Saturday May 9, 2026

Today my local community hosted what we call Back Alley Market. This is a really cool and fun event that has grown over time. When it originally started it was once a year. Eventually it grew popular enough that it was twice a year and now currently we have it 4 times a year. It’s been really fun to see it grow. Per their website, it originated in 2019 as a way to encourage people to come to our downtown and discover local businesses. It is amazing all the fun and eclectic things that you can find. The have things from vintage items, to plants, to 3D printed items, to specialty food and handmade art. I am always amazed at the things and artists I find there. I found 3 new artists that I think I am obsessed with and purchased from another artist that gets me every time. (I have multiple works of art from this artist, have spoken with them numerous times over at least a year and just discovered a pretty significant detail. He’s visually impaired. I promise you, it does not impact his art. He is amazing and super nice.) I also purchased “body puddin’”. I have notoriously dry and sensitive skin pretty much at all times. I mostly ignore it in the summer but during the winter if I ignore it, I will crack open and bleed and often times do even when I try to treat it. They enticed you over with free samples. I was pretty good at ignoring them the first two times I walked past. After the third time, I was ready to be swayed. This stuff was amazing. It was so soft and glided on my skin and you really didn’t need to use a ton. I caved and bought some. The person said they have been making hair and skin care items for 4 generations. I also met this beautiful woman, whose name I was not smart enough to get, who had a very simple booth with a sign that said Join “The Village of Gems”. I talked to her for a little while to see about this village of gems because that sounds amazing. She was/is going through a journey of self-healing after the death of her mother. In this process she realized that we cannot heal ourselves alone and that it takes a village. She is working to build her own community for self-healing and has also created a journal to help you with your journey. I am still working on going through her website to see if it is a good fit for me, but I do believe this is such a beautiful idea.

Today I discovered…

Along with finding all of these cool vendors and artists, they have local musicians as well and you get to run into and talk to different people from your community. Also, apparently it was take your pet to work day. I joke, this wasn’t a thing, but several people did bring their pets along to visit the market. There were the normal dogs, both big and little, both old and young. There were also some different types of pets out to enjoy the day that were a little bit more unexpected. I got a pet an albino python, there was another person with a lizard, but I didn’t get a chance to see that one and there was another person walking around with their chicken on their shoulders. It turns out it takes all kinds to build a community and I’ll be honest; I’m always up for a community that is a little bit different from the “norm”.

So today I discovered: HBee Art, AJ Evon, Robin Marie Studio, Angel E. Perez, Tendaji Body Oils and The Village of Gems

I encourage you to check them out and maybe make some discoveries of your own.

XOXO,

Hyperfixing Cate