Heavenly places

Our deck is my favorite place to be in the summer, and this year we have made some updates that make it feel even more heavenly \o/

After going through a few cheap canopies over the past several years (like the ones you would take camping that don't hold up in wind at all no matter how "heavy duty" the box says they are) we invested in a pergola which is nice and sturdy and adds just the right amount of shade.

When I found these colorful cushions I nearly hyperventilated I loved them so much.

This adorable tin suitcase was a Mother's Day gift from Vince this year, and it's PERFECT for planting some shade loving flowers - which is what he had in mind when he bought it for me.  He's so good!

My favorite flowering plant is a fuschia.  I have had several in past years and have sufficiently killed every single one.  They are quite temperamental, they don't like hot sun or wind, but I'm told that if you find a place that they like they will do well.  I decided to get a small $4 plant this time rather than the big $30 ones, just in case things don't work out.  It seems pretty happy so far, so I'm feeling hopeful!

The rest of my flowers are doing well so far, too.  Yes, I know it's early and there is still plenty of time for them to take a crap dive, but again I am hopeful that I will keep up with the watering and fertilizing this summer and they will all have a long, beautiful life on our deck.

We did something a little different with our herbs this year, and I think it turned out pretty cool!

And then there is my most favorite thing....can I tell you how much I love my fairy garden?!  No.  No I can not.  It's impossible to verbalize how much I love it.  It's cute and fun and makes me happy =)

I had intended to stay out on the deck a while longer and read this evening, but the gnats got the best of me.  They aren't as bad as mosquitoes, but still.  I'll have to settle for reading inside tonight.

I have started a new thing.  I have decided to read the bible all the way through, from Genesis to Revelation.  I have never done that before, it's always been too intimidating for me to think about, but recently my sister-in-law Donna finished reading her Joyce Meyer devotional bible all the way through and she has inspired me to do the same. I have a Max Lucado devotional bible, which I've had for many years but haven't used much.  I'm pretty attached to my NIV study bible and haven't really wanted to read any different ones.  But I like the idea of a devotional bible and I'm thinking it will help me understand and apply it to my life in a deeper way. I'm going to take my time, not rush through, but really pray my way through the entire Word of God.

That still just gets me sometimes.  When we hold a bible in our hands, we are holding the very words of God.  Intimately crafted to express exactly what the Creator of the universe wants us to know about Him. 

Wow.  

My hope and prayer is that through this process I will grow closer to God, trust Him more, see Him closer, hear His voice more clearly, and fall deeper in love with Him.  That is the prayer of my life...and it's a pretty heavenly place to be.

A great day for a road trip!

Today has been absolutely beautiful!  76 degrees is the perfect temperature for me.  I am not one who likes it blazing hot in the summer.  Today was the "100 Mile Garage Sale", which means there are a bazillion sales going on between Winona and Redwing along both sides of the river. It's an annual event and it's a big deal around these parts.  I'm not sure how long it has been going on, but for as long as I can remember caring about garage sales, so at least 20 years.  Vince and I had intended to make the whole loop - which I have never actually done in all the years I've lived in this area.

We started the day off having a yummy breakfast at Bonnie Rae's.  I was happy to see that they have flower baskets hanging on their porch already - first flowers I have seen this year and it makes me antsy to plant mine!

After breakfast we headed to Winona and started our 8 hour garage sale-ing, road tripping adventure.  We scored big for Vinny, who is looking for furniture and items for his new apartment (I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that).  We found a cute little table and chairs for his kitchen and a coffee table/end table set.  The sweet lady selling them had a hard time parting with them.  She told me the whole story about when she bought them, where they were in her house, and why she was selling them (her kids were making her).   I had to email her pictures of them to help her have closure about seeing them go.

I love people.

We found a couple things here and there.  I, of course, found a basket.  I can't really call a garage sale-ing excursion a success unless I come home with at least one basket.  And a Christmas thing.

We made it out of Winona and up river as far as Wabasha, where we spend most of the afternoon because they had so many cute shops in their downtown area!  We love Wabasha.  Here are some of the places we perused and will no doubt visit again.

This was an antique shop, I forgot the name, but they had a Christmas room and this sleigh was adorable.

I was giddy to find this little treasure in the corner of the Christmas room...a display of Dickens Village pieces by Dept. 56!  Most of the pieces I have not seen before, so I wonder if they are retired.  I ended up buying the little mistletoe cart and salesman, if you can see it on the top left corner.  If not, you'll just have to come over to my house at Christmas!

This huge, gorgeous thing is called a Butler's Pantry and it is stunning.  So is the price tag of $18,000!  The store owner said she has someone planning to buy it after they get done with their remodeling project.

In the lower level, we saw this vault, so we assumed that this building used to be a bank...but actually the owners told us it used to be a dry cleaners and the vault was climate controlled and used to store expensive furs.  Very cool.

And to round out our date day, we both brought our laptops to Caribou to have coffee while we waited to see Hope's "Grand March" for prom...

I'm usually here by myself, so this was a nice change of pace and everything I could have dreamed of in a coffee date.  Oh, except for the time when Vince moved his laptop screen and dumped my entire cup of coffee on me. Good times.