Weekend

Our weekend was low key and perfect.

We got up Saturday and went to the flea market at the fairgrounds. Now, I'm not usually one to frequent flea markets, yard sales, or anything of the like, but I actually requested we go to the flea market and was pretty excited about it. I've been inspired by some trash-to-treasure posts I've been reading recently and was looking for some materials.

It was ridiculously fun to look through all the flea market goodies. There are TONS of vendors at the Raleigh flea market, selling everything from antiques to books to brand new sunglasses and pet supplies. I got lots of inspiration from the antiques tables, and almost bought a few pieces, but wound up deciding against each of them. I definitely wished I had brought my camera -- a post about flea market oddities will have to wait 'til another time.

We DID walk away with two exciting purchases though (even though neither were what we had gone to the flea market for).

The first was a rain barrel. We've been thinking about buying a rain barrel for some time now and have been keeping our eye out for a good (and convenient) deal. We do a LOT of watering around here...lawn, garden, flowers...and our water bill this summer has definitely seen the effects. Hopefully our shiny new rain barrel will help us keep our yard quenched and our water bill low:


We just hooked up the barrel yesterday and after a day of rain today, it's completely overflowing. We can't wait to start watering and try 'er out.

Our second purchase was at the used book table. All hardback books were $1. That's right, ONE DOLLAR for nice, fairly recent hardback books. We bought five. Lee picked out a Tom Clancy book (that he may or may not ever read). I picked out the rest. I am not ashamed to say that my criteria for choosing books was whether or not the spine and cover were pretty (once the book jacket was removed) so that they'd look pretty on a bookshelf. I got:

1. The Bridges of Madison County

2. The Devil Wears Prada

3. The Lovely Bones

4. The Brethren by John Grisham

I haven't read any of these books except The Brethren (and you can never go wrong with adding a John Grisham to your collection, plus the blue and silver spine was pretty) so I'm excited to read each of them.

And the best part was getting to put my "From the Library Of" stamp from Chrissy to good use:

I like used books because they come with a story. When I took the book jacket off of The Bridges of Madison County, three cards fell out. One was a generic Get Well Soon card. One was a shower invitation with a dual purpose -- it included a handwritten message that said "We are praying for you daily - Suzin and Joe told us about your horrible accident!" The last card simply said "Denise and Family, My best wishes to everybody - I hope everything turns out alright." Being the nosy person that I am, this more than intrigued me. Wherever Denise and family are today, I hope they're doing okay.

As for the rest of the weekend, Chrissy and Mike came over on Saturday night. We went to Bass Lake Draft House in Holly Springs for dinner and drinks and then came back and hung out at our house. It was great to be able to catch up with them and enjoy a fun but relaxing night together.

Sunday was a lazy day. It consisted of sleeping in, furniture shopping (but not buying), naps, grocery shopping, and Chinese takeout for dinner. 

All-in-all, a great weekend!