Bed-and-breakfast draws scrapbooking enthusiasts

Finding a time and place to get away is at the heart of the bed-and-breakfast industry.

The newest bed-and-breakfast in McHenry County, IL is hoping its specialized theme scrapbooking weekends help draw visitors to the Victorian-style home at 405 E. Washington St.

“It’s a getaway for, I say, women generally because most of the scrapbookers are women, but a chance to come and get away,” said Christa Sowa, the executive assistant at Memories Innhanced. “It’s all-inclusive, so the weekend packages offer food, lodging, a place to scrapbook. Everyone gets their own table, which is important in the scrapbooking world.”

Sowa’s mother, Diane Salkowski, and Salkowski’s sister, Donna DiPentino, own the bed-and-breakfast. Sowa said they got the idea earlier this summer.

“We’re all very avid scrapbookers,” she said. “My mom and I go away every year to go scrapbooking, and we had a great experience the last time, but we thought we could do it much better.”

Although the trio had discussed the possibility of opening their own bed-and-breakfast for more than a year, they picked up the search in June when Sowa and Salkowski came back from their trip.

“We fell in love with this house the second we found it,” Sowa said. “We were looking for something Victorian, looking for something with old-fashioned charm. … We saw the property in July and were sold.”

The next step was transforming the house into a place where scrapbooking would be king, where guests could put together photos and projects to preserve their memories for years to come, she said.

“We really want people to come and leave with a sense of relaxation that they accomplished something,” Sowa said. “Lots of them are teachers, mothers, grandmothers or aunts, and they’re very giving and working very hard. We want this to be an experience where they don’t have to lift anything other than a glue stick.”

To help the experience, scrapbooking guests are pampered. Each guest gets their own 6-foot table a must-have in the world of scrapbooking, Sowa said along with a make-and-take project.

“We have two cricket machines, which are paper-cutting machines,” Sowa said. “They’re very expensive machines, and not everyone has them. And we have a lot of different cartridges to use, two computers for journaling, and we probably have over 250 stamps, ink pads, things like that they can use.”

The pampering continues in the rooms, where each room features two full beds, and all toiletries are provided.

“So that when you’re leaving,” Sowa said, “it’s more about the trip. You can worry about scrapbooking supplies rather than toothpaste.”

Meals are catered by local restaurants, and a massage therapist is available to visit on Saturdays.

“We really wanted to make it a local affair,” she said. “We wanted to keep it in Marengo to give it that little hometown feel when you go there.”

“Marengo’s such a beautiful town, we couldn’t pick a more picturesque setting for this. We knocked it out of the park with this one.”

A national scrapbooking survey in 2007 showed that the industry was a $2.8 billion juggernaut, with slightly less than 30 percent of American homes participating. It’s this vast pool of potential customers that Memories Innhanced is hoping to draw to Marengo.

“As a wife and mother, you live very busy lives,” Sowa said. “I’m a stay-at-home mom, and I don’t have time to scrapbook. We want women to look at this and say, I’m not running away from my family’ but as a way to get away and really appreciate your family and look at memories. We want to give them an experience. We want them to get away and get something done.”

The bed-and-breakfast is open Friday through Sunday, although Sowa said that they were considering starting packages some Thursdays depending on demand.

“It really has been a joy for all of us,” Sowa said. “My mom and aunt have worked really hard to make this what it is, to really create a wonderful place. Being a family-owned business we know how important it is. We want them to know it was worth being away from their families.

“We’re still trying to get everything organized and set up. We’ve had a great response from people, a lot of groups interested in booking. We’ve got a few bookings, but slow and steady wins the race.”

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