Thankful.

Thanksgiving is just 4 days away?  When the heck did that happen?!?  I guess when you hibernate, go to work...and repeat time can pass pretty quickly!  I can't complain about being pregnant; no morning sickness, no weight gain (yet) and a healthy growing baby.  Going to work at noon allows me the luxury of relaxing or taking a nap in the AM and enjoying a nice quiet morning of puttering around the house before heading off to work (that whole sentence is worth being thankful for!).  By the time I get home I am exhausted and usually fall asleep on the couch by 9:30.  So yes, I feel like a big hibernating bear (occasionally I even growl at people) but I figure I better stock up on sleep now, because in a few short months it will be in short supply.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday, and I get it.  Be thankful; for freedom, for family, for friends, for food and for having a warm dry place to call home.  I am always reminding the kids that there are many people in the world who have none of those things, so be thankful for all your blessings - even if you don't quite know how to appreciate them just yet.  Aside from that mushy stuff, one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving (besides Roxie's green bean casserole) is the day after - Black Friday.

Two years ago we ventured out to pick up a few sale items.  We browsed a few fliers, and headed out well past 10 AM and casually shopped alongside the zombies who had risen at 3 AM.  A few sale items came home with us, but nothing too exciting....AMATEURS!!!!  Last year, we initiated ourselves into the "crazy-4 AM-shop-in-your-jammies-after-a-Thanksgiving-food-coma" club.

IT WAS WONDERFUL!!!!

It really wasn't THAT crazy.  We weren't the people waiting out in the cold to stampede in through the doors and run around like an animal...we showed up a little while after those people.  Last year was a great learning experience.  We had a goal of replacing a TV in our home, and found one for $190 in the Wal-Mart sale flier.  What we didn't realize was that you have to get to a certain area of the store depending on what size of TV you are after.  Ours happened to be in the dairy section, and a familiar face was at the head of the line.  I asked her what in the world is going on, and she said you have to have a coupon and get in line and they would release the TVs in an hour.  She had JUST given her extra coupon away to a stranger, and they were out of tickets so we went on our merry way.  We proceeded to load our cart with $2 DVDs and I don't remember what else.

We knew Lowes and Runnings were also opening early, so we hit up Lowes for a Maglite (reg $29, sale $9) and I also pointed out an air compressor/nail gun combo (reg $189, sale $58) for our little projects.  It is wonderful!!!  Then we ran over to Runnings for a shop stool (reg $58, sale $19) Aaron had been eying and also got our nephew, Taet, a "heavy duty trike" complete with a hitch (reg $100, sale $39 with an $8 instant rebate).

It was probably about 6 AM when we finished up at Runnings, and we decided to pack up our car and doing a little shopping in Sioux Falls before heading to Dakota Dunes for Morford Thanksgiving.  We stopped at Pier 1 for a few gifts, and popped into Old Navy (which was a nut house!) and were quickly on our way to Sioux City.  I can't remember if we slept first or headed out first, but I think we hit up Target and Kohl's and wrapped up our morning of shopping and took a long afternoon nap.  The day was crazy and exhausting but it was a really great adventure!

This year we have plans of going after a TV again, some toys, baby items and of course DVDs - they are the best stocking stuffer!  Wal-Mart is opening their doors at $10 pm, so we will probably show up around 11.  We were at the mall in Sioux Falls yesterday, and it was so crazy that I wouldn't dream of going to their midnight sale, but more power to the brave shoppers who do!  I am usually half done with Christmas shopping by now, but I haven't been very successful with making a shopping list this year.  It really is true that it gets harder and harder every year to buy for everyone!

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we always try to decorate our house for Christmas.  We turn on Christmas movies and cover the house in ribbons, ornaments and glitter.  Does anyone else have this tradition?  With the first snow this weekend, we actually pitched our pumpkins and gourds, took down the exterior Thanksgiving decorations and put up the garland and Christmas wreath.  Just in case we got more snow or ice this week, I wanted to be done with anything that involved ladders and climbing on the roof, but next weekend we will have to put out the deer lawn ornaments and light it all up! 

I am excited for the glow of Christmas lights as I drive home each night.  Our neighborhood is well lit, and there is even a crazy Griswold style house with a special aneurysm display in the backyard.  Several times a week I would stop my car in the middle of the road and stare at the lights blinking all over their yard, trying to figure out if there was a pattern to the madness.  There wasn't, and there was something new added to the display almost daily.  To top it all off, the front yard was lined with milk jug luminaries.  It's super entertaining, and I was thankful for the opportunity to smile at the silliness of the display every evening!

A warm and beautiful home, lots of family and friends, good jobs, happy pets, clothes on our backs, a growing baby and my amazing husband - what more can I ask for?  Did I mention that Aaron is currently making a dinner of glazed ham, mashed potatoes, green beans and gravy?!!?  Wow!!!  I have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, and there are hundreds of things I am thankful for everyday.  What are you thankful for?

Noelle

Rearrange.

What a nice and busy weekend!  On Friday we attended the Salvage Art Fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity.  We had donated 3 projects and (with the help of Christina Castillo bidding up 1 of the projects and buying another) were able to make a little contribution to their cause.  It was nice to get ideas for next year (I'm thinking a beautiful chime and some paintings) and there was some great people watching.  :)

Then we went out to have dinner at Applebees and we had the privilege of eating with a Veteran (Nick Castillo) on Veteran's Day.  He even got his meal for free, it's nice to see so many businesses doing promotions for Veterans!  It's a nice gesture for a service and dedication that "Thank You" just doesn't cover.  We headed downtown for a birthday (11/11/11 at 11:11 PM) and made our super special 11:11 wishes before heading home exhausted.

Saturday morning we did our usual errands and met Nick and Christina at a craft show at the Swiftel center.  It's such a great place to buy "local" goods and get DIY ideas!  Then we spent the day crafting, constructing and exhausting ourselves in general.  We spent a big chunk of Sunday finishing up projects and cleaning the house, (how is my house ALWAYS needing to be tidied?) rearranging furniture, organizing drawers and closets, running more errands and finishing odds and ends.  Aaron, and everyone else in our neighborhood, took advantage of the beautiful weather and got the Christmas lights up...I hate having them up before Thanksgiving, but freezing conditions and ice are nooo fun!  I will add garland and Christmasify our planters in a few weeks, but for now we will enjoy pumpkins, scarecrows AND Christmas lights.  We had LED lights last year (they glowed blue...I had no idea you could buy them in "warm" and they glow more whitish yellow just FYI) and I didn't care for the look of them, so at the after Christmas sale last year we bought icicle twinkle lights and they look gorgeous!  Aaron did a great job putting them up! 

By the end of the weekend, we had constructed and stained a little table for outdoors, painted and revamped a new shelf for the bathroom, hemmed lace curtains, painted a few little projects and I spent hours constructing rosette headbands and pretty jewelry.  I read something last week about how it's important to "stretch" before you craft...I thought it was hysterical but WOW, I should have taken that advice!  My neck and shoulders are so stiff from jewelry making, but I'm sure it won't compare to how sore Aaron's whole body will be from weaseling around the roof to do Christmas lights. 

Last week, I promised a blog on the wreath that graces my front door.  Two of last weeks projects involved rearranging items we already possessed.  The wreath was so easy to make!  I used flowers leftover from my wedding, ribbon, little decorative balls, and a monogram that Aaron made out of scrap plywood we tore off the back of a dresser.  I also used paint and my glue gun (which I already had) and the only expense was buying the wreath at Wal-Mart ($3.50).

Pretty Pretty!!!

The template for the "M" is just another monogram I had in my house.  

Aaron traced it onto plywood, cut it out with a box cutter and chisel, and sanded the edges.  

You could also print a letter on the computer, or buy a wood letter at Wal-Mart (I didn't like the font of their letters).

I had no great ideas for attaching the ribbon.  

I didn't want it glue directly to the wreath because wanted it removable so I could also tie it in our Christmas wreath.  

The plywood veneer was too thin for hardware, so my solution was hot gluing small ribbons to the back.

Pictures don't do it justice!

 

The wreath and flowers are almost too pretty to cover up with the monogram!  It's so pretty in person! 

 

Remember my pile of fleece and buttons?

 

We made some monsters!  They are inspired by the Uglydolls, so ugly they're cute! 

They aren't perfect, but I have enough fleece to make dozens of them.  :)

 

Here is my boring wall.  It is in the kitchen by my bedroom door.  

It's an awkward spot for decorations, so it was just holding a pinboard.

This is just a frame with scrapbook paper.  

You can use whiteboard marker on it for a cute message board, fun right?

The monogram found a new home, too!  This wll was all about rearranging!  The 2 small pin boards cost $1 a piece, they are covered in burlap and super cute!  I have a few items I am still looking for (mail organizer, pencil holder) so this wall will remain a work-in-progress, but an improvement no less!

With a baby on the way, my whole house has been subject to rearranging lately and the change is nice.  Sometimes a piece of furniture or a picture doesn't work in one room, but looks incredible in another.  If you have furniture and decorations you love, you can always make them work!  What parts of your house could benefit from rearranging?  Have you ever made-over a whole room with items you already own?

Noelle

Behind.

I realize this weekend was Hobo Days, but holy cow did we have a LOT to catch up on at home.  Aaron was sick in bed all day last Sunday, and I was very busy (watching movies) so we had a pile of laundry, projects and cleaning waiting for us this weekend.  Naturally, that meant we also had to add about 47 projects to the "to do" list because, afterall, we wouldn't want to get bored.

It's also no secret that we are kind of hobbits when the weather gets chilly (snow blows).  It's not that I don't appreciate the current weather (it has been a beautiful fall!) but it was SOOO WINDY this weekend, yuck!  Hobo Days kinda scares me too, and for good reason!  On Friday night alone, we were almost hit by 3 different cars.  Fun, right?  Whether it was an "out of towner", someone drunk or a Grandma in dreamland - I don't know, but after our hit and run incident downtown this summer we would rather avoid downtown when idiots are abundant.  We did however, take the backroads around town and picked up supplies for some projects we wanted to start/finish, and stopped downtown after the parade was over (2 pm after kegs and eggs...I wonder how much of Brookings was taking a nap?) to stop at a few shops.



So rewind 2 weeks, remember the dressers?  Those wild and CRAZY what-was-she-thinking BRIGHTLY colored dressers?

 Yeah, those.

The SDSU themed dressers...the pain-in-my-ass to paint dressers....the crayola crayon colored dressers...

the hopefully-they-turn-out -okay-or-else-I will cry dressers... 

After a week of letting the paint "set" in the house, I am happy to report that they turned out GREAT!!!  I haven't really decided what decorations will adorn the tops of each dresser, but here are the photos I promised 2 weeks ago.

Can you see where I brushed stain into the grain of the wood?  

It's such a subtle effect,  but it was the difference between this looking like a piece that belongs in a preschool and one 

that adds some excitement to a room.

The color looks powder blue in this photo, but it's brighter than it appears in this photo.

This photo represents the true color better, but WOW I need to put some decorations on it.

This chest was intended for the bathroom, but we thought it fit much better in the hallway.  

It was a little too wide for our bathroom and made it feel small.

It compliments the art really well.  

The photo above and below give you a closer look at the stain effect, I had a difficult 

time capturing it on my camera and I'm afraid I didn't nearly do it justice.

They are kind of obnoxious, but if we can't have fun and take chances with decorating then what's the point?

This weekend we tackled a big mess in our garage, dumping the potted plants, organizing our spare room, sewing projects (coming soon), repainting a bunch of old frames and our bird house, hanging photos and pin boards, constructing a fall wreath (for $3.50) and the usual laundry, cleaning, cooking and organizing.  Phew!!!  That's a lot, and it feels so good to be caught up on our "to do" list.

 

Here is a "sneak peek" at some of our weekend projects.

Wonder what this is all about?  Stay tuned.

Pinterest.com has really captured my interest!

Picture frame + scrapbook paper + dry erase marker = my new menu board.

This is part of my "organization wall."  Stay tuned!

 

I found 4 PB wall mount vases at the ReStore for $2 a piece, so out of pure curiosity I purchased all 4 of them.

We have never been able to have fresh flowers or plants in our home, because Tinkerbell destroys and eats them.  

Whenever I receive flowers, I have to hide them in my bathroom.

Maybe these will solve my problem?  

Stay tuned...

 

This mirror has been a PAIN to repaint!  So many nooks and crannies!

We bought this double vanity at the ReStore for $50.  Thank goodness, because 

after 2 monthes of looking our patience was running out!  We almost bought new cabinets at Lowes.

It's a great work bench/storage and finally our garage is back in order!

Being behind in my housework is not a feeling I enjoy.  I thrive in an organized and clean environment, so disorder can really stress me out!  Supper just finished cooking in the crock pot, so now I look forward to a lovely Sunday evening of relaxing with Aaron on the couch.  What projects are you behind on in your house?  Are there any fun projects on your "to do" list?

Noelle

P.S. My next blog will be about my wreath for $3.50.  The cost is low because I reused a lot of items from my home.  I challenge you to create something beautiful for under $5, and email me the project or tag me on FB.  Use paint, glue, sticks, rocks, flowers, doilies, crayons, fake fruit, or WHATEVER!!  Get creative! 

Revamp.

I FINALLY FOUND 2 DRESSERS!!!  Hooray!!!  Thank you to everyone who gave ideas on where to find used furniture, you guys are great!  Thanks for the comments, too!  I can sometimes figure out who's posting, but not always so remember to sign your name!  I love to know who is reading!  Also, I don't know if blogger alerts you to replies on comments, especially when made anonymously, so keep an eye out for those.

So back to those dressers.  We were very fortunate that Aaron's parents, Scott and Lisa, had a nice sturdy dresser for us in their garage.  They live in Dakota Dunes, and while they didn't experience any flooding in their basement this summer (it got as close as next door) they did take the precaution of moving the belongings from the basement into their garage with the anticipation of at least getting some seepage in their basement.  They were lucky enough to stay dry, and now since the basement is empty they are going to do a little updating.  What they gave us was actually a 5 drawer chest from Aaron's childhood bedroom, which we intended to cut down to a 3 drawer chest.  At the end of a weekend visit we stuffed the chest into our car, and we kind of shoved our luggage, shopping bags and dog kennel around it and away we went.  It was a tight fit, but you'd be surprised at the things we can cram into our little PT Cruiser!

The dresser I found on Craigslist in Sioux Falls, it was a beautiful antique dresser that was 80 years old.  We knew Scott would be leaving a vehicle parked in Sioux Falls as he was flying out on business for a week.  Aaron called to find out what he was driving and HOORAY he was taking his truck, and kindly agreed that Aaron could use it.  AWESOME!!!  So Aaron located the sweet old lady selling the dresser, and $50 later he was on his merry way.

Our Craigslist find

The lady selling this piece was pretty chatty and sweet.  However, when Aaron commented that he wouldn't be using the mirror and would rather remove it than risk breaking in transport she just wasn't impressed.  She would probably have a heart attack if she knew my intention of painting it turquoise...

Interesting fact, the hardware on this Seiver dresser is called "pot metal."  During WWII, metal for civilians was scarce, so they would take little bits and scraps of different metals and melt them all down together in a pot and make things like furniture hardware, toys and tools.  While this is a neat fact, I didn't want hardware in my home that could possibly contain lead.   

  

 

The chest from Scott and Lisa, simple and sturdy...and missing the drawers in this picture!

With the furniture in the garage and an entire weekend where we didn't have to leave Brookings, we headed to Lowe's to find our paint determined to start and finish this project in an afternoon.  The paint specialist at Lowe's said we had to use bonding primer, and to let it dry for a week before we painted it blah blah blahhhh.  She was also flipping out about how several brands of paint at Lowe's are "worthless" and was kind of ordering us around like a paint Nazi.  

We decided to sand the furniture down really well and accepted the fact that touch ups may be in our future.  Whatever, I don't have an issue with that, but I HATE PAINTING FURNITURE. 

Here we are about halfway done with our painting job.

We call the yellow one "Nacho Chest."

The paint actually looked like canned cheese...it made Aaron really hungry for nachos.

I realize they don't look great in this picture, but stay with me!  The "Nacho" chest got stain rubbed on it to create an aged look, and we also drilled holes and added some spunky drawer pulls as it originally didn't have any hardware.  

The dresser didn't end up "turquoise" I guess, the paint was called "Pacific Blue."  I love it!  We replaced all the hardware with bronze pulls, and removed the casters.  It looks awesome!

Unfortunately, you don't get a picture of the finished product tonight.  

I wanted to let the paint and stain set for a few days before I organized the dressers and placed decorations on them.  Previously, we have jumped the gun with painted furniture and ended up with books, vases, picture frames, etc. stuck to them and removing some of the paint.  I didn't want to make the same mistake, so I am trying this new thing called "patience."  It's not any fun.

We were wiped out after 8 total coats of paint/stain (between the 2 pieces) and planted out butts on the couch for the evening.  I took a delightful nap (can you call it a nap when it happens at 10 pm?) and then we headed to a midnight performance of The Rocky Horror Show.  What a fun night, and it totally got me in the mood for Halloween!  I hope all of you in the area got a chance to enjoy the show!

Stay tuned, and I will post pictures of the final product!  What project are you working on?

Noelle

Dilemna.

For a few monthes I have been searching high and low for some ugly chests.  You would think that between Craigslist and Goodwill this would be easy, but I haven't had any luck!

My requirements are pretty minimal, I want a 5 drawer chest and a 3 drawer chest (give or take a drawer is fine, but basically one tall and one short.)  I would love them to be vintage, and they can be ratty, ugly colors, wood with some watermarking and imperfections - I really don't care because I intend to paint them both funky colors and spice them up with faux finishes and fancy hardware.

Solid hardwood is also a must, because I just don't like the idea of painting crappy fiberboard or those '70s era chests with the really thick clear plastic veneers.  The paint tends to smear, chip and in general does not finish as nicely as even your most beat up solid wood junker furniture.  For anybody attempting to UPcycle a piece with veneer, it is absolutely possible!  Don't get me wrong, if you already HAVE a veneered piece and think it's ugly, it's absolutely worth your time to spruce it up!  However, if I am seeking out a piece of furniture, it would not be my choice.

With these requirements, I have scoured Craigslist almost daily and Goodwill and garage sales are usually one of our weekend stops.  Six months ago, these items were plentiful (it figures!) but now they are few and far between.  This week after weeks of fruitless searching, I found 4 dressers in the same evening!  Two of them were located in Aurora (about 5 miles from Brookings) and I immediately contacted the number listed.....nothing.  No call back.  No Text.  Nothing.

DON'T YOU PEOPLE WANT TO SELL YOUR CRAP?!?!?!?!?

The dressers were perfect, and I am still bummed as I haven't received any information after 2 attempts to contact the seller, and the items are still listed on Craigslist.  Ugh...how frustrating!!!  And so, I turn to you, my faithful readers....

Does anyone have a chest/dresser that may work?!?!?

Here is a link to the two on Craigslist I really like:   http://siouxfalls.craigslist.org/fuo/2623250134.html

I realize one is a dresser and one is a chest, but I am really pretty open!  I am so anxious to get busy with this project, I may even resort to buying some fiberboard piece of junk!

This is my goal for the smaller dresser.  I might paint it a little bolder mustard color, but you get the idea.

And those are options similar to what I am looking for in my turquoise dresser...

If anyone can help, or has an old dresser they are willing to part with PLEASE leave a comment, email me, or contact me via Facebook.  

Thank you thank you THANK YOU (in advance)!!!!!

...and Happy Friday  :)

Noelle

Delightful.

Sooo once again blogger is not cooperating (okay, it's more likely that there is an error on my part, but we'll blame technology.  Technology doesn't have feelings.)  I guess this means that once again you get to enjoy my "Labor Day Mini Getaway" blog and corresponding photos in no particular order, starting with food.

We had big plans to see the sights, catch some shows and try exciting foods.  As you see from the photo above, we tried falafel for the first time.  This was actually the last day of our trip, we stopped for lunch at "Falafel King" and had gyros, falafel, olives, hummus and pita-yum yum yum!!!  I didn't expect to enjoy falafel, but what's not to love about fried...humus??  I wouldn't want it everyday, but Aaron and I could eat gyros everyday, they are one of our favorites!!!

Of course we checked out the MN State Fair.  Our culinary experience there was probably not the typical state fair experience but it was great!  We got lunch at Giggles which had been featured on The View in a segment about State Fair food the week before our trip.  They had "Salad on a Stick" (pictured above) with skewers of grape tomatoes and mozzarella over arugula and cold Minnesota Wild Rice Salad topped with balsamic vinaigrette.  It was AMAZING!!!  I am not one for funky salads or mystery looking food but this was the most pleasant surprise!  It looked and tasted like something from a nice sit down restaurant and had so many great textures and flavors.  Future-fair-goers: Don't Miss This One!

In addition to the yummy salad, we also ordered a foot long walleye sandwich from Giggles as well.  We wouldn't have been happy with your average McFish type sandwich, but this was no crappy fast food sandwich!  It was perfect-no too fishy, very tender and it had a nice topping of delicious tomatoes, lettuce and tartar sauce.  As much as I LOVE fish, I have always hated tartar sauce, but theirs must be a special recipe because it was fantastic.  We split the sandwich and the salad and that was our lunch (it was the perfect size lunch!) for $13.00-and we didn't feel like crap!

Another highpoint of any Fair is people watching.  Doesn't this look like a sea of people?  It was wild!

There are a lot of mullets, unflattering tube tops and sandals with socks in this group.  Awesome.

THIS was too good to be true.

Note to self: a "cat hat" would be the perfect Christmas gift for Mark Wilmes.

Aaron spotted this!  His people watching skills are superb!  

Hehehe we had a nice long giggle over 2 cops ordering mini donuts.

To be honest, the State Fair was not really our cup of tea so we busted outta there and decided to do a little exploring around the neighborhood we were staying in, which is referred to as "Uptown."  We did some fun shopping and then decided to grab a late afternoon beer.  There was this neat looking bar (the whole roof was a patio surrounded by plexi glass) called Stella's Fish Shop, and like I said we LOVE seafood.  

Well when we sat down it was happy hour, so 2 for 1 beers could keep up at a table for a while!  On top of that they had their happy hour appetizer menu which featured all their $10-15 appetizers for $5, so we decided to have an early supper and try several different things.  It was delicious!!!  We had champagne mussels, hot crab and artichoke dip, shrimp, ahi tuna crisps, shrimp and Aaron even had me try an oyster...not too bad, but not my favorite.  It was all delicious, especially the dip! 

That night we had tickets for Stevie Ray's Comedy Cabaret at Chanhassen, and we had salads, an appetizer, beer and lots of good laughs!  Their food was not great, so we were glad we had an early bite at Stella's.

We started our Sunday at the Mall of America and walked the entirety of the 4 floors.  We had lunch at Hooters, so no special cullinary experience there but still very good.  We also went to the Sea Life Aquarium in the MOA, which in my opinion, was a waste of $40.  It's not very big, it's very expensive for what's there and there are soo many children there and people congesting the larger aquariums and pushing people around that you can't really enjoy the fish.  Probably very enjoyable on a slow day, but still too expensive in my opinion.

Once we finished the MOA, we decided to check out IKEA.  We have always enjoyed paging through the IKEA catalogs, because their storage ideas are so creative!  I don't know if I would buy too much there, but the showroom was very neat to walk through.  They have examples of storage ideas for apartments that are like 250 sq ft, 500 sq ft and 100 sq ft.  I love the idea of making the most out of a small space.  :)  We also had to sample the Swedish Meatballs in the IKEA cafeteria that we had heard people ranting and raving over, and they were surprisingly good!  Meatballs kinda weird me out, but these were good (no big onions!) and you can buy them frozen, too.

Once we finished at IKEA, we visited Aaron's sister Hannah and her boyfriend Mark and saw their apartment in Bloomington and got back to the apartment just in time to pass out!  We were exhausted!

Aaron navigated our whole trip using Google Navigation, and it worked perfectly!  It really runs your battery down, so if you would plan to use it be sure to have a car charger.  I'm not sure how it would work in an area like Brookings, but in Minneapolis we would look up the address of our apartment and it would show up a 360 degree image of the neighborhood including our front door. 

On Labor Day we went to the Science Museum and saw the King Tut exhibit.  It's a great museum, probably best for elementary aged children as it has many hands on activities.  Then we headed to the Como Zoo (which is free, but they suggest a $2 donation...we tried to do some activities that were a little cheaper!)

AAAAHHHH after reviewing my blog I realized half of it was DELETED!!!!!  FML!!!  I am blaming technology for this one, also.  This blog was seriously like twice as long so maybe I am making them too big?  Any ideas?  So, here is a pile of pictures and the Cliff Notes version of the last few days of our getaway.

Just FYI since this ended so abruptly, we also went to the Como Zoo and saw Polar bears, primates and African animals, the Minneapolis Art Museum and saw a few Picassos, Monets and a VanGogh (both activities only require a donation.)  We hit up Hairspray at Chanhassen (Tracy was an understaudy.  Horrible.)  And we popped back into Stella's and had the best clam chowder and toasted gorgonzola bread.  If you are ever in the area, check it out!

At one point Kim Kardashian was at a club called Fusion about 2 blocks away from our apartment (uh, where we were probably sleeping at the time) and I think that the presence, however small, of a Kardashian are really what it takes to make an average anniversary trip into a sexy anniversary trip.  Yes, I am sure of this.

Heheheheee so I am too lazy to REupload the gorgeous pictures of the zoo, but maybe someday.  :)  What's your favorite getaway spot?  What do you like to do in Minneapolis?

Noelle 

Preview.

My sister Charis got married September 10 (9-10-11) in Tyler, MN to Greg Stuefen.  They have a 2 year old, Taet, together...he is so cute and fun!  The colors were green and brown and the theme was sorta rustic and country.  There were old jars, wheat, candles, small logs, photos of the couple, etc. on each table.  Here are a few pictures from the fun weekend! 

Aaahhh not only did the pictures take 9 years to upload, but they also uploaded in the wrong order so you are getting the pictures in no specific order now...

It's Wedding Day!!

We were going for a "Shirley Temple" look...

 

The finished look...

 

 

 

<3

 

This is a bracelet my grandpa Leroy wore...we squeezed it around her bouquet for "something old" and to keep 

his memory close on her special day.  It was perfect.

 

Harley had to spend the entire day with all his clothes and both shoes on AND he had to stay out of the dirt.

It was a rough day for Harley.

I don't know what's going on with the crappy quality of this picture, 

BUT I had the same shot - gorgeous quality - EYES WERE HALF SHUT!  Awe Nuts!!

Looking good!

This is Charis's niece, Hannah. 

She is dangerously cute!

Either the bridal bouquet or my bouquet...not sure, but gorgeous!

The flower girls giggling away during pictures.

...while Taet was running laps.  These kids were WILD!  :)  

Hehehe actually they were all very good for pictures and always had us entertained.

The Nielsen family...

and if you want to be technical,

The Stuefen Family and The Morford family... 

Seriously, look at that face!

Taet has some AWESOME picture moves!

Aaron and Taet, 2 of my favorite men in the world!

I told you he's wild!

He kept trying to "get" my camera.

Handsome Handsome HANDSOME!!!

 

Okay, maybe some of this "wildness" runs in the family...

 

Harley can't keep his collar straight for nothing!  At our wedding it was kind of a hot mess all day.

Greg showcasing his best talent.

These are just a few of the images I snapped when I wasn't chasing Taet, prepping music, visiting with family or actually posing for the pictures so don't feel bad if I don't have a photo of you!  I was really just snapping some candids to play with my DSLR.  I haven't even looked at the images from my point and shoot yet, so I'm sure there will be more posts to come.  :)  Candids and snapshots are my favorite kind of wedding photography, you can capture so many emotions...love, joy, excitement, pride, tenderness and the list goes on and on! What are your favorite kinds of wedding photos, posed or candids?

Noelle