Robyn reports,

We once had an article in our newsletter about a tiny shop in Manly. It made the local Manly paper because Faye Morley was robbed. So, the local community held a ‘cash mob’ to come and spend up big in her little shop
Faye is 99.

I had tried twice unsuccessfully to go and visit. The first time I couldn’t find it as the address reads Park Lane Arcade off The Corso. This isn’t the case as I discovered on my second attempt, thanks to the girls in the library, that it is somewhere off Market Lane,  near Whistler St and Sydney Rd opposite the car park. So, I found The Park Lane Arcade (definitely no Park Lane) and a brown door, labelled 3. Many doors lined the art deco arcade and all had numbers, few had anything else. I didn’t think this could possibly be it…………..how small could the shop be?

Third time lucky, around 11am on a Thursday. Door was open. Wow, tiny, tiny, tiny. I had a look around ……………..you stand in one spot and turn your body; then I woke up Faye who was napping behind the counter. She was  such fun to talk to although she repeated things a bit .

…………..she’s owned the shop for 15 years; belonged to her daughter-in-law (I think); doesn’t even make enough to pay the rent, but just good to keep the money in Manly;

“just buy 10cm, no point buying more than you need; all the buttons are made in Australia; just buy however many you need -I don’t sell them in packets here……………”

I was hoping to find some treasures. I found  dust and some pretty ordinary haberdashery bits. I really needed some needles and thread but she was out of those at the moment.

I had taken some of our quilt show flyers to leave on the counter. She seemed quite excited by the idea “oh, my daughter is a quilter, she lives in Mt Wilson”. Anyway, not sure if the half a dozen flyers I left got buried under the stuff on the counter but hey, was a delight to meet her and a lovely step back in time.