Saturday, December 3…..surely a big Christmas shopping day, right? But here in Iowa, it was pouring down rain and just very hard to get in the mood. On top of the rain, I was coming down with a cold. But Steven and I went for a drive and wound up in Gilbert at the cutest little store, JB Knacker. It’s been way too long since I’ve been to Brenda’s shop, but the Knacker was just what I needed on this gloomy day!
The moment you step inside, you are transported to another world. Some people would call this a junk shop, and I say that with a sweet sentimental feeling since learning about jolly junking and this fabulous movement of creative people like these folks who gave a talk at a JB Knacker entrepreneur workshop a few years back. When you gaze around the Knacker, everything has a story to tell you as it nestles into a beautiful or an amusingly re-purposed setting. Pages of old books become paper chains, old Christmas balls hang from unexpected places, and white painted bird cages glisten with twinkle lights.
My sore throat forgotten, I wandered around at a different pace from the typical shopping mall rush, touching everything and snapping pictures of course! Things don’t have that Made in China feel here, things are heavy, sharp, probably not appropriate for small children, but they are perfect toys for the woman with a secret longing for a more romantic past and things in her present view that have/had meaning, if not for her personally, for some other woman in some other time and place, providing a connection that we crave in today’s fast paced and changing world.
The shop is arranged in lovely little vignettes and with every step, you feel another story or imaginary possibility.
Brenda has expanded the shop into the kitchen since the last time I was there, at least I don’t remember this being display space before. Oh how I would love to stand here in this little enchanted space and wash dishes, gazing out onto the porch and the yard beyond, watching the snow fall or birds playing tag.
Upstairs there are more enchanting places, a girl’s room perhaps, a little child’s coat made long ago with loving, skillful hands, a sewing corner….
This sewing machine took my breath away at is seemed as if my mother could have been sitting right there, working on a dress for me or curtains for my sister’s cottage.
Of course I couldn’t leave without buying something, even though I have limited space these days and way too much stuff in storage. Tucked onto a small plate I found the exact cookie cutters mom and I used to use for cut out Christmas cookies! If you want to get into a sweet feeling Christmas spirit, take a drive up to Gilbert and shop in the world of JB Knacker.
Any machine I see that is painted this machine color of green brings back memories for me of my dad and his work at a machine shop. I even imagine I smell metal chips and oil.
It seems like Dad might have had a saw like this one on the right in our garage, or maybe I am remembering a drill press. Sometimes he would call me out to the garage to help hold a large board he was cutting. It always made me feel so important when I got to help!
I did bop over to Dollar General while Steven finished browsing the tools. Then we headed downtown for a blue collar lunch at the High Life Lounge. I’d heard they have bacon wrapped tater tots…and bacon wrapped anything always sounds good to me! The fried chicken and mashed potatoes were awesome too.
