Tag: Kansas

A Quick Day in Lawrence, KS

It’s crazy to think that one week ago we were leaving Kansas after a whirlwind trip for Doug’s little brother’s graduation in the center of the state. Isn’t it crazy how quickly time goes by once you return from vacation? Anyway, the relative passage of time is neither here nor there. When we arrived at the Kansas City airport we picked up our rental car, met with a friend for lunch, and then high-tailed it to our favorite city in the Sunflower State: Lawrence. To be honest, I can’t believe I haven’t done a profile on Lawrence yet!

lawrence

One thing I’ve noticed in life is this: If you want to find the best donuts in town, find out where the senior citizen crowd goes. You certainly won’t find the most aesthetically pleasing joint, but you will find the best donuts. Start your day in Lawrence out at Munchers Bakery. The cream cheese donuts were highly recommended, but I loved my blueberry and apple fritters.

Munchers Donuts

Once your’e hopped up on sugar and caffeine, burn off some of that energy by heading over to Clinton Lake for some fresh air and pretty scenery, or take a stroll around KU–the University of Kansas.

Then, head over to the most popular part of town– Massachusets St (called Mass St). If you truly wanted to, it would be easy to spend the entire day on Mass, poking around each and every shop–varying from big chains like Gap, to antique stores, music stores, and more.

Arriving at Mass Street, you’re probably ready for lunch. Whatever you’re in the mood for, there is a great restaurant to fit the bill.

Notable shops include…

Love Garden Sounds, a music store with a wide variety of CDs and Vinyl, including some hard-to-finds. Since I’ve been visiting Lawrence the shop has been in three different locations, but the loyal customers take it all in stride. The shopfront they’re in now has a primo location so I don’t anticipate any shakeups for a while. Isn’t the deconstructed piano in their front window incredible?

Love Garden

Love Garden

Wild Man Vintage is a clothing store dealing in (you guessed it) vintage. It rules, but we’re biased because our buddy works here. But really, look at that amazing selection of vintage boots!

Wild Man Vintage

Wild Man Vintage

In the evening, catch a show at Liberty Hall, The Granada, The Bottleneck, or even Jackpot!  I’ve seen several shops at Liberty Hall and they have been some of the best ones I’ve ever been to. It’s easy to get really close to the stage!

After the show head back to your friend’s apartment–you are staying with a college buddy, right? And partake in a time-tested tradition–ordering a midnight pizza from Fat Freddy’s. Their delivery hours are insanely late: up to 3 and 4 AM!

Anyway… that’s what I’d do! ;)

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Antique Postcards in the Bathroom

Recently Doug and I were perusing a huge antique mall and spent a little more time than usual in a vendor’s space that had old postcards and photographs from around the world. It was organized really nicely and all 50 states were broken up so we looked at all the Kansas postcards!

For those who attended our wedding, it’s no surprise that we love antique postcards. We had a box of them for people to “write to us” as an alternative to a guestbook.

 

We actually found many postcards from Hutchinson, the town where Doug was born, and even found one from McPherson, where we lived. We nabbed the McPherson one up and Doug picked his favorite Hutchinson locale and I knew exactly what frame they would go in when we got home.

Hutchinson Postcard

McPherson Postcard

We used to take Mosey for long walks in this very park!

The bathroom has proved to be a tricky place to hang art. We have the perfect long and narrow frame for one space (you can see it reflected in the mirror below) but there was an awkward place above the hand towels (look in the reflection in the medicine cabinet–below, right). Psst… These photos were lazily plucked from my Home Tour. ;) 

Bathroom Peek

Note: The bathroom area is tiny and full of mirrors–not so easy to shoot! 

Anyway, I reused a very cheap $5 frame I picked up at Wal-Mart years ago. It already came with a mat in it–so this little project was seriously a no-brainer. The small size of the frame looks ok since the towel bar is weirdly high. All in all, it makes me smile to see these reminders of where we’ve been!

Postcards in frame

Postcards in frame

Have you done any inexpensive and sentimental updates lately?

IKEA Kansas City

Okay, I had other things on my mind for today but seeing how (by my estimations) about half of my readership lives in the Midwest, this is BIG NEWS. I hereby interrupt your regularly scheduled programming.

IKEA IS COMING TO KANSAS CITY!  (Fall 2014)

Read the full article on the Kansas City Star website.

This is huge for low-budget interior decor enthusiasts like myself. You may remember that a year ago, my cousin got hitched in Dallas and we snuck in an IKEA trip while we were there, which resulted in the long, looong boxes being slid into the car in a very tricky way–we had to fold down the passenger seat and the right rear seat and put the boxes in all the way up to the glove box. Then I had to ride in the back rear seat, single file behind Doug all the way back to Kansas (7+ hours).

Now, for those of you in central Kansas that trip is down to THREE HOURS or less! Think of the eight hours saved round trip and smile to yourselves. I am definitely smiling for you.

Have a wonderful weekend!!