Catching Fireflies

We spotted it driving down 12 Mile, which is exactly how it’s designed to get you — a bright, whimsical storefront that makes you slow down whether or not you needed a gift. Catching Fireflies is a gift gallery in the truest sense: cards, candy, jewelry, kitchen and bar odds and ends, kids’ things, stationery, and a deep bench of work from Michigan artists.

The origin story is better than most. April and Steve McCrumb spent their college years selling handmade paper goods at art fairs, and in 1999 finally saved up to buy a piece from an artist they’d long admired at the Ann Arbor Art Fair. The fabric painting they chose was titled catching fireflies. On the drive home, Steve said it would make a great name for a gallery. A year later it was one — in an old Berkley pharmacy building, painted bright, with a pair of shop cats as the unofficial managers.

It’s grown to three Michigan locations since, but Berkley is the original. We only got the exterior on this pass. It’s on our list to go in properly — preferably with a few birthdays coming up.