Let’s Face It, There’s Always Something Else To Shop For, And It’s Target Time

Posted: May 14th, 2012 | Author: artintolife | Filed under: design, stuff to buy | Tags: design, fabric, home, mass market, shopping, target, trends

I don’t know about you, but I have a had to institute a moratorium on spending on spring clothing and accessories.  I have no reasonable excuse for buying anything else.  So, trying to steer clear of my favorite websites, I thought it was time to check out the Shops at Target.  Without question, my favorite is the Privet House shop (I’m not a dog owner, and after my dear friend was awoken on Mother’s Day by a poop covered dog who had been sick in his crate the night before and let out by a mischievous five year old, I have no interest in becoming one — so I have an aversion to the Polka Dog Bakery shop without even checking it out so it could be just lovely but I wouldn’t know).  The Webster shop is a little preppy for my taste, but there is some nice merchandise if you go for that kind of thing.

Not surprisingly, many of the Privet House items have sold out, but there are still some cute pieces left.  The dishes, napkins and glasses are very pretty.  Admittedly, at this point nice melamine dishes are a dime a dozen, except that they aren’t remotely a dime a dozen so the Target prices for these dishes makes them pretty hard to resist.  $15.99 for a set of four dinner plates isn’t half bad given that comparable French Bull melamine dishes, while beautiful, retail for  $11.00 each.  The bad news is out of four styles of printed melamine dinner plates, only one is still available online.  Truth be told, it’s my favorite of the four.

A matching set of napkins is also $15.99 for four.

Appetizer plates, bowls and some serving pieces will only set you back another $73.95.

The kitchen towels are only available in stores, but I love them, so they might be worth the trip.

My favorite of the placemats are sold out online.

Admittedly, they are über trendy, but that’s precisely the beauty of buying inexpensive well-designed items at Target — if you tire of them you’re not eating your heart out at having made an investment.  If you like the old sack cloth bag kind of style, there are still some really cute pillows available.

I’m leaning toward getting these for the window seat we just installed in my boys’ room (more on that tomorrow).  This fabric also makes cute tote bags and really nice wine bags … not a bad idea to stock up on those for parties and hostess gifts.

And the wooden storage boxes have a similar effect.

No one loves jumping on board with a trend more than I, but even I have to admit that getting too many pseudo sack cloth pieces would be a little much.  I would find your one thing and call it a day.  One other really cute theme in the Privet House collection is the chalkboard theme.  They may not be quite as nice as the similar items available at Williams Sonoma, but they’re nice enough.

Besides the pillows, the name cards might be that item that I’ll find myself having to buy.  Not that I’m a big fan of telling people where they have to sit when I host a large sit-down dinner party — which almost never happens, in fact, I’m tempted to say that I have never hosted such a party — but you never know when the mood will strike and they look like they’d be awfully handy.  In fact, I feel a party coming on ….

A side note – while checking out the chalkboard themed items at Williams Sonoma, I couldn’t help but notice these little labels.  They’re great, right?  I might have to stock up on these.  You never know when the urge to start canning jelly might come over you.

---