The wedding was Friday, the party was Saturday and we spent Sunday and Monday nights on a mini honeymoon in Galena, Illinois. Galena is a very quaint town in a gorgeous part of Illinois, about 3 hours from Chicago in the far northwest corner of the state, not that far from the Mississippi River. We weren't initially going to go anywhere after the wedding hooplah, as we're planning to take a trip to either Scotland or Paris next year for our 10 year anniversary and thought we're wrap it all up into one trip. However we decided to take a break for a couple of days and boy, we needed it.
We stayed in a fantastic little cabin on a property that had 5 rental cabins from the 1800s that had been updated on the inside with modern comforts. Both days we had the place to ourselves! It was absolutely perfect inside. Living space downstairs with a bedroom area and kitchen/living room, with a half loft upstairs where the bathroom and two person whirlpool tub were.
We felt at home right away...
I decorated our coffee table with the boutonnière and corsage from our wedding...
Did I say we had the place to ourselves? Well I was partially right. We had no human neighbors, that is. The property was right next to a large sprawling farm with a small herd of cows, who came so close to the fence at night we could practically touch them!
It was a beautiful view from our windows...
And the outside of the cabin was as inviting as the inside...
When we first arrived at the cabin, we noticed a curious addition to the decor: many many wine corks and beer bottle caps tucked away in odd little places in cracks in the wall, the ceiling, you name it. Obviously years of guests had added their own little touch, and clearly it wasn't discouraged. So the first night we saved two caps...
And the next night, Mel added them to the wall above the fireplace, just under a large saw hung on the wall. (You can see several corks tucked into the teeth of the saw.)
Monday morning was met with gentle showers, so we sat on the porch having tea and enjoying the rain...
This is a cute photo of Pia, but even better, you can see my fantastic seersucker pajamas that I got at the Modern Vintage Chicago show.
This was the view from our front porch of two of the other cabins...
We took some photos around the property in the morning...
Once the rain stopped we headed into town. The cabins were perfectly located just a few minutes from the main part of town and a couple of minutes from the grocery store (there was a microwave and no stove, and we ate very well from the deli), but somehow it felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. Just ideal.
There was lots of interesting old homes...
We particularly liked this fire station, built in 1874, which was obviously moved into the building on the right when it was built in 1940. I appreciated how they tried to keep with the original feel of the old building as much as possible.
After lunch and a stroll around town we headed towards an antique mall we'd seen on our way into town. Some of my favorite places to stop in small towns are antique malls in warehouse type buildings. Usually it's a metal building, kind of reminiscent of a manufactured home, with a big sign out front that says "Antique Mall". Those two are usually a winning combination. And when you're lucky, the sign is posted on a cool vintage pickup truck like this.
The place was awesome. Three trips back to the front counter to hand over piles of goods awesome. Crazy cheap awesome. Freaking awesome.
I can't even recall all of the great finds we came home with, but here's a sampling. Several hankies in great condition for $1 or less a piece.
Isn't the embroidery on this one lovely? So delicate.
A great tooled leather purse in very nice condition for $18...
I picked it up to add to my pile and then saw its neighbor purse. Can you believe this??
Oh yes. That's a diagonal lucite handle, metal clasp, raffia on the sides and Spanish dancers in relief on top! For $25. I think my jaw dropped. I didn't even hesitate.
I also got a couple of knitting booklets, and three craft magazines. Two issues of Needlecraft from 1931 and 1924 and one issue of Home Arts from 1938, for $3 each.
Neat ads inside the 1938 Home Arts...
I absolutely love the mailing addresses, fantasizing about the owners, Miss Myrtle Fischer of Minnesota and Mrs. Helmuth Suckow of Iowa.
But the best find I'll save for the end of the post. In the meantime, after our antique mall high we stopped at a small cabin by the Stillman Inn just on the edge of town. I can't remember the name of it, but it was apparently inhabited up until the 1970s by a family of 6.
And now to the pièce de résistance from the antique mall, appropriately displayed on the handcrafted bed at our cabin. A vintage double wedding ring quilt!
Isn't it just gorgeous? I still can't believe it's ours. What could be more perfect than a wedding gift to ourselves of a traditional wedding present, a quilt? It's a bit of a mystery to us what era it's from, but from my research and conversations with my talented quilter friend Elisa, we think it's probably from the 40s or possibly 50s. The double wedding ring quilt pattern was very popular in the 30s and 40s, but I don't feel the fabric patterns seem quite right for the 30s. No matter what though, it's our wounderful gift to ourselves to remind us of our perfect little honeymoon retreat.
The trip was just so perfectly peaceful and relaxing. I'm hoping some day we go back there to stay in "our" little cabin again. It would make a great anniversary trip, don't you think?
