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| A vintage shop along Elmwood Ave., in Buffalo, upstate NY. |
REFRIGERATOR magnets. It's not really what I go for when I want to take home a memento from the places I have visited. Although megabytes of photographs can fill up photo albums or take hours of playing via the projector, I am pretty sure my show and tell will put my audience to sleep faster than a mother breastfeeding her infant. So, I take home something more useful, a conversation piece that’s functional.
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| Lovely! |
But my souvenir purchases only happen if I find something I really like (which is a problem for a shopaholic like me since I want something of everything. Dangerous) which should be on the last leg of the trip. Lugging the extra weight on the first leg of the tour is not wise.
Of course, there are exceptions (har-har). In Buffalo, the third of the many stops planned, I came across this vintage shop along Elmwood Avenue with a very charming storefront display that lured me in. It's called Reimagine.
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| Reimagine's entryway |
Owned by two women, Reimagine is all about providing the community with ecologically sustainable furniture and home decor. "We both love to collect rare pieces that are worn with age, but deserve a second chance," they said, thus "Reimagine."
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| One of the shop owners at the till. |
"We seek out unusual and historically significant designs that are well made and visually stimulating. We focus primarily on items from the mid-20th century, with an emphasis on Scandinavian and American made products. Our carefully curated collection is meant to inspire, and draw awareness to those around us that buying vintage is not only a way to add character and individuality to your home, but it is also an environmentally sound choice," they shared through their website.
These are the things they love -- Scandinavian design, natural materials, mid-century modern, bold graphic prints, funky chairs, rare pyrex, industrial lighting, and kilims (tapestry-woven carpets).
Of course, I cannot take home a chair if I want to. But it's this German-made stackable candleholders that caught my eye—three-piece, triangular-shaped apparatus with hollow tubes at its pointed ends to hold the slim candles or to stack the legs of the other triangle with. The ingenious design will certainly work anyone’s imagination.
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| I see... |
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| I buy! |
The nice thing about this vintage shop is you can ask for a best price, meaning get a discount, which I did.
More than a vintage shop, Reimagine is an art gallery. It hosts art shows for Buffalo artists twice a month, and the curators want art that is bold, challenging, compelling and innovative.
Well, I didn't catch any, which is good, otherwise the temptation to buy is greater. I was happy with my candleholders and I can picture where it will be in my future crib.
For more travel & lifestyle stories, visit http://jeepneyjinggoy.blogspot.com/ and http://apples-and-lemons.blogspot.com/
Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on June 20, 2013.
CONVERSATION