Shopping Differently, Pt. 2

Alright, so I think everyone has a pretty good feel for exactly what I'm trying to accomplish here. So let's jump right back in. (I've been busy this week.)

First stop was Walkabout Outfitters. While taking the pictures of the Haiku purse for our Extended Holiday Shopping Hours, I noticed these really cool pink "Life is good" golf balls. My youngest brother plays quite a bit and constantly complains about losing his ball. Solution? Bright pink ball. If he loses this, I'd quit.

Plus, you just don't find a whole lot of pink golf balls lying around. So, he's going to probably regret mentioning the golf thing to me. Oh well, I'm great with positive reinforcement.

Next stop was Ladles and Linens. If you haven't been there, it has pretty much every single cool kitchen gadget that you could ever imagine. But I digress. I went in to check out the wine stoppers, because my Dad had mentioned that he wanted a nice set for when he opens a bottle of wine and doesn't finish it. I couldn't really relate to his situation, but I'm a sharer.

After checking out the extensive wine accessories collection, I was wandering through the store and found this apron. My Mom is an art teacher at an elementary school, so aprons are pretty much her wardrobe. She loves them, and can never seem to get enough. She also loves the beach. (I may be making that part up. I'm not really sure, actually.) Either way, this seemed to be a great fit.

I know. It's kinda hard to tell from the bag, but it's an apron. I promise. Moving along.

Next stop was SumDat Farm Market. I knew they had a great collection of VA wines and beers, but figured the wine stopper may be a long shot. Go figure, they had it. And a very nice one, at that. So I went ahead and grabbed a pair for my Dad. After all, if anyone deserves to enjoy wine, it's him.

After I got these, I figured I hadn't gotten anything for my girlfriend on this trip. (A travesty, I know.) So I had to remedy the situation. Into chocolatepaper I went. Saw this great mug for loose tea. You dump loose tea into the mesh strainer, pour hot water over the tea, and let it sit for about 5 minutes. How cool is that? And to think, I went in there for chocolate. (Added bonus? She has been drinking tea a LOT lately, meaning I pay attention to things. Extra points for me. We'll tally the scoreboard later.)

So now I have this great "Tea brewing system" but zero loose tea. Enter Native Grace. If you haven't walked through the store, take a minute the next time you're Downtown. Everything in this place is fair trade, some is one-of-a-kind, but it's all cool. And they have loose tea. Lots of it. So I picked out a few that I thought sounded good. Wound up with a cool mixture of bags. One green tea, one white tea, and one black tea. And I thought coffee was the only thing that was good once you pour hot water over it. My mistake.

So now, I've pretty much covered what I thought I needed to get. Apparently, I was wrong. Next stop was Ladles and Linens. (Yes, again.) I figured I should get my Dad some wine accessories. This one just stuck out at me, so I made the snap decision to grab it. It's this wine aerator. It's supposed to make your wine "open up and show its true flavor". I may have gotten it because it appeared to be a good strainer, and I hate accidentally drinking the cork.

Now we're done, right? Nope. I like Downtown. And it's not fair to only stay on Market Street. So I'm off to One Block East Gallery to see what Ms. Debbi Stump has. I walked in and looked around for a bit, and then I stumbled across the retro/handmade/one-of-a-kind jewelry case. Yes. Another mistake on my part. And that's how this little guy became a part of the holiday for me.

It's just a really small frog lapel pin, but I thought it was too cool to leave there! And now, I need coffee. Freckles, away! This is another really cool outfit in Downtown. Coffee shop in the front, retro store in the back. It's great. As I'm walking around waiting for my coffee (which is made per order, not using an old pot that has been sitting there all day), I went into the retro store. Another mistake. I just keep doing this. Find something cool, think it over, put it back, and then get it in the end. It's a long, exhausting process. I didn't feel like going through it. So we now have these handmade, one-of-a-kind dinosaur earrings. And if she doesn't wear them? Not a problem. Again, it shows I listened to her. Because when she was a little kid, she played with dinosaurs, not Barbies. See? I'm telling you, this holiday season, I'm just lighting up the scoreboard.

Ok, that's about all that I could get done this week. We still have the Cirque du Soleil ticket giveaway going on every Thursday from 4pm to 9pm, and we've got two weeks of Extended Holiday Shopping Hours left! If you haven't started, still need some items, or are just looking for that one great gift, Downtown Roanoke has something for everyone! Come Downtown and Shop Differently!