First, B.L.T. yourself, and then continue on your S.E. Division St. trek to Old Portland Hardware & Architectural, Urban Flora, Langlitz Leathers, Tropical Salvage and Fleur de Lis.

From hand-designed furniture to TOHO seed beads and a stained-glass creation, continue your S.E. Division expedition in style with Ease, Beads at Dusti Creek, Longfellow's Books & Periodicals, Larry's Lighting Repair and David Schlicker Stained Glass Studio.

Feel like adding a little grit to your holiday shopping experience? Head for the anti-’burbs, inner Southeast Portland, and shop S.E. Division St. from S.E. 11th Ave. out to S.E. 50th Ave. There you can satiate your fancy whether that means ordering an Edwardian-styled handmade suit or scoring a vintage Czechoslovakian glass necklace. Wait. Is that a Red Tailed Boa on your list for your favorite boy? This main drag has that—and Bearded Dragons—too!

When dog portrait artist Brian Vegter was working as a film and television cameraman in New York City, a friend of his opened an upscale pooch boutique in 2003. “I wasn’t getting film work I liked, so I took up the paintbrush again to make some paintings of dogs for the walls,” he says. “That turned out to be the beginning of a new career.”

An unexpected trip to Oregon in 1992 changed the trajectory of mixed-media artist Vicki Grayland’s life. “I was on my way to Venezuela on an environmental vacation and then the organization canceled the trip because of the political situation there,” says. “I looked for something else to fill the slot and came to a tai chi retreat in Southwestern Washington, and in my version of the classic Oregon story, I saw how incredibly beautiful it was here and started planning to come back.”

While growing up in sunny San Diego, Calif., furnituremaker Lawrence Newman was frequently surrounded by wood, metal and tools. “My grandfather was a general contractor, so I spent a lot of time as a kid on his project sites,” he says. “I’d take things apart and try to get all the pieces back in order. Once I even took my grandfather’s chainsaw apart and put it back together, and it still worked.”

Until she was in her early 30s, stained-glass mosaic artist Tatiana Isotov had never considered a career in art. “I started doing mosaics when I shared a yard with someone who was making them,” says Isotov. “She taught me how, and then I kept on doing it by myself.”

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.