Geneva gift wrapping and card shop opens just in time for holidays

Whether operating a pizza joint, toiling for large companies or delivering products, Cherie McCarron of Batavia carried a consistent trait in her work.

She was a prolific gift wrapper.

That might initiate a collective “so what?” It even elicited a shrug of the shoulders from her husband Kevin — but more about that later.

McCarron has reached a point where others can find out about the attention to detail and beauty of gift wrapping. A few weeks ago, she opened Houndstooth & Plaid, a gift-wrapping and homemade card shop at 217 S. Third St. in Geneva.

If timing is everything, McCarron opened her shop just before the holidays and Geneva's Christmas Walk on Dec. 7.

The path to offering custom gift-wrapping had various twists and turns, but McCarron stuck to that consistent trait.

“Ever since I was a kid, I'd go crazy over wrapping,” she said. “I love the feel of the paper, the colors and the bows, and I love the challenge of making something really nice.”

It took several years for that love to bubble to the surface. Nearly 15 years ago, she and her husband took a gamble when buying a failing pizza restaurant in Montgomery and turning it into a profit-maker before selling it. They did it while working other full-time jobs.

Having lived in all three of the Tri-Cities over the years, they suddenly had to move to Ohio when Kevin was transferred. They both worked at the same business for a couple of years — and were both out of jobs when that business folded.

“We looked at each other and said it was time to go home,” McCarron said. They came back to the Tri-Cities, where she took her first step as a professional gift wrapper.

“I worked for a company called Jim Henry Inc. in St. Charles that manufactured medical certificates and other products,” McCarron added. “When the doctors ordered something, I would use nice paper and stickers and make the boxes look really nice.”

Her co-workers thought it wasn't really necessary, but soon began asking if she could also wrap what they were sending.

“I started talking to my husband and saying someone should pay me to do this for a living,” she said. That's when she got the shrug from her husband, but he later came around.

“He is usually pretty open to my ideas, but he shut this one down fairly quickly,” McCarron said. “But then he went to deliver something one day and came back and said it cost him a lot of money and they didn't do anything special.

“He said, I think you need to start thinking about that again.”

And she did, landing the location in Geneva last summer and spending a few months fixing things and painting.

“I wasn't 100 percent ready for all of the things I wanted in my mind, but if I didn't open now (before the holidays), I would just be shooting myself in the foot,” she said.

Her love of all things plaid and her son's fondness for Houndstooth patterns led to the store's name, and the rest is a history to be written package by package.

The store's services include accepting online deliveries from clients, then wrapping, shipping, delivering locally or having them ready for pickup.

To promote the gift-wrapping fever, McCarron is hosting a “Wrap Off” event Tuesday, Nov. 27, at which others can come to the store and show off wrapping skills for a chance to win prizes.

For now, McCarron is following a fairly simple mantra. “There has to be a better way to present gifts than just putting them in a bag,” she said. “We are all so busy, that's what we do. You go to a party, and it's just a line of gift bags.”

Provided the turkeys:

More than 300 families that might have otherwise struggled to have a holiday dinner will enjoy a Thanksgiving turkey because of the Salvation Army Tri-City Corps and plenty of helpers.

The Salvation Army delivered the turkey and fixings after 200 were donated from the Northern Illinois Food Bank and 100 from the Kane County Cougars.

In addition, Geneva's Boy Scout Troop 60 donated the stuffing through a program spearheaded by Ryan Bledsoe, Shea Boyle and Johnny Otto.

A popcorn gift:

You don't expect to receive a small gift on your way out of a wake, but that was the case last week in saying goodbye to one of my service club friends.

Larry Ward of West Dundee was known as “The Popcorn Man” because of his years of operating a Karmelkorn franchise at the former St. Charles Mall and Spring Hill Mall.

He also brought his popcorn popper to Riverwoods Christian Center in St. Charles each year as a special treat to the kids spending their summers at that site along the Fox River.

Ward passed away a couple of weeks ago. At his wake at Yurs Funeral Home in St. Charles, a bowl of small popcorn bags with a tag “In memory of The Popcorn Man” was set near the sign-in booklets.

Larry and I used to kid each other quite a bit, so maybe this was his last dig on me. As my regular readers know, I've lamented quite a bit lately about not being able to eat popcorn anymore. It just doesn't agree with me these days.

So what does Larry do? He leaves me a bag of popcorn.

Impressive students:

The Geneva school district's annual Leadership Breakfast event during American Education Week gives community leaders a chance to know what most parents with children in the schools should already know.

They get to listen to young students explain their community projects and goals. It illustrates how the lessons learned in a school go far beyond mastering curriculum skills.

At this year's event, all of the projects from each school were fascinating, but I have to mention this one. The students at Williamsburg Elementary School participate in the Nora Project, which encourages friendship and empathy for youngsters with disabilities.

The school's students document their experiences with establishing a friendship with a disabled child their age. It is turned into a short documentary film shown during a Nora Project night at the end of the school year.

In addition, today's kids remain pretty clear on what's important in their lives — as well as having a sense of humor.

When Kimberly Luthin of the Geneva Academic Foundation was turning over a nearly $30,000 check to the school district to help purchase computers for classrooms, she asked, “Can you imagine what it was like when there were no computers in the classroom?”

One of the students sitting at my table had an answer. “It would be great; it would mean more recess,” he said.

She was a winner:

When I was writing about former Geneva High School graduate Kelsey Jaffer and her role in Norwegian reality TV show “Alt for Norge,” she wasn't able to tell me how the show ended. She'd been back home in Chicago for some time, but the show still had a couple of episodes to air.

It must have been killing her and her mother Kathy to not be able to spill the beans. After all, if you earned $50,000 as the winner of a show researching your family's heritage in Norway, wouldn't you want to mention that?

“She did indeed win,” Kathy Jaffer said. “We weren't allowed to say anything about it, and they don't even mention the financial prize on the show at all.”

In that regard, it's not like a reality or quiz show in which the money is the most important aspect.

“It's really different from the shows here in the States,” she added. “This show is all about meeting family ancestors.”

In addition to winning the prize, Kelsey was also surprised when the show producers flew her mother and father to Norway to participate in the family reunion.

dheun@sbcglobal.net