Annual States Shopping Trip

So it's that time of year (now your all thinking, ok... what time of year?) the time of year that has not previously existed for me. The annual shopping trip to the States! This of course us girls (Erin, Renee, Christie and I) have been waiting for, for months. Waiting patiently as the date was picked and the places we were to visit were planned.
We started our trip at 5:30 in the morning (though we were supposed to leave earlier, but give us a break, we are girls) heading off towards the boarder. What is really interesting traveling with Mr. Deelstra is how much he knows about the Detroit area. We were continuously in wonder at the different areas, from the decaying abandoned buildings enveloped in graffiti to the down town with the various different business buildings near the river. Our first official stop was the Eastern Market in downtown Detroit. This market was filled with fresh fruits, tons of mums and other such flowers and even some gluten free treats to try.

First look at the meet market.

Very interesting murals along the sides of much of the buildings,
once again a reminder that we were in the states where there is such and
abundance of advertising.

Eggplant, eggplant and more eggplant.

Such a rich color.

Lots of mums in the market for fall.

Baby's breath.

Rainbow Roses. Interesting fact: I couldn't help but ask the childish question of how the
roses are dyed to be such a variety of beautiful colors. I was surprised to hear that the answer
 wasn't simply something along the lines of, we just dye the water different colors at different times.
Roses are different than most flowers in the way that they actually have veins
 (the guy said like a human in order to create an easier understanding). Unlike most flowers where
you would dye the water a certain color, the rose is actually dyed by way of injection of color
 into the vein. They inject three different colors into three different veins in order to create the
 variety or rainbow of color in the bloom.

This was a group of buildings very close to the market. There some people still setting up shop while we were heading over for breakfast. I actually ended up buying a burlap sack for a dollar. I have no idea what I am going to do with it yet, but I figure right when I find a really neat craft that requires burlap, I won't be able to find one. Behind the large white truck is a sports bar style restaurant named Vivios, where we stopped for breakfast. 

Our bouquet of rainbow roses for Grandma Deelstra's birthday.

The decayed part of town that we explored in our car.
 Crumbling architecture is so interesting, graffiti and all.

After our exploration of downtown was complete (guided tour provided by Mr. Deelstra) we continued on to Great lakes crossing, the largest outlet mall in Michigan. We shopped until we basically dropped (by basically dropped i mean we got there at 10 a.m and we stayed till 8 p.m.). We found a great many deals, even some deals we weren't really supposed to have. Areopostle had some really cheap tops and such things, and in an effort to save ourselves some mula, we combined our forces and added our purchases in order that we might use the visitors pass buy $50 get $10 off. Before we made our purchases though, we did the really annoying thing where we asked the cashier (someone who had just started there) to do some price checking for us. Unfortunately this ended up confusing the poor guy and he ended up entering the code to the $10 off and such. It wasn't until later that we realized just how many mistakes he had actually made. /after setting off every alarm coming out of every store due to a tag that was left on one of our shirts, we realized we needed to go back at some point. We were then sitting in Payless, attempting to discover how much money every one owed me for our purchases at Areopostle when we realized he also forgot to charge us for two items. We then decided it was definitely time to head back and sort this out. 

Later that night we made a grocery stop at 10:30 and a Mc Donald's run at 11:00 keeping in mind that we wanted to be home by 12:00. Overall we had an amazing day, and I think we are all excited to once again make our "annual trip" next year.

What to do...

Well, we are now on week three of my second year of interior decorating. My last year. After a busy summer (and a super insane last week with the phone situation and wedding) this feels like the week in which I need a break, a breather, and quite honestly a ton more sleep. Of course, that would make life much to easy and not interesting in the least. Instead I have been overwhelmed with projects and assignments and the continuing realization that I really do not like studio class. After stating this, I of course got several funny looks from my classmates and the exclamation of "Well this is what your going to be doing in the field!". Yes I understand, here I am going through school, paying thousands of dollars only to come to the realization that I really do not want to get into the business of being an interior decorator. I do not want to take on big projects or high paying customers. I do not wish to create spaces that are not in my personal style whatsoever. I do not wish to create a Victorian style space that is overwhelmingly full of frills and such. I do not wish to create a modern space that looks as if no one lives there. I feel to practical for all that. I have continuously come to the realization, that I am simply a small town girl with small town DIY. I like crafts and cheap products. I enjoy antiquing and thrift shopping. I see potential in spaces that scream dated, but not lets spend tons of money and get new everything, rather lets find some used pieces add some paint, and then sew our own pillows and create our own artwork.I would rather start my own home decor store than start a Interior Decorating Service. In the mean time while I continue to discover what God has placed in my future I will finish the program I am absolutely loving (besides that one class of course) pray I will be lead in some direction.

In other thoughts (I know this is a long post to not have any of my typical photos) My chest of Drawers is finally done! I haven't seen it yet though. I've seen it painted but not completely together since my absolutely amazing and helpful dad happened to do all the dirty work for me. I know I am incredibly fortunate to have such a handy and talented father. Pictures will be coming soon (next week?) all depending on when I will break down and once again commit to sorting through pictures. I will also hopefully have some tubing pictures up on the blog sometime soon, and believe me you don't want to miss those cause they are quite humorous. Until next time (if I make it past my studio project due date!).

Western Fair!

Spent an enjoyable evening after school on Monday at the Western fair with some friends from school and Mike. Had such a thrilling evening and enjoyed every moment (even the ones in which I felt slightly sick cause I went on one too many spiny rides than what was good). Some pictures of the evening below!

This one makes me smile!

Mat trying to win Kathleen a prize.

Sam and Anthony in the zipper.

The Giraffe I wanted!

The one ride they would NOT let us on.

Sam and Anthony again.

Kathleen and Mat.

Sam and Anthony once again, so photogenic!

The last picture I managed to get before my camera refused to turn back due to dead battery.

Wishing Erica and Meghan had been there, but still thankful for such a blessed relaxing time despite their absence. 

Bettine's Birthday Shindig

Way back n the month of August I had the amazing opportunity to celebrate eon of my closest friends birthday's (Bettine!) up in Aylmer. Making my way there after work (yes I worked my usual eight hour shift in the morning) and making a few stops on the way to run some errands, I made it time to help with a few dinner preparations. We followed our meal and fellowship by lighting a floating lantern Bettine had received from one of her wonderful friends from redeemer. This however was not nearly as easy as it sounded or looked. We began my simply unwrapping our lantern and then after looking at it for several minutes and still being slightly unsure as to how to completely the great task of lighting such an object eluded us, we went to the internet for help (I think?). The next issue we encountered was to actually lighting a match. After many tries (and our match box passing from hand to hand seeing who had such a wondiferous talent) we finally lit a match, only to have it blown out by the breeze. We continued to light our matches and feed the flame to our fuel cell, but our lantern refused to be lit. After a while we began adding newspaper to kindle the fuel cell, and finally our lantern was lit. Below are the results

Making an attempt at the matches. 

Up, Up, and Away!

What a celebration of the life we have come to appreciate and admire as a great gift from God with her bright enthusiasm and spirit.

The next day Natasha (Bettine's new roommate), Bettine, and I headed off to the Aylmer fall fair to see four H students show off their calf's and to experience the many joys of the fair. Unfortunately it wasn't long before we realized that such many joys cost many money's for very few thrills. As a result we simply watch some cows, enjoyed the sight of various rides and devoured some very delicious french fries and slushies.

 

Sebastian Showing his Calf

What and amazing start to my short summer vacation. Can't wait to hopefully visit some of these girls and spend an enjoyable weekend up in Redeemer. (Someday or should I say month soon? One can only hope!).

Jessica Sipkens