Who says you can"t do it all????

Eva came to visit this weekend.  It was a fun filled weekend and the first time she has been up since we bought new furniture.  That is WAY too long so I need to do a better job of getting her up here. 

 She is a GREAT decorator so right after she arrived we started talking about our new furniture and the way it is arranged.  I am NOT good at the 'finishing touches' and since we still haven't settled on the paint colors I have been avoiding that part too.  We just get used to the way the house looks, kind of half way done, and the summer 'got in the way' of decorating or at least that is what I tell myself.
Last winter when we were in Grand Rapids I bought these flowers for an arrangement and haven't managed to arrange them in a vase.  That is the first thing she did and it looks GREAT.  She also did a little furniture moving and moved a table behind the sofa so we have a sofa table to put things on now.  When we get our bathroom/bedroom suite done the room will open up more and that table is great for that space. 

 Friday night we went downtown to check out the activities at Friday Night Live, an August activity night here in TC where they close the downtown streets and people can walk around and check out the shops and watch the street performers.  After that we ate at a cute little place called Little Fleet that has several 'food trucks' all parked together with tables so you can get your meal from any one of the food trucks and eat while watching the crowd.  It is a fun little place to eat. 

 Saturday was a day of shopping.  Bud went out sailing with the Noble family and Eva and I checked out the various shopping areas in TC.  Downtown has changed even for me so it is interesting to see what is new.  After lunch we went over to the 'Old State Hospital' area where they have put cute little shops in the lower level of one of the big buildings.  It is a cute little place to walk around.  Then I drove around the grounds a little and we found the 'Historic Barns' area of the grounds.  There was a Visitors Center and we went in to hear the story.  A lady gave us a very nice tour of the gardens on her golf cart.  It was interesting to hear about the renovations they are doing there. It is a little 'hidden treasure' of our area.  Nice to think that some place that has such a 'dark' history of being a mental institution to something as beautiful as it is becoming. 
After that we visited the 'Warehouse District' which is another little area in town for shopping.  This area is kind of new so I hadn't been there yet.  There are lots of places in TC that I just don't go to so it is nice to have a visitor to show around. 
WE HAD A GREAT TIME SHOPPING AND WERE PRETTY TIRED WHEN WE RETURNED.

However we rested, Bud came home from sailing and we rallied for dinner and a movie.  We drove out the peninsula to the Jolly Pumpkin for dinner which is always a nice drive along the water.  We did see quite a bit of storm damage but it looks like people are recovering and cleaning up. 
After dinner we were back in town for a movie.  We had two choices: The new movie in which Meryl Streep stars about an aging rocker trying to reconnect with her family and the Mr. Holms movie.  We chose the Mr. Holms movie and I am pretty sure we made the right choice.  It was a VERY good movie. The acting was terrific, especially the little boy in the movie. It was SO good on so many levels and I STRONGLY recommend it to everyone of all ages. 

SO, that was Saturday.  Weren't we busy???

 Sunday was another beautiful and warm day,  (I forgot to mention that the temps were in the 90s all weekend)  We started out with a nice breakfast that Bud made for us, scrambled eggs toast and bacon were on the menu.
Then the 'decorator' in Eva came back to life and we spent a LONG time talking about paint colors.  I listened for a while but it is still too overwhelming for the woman that likes off white walls so Eva and Bud talked and talked and talked and then we went to Ace hardware and bought 3 more little cans of paint samples to try.  I think I like the colors they chose and they seem to be the best colors I have seen yet but of course they aren't on the walls yet.  I am feeling the most confident about these choices even though Eva said she wasn't trying to 'over sell' the choices but I do like them and the guy in the paint store said he used one of the colors in his house and really liked it. 
After going to the paint store we went sailing.  That is TWO days in a row that our boat has been out so that is terrific.  You can see above that we even got Eva to drive a bit while we were getting ready to put the sails up. 

 It was a windy day so we only put up a 'reefed' main but it was a beautiful day to be out on the water. 

 The race on the bay was just finishing as we went out so it was a beautiful view.  You can also see how windy it was.  The racers put out ALL the sail they could and they don't mind being 'heeled over' on their sides while racing.  It just makes them go faster.  We put out less sail because we wanted to stay upright and enjoy a relaxing sail. 

 And yes, I included a picture of myself. 

 Eva took this 'selfie' of the two of us.  We were having a good time.

We topped of this day by stopping over to see Sue and Walt at the cottage and enjoyed the late afternoon relaxing on their deck, talking and snacking.  The view was beautiful and the conversation was great. 

So there you have it, our very busy weekend with Eva. It was great fun and we packed in a lot of activities.  GREAT summertime fun with my sister.  I am thankful for such a wonderful sister.