WRITTEN ON November 10th, 2011 BY Eric Scout AND STORED IN Pacific Northwest, Portland, Shops

Talk about a crafty Wednesday! The City of Portland saw the launch of four – count ‘em – FOUR holiday handmade popup shops yesterday. On top of that, Crafty Wonderland, which graduated from ‘popup’ to ‘permanent’ celebrated it’s first birthday, too! We had time to check out two of the four, and took some pictures to share with you:

Portland Saturday Market Annex

Portland Saturday Market began in 1974, and is the largest continually running outdoor arts & craft market in the US! If you’re ever coming through Portland, be sure to check it out – it’s full of an amazing array of local handmade goods. But, you know how Winter can be in the Pacific Northwest… cold, wet, and gloomy. The Market has done a great thing by opening an indoor, semi-permanent shop  just for the holidays, chock-full of jewelry, soaps, clothing, and more from local crafters (also, right across the street is one of the biggest food cart pods the city has to offer! Nom nom nom!).

(And you know I love me some robots!)

Boy’s Fort

This shop was a complete surprise to me – right across from the Portland Saturday Market Annex, I saw a pretty big hubbub going on. I walked in through the glass doors, and it was like walking in to some sort of love child between Restoration Hardware and Tom Sawyer’s Island at Disneyland! There were amazing old paintings, rustic furniture and crafts, prints from local artists, and much more. The overall feeling of the place was great, which is to be expected, since it was put together by Portland interior design firm Kenton Collective.

I definitely recommend checking these, and the OTHER popup shops (guide here) Downtown Portland has to offer! Shopping local is an awesome alternative to big box stores in the gift-giving season. Are there any awesome popup shops for the holidays in YOUR town? Let us know!