Stillwater, MN

Last weekend, for a Friday Funday adventure, I visited Stillwater, MN for the second time in my life with a few close friends.






I really need to visit more often as it is really a beautiful and historic little town, and only about 40 minutes outside of the city. It's a great "staycation" destination if I do say so myself.



It was a bit cold and overcast the day we went, but no less enjoyable. Perhaps even more so as it wasn't overly crowded. Unfortunately, we couldn't get near the river because the water was so high the city closed it off incase of flooding.



We spent the day wandering around the various shops. My personal favorite is a little boutique called Rose Mille.



This shop is the epitome of sweet. There are so many florals and frills and cute little vintage things that all have their own special place. It may be craft heaven. haha. But in all seriousness, if I sewed more (ok, if at all) that would be the place to go. I just like browsing through the endless amounts of goodies that shop holds. I could easily spend an hour in there pawing over everything. Somehow, it's like antique shop meets hobby store, and equals pure gold.











Perhaps I've gushed too much. I think you should just check it out for yourself!

We took a break from shopping (and the bitter wind) to warm up in the car and explore more of Stillwater than just what's on the main street. There are so many beautiful Victorian homes it's unreal. I snagged a few photos off of google image search to share, because it turns out trying to snap photos out of moving vehicle does not produce the best results.. haha.







After a day full of shopping and sight-seeing, we stopped for dinner at a 1950's diner, which has actually been there since the 1950s. Leo's Grill is the best place if you're in the mood for an old school burger, fries and malt. And may I say F-You Dairy Queen, which is literally across the street? Talk about below the belt. Leo's is far superior.







All in all it was an excellent Friday Funday. I would definitely recommend a visit to Stillwater for anyone who has never been and for those who haven't been in some time. It's such a great way to get out of the city without having to spend all day traveling to feel like you're someplace new.

Baby Shower

Wowsers! It's been a long time since I've updated my blog, and for those of you (all three of you) who read this regularly, I'm terribly sorry! I've been kind of all over the place for the past couple of weeks, so I'll break up my update-post into several.

A few weeks ago was my sister's baby shower. Perhaps appropriately, she asked me to help out by designing the invitations. (I've blurred out her address as I'm sure she doesn't want the whole world to know where she lives.)





I took lots of photos of the actual shower, which was fairly low-key, (no ridiculous baby-themed games for us, thanks) but as they are mostly just of family members, I'll only share a few of the one semi 'babish' thing we did, which was decorate cupcakes.







My sister ended up was some excellent gifts. A lot of clothes actually, which I think is kind of funny. Everyone wants to buy baby clothes because they're cute. Surprisingly, they only got two packs of diapers... I thought that's what everyone gives..?

You can never really go wrong with buying a pregnant lady diapers, even if she wants to go all-natural with cloth diapers. At some point you need to have the 'fake' ones, for instance, if you're out and about all day. What, are you supposed to hold on to a poopy rag in your purse all day? I think not. I'm pretty sure mother nature will forgive you for days like that.

Weekend Fun

Sorry it's been awhile since I've posted, but I think this post will make up for my absence. I was going to just post a "Friday Funday" but I decided to wait and write about the entire weekend, as it was quite eventful.

I suppose I should back up a bit and also include last weekend where I attended Worn To Be Wild hosted by Anthem Heart. It was basically just a giant dance party at Anthem Heart's studio in NE. They were also screenprinting and selling shirts at the event.









More photos are posted HERE.

This week/end was two of my best friend's birthdays. We celebrated quite extensively, as one should for their friend's birthdays. On Wednesday, we had a 'family dinner' at our place in honor of AJ's birthday.



On Friday we had dinner again at Wasabi in the warehouse district of Mpls. They have some of the best sushi in Mpls if I do say so myself. However, this time we ate at the Hibachi table (where they cook on the table in front of you.) It was amazing and I thought, fairly priced.



We followed dinner with running across the street to the Guthrie to see Macbeth. I actually have never read Macbeth before.. ! I know, I'm a cultural and literary failure. Although, I feel I've redeemed myself slightly by going to see the play.

They did a fantastic job. I must admit at times I got slightly lost as to what they were talking about. As I say, I've never read/studied this particular play before so some of the old English went over my head. But not enough so that I didn't enjoy myself.

Macbeth is at the Guthrie until June, so there is still plenty of time to go check it out. Even if you can't make it to the play, a trip to the Guthrie is worth it just for experiencing the architecture of the building and the amazing views of the city.













After exploring the building, my friends all departed. Ryan and I, however, headed over to the Pancakes and Booze show.

There was a really great turnout. We got there kind of late because of going to Macbeth first, but the party was still going. I didn't have any pancakes because I was still bursting from dinner earlier, but they smelled delicious.











Tom, the curator of the show, said he plans on coming back to have another P&B show in a few months, so if you didn't make it to this one, there will be other chances.

The next day, a bunch of us headed out to the 'burbs' where a friend of mine is house-sitting to have a fun filled day of sledding, and man was it FUN! I don't remember the last time I went sledding, so I had a total blast.





It was beautiful outside. The warmest it's been in months and months, so to us, 45 degrees felt like summer. As the day progressed, we kept removing articles of clothing, and using a tree as a clothes rack.









We eventually called it a day after several hours of sledding fun. And after our attempt at a 'sled-train' went array and several people crashed and got vicious snow-burn. For those of you who are not familiar with the feeling (ahem - friends in California) imagine a nasty rug burn, only cold and wet.

So we headed inside to warm up and play other games.


Later that evening we went out for my friend Rob's birthday back in our old neighborhood. It was an excellent way to end our fun-day.







The fun doesn't stop there! (I told you I'd make up for my lack of posting..)
Ryan and I crashed on my friend's couch on Sat. night as our roommate took the car home early because she had to work in the morning.

When we woke up, we played some Wii and decided to go eat lunch (or technically in our case, breakfast) at this place in Roseville called Smash Burger. It's kind of expensive, considering all you're getting is a burger and fries, but it was pretty awesome. Then we headed over to a gaming store called The Source as all of my friends are total nerds, and they needed to stock up on nerd supplies. haha.

Afterwards, I went home and proceeded to pass out for 2 hours. If you can imagine, I didn't sleep that well on the couch... Later that night my girlfriends and I went and saw Alice in Wonderland.

I thought the movie was just alright. We didn't see it in 3-D as it was sold out, but I don't know how much of a difference it would have made to be honest. I think it's a good movie for kids to see, and not terrible for their parents. The costume design was fantastic, and some of the set design was pretty cool but I think they could've done a much better job on the graphics, considering that was the majority of the movie.. but, that's just my opinion. I would probably watch it if it was on tv, but I'm not going to pay to go see it again..

Well, that sums up my weekend fun. Now it's time to get back to work!

Cheers,
K