A Perfect Day

Have you ever had one of those days that was just fun from beginning to end? Saturday was that way for me. Cait was home, Sis had the day off and I had been invited to a Junque sale held by some of our fellow bloggers. It was the perfect spring day for a drive through Texas, so we loaded Lyle into the Ipod and headed South to start our adventure! The sale was held at Rio Star Ranch just south of Austin and north of San Antonio. This area of Central Texas has beautiful rivers that are "tubing" hot spots in the summer. When we arrived, we drove down a lovely winding drive to see tents and displays and a barn full of stuff! Oh happy day.
Here's a picture for all of you plate addicts out there. Is your heart racing? The prices were unbelievable. Unfortunately, I had no idea what I was looking at. I confess that I lack the plate collecting gene. But this collection of blue was so pretty I just had to take a picture!
My loot! Eventually, I plan on cleaning out Cait's room and redoing it for our guests. I want to do the room in blues and creams and make it a restful, relaxing retreat. (Right now it has screaming purple walls!) I spied this quilt and thought it would be perfect. Cait saw the shear blue and white striped fabric and we thought it would make great pillow slips, or perhaps banding for white window panels. As we were looking around outside, Sis saw the white birdcages so I snatched those up too! You will never guess what I paid for all of this - drumroll please . . . $27.00! Can you believe it?
The best part of the sale was meeting some fellow bloggers! It's amazing how you can feel such a connection to people that you've only met in blogland. I first heard about this sale from Nancy at My Crafty Little Page. She and her posse, known far and wide as the "Valley Girls" rustled up some of their finds from estate sales, Craig's list, E-bay, etc and decided to clean house and have a huge sale. It was so exciting to meet some fellow bloggers in person. Darling Cait took this picture for us - in the front are Barbara from Rio Star Ranch and Nancy from My Crafty Little Page. In the back are Patty, Judy (Rio Star Ranch) Laverne (Riverside Studios) and moi! I apologize in advance if I mixed anyone up - I was so giddy, I forgot to write names down as Cait took the picture. You can visit Nancy at http://mycraftylittlepage.blogspot.com/; Barbara and Judy at http://www.riostarranch.blogspot.com/ and Laverne at http://www.riversidestudios.blogspot.com/ You might want to keep checking to see if they are going to have another sale - this one was a doozy!
Too soon, it was time to head down the road a piece. Gruene Market Days was being held this weekend, and I had always wanted to check it out. Gruene (pronounced "green") is a beautiful spot on the Guadalupe River. It has a strong German influence, and is full of wonderful inns, antique stores and great restaurants. Market Days is held on the third full weekend of each month, and has some beautiful and unique items for sale.


Just a very small portion of the vendor booths available for your shopping pleasure!
The Gruene Mansion Bed and Breakfast. Isn't she breathtaking?
We ended our time in Gruene with lunch at the Gruene River Grill. This is a beautiful restaurant with a section of windows overlooking the gorgeous Guadalupe River. We spied some brave souls tubing while we were there. The weather was beautiful and warm, but I bet that water was pretty darn cold! For more information on this lovely little town, visit
http://www.gruenetexas.com/ We had one more stop to make before going home. Let's head back north toward Austin and stop at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. My DH was participating in the weekend Artisan's Festival, so we thought we would stop in say hi. This center was founded by Lady Bird Johnson as a center for wildflower preservation and research, as well as to educate the public. It is an absolutely gorgeous facility. I'm going to share just a few pictures here because I'm saving some for Outdoor Wednesday!
This is one of many large plantings of bluebonnets. Lady Bird was instrumental in highway beautification, not just in her beloved Texas but for the whole country. The bluebonnet is the state flower of Texas and can be seen growing all along the highways and backroads. The display this year will probably be light due to our ongoing drought, but I have seen them springing up.
A small stream that runs through the facility. The sound is so soothing.
I don't know about you, but all that walking has tired me out. Let's sit on this beautiful bench under the coral honeysuckle and relax for a bit.
I hope you enjoyed this little tour of Central Texas. If you would like more information on the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, please visit their website at http://www.wildflower.org/