I spent most of my day today in a most unexpected way because I did not intend to visit a massive Home Depot-like store called Toom but as it turns out -- it was quite fun! Though I found something odd there that I'll detail below because perhaps a few locals can clue me in on my strange finding... Anyway! I've been to these super mega home stores in Germany before but was quite surprised by how similar things felt as I roamed aisles of plants in the garden center and gorgeous pots of all sizes -- I felt like I was back home in America. It was surreal really.

I like this pattern above because it looks almost like mosaic tile.

And good news for me is that I found some lovely gray pots for my mini olive topiary trees that sit in the windows. I will work on planting them later tonight since it's Easter weekend and I'm taking the next four days off since company is coming! Yay! In addition to gorgeous (and cheap!) pots, I came across wallpaper books and a few struck me as quite nice though the one that stood out the most was called Brigitte Home under the A.S. Creation Tapeten brand. The wallpaper book was pretty and fresh and so I wrote down the website hoping they'd have a few images online and they did. But only a few...

So now you can get a taste of how German wallpaper is often presented where I live. Everything here has been such a learning experience -- it's hard to describe unless you've lived outside of your country but it's odd to go from knowing so much about items for the home to suddenly knowing so little! It feels odd but also exciting to walk through mega stores and recognize very few (if any) brands. Many of the products are unknown to me -- there is so much to learn and until I'm fluent in German, translating words like Spackle, Putty and Glue Guns can be challenging and always comical. I sometimes feel overwhelmed by it all but I'm on new turf now so I view it as a great learning experience.

So now to tell you about my odd finding... As I mentioned already, I was in Toom shopping for plant pots and was quite surprised to see that they sold fish, bunnies, mice, outdoor fish for ponds, birds of all sorts, and craft supplies and even a bakery for fresh bread. They also had pools of big living clams (I have no clue why, really) and that is my "odd finding". It was fun to browse wallpaper, paint, grab a delicious piece of chocolate bread, check out some finches and see craft supplies and loads of how-to books that covered everything from how to make your own window decals to sewing table runners. They had lots of storage things and wall decals too. But clams? Big, live ones? With the fish and mice and birds? Can someone enlighten me? They don't strike me as pet-like. :)

(images: brigitte home)