A Crafter's Life, Independent bookstores

A Friday Frolicking Adventure

tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Before I dive into this post I’d like to ask you to revisit my previous post if you’d like to: Liebster Award Nomination. I decided not to make it a two part post (because originally I was falling asleep towards the end of writing it) and to just go back and edit the post and finish it up. You will see towards the bottom of the post a header: “Update 05/12/2020”; and under that header you will find “Eleven (11) Facts About Myself”, my nominations of 7 blogs and the corresponding questions I’ve posed for the nominees to answer. I did go ahead and notify the 7 nominees in the comment section of their blogs.  So if you’d like to read the rest of my ramblings related to Anna at Homeschool Guru  nominating me for a blogging award head on over there (smile).

And now onto the previous Friday’s frolicking adventure…

Indie Bookstore and Antique Shop Browsing!

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I am off work on Fridays (I work Monday – Thursday) and my partner John and I decided to have a little adventure. We heard last week that the town of Castle Rock, Colorado was relaxing their business closure rules during the pandemic and would allow some businesses to open.

Masked and gloved we headed out to Castle Rock as we checked and their independent bookstore Sudden Fiction Books was open! It feels like its been eons since I’ve been able to wander through a bookstore or a public library so I was so excited to browse.

I love independent (indie) bookstores and I’ve blogged about them in the past – Independent Bookstores (wonderful & magical places). I try to support them whenever I can.

We had an exquisite browse at Sudden Fiction in downtown Castle Rock, which sells both new and used books and we left with quite the stack of new and used books (mainly science fiction). Here are photos from that visit.

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In case you cannot read this through the hand sanitizer, it says: “Don’t make us move all our post-apocalyptic fiction to the non-fiction. Wash your hands.”

2020-05-08_14-09-43_8272020-05-08_14-09-57_1592020-05-08_14-10-27_1502020-05-08_14-09-26_960Here is my partner John all masked and gloved while browsing.

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I had a lovely chat with the shopkeeper while maintaining social distancing and trying to talk through our masks. We occasionally we did have to repeat ourselves as some words do not enunciate very clearly through a mask!

On our way out of the bookstore we noticed there we other shops open in downtown Castle Rock to include an antique shop!

The only shopping I’ve done in the past couple of  months was at grocery stores or “box stores” (Costco, Target, Home Depot) and what a pleasure it was to actually wander/browse through an independent retail shop.

Here are photos from our inside and outside wander (they have an outdoor garden kitsch section) at The Barn in downtown Castle Rock. We bought some new yard art there to support the business.

2020-05-08_14-12-53_8992020-05-08_14-12-41_3012020-05-08_14-12-49_8332020-05-08_14-41-03_6562020-05-08_14-25-53_0122020-05-08_14-24-24_8272020-05-08_14-24-16_9952020-05-08_14-24-08_830In the garden section out back I was particularly fascinated by their huge collection of large rusted letters. We photographed them in both color and black & white.

2020-05-08_14-29-06_515IMG_20200508_142943IMG_20200508_142943~2But alas, I could not figure out why I needed them so we did not leave the shop with any large letters!

We also ate lunch in Castle Rock at a new place called Cuba Cuba. We were allowed to walk in and order at the bar (maintaining social distance of course) and then we had to wait outside on the patio for our food. Inside the restaurant was lovely and we look forward to the day we can go inside and dine (or even sit outside on their nice patio and dine). But we happily ate our Cuban sandwiches in the car.

2020-05-08_13-12-39_4292020-05-08_13-12-28_6982020-05-08_13-16-52_729All the things I used to kind of take for granted pre-pandemic. What a treat it was to be able to browse in downtown Castle Rock on Friday!

Postscript

Speaking of Castle Rock, we were excited that Castle Rock had loosened some restrictions but unfortunately not all Castle Rock business behaved as the Colorado governor had mandated when the restrictions were loosened as you will see in this online news article:

Governor Suspends Castle Rock Restaurant’s License After Mother’s Day Opening Goes Viral

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Published by tierneycreates: a fusion of textiles and smiles

Quilter, crafter, obsessive tea drinker and lover of all furry creatures (especially dogs and cats) - join me on my tierneycreates blog as I share stories from "A Crafter's Life".

29 thoughts on “A Friday Frolicking Adventure”

  1. I bet it felt good to get out and about. I am glad the restaurant had their license suspended. How hard is it to follow rules? Having been schooled and trained in the hospitality industry, I know all too well that Mother’s Day is the biggest day of the year for restaurants. I don’t know if the all-mighty dollar is worth losing their license. That’s my soapbox!!
    That being said…I absolutely LOVE cute doggie memes.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It was so good to get out but we were super careful and super social distancing. We only touched things in the store with gloved hands. Yes that restaurant was very naughty and quite dangerous – I mean that would have been a terrible mother’s day outcome if grandma died after being exposed to someone in the crowd!

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      1. Exactly!!! I just read an article about how a local barber shop stayed open in spite of the order and the owner has the virus and all his clients are now at risk. The county had met all the criteria to open according to state guidelines, too. I would not want to be that guy right now.

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  7. I can almost hear you drooling as you’re typing about that book store. What a fun outing. My big adventure this past week was going in for a dental cleaning….very scary since you can’t exactly wear a mask in that situation. Here’s hoping I’m still virus-free. If not, at least I’ll impress the COIVD hospital staff with my very sparkly teeth.

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    1. I went for a dental cleaning too and it was super uncomfortable! The dental hygienist seems nervous and had on like full isolation gear. I had my mask on except when she cleaned my teeth. Well glad your teeth are now sparkly!

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  10. Always love a small book store that has both new and used books, something special about that. One of my first finds as I move into a new location is the local used book store. Right now I can’t even imagine slowly browsing in one, I fear it would be so crowded like that silly restaurant.

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  12. Haha, like the doggy in your last image, I would choose the other options. Well depends on the situation and this post was so much fun, Tierney! I thought I was shopping and just look at so many rustic letters. Wow. what a selection. Thank you for putting a smile on my face today.

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  13. great little trip to some place interesting…

    and just like that businesses who “forget the rules posed upon them” and they have to close. I think the same will happen here, the temptation to get more profits will cause the “seated system” to fall over. There are some strict guidelines here – but if you know how to make a case some of the “number parts” seem to be overcome when owners of businesses suggest they can make it happen. Of course, they can, but often it’s the patrons and the “eye on ball scenario” that doesn’t.

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