Love Shines in Williamsburg
Although I made a brief mention of the store Love Shines in the blog about a year ago, I don't think I've properly proselytized its fabulousness. On a Williamsburg shopping excursion this weekend, I was reminded of how cool the shop and its owner are. This one-of-a-kind, all things Latin American tchotchke shop feels like a well curated outdoor bazaar on an Ecuadorian mountaintop. It would be hard to catalog its complete contents, but highlights are notebooks with shiny virgin marys, tote bags with odd terrestrial designs, intricately decorated milagros, finger puppets, cards, jewelry, the list goes on. And it seems that something in the store is always on sale. Over the weekend I bought a pair of locally made earrings at 40 percent off. Everything else--two terra cotta coasters, a card, and a zebra finger puppet was 20 percent off.
Love Shines (which does not have a strong internet presence) is at 249 Grand Street. Phone is (718) 302-2913.
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awesome - thanks for reminding me about this! I was a big fan of this store when it was in the E. Village. I had the coolest plastic backpack for my first trip to Europe from there!
The owner is so friendly and sweet! We had a 10 year anniversary picnic a couple years ago... we gave everyone small milagros that we bought at Love Shines. We told him what they were for, and he secretly slipped an anniversary card written to us & a heart milagro into our bag. We didn't notice until we got home.
I am Alex from Love Shine 718 in Williamsburg and I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for
everything.
The best thing this store has is my people/customers
love
alex
I love Alex!!! Besides having worked with him as a designer I have about 5 of his bags and one christmas I gave all my female family members bags from the store. He has a beautiful spirit and his products are very beautiful.
there is a funny site called diehipster.com lol
I went to what was formerly love shine 718 to do all of my christmas shopping this year - it's now called FUEGO 718. Alex has so many new amazing items in the store, I was mesmorized and spent over an hour in the little shop. So many beautiful handcrafted items from around the world and locally - it was hard not buying everything for myself. Alex took the time to do some creative colorful wrapping on every gift finished with a mexican paper rose - it really made every recipient of a gift smile. This is a store with a great community feel, cultural crafts, integrity and pizazze! I hope it stays around for a long time - it's a special place.