Today's Adventures
Nov. 30th, 2024 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithWe went out for Small Business Saturday. Today was the First Snow too -- just enough to drift through the air and dust the ground with frosting. <3 A perfect accompaniment to the start of the holiday shopping season.
We started in Arcola with lunch at Vita's. Then we wanted to check a couple of favorite Mexican places, but they were both closed. :( So we poked around town a bit, and hit the jackpot. :D
I spotted a new place called The Hippie Chick Thrifts, on Main in Arcola, run by Pat McLane. It's a little brick shop filled with ... stuff. Crochet afghans, tie-dyed T-shirts, fairy lights, cookie jars, holiday ornaments, rugs, herbal soaps, a few books, knickknacks, several cases of DVDs, and so on. My partner Doug quickly gravitated to the DVDs. Armed with a large shopping bag, we began to assemble our haul. And then I spotted the day's treasure: a boxed set of Kiss Pez dispensers, alongside a boxed set of Kiss character glasses. These are two things he collects, and never before have we found matched, complete boxed sets of both together. So he grabbed those too. \o/ We definitely want to go back there. It's a great addition to our circuit of stores that we visit in that area.
After that, we headed down to Mattoon. We started at Akasha Zamora. I am vexed to have missed the string art that our favorite artist had put up and sold already, but I am glad that it is selling, as this means she will likely make more. I did pick up one of her mandala magnets and a lasercut goddess piece, while my partner Doug got a miniature Tarot deck.
He spotted a furniture store having a closeout sale. We didn't buy anything there, but they had some interesting stuff. One was a huge, almost square, very fuzzy piece of cuddle furniture that was sort of like a couch that several people could lie on together. Another was a round couch, the kind a large cat-person could curl up on. It's nice to see an occasional piece of nonhuman furniture.
Sound Source Music was another where we didn't buy anything, but did gain some useful information. There's an adapter for MIDI/USB that seems promising.
We also dropped by The War Zone game store. I was intrigued by a board game called Before There Were Stars. It's a storytelling game where you create constellations by rolling dice. I really like the phase mechanics here: the creation of the world, the origins of civilization, the rise of a great hero, and the end of days. I doubt we have the right combination of people to play this kind of game, though.
There's a pocket park in the downtown area that has slowly been growing more complex. They put up holiday lights, so I stopped to take pictures of those. I found that the parklet now includes a winding path with several bridges over a water feature that includes multiple waterfalls and a stream running around the whole park, currently drained for winter. I want to go back in spring and see it running. There were benches and flowerbeds, with some very persistent purple asters still blooming under the dusting of snow, and a drinking fountain. <3 A little slice of Terramagne. Now imagine having parklets this nice, every few blocks, all over.
We wanted to kill some time, and it wasn't dark yet, so Doug suggested that we check out the new strip mall. Of the several stores open, we only got to Five Below. This is a bargain store, and it's really meant for foragers, because there is a lot of junk with a few really good finds scattered throughout. We found several packs of incense, a survival book, and some hazelnut candy that I hadn't seen in years. \o/
Then we went to Home Depot, since I've been looking for some sort of tool belt to hold a few garden tools. Again, the offerings were either poorly designed, or just way too big and heavy for my needs. :/ But I did find a Christmas cactus that is just beginning to bloom. :D
For supper, we stopped at Honeybee Cafe. Doug got biscuits and gravy. I got a turkey melt. This consisted not of lunchmeat but large slabs of flesh hacked off a dead bird and glued together with copious amounts of Swiss cheese, on rye bread. It was really good. It was also twice what I could eat, so we brought home leftovers. We had wanted dessert but both of us were way too stuffed. Happily, they do takeout, so we bought a slice of carrot cake to share later.
EDIT 11/30/24 -- The carrot cake was really good. It has visible shreds of carrot, golden raisins, rich spices, and a nice cream cheese icing.
It has been a delightful day full of great finds. :D
We started in Arcola with lunch at Vita's. Then we wanted to check a couple of favorite Mexican places, but they were both closed. :( So we poked around town a bit, and hit the jackpot. :D
I spotted a new place called The Hippie Chick Thrifts, on Main in Arcola, run by Pat McLane. It's a little brick shop filled with ... stuff. Crochet afghans, tie-dyed T-shirts, fairy lights, cookie jars, holiday ornaments, rugs, herbal soaps, a few books, knickknacks, several cases of DVDs, and so on. My partner Doug quickly gravitated to the DVDs. Armed with a large shopping bag, we began to assemble our haul. And then I spotted the day's treasure: a boxed set of Kiss Pez dispensers, alongside a boxed set of Kiss character glasses. These are two things he collects, and never before have we found matched, complete boxed sets of both together. So he grabbed those too. \o/ We definitely want to go back there. It's a great addition to our circuit of stores that we visit in that area.
After that, we headed down to Mattoon. We started at Akasha Zamora. I am vexed to have missed the string art that our favorite artist had put up and sold already, but I am glad that it is selling, as this means she will likely make more. I did pick up one of her mandala magnets and a lasercut goddess piece, while my partner Doug got a miniature Tarot deck.
He spotted a furniture store having a closeout sale. We didn't buy anything there, but they had some interesting stuff. One was a huge, almost square, very fuzzy piece of cuddle furniture that was sort of like a couch that several people could lie on together. Another was a round couch, the kind a large cat-person could curl up on. It's nice to see an occasional piece of nonhuman furniture.
Sound Source Music was another where we didn't buy anything, but did gain some useful information. There's an adapter for MIDI/USB that seems promising.
We also dropped by The War Zone game store. I was intrigued by a board game called Before There Were Stars. It's a storytelling game where you create constellations by rolling dice. I really like the phase mechanics here: the creation of the world, the origins of civilization, the rise of a great hero, and the end of days. I doubt we have the right combination of people to play this kind of game, though.
There's a pocket park in the downtown area that has slowly been growing more complex. They put up holiday lights, so I stopped to take pictures of those. I found that the parklet now includes a winding path with several bridges over a water feature that includes multiple waterfalls and a stream running around the whole park, currently drained for winter. I want to go back in spring and see it running. There were benches and flowerbeds, with some very persistent purple asters still blooming under the dusting of snow, and a drinking fountain. <3 A little slice of Terramagne. Now imagine having parklets this nice, every few blocks, all over.
We wanted to kill some time, and it wasn't dark yet, so Doug suggested that we check out the new strip mall. Of the several stores open, we only got to Five Below. This is a bargain store, and it's really meant for foragers, because there is a lot of junk with a few really good finds scattered throughout. We found several packs of incense, a survival book, and some hazelnut candy that I hadn't seen in years. \o/
Then we went to Home Depot, since I've been looking for some sort of tool belt to hold a few garden tools. Again, the offerings were either poorly designed, or just way too big and heavy for my needs. :/ But I did find a Christmas cactus that is just beginning to bloom. :D
For supper, we stopped at Honeybee Cafe. Doug got biscuits and gravy. I got a turkey melt. This consisted not of lunchmeat but large slabs of flesh hacked off a dead bird and glued together with copious amounts of Swiss cheese, on rye bread. It was really good. It was also twice what I could eat, so we brought home leftovers. We had wanted dessert but both of us were way too stuffed. Happily, they do takeout, so we bought a slice of carrot cake to share later.
EDIT 11/30/24 -- The carrot cake was really good. It has visible shreds of carrot, golden raisins, rich spices, and a nice cream cheese icing.
It has been a delightful day full of great finds. :D
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Date: 2024-12-01 04:51 am (UTC)Yes ...
Date: 2024-12-01 04:55 am (UTC)