Metro Plantation

One of my favorite things to do during the holidays was to stop by Village Plantation in Peoria's Sheridan Village to look at all the great furniture and holiday decor, so when I heard they were closing, I was disappointed.

I was glad to see Metro Plantation open in Peoria's Metro Centre.

I recently stopped in to have a peek.

The shop is smaller than the Sheridan Village location was, but is still filled with gifts, lamps, candles, home decor and a few furniture pieces.

I'll be back next month to look for some holiday gift ideas.

Cyrus Gifts & Home Accents

Cyrus Gifts & Home Accents is one of the shops occupying the nicely restored warehouse building at 401 Water Street in downtown Peoria.
After enjoying a chicken salad sandwich on wheat bread at Café 401 today, I stopped by Cyrus to browse a bit.
I saw some neat wine bottle stoppers, fun greeting cards and lots of tag brand towels and home decor. They had some cute cocktail themed ornaments and nice drinkware. They also had a selection of drink mixes and baking mixes that would make nice gifts.
Cyrus also carries the Crabtree & Evelyn line, some cosmetics and jewelry, and a collection of Robeez toddler shoes.
I also spied a cute black lab puppy napping on a posh bed behind the checkout counter. The dog reminded me of when our black lab was a puppy. I wish I could bring my dog to work!

November, 2009 — Cyrus, along with the Best of Post & Pillar and Jewelry on Water, has moved to the Metro Centre.

KBL Design Center

KBL Design Center got their start right here in Peoria in 1986, and now has locations in Peoria (6710 N. Big Hollow Rd.), Bloomington, Edwards and even one in Missouri.
KBL offers lighting, cabinetry, outdoor furniture, fireplaces, countertops and more. StfRon and I will be heading out there soon to check out their line of grills. They carry some lines of grills made in the USA, and ours took a dump a month ago. Our grill was about four and a half years old and it was the last purchase we made at a Wal-Mart anywhere. The purchase experience was one of the reasons we started rethinking our shopping choices, and we haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since.
I'm also going to check out the lighting. I've been looking to replace a couple of fixtures in the house, and the selection at Lowe's and Menard's hasn't impressed me yet.
KBL has a gallery of some of their products on their web site, http://www.kbldesign.com/index.htm
KBL, here we come!