This shop is located in the Thin Ice storefront. The owner is helpful, kind, and extremely…read moreknowledgeable about many forms of crafting! She stocks so many small-ish craft supplies in her small store footprint. This has become so important with Joann's closing. There's also a great selection of handmade items, stickers, pins, blind box toys, cute stationery, locally made cards, and gift options!

Lumpy Buttons is full of cute surprises, gifts, craft kits, etc. and Esther is simply the best!read more

Found in Artvoice, an article about a current show at this Gallery…read more A small one on Allen, between Delaware and Franklin. Open some 30 years, but new to me. The current show (July, 2013) is from a photojournalist named Brendan Bannon - Nairobi - Shots of various scenes in Nairobi. There are about 16 shots overall, each one a real life scene from the street. Nairobi: New Works, photography by Brendan Bannon, an international photojournalist & educator. This is a small gallery, the shots are hung the perfect height to go and enjoy. Its closed sun and mon, opens at noon the rest of the week. Take a few moments and stop in, you will enjoy. http://www.elmuseobuffalo.org

El Museo on 91 Allen is a non for profit art gallery in the heart of Allentown. El Museo just…read morecelebrated their 35th anniversary a few weeks ago! I was apart of their members' exhibition because I'm a member of their art gallery. I have my BS and MS in Art Education. Its only $25 for artist members! They have various artists come in a do art shows. Allen town has a "first Friday art gallery walk" the first Friday of every month. The art galleries in the area are free to look at and often offer light appetizers. Dan and I go every month. This is also a great excuse to check out some local restaurants like the new Italian restaurant Giacobbi's (my new favorite), the Gatur's Ethiopian Cuisine, or Cafe 59 and if you feel like a light snack and/ or coffee go to my other fav Caffeology! Great date night idea..check out El Museo and explore Allen town : )

Love the new location! The dark blue building on Niagara Street feels like a larger and more open…read moreversion of the original location - same awesome owner and even more books! Calm and friendly vibe. They have notebooks and tons of book-related accessories too. I even found a wax seal and the wax to go with it, for fancy letter-writing. Signs indicate that several book clubs meet here so if you're looking for one, this might be a great place to start your search. Parking is available on the street - and there are other great businesses within close walking distance too, a coffee shop, plant store, brewery, and more. It's also right along the bike path for an easy break during a ride.

The cutest little local bookstore. Such a great variety of books to browse. Places to sit and read…read more Low key, helpful service. Lots of accessories- bookmarks, pens/pencils, journals, stickers, cards. Perfect place to get a book lover a gift. Great value and you are supporting local!

Youngstown pride! This little boutique encompasses passion for the village with local artist-made…read moreknick knacks. Everything from little boats carved out of wood with seashells on them to cute little Youngstown-themed stationary cards and bumper stickers. It gets a five from me because it's really quite a pleasure to browse around in and the prices are very reasonable. My wife loves sea-themed anything, so I bought a framed picture of a seashell for her as well as a little stone with hand carvings of sea-things. The woman (Jane, who is also one of the owners) behind the counter was very helpful in helping me find these things and wrapped them up like a pro. If you're gift shopping, especially for someone who has some sort of connection to Youngstown, I don't think there is a better place to go. It's open year round too.

I love going to look around this shop. With all the local artists there is always something new to…read morelook at! The owners are very friendly and ready to answer any questions. If you're a local artist looking to get some of your work on the shelf I highly recommend The Dory!

I recently attended a fundraiser in their new space on Plymouth... An incredible building staffed…read moreby fabulous volunteers and very talented artisans from around the world I cannot wait to return to take a class. We did get to see the new felt loom in action, try our hand at indigo dying and watch as the women stitched beautiful embroidery motifs on refashioned items. Definitely the place to go for unique one-of-a-kind handmade gifts Off street parking is available in a lot next to the building

This is a this is a very cool business. The space it relocated to a few years ago is great…read more All sorts of refugee and immigrant people come together here and make products from their hometown with the Buffalo twist to them as well. Fantastic to come for small gifts you may need for someone. Everything from earrings to bags to decorated sweatshirtsto pieces of cloth to make your own thing to lessons and working together to make something yourself. Tons of pleasant, easy parking as well.

Enter the tall pink building…read more River Art Gallery and Gifts is another on my list of under the radar gems. Located on Webster Street in N.T., this gallery features mixed media art by local artisans. From wall art to jewelry, to greeting cards and more. Beautifully crafted, locally made items cover the walls and shelves.There is a gallery toward the middle/back of this lovely shop which will often have the work of a featured artist and some of the work here is truly amazing. You can find inexpensive gift items (I picked up a pair of earrings made of pink plastic Barbie shoes..where are you going to find THOSE? ) You can also find pricier more elaborate artwork as well. Stop in, and see the work of our talented locals.

I came here one week ago to have an artist friend fix a painting for me. (I bought it from her a…read morefew years ago. The painting moved inside the frame a bit. It was a quick fix.) Her name is Deb Meier and she has some awesome work featured here. There are many other artists who have work featured here too. Rather than just paintings, I bought a pillow. Barbara L Rickard is a local artist who has many things featured here. She had a few of her paintings made into pillows. I bought one for just over $60. It's called Paintress. Where the bison's horns lock, it shows a heart. I love hearts!! (Barbara told me that!!) She actually came in for something and she signed the back of the pillow. They don't just have paintings here. This gift shop has jewelry and many other cool things too. Come check it out!!! I'm sure I'll be back soon to purchase other cool items.

Super fun experience this afternoon at Gleam & Glimmer stained glass studio. I love Victorian…read morethings, one of my Victorian type loves is stained glass. I started looking around Buffalo for a class on how to do stained glass and found this studio online. I thought it would be fun to try to learn how much work goes in to making a stained glass piece. The piece we did in class today was a lantern.It was a very fun and educational way to see a small bit of what goes in to making stained glass art. We did not need to do any glass cutting or grinding, that was done for us. Thank goodness, as a beginner I would have wasted so much glass trying to get it right. So, the pieces to solder together are all ready for you. I won't go in to the specifics of how to solder glass together, but it was a very manageable thing even for a beginner. There was plenty of teachers/workers around to give tips and all the fellow students in the glass were more experienced than me and were more than gracious to give me tips as I went. I was honestly very excited to use the soldering iron. My husband prefers to not let me use power tools at home so I was really, really excited to be encouraged to use the soldering iron here. I felt like Martha Stewart and it was a good thing. Did my lantern turn out perfect? No, I can see the parts where I should have soldered smoother. But did I learn a lot and did my soldering improve as the class went on? Yes, yes it did. This is like all crafty things and the more you do it, the better you will get at it. My husband was very impressed with the lantern I brought home, he was amazed I made it. It was a super fun class and I would recommend any one who wants to learn about making stained glass take one of the beginner classes here. They also have some stained glass works/pieces for sale here, in addition to the classes. They had a shop cat, Shadow, who was very friendly and social. I love cats, so I was delighted to see him. If they ever have any classes making cat stained glass art, that would be so far up my crazy cat lady alley. Watch their facebook page for updates when they offer different classes or check their website.

If you're not white they're not nice. Instantly made a face when I walked in and looked annoyed at…read moremy presence and did not like that I walked into the back. It was my first time there and I did not know it was specifically for classes, I just wanted to look at their pretty glass stained work. Will not be back unfortunately due to the faces I got when they saw me and a few friends. I did not feel welcomed although their shop looked cozy and cute.

This place is quaint and fun! There are books and bookish thing that are unique and fun on the…read moreshelves here. A great place if you want a book or a gift for someone as there are so many fun things. The owner is wonderful and was just a fun place to visit. There is also a fun coffee shop out front if you want to stop In both places. Go here and find some fun things! You wont be disappointed!

Anything culinary books! I'll be there to pick up a book on pickling and fermentation very soon…read moreafter this wonderful Yelp event that I've went to last night. Very fun and welcoming bookstore owner Kim was at the event and you will see her at her bookstore hopefully! It's the only bookstore of its kind that I have ever heard of, and definitely the only one in Buffalo. Sign up for her emails and be invited to attend book signings special, offers, and classes on cooking .