Holiday Shop Hop

I slipped a little sentence into a post the other day about a holiday shopping tour I am planning, and already the response has been good. I am only doing the tour one day, because there’s so much going on at this time of year, that two days is just an impossible feat.

The date of the tour is Friday, December 3 and we will be starting out at Housewerks because it’s just off I-95 and there is plenty of parking.Among the shops we will visit are some of Baltimore’s most unique places where you are guaranteed to find things that you won’t see in any store in the mall or catalogue in the mail.

Housewerks, where we will be starting off, has myriad fascinating items, including some of the great green glass globes which I took up to the Nate Berkus Show and which Nate fell madly in love with.Then we will head to the atelier of master craftsman and antiques dealer, David Wiesand and his shop, McLain-Wiesand. David has a selection of gorgeous hand-crafted pieces, as well as a treasure trove of beautiful antiques. Then we will head uptown to Red Tree in Hampden, a place with a fabulous collection of interesting accessories and furnishings for the home and garden. Next, it’s up the hill a little bit to the Turnover Shop, Maryland’s oldest consignment store. I don’t think that I’ve ever left there empty handed. It’s the place where the posh locals consign their goods… and pick up new ones!We’ll break for lunch either before or after the Turnover Shop and then we will head down to the Jones Falls Valley to Gore-Dean’s new shop location. As I’ve said many times, Deb and her husband, Spider, have the most well-selected goods. Finally, we will head back downtown and stop at the Mount Clare Holiday and Greens sale at the beautiful and historic Mount Clare Mansion. Friday afternoon is the Preview Sale, and you will get first pick of the amazing greens that the Colonial Dames bring from their country estates, including fresh holly, magnolia and evergreens. Please send me an e-mail here if you’d like to join in the fun at the Holiday Shop Hop. I estimate that we will begin the tour at 9:00 a.m. at Housewerks and finish up back there at about 3:00 p.m. As usual, we will try and carpool to alleviate parking issues in the city.