To Whom it May Concern: I know I was a little late getting in to the office yesterday morning but I have a really good excuse. It’s called Georgetown.

The morning showed exceptional promise as I was getting ready to leave my house so I told myself, eh, take the long way. And I did, meandering down through Georgetown toward Airport Way. As I passed Fruit Cocktail Collectibles on 1210 S Bailey and noticed, at no later than 8:59 in the a.m., that they were open, my car just sort of steered itself over to the side of the road behind a smiley face-yellow pickup truck and put itself in park.

It was then that I decided on this new recurring series: Personal Shopper. I shop — in whatever neighborhood or enclave or city or town or municipality or township my car or the city bus steers me toward, and you check out the slideshow. Pretty simple.

Georgetown has a number of great vintage, junk, and antique stores, but the thing about Fruit Cocktail is that it’s got all these little stories inside it — little groupings of like-minded objects merchandised in such a way that you don’t feel like you’re shopping, you feel like you’re in the cottage of some nursery-rhyme grandmother. A very timeless nursery rhyme, a very stylish grandmother. And it’s airy, full of sunlight, and impeccably kept.

Those looking for a mod pillow grouping to spunk-up a blah living room couch, a cloche hat to complete a springtime look, or a gift for someone who values history, design, and timeless beauty had better make a point to stop by. (And by the way, come to find out: Fruit Cocktail’s owners do estate sales — hence, the early bird getting the worm and whatnot.)

My next stop was Abbondanza Statuary on First Ave S. At this time of year, it’s me against the weeds and I don’t know that garden statuary helps the cause but something attracts me to them nonetheless. I guess I feel like there’s a way of curating your own humorous, slightly absurd, but really homey sculpture garden, whether that means a tiny porcelain frog in the potted plant that sits in your condo window box or a figure of St. Francis near bushes that hummingbirds like to frequent.

At any rate, the fellow working the yard at Abbondanza told me that all the benches, bird baths, statues, and other pieces are made in Tukwila. They’re concrete, so at the nearby factory, the workers use molds and concrete stain to create a zillion or so designs to suit your fancy. All the better, of course, that this stuff is locally made.

Oh, and speaking of gardens and condo window boxes and growing your own food and stopping to watch the peonies open, please do check out this month’s Cornershop. It’s about all that stuff and more.