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Funny how I can find something every single time I go thrifting in this darling, sleepy town. Red Wing really is sleepy in the winter. Not a lot of action. When we first moved here I couldn’t believe how everything closed up so early during the week. I would walk uptown, listen to the knell of of a dozen church bells, watch the street lights turn on, shedding a sort of tangerine glow…and I almost expected tumbleweeds to go rolling by. At the time I thought, “Oh no. What did we do? Why in the world did we move here? There isn’t even a Target!” After thirteen years it really has grown on me. (And now we do have a Target.) I like that the shops have an early closing time…I like that some of them aren’t open on Mondays. I think it’s cool that people have other lives outside of their business. And, I can’t imagine a better day to not have to go to work than on a Monday.

So, today I walked up to a few of the charming little antique shops and thrift stores that reside within a few blocks of my house. There is something magical about thrifting in this town. I don’t exactly know why that is. I’ve been to a lot of antique stores…in places like Stillwater (for instance) and they just aren’t the same. I said this to my friend Nancy over lunch last week and she immediately nodded in agreement. There’s just something about Red Wing. We’ve been on Thrift Store tours of the Twin Cities and although they really do have some amazing shops up in those parts, they don’t captivate me like the shops that are close by. There is a special something that keeps luring me back.

I found the above items along with a pile of vintage linens and a few other items that I’m keeping under wraps until their big reveal in the tea book. Have I mentioned how much fun I’ve been having writing this little book? So far it’s been a love affair, a crash course in photography, an eye opening adventure, scary, funny, and so darn brilliant I have to squint. This adventure is doing exactly what an adventure should. It’s turning me inside out, giving me butterflies, made me cry, and most of all  it has stretched me, it has made me into something new.

As Elanor Roosevelt said, “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” She is also the brilliant lady that wisely admonishes us to “Do something that scares you every day.” I’m taking her advice.

~Melissa