One of my last shopping trips before the lock down here in our state. I have a few shopping adventures from my archives I can share with you as well since I will be in home for awhile.Boy am I missing our little road trips up to Our Little Red House. This one is another outdoor shopping trip. Been doing a lot of those these past three months.

One Saturday early in the morning we all headed out to do some early Easter shopping. This was around the first week of March. Outside the city in at place called Glendale Arizona. I told the family this will be the last fun shopping trip for us for awhile so lets have fun while we still can. Of course I picked this spot because it was farther away from the city, I was a little worried about shopping in the center of our city.

Glendale is a beautiful little place filled with all kinds of historic homes that people have tuned into small businesses.

Most of my shopping adventures since Christmas have involved being outside.Also, I know one of the owners of one of the shops here from my Mall/ retail days and I love visiting her bear shop when I can. That will be a post for next month’s shopping adventure.

There are pretty lawns and mature trees for shade up and down the streets. It is a really nice place to spend the day.

Just taking a walk around a pretty block is fun to do. Then you have the added conveniences of walking into an old home to see pretty items to buy if you like.

I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular, just having fun looking at all the Spring decor available. I have always loved bunnies so who knows, maybe I would go home with a bunny that day.

On one corner there was a flower shop. Now there is no way I was going to pass on anything that evolves pretty flowers. You should see my neighbor’s rose garden right now. I will have to take a photo of that later. She is so sweet, she gave me a rose the other day and every Spring I have a fresh bouquet of roses for the Easter table from all her roses.

There was an old porch out front with a rocking chair. I always daydreamed about having a pretty porch like this, sitting outside sipping lemonade watching the day go by. Maybe reading a good book or sewing something adorable by hand. Guess I have always been an old soul at heart.

On this porch there was a tray/wagon that had little Fairy accessories in it that were for sale. Little faux wooden tables, wire fences, tiny animals, all things fairy related. I still have not gotten around to making a miniature Spring display in my kid’s old Radio Flyer wagon. I need to get that done. I have been looking forward to doing .

Inside the floral shop were all kinds of pretty home decor items. They also had tiny cacti and houseplants. They even had some beauty products and many scented candles. But it was a large bird in a drawer that caught my eye. If I didn’t already have enough birds in my home I probable would have bought it. One time my daughter walked around the whole house and counted all the bird themed items we had and then found me to tell me the number. I remember answering her back “Yeah, I like birds, what can I say” and then when she added that I had just as many baskets as birds I added back “ Where am I suppose to put all my birds?, and beside half those baskets are given away throughout the year when I bake cookies to give out.”.

I mean, come on, look at how pretty this little bird is sitting in a drawer, I haven’t done that yet. Birds in a drawer, wonder how that would look in my home.

I continued walking and came across a big surprise.

An outdoor Spring event.

How nice. When we decided to drive here this morning I did not know about any events going on.

They had a lot of my favorite items around that I am always searching out when second hand shopping. Old linens, pretty handmade items, cookie cutters and baking supplies. And a whole basket of old knobs.

There was also the cutest display of vintage baby clothes. How adorable would this be to gift to a new mommy. Something unique to give someone is always better then the mass produced items always out there and besides those old things from the past were made better and last longer.

Look what they did with the little red truck. It is yellow for the Spring.

I LOVE this necklace. What a gift to be able to make this, I thought it was so pretty.

Wow, this was very unusual. What a strange looking chair. I wonder if it is comfortable. Well it caught my eye so it did it’s job of getting my attention. I walked into this shop to see what else it had waiting inside.

Oh how cute, this is what was inside, a tiny yellow fuzzy chick.

There are so many shops to explore. Some even come with a place to sit down. They serve little sandwiches and all kinds of tea.

We continued walking the neighborhood then my son got ahead of me and walked right into the middle of a fashion show event. I didn’t know that was going on until someone brought it up to me from another store “Oh, are you here for the Spring fashion show?” I was asked and I answered back that I didn’t even know there was one.

When we walked into the shop it had all kinds of pretty jewelry and accessories for sale.

All perfect items for an Easter basket.

Such a beautiful day to go shopping. Do any of you see any fun items from the photos above that you would buy?

Some more information on the photos above-

When my son walked into the shop where the fashion show was there were people everywhere sitting at tables. It was packed outside around this little house.

The atmosphere at the time was very relaxed when it came to the red monster being out in our community. Of course this was outside the areas in our state where most cases were being reported but an invisible enemy can travel, we were extra careful because of that. I was really aggressive, even in the early stages of this new world and when I saw my son walk ahead I followed him into the store making sure he was okay and not getting too close to anyone. When we first walked in there were no people close to us, but then they started moving closer to us. Everywhere we went it was like the shops and even outside tables cleared as soon as we walked into their direction. Remember my post about guardian angels, well I am a strong believer of God always looking out for us and what ever will be will be of course but always look for the signs, they are there. Sometimes I would not be paying attention , not careful about social distancing and see something pretty then walk to it and that is when other customers  would see something they liked and also would walk away not realizing I was headed to the area they just walked from.

My daughter was behind me when we walked into the store that had a crowd outside. When people started walking closer to our space, that is when I heard my daughter behind me say  “Mom, we have to go.” so we all left and walked away from the crowds.

There was a house next door with a huge front yard. I wonder what it is like living next to a busy business every day. Not all the homes on the street were shops, some were just regular homes where people live but most on the street are businesses and no one lives in them, just like a retail store you close up at night.

It actually wasn’t too bad except that fashion show. Wait, there was someone having a dry cough really bad at one of the shops, but we left that store as well. We were very careful and washed up and changed our clothes as soon as we got home. This of course was way before the lock down but we all knew what was coming from reports from family in Italy as well as our instincts when we noticed shortages here at our big chain stores before things started turning, months before.

Hope you liked this shopping trip. I have a couple more fun stores to share with you all from this day. There are lots of small businesses to support out there. Normally I end this with Happy shopping adventures everyone but now I will have to add something to that …Happy Online Shopping adventures everyone. There are lots of small businesses online that could use some business right now. Here are just a couple of my followers who do online businesses:

 

Michelle- shop.blessingsbyme.com

 

Le Grand art-

https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/143768875/posts/1654

 

The Alchemist’s studios- https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/153823029

 

Anyone else out there who has a shop online please share in comments below. Always try to buy local made products/food as much as possible in whatever area you live in. Nothing wrong with supporting other artists and crafters in other countries but try to buy handmade as much as possible or small business in all areas of the world. It is a much cleaner and kinder way to shop. Stay safe out there everyone.

 

I am offline for a few weeks to catch up on things. Thank you for your likes, comments and follows. Have a beautiful day where ever you are in the world and please stay safe.