Shiny things

[cleolinda]

Another photo safari! And this one is LJ-only because I couldn't actually stop and tweet it at the time!

Christmas decorations at the Riverchase Galleria from Saturday. This is a bit out of my neighborhood--Brookwood Mall is more my territory, but it's the biggest mall, and I always like its decorations the best. Look more closely at the golden haze below the bells--it's strings of beads.

(I wanted to take a picture of the carousel. I also didn't want to look like a complete tourist, and people kept walking in front of me anyway.)


Meanwhile, my favorite store at the Galleria is this little place called Ambiance; it looks like a world traveler's garage sale, and they've always got some really great, dessert-y candle burning. I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted to, though, because I wasn't sure the owners would be okay with it. So these are sort of stealthy.

String art earrings. Notice the 3-D spirals midway down.

They have a lot of this Art Nouveau-style stuff. I actually got the box on the right, the girl with the huge sleeves, as a Christmas present a couple of years ago.

I love all the patchwork fabrics they have. Those are bars of soap stacked up in the upper right corner.

I wish I'd gotten a better picture of the fabric, or the beading on the other side, or just more of it. The duo-tone sheen of the color was beautiful.

Russian fairy tale/folk art boxes. I really liked the one in the middle.

Should have taken a picture from the front of the shelf, but: stealthy. That's a Egyptian-themed hand mirror on the far left.

"I figure if a girl wants to be a legend, she should go ahead and be one." - Calamity Jane.

East meets West.


So we were walking back to the escalator and came across... a store of nothing but calendars. It seems to me that perhaps this is not the most successful enterprise eleven months out of the  year, but who knows (this may be why I've never seen it before). And right when you walk in...

STOP STALKING MEEEEEE

This was actually one of four separate Twilight-themed displays in the store, by the way--this one was just to grab passersby in the main concourse. There were also a five-foot-tall cardboard... you know... shelfy thing... of calendars, a section for the board game, and a mostly-sold-out display where the Scene It! game had been. Those three were all visible from the cash register, because vampires are singlefangedly keeping the economy afloat at this point.

For all you Wizard of Oz fans. I don't know if the art is actually original advertising, or if it's new and just done in a vintage style.

One of these things... is not like the other.

(This picture was a bit difficult to get because a large man in sweats had begun following me around the store at this point. I'm fairly sure he was, because I was weaving around the displays in a fairly confusing, circuitous path--trying to double back and take pictures of things people had previously been standing in front of--and he was always somehow three feet behind me. This was the last thing I wanted him to catch me taking a picture of.)

ICE CREAM... OF THE FUTURE!

(Dippin' Dots. I've had it. It's... meh.)


And that was my Saturday, as opposed to my Sunday, which involved a brief photo safari at Lowe's--

@cleolinda http://twitpic.com/sfz2y - City of lights at Lowe's

@cleolinda http://twitpic.com/sfz7e - Heathers

@cleolinda http://twitpic.com/sfzhp - Orchids (aisle)

@cleolinda http://twitpic.com/sfzj6 - Orchid (1)

@cleolinda http://twitpic.com/sfzk8 - Orchids (2)

and the not-buying of a little 8" silver sparkle Christmas tree that I am kicking myself for not-spending four dollars on. Four dollars! And it would have been perfect! But I wasn't buying anything else, so I felt silly. Woe. We have, however, resolved the Shelfian Christmas Tree Dilemma in a manner that will be satisfactory to all, I trust. More on that later.


(Zomg e-book! The Annotated Movies in Fifteen Minutes: Wizards!)

Comments

[fragmentedsky.livejournal.com]

Woman, I respect you as a creative genius and all, but how you have just in any way described Dippin' Dots as "meh" is beyond me. If it was within my power, I would put you On Notice.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I only had them once? Maybe I didn't have the good flavor?

[ms-creant.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Wizard of Oz!

Also, Dippin' Dots always taste like freezer burn to me. =[

[pumblechook.livejournal.com]

THIS! And they're a bit like cotton candy-- they're nice in theory, but you never be able to seem to get enough in your mouth to feel like you're eating something substantial. Too melty.

[dragonsblog.livejournal.com]

I was in a mall last week with my mom and we passed a store with The Cardboard Sparklepire. My mom: "I'm so glad I don't have to worry about you falling in love with creepy vampires. Besides, look at his posture. Slouching!"

[fineprnt.livejournal.com]

Your mom sounds pretty dang fantastic.

[pearl-bubbles.livejournal.com]

I have the box on the Egyptian shelf, it pretty much rocks.

I also like that Dippin' Dots is the "ice cream of the future" and it's been around since like 1994 or something.

[mazarin221b.livejournal.com]

I remember begging for Dippin Dots when I went to Cape Canaveral and toured NASA when I was like 7, so that would be around 1983. And there it was called "Space Dots - Ice Cream of the Future!" (Note - NASA swears they have never, at any time, sent Dots to space.)

[eofs.livejournal.com]

If it's anything like here, the calendar shop/stand will only be seasonal. There's a company here called Calendar Club who do that every year here in the UK - every town of any sort of size will sprout one or more of their shops and stands. My home town has a population of 56,000 and there are usually two shops there. The city I'm in now has one stand in each shopping centre, and I think at least one inhabiting an empty shop unit.

They appear in November or so and leave very soon in the new year. It seems to work well enough for them.

[sevenmarie.livejournal.com]

yeah here too, theres always 1 or 2 empty store fronts and the calendar people take over after the halloween people leave. we also have an awesome christmas stuff store that has like 100000000000000 ornaments or somehting.

[nb2000.livejournal.com]

If the calendar store is anything like the one in the shopping center here then it probably only exists from around late November until early January. While I haven't seen it for myself apparently this year they're in a unit with a window either side of the door, one of which is ALL New Moon calendars.

[greyduck.livejournal.com]

The mall closest to my house (Lloyd Center, yay) sports a year-round calendar shop... of sorts. It doubles as a picture-puzzle and various-games-and-toys shop on the side, so I figure they make enough to keep afloat. (And Glimcher Properties or whoever runs Lloyd Center nowadays probably haven't the heart to raise the rents enough to chase out yet another retailer. Hmm.)

[poinsley.livejournal.com]

I always wonder when this "future" Dippin Dots has been promising will ever come.

[greedyskunk.livejournal.com]

It will come when we are all driving flying cars.

[fading-october.livejournal.com]

Oh man. Dippin Dots...I have such an unnatural hatred for them. My cousin promised me it was the best thing since the waffle cone with sprinkles and chocolate was invented >.>. At the time, they had just been introduced and were being sold in McDonalds. We walked two and a half hours in California 90 degree weather (at least there was no humidity) and finally got to that MickyDs. .....

and it just tasted like that? Regular, tiny ice cream?
screw those little icy balls.

[internal666.livejournal.com]

I would buy that Egyptian stuff for my aunt in a heartbeat, I'd get the hand mirror for myself.

[scornedsaint.livejournal.com]

We always have a calendar store in the mall this time of year. They set up in a recently abandoned store in early November and are gone by mid-January. It's like the changing of the seasons, but in a mall.

[annlarimer.livejournal.com]

Calendar stores are only open 2-3 months of the year. It'll be gone by mid-January.

[sapphires13.livejournal.com]

Dippin Dots was invented in my hometown :D We have the factory here, and a shop for it in the mall. I've never had it out of a machine, as there's no need for that here, but I wonder if it tastes crappier that way. The fresh stuff has always seemed pretty good to me, and the flavours are really interesting.

On a related note, I tried some generic knock-off of Dippin Dots that they had in the freezer at the grocery store. It tasted terrible. It was like eating little balls of meltable styrofoam.

[senshikittie.livejournal.com]

Oh hai, I see you are from my home state or are at least located there currently?

I had a friend who's Mom worked for Dippin Dots. She brought one of the "new" flavors (this was back in the day) for my Bday one year. We had more fun making fog with the dry ice than the weird yellow, green, and red flavored dots.

[ctina.livejournal.com]

I work in a mall, and picture-taking is Not Allowed and Punishable By (dun dun dun) Mall Banishment. Thusly, every time I see these mall picture posts, I worry that there's going to be some story regarding some crazed mall employee (who, quite honestly, probably would be me if you were in my mall) hunting you down and yelling at you. So I read with tense caution.
(Though, in my defense, I work in a lingerie store and most of our picture-takers are either teenagers trying to pose with the mannequins or with panties on their heads OR organized crime rings trying to photograph the merchandise to come back later and steal it.)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

...omg.

[rorqual.livejournal.com]

Oooh, your mall is so shiny and xmasy...I love the sudden proliferation of decorations this time of year (well, maybe not sudden....maybe I just need to get out more...) Thanks!

[lilgoala.livejournal.com]

I don't know, I've known some cheerleaders who reminded me a lot of shih tzus, and some shih tzus who reminded me a lot of cheerleaders.

[remys-haven.livejournal.com]

I'd like to know why the creepy fat man was following you.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah... I kind of don't want to know. Exactly.

[chorusgirl.livejournal.com]

I've been asked to stop taking pictures in stores. It was really funny, actually, I was with a friend and her child and we asked if we were allowed to photograph her child while in the store.

He stammered and said, "Umm..."


Also, pink dolphins: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/environment/2009/march/Pink-Albino-Dolphin-Attracts-International-Attention.html

[cesario.livejournal.com]

CLEO
CLEO
CLEO

I SAW THIS AT THE MALL TODAY, DID YOU KNOW ABOUT IT



back cover copy:

About three things you can be absolutely positive:

First, every girl longs to be loved with a vast and endless passion.

Second, there is a fiercely protective Immortal Hero who longs for your heart.

And third, He loves you with an unconditional and irrevocable love.

THERE IS A FIERCELY PROTECTIVE IMMORTAL HERO WHO LONGS FOR YOUR HEART AND HIS NAME IS JESUS.

[diddakoi.livejournal.com]

omg.

[dracoaccio.livejournal.com]

The Dr. Horrible calendar almost makes up for all those New Moon ones. ALMOST!

[diddakoi.livejournal.com]

I would LOVE that store... Want.

[aranel13.livejournal.com]

Rule of thumb in taking photos in stores is to ask if they mind and mention you wanted to post about your favorite stores in your blog.

Flattery. It's better than American Express.

[kaymbee.livejournal.com]

I was out shopping the other day and couldn't resist a bit of a photo safari. Now everyone can walk all over Bella: http://twitter.com/kaymbee/status/6388716375

Something for the Littlest Edward...

[leia1912.livejournal.com]

TLE with shirt issues! And, because God is in the tub, *sparkle motion*! And....THE LITTLEST JASPER!

Re: Something for the Littlest Edward...

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Sweet Jesus.

[chaos-slave.livejournal.com]

Have you been to World Market in Patton Creek?

If it wasn't for Ambiance and the Disney Store I would have no reason to go to the Galleria now that Sun Coast and all music/book stores have closed.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I can't remember if I have or not--I think so? Patton Creek's a bit out of the way for me.