I feel, recently, as though the Facebook feed for this site has just turned into a place where we do nothing but plug craft fairs. Which is fine, because I love craft fairs and love, in particular, how they give small local artisans the chance to have a storefront for the day, leading you to [...]
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Newly opened in a subterranean space near Post Office Park, The Salt Cellar is a celebration of just one thing: the humble sodium chloride, the only rock that we eat on a regular basis. Modeled on their flagship store in Portsmouth, NH, and, in a larger sense, modeled after a specialty salt store that the co-owners [...]
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Maybe it’s the holiday display in the window (including the wonderful snowman apron and old sewing machine). Maybe it’s the riot of color from row after row of practical, fanciful bags. Maybe it’s the giant paintings. Or maybe it’s the fact that all this is a reflection of the bubbly personality of Kim herself. Whatever [...]
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Last night I had a wonderful time strolling around the Society for East End Arts’ 2012 Holiday ‘Art on the Hill’ show. Over 70 vendors — many of whom were not, I was totally pleased to note, the ‘usual suspects’ that I’ve seen at every vaguely craft-fair like show I go to. Admission is free, [...]
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Count me in a someone who was happy to have an entire extra week between Thanksgiving and the first of December. I heard on the radio recently that this year has the largest possible number of days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Count me in as pleased. Here’s a few things coming up I wanted to [...]
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Located on Congress Street, directly across from the Portland Museum of Art, Yes Books is something of a local institution. Like a cat with nine lives, it has survived a location change, a change in ownership, changes in the face of the city, and the move toward digital content, and yet it continues to be [...]
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So, how was your summer? Here are a few images from Saturday’s annual Picnic Music + Arts Festival, probably the premiere showcase for independent artisans and craftspeople in the city. Enjoy! Please visit the Picnic website (www.picnicportland.com) to learn more about the vendors whose work is featured here. You can also follow them on [...]
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Don’t get me wrong, there are a lot of things I love about Portland, but one of my least favorite things is this: it’s really hard to pick up a pie (not made at the supermarket) at 6 pm on your way home from work. Foley’s closed at 5, and Two Fat Cats is always [...]
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So, it’s possible that I might have gushed mentioned that the first Saturday Farmer’s Market in Deering Oaks took place last Saturday, which to me is as much a hallmark of the start of summer as baseball opening day or the first robin of spring. The thing I love most about the market is how [...]
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On the back of my business cards, there is a single line: “The secrets of Portland, secrets no longer.” It’s catchy, but it’s rarely true. Much of what I write about here is well known both within our community and in the world at large. So you can imagine my glee at discovering, tucked away [...]
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