing along with us!
I chose one of you from the comments and
Chelsy from
Sweet Pea Kisses is the winner! Email me Chelsy, you will get a little surprise package full of vintage goodness I picked up on my trip!
Happy Tuesday, girls!
I am off to paint my never-ending pile of furniture!