Batavia Illinois

I am so lucky to live in Batavia. It  is a beautiful town filled with historic charm. I took some pictures to share with you.

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The Depot Museum 

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Bellevue Place

(Mary Lincoln Todd stayed  here to rest

after President Lincoln was assassinated)

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One of The Many Beautiful Homes

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Congregational Church

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Fabyan Windmill (Recently Restored)

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The Gazebo At The Riverwalk

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Lighthouse On The Fox River

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One Of My Favorite Homes In Batavia

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United Methodist Church

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Windmill From Challenge Windmill Co.

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Batavia is such a beautiful town! I have many wonderful memories of time spent on the riverwalk with my little dog Lucky, who is now in heaven.

XoXo

Michelle / Simple Pleasures

Tag Sale Find, Wash Stand

I found this old cabinet, (commode/wash stand) from a local garage sale on my way home from work a few weeks ago. It needed a little tlc, so I scrubbed it, oiled it and glued the door panel back on. I paid $40 which didn't seem like a great bargain but it was better than the $65 they were asking. I put it in my kitchen with my other oak furniture. It is now Nico's doggy storage. The spoiled guy has something like 23 sweaters and 6 coats, plus a bunch of grooming supplies, etc. I recently took his closet away to make a big craft center, I owe it to him. (yes, he had his own closet, don't judge me!)

XoXo

Michelle / Simple Pleasures

Men Are From Menards, Women Are from Genius

I gotta admit it I like Menards, it's clean organized and has decent prices. What I don't like are the sales people. I have never encountered one that had half a brain. So my story starts as I decide to put up some sort of gate to keep Nico out of the living room.
Anthony and I were out shopping and I veered off to the baby section, so he says "how come we always end up in this section?" When he knows I always keep a look out for cool things for Evie.
I told him about my idea to gate off the living room, so he walks up to the baby gates and says,  "here, this should work" and opens up one of those ugly baby gates that is made of that cheap wood and has X's that get bigger or smaller depending on how far you open it. "Ummm, no Anthony that's not gonna work, the opening is 6 feet wide and Nico will fit through those holes" So then he has that look in his eyes, like you make me crazy with your Lucille Ball ideas and goes to electronics. The next morning I decide to try Menards. After canvassing the fence department looking at all the wood fences and thinking how they are going to off gas formaldehyde and poison me, (yes, I'm weird like that) I decide I would get a couple of panels of the metal fences. After looking at the widths of the slats and the points of the posts, (so I wont kill my poor dog) I decide on 2 panels that should be the right height and width. By then the four idiot sales guys behind the desk stop chatting and I wave one over. "yes MAM, what can I do for you?" So I explain that I have this Chihuahua I want to keep out of the living room.... And somewhere during the conversation, he's off in la la land, not paying attention to me and looking at his text messages. "Umm, so what do you think, I say"  he says, "you know these fences are for outside, right?" and looks at me like I'm an idiot woman. (the Lucille ball look, Anthony gave me yesterday).  "Ummm yes, but I don't see why I can't use it inside, RIGHT",  he looks at me and says, "I guess". "great, what do you think I should use to mount them to the wall?" After about 5 minutes he says, "a bracket that will mount on the wall and have a post thing so you could just drop the fence panel on it, but we don't carry them, so I'll take you to hardware, I'm sure they can help you." So hes already about 15 feet ahead of me and I'm trying to load the panels on the cart, follow him while pushing the cart, and balancing the panels. (and they say chivalry is dead) We get to hardware and he basically tells a kid to help me and runs off saying, "I was in the middle of helping.... So now I have a 16 year old kid who has his hands in his pockets and is staring at the brackets, "Umm, MISS, I guess we don't have those brackets" by then I have already figured that out and am trying to figure out something else, so I'm talking out loud and he's giving me that same "Lucy" look and says, "you know this fence is for outside, right, have you checked our baby gates, it might be easier" So by now, I say "I got it from here, thanks for your help" and walk away and figure it out on my own, thank you very much! 
So as I drive away with my cart cursing under my breath and go to check out, the lady behind the register says "whatcha making, with all this stuff?" I'm almost afraid to tell her, but I do anyways and she says... "that's an awesome idea, I should try that for my dogs, I have collies and I'm so tired of using baby gates!"
So the moral of my story is Men Are From Menards, Women Are from Genius.
PS. After I installed the gate and was pretty impressed with myself, I texted Anthony a picture and simply put the words "I'm a genius" his text reply...." It looks like Nico could fit between the slats".
*After I finished this post I emailed it to Anthony,  his response, "you spelled women wrong in your post title".
OMG!

XoXo

Michelle Simple Pleasures

Who Let The Dog Out ..

Nico loves to make me crazy and his new thing is climbing up on my living room chair and then jumping up onto my desk to look out the window. Sounds totally little dog like.. right, except for the fact that the desk has a glass panel to protect the wood and it slides. More importantly he jumps down from the desk,  it's about 3 1/2 feet high which would explain his recent limp. Oh Nico, Nico! I decided he needs to stay out of the living room. I have a 6 foot wide opening between the LR and kitchen and all the baby gates I've found are ugly and expensive, so I made my own gate.

Gate panels, dowel rods and hardware $41

I mounted the two panels with those eye things (hook and eyes, I think that's what there called)...
And used dowel rods to attach them, this way if I want to remove them for a party etc. I just pull out the dowel rods. The gates swing back and forth for easy entry. After I figured out how to do it, it really was an easy project. Each panel was $15, eyes $4 and rods $7 so about $41 for a metal gate. I have to cut the dowels down and spray paint the 2 end ones black, but I wanted to show you the results so far. What do you think? I love it, Nico not so much! haha

PS.You've heard of the people of Walmart, right? Well, tomorrow I will share with you the REAL story of the employees of Menards, you won't want to miss it!

XoXo

Michelle / Simple Pleasures

Simplified and Organized

Just a quick post to thank you for your patience while my blog was under construction this weekend. I wanted to SIMPLIFY and make it easier to find past posts. I organized all of my posts by category and if you click on the buttons above you can view them easily. I want to thank Amy of Amybug's Primitive Attic for all of her hard work! She is super talented,  easy to communicate with and will go the extra mile for you. She has awesome designs and can set you up, so go check her out.  I love the new look and hope you do to! 

Have a great weekend!

XoXo

Michelle / Simple Pleasures

Indiana Amish

When people talk about where they would live if they could live anywhere you usually hear, Italy, Paris, Hawaii or some exotic island, but for me it's North East Indiana, specifically Shipshewana and Middlebury. I was going to move there in 1998 but my 15 year old son wasn't thrilled about life amongst the Amish at that stage of his life. Then last fall I was offered a great job opportunity there but I just couldn't leave my son and the baby I care for. Maybe someday, but for now I just visit a lot. I thought I would share some lovely photos of the Amish and the area with you.

 

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And if the owner of this lovely house want to give me a weekend home, I'll take it and the dog!

XoXo
Michelle / Simple Pleasures

Under Construction

Please excuse my dust over the next few days as I will be under construction and raising the barn. lol  I hope you will enjoy the new changes I have in store for you. It should make navigating my blog so much easier.
I should be up and running by Monday... I hope.

Have a wonderful weekend!

XoXo

Michelle / Simple Pleasures

Patriotic Crafting

I have been working on a bunch of projects this week but I have only gotten 2 completed. I'm still in the patriotic mode, so I made 5 bowl fillers out of homespuns and a star banner from paint chips.

(Its kinda hard to see the star garland when I put it on the star quilt to take the picture)

Have a great day!
Michelle / Simple Pleasures

Wooden Shelf Redo

I love to find things that I can remake into treasures, so I thought I would do a weekly post on some projects I have completed. I seem to gravitate toward painting everything black these days when a few years ago everything in my house was white and shabby chic/cottage,  I updated this a couple of years ago but wanted to share it with you anyways.  You can find these "country" shelves second hand easily and since I wanted something for over my love seat this was the perfect solution. It's amazing what a little paint can do.

XoXo

Michelle / Simple Pleasures

Past and Present Shoppes

Past and Present Shoppes is the name of this adorable place, it is located in North Aurora Illinois and has a great variety of home decor and craft items sold by local merchants. After you look around outside come on in and check out all the great treasures!

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I hope you enjoyed your visit!  If your ever in the area stop by. You can find some wonderful treasures at reasonable prices. They are located at 4 S. Grant Street North Aurora, Illinois and their phone number is 630-844-4468.

XoXo
Michelle / Simple Pleasures