shop outside the box

living on the southeast side we see buy local signs often. we live only a few blocks from the farmer's market but chose meijer out of convenience. we are mere minutes away from schuler book store but order books off amazon because they are cheaper. we are surrounded by great local shops yet for some reason we never shop at them. so when looking for puppets for the boys this Christmas my friend sara led me to a little store in allendale called, learn and play house. a little boutique that carries all melissa and doug toys. and while shopping outside the box, i found just the puppets i was looking for. a pirate and a knight in shining armor. what great treasures you can find when you take a different path every now and then.