Back to School Shopping Weekend

Today is my last free day before fall term starts. :( With this in mind, I decided that this weekend needed to be back to school shopping weekend. In my case, this includes shopping for home-related stuff, because well, that's what I call fun. :)

I decided to take a trip down to Annapolis today, so that I could hit lucy and Crate and Barrel in the same trip (oh, and this amazing Italian deli that we randomly found about a year ago...they have amazing bread....). So after a visit to the deli to bond with a meatball sandwich, I went on my merry way around this outdoor "mall" (one of those mixed residential/commercial areas they keep building). Before I even made it to lucy, I fell in love, twice.

I remembered received an Arhaus catalog a few months ago, and I thought their stuff was pretty. Visiting the store in person took things to a whole new level. I honestly had to stop myself from drooling. The store even SMELLED welcoming. I realized that I either need to find that long lost rich uncle who can help me furnish my house, or I will need to make running around and finding cheaper copies a second job (err, third I guess, seeing as how school is my second "job"). I have found my style, and it is out of my budget. There wasn't much in the store that I wouldn't have purchased if the price was right.

My second discovery of the day was right next door. Great Gatherings apparently has two brick and mortar locations and sells merchandise online. (I just reread that sentence and wow, I've obviously been in b-school for way too long. If nothing else, I can now talk about retail quasi-intelligently.) At any rate, they evidently sell outdoor furniture in the summer and bar/game room furniture in the winter. This is where one would go to furnish the ultimate man cave, but the result would be a man cave that women could also enjoy. Their bar furniture is amazing, but again, I may need to spend a fair amount of effort finding copies. As an aside, I was feeling a bit of sensory overload, as evidenced by the fact that one of the salespeople actually stopped me and asked if this was my first visit.


Just to be sure that my two discoveries were as exciting as I first thought, I drove about a half mile to the nearest Crate and Barrel. I just don't know. I've always wanted to like their stuff, let's just say that. I like their kitchen and some of the decorative-type stuff, but in order to pay full price for their furniture, I feel like I should love it. I don't, so my two-year-old gift card (no, seriously!) is going to stay in my pocket a little while longer...