My apologies for missing last Sunday’s blog post, but we were in DC to celebrate my mother-in-law’s/Princess’/my birthday that weekend, and Princess and I were sick on top of all that. Yes, we had a lot of fun on that trip 😉
But now we’re all home and I’m content to sit on the couch and contemplate what’s currently going on in my life. And what’s currently going on is my budding new love affair…
With my local hardware store.
You have no idea how giddy and excited I am right now. Yesterday, after taking the kids to swim class, I headed to the post office to mail a couple packages. Post office was closed, unfortunately, but rather than declare the trip a bust, I decided to visit the nearby hardware store. It’s a Taylor’s DIY store, far smaller than Lowe’s or HQ, and I wasn’t expecting much from it, but when I pulled into the parking lot, I felt the first blush of attraction.
You see, the girls and I just planted seeds last week, in preparation to start this year’s container garden, and I’d been thinking about buying compost instead of potting soil, but wasn’t sure where I could easily get some. Well, there in the parking lot of Taylor’s was several bags of the stuff, along with bags of peat moss and vermiculite and other garden goodies. “Yes!” I thought. “Here’s a place where I can get exactly what I need for this year’s herbs and veggies, and maybe this time we’ll have a shot at harvesting more than two tiny shriveled tomatoes!”
Then I walked inside the store, and that was when I really fell in love. The place was clean and well lit, and I could clearly see the signs for where everything was. This place was not a massive, monumental maze of confusion like Lowe’s or HQ. It was small, tidy, and well organized. And it had staff! Helpful friendly staff! The girls and I weren’t even in the store two minutes before someone asked if they could help up find anything. And as soon as someone noticed I was in the store with a couple of antsy kids, a clerk headed over to the old-fashioned popcorn cart and started heating up a batch of fresh popcorn! I got to spend 45 minutes wandering through the entire store while the girls happily munched on popcorn!! There was no whining, no fussing, no arguing; just the quite munch-munch of two little girls happily devouring large bags of free popcorn!
And if that wasn’t enough to seal the deal on my undying love, Taylor’s had a very nice selection of stuff I actually would use, like heirloom vegetable seeds and bird feeders and gardening tools and pots. Lots of nice pots at very reasonable prices for my small container garden. I drooled my way through the store, smiling happily at the clerks who showed up every ten minutes to ask if I needed help or more popcorn. I left with a bag of dried corn cobs and a squirrel feeder to put them in, but I made plans to come back soon, very soon, with a long list of must-have items for my garden.
It’s crazy, I know. I’m hopeless as a gardener, and an even worse do-it-yourselfer, but being in that store with all those helpful friendly clerks and actually being able to find stuff made me feel like I could do anything! Or at least made me feel like I could tackle a few simple home projects this Spring and Summer and come out with half-decent results.
Where is this crazy new love affair headed, you ask? What will the results be? Here are the results I’m hoping for:
- A bigger, nicer container garden that produces plenty of herbs and even a few heirloom veggies!
- Pixie’s clunky old cargo box bed disassembled, sanded down, and painted a lovely shade of girly pink with little blue flowers and dragonflies on it.
- A small bookcase to fit in my master bathroom, so I finally have someplace nice to store all those books and magazines I like to read while I’m in the tub.
- Maybe even re-finish a few pieces of the old cargo box furniture in our living room to give the whole room a new look!
And so on and so on. I’ve got a list of home improvement and redecorating projects as long as my arm, and I’m just dying to get to work on them. Now that I’ve discovered my local hardware store, I think I might actually have a shot. Though to be really successful, I may need to expand this relationship. You know, make it a threesome? I hear there’s a very attractive fabric store in our area…
