Post by MargaretAnne on Sept 13, 2006 7:17:03 GMT -5
I took a day's vacation one day last fall and drove down to Boothbay Harbor, a midcoast town here in Maine. The old movie "Carousel" (1956) starring Shirley Jones and Gordon MacRae was filmed there. This is my favorite time of year to go down as most of the tourists and summer residents have left.
The last few years I've been able to do most of my Christmas shopping in the quaint little shops. I don't really have a lot of shopping to do but there are quite a few shops that I really seem to find all kinds of little treasures. I went down to browse and get some ideas for Christmas. It was still early yet.
At Christmas Magic, I found some beautiful handcarved Russian Santas in a display case. They're a little too expensive for me but I can still appreciate the handiwork. This is the first time I had seen them. Later, I looked at some images of Russian Santas in Google.
Another shop I like is Willow's End. It's a specialty yarn and needlecraft shop. They have a lot of needlecraft kits and sewing notions. They also have Lomonosov porcelain teapots with matching teacups and saucers in different patterns. Here's a link to a retail website for Lomonosov Porcelain: The Russian Shop The colors are always blue, white and gold. This shop also has the best selection of teacups and saucers for collectors that I've ever seen. I bought my mother three of them for Christmas two years ago.
Across the street is another shop, The Village Store. They have the Fiestaware that my mother likes and I buy a couple pieces for my mother every year. The only thing that disappointed me was when the company changed the pale yellow to a deeper, more orangey yellow that I don't like as much. My mother wanted to buy some smaller sandwich or salad plates to match the dinner plates that she had. They also have a few pieces of cottage furniture that I like very much. Most of the things I absolutely adore are beyond my price range. Last year, I bought an 8" round plate with a handpainted rooster from the same gift shop from a company called "Present Tense." I just found out that this company closed. I had planned to buy another one as a gift for someone else this year. This shop also specializes in Quimper pottery (pronounced "Campere"): Quimper
I stopped at the St. Nicholas Shop, another Christmas store. They had a display case full of every dog imaginable from the Castagna company that I just discovered earlier this summer at another gift shop in Belgrade Lakes. In Belgrade, at the "Brass Knocker Gift Shop", they have Artesania Rinconada collectibles (animals) that I haven't seen anywhere until I found them at this gift shop. The workmanship is very, very good and they're fairly reasonably priced.
Mung Bean is a craft gallery that displays the work of many local or regional artists. They have many copper enamel sculptures (birds and other things) displayed on the walls. They really show up on the painted white walls. They had a new craft on display called "Scherinschnitte" which is a technique of paper cutting that uses sharp scissors with tiny blades. Here's a link to a website just as an example. However, these look quite different from the ones I saw in the shop.
Scherenschnitte
I stopped at another shop called Cornucopia where I have bought quite a few boxed Christmas cards in the past. They specialize in the Lang Christmas cards but I couldn't seem to find more than a couple that really seemed to catch my attention. Anway, it was only October and I still had quite a lot of time to worry about that. I also stopped at the Custom House but that's not one of my favorite shops. They do have some blueberry pottery that some people like to collect and some art prints.
I stopped at the the Smiling Cow, a souvenir kind of shop with a clothing department. They had some stone-colored twill pants that I liked but they were all in either Size 6 or Size 16. They had about twenty pairs of them all crowded on a short rack. I had to take them all down and set them down in another place so I could see what size they were.
I stopped in a few other places: Paine's Clothing Store, Sherman's Books & Stationery, Slick's, A Silver Lining and The Ritz (the last two shops are jewelry stores--one just sells estate jewelry).
So, not to bore you any further, that was my shopping trip.
The last few years I've been able to do most of my Christmas shopping in the quaint little shops. I don't really have a lot of shopping to do but there are quite a few shops that I really seem to find all kinds of little treasures. I went down to browse and get some ideas for Christmas. It was still early yet.
At Christmas Magic, I found some beautiful handcarved Russian Santas in a display case. They're a little too expensive for me but I can still appreciate the handiwork. This is the first time I had seen them. Later, I looked at some images of Russian Santas in Google.
Another shop I like is Willow's End. It's a specialty yarn and needlecraft shop. They have a lot of needlecraft kits and sewing notions. They also have Lomonosov porcelain teapots with matching teacups and saucers in different patterns. Here's a link to a retail website for Lomonosov Porcelain: The Russian Shop The colors are always blue, white and gold. This shop also has the best selection of teacups and saucers for collectors that I've ever seen. I bought my mother three of them for Christmas two years ago.
Across the street is another shop, The Village Store. They have the Fiestaware that my mother likes and I buy a couple pieces for my mother every year. The only thing that disappointed me was when the company changed the pale yellow to a deeper, more orangey yellow that I don't like as much. My mother wanted to buy some smaller sandwich or salad plates to match the dinner plates that she had. They also have a few pieces of cottage furniture that I like very much. Most of the things I absolutely adore are beyond my price range. Last year, I bought an 8" round plate with a handpainted rooster from the same gift shop from a company called "Present Tense." I just found out that this company closed. I had planned to buy another one as a gift for someone else this year. This shop also specializes in Quimper pottery (pronounced "Campere"): Quimper
I stopped at the St. Nicholas Shop, another Christmas store. They had a display case full of every dog imaginable from the Castagna company that I just discovered earlier this summer at another gift shop in Belgrade Lakes. In Belgrade, at the "Brass Knocker Gift Shop", they have Artesania Rinconada collectibles (animals) that I haven't seen anywhere until I found them at this gift shop. The workmanship is very, very good and they're fairly reasonably priced.
Mung Bean is a craft gallery that displays the work of many local or regional artists. They have many copper enamel sculptures (birds and other things) displayed on the walls. They really show up on the painted white walls. They had a new craft on display called "Scherinschnitte" which is a technique of paper cutting that uses sharp scissors with tiny blades. Here's a link to a website just as an example. However, these look quite different from the ones I saw in the shop.
Scherenschnitte
I stopped at another shop called Cornucopia where I have bought quite a few boxed Christmas cards in the past. They specialize in the Lang Christmas cards but I couldn't seem to find more than a couple that really seemed to catch my attention. Anway, it was only October and I still had quite a lot of time to worry about that. I also stopped at the Custom House but that's not one of my favorite shops. They do have some blueberry pottery that some people like to collect and some art prints.
I stopped at the the Smiling Cow, a souvenir kind of shop with a clothing department. They had some stone-colored twill pants that I liked but they were all in either Size 6 or Size 16. They had about twenty pairs of them all crowded on a short rack. I had to take them all down and set them down in another place so I could see what size they were.
I stopped in a few other places: Paine's Clothing Store, Sherman's Books & Stationery, Slick's, A Silver Lining and The Ritz (the last two shops are jewelry stores--one just sells estate jewelry).
So, not to bore you any further, that was my shopping trip.