.Best Embrace of Furry Creatures

Mice aren’t typically a selling point for a store, but Castle in the Air isn’t a typical craft store. The Fourth Street staple stocks reams of embossed paper, rubber stamps, and ribbons that would make Rapunzel jealous. Nooks and crannies are filled to the brim with items such as bird stickers, gold leaf, and all the tools casual doodlers needs to elevate their calligraphy game from chicken scratch to scroll-worthy. And it doesn’t get less eclectic upstairs, where craft masters school locals on topics ranging from Edwardian steampunk brooches to pajaki (a decorative Polish hanging framework). As for those mice? Castle in the Air has made a name for itself with its intricate holiday windows, including last year’s feat, which involved a multistory display of 32 mice made out of fur coat scraps, arranged around a palace. We think we could live with the rodents, as long as they’re done as artfully and authentically as at Castle in the Air.