If you live in the metro Detroit area and want to take an afternoon road trip, I’d recommend exploring Fenton.  It’s a quiet little town filled with some charming shops and a delightful restaurant called The French Laundry.  Some of the shops I like to peruse include The Iron Grate, (shabby chic gift boutique with a great atmosphere) Sweet Variations, (old time candy shop) and Barefoot Thyme. There is also this quirky antique shop .

Since I was in Grand Rapids for a friends wedding over the weekend, I thought it’d be fun to spend some time with my mom and head to the cute little town of Rockford. My sister-in-law also lives here and has raved about the wonderful fall harvest weekends they put on each year.  In addition to the cute shops & restaurants it definitely is a great place for family fun activities.  Some of my .

I just love Northville, Michigan. Steve and I rented a house there shortly after we were married and have very fond memories of our stay. (eventually we had to buy our first home and as you can tell by the downtown, the houses were a little out of our price range at the time) At any rate, we stopped by this charming town recently and I’d like to share some of my favorite stops .

I don’t need too much of an excuse to get away on the weekends so when our friends invited us to stay at cabin near Ludington, Steve and I were on our way.  It was the first time I ventured into this paticular lakeshore town and was pleasantly surprised by this fanciful store filled with lots of personality.  Miss Maude herself greets you as you wander into to this eclectic mix of art wares.  .

Okay, I’ll be the first to tell you that the only thing I remember seeing Martin Short in is The Father of the Bride movies (and who could forget the Three Amigos?)  With that being said I wasn’t overly excited to see his new Broadway show… but hey -he’s famous and the ticket was half off so a few fellow artists from the trade show and I thought it’d be interesting to check out. .

One big positive about doing trades shows is that I’m guaranteed to visit New York at least twice a year.  We always try to schedule in a ‘fun day’ which usually consists of me walking the streets in search of interesting shoe & clothing boutiques. (Steve is such a trooper) Another one of my pastimes is noticing fun signs for restaurants & shops.  Here are a few of the ones I stumbled upon this .

Every summer Steve & I travel to three ‘week long’ trade shows to sell a.i. paper design wares to stores across the US.  That means we pack all our displays & merchandise samples in this big old wooden crate and ship them from show to show.  This year’s itinerary included Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York. After about 3-4 hours of set up our booth turns into the colorful wonderland of a.i. paper design. .

In the midst of all our business travels this summer, Steve and I got a chance to get away to Northern Michigan for a weekend.   We met a few of our friends at The Grand Traverse Resort and the boys headed out for some golf while the girls made their way to the beautiful Leelanau Peninsula.   First stop, Suttons bay.  This is a very sweet little town with lots of lovely shops.  One .

Whenever Steve & I travel to do a trade show we always try to weave a little fun in after the workday.   We just recently got back from the California Gift Show which takes place in downtown Los Angeles.  Unfortunately there’s not too terribly much happening right downtown so we ventured off and explored beautiful Santa Monica. Walking along the sidewalk headed towards the pier I couldn’t help to notice this playful trio of .