We had a little adventure yesterday, always welcome after a year and a half+ of staying home. It was a gorgeous day with a blue sky and big fluffy clouds. We headed north on the thruway, then crossed the Hudson River on the Rip Van Winkle Bridge, and arrived in Hudson. We did a lot of walking and as the day went on, it got really hot; 90 degrees and humid. So we were pretty tired at the end of the day. Nevertheless, it was a fun day!
Some photos for you. This will be a picture-heavy post.
The beautiful old Hudson Opera House. (Wear a Mask signs in the windows.)
Beautifully restored buildings everywhere on Warren Street, which is the main drag.
A gate between buildings. Isn’t is gorgeous?
Out of necessity and, in the end, quite naturally, we had our first meal out since the pandemic started. Healthy food, prepared with masks and gloves on, and wonderfully tasty. We sat outside. We couldn’t have found a better place for our first, somewhat cautious, meal.
This vintage dollhouse was displayed in a window, but the shop wasn’t open. They were selling it for a donation of $600, which would be earmarked for Hudson non-profits.
Outside an art gallery.
Inside my favorite shop which is full of mostly French antiques: Red Chair on Warren.
It’s full of beautiful antiques; furniture, garden pieces, jewelry, and lots of china, porcelain, and old silver. The owner has impeccable taste. I used to read about her shop years ago when she was located in New Hampshire. She’s been here at this location for about 10 years, if I remember correctly. Last time I was there, I dashed in while Don was waiting in line at the DMV and purchased a couple of vintage café au lait bowls. I bought two little items that I’ll share with you tomorrow.
This! I don’t know where it came from, but isn’t it stunning? Can you imagine this as a kitchen island, or simply as a display piece in a home? Goodness!
After a couple of hours, we were really hot and tired – most of the antique shops weren’t air conditioned and yours truly was over it. We made a stop on the way out of town at the Antique Warehouse. I follow them on IG and was ready to find a new dresser for Don and a couple of other things that we needed.
Nope. It was huge, and full of stuff. Some of the pieces were beautiful, in fact, many of them were beautiful. A lot of them were just ‘stuff.’ But it wasn’t organized well, and different areas were different shops, but not clearly defined as such. It made me a little crazy. And it was way overpriced. The shops in downtown Hudson tend to be overpriced as well, and they trend toward lots of mid-century modern. But since this place was out of downtown proper, I expected more equitable pricing. Nope. And it wasn’t air-conditioned, so by that time I admittedly had little patience.
However, I did find one stunner:
This antique dollhouse. Oh my heavens, it is beautifully made.
The dollhouse was in a very dark corner of the warehouse, so picture taking was challenging. You can see the very tall ceilings, the stairs and hallway. Only four rooms but big ones.
The front looks like it slides into two grooves on the edges of the dollhouse interior. Check out that charming detail around the window!
The details are so charming!
Oh my. Actually, I think the price is pretty fair on this piece considering it’s quite old, in good condition, solid, handmade, and one-of-a-kind. If I had lots of space and more money than I do have, I would have bought it. But I never seriously considered it.
However, it’s still in my head. I don’t know who made this, but it sure was a love-filled gift for a very special someone.
All in all, a lovely day.
I reached out to the woman selling the Beacon Hill this morning, but I haven’t heard back from her yet. Hopefully, we can make a deal – Don seems to be willing to make this trip, God bless him. I don’t deserve him. Truly. I’ll keep you updated.
(The porch on that Beacon Hill is on crookedly and there may be more that needs to be redone. But that’s what I did with my first dollhouse, Hummingbird Cottage, so I can do it again.)
Stay safe.
Happy Tuesday.
Oh my! The antique dollhouse! It is a bit pricey but it would be amazing after rehab.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the other house works out.
Hudson looks like a very charming town. And the Red Chair antique shop looks very upscale. I think I could spend hours there (except on a hot humid day).
I’m looking forward to seeing what you bought.
Stay safe
It’s upscale, but the prices are fair. It’s gorgeous inside!
Stay safe, Marilyn.
The Today Show did a piece on Hudson this morning! What a quaint town!
Bucket list item for me!
Debbie
How timely!
Thanks, Debbie.
Stay safe.
Beautiful old buildings – I also would have spent loads of time gawking. What special places! Thanks for the tour, Claudia.
Weather has been remained closer to normal summer these days. I am very grateful. Waiting for Dixie fire containment news.
Cuomo – sorry it had to come to this.
Trying to ignore possible impending doom of the recall in California.
Do we really need this now when the next election is a year from now??
Going to Hudson, NY in my dreams :-))
No, you don’t. It’s ridiculous! So politically motivated.
Hang in there, Martha!
Stay safe.
What a fun day! The Today show did a piece on Hudson this morning and I think their last stop was the same place as yours.
We are under a Heat Adv today. It truly is one of the most humid days I have ever experienced. Bad storms later in the day. AC is much appreciated.
Hope you are having a good Tues.
I don’t think we’re as bad as you are in Wisconsin, but it’s very hot and humid here as well. I guess it’s sticking around all week.
Sitting here in the AC!
Stay safe, Chris.
That dollhouse is wonderful. And the price seemed OK to me, given that I know zip about pricing doll houses! But oh, such lovely details and I loved the wood. In fact, all those shops looked wonderful but I know what you mean about antiquing when it’s hot. I just can’t do that for any length of time, no matter how marvelous the shop. I see you returning sometime in September or on a glorious October day. Yes, I do!
The buildings look really charming and I’m glad your first lunch out was a good experience. It’s steamy here today, too.
Good luck with the Beacon. I hope it works out. And keep an eye on that Hudson — perhaps they would take less. (The question being how much less!)
You asked about Rick’s duplex. He lives on one side of a large mid-century modern duplex (some day I’ll move into the other side; not soon!). He also owns a smaller duplex next door that he rents, so he has three rentals. He just got a new tenant after the crazy one moved out (this was the weirdest guy of all time, and I’m very flexible with weird). He’s phasing out of his business and trying to sell it and so he’ll still have income even after.
I love the wood on that dollhouse, too. So beautiful! It looks like a dark walnut.
Thanks for explaining about Rick’s duplex. That makes sense!
Stay safe, Jeanie!
It looks as if you had a wonderful time! And did it safely! Isn’t this what we have missed so much? A chance to take a drive, be out and about, window shop and make our eyes happy, enjoy each others company, a change of scenery, a meal prepared for us. Please, please, please would everyone get vaccinated, wear a mask and distance. We could be so much further along! Thank you for sharing your day.
I feel such anger that these idiots are impacting our lives. Still.
Yes, I echo your words. Wear a mask and distance!
Stay safe, Sherry.
What a great day trip…sounds like you had fun! Eating out is a little daunting these days, but if you can time it right….not crowded at all. At least around here.
Glad to hear Don is willing to venture out for that dollhouse. Now, I hope you can close the deal!
Hibernating inside today mostly…it’s so stifling outside. I had to do a little watering outside, ‘cause who knows if we will get the storms they are predicting? Enjoy your day! ;)
Pretty much closed it, though details are yet to be ironed out. She’s away until Sunday, which means we’ll probably drive there on Tuesday. Secretly, I’m relieved. I don’t want Don to drive that long distance this week. He’s tired.
Very humid here, as well. I ventured out to water the porch plants and came right back inside to the AC after finishing.
Stay safe, Donna!
sounds like you and don had a lovely day to, in and from hudson. looks very charming and i can see why you’d like that dollhouse. my fave would be the gate. anyway, glad you had a good time.
hope you’ve heard from the seller of the other dollhouse and they had something nice to tell you!
hope you could take it easy today after walking around in hot weather yesterday. it’s very hot here, too, and that’s sticking around a while. bleh. i have no energy in such weather and am ready for fall’s cooler weather. not snow or ice, just 40s to 60s would be easier.
heading over to see some family members today after work. all socially-distanced during the week. around way too many people and my boss said to get rid of the chair that keeps people six feet away because it “doesn’t look friendly”. … … … … so, that’s what this past year and a half has been about? not wanting to look friendly?!? ):( ugh.
hope you all are having a nice night and stay safe.
kathy in iowa
Sorry you have to deal with such ignorance in your place of work, Kathy. I know you’re counting the days until you retire.
Stay safe!
Oh, this trip; so glad you shared. The 1930s-era doll house would be such a keeper; but, of course, you’re right: Doll houses take up space in a small home. I’ve got the same problem although I’m nowhere near the creator/artist/collector that you are; in fact, I gave a new doll house, still in the box and to be put together, to a neighbor who has three daughters as I knew in the end I simply had no room for it; so, what a waste of money, but lesson learned. Of course what I had, although very well made, was not the antique in your photos and I would have had a heckuva time passing it up; now of course, all I can see is how you’d work with its bones and transform it, Claudia! Wouldn’t it be fab to know any of its story! I too think the price is very fair; I am sure I gasped at that price tag. I wish you could have it.
I love the gate between buildings. I had a cousin who lived in San Francisco for years; rented a place at the base of Russian Hill. On the sidewalk, it was just a nondescript door. But, once you opened it, you walked down a narrow passage between buildings to even more/smaller buildings (houses) which were not visible from the street and instead like a whole courtyard surrounded by the taller structures, like a secret place. I was so intrigued with living like this; it was like a city within a city. It felt so secure and protected. (But gosh, practically speaking, what a challenge for a firefighter with earthquake [and resultant fire].) The wood-framed house she was renting was so old, maybe from the 20s; unaltered high ceilings, skinny windows; but it had a lot of space around it and she had a lower veggie and flower garden off stairs to the back (SF is so hilly). What also charmed me in that area were the city staircases because when you’d walk them from street to street, up & down the hills (it’s a vertical life!), you’d sometimes walk by ‘private’, diminutive ‘home gardens’ which were almost storybook-like; and, well, I do have major love for the San Francisco that I enjoyed some 30 years ago.
But, off subject; thanks for showing us Hudson!
I just read an article from Fodor’s that we should skip Cape Cod and instead explore Bar Harbor? Have you ever been to Maine, Claudia?
As for Covid, brave you, brave Don; but you were careful. I’m SO wishing I’d gone out and done more in about late May to late June; our window of perceived safety was so brief. Now, I’m hearing stuff I don’t like, and my husband has no choice but to make a trip very soon to a low-vax state due to a family member taking very ill, so we’re anxietous over the situation. The sick one was in the ER for so many hours yesterday, waiting for a bed and to be admitted, that her husband eventually had to leave although he was getting pushed out anyway, back to the thing of no family members accompanying. Frankly, he saw patients on gurneys in hallways; their hospital is full.
I’m feeling uneasy because, truly, my circle of acquaintances isn’t THAT large, and my friends say the same thing about themselves, but I spoke to someone about five days ago who has a brother (in his 60s; still working full time outside the home) stricken with Covid RIGHT before vaccinations although he’d always been extremely careful, and everybody thought he was well-recovered by now (with good antibodies!), but he came up with something in the last few weeks called Covid Toe; and, I need to read about it more, but it seems to be a long-hauler problem in his case; bottom line, thank God he went to his ER or both feet would have had to have been amputated; as it is, he has lost several toes on one foot and they had to take half of his other foot; he’s in rehab learning to walk again; and the only thing that started this was a red rash on his big toe that concerned him enough on a weekend, in the absence of his primary-care physician, to go to his local hospital. I guess it all has something to do with how Covid gets to the vessels/veins; again, I need to read and understand more about it.
But even more concerning is the break-through infection scenario which is thought to be vastly under-reported and more common than maybe we think. Again, this friend of mine said to me (my thoughts exactly) but “how can I-me possibly already know two people who’ve had a break-thru infection who were only just vaccinated five months ago?” The one guy is asymptomatic and I have no idea why he had a Covid test which found him to be positive for Delta. However, the other guy who is positive for Delta after being vaccinated last March, has now had a feeling/symptoms of ‘flu’ which are nasty and hanging on, two weeks later. Is he going to wind up in the hospital and die? Probably not; hope not. Is he absolutely miserable? Yep. Who wants it?
I get a craving to go in the stores about this time of summer because (it makes no sense except nostalgia) of the lure of deals on school supplies. It’s when I used to stock up on printer paper, new pens, fresh glue sticks, etc. But hearing this stuff from a friend in my very small world, with break-thru infections happening to ‘real’ people in our little-bitty realm and not just numbers or info they read off on the TV national news or what I read in an online headline about Covid and its mutations/variants, makes it scarier. I was hoping this would all get tapped down by month’s end, with enough people getting vaccinated, but my husband reads a lot of the science and he thinks we’re in for one very rough September. He could be wrong. But, I can’t take chances; I stay closed down. With dried-up glue sticks. Oh well. Amazon, I hear you calling my name.
Yes, it’s very frustrating. We rarely go out except to get groceries, etc. But, like your visits to the beach, we need to get out of Dodge, as well. We mask indoors and often outdoors. We’re careful. We take hand sanitizer with us. We do everything to stay safe. We’ve realized we need to do something once a week, but obviously, our choices will be determined (or cancelled) by the number of cases in our area. It will be a tough fall, for sure.
xo
I wonder sometimes if I’m accumulating too much as I age. But then I realize that I can get rid of other things which are just ‘stuff’ but I have to have my creative endeavors and that includes miniatures.
I have been to Maine only once, and just briefly. This was when I was living in Cambridge. We drove though MA, NH, and then to Maine. Didn’t get as far as Bar Harbor, we visited Kennebunkport and Portland. It’s a gorgeous area. But so is Cape Cod. I don’t think it’s possible to compare them. Apples and oranges.
I agree; I can only downsize to a point. I have to be able to have the things around me which are meaningful to me. I actually had a minimalist friend say to me recently, in a surprisingly judgmental way (about one of my collections; as if to infer that there’s something wrong with me because I like to collect it), “But why do you have to do that? Why do you have a need to collect that? Have you ever analyzed it, about why you gather up things? What is the point of it? Why is that some kind of need in you? Why is it important?”
Some people just don’t ‘get’ it. When I’m in her house? So sterile; so…brown/beige. No character; no charm; no nothing. No books. Bare walls. Not even a bowl of fruit on the table. She does have a framed photo on the bedroom dresser. But. That’s it. No real plants. No fake plants. No color. No ‘life’. As far as I’m concerned, she has a dead house. I don’t like being in it. It’s so cold and impersonal. She also has no real hobbies other than reading adventure novels and she doesn’t really ‘garden’; rather, she just keeps what grows in her yard tidy of weeds that the gardener doesn’t catch.
I look at it the other way and wonder what defines her, except that she’s a really good auntie and dog-mommy. Thing is, if you are indeed FRIENDS, you need to find acceptance in each other! What I had to realize that whatever it was that put us together as friends in our 20s would never fly with who we are today 50 years later; people change; I’ve changed. We were so young, partying, going out to lunch on Sundays, going on vacations together sometimes, our common interest was ‘boys’; it was somebody to do stuff with; was never houses and hobbies in those long-ago days. Oh well.
Thanks for weighing in on Maine. Anything I seem to have ever read about upstate NY and the whole of New England sounds absolutely wonderful. You live in a terrific location and I’m sure you’re about to have a lovely fall of the year.
I cannot imagine anything more depressing than living in a stark and (to me) soul-less space. I suppose you could turn those questions she peppered you with around and ask her why she’s afraid of objects that might bring joy? But, of course, your point about friends supporting you is the main thing. Why would she even dare to ask those questions of you?
I know we have what some people would think is too much. But, we always look around the house and immediately comment that everything we see makes us happy.
xoxo
Oh, believe me, I often question why we are still friends, because I would never say such things to her. We did have some years in between (no contact) after one major disagreement, but it was I-Vicki who picked it back up again, after she had suffered a tremendous tragedy (told to me by others), so I reached out. What I’ve realized is that she lacks a certain refinement (or a filter); nothing much I picked up on in my late teens but which I’ve noticed over time/years. But we have some good talks; there’s sort of a relief in knowing someone so long that you have no secrets from each other, having started out with no baggage (we know each other’s histories, good and bad), like long before divorce and all the other stuff that happens in a long life although I don’t like that I sometimes edit myself to escape her harsh/verbal judgments. Because it’s not true friendship. Maybe I settled. Thing is, I know, in a pinch, she’d ‘be there’ to take me to a doctor appointment, or pick me up somewhere if I had car trouble. Maybe it’s about accepting that I have faults, she has faults; we’re not perfect.
I love your house AND your doll houses. You live in a small home with character, and you contain/corral your collections, which is my aim! I always look at the photos of your human house and feel that it is welcoming, cozy, eclectic; artistic. Makes sense; it’s a reflection of its inhabitants! Your house (the structure/architecture; the contents) has life; emotion. History. PERSONALITY.
That’s the right attitude, Vicki. Allow for differences and, I might add, eccentricities, which seem to get stronger as we get older. There’s a lot to be said for an old and dependable friend.
xo
Oh, she comes back at me saying that what brings her joy are people and experiences (like when she used to do a lot of traveling; and it’s weird because, when she and I actually WERE globetrotters, she never had a camera and would not even buy a souvenir/memento [when you’d think she’d have at least wanted a picture postcard or a photo as remembrance of that time and place]). She just doesn’t ‘waste’ (her words) money or time on inanimate objects or material possessions. I’m so the opposite. I’ve spent money on collecting (and indeed time, lots of fact-finding and searching for what appeals to my senses and what I find personally valuable; enjoyable) and preserving keepsakes that bring me a smile and bring on a memory.
But, ya know, it takes all types of people to make the world go ’round (as Mom would say). My friend would think PBS’ Antiques Roadshow to be the most boring thing, about ‘people’s junk’ … whereas I find it fascinating to see what has caught people’s eyes from other generations; what has been kept and treasured; a window to how people once lived, with a locked tea box, a certain kind of cabinet, a purposeful kind of pitcher or urn; early timepieces; the craftsmanship of woods, metals, gems/jewelry; fabric and the necessary quilts; but, of course, if a person isn’t into history or interested in what came before in their family (a family tree/roots or legacy), it’s all lost on them, and they don’t even understand their loss of all that enrichment, in my humble view. I don’t see why we can’t embrace it all, the old and the new.
Well, there are a lot of minimalists out there. I will never be one of them. But sometimes, when I look around here, I also think about who might have to deal with all of this someday. So I do plan to get rid of more stuff – just not, at least for now, the things I collect.
xo
Thanks for sharing your trip to Hudson! I really enjoyed the vintage stores. Well, that’s as much as I get out for today! Stay safe.
You’re most welcome, Lottie.
Stay safe.