Happy Place

Columbus’ funky vintage shop The Little Light Collective assembles items from more than 45 vendors in a bright and uplifting space.

“The booth-renting vendors have a permanent space that they curate floor to ceiling within the store,” Rhodes explains. “They also work in the store every month, so they’re in contact with our customers, and it really makes more of a microcommunity within our shop.”

Over 45 vendors now play a part in running The Little Light Collective. Different corners of the store are restocked weekly, brimming with vintage clothing, home decor, furniture and glassware.

“It’s a lot of what you could expect in any more traditional antique mall with a heavy punch of youth and funkiness,” Rhodes says. “We try to keep it really fresh.”

Although it is impossible to pick favorites, Rhodes has a slate of beloved vendors who have been with her from the start. Dre McLeod primarily sells reworked denim jackets, dusters, pillows and pouches using vintage and secondhand fabrics, most of which are rescued from the landfill and transformed into wearable art pieces. Mod Abode sources midcentury glassware and Viking glass, as well as restored turntables and speakers.

“In creating a store, I wanted it to feel like the most joyful space,” Rhodes says. “There are things we need to shop for, and then there are things we want to, or it’s less of a need. I wanted there to be a feeling when you enter Little Light that’s uplifting.”

Rhodes is passionate about prioritizing her customers’ connection to the space. Visitors who love the store are welcome to book it for private appointments, surprise birthday parties and more. Rhodes recently spotted a couple taking engagement photos outside the shop, explaining that it was their happy place.

“We have a lot of chandeliers, sparkly lights — just try to make it as bright and light as possible,” Rhodes says. “We have people come through on really hard days, and they walk through the door, and we’re like, ‘Hey, are you looking for anything in particular?’ And they say, ‘No, I just had a really rough work week, and I just needed somewhere to be happy.’”

Kelly Powell

3041 Indianola Ave., Columbus 43202, 614/815-0527, thelittlelightcollective.com

The Rookery Tree stands at the heart of the Magee Marsh Visitor Center.

The newly revamped Magee Marsh Visitor Center near Oak Harbor provides outdoor lovers a fresh look at our state’s prized bird-watching destination.

When the Magee Marsh Visitor Center re-opened to the public in early May 2023, it gave nature lovers a first look at the expansive makeover to the building that opened in 1970 as the Sportsmen’s Migratory Bird Center. The 5,700-square-foot space features a variety of intricately crafted habitat displays that showcase the incredible diversity of this area west of Port Clinton where the region’s vast marshlands meet the Lake Erie shore.

“They went down and actually made a cast of the bark of the [hackberry] tree, so that they could reproduce it on the tree inside,” Ohio Division of Wildlife district manager Scott Butterworth pointed out during the building’s May 4 dedication as he discussed the level of care Toledo-based Graphite Design + Build put into its work on the center. “So, that just shows you the level of dedication and detail that went into this building.”

The center is a fitting first stop for visitors to Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, particularly those who don’t know a lot about the region’s rich birding heritage and the wetland habitats that draw songbirds and shorebirds, waterbirds and waterfowl. Yet seasoned birders will find much to love here as well. Second-floor displays also include exhibits that share the history of duck hunting in the area and the craft of decoy carving.

Other improvements that were part of the makeover include bird-friendly glass, new upper and lower outdoor decks, updated bathrooms, a chairlift, an accessible path around the building and the addition of a small gift shop.

Magee Marsh Wildlife Area — named after the Magee family that bought 2,700 acres of wetlands in 1903 and preserved them for 30 years — today spans more than 2,200 acres and is overseen by the Ohio Division of Wildlife. It is often mentioned among the nation’s top bird-watching sites, in no small part due to the wealth of colorful warblers that visit during spring migration, a fact celebrated each May during the Biggest Week in American Birding.

“We can live in a city, we can live in a suburb, but in a short period of time, you’re out here,” Gov. Mike DeWine said following the May 4 dedication ceremony. “It’s one of the great places in the world to see birds, and it’s just a lot of fun.” — Jim Vickers

13229 W. St. Rte. 2, Oak Harbor 43449, ohiodnr.gov

April 7, 1788, a party of 48 settlers led by Rufus Putnam stepped onto the east bank of the Muskingum River, beginning a new era of expansion across the continent. The Ohio Company, as they were known, had left Ipswich, Massachusetts, the previous December, determined to start a new life. They succeeded, founding Marietta, which became Ohio’s first city and served as the capital of the Northwest Territory.More than half a century later, Sala Bosworth, an American artist who initially specialized in portraits of prominent citizens, found himself wandering southeastern Ohio, painting the places as well as the people who resided there. His landscapes became an important marker of a quickly changing state. Among his most influential works was “Landing of the Pioneers,” an oil-on-canvas painting commissioned by Samuel P. Hildreth, author of the 1848 book, “Pioneer History of the Ohio Valley ” Historical works like this painting are prized for the moments they capture, having been created in a day when those accounts were still fresh enough to be told firsthand by the people who participated.

Richard “Jeff” Jeffers

SOLD AT