Laundry Room Renovation
Never underestimate the power of the purge. For the past two years, our laundry room had been a sad black hole where everything went to hide. It became the biggest catch-all, my vice, an embarrassment. The open shelves were old, dirty and collected way too much crap. I so desperately wanted to minimize the amount […]
Life in Black and White
Hi, friends! How have you been? How was your Summer? We’re still over here plugging away. In the months it’s been since I updated, we renovated the laundry room, painted the living room, and added a dishwasher. It was a busy summer. 😀 I realized a few days ago that I’ve been saving all my […]
Instagrammin’
Hi friends and new followers! I just wanted to remind you all of our Instagram account!!! There is a TON of content over there that doesn’t always make it onto the blog, plus fun videos in their ‘Stories’ function. Be sure to head on over to Instagram and give us a follow @thebrickandmaple! Instagram.com/thebrickandmaple See […]
1904 World’s Fair Map
Hello, everyone! I can’t believe it’s taken me until the very end of March to make my first post of 2019! I don’t know if I should apologize or just shrug and laugh… because that’s just life sometimes. I’ll just cut to the chase. Last night I got the coolest email from the curator of […]
Meet the Romeiser Children
I can’t believe in the year I’ve been blogging about our house, I haven’t done a full post where I introduce ALL the Romeiser children. We’ve been spending this time researching them individually and trying to collect enough information so that we could do singular posts about each person… but since that is slow going, […]
SCCHS Haunted Walking Tours
Good morning, friends! Last night we wrapped up being featured speakers for the St Clair County Historical Society haunted walking tours. The theme was ‘Belleville Horror Story’ and we were asked to represent our home by sharing research and stories, along with former owners Chris and Nikki Hettenhausen. All said, we stood out front of […]
Stuff we’ve found: More Goodies!
Up next on my favorite installment of Stuff We’ve Found are these beauties! Another glass bottle, a short rim cartridge, a frequent buyer punchcard from Romeiser’s, dominoes, and really, really old glass. Husband has been doing some rewiring work on our 2nd floor and to access some of those electrical lines, he’s been crawling in […]
Shopping Small on Main Street
Gooooood mornning Belleville! I’ve been woefully inferior about maintaining any sort of regular posting schedule, which I absolutely apologize for! I’ll get right on fixing that. 😉 This morning, I want to share with you an incredible photo from the Romeiser Company during their heyday! These beautiful street fairs were wildly popular… and honestly, not […]
Baby Julia
Last Friday we spent the afternoon doing something completely out of character: traipsing around a cemetery. Walnut Hill Cemetery in Belleville, IL is the eternal resting place of many of Belleville’s original families, including the Hilgards. Theodore and Emma Hilgard were Elise’s parents– you’ll remember Elise as the matriarch of the family who originally lived […]
Researching the History of Your Home!
Hey everyone! Today I had the pleasure of speaking at Belleville’s Museum Day activities. I was at the Garfield Saloon talking about how to research the history of your home. I figured these would be great notes to share with all of you. I don’t claim to be an expert in historical research whatsoever, but […]
