Crazy Woman Trading Company

Friday night was the Christmas opening in our downtown.  It's too cold for me to deal with it but I went down today to look at the pretty Christmas things. ?????????????? Very few.  I can't see that many of the businesses tried very hard with their windows.  This one, however, happens to be one of my favorite shops and I have been friends with the owners for a long time.  Whatever the time of year exuberance pours out the windows, doors, window boxes - whatever the season is.  

Crazy Woman is the name of a canyon near here.  It was named after a very sad story which I will not relate here.  This Crazy Woman Trading Company is a much happier place.  Willis and Linda have an old golden lab who comes to greet everyone at the door and they're as full of enthusiasm as they were when they first opened their store 11 years ago.                                    Diane

Thrifty Shopping

On the photoblog which I'm on I joined a theme on the masses.  This week's subject was shopping.
So I naturally posted these on mine.

 I stopped at a garage sale yesterday morning just to take pictures and was surprised how timid I was about asking people if I could photograph them.  Luckily there were two gals there who I knew (surprise!) and Kitty (the one above) was happy to oblige me.  Marabel (in the very top picture) wondered what I was up to. 

This picture is at Habitat for Humanity Restore.  I've known Lorraine for at least 150 years.  The man at the counter is actually an employee who was tickled to pretend that he was a customer, he even got his wallet out and was trying to dicker with her.  It was fun doing this project. 

When you think about it thrift stores, second hand stores, garage sales, and church basement sales account for a huge percentage of the commerce in this country.  I don't know about dollars but there's a massive amount of people who participate.  Even me!            Diane