A weekend of celebrations

Hello Monday, hello friends! This week is starting out blustery, rainy and cold. I actually do like rain, but lately it has been coinciding with allergy flare-ups and that makes for a stuffy atmosphere. On the other hand, I wasn’t ready for summer yet, so I’m glad for this change.

Anyway, the weekend weather was glor-i-ous! I spent Friday celebrating my brother-in-law's birthday on a little Northeast Minneapolis pub crawl. Saturday morning was a race to finish some bridal shower bunting with the help of my sister, Nancy.

{I love crafting}

Bridal showers can often be awkward and boring, but I should have known from the beginning that this one would not be like that, as it was hosted by my boyfriend's mother and she is anything but boring. We had delicious food, spiked punch, fun games, and even better company.

{Just one of the decadent desserts}

{Tulips, dice game, prizes}

Afterwards, I headed to a different bride's bachelorette party and had a long dinner at Kikugawa on Main (it was alright), karaoke at Boomtown (way more fun than I expected) and finally, too much embarrassing dancing at Honey Lounge (and consequent facebook barraging).

{Celine Dion at a Norebang place}

{A spiffy cocktail at Honey Lounge}

Sunday was a slow recovery with a trip to see The Hunger Games. I enjoyed the movie, but of course, there are always parts that are left out or skimmed over and you feel like they robbed the book of such great detail. In its defense, it was already 2.5 hours long and if you wanted a 4-hour long movie, then maybe you could have gotten it all. It made me go home and finish the second book and now, as expected, I am severely craving the third and final book. Ahh, the torture! Just so you know, I was purposely avoiding the "finish it in three days" method, because then I would have only had three days of it and not drawn it out as long as I possibly could. I've been told not to rush through it because it will leave you feeling deprived and devastated. Yes, books do this.

Be Mine, Valentine

A lot of people think of Valentine's Day as an overrated holiday that retailers gussied up and devalued its meaning. It's not just about chocolates and roses and cliches. It's about recognizing people you love. I like it more than I like a lot of other holidays. The color scheme definitely gives it points and I'm not into the whole gaining a ton of weight on a holiday just because it's a holiday (like Thanksgiving). Not to say this doesn't happen. It does. Sigh.

Anyway, back to the point. The origins of Valentine's Day come from a bunch of saints named Valentine who were martyred on February 14. Then came Chaucer, who connected the day with love by writing a poem for a marriage ceremony. Then came hand-written cards in the 18th century, then came printed cards and now it is what it is.

What do you think? Will you be celebrating? I've been celebrating all month, so you know my answer. 

Here's a bit of a forward my coworker sent to me. Normally forwards are meant to be deleted, but this one was pretty cute. This is what some little kids think about love:

'When my grandmother got arthritis , she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.. So my grandfather does it for her all the time , even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.'
Rebecca- age 8

'When someone loves you , the way they say your name is different.
You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.'
Billy - age 4

'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.'
Karl - age 5


'If you want to learn to love better , you should start with a friend who you hate , '
Nikka - age 6 


'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.'
Tommy - age 6

'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.'
Mary Ann - age 4

'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it , you should say it a lot. People forget.'
Jessica - age 8

The best one was a four-year old child whose next door neighbor was an elderly gentleman who had recently lost his wife. Upon seeing the man cry , the little boy went into the old gentleman's yard , climbed onto his lap , and just sat there.  When his Mother asked what he had said to the neighbor , the little boy said , 'Nothing , I just helped him cry' 

Oh! That last part just makes me tear up. And for my last trick, these are the other ways I've been being festive in the spirit of St. Valentine.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Awake and Bake

I never meant to bake anything. I promise. But with my looming adventures up North, I had to make something to bring along. And if I was going to take time to actually make something, well then it better dang well be pretty. So naturally, I looked to my friend Jessica's blog, Life's Simple Measures, for inspiration and guidance.


So then I did this:

{Recipe here}

And then I made this:

{Recipe here}

I had leftover candy melts, so then I made this:

Now I not only have goodies to take with me up North, but also to give to the girls I am seeing at an Ugly Christmas Sweater Party tomorrow, and to my lovely sisters, and to my coworkers. Oopsies. In all seriousness, I have never really had an affinity for cooking or baking or anything in the kitchen unless it included crafting at the kitchen table. This round of "baking" was kind of amazing. I looked at the recipes, I shopped for the items I didn't have, I timed the preparations correctly without even trying that hard, and I yielded plenty. AND I was able to craft them. 


All the while, I had conversations with my parents and actually had a lot of fun. I hope this doesn't become a hobby of mine, however, because I spent a lot of time doing this, and maybe I stayed up till the very wee hours of the morning and maybe that hinders the rest of my Thursday. We'll see.

Merry Monday

{Catching snow / Creating / Oddly sitting}

Weekends come and weekends go, and they're always filled to the brim with good stuff. This weekend started off hanging out in the hospital with the new baby nephew, some birthday shenanigans, breakfast at Grandview, crafting, another birthday outing, photos, and hanging out with the fam (of course with new baby). I realized how close Christmas really was, and maybe started to panic a little. It's not that I have gifts to still procure or make, but there are Christmas cards that haven't been sent out, baking and packing to do before the weekend, all on top of some other obligations.

{Unintentional Christmas colors / Holiday brews}

So let's keep sane in this home stretch until Christmas! Oh pretty please!

{Two hats / Sheet music / Playing}

Today I am le thankful for:

1. Family. New babies have a way of bringing people together. Yeay!

2. Friends and their friends and their families. It's pretty cool when you have fun hanging out with your friend's boyfriend's sister and her friend. 

3. A short week. I can't wait for Christmas!!

Unfortunately, when my holiday cards were all ready to go, I forgot my stamps at home and am now at work. Rats and a half! I'm also planning on taking a page or two out of the blog Life's Simple Measures for holiday baking recipes. Can't wait to test my terrible hand at these.

Are you scrambling this week? Whatever you're doing, I hope it's a good one.

Merry Monday

Hello frannns! This morning was a little rough, even though I forced myself to bed last night at 10pm due to a severe migraine. Let me tell you, 10pm bedtime never happens with me, so I was hurtin' something fierce. This morning I was all achey too, but then my coworker gave me some medicine and it's getting better.

So here I am. The weekend was pretty low-key. I went to a Friday night yoga class, woke up early Saturday for a half day of work, then headed over to my sister's house to craft until I couldn't craft anymore. This crafting sesh was also filled with attempts of dougie-ing, too many desserts, YouTube videos and scary stories I couldn't handle. I finally finished  making my Christmas and Hannukah cards though, so that felt awesome. I finished working on some Christmas gifts as well. But now, I must write out all of these cards and while I definitely enjoy writing to people, it's going to take a block of time to get these out. 

Sunday the fam celebrated my parents' birthdays with Banh Xeo Brunch and playing on the lake behind our house. Then I headed over to boyfran's brothers to do some man-crafting. You know, ditching the pretty paper, brads and tape runners for drills, scrap wood and tape measurers. We made one of our two giant hockey nets for future broomball on the lake. I had never really played with a drill before or built anything that didn't come in a set in a box, so this was pretty fun.

Now, onto Monday and what is getting me through the day:

1. Hydration. Must. Fix. Headache.

2. Crafting. I'm on a craft-kick, if you couldn't tell.

3. Book Club. We're having a little gift exchange tomorrow with our discussion of a holiday-themed book. Yippee!

That's all. 13 days until Christmas, ahh!

Merry Monday

Oopsies, I'm a little behind on this one. Today was overcast with blah, so maybe that will be my excuse! 


I feel like I'm repeating myself over and over, but...the weekend FLEW by and was FULL of FUN stuff. Sound familiar? Thought so.

Dinner at The Depot, an absolutely spectacular Beirut show at First Ave. (plus I saw a long-lost friend there), No Coast Craft-o-Rama, Mapps chai latte, two days of crafting at my sister's house (I made 38 cards and prepared parts of my Christmas cards, whew!) and a hot yoga class were the highlights of my weekend.

And then…today happened. Nothing catastrophic, obviously. Just a sort of overall blahishness resulting from a domino-effect of small annoyances.

I just watched the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy (yes, I do still watch it), and the episode was about thinking you have it bad but not realizing that you should be thankful that worse things aren’t happening. It’s not meant to discredit small problems, because when you feel like crap, you feel like crap, but know that it could be much, much worse. The narration in the show talks about thinking your day is bad, but when the really, really bad stuff happens, you only WISH your problems were an IRS audit or fender bender. So there’s that.

Also,

That’s all for today. I made a dent in my winter to-do list this weekend. Yeeay!