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Love INC hosts drive-thru clothing drop-off
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When do-it-yourself is a good idea
Sycamore Acquaviva restaurant to open in July By JESSI HAISH jhaish@shawmedia.com
Photos by Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Urban Grace co-owners Sherrie Larkins (left) and Rachel Polly talk about the chalk-based paint that Polly is using on a trunk Thursday in their shop at 255 E. Lincoln Highway in downtown DeKalb. Urban Grace opened May 17. Larkins and Polly construct, revive and re-work old furniture pieces and home decor items.
Area professionals offer advice on what projects homeowners can tackle By KATIE DAHLSTROM kdahlstrom@shawmedia.com DeKALB – Before Rachel Polly starts a do-it-yourself project, she thinks about what could go wrong. She advises other would-be Do-it-yourselfers to do the same. “They need to know the consequences if there’s a mistake,” Polly said. “Are you going to have to pay a plumber $5,000 to fix something, or are you just going to have to paint it again?” Painting, tiling and other cosmetic projects can be tackled by amateurs, local experts say, but when it comes to plumbing and electrical projects, avoid the DIY route and find a professional to do the job. Polly and Sherrie Larkins own Urban Grace in downtown DeKalb, a shop filled with DIY projects like furniture they painted or altered. DIY has been a career for both women for almost four years and a hobby for much longer. They also host classes on painting DIY projects at the shop, which they said are gaining popularity in part because of sharing sites such as Pinterest or Instagram or programs on HGTV or the DIY Network. Other than considering the consequences, Polly and Larkins also take into account what tools they’ll need to complete a project, if the tool is worth buying and if they feel comfortable using it. A jigsaw, for instance,
SYCAMORE – Mediterranean cuisine may be out, but Italian food and locally produced wine is in store for downtown Sycamore. Acquaviva Winery will expand its reach when it opens a restaurant in the city in July. Acquaviva, a Maple Park restaurant is known for Italian food and specialty wines in Maple Park, will be located in the former Taki’s Mediterranean Restaurant at 219 W. State St. Owner Vito Brandonisio said the facility will feature fine dining with a small bar and wine tasting, but will mostly focus on dining. The Italian food offered will be the same menu as its Maple Park location, including pizza, pasta, seafood and more. Brandonisio said Acquaviva regularly wins awards for its wines, which are made at its Maple Park location, a 40-acre vineyard and winery at the corner of Meredith Road and Route 38. Brandonisio has owned the Maple Park business for four years, and the facility produces about 55,000 bottles of wine a year. The location also has a restaurant. Brandonisio also has a tasting and wine bar in St. Charles. Sycamore Mayor Ken Mundy on Thursday approved a liquor license to the operators of Acquaviva Winery for the new restaurant they plan to open. Brandonisio said he looks forward to having a location in Sycamore. “The growth of [Acquaviva] has been tremendous,” Brandonisio said. “We hope to expedite that.” Brandonisio’s grandfather started a vineyard in Acquaviva delle Fonti, in southern Italy. Brandonisio visited frequently as a child and later opened his Maple Park location to fulfill a dream of owning his own vineyard, according to Acquaviva’s website. He said now that the license has been approved, he hopes to open in July. He will transplant a manager from one of his other locations to the Sycamore location. Mundy, who as the city’s liquor commissioner reviews liquor license requests, said he looked forward to having the restaurant downtown. “We certainly appreciate the investment by the company in our town,” Mundy said. “[Brandonisio] is confident that he will have a place that is attractive and welcoming to visitors.”
A work in progress sign hangs in Urban Grace, a new store in downtown DeKalb which opened last month. Avid DIYer’s Rachel Polly and Sherrie Larkins took their hobby of reviving lackluster or aged pieces of furniture and created a business. They will be offering DIY classes. does not fit into the comfortable-to-use category, they said. “We try to be as independent as we can,” said Larkins, adding painting her kitchen cabinets is the gutsiest undertaking in her own home. A mix of comfort and skill is key, said Carolyn Tobinson, who owns Tobinson’s
Ace Hardware in Genoa. She sees people who will only go as far as replacing a toilet flap, to those who are doing their own underground wiring. Although the viability of a project depends on the person, Tobinson has a pretty solid test to tell how far a
See DIY, page A8
Danielle Guerra – dguerra@shawmedia.com
Sycamore Mayor and Liquor Commissioner Ken Mundy approved a liquor license for Acquaviva Winery on Thursday that will allow the winery to open its downtown Sycamore restaurant.
President sending 300 military advisers to assist Iraqis By JULIE PACE and HAMZA HENDAWI The Associated Press WASHINGTON – Inching back into a fight he tried to leave behind, President Barack Obama announced Thursday he was dispatching 300 U.S. military advisers to Iraq to help quell the rising insurgency in the crumbling nation. He also challenged Iraq’s embattled leader to create a
more inclusive government or risk his country descending into sectarian civil war. “The test is before him and other Iraqi leaders as we speak,” Obama said of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose political fate appeared increasingly in play as his rivals launched a secretive effort to replace him. Less than three years after Obama heralded the end of America’s war in Iraq, he
insisted he was not sending the military back into combat. Still, when coupled with previously announced steps, the president’s actions could put about 600 additional U.S. troops in the midst of Iraq’s deeply unstable security situation. Underscoring the volatility was a tenacious fight over Iraq’s largest oil refinery north of Baghdad. Iraqi soldiers and helicopter gunships
battled Sunni militants for a third day Thursday for control of the refinery, the loss of which would be a devastating symbol of the government’s powerlessness in the face of a determined insurgency hostile to the West. Despite the deteriorating conditions, Obama held off approving airstrikes that the Iraqi government has sought to stem an insurgency that has taken over the cities of Mosul
and Tikrit and has pressed toward Baghdad. The president said he could still approve “targeted and precise” strikes if the situation on the ground required it, noting that the U.S. had stepped up intelligence gathering in Iraq to help identify potential targets. Officials said manned and unmanned U.S. aircraft are now flying over Iraq 24 hours a day on intelligence collection missions. If the U.S. were to
proceed with airstrikes, officials did not rule out the prospect of hitting targets in Syria, where the militant group pressing through Iraq also has deep ties. Even as Obama left the door open for a direct military response, he said Iraq’s future ultimately rests with its leaders’ willingness to embrace a more inclusive political
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