random truths – Day 1,040 (Saturday) – shopping scene

The new coffee maker is inspiring a series of necessary kitchen changes. The lone teal item seems odd and needs the company of other items to make it seem like it belongs in the space. The lower cost ideas are new kitchen towels, curtains for the window over the sink, and a couple small kitchen decor items. 

The day after the snow fell.

The original plan for the day was to stay home and do as close to nothing as possible, but after standing in the kitchen and looking around, the plan shifted. There was some online window shopping for café curtains and kitchen towels which yielded nothing. This was not promising. Depressing, actually. Maybe the color is currently out of style, because it sure is hard to find right now. 

This is where thrift shops often come in handy for variety. The stay home plan shifted to driving to Nashua, the closest city with any actual stores, including thrift shops that usually have housewares. The parking lot at Savers on Daniel Webster highway was mysteriously packed. Inside, the store was crowded. People ambled about with the same glassy-eyed zombie gaze often seen during the throes of Christmas shopping. They stood in the middle of the aisles as if completely unaware there were other people in the store. It was awful.

Worse than the shortage of available shopping carts and overabundance of zombies, there were no curtains, placemats, towels, or small kitchen items with the desired color. There was, however, a teal handknit Nordic pattern sweater for $2.99 so I had to buy it. Handknit items seem to be the only items with true thrift store pricing at Savers, probably because there are no brand labels to check on eBay for inflated asking prices. Most of the clothing I saw in Savers was priced higher than the same items brand new at Kohl’s and Target. It’s insane.

After Savers there was a stop at Goodwill. There were a few random plates and planters and coffee cups in close to the right color. In the “By the Pound” room there were lots of nice quilted table runners in all the wrong colors. I left Goodwill empty handed.

Coneflower in winter.

The shopping results were disappointing, but the trip out of the house wasn’t a total bust. Waze did a back roads route on the way home which was a blissful escape from the traffic and the scenery was beautiful. It was cloudy and cold and the trees were still coated in snow from the Thursday night-Friday weather event. I pulled over and paused to appreciate the view and get a few photos. In the yard, the winter garden featured coneflowers with blobs of snow perched upon the prickly remnants of the spent summer blooms. 

On the scorecard for the day, the shopping was a bust, but the winter scenery was great so overall, it was a pretty good day.