The Compass Rose is always one of my favorite stops when I do visit downtown Olympia. They have such a fun, eclectic, hard to resist assortment of merchandise with everything from my favorite Moleskine notebooks, awesome cards, cookbooks, the best kids section anywhere, covetable kitchen gadgets and always interesting jewelry and art. As their slogan says; “Fresh, Local and Always in Season.”

I stopped in just to have a look around with no intention of purchasing anything, as I was on my “walkabout” to discover new things about Olympia, and of course as always happens I find this super cool hand-made shadowbox diorama from Christine Rodrigues Schukow.

 It’s hard to see all the detail in my picture, it’s called “Leaving Home”. 

I am a sucker for anything with a dog and “Leaving Home” has a girl with a white dog heading out on a long road. Christine is a New York based artist who loved to make dioramas as a kid. She creates the diorama’s and her husband builds all the frames.

My newly installed treasure is hanging on my “Family Wall” with pictures of my dogs, my family, my husband and me. So happy I stumbled upon this perfect little treasure.

I also scored a new Moleskine notebook, a cute card and in the bargain room a favorite set of notecards at half off.

They opened a second location in Tacoma as well and are getting ready to have their one year anniversary party on July 19th!  Looks like it will be a fun party, if you are in the area you should go.

If you are in Olympia I highly recommend you stop by and check out Compass Rose! I know you’ll be glad you did!

Do you have a favorite store in your town? Or do you have another Olympia store that you know I should check out?