Isabella Sparrow

Isabella Sparrow european-inspired rural simplicity | antiques, vintage & new at our brick & mortar | commercial, re Also offering ...

* Home, storefront and event staging
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{hunter-gatherer & stylist ~ hillary o'carroll}

Isabella Sparrow is a European country-inspired aesthetic made of gathering simple rural antiques with objects of useful beauty, both old & new. Specializing in old farm furniture and make-dos, homespun and hand-wovens, rural artifacts, agricultural ephemera, industrial re-use and reusable country whatnots:

Baskets, barrels, bins, grainsacks, text

iles (especially homespun and handwovens), simple tableware (especially Ironstone and old crockery), galvanized anything, old farm machinery parts, industrial elements and wonderful unexpected found objects that have something beautiful to offer to a simple life, well lived.

Last Spring, I joined the Ffern ledger because the scent they were describing was guided by violets, and I have a treasu...
12/22/2025

Last Spring, I joined the Ffern ledger because the scent they were describing was guided by violets, and I have a treasured friend for whom violets means something so very tender. Also, it was releasing in her birthday month, and so there couldn’t have been a more perfect gift to send to her from far away. It arrived in the mail, and without opening the main box full of the bottle and accompanying gifts, I got to test out the scent with a sample.

✨ It was perfect. ✨

I sent it along to her. And it was just as right for her as I had hoped.

Ever since, I have been receiving the Ffern fragrance each season. Summer was so completely splendid that I used up the whole bottle just days before the Autumn one arrived. I was using it daily, and spraying it on pillowcases, on Summer dresses hanging in the closet, on the couch. Autumn was Quince-inspired and so magical too, and came just in time for picking apples, and lasted through taking the last leaf-strewn, amber-coloured walks through the city.

Each scent comes with a tea, and a piece of seasonal art. But there is also the podcast that I listen to on the first of each month — As the Wheel Turns — which I have surely shared with you here; and there is a short film made too, the preview clips of which enchant me for weeks before the box arrives. There is the music of Sam Lee, whom I thoroughly adore, and all the photography shared along the way — images that evoke the heart of the coming scent through landscape, weather, and the simple textures of seasonal life.

What the Ffern team has created — through the artfulness of their fragrances, and through the beauty that surrounds each arrival — is magic.

It has become part of how I welcome the turning of the seasons — something extra to look forward to, something sensory to help mark the passage of the year. I feel genuinely grateful for the way it has woven itself into my life.

And now there is Winter — inspired by a lighthouse, and a safe harbour, with its bright beacon capable of changing fate — arriving just as the Solstice comes to restore the light.

Thank you, Ffern. 🌿

Another flashback to Spring: “An “After” and then a “before” on the rooftop garden at  …Such a truly unique and gorgeous...
11/23/2025

Another flashback to Spring:

“An “After” and then a “before” on the rooftop garden at …

Such a truly unique and gorgeous place to stay in Wilmington!

🌿🌿🌿

Preparing to go gathering all the trimmings for the holiday installation at  this week has me thinking about the Spring ...
11/22/2025

Preparing to go gathering all the trimmings for the holiday installation at this week has me thinking about the Spring beginnings of the new Streetery that I did back in May. It was the most soil I have ever toted by bucket for one project, (logistics of the location), but well worth the joy of having it done and welcoming to their outdoor dining guests.

If you haven’t had dinner and drinks in these charming cabins, book a night. Their food is sublime.

Here’s a look back to May …

Just a few Friday flashback shots from other Octobers.  —>The last one is from 2010 - FIFTEEN years ago! October always ...
10/31/2025

Just a few Friday flashback shots from other Octobers. —>

The last one is from 2010 - FIFTEEN years ago!

October always goes by too fast … 🍁

Such a pure pleasure to do a seasonal installation of gathered Autumn botanicals  this week. What a great excuse to ride...
10/29/2025

Such a pure pleasure to do a seasonal installation of gathered Autumn botanicals this week.

What a great excuse to ride around in the country searching for just the right hues to accent their wonderful space …

10/26/2025

Meadowsweet General Store is so many good things rolled into one — just as a good general store should be.

It’s made of very treasurable vintage finds, next to handmade local goods that include delicious jams and honeys, and fresh baked breads. It’s very special clothing, along with the kind of wooly that you buy once, and keep for the rest of your life.

Plus it’s Stacy & Mike — in a space that truly sings of what they’ve always been about.

I am so grateful to have workshops happening there now (see my other, most recent posts) as an excuse to see my Meadowsweet friends again, and often.

We have some very beautiful ideas in the works, with the aim to fortify resilience and community. 🍂

Stay tuned …


at

GROWING MICROGREENS (Just part of our Cold Season Crop Workshop that anyone can do at home!) :-) 🍂🍂🍂Autumn and Winter ar...
10/24/2025

GROWING MICROGREENS
(Just part of our Cold Season Crop Workshop that anyone can do at home!) :-)

🍂🍂🍂

Autumn and Winter are the perfect seasons to grow fresh greens indoors. Microgreens (the tender young shoots of most edible plants) are packed full of dense nutrients, and are so rich in a wide variety of flavors. With just seeds, a little soil, plus sufficient light and watering, you’ll have a mini garden that will reward you with nourishment and beauty in just a few weeks.

Here’s how to grow a quick daily harvest of health, right on your windowsill.

{ Swipe }



10/22/2025

Local Friends … This Thursday! (a.k.a. tomorrow) 7 ~ 9:30 pm
at Meadowsweet General Store in Fishtown

Join us for Cold-Season Farming, a hands-on training for small-scale veggie growers on how to keep your garden alive and producing through the colder months. We’ll cover what to grow when the air turns crisp — hardy greens, root veggies, herbs, and microgreens — that will thrive in cooler soil. You’ll learn how to prepare and enrich your beds for Autumn and Winter, how to sow for continuous harvest, and how to build simple season-extension structures like row covers, cold frames, and low tunnels, many using recycled materials. We’ll create personalized sowing calendars specifically for our region and your garden, and share new ways to bring fresh flavour from the garden to your table all year long.

Class is $20 including materials, though you are welcome to pay whatever you can afford.

Autumn tea & biscuits will be provided. 🍂

Please reserve your spot by emailing Hillary at [email protected]

____________________________

🍂🍂🍂

Please also see our most recent post before this one for the whole list of classes we have planned at Meadowsweet General Store this Autumn and Winter. Email [email protected] for a full description of each class!

And please feel free to call or text 717.327.7285 with any questions.

We look so forward to growing with you …

🍂🍂🍂

____________________________

Beet harvest photos from fab UK photographer, gardener and psychologist:
Grace Alexander
gracealexanderflowers.co.uk

Good Saturday Morning, Long-Missed Friends! 🍂Posting here after so long feels a little like picking up a beautiful vinta...
10/18/2025

Good Saturday Morning, Long-Missed Friends! 🍂

Posting here after so long feels a little like picking up a beautiful vintage telephone and tapping the receiver with my fingers to say:
“Does this telli still work? Are you out there?”

It’s been a long time.

Perhaps I’ll write a little “catching up” post on another day, about what I’ve been doing — living on a boat and farming on the edge of the Delaware River for the past year and a half — I can’t believe it’s been that long since I closed the shop in the courtyard!

But for today, I’m here to share something I am very grateful and excited about.

In the coming weeks, starting this coming Thursday evening, I’ll begin a partnering with my longtime friends at Meadowsweet General Store (now in Fishtown) to offer a series of workshops on all kinds of subjects related to small-scale farming and natural cottage gardening. The classes will be grouped by season, with course material preparing us for each part of the farming and gardening year, beginning with the Autumn sessions.

Have a gander at the topics we’ll cover, noting that the workshop on Cold-Season Crops will happen THIS coming Thursday! (All classes begin at 7 p.m. and will end between 9 and 10 p.m.)

Please email me at [email protected] if you would like to receive the full description of each class and/or reserve your spot for any of them.

Thank you so much for still being here. 🍁

I look so forward to catching up with some of you in person at the most beautiful store you can imagine. If you haven’t been to the new Meadowsweet location yet, these classes are just a good excuse to make a trip to Fishtown! It’s as stunningly gorgeous as you’d expect if you’ve been following Stacey and Mike of Meadowsweet for the last decade. (Check the comments for a few sneak peaks of their space.)

Hope to see you soon!

🍂🍂🍂

Address

8433 Germantown Avenue (courtyard)
Philadelphia, PA
19118

Opening Hours

Thursday 11am - 6pm
Friday 11am - 6pm
Saturday 11am - 6pm
Sunday 11am - 6pm

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