Three New Places to Shop!

It's big news in NQPS when a new shop opens, and just recently there have been three! OMG.I don't know if we can take the excitement:

Garden Dance
First is actually not a new store, but a new location for Garden Dance. Michelle has moved out of the back of the Opera House building on Front Street to a new, MUCH larger location at the corner of Front and Yakima Avenue in the old (really old) Burlington Northern freight office building at 10 N. Front. (It's across from Gilbert Cellars. The old Paper Station location, for those of you who can remember that).
The new, improved Garden Dance is teeming with clothing--the old location simply didn't have room for all those racks. There are lots of sweaters, interesting jackets and coats, those strangely appealing skirts that look like Roman window shades in every color, lots of cottony, roomy, comfortable, ultra-loose-sillouette type clothing. Plus an amazing array of candles, table and wall decor, stationery and other paper products, jewelry, lotions and potions, and gifty things. I especially liked the boiled wool shoulder bags and tiny coin purses from Nepal that are more like works of art than bags. Cuteness with a Capital C!
So stop by the new location, I dare you not to find something you love.

Kristie Burrill
Buttons, buttons, whose got the buttons? The Kristie Burrill shop is bursting with buttons of all kinds--antique, mother-of-pearl, silver, gold, vintage, imported, every color of the rainbow, stone, you name it. There are bevies of buttons, boxes of buttons, entire batteries of buttons.
Kristie Burrill recently moved from Seattle where she was a designer who had shops in Madison Park and at the Four Seasons (now the Fairmont) hotel. Her new digs are in the other half of the Shopkeeper at 3105 Summitview.
But in addition to buttons you'll find her designer clothing line--skirts, jackets, tops as well as dresses, capes, and coats--some that look like they just hopped out of a Harry Potter movie.
Kristie is also an artist: what fun she has with old Christmas cards, decorating plain white gift boxes with them and other assorted adornments--uh, like buttons. The boxes sell for around $7 and are all mini art pieces.
If you have something in your closet that needs updated or upgraded, buttons are often the key. Take the piece in to Kristie and let her find the fabulous buttons that can transform your coat or whatever. Buttoned up. Buttoned down. Buttonlicious.

Gretchen
As I mentioned in an earlier post, Gretchen Gilday has bought the other half of Steve Goodwin's the Haberdasher, which used to be Haberdasher Women, and it is now the new high-end boutique, Gretchen. No 's' please. Just Gretchen. So like she says, when she answers the phone she says, "Hello this is Gretchen." Because it is. And she is. It would sound stupid to say "This is Gretchen at Gretchen." or "Gretchen! This is Gretchen!" Jeez.
Anyway, the boutique is clean-lined, small and unfussy. The displays are spare, simple, and striking, and the merchandise is top-of-the-line classy. Gretchen obviously knows her best customers in NQPS and goes to market with them in mind. There are only a few pieces of every style so you know you're not going to be starring in Yakima's version of "Who Wore it Best?" on someone's blog.
Gretchen is heavy on sportswear: lots of pants, including fabulous Lynn Ritchie zip-fronts that are such great, unwrinkleable (don't mind me, I make up new words all the time), comfortable fabric. There are arty pieces such as graphic print jackets and tweedy, slouchy sweaters, and lots of jeans from a couple different designers like Christopher Blue. Not too many dresses.
It's high-end, like I said. If you're looking for bargains, this is probably not your place. If you're looking for classic, high-quality, pricey pieces around which you can build that status wardrobe, come on in.