Walking on sunshine
March 28, 2007 at 9:57 The weather was so beautiful that when my son A asked me if I could get out and buy popsicle sticks for him to use in a school project, I was more than happy to make the trip The bus to the metro station was late, and I didn’t even care. Parked on a bench at the bus stop wearing my ivory leather jacket and my favorite shades, I tipped my head back to the sun and thought the bus could take its sweet time. No worries.
Once at the metro station, I decided to walk to Stockel instead of take the train. It’s less than a mile away, and the day is so perfect, I can’t get enough of it. Spotless pastel skies and temps around 60. Men walking their dogs, people washing their sidewalks, women pulling trollies to the market, students out of school, teenagers kissing—everyone seems to be in a good mood.
As I stroll into Stockel’s center, I decide to step into Casa, a shop that’s full of housewares and decorative and seasonal items. The whole store pulses with tropical colors. I wander past the potpourri and candle section and inhale deeply on my way to look at dishes and serving pieces. I like the orange, turquoise, and lime green bowls, and the blue, yellow and white striped serving pieces. I pick up two teabag caddies thinking they’d be an inexpensive way to add a shot of bright color to my kitchen but even though they cost less than a euro each, I decide to leave them behind. Because I always see dishes and pottery that I LIKE, I save my purchases and scant storage space only for dishes and pottery that I LOVE or need.
Sometimes Casa has craft items. A bought E-Grrrl watercolor paints and brushes there for her birthday last fall. Today, though, there aren’t any art supplies and no popsicle sticks. I hit the street and cross to the main square. The Tuesday market is going on and I can smell frites. I opt not to wander through the booths because I’m eager to get to Creatine.
I never realized how much Americans are into crafts until I came here and discovered Belgians have very little interest in them. It’s difficult to find craft supplies anywhere. There are no big box stores devoted to arts, crafts, knitting, and sewing. The big discount stores don’t carry art supplies beyond what a child needs for school. Stationery and office supply stores like Club often have basic scrapbooks and fancy paper but not much else. Creatine, a chain in Belgium, is the only craft store I’ve found.
Even though it’s a chain, it isn’t a big shop and it’s not slickly merchandised. It’s cozy in a rustic way. It reminds me of the antique stores in Virginia, places where you had to look hard and concentrate to see everything. Tucked away on a side street, Creatine has a narrow store front and is about the same size as a U.S. convenience store but it’s stuffed full. It doesn’t have a lot of anything, it has a little bit of everything.
I always check out their rubber stamps and inks. They carry a selection from Hero Arts, and once in a while I find some that appeal to me. Today they have a stamp set featuring whimsical cats. They’ve been stocking it for a few months, and I’ve been resisting it but today I just can’t say no. On Saturday I’m getting together with the Stamp Grrrls and it will be fun to have a new set to experiment with.
I wander through the small assortment of kid crafts, admire all the painting stuff, covet the Farber and Cassel colored pencils, and then head into the felt, pipe cleaners, and pom-pom world. No popsicle sticks so far. I go past the mosaic supplies and ceramic paints, ignore the beads, and visit the balsa wood section. Surely this is where the popsicle sticks will be, but I don’t see any. There are dowels, stakes, boxes, and other wood products, but no popsicle sticks. Shoot. I look through it all again to make sure. I think about buying a bunch of stakes and seeing if A can use those instead. He has to make a diorama over spring break.
I continue exploring the store. I resist the fancy scrapbook paper (though I check it out), examine all the paper punches and stencils (but don’t buy any), tell myself I have plenty of brads at home, and look at all the varieties of glitter glue but acknowledge it's not my thing. I notice they have a new Sizzix pad which has a variety of brightly colored papers to use in scrapping and card making. I pick that up. I’m ready to check out and decide to go back and get the stakes.
Just as I’m reaching for them, I notice that in a bucket on the floor just behind me are popsicle sticks. Yes! They cost more than two euros per packet of 100. I need 500. Sheesh. Spending the equivalent of $12.50 on popsicle sticks is hard to swallow, but I’m happy to have found them at all.
Before I leave Stockel, I slip into the pet store and buy Petey his favorite wet food and a replacement for his favorite toy which has been torn to pieces by his enthusiasm. With bags in hand, I head toward home, happy, happy, happy under the blue, blue skies.
March 28, 2007
Copyright 2007 Veronica McCabe Deschambault and V-Grrrl in the Middle. All rights reserved.
Reader Comments (11)
And yay for Stockel - we live there.
Thanks for the tip! I'll have to check that out.
I love Stockel--such a lovely centrum and a nice variety of shops. I visit often.
:)
And I truly think that women are more profoundly affected by the weather than men. I almost never hear men being wistful or all that appreciative about the weather, unless it's to express how much yardwork or golf they were able to get in.