The Academy of Natural Sciences

During our short stay downtown, we spent a few hours wandering around The Academy of Natural Sciences - that was my only real requirement for the whole trip... I wanted to see some dinosaurs! The museum is actually quite small and aside from their dinosaur hall, they also have dioramas and a butterfly exhibit. We were also lucky enough to catch the Chocolate exhibit right before it closed. (Unfortunately, no photos were allowed in there, but they had some really neat old chocolate wrappers and tins!) Although I came for the dinosaurs, the butterflies were the highlight of the visit for me. One of the guides in the exhibit was super enthusiastic and talked to Shawn and I for at least fifteen minutes. He pulled out some dead butterflies for us to hold and showed us how the live ones get shipped there - we even got to hold a cocoon!

There was also an exhibit showcasing a few pieces by Caryn Babaian - she does amazing chalk artwork and you should check it out if you're in the area!

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Terrain in Glen Mills, PA

A few weeks ago I took a trip to Terrain, a home and garden brand run by the same company (URBN Inc.) who owns Anthropologie, Urban Outfitters, Free People, and BHLDN. I had always admired various things in Terrain's online shop, but visiting the Glen Mills store in person was whole different experience all together.

The shop is located alongside route 1, but you'd never know you were next to a highway once you step inside. I was greeted with scenes not unlike an outdoor farmer's market, with stands of pumpkins and assorted outdoor plants. Step a little further and you walk through a greenhouse, filled with all sorts of indoor and outdoor plants, and succulents of all kinds! I must have walked around with ten different plants at any given time because I couldn't make up my mind about which ones to bring home with me. There's also more outdoor space with plants of various sizes and loads (I mean loads) of plants for landscaping. Walking through it all made me wish we lived in a place with a yard so that I could conjure up some magic and turn it into the most beautiful garden that no one would ever want to leave.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I walked into their indoor shop and was greeted with even more plants, and housewares that made me wish we owned a mansion so that I could deck out three dining rooms and four kitchens in completely different aesthetics from one another, complete with eco-friendly hand towels and a homemade gin kit, and syrups for drinks I would inevitably be making myself all the time. Step into another portion of the shop and all of a sudden you want to cover your whole house in plants, and vases, and delicate bouquets housed in planks of wood with succulents and branches and gourds tossed in for allure.

If this all sounds a little ridiculous and overwhelming, it's because it is, in a totally good way. I must have walked around that place for a good hour or two, and once I found their terrariums, I called it quits... because if I stayed too long I may never have found the will to leave. So I left, with a terrarium, a tea light holder, and a succulent in tow. But I will be back, Terrain, I will be back. And next time, I'm going to give myself a few hours to look around, maybe have a meal in the restaurant that's also on the premises, and hopefully walk out of there without spending my whole paycheck... that's probably the hardest part.

These photos don't even do it justice. I wanted all the plants.

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Picking Pumpkins at Milky Way Farm

When my friend invited me to go pumpkin picking on Sunday, I thought about how long it has been since I last went pumpkin picking... definitely over ten years! So of course the answer was yes! She drove us to a farm owned by the family of her elementary school teacher; she goes there every year to pick up a few pumpkins for her front stoop and to help support a local farm (all good things in my book!). The whole place was definitely set up for children (and there were plenty of them around); the pumpkins had been pre-picked and placed out in the field, and there were lots of farm animals, including a three week old baby cow! Of course, we're both big children so we appreciated it all just the same.

And then we saw this sign and couldn't help ourselves...
especially since the farmhouse/whole property reminded us of season two of The Walking Dead.






Pumpkin picking was fun! I brought home a few small ones, along with some funky gourds and some corn. The farm also has a creamery next door where they serve all sorts of delicious ice cream flavors named after their cows. We were definitely all up in that place! Can you say banana chocolate chunk and vanilla cookie dough ice creams five times fast? Doesn't matter, as long as you can eat it! Shawn was upset that I didn't bring home one of their take-home quarts... oh well, looks like we'll have to make another visit to Milky Way Farms...

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Chanticleer Garden

This past Sunday, my brother and his girlfriend came to visit. They got to see our new apartment and met Sylvester for the first time. We also spent a few hours wandering around Chanticleer Garden, which is located near where I work. What an amazing place! It's pretty much a smaller version of Longwood Gardens, which Shawn and I visited a few years ago. The three of us spent a little over three hours at Chanticleer and we barely made it through half of the gardens! They have over forty acres of land, split into fifteen different gardens/forests. We spent a lot of time in the first four gardens and then realized we had only an hour left before they closed, so we walked rather briskly through the rest of them. They have so many beautiful plants! They're open from April thru November, and a season pass is relatively cheap as long as you go more than three times during the season. I'm thinking about getting one for next year; they have cozy lawn chairs all over the place and I noticed a few people reading, chatting, playing cards, and even one man sleeping! I'd love to come sit in one of the gardens with a book for a few hours... I can't imagine a nicer way to spend a Saturday or Sunday off during the spring. I did get upwards of a dozen mosquito bites while we were there... but that's my own fault for not putting on bug spray!

It was an absolutely beautiful day for a garden excursion!








































(My brother said this was a banana spider... it was huge!!)

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