Last week, I shared with you all one of the stops that I made on my ten day road trip (so fun!). Well, from here on out I’ll share with you all the shops we stopped out. But, I just had to share the site around Marion, KS. Well I mentioned last week that we stayed out at the Historic Elgin Hotel B&B. Sherri, the hotel manager, was awesome! I mean, true hospitality. She chatted with us late at night, met up when we got in later than the check-in time and was overall just lovely. Also, she made caramelized French Toast for breakfast. Yum.

The hotel was originally established in 1886 and has gone through quite a journey to become what it is today. The place was made into an apartment building in the ’70s. When the current owner took it over, they decided to fully restore it to what their research said it looked like when originally built. They’ve truly done a wonderful job restoring this place and I’m so glad we chose to stay there. Not to mention, it is within walking distance to Bearly Makin’ It Antiques! Bonus.

I loved the bathroom. It just proves such timelessness with white subway tiles. All the white was beautiful and I wish this was my bathroom!

Octagon and dot tile. I love it so.

The hotel owners have worked so hard to restore this place even down to the engraved marble above the elevator.

 This staircase was visually striking with this massive chandelier and dark wood paneled walls.

 In the lounge space, on the second floor, there was this light blue Chesterfield couch. Isn’t it beautiful?

 This is the view from the top of the staircase. That golden velvet loveseat was so pretty.

This space is in the ballroom area. Another beautifully decorated spot in the hotel.

 After we left the hotel, we set out to see the charming city. We drove up and down the original red brick streets, and I was intent with capturing the charm of this little town with my camera. I had my mom pull over so I could grab a quick pic of this perfect turquoise 1950s Chevy Viking.

Since we were here on the weekend before July 4th, everyone had out their red, white and blue decorations. Most of the time, I’m a bit adverse to July 4th decorations because I think that they quickly become cheesy, over the top, and lack taste. If you love the over the top decorations for July 4th, then by all means put them out! I’m just sayin’ they’re not for me. So, when we saw this house with the red, white and blue bunting, I thought it was perfect. I love how it fits with the style of the house and such a lovely contrast to the beautiful white moldings. Also, can you see the scalloped details near the roof? I love this! I’m pretty sure that I had my mom drive by 5 times before I got the right picture. I didn’t want to appear creepy by snapping a photo, but I just thought it looked so perfect.

 A lot of this town was established in the late 19th century, but they’ve preserved so many of the architectural details beautifully. This art deco building had also been kept completely intact and preserved beautifully.

We also spotted this perfect house. Look at that wrap around porch, those white moldings, the white columns, the stone walls, and that red roof. Perfect, right? There’s also large green ferns hanging between each column. Beautiful.

After driving around town we headed out to lake outside of town. Out there we saw this awesome vintage RV. It’s so shiny. So pretty.

The town, as I’ve heard from Jess about a lot of Kansas, is that it’s done a phenomenal job at preserving itself. The town was so quaint and quintessential Midwest. The old stone, the intricate architectural detail, just screams of a town that truly cares about it’s history and preserving it. I love that.

Thanks for being to good to us, Kansas!

As Jess mentioned, I recently traveled the Midwest to make it to a friend’s wedding.  We hit 11 states in 10 days! Whew. It was so much fun and I’ve got a ton to share with all of you. My mom and one of my sisters went with me and we thrift/estate sale/antiqued shopped all along the way. I wanted to mainly visit places that I had seen on the blogosphere and friends recommend. We did just that, and it was amazing. I’m ready to do it again!

On the way up to the wedding, I knew I had to make a special stop at Bearly Makin’ It Antiques. They’ve got a huge barn full of stuff and they have a store in Marion, KS. It was featured on American Pickers but they didn’t show the store in town. Personally, the store was the best part. I heard about this place from Meg at Whatever, and knew we needed to make a special trip there. After stopping at Antique shops/markets in KS, MO, IL, MI, and OH, this was by far the best stop we made! I could spend hours and hours going through this shop. I’m most definitely going back!

We drove straight to Marion from my parent’s house outside of Ft. Worth, Texas. After a night’s rest in Marion, we headed to the shop.

First off, my photos with vintage graphic design. I really love old tins, and if the practical side of me were to vanish someday, I’d have an antique tin collection.

 Coffee is bliss, after all.

Look at this little gem! A Kitchen Maid Cake box. So pretty. I can just imagine being at a party where this was brought in and a delicious homemade cake was served. Perfect!

Since I spend my days working with children, I’ve really come to love old children’s books. Not to mention, Dr. Seuss was a genius.

Mason jars! I love the blue and the lids.

How sweet is this little lipstick caddy? The ribbon font is just too lovely. I’m kinda regretting not buying this.

Quilts!!!!! I’ve shared my love of quilts, right? The past several years, as I’ve developed my tastes more, my love of quilts has remained the same. There were so many and they were so nicely rolled that I was a little overwhelmed to pick through them. After seeing that $18 price tag right there, I wish I would have.

How great is this clock? What a cool piece for a kids room. The little gold feet, the green casing, the unique hands, and the man and monkey just make it look so playful. But considering the condition and the $45 price tag, it didn’t go home with me.

This place was amazing and soon I will be posting about all my buys from the trip. It wasn’t much, but I love what a got.

If you’re driving through Kansas, you must make a detour to check out Barely Makin’ It Antiques. Their inventory is so extensive, and the people who work there were great! We weren’t able to check out their barn because for some reason it wasn’t open, which turned out to be okay because I’ve got no clue how we would have brought back large items.

Stay tuned for more from my trip! Update: Here’s the rest of my write-up from the lovely little town of Marion, KS.

I linked up over at Her Library Adventures: Flea Market Finds.

Last week I dropped my iPhone and didn’t have a case on it. Big. Huge. Mistake. Thankfully, the glass didn’t break (nope that happened 33 days AFTER I bought my phone) but what did happen was that the top lifted up a little bit causing the buttons to pop loose. I wasn’t able to turn it off, listen to my head phones, change the volume, or put it on silent. Oops. Well, long story short, my sister is an electronic genius and fixed it! Yay!

After she fixed it, I got a case! Yay! I just went to Tuesday Morning and they had a Speck case for $7.99. Sold.

I didn’t love the black and white plaid, but I didn’t hate it either. I also didn’t want to spend much on the cover since I’ll be upgrading from my 3G to something better this fall.

Anywho, right after I bought the case the fabric started coming off. Damn.

So, my creative juices started flowing and I decided to take on recovering my phone. The black and white plaid was a lighter grade upholstery weight fabric. I dug into my stash and found some scrap yellow and white chevron fabric that was pretty much the same weight.

I took off the plaid fabric and used it as a template.

Traced and cut it out on paper. Then laid that template on top of my new fabric after a good ironing.

After I cut out the new, I folded the part with the circle in half. Just to make sure I got a nice round cut.

Then, I was ready to adhere. I used craft spray glue and sprayed the fabric first. I had to do this outside on a piece of paper, because a certain someone has complained about my usage of craft glue in the house. Hmm, I wonder why?

After spraying the glue, I hurried to place the fabric back on the case. I started with the laying the top part on first because it was the most detailed and I wanted to make sure the circle lined up. After some pulling and adjusting, I used a razor blade to trim off the excess. And used my fingernails to get a tight fit in the crevices.

After trimming I had some fraying with the fabric, so I just used a tiny amount of super glue to keep it from fraying more. This made the edges a little stiff. I’m not quite sure of a remedy for this yet, but I figured it will soften after some usage.

After about 30 minutes, it was all done! I’m really happy with the outcome! Cute, huh?

Here’s the breakdown:

Materials:

Fabric covered phone case

Scrap Fabric

Scissors

Super Glue

Paper for Template

Exacto knife or razor blade

Time:

30 min or so

Cost:

$8 for the case

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Check out the other great thrift finds (and maybe some other upcycles) at Her Library Adventures’ Flea Market Finds and Apron Thrift Girl’s Thrift Share Monday.

I love how unique this Recycled skateboard belt buckle by crimsonking is. My brother has skated for years and I love how beautiful the boards are at the beginning and how scratched up they are by the end. When he started skating, he preferred a shoestring to a belt, but maybe he’s grown up enough now that this would make a great Christmas gift — or a project we could do out of his own old boards.