Lunchtime in Tacoma...

So, yesterday we spent a lovely afternoon in Tacoma's Opera Alley, having lunch at the Over the Moon Cafe & browsing through Urban Alchemy's beautiful shop. Before, during & after, I took a few shots of this interesting little street, filled with little shops  & studios:

Wall across from the cafe, filled with texture & possibilities,  yet to be realized...

Door with a 253 design painted above it, artist unknown. 253 is the area code for the Tacoma area, products have been showing up all over the area...

I'm not sure what this graffiti originally said, maybe initials, but it looks a little like 'opera' to me

Rustic doorway

More texture...Pipes (for what?) coming out of the wall, across from the cafe

The view from the other end of the alley. Great old office buildings

Over the Moon Cafe: Tasty food served in what looks like an old tea room, decorated in ornate velvets & fringe, old books scattered about for a bit of relaxing reading. I had a grilled chicken sandwich with bacon & avocado, served with a bit of potato salad & on the side, a rhubarb Dry Soda to drink, all quite tasty, though, next time I might try a different flavor soda, like lavender. The rhubarb was quite subtle, but still refreshing. My husband had the grilled tuna salad sandwich special, with hot tea to drink. His sandwich was tasty, though not what you normally expect when you order tuna salad. The salad would be great on a bed of greens & is more of an Italian salad, than the standard American style. There is no mayo or relish, but a tasty blend with olive oil. It ends up a little soggy, even with the grilling, so maybe a bed of greens would work better, with some rustic bread on the side? Tea is served as hot water with a variety of tea packets, from which to choose. Afterwards, we tried the banana cream pie, without the pie. Served in a little Mason jar, with a generous dollop of mascarpone  & a little sprig of mint & made with real bananas, it was quite tasty, a delicious end to the meal. all in all it's a lovely place to sit & relax, mid day. They serve lunch or dinner & prices are moderate.

Urban Alchemy: A sweet little store filled where fluffy clouds float overhead & the delightful creations of local artists fill your eyes & tickle your mind. Along with all kinds of jewelry & one of a kind clothing, you can find things to fill virtually every need or want: furniture (there's a great table I have my eye on, as well as sweet, velvety chairs), photography of all kinds (I love the photos printed on pieces of old wood, currently displayed in the store. I wish I could remember the artists name) & paintings, bath & body products, sweet children's toys & clothes & even a great antique chest that I wish I had. Products vary, over time. Stop by & check it out, if you're in the area. It's a great place for a bit of 'retail therapy' or artistic eye candy, for a relaxing afternoon.

We ended the afternoon at The Poison Apple (not in Opera Alley, but in downtown Tacoma). Check it out, if you have the chance & a penchant for pulp fiction/old horror films/comic books & wild novelty items. They recently have gotten in a large selection of vintage clothing & accessories, that are fun to browse. My current favorites: a Bigfoot air freshener (the toast scented one is a close second), an inflatable beard of bees & a blue tee covered with octopi & stars. The store is currently surrounded by construction, but take time to come support another fun, local business & say hi to its owner, Jooley Heaps, one of the areas friendliest shop owners.

How about you? Have you been out exploring your city lately?

*All photos are the property of Shelley McElhiney. Feel free to share the post & credit back this blog & the photo owner. Please contact the blog owner for any other usage.

Tacoma Has Crafty Goodness, Too

A great place for theater & musical productions. This was recently redone.  Isn't it gorgeous?

Seattle & Olympia may be the main Washington meccas for arts & crafts, with their great museums & interesting neighborhoods filled with creative, interesting people, but surprisingly the little port of Tacoma, located in between these two cities, is not without it's pockets of creativity. I hope to highlight some of these for you, to illustrate that art exists anywhere there are people to create it, in big cities & small, sea ports, industrial hubs & small country towns!
Tacoma hosts the Chihuly Museum of Glass, the Tacoma Art Museum, great downtown shops, a weekly art walk & groups of people dedicated to creative endeavors. The Tacoma Arts & Crafts Group is one of these groups, with monthly meetings, creative free craft times & workshops for learning new crafts or collectively improving old skills.
We've had felting, embellishment (I led this one:), photo fabric printing & this weekend, a mosaic workshop. We each had a personally chosen project to work on & support each other with questions, suggestions & encouraging remarks. There are common supplies & embellishments that we bring in & quite often share with each other. Each workshop is completely affordable (currently $10 per workshop). My project was a clay flower pot. Others had trays, candle holders, wooden letters & even a table top! I started off by putting 4 'flowers' spaced around my pot, after smashing an old yellow ceramic cup, something I was a little afraid to do, but we had canvas bags to protect from flying debris & I kept my hands away from the hammer. I also had some pieces of an old acrylic wind chime (already broken, since it's meant not to break easily this would have been very difficult for me to break. Thankfully, a very strong windstorm did all the work), beads & bits of jewelry. Buttons, more ceramic pieces, glass & a snail shell were supplied by others in the group. After the flowers, I filled in with two shades of blue ceramic dish pieces. Around the rim, I added star beads, buttons, jewelry pieces & pieces of  glass.  It was a fun experience & I learned something new. I've never done mosaics before (or felting, for that matter). Next, we add grout to our pieces.
Our next Meetup will be our regular, monthly meeting, with free craft time afterwards, where we can work on whatever projects we might have & share the things we've been working on. Our next workshop will be on peyote stitch beading. I've done a little of this, but its been a very long time. It should be interesting & fun! After this we have lamp shade making,  photography (with me again) & then ...
Tacoma Arts & Crafts Group
Another crafty Tacoma group is the Tacoma branch of EtsyRain. We also meet once a month (every third Saturday) & are a group of creative Tacomans who meet to discuss what we make, support each other, with questions thoughts & ideas & to socialize. We may have craft demonstrations, in the future & have most recently had a 'destashing swap.' I ended up with a huge number of beads, that would have cost me a fortune (some of the stars on my flower pot are from this 'destash' event) & got rid of some tea tins that I didn't want to throw away, but I didn't need, so score all the way around! It's very helpful to get the perspectives of other crafters & sellers, who either are on Etsy or are thinking of setting up shops & it's just plain fun, plus we can craft & eat lunch, while learning something new or getting fresh perspectives. Next week, I'll talk more about the group. We meet by a great shop that sells recycled art & craft items, so I'll tell you a bit more about this great shop, too.
EtsyRain website Check out "What's Crafterin" for the Tacoma Meetup & more local events
Tacoma EtsyRain Meetup (link for EtsyRain Meetup members)

I hope you enjoyed this little "Taste of Tacoma." Until next time... SAM