Minnesota Trip!!!!

Last weekend I packed up and drove to White Bear Lake to visit my friend Lynne.  She is the Queen of thrift stores and resale shops!!  We visited numerous shops and found a few good things, I did find 2 pair of my fave Not Your Daughters Jeans, white and black.  They were a find at a Goodwill.  We hit all sorts of shops.  Encore and Elite Repeat are two of the nicest shops they are off Grand Ave. in St Paul, they have really great high end clothing and accessories, etc.  Then on Grand Ave we hit a few boutiques with really exciting fashions.  One was a gal who designs and makes her own line, Susan something????  Very interesting lots of synthetics and different combos of color and fabric, nothing I would jump up and down about.  However, I was really pleased to see she can pay for this upscale location, hire sewers and make it work, gives one pause in our life of Made In China!!!  So hooray for her!!!!

We also went to an Italian deli and restaurant that was fabulous. Cosetta Italian Market-Pizzeria. It was in downtown St. Paul.  Very fun to see all the sausages, salads, cheeses, olive oil and all the people, had to be GREAT!!!!  We ate at a bar across the street that was ok but we all know where I wanted to be!!!!

Saturday night we went to a new bar in White Bear Lake on the lake, as in the pics, Admiral D, they are new and not much for seating inside, focus is on the outdoor patio bar, small menu but very good burgers and fun place!!!  I can see summer on this deck with music would be the hoppin' spot!!!  That is my friend Lynne sitting in front of the Lake.  This year all the lakes are down considerably but the St. Croix river is WAY up so not sure how that works.  I also noticed on my drive the Black River is way down too, never seen it this low. 

On Saturday we went to a house in a suburb that has the cutest building, barn something in the back yard in a neighborhood and it was full of crafts and art from over 150 artists, actually the hole backyard was full of cute stuff.  I mean they had yard art, aprons, books, cards, purses made out of bras, knits, clothing, handbags, wovens, kids stuff, food, jewelry, they did not miss a trick.  One could spend hours in there.  What really surprised me is that this operation is going on in a neighborhood, people everywhere.  It was so fun to see all this fun art work!!!!  The pic of the arbor is at this place.  Then the place is open in April and May and closed till the end of Sept. and open thru Christmas and it's been in operation 31 years!!!!  Called Chickadee, very neat idea.  Seemed the artists were working shifts which makes perfect sense.

Then on Sunday before I left we had a wonderful brunch and headed to S. R. Harris fabrics where there is 38,000 square feet of fabric darn near floor to ceiling, it's really overwhelming but fun for people like me!!!  Got some fabric and things I needed, gad with all the stash I have I have no business in places like that!!!

Well the weather is finally warming up and Dave's going on the gardens and yard, lookin' good around here!!!

                                   Happy Spring Sewing!!!