Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Looking backwards through Pink-colored glasses


You can’t go home again, everyone knows that. Yet sometimes while moving forward you inexplicably find yourself being pulled backwards. So it was for me on our recent trip back to Spokane, my home town.

We’d tried to visit this little shop last time we were in Spokane, last December, but they were closed. This time it was a pleasant accident to stumble upon them. You see this building was where I worked for many years, and where I met my husband.

After moving back to Spokane in 1999 (from Seattle, culturally quite different from lil' Spokane) I was starved for hip people and a cool place to work, I found that in spades at Luminaria (a vintage and reproduction lighting manufacturer that also specialized in anything remotely offbeat and interesting). Now this building, which holds such memories for me, contains a vintage shop called Pink.

I know this isn’t a typical garden blog post but there were so many things here just screaming to be outside, in the garden...

Take this guy for example. If I had a dollar for every customer that tried to buy him! Unfortunately it looks like some idiot broke his lower jaw...this used to be the coolest cougar downspout in all of Washington.

Moving indoors…

Have you ever gone back to a place that meant so much to you at one time only to find it in sad disrepair? I have…and this experience couldn’t have been more different. To see this place alive and full of such unique things, it was wonderful.

This used to be our (too small) employee parking lot. We’d squeeze at least six cars in there…it looks better as a courtyard don’t you think?

Should you find yourself in Spokane, and want to visit, Pink is located at 154 S. Madison Street, visit their website for more details.

17 comments:

  1. I like the moose!!!! But that orange reel could quite happily become a funky garden hose holder.

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    1. The mouse looked so amazing on that wall with all the books...and you're right a hose holder out of that big orange O would be epic (to borrow a word from you...)

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  2. Can you go back in time and buy those test tubes for me?

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    1. Sure thing...I just need your credit card number and the "secret" digits...

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  3. sandy lawrenceJune 19, 2012

    I could easily go bankrupt in here. Thanks for the tour.

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    1. Isn't if fun to play the "what if" game in a store like this? As in "what if I could afford anything I wanted..."

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  4. Love it! How nice it must have been to take the trip down memory lane. I think the first few photos of the rusty stuff is what I love the most although the test tubes and wire holder would make a fun cluster of bud vases. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. Yes you and your rust obsession. Naturally I thought of you with the shop name too!

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  5. The shop has bags of character! So many beautiful and inspirational items for both home and garden. I could easily spend lots of money there.

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    1. So glad you think so...I could have gone crazy but the car was already full of plants!

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  6. Love the big DRUGS sign. Too funny! I've actually been to Spokane (one of the few places I've been); there are some lovely gardens there.

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    1. I'd love to hang that sign in our bathroom, that is if our bathroom were actually bigger than the sign.

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  7. Pink is good! How sweet to see where you and Andrew met, and to enjoy that it's still a hip and happening place.

    Plant paraphernalia aside, I'm strangely drawn to those Purina hen chow chair covers. Imagine them with my aqua house...

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    1. Oh yes I can see it! How very Miami Beach your color scheme would be.

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  8. What a cool shop! I'm so glad it wasn't a disappointment. I would have been in heaven there, I love all that old stuff. I especially love that wall of books all hanging open.

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    1. Creative display isn't it? (the books and moose). Just imagine how cool it would look with garden books all open like that!

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    2. Nooooo! Not the gardening books!

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