I smell a bad breakup.  And I'm assuming that Lowe's is the jilted lover.  Let me back up for a minute ...

So I went to Lowe's with the Groovy Mom this morning.  We've got some great carpet options for her entirely renovated home from another store in town, but we wanted to make sure we'd done our due diligence and there wasn't anything better for a lower or comparable price.  While I was there, I was hoping to pick up some more spray paint (yes, it's a do-it-yourself story in the making) and a fan deck for the Martha Stewart by Valspar colors.  I've never specified any Martha colors, instead sticking with Benjamin Moore and Sherwin-Williams.  But Jenny (of the Little Green Notebook) seems to be a big fan of the Martha colors, especially when painting furniture, so I wanted to pick up a fan deck for reference.  I circled the paint section twice in search of the Martha display.  When I didn't spot it the second time, I asked the Lowe's employee behind the paint desk.  He said something to the effect of, "I think her colors are still in the system, but we've pulled down the display."  

So now, I was curious!  Thanks to the magic of the iPhone (I love you, Apple), I quickly learned that Martha has a new deal with Home Depot.  Per this article, Martha will be selling all sorts of goodies at Home Depot, ranging from outdoor sets to closet organizers to other general decor.  Now, this doesn't sound all that strange when you realize that Martha's deal with K-Mart (for her Martha Stewart Everyday line) expires in January 2010.  But what on earth does that mean for her deal with Lowe's, which exclusively carried her Martha Stewart by Valspar paints? 

I'm guessing it doesn't mean anything good ... at least not for Lowe's.  I couldn't find any information about when Martha's contract with Lowe's expires or more importantly, what will happen to her colors!  When you check Martha's own website, you still see a hyperlink at the bottom of the home page, in the "Shop" section, entitled "Martha Stewart Colors at Lowe's."  But when you click the link, you get a big fat nothing.  Same thing with the "Paint" section of her site.  It sure looks like everything's hunky dory until you try to click the "learn more" links, which also take you to a big fat nothing.  When you go to the Valspar at Lowe's website, and then search "signature colors by designer," Martha is nowhere to be found. 

I find this all verrrrrry interesting.  Martha is acting like everything is fine, while Lowe's is attempting to erase every indication that she ever existed in their stores.  Yet there's no press release or any information about what is going on.  Someone is maaaaaaad!  I can't wait to get the skinny on this ...  In the meantime, does anyone have a Martha Stewart fan deck for me???? 

Photo from DailyComedy.com.  Thanks to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for the title of today's post!