Treasures on St. Claire

Instead of walking down Grand Avenue today, I decided to change things up and take St. Claire. There is much less retail on St Claire, but I did manage to find 2 fantastic treasures that I would like to share.

The first, strictly for it's irony, is the Health Food store (not sure if you can see the sign below). I must admit, I walked in to see all manner of organic vegetables, gluten free cookies, and other hard to find items. How wrong I was. While the store did have a fridge with eggs and organic bread, the entire rest of the store was full of vitamins, essential oils, protein powders, and other non-food type items.

The second was just across the street, called ArtScaps. I had no idea what to expect, but was met by a treasure trove of randomness. Where else can you possibly buy the little plastic things that hang on hangers at Target to indicate the size? Or picture frame corners in bulk? Or tiles you can break up and use for mosaic? 

And they had multiple aisles of bins full of this stuff! the idea is that artists can come buy stuff for super cheap to use in their art. 

They also host birthday parties. For $125 you can bring up to ten kids to spend 2 hours doing a craft together, with all supplies included. She told me all of the stuff they sold was donated, and would have ended up in landfills otherwise. I asked how one went about donating. Apparently they are only interested in large quantities, and I cannot bring my extra paper towel tube or other random things to donate. I think I may get much use out of this in the future, when E is old enough for crafts!