Guests at Cher Ewing's monthly PinTwist Parties do a lot of making. They make canvas art, they make wine bottle crafts, they make fashionable T-shirts, and they make one-of-a-kind jewelry. Most importantly, they make plenty of memories. Anyone is welcome at the Tuesday meet-ups, where Cher and company lead a group class on a project from their Pinterest board. Besides the public events, the company can bring their parties and supplies to a private birthday celebration, girl's night out, or bonding retreat, allowing the host to skip her traditional duties and just nap under the bed with the cat.
The staff at CSD Sports Framing & Memorabilia routinely preserve high-value artifacts behind glass—from Emmitt Smith's Dancing with the Stars outfit to a piece of the floor from Michael Jordan's last game—but that's not the only thing that sets this framing store apart. The framers here handcraft nearly every aspect their projects in-house, including the frame, mounts, and custom engravings.
Although the framing of art and memorabilia is their primary focus, the staff still traffics in the autographed merchandise that helped launch their business. Visitors to the shop can ogle a Hall of Fame football signed by the Dallas Cowboys and renew the Curse of the Bambino on a Red Sox World Series banner.
With more than one million book titles to choose from, Barnes & Noble stocks one of the retail world's largest selections of bound pages, along with a huge assortment of educational toys and games. Keep sprightly scribes from using walls, furniture, and siblings as writing surfaces with the help of LeapFrog’s Scribble & Write ($24.95 online), or indulge kids’ natural passions for outer space and solid detective work with a LEGO Space Police Smash ’n’ Grab set ($19.95 online).
Legendary athletes including Troy Aikman, Adrian Peterson, Steve Nash, and Johnny Bench have autographed Signature Collectibles’s collectibles in person, ensuring that the store brings authentic sports memorabilia to customers. The store also receives unique items from national sports-marketing companies, such as Upper Deck Authenticated, Steiner Sports, and Mounted Memories, bearing the signatures of contracted athletes including Tiger Woods, John Elway, and Joe Montana. In addition to showcasing these newly scribed items, Signature Collectibles can spruce up customers’ existing memorabilia inside their in-shop framing facility. They specialize in framing jerseys, during which they steam away wrinkles, sew the jersey onto an acid-free mat board with foam-core backing, and surround everything with a high-quality frame that magnetically repels fair-weather fans.
Staffers personally select the titles that line the shelves of a Real Bookstore's 20,000-square-foot facility. Each tome is carefully culled from a stock of new arrivals, featured debuts, and signed copies from guest writers. Author visits commence in the cozy event area, where the wordsmiths entertain attendees with presentations, question-and-answer sessions, and book signings where they increase their work's value without dipping the pages in gold. At Fierce Words & Stiff Drinks events, authors interact less formally with readers over wine, artisan beers, and cocktails inspired by their books.
Youngsters enjoy their own events in the 2,000-square-foot children's section. Tuesday- and Wednesday-morning story times enthrall preschoolers with tales, crafts, and snacks, and Friday-night PajamaRama story hours invite kids for a bedtime version of the same. The store’s Collage Bakery and Bar further caters to families with menu items made in-house, and adults can enjoy glasses of beer or wine at seating areas inside or outside the store.
SampleHouse & CandleShop’s shabby-chic interiors house a full bouquet of ornamental and scented candles, as well as an array of stylish and practical products such as handbags, ornaments, and soaps. Wide-eyed votive candles ($2.25–$3.75) tag along after sophisticated, glass- and metal-rimmed older siblings ($10–$55). Add flair to underground lairs with wax sticks from Trapp, Votivo, Archipelago, Orleans, Voluspa, and other brands, available in a variety of colors, shapes, and fragrances. Or opt for eye-catching jewelry ($5.95+) or initialed hand towels ($6.95+) to finally differentiate your towel from the family ghoul's.