A.L Stickley - Variety Store, Rhinebeck, NY

Where and when is the last time you saw a Variety Store or a General Store or Five + Dime store?
Well, there is one in Rhinebeck, NY and it's been in biz for 62 years. My Mom and I went there yesterday to get some stuff.
Stuff like:
A drip coffee pot for Mom and a pink elephant watering can for me!
What fun, as you can I was having -----and I spent under $5.
Here's a peek inside:


Isles + isles that harken back to my childhood wandering through my local Woolworth's and Newberry's in downtown Ossining, NY.

MEXICAN JUMPING BEANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ELEPHANT WATERING CANS in FLAMINGO PINK + SILVER
And all that girlie-stuff that you never know where to find anymore....


Garters! and corset hook + eyes. Ribbons for your hair by the yard
Bobby pins + Hair nets! this is where they have been hiding all these years.


shoe laces, string


Tickets, pranks + gags, party favors
AND LOTS MORE.
Mom + I had a blast shopping for all our needs in there. I guess today, we have Dollar Stores- what an eyesore those places are. I never go in them. Then there's the mega-big-box store names, which actually started from small mom + pop businesses named Walton's and Kresge's.


Say, "good bye" Mom.....
.....we're off for an ice-cream cone next door.

What I love about my garden (and not)

THE BOUNTY



Sunflowers are the Happy faces of my garden. I can't help but think that they are smiling and saying to me "Have a great day, Gretchen!" when I look at them in awe of how they grow by reseeding themselves every year.


The haul for lunch.... Mmmm - what I love to eat.




MARBLES are what I love to find each year when I dig up the garden. They magically appear whenever I am digging in the earth... I wonder if that happens to anyone else?


SLUGS!- I abhoar! YUK!

Walkin' on Warren St. (Hudson,NY 12534)

Walkin' on Warren St. on Sunday while it sun-showered on and off, I stopped in one of my fave shops: HENRY
What I like about Nancy's shop is her Artful way of arranging. It is her Art (I believe). The eclectic compilation is always an intrigue for me. I have bought many a textile here, which has been the source of design inspiration for me, in one way or another.




...looking out to towards the sunshower....

...a quirky footstool with a cusion of hermetically sealed hay within clear PVC - how natural!

....a beautiful vintage petti-point evening bag containing another petti-point covered compact with original label from Vienna (from another century). Check out the website for this special shop and see more treasures inside.