"Hey, Good Lookin'!"

Yesterday afternoon, I did something that I usually avoid like the plague....I went to the grand opening on opening day of a brand new store!  Grand openings are typically overrun with shoppers looking for bargains, sales, special deals, and that elusive PERFECT item (whatever it is!)  They are not always the most pleasant of people.   Sometimes just getting into the parking lot is a challenge and I will usually wait a week or two before feeling pretty sure all the craziness of the first few days is over!

But yesterday, after MtG's softball game (they lost, again!), Poppa was agreeable to taking MtG back to the house and playing some games with her, so Ratchlet and I decided to see how bad the crowds were at the new store and maybe just take a peek around.

So what store was it that made us brave the grand opening melee?  Well, I am glad to announce that Austin has it's very first Home Goods store!!  I had never heard of Home Goods until I started reading blogs that feature the decorating divas of blogland!  I kept catching reference to Home Goods when the bloggers stated the sources of the beautiful and fun home accessories!  And consistently when they discussed costs of such things, it became very clear that Home Goods items were amazingly priced.  Really low prices on all sorts of home things that were pretty, unusual, and very desirable!  I believe it is owned by T.J. Maxx and is a huge expansion of their home stuff.

So when I caught the grand opening announcement saying that one was being opened here in our town, I just couldn't wait to go.  OH. MY. GOD.  What a wonderful place!  We were only going to take a quick look and then come back another day for an in depth exploration.  HA!  May I just say that plan lasted about 5 seconds after we walked in.  I knew we were in trouble as soon as Ratchlet said, "Maybe we should get a cart?!!" 

We pretty much looked around the whole store, ooohing and aaaahing as we walked the aisles.   I could have spent a fortune (low prices are great but if you buy a lot of low-priced stuff, you still end up spending an enormous amount of money.) 

Before long our cart had a whole bunch of things, just like everyone else's did!  I think there will be a lot of decorating going on in Austin for the next few days, because it seemed like everyone in town was there....and they all had carts full of stuff.  Between the two of us, we had a fairly large number of things but I can't talk about them in detail because mostly  they were (whispering)......Christmas presents....shhh!) and the Big Guy has been known to read a post or two from time to time.  Because they are all a bunch of nosey Nellies, we told the family that we had just looked around and didn't buy anything.  I think they even believed it!  :D

Anyway, we had a thoroughly wonderful time.  Despite the crowd and the amount of things being bought the whole time we were there, we got some things that are just terrific, and the prices were every bit as reasonable as we had been told.  So I'm really glad Home Goods is here and I think I'm going to have to watch myself every time I go in.  I mean if I can spend a bunch amidst the crowds and chaos of opening day, can you imagine what I could do on a day when the rush was over???

"Hey, Good Lookin'!  You are definitely coming home with me!!!"