Sleepy Hollow Craft Company: What I did on my Summer Vacation by Jenelle O'Malley

So I thought I would write a little and share some of my travels from this summer.

Yes, I actually left my house! I know-shocking! I left my glue gun and glitter behind and set out to see old friends, new places, and lots of long-overdue concerts!

So this summer...my oh my, what a long strange trip it's been...

Me and Matthew all in love in Yellow Springs, OH.
Moment captured by Erin.

Over the July 4th Weekend we went to visit an old college friend of mine, Erin.
I haven't talked to her in 10 years!!!!
But through the miracle of facebook we reconnected and made plans for a visit.

Erin and Jenelle in Yellow Springs, OH
July 2009

It was so wonderful to spend time with Erin and her boyfriend, Joe, again.
Erin being "Julie the cruise director" made many plans for our short visit, which included a trip to Yellow Springs, OH. This little town, which is home to Antioch College, Dave Chappelle, and some of the neatest little shops in Ohio, has been a long time favorite weekend-getaway for her and I.
I remember going there many,many times during our college days.
How surreal to go back with our bf/husbands recapturing some of those memories and making new ones too.
We had the best time visiting Sam and Eddies Open Books, Darkstar Comics, and of course
The Import House.
It is such a quaint, beautiful little town full of older hippie-types and lots of cats and dogs.
I guess those go hand in hand. lol

And no trip to the Cinncinatti/Dayton area for a flea market freek like me would be complete without a trip to Traders World...quite possibly the neatest place on earth!

Traders World...is like if Chucky Cheese and Disneyland got together for a one night stand and made a flea market baby. Seriously all of these animal-robot thingys talk..and make sounds!!!

Check out the ginormous giraffes on the roof behind the buffallo....awesome.

There are so many great things to see and do here...and seriously you could find anything in this place! And did I mention it is friggin' huge??? We were there from open to close...and I'm not sure we saw everything!

I made some amazing purchases! Including a giant Marilyn Monroe print...it was a must-have.

Joe, looking adorable.

Joe and Matthew had a great time hunting in the gazillion comic book and collectible booths...that's not what he's doing here..but that giant gorilla stuffed animal so would have had to been mine when I was a kid..oh yea, my dad would have been hulling that to the car. lol

Since I couldn't buy everything I truly wanted I snapped alot of photos of just all the great stuff...

including this wall of pinups. How wonderful would these look framed and hanging in my house? I know...

I think Matthew wanted this giant gorilla for our B-movie themed office at home.

We all vamped it up taking 1920'sesque photos with him. I thought Matthew's was particularly cute.

And did I mention the food at Traders World is out-of-this-world?

These yummy cupcakes were just too pretty not to capture. But they also have a huge dining area where you can buy everything from the typical hotdog and nachos to fried chicken dinners!!!

So yea, I guess you can tell, Traders World was awesome. I highly suggest if you are heading to Ohio- you gotta make a stop there. Coincidentally, for those of you who are also going to

Country Living Fair this year,

Traders World is probabaly only a little over an hour away from the CL Fair!

In early August I headed to Boston with my dear friend Kalena and her sweet mom, Gloria.

We went to see Depeche Mode at the Comcast Center, just outside of Capecod.

The concert was truly amazing! I have seen them 2 other times...but what is it about seeing concerts out-of-town that is just so super fun?

It poured rain-like cats and dogs...but being a late-twenty something and a thirty something- we came prepared with panchos, vinyl tablecloths to sit on and wore sensible shoes. lol

I could have sold my $10 Walgreens pancho for a hundred dollars a hundred times over...oh to be 16 and unprepared again...lol.

Kalena and Jenelle outside one of the super-neat old buildings in Salem, Mass.

And we couldn't be so close to Salem, Mass without stopping by and getting in touch with our inner-witches.

Even though it was blazing hot, I couldn't help but start to get into the Halloween spirit!

We spent the day strolling the beautiful town and all the witchtastic shops...

and what trip to Salem is complete without heading to the Memorial and graveyard...spooky!

It was actually very peaceful and sweet. If one could describe a graveyard in that way. lol

The headstones and trees...and many little benches...were just other-worldly.

Speaking of other-worldly, I was invited by my sweet friend Jenny to go see THE Goddess.

Tori Amos.

Now I have seen Tori probably close to a dozen times over the years.

Her concerts are like church for me.

It's her, and the music, and the lyrics...and her voice. It's truly something to experience.

And she was AMAZING!!!!

Jenny had gotten great floor seats..and in truly unorthodox-for-a-Tori-show fashion the secutiry actually invited us out of seats to go stand around the small stage.

Does that ever happen? No.

So I decided not to ruin the amazingness of this once-in-a-lifetime experience by worrying about snapping tons of pics...but the few I did take are near and dear to my heart.