Friday's Fave Five #389

Welcome everyone!  I am so glad it is Friday today, you have no idea.   And sorry this is late getting up.  But on to looking for blessings in our past week! 

1.  New flowers in planter.  With almost week long stint of daily thunderstorm warnings, tornado watches (and 1 warning) and the a few bouts or torrential rainfall, and I'm talking Noah's ark type walls of water pouring down, a few of my flowers in the planters did not survive.  But lucky me, everybody's clearing out whatever flowers they've got left over, because summer is almost half over!  I came away 3 really good sized plants and a couple of smaller ones for under $5.  Now that is my kind of deal and makes me super happy.

2.  Raining while the sun is shining.  I don't know why but this occurrence always makes me smile inside and finds me at the window watching it.  It's so peaceful to me and kinda reminds me that while life may be raining down some showers on me that there is sunshine somewhere in the midst of those troubles.  Sometimes the sun comes at a later time when the clouds are blown by but other times there is sun  in the midst of the rain.  It's sorta like a real live FFF happening metaphorically.  Ya like how I wove those two together?  :)

Yes that is rain in this picture not snow.  That is how big the drops were and the sun was glinting off of them in a magical kind of way.

3.  New suitcase.  We had luggage that was given to us as a wedding gift making it 33 years old.  While it was a really great set of luggage, it had an odd pulling systems that was really awkward, one of the original pull luggage systems probably, that tipped the luggage precariously onto tiny wheels on the back end.  A few years ago, Costco had a really awesome price on a set of 2 Heys luggage with the 360* wheels.  So we bought it and I sold my other luggage in a yard sale only to realize that the Heys luggage I had bought did not have a smaller carry on size.  So I've been using an old tapestry style carry one size suitcase that I had to lug around because of course it didn't have any kind of pull system.  I've been looking since then for that carry on sized piece for myself for years now and finally I found one that I really liked with all the pockets and inside storage areas and it was about  2/3 off the original price.  But I still hesitated wondering, if indeed, that was the original price or if they had just jacked it up making it look like a better deal than it really was.  So I left it behind.  While in Calgary, we went to a clearance at a Home Outfitter's store and lo and behold there was the luggage.  Thinking I had scored an even better deal than the one back home, after all this was a close out sale,  I was shocked to find that their big clearance had it on for more than double what it was back home.  So as soon as we got back I ran to Sears to see if they still had it (they had only had the one) crossing my fingers all the way.  Thinking there was no way it would still be there, it was a blessing to find it sitting there.  I made that purchase with a big smile, for sure!

4. Birds singing in the morning.  I grew up with a neighbor who used to raise canaries and finches and we'd hear their song every morning.  So I still love when the birds get singing in the early summer mornings.  The crows and magpies, however I can do with out.  Just saying.  But the ones who actually sing a song instead of waging a battle?  Heaven!

5.  Coffee, book, sunshine, deck.  Put them together and it's one thing that seriously destresses me.  Love going out there and enjoying some time doing nothing.  I miss this in the winter.

What are your favorites from the last week?