If the extent of your downtown Portland shopping is picking up your family’s pharmaceuticals at the drugstore nearest your office, duck into some of Portland’s most unique shops during your next long lunch. From Native American artifacts to Belgian linens to skull buttons from Germany, you’ll find great stuff from around the world without ever leaving the city.

The downtown stroll continues with an Ace of Place, a cigar & magazine lovers idea of heaven, Masters' Pieces, and Fresh + Sophisticated = MKID!

All the pretty dresses, treats for taste buds and some of that Amsterdam vibe that everybody loves. Also, places to stay fueled to keep up your energy level while cruising around downtown.

Daydreaming about exchanging your 3,000-square-foot Irvington Craftsman for a condo in a new South Waterfront tower? Been picking up fliers for houses with less than 1,000 square feet? Oregon Home talked with a designer, two real estate brokers, an estate sale organizer and a downsizer for tips to ease the move from living large to living small.

Look closely at Mel Stiles’ jewelry and you’ll see the traces of the architect she once was. “A lot of my designs are more contemporary, more modern and use bold color combinations,” she says. “I’m very interested in composition and form and the function of the material, which I think comes from working as an architect.”
Stiles, a Pennsylvania native, received a degree in architecture from Pennsylvania State University in 1996 and moved to Phoenix, Ariz., where she discovered jewelry-making. “I took my first class in silversmithing in 1998 and started making jewelry at home,” she says. 

Got your heart set on building the dinosaur-shaped headboard of your dreams for your bookworm of a boy’s bed? Feel like a hip mama because you’re letting your 4-year-old pick which of 34 colors she wants her spendy maple bedroom furniture to be stained in? Oregon Home asked design mavens for pointers for decorating a kid’s room with style.

The East Bank District - some 39 blocks on the east bank of the Willamette River - was hot in the 1900s as Portland's industrial center. Now it's a major draw for homeowners in search of a gritty, 'shop among the loading docks' day.