Watson’s Nursery at 6211 Pioneer Way E., Puyallup, WA 98371 is a soothing place and its it is easy to while away a couple of hours. I joined my friends for lunch at their Flower Pot restaurant and then two of us took advantage of their special ($9 for 4 fuchsia starts planted in our own pot)
Cappy’s Produce at 1232 72nd St E., Tacoma, WA 98404 has been around for three years, but I hadn’t shopped there until this week. In my pursuit of new places and a desire for more fruits and veggies in my family’s diet, Cappy’s became my goal. It was a great find! Plenty of produce at great prices. It had all of the staples, plus some unusual items. Everything I tried was above average. The cashier was helpful and seemed sincerely glad that I was there. And that’s a good thing since I plan to be back 🙂
Each year the YWCA has a benefit for their domestic violence prevention & intervention programs. This year it was at Larson’s Mercedes-Benz of Tacoma at 1701 Alexander Avenue in Fife. It was great.Their showroom was filled with more quality wearable art then I’ve ever seen in one place and it was an added bonus that it supports the YWCA’s excellent mission. I walked away with a lovely necklace and a pin for my friend. While I was there I checked out a new Mercedes-Benz (I can dream!).
What was funny is that when I came home I took the Fife exit onto I-5 and pulled in right behind my husband’s blue truck. Really, what are the chances?
 
     
Today we stopped at Hidden Treasures in The Old Trolley Building. The street address is 3902 South 12th. The store’s space was larger than I first expected and includes a lovely tea room. Hidden Treasures really is packed full of interesting items — glassware, decorative items, vintage clothes, books, etc. And the owner’s (I think it was the owner) two darling dogs were there to interact with potential buyers. I’m thinking about going back for the rooster! More about Hidden Treasure here http://www.oldtrolleybuilding.com/hidden-treasures/index.html
The building was constructed in 1890 as the Steilacoom Line Powerhouse for the Tacoma & Steilacoom streetcar line. By 1896 it was being used for railroad car storage and in1912 it was being used for commercial fuel and feed storage. In 1916 the railroad tracks were removed. In 1947 it was remodeled into the A-G Food Mart and Emmons Apartments. Other occupants have included a drugstore, meat market, salon, barbershop, paper products, hobby shop, furniture shop, lawn mower repair, sign maker, Radio & TV sales and repair, restaurant, carpet store and a preschool. More info about the building can be found here
http://www.oldtrolleybuilding.com/
Stadium Video at 29 North Tacoma Avenue, Tacoma, WA 98403-3124 is closing its doors. Today dear daughter and I went back to visit and pick up a couple of anime dvds. I remember a few years back I was stuck home for a couple of weeks during a quick recovery period and I sent my dear husband to Stadium Video every other day. They were the only ones who had the quirky, interesting movies that I needed and they always have such great recommendations! I will miss them when their gone.
An article on their closing is here http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/01/28/2003287/sad-news-for-tacoma-movie-buffs.html
Their Facebook page is here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Stadium-Video/63099191351
Their going out of business sale is going to continue for a while, so go check them out!
My friend took me and dear daughter to Toadilly Scappin’ at 6820 Kimball Dr., Ste 7, in Gig Harbor for a card making workshop. I was a tad worried about it since I am not especially good at things like this. But each of the five cards came in its own little baggie and there was a picture of how it should look and the great teacher was upbeat and great at guiding us through the steps, especially considering the students were at all different levels. Besides being pretty much useless at tying bows, I did alright. There are all kinds of wonderful papers and other scrap-booking supplies at the store and we walked away with less than we wanted and more than we planned
The Fulcrum Gallery at 1301 Martin Luther King Boulevard, Tacoma, is a small gallery featuring quality artists and this evening they had a reception for their new exhibit “Dawn of 2012”. There was a wide breath of different types of art. My dear daughter and I especially liked the lovely drawings by Meghan Mitchell and cloud floating houses of Gabriel Brow.
 
Photo taken later
What luck! The family decided to get out of the house today and each of us picked a place to go. Dear daughter wanted to go to Uwajimaya in the International District of Seattle. When we got there we learned that it is the Chinese New Year and they were having special events, such as a dragon parade. While we were there was grabbed lunch in the food court and picked up some groceries (pocky, drinks, fortune cookies). Uwajimaya is a wonderful store, which is full of treasures. It actually started in Tacoma, but when the US entered WWII the family was sent to Tule Lake Internment Camp in California. After the war, they felt more welcome in Seattle and settled themselves and their new store there. It was a loss for Tacoma! It is the largest Japanese grocery store in the Pacific Northwest.
 
 
I was sent to Harbor Freight Tools at 5401 6th Avenue  Tacoma, WA 98406 to purchase knee pads. They had really good prices, perhaps because of the sale, and some unusual products. Their website is http://www.harborfreight.com/
Washington State sells equipment that it no longer needs at their General Administration Surplus location at 7511 New Market Street, Tumwater, WA 98512. My dear husband thinks it is great fun to go there and buy stuff for pennies on the dollar (if we need it or not). Today we bought a couple of VGA cords for me and some speakers for him. In the past he’s come home with a nice, rolling desk chair for $15 that we’ve used a great deal. Mostly they stock office furniture and equipment, but they usually have a nice selection of knives taken from people flying in commercial planes. Last time I was there, they were selling large crab traps!
http://www.ga.wa.gov/surplus/index.html
