Home From Galena Illinois

Other than the rain all day on Saturday, Galena was beautiful as always!  Scott and I had to have walked miles and miles and miles!  Main Street in Galena is 1 mile long in 1 direction and if we walked it once, we walked it at least 30 times!

I was rather annoyed with my AT&T phone service though.  I had no internet access west of Rockford and once in Galena, I had no phone service most of the time.  What is up with that?  For what we pay for these phones and our service, we should be able to have internet and phone in the Sahara desert!  I will be contacting AT&T today with a complaint!  I was able to get a few text messages through to my sister.  She said that we were at a getaway and I shouldn't be worried about phone service and internet access.  LOL!!  Yeah, right!  I wanted a getaway in Galena.  I didn't want to leave the planet!  Ha, ha, ha!

Here are a few photos from Galena:

Post Civil War home of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States (1869 - 1877).  We toured Grant's house a few years ago when we where here.  It's beautiful inside but surprisingly small!
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Statue of U.S. Grant in Grant Park. 

Well, that's my post for today everyone.  Enjoy the photos and if you'd like to learn more about Ulysses S. Grant, you can read about him here.

Good Morning From Galena Illinois!

Yesterday, we drove 2 1/2 hours west of where we live in McHenry, Illinois to Galena, Illinois for the weekend.  We always come to Galena for Labor Day weekend.  Unfortunately, it rained all day yesterday so walking up and down Main street was not quite as much fun as it usually is.

We spent some time at the Antique Mall which is on Route 20 (Grant Highway) just east of town.  I found some really great goodies there!

I found some pretty ruffled lace and an old hat with velvet millinery flowers which I'll take off and use for my crazy quilting and other crafting projects:

 I also found a little bit of old lace which will be wonderful on my crazy quilting:

Next, I found some vintage embroidery patterns.  It's fun to fine some that I don't have since my collection is now quite extensive:

Next, I found some gorgeous vintage hankies!  I love vintage hankies!

Last but not least, I found this pair of embroidered pieces.  I thought perhaps mom could make something pretty out of them.  The stitching is very nice!

Thankfully, it will be sunny all day today so we can walk up and down Main street and enjoy all the wonderful little shops and boutiques!

Before we head out for today, I thought I'd share photos of this pretty Praying Mantis that we found outside by the hotel door:

I was afraid he would get stepped on so I picked him up and moved him to a safer place.  He didn't want to let go of me though!  He has little barbs on his front feet for hanging on to things.  Scott had to carefully pry his little feet off my finger!

These are beautiful, harmless creatures.  We usually only see them in late Summer and early Fall.

If you would like to see some photos of downtown Galena, you can find them in my blog post from last year when we were here.

Treasures From Galena

We didn't spend much in Galena this past weekend.  Had to be thankful just to be able to go.  I picked up a few treasures at the antique mall:

Isn't that pretty?  I love vintage embroidered linens!

A vintage Aunt Martha iron-on embroidery transfer pattern.  I'm always thrilled when I find a vintage pattern that I don't have in my extensive collection!!! 

I'm trying to decide if I should use that doily or cut it up for my crazy quilts.  I'm leaning towards using it on my dresser.

I bought these for my crazies.  Perfect cutters!

I have a weakness for these beautiful crocheted doilies with the pansies on them.  I have a few that mom made for me and a few that I've picked up over the years in my treasure travels.  The pansies are very pastel on this one.  So pretty!

The beads came from Galena Beads.  One of my favorite stores in Galena!  They were buy 1/get 1 so I was able to get a lot for my money!

So that's what I bought in Galena!  Money was tight but that's ok.  We were just happy to be there.

In other news, I added a few new things to the shop.  First, check out Kathi's new hand-felted pumpkin patch:

Isn't that precious?!!!  It's an original creation and all hand felted.  Those pumpkins are absolutely adorable!

Then I added one of my "trash to treasure" projects:

This was a junky old metal wall pocket that I picked up at the junk store.  Cute but kind of ugly.  Not anymore!  I filled the pocket with a pumpkin, berries and harvest flowers.  The crow sits atop the pumpkin.  Very soft and shabby chic!  Both are available here.

Yesterday, I started playing with some Autumn cuff bracelets.  Quite different from Debi's tutorial.  I'll have photos soon.  These are fun!  Unique techniques!!!

I'm also working on my next Creatively Coping with Depression article.  This one is taking me awhile but it's quite extensive and rather difficult for me to write.  I'll have it ready soon.

For now, have a great day everyone!

Scott & Pam In Galena, Illinois

Well, after walking up and down Main Street all day, I do feel better.   We finished up the afternoon by walking through Grant Park and sitting by the Galena River for awhile.  These were taken in the park.  This of course is me.

And this is my Bubba:

We got back to our hotel in the nick of time!  It just started thundering and raining.  It wasn't supposed to rain today.  Anyway, this is the Irish Cottage Hotel.  It's where we always stay:

This from the park that we were sitting at.  This is looking toward the Business District:

This is Main Street:

Main Street is 1 mile long.  Scott & I walk up and down this street for hours:

The buildings are home to the loveliest gift shops, home decor stores, specialty shops, clothing boutiques and unique stores:

This one of my favorite stores here in Galena:

Are you surprised?  LOL!!!  If you'd like to see the website for Galena Beads, click here.

This is the Desoto House Hotel:

Abraham Lincoln stayed here!  Click for the history of The Desoto House Hotel.

This is the Dowling House.  It's the oldest house in Galena:

The Dowling House was built in 1826.  Click here to read more.

And this beauty is my favorite house in Galena!  Well, it's not even a house, it's a manion:

This is The Belevere Mansion:

Click here to read more about this gorgeous Victorian Italianate Mansion.

Another fun and beautiful feature of Galena is that President US Grant lived here.  This is me several years ago in front of Grant's home:

Click here to see more photos of Grants home.

It was a very nice day.  We're going to have dinner now.  Hope you enjoyed my little Galena History tour!  And be sure to check out the links I included.  Galena has a very rich and beautiful history.

Heading Up To Galena Illinois For The Weekend!

Good Morning everyone!  Scott and I are getting ready to head up to our favorite get-away place for the weekend.  Galena, Illinois!  Home of President Ulysses S. Grant.

I'm taking my camera and my laptop so I'll be posting photos, blogging and Facebooking as I can.  I need to take a bit of my routine with me!  LOL!!!!

Stop by again later for an undate!

Back From Galena!

Hi everyone! I'm back! We had the loveliest weekend in Galena, Illinois. I know I've mentioned it before but if you're new to reading my blog, Galena is a gorgeous little historical town located in the northwest corner of Illinois. It's about 2 1/2 hours west of where we live in McHenry, Illinois.

The weather was wonderful this time! 80 degrees and sunny all 3 days.

Since I don't have any stitching to share at the moment, I thought you would like to see a few of the photos we took on our trip. I was finally able to get some nice pictures of the gorgeous rolling hills there:





Does this look like Ireland or what! Not that I've ever been to Ireland but this looks like the photos I've seen of Ireland. The view from the road is breathtaking! It looks like this on both sides.

The northwest corner of Illinois was left untouched by the glaciers so the landscape is nothing but rolling hills. Were we livein Illinois, it's flat as a pancake!

The next photo is The Belevedere House. It's an Italianate style Victorian and my favorite house in Galena:



The highlight of this trip for me was yesterday morning when we drove to Dyersville, Iowa to see Field Of Dreams:



This is where the movie was filmed. As you know, I love baseball and have so much been wanting to see this.

Here's the actual baseball field:



It's not quite the same without the corn but that won't be tall until August!

Ok, here's a fun one for you. Another rare picture of me. I'm standing on homeplate:



I always look so stupid in photographs! We were there at 8 am yesterday and I have to tell you, that wind was quite cold! This part of Iowa is all farmland as far as the eye can see and it is just so wonderful! The only sound was that of birdies singing.

Here's one more photo for you:



Scott and I sitting in the bleachers. Think about this, Kevin Costner sat here!!!

We met the nicest couple there. A retired couple from Florida and they offered to take a picture of Scott and I together. They were so nice!

Well, those are the photo highlights of our trip. There are more photos on my Flickr site. If you'd like to see them, just click on one of the images and that should take you to the rest of the pictures.

We did a bit of antiquing while we were there but I didn't find anything all that exciting. In fact, I only bought myself a necklace and a magazine! That's ok though, it's more about the "being there" for me than the shopping.

Galena does have 2 used book stores and both specialize in out of print books. Guess what I had hoped to find? Yes, I was hoping to find the Crazy Quilt book by Penny McMorris. No such luck though. In fact, I stood there, staring at the very small needlework sections, realizing they didn't have it and yet, expecting it to materialize right before my eyes! Scott keep saying, "Pam, they don't have it. It isn't there." He kind of had to drag me out of the stores! Oh well, I'll find it eventually. Probably when and where I least expect it!

Well, that's it for today ladies! I hope you enjoy seeing pictures of my favorite place in the world! For now, I'm off to start cleaning those antique crazy quilts!

More tomorrow......