The Greenhouse

So last week I took my oldest. Lilly on an outing.  We fossil hunted at Point of Rocks park (above) and then decided to stop off at the Boulevard Greenhouse.  I was shocked to discover the extensive giftshop and super fun project ideas....The greenhouse truly was laid out beautifully and almost convinced me that perhaps a place like this does have a leg up on the Garden centers at Lowes & Home Depot.....it almost convinced me until I was witness to the scene that unfolded about 30 minutes into our visit.  There was a woman in the gift shop with who I assume was her granddaughter....about Lilly's age.  At one point she was pushing her granddaughter, who was perched atop a flower cart, around the very crowded....very breakable giftshop.  It crossed my mind that the cart could tip, injuring the child, but you tend to mind your own business and hope for the best....at least that was the angle I was working from ;)  The gift shop featured the cutest little decorative pieces anf girly girl boutique items I've seen in the Chester area thus far.  By far my favorite feature of the gift shop was it's truly extensive collection of exotic and quirky wines, all cram packed and displayed on the most delicately flimsy wooden wine racks.....all squashed into the tightest of locations...... crammed up tight in front of the cash register.........Well grandma and her little granddaughter direct their cart right into the wine area........anyone see what this is building up to?      Yep, Grandma clips the corner of the biggest of the delicately flimsy wooden wine racks and all the sudden the air is filled with the shattering sounds of glass bottle breakage and pungeantly aromatic smells of the most quirkiest and exotic bouquet of red wines ever!  A couple startled and clearly shocked store clerks rush over; a man with a mop and a larger, less than friendly woman.  Grandma makes her apologies and continues shopping?!?!?!  About 5 minutes in I happen to overhear the larger, less than friendly woman shout over to the man with the mop " Make sure you save the labels because those bottles are getting paid for!!!!!!!"  Holy moly!  Grandma immediately stops shopping and zooms over to proclaim that it was an accident and she didn't mean to do it.  Long story short....this exchange continued on for a good half hour....I of course had no more shopping to do, but was entertained just enough by the situation that I continued " shopping" just to see what would happen next ;)   Grandma apparently insulted both store clerks AND the teenager behind the cash register during the exchange, BUT paid for it all!!!!!!   I witnessed the teenager stomp out screaming that she didn't desrve to be spoken to "that way." I ended up leaving the greenhouse without making a purchase, but not before attempting to make one.  I commented to the larger lady that the wines broken smelled amazing and that I'd be interested in buying a bottle if she could tell me which kind it was.......You'd think after such a scene they would at least welcome a sale....UMMMM......not the case......Large lady responded with " There were multiple brands broken so I couldn't tell you." Ummm......so customer service is not on par with the inventory. 

Well, at least I got my drama fill in for the day.  NOW what I will compliment on was the indoor projects I found there to add to our summer projects list.......  FABULOUS.  Above is their "Fairy Garden" idea.  Now the McMinn's can't handle this full size version....but I think we CAN handle a Micro version of this ;)  they had the cutest "mini" plant selection priced around $1.99 for many of them!  MY FAVORITE project idea is the Terrarium project they had displayed in their TERRARIUM section!!!!!  I just need to acquire a very large glass jar with glass lid....TARGET should be able to help me in this area.....Walmart too ;)  The beautyy of the Terrarium......less watering!!!!!!!  It's a mini greenhouse!  The terrarium plants were also around $1.99 each!!! SO despite not purcahsing anything that day, we do plan to return for our summer projects ;)

Here's a picture of our finished Monster rocks drying......I'll admit, I painted the faces on ;)  The girls painted the base colors.  We used these at Auntie Chelle's Little Monster baby shower as table decor.