Apparel and accessories boutique Peridot moved to its new home 532 Queen Anne Ave and opened six days earlier than expected this weekend.

The new space, the former home of Underdawg Records, is larger than the boutique’s previous shop just one block away on 1st Ave W, allowing Peridot to expand its stock to include more clothing designers, jewelry and shoes.

Find out more about the shop and its offerings at the Peridot website. More details on what you can find at the new space here.

Just down the block from the new Peridot, the Lower Queen Anne Blockbuster closed its doors for good this weekend.

Blockbuster first announced it would be closing the Lower Queen Anne store back in February, a year and a half after shuttering the Upper Queen Anne store. The store shut its doors for the final time on Sunday, after selling the majority of stock on clearance. The shop’s shelves were pretty bare on Saturday, with a handful titles interspersed here and there throughout the empty isles. Everything that wasn’t sold before closing was moved to another store, according to a Blockbuster employee. Still no work on what, if anything, will go into this storefront.

Menswear store Oslo’s is the latest retailer on the hill to shut its doors, closing up shop quietly over this past weekend.

The store, located at 1519 Queen Anne Ave N, already had paper in the windows when I swung by this morning. On Sunday Oslo’s owners posted the following message on the store’s Facebook page:

OSLO’s A Men’s Store has closed. Your ongoing support and patronage enriched our lives over the past 5 years.

The owners also published this video, a montage of memories from the store and the neighborhood over the last five years, inviting a flood of responses from neighbors and patrons who are sad to see the retailer go.

“I’m particularly saddened by Oslo’s because it had *such* great clothes; the staff was 100% super; John was a great neighborhood supporter with charity fund-raisers, silent auction items for schools, and on and on,” patron Bryan Rutberg wrote in to Queen Anne View.

Oslo’s will be holding a liquidation sale this Saturday, March 5 and Sunday, March 6 beginning at 10 a.m. The store plans to sell everything, including its remaining inventory and fixtures and furniture from the store. Check the Oslo’s Facebook page for more information.

Abraxus Books at 524 1st Ave. N. in Lower Queen Anne is due to close. The bookstore opened at the current location in June of 2009, transferring from Ballard where they operated for seven years.

The store is holding a  50 percent off sale for all their used books.

Photo taken from Abraxus’s Facebook page.

Owner declined to comment about the closing and the closing date, but we will update you when we have more information.

Update 1/19 9:30 a.m.: After hearing the news yesterday we reached out to local literary rock star and Library Journal 2011 Librarian of the Year Nancy Pearl (who is a fan of Abraxus Books on Facebook) for comment. “The closure of any independent bookstore – new or used – is a sad event for the reading community,” she wrote to us this morning.

After nearly nine years running a neighborhood yarn and knit-centric craft shop, Queen Anne resident and Hilltop Yarn owner Jennifer Hill says the store will be hanging up its knitting needles for good at the end of the month.

Hilltop Yarn, located at 2225 Queen Anne Ave N. will be closing up shop Monday, March 29, and is offering sales on its stock from now until closing.

Hill said the decision was not taken lightly. It came after two years of serious consideration–after an electrical fire in their previous location in late 2008 almost burned the shop down and left the entire stock with smoke damage; after sales tax went up, again.

“It’s been coming for a number of years,” Hill said. “I think most small business owners would tell you they have pretty complicated relationships with their business. You’re constantly toying with the idea that tomorrow will be better. We’re pretty optimistic people, small business owners–we’re intrinsically optimistic.”

Like many small business owners, a couple unfortunate events alongside the economic downturn has made it hard to make ends meet. Hill hasn’t been able to take in income for nearly two years. Instead, she’s been looking for jobs.

“I’ve applied for a lot of jobs over the last year. My business really hasn’t paid me any significant amount of money since the fire, so I’ve been applying for the last two years and I’ve been turned down and turned down,” Hill said. “I heard a lot of ‘You’ve been your own boss for a long time. You don’t really want to come here and have me be your boss.’”

Until finally Nordstrom’s saw her years experience as a business owner as a plus and offered her a job. And though she’s sad to say goodbye to her own shop, Hill can’t hide the fact that she’s ecstatic to have a full time job.

“I’m fully employed. I’m thrilled!” she said. “Nordstrom’s was the first place that valued that I’d been my own boss. It’s a good fit.”

Hill, who has lived in Queen Anne since she was 12 and is very involved with the Upper Queen Anne Merchants Association, said she will be most sad to leave the league of neighborhood business owners that work to bring the community together through organizing programs like Holiday Magic and Halloween trick-or-treating.

“It’s been really exciting to work with all the other business owners on the Ave and make the community great,” she said. “That’s the one thing I’m so grateful to my business for–to be able to really make in impact in my own neighborhood. I’ll really miss that.”

And though Hilltop Yarn will no longer be open, Hill has no intention of letting all of the knitting fun born out of the shop go to waste. Over the years she has compiled a network of knitting lovers who frequently attend specialty classes offered at Hilltop or meet for weekly knitting groups.

“I have two amazing women who work for me who are teachers, and I’m meeting with one of them tomorrow morning to get their website set up so she can continue teaching classes,” Hill said, noting that someone suggested she sell her contact list, to which she responded, “These are my friends and neighbors and I’m not going to profit off of that.”

As for the two active knitting groups who meet at the shop on Wednesdays and Thursdays, Hill said she’s talked with Brent, the owner of Muse Coffee Co. on 10th Ave W. and Greg over at Eat Local, just kitty corner from Hilltop, about hosting the group after the shop closes.

As for what is to become of the building, Hill said she’s looking for new tenants.

“The building owner in my new space is probably one of the most positive people I’ve ever worked with–she’s wonderful!” she said. “I’d love to see some exciting entrepreneur jump in there and make great use of that space.”

In preparation for closing, everything at Hilltop is now 10 percent off, and Hill said the discounts will increase every week until the 29th.

“By the last week things will probably be 30, 40 even 50 percent off. So hopefully there will be some good deals to be had!”

The city is selling hundreds of old Seattle street signs that are being replaced due to damage or wear. And they’re going for bargain prices!

Streets on Queen Anne that are up for grabs include Denny Way, Dexter Ave. N., McGraw St., Mercer St. and Nickerson St., all of which are going for $5. There’s a long list of streets available. Check out the options here.

Street signs can be purchased at the City’s Surplus Warehouse, located at 3807 2nd Ave S. Some of the historical or novelty signs may also be posted on EBay, the city says, so go get yours quick. Contact the warehouse with questions or for information on how to purchase an old street sign at (206) 684-0827. (Thanks CentralDistrictNews.com for tracking this down!)