Saturday 3 July 2010

Window Shopping

The Unclutterer suggests that taking a picture and saving it to remember a sentimental item may help the owner to let go of owning the actual item that is taking up space.  

I can remember some years ago I remember when a penny - it was probably a pound, actually - dropped for me.  I was coveting some miniature china replicas of shoes - one of my soft spots, shoes - and trying to figure out which of the dozen or so I might buy.  I could afford all of them back then, but realised it would be too much.  In trying to decide which ones I'd select, it came to me that I could live happily without them.  I was content not to buy any at all, and just to enjoy seeing them now and again.  I not only saved myself a nice sum of money, I haven't been dusting them all these years.  Well, at least Bill hasn't since he does most of that around here.

These concepts are perhaps why some of the shopkeepers in Italy posted notices 'No Photos' in their windows.  I tried to honour those, but I didn't always see them before it was too late - honest!

The lighting and the resultant glare on the windows didn't always work for photography, but here are some (not all!) of the things that caught my - and Bill's eye.   [Click the picture if you want to enlarge.]


How much money do you think we may have saved -- not that we had all that to spend, mind -- by just taking photos?  Enough to be thinking about our next trip, at least!

7 comments:

Boywilli said...

At around number 20, if you got that far, are some trainers made by an English company called Walsh. These are specialist Fell Racing ( or Mountain Running in the USA) shoes . They have hard curved soles with rubber spikes. You cant walk in them, they are designed for off road running. You can buy here for around £50 (or €60/$75) were charging €172 in Venice as a fashion item. Even in a sale they wanted €80.
I bought nothing in Venice either

Jo said...

Do you think we will ever get back to the point that we "really" like the styles?

Rick Stone said...

We normally see the "no pictures" signs, sometimes along with no note taking, in craft stores in some of the places we visit, such as Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The idea is to discourage crafters from copying the item and then doing it themselves instead of buying the finished item. Interesting they would have a no pictures sign in a normal retail store.

Shelley said...

So this is how we could live in Venice, right? Start up a Walsh export system from Britain. When do we start?

Jo - I really do like a lot of these styles, I've just not got the lifestyle for wearing them to look appropriate. I will say that I think stiletto platforms are the silliest thing I've seen since the 70s.

Rick - That's because the stuff in retail stores is boring. I often make notes after I leave the crafty stores - not that I seem to ever get around to doing anything with them...

Pauline Wiles said...

"No photos"?? That's kinda mean. Especially with pics plastered all over the interwebs these days... looks like you had a great time looking, though!

Shelley said...

Struggler - I think it is rather 'mean' as well. Not sure what they feel they have to gain from it; or perhaps I don't understand what they are avoiding. Could be having tourists come in a take pictures of everything disrupts business; or, as Rick says, they don't want copycats?

BigLittleWolf said...

Love, love, love the shoes in the third photo. Couldn't see the prices (no doubt, just as well).