In 2010 I ... ate my way through Mardi Gras

There's a major problem with having great cooks for friends: the calories.

Morgan hosted his second (perhaps third?) Mardi Gras party last night, and the food gets better every year. And to take a bit of the burden off M, almost all the party guests brought delicious (homemade) treats as well. My contribution, not surprisingly however, was purchased:


Traditional Mardi Gras king cake was a fun contribution ... my kind of non-cooking fun. Plus it comes complete with a little medallion that gets hidden in the cake - once cut, whoever finds the medallion in their piece is the recipient of a year of good luck or something like that. (I would know more except I didn't find it, Bryan did.)

Beyond my no-make cake, M whipped up amazing shrimp and catfish po' boys, Diana pulled together lovely crab cakes, Carissa and Justin wowed with homemade gumbo, and Alex deep fried benginets on-site. I think the group favorite might have been the benginets, unexpected little bundles of fried, sugar coated dough amazingness. Enough said.

Thanks to this food fest, Mardi Gras is quickly climbing up my list of favorite holidays!

In 2010 I ... celebrated Valentine's Weekend

Last year, some lovely friends and I enjoyed an unexpectedly fun Valentine's show courtesy of Lucy Michelle & The Velvet Lapelles at 7th St. Entry. To our amazement, they did it again this year at the Cedar with more guests and fantastic love song covers.

Big Trouble and Dave Campbell started the set, and Lucy hopped on stage for a really cute run of songs from notable romantic comedies (photo courtesy of Jess).


Before the show, Carissa suggested happy hour at Hell's Kitchen, and we chowed on pulled pork nachos, sweet potato fries and delicious cocktails. In honor of Valentine's, we even shared a Mai Tai with two straws.

Then C & I jumped on the light rail to meet up with the rest of our Valentine's posse at Acadia before heading to the Cedar. It was a great time and really fun to have so many friends with us to enjoy the show we claimed "the best Valentine's Day ever" last year.

To close the night, the group headed to Grumpy's for beers, nachos and deep-fried delicacies. Happy, full and tired was the ideal way to round out the Valentine's weekend (see example of happy, full and tired below):

In 2010 I ... took a printmaking class

My first ever Mpls Community Ed class: printmaking. At Diana's suggestion we registered for this two-session printmaking class (just $25!) with D's coworker, Maura. I was definitely nervous that this class would take much more artistic skill than I possess, but the instructor was great (and a bit nutty) and made the first class easy to understand.

Beyond that, the three of us agreed we really appreciate the lack of structure - our printmaking guide gave us a rundown of the night's activities and really let us do anything we wanted. A very refreshing change from how I remember classes going ...

D & M were much more prepared than me, having brought images they wanted to transpose into prints, so I stuck with basic text projects. The simplicity of it was almost laughable - we were given thin sheets of Styrofoam and pencils to impress our designs.

M designing a card template into Styrofoam.

After designing our text/images/patterns, we were given rollers with black ink and paper - the next step was to simply smooth the ink over the Styrofoam, press paper over top and voila: a print!

My first attempts at text prints.

D got smart with her Styrofoam and trimmed it to make a more interesting frame for her text:


Easy, cheap, fun - the first round of printmaking was a success and a fun stress-reliever, too. This Wednesday we're back in class for our second and final session, where we'll actually be carving patterns into rubber eraser-like material. Fingers crossed I can handle the upgrade from Styrofoam.

In 2010 I ... attended the year's first Baby Shower

Everyone is pregnant. Honestly, everyone.

Okaaay, maybe not everyone. But it sure feels like it. And with pregnancies come baby showers, the first of which was this Sunday ... a strange pre-Super Bowl activity.

Pregnancy #1 goes to Jenny, 1/4 of a great group of friends from high school; of the group, 1/2 is pregnant. (I hope that's the most math, pregnancy related or otherwise, this blog ever sees.)

So we celebrated Jen's upcoming addition with gifts, games and talk of times when no one owned a home, was married, or starting a family. Conclusion: we're old. Age was some assistance, however, as my new mom friend Jennie was able to offer great suggestions as to the best items to purchase for this Jenny (which I'll likely be repurposing for Stacia soon, too).

This posse is getting heading up north for a short weekend hiatus next Saturday, and we realized it will be the last time we'll be able to take the trip together in one car. I think I'll be sure to stretch out a little bit further on this drive ... before the car seats and diaper bags won't allow for it.

In 2010 I ... went to Lake of the Isles Loppet

What to do on a chilly winter Saturday in MN? Be outside on a frozen lake, obviously.

After bundling up with Diana, Bryan and Bryan's friend Max (and warming up with a pre-event beverage) we trekked the two blocks from Diana's to the City of Lakes Loppet luminary event. It was gorgeous. Night + snow + ice luminaries = so pretty.

I had zero expectations and no idea what all went on at Loppet, but I think we were all pleasantly surprised to find it was really fun. A big ice pyramid had been stacked out of these really clever ice rings (I selfishly wanted to decorate my entire patio with them for the rest of winter) to stunning effect.

Beyond pretty, there was a crazy group of hippie flame throwers willing to actually burn for their craft. The crowd was loving it, though:


We finished up Loppet with a hike past the row of snow sculptures and I think there was group consensus that this guy was our favorite:

Clearly all this admiring and photo taking worked up a serious hunger, so we ran off to Dulono's for pizza, beer and live bluegrass. I can't believe I've been living just blocks from this delicious square-cut pizza goodness. It's definitely going to be on the next family-visits-Uptown to-do list.

It was so refreshing to actually be outside for longer than the time it takes to run from the door to the car, and really nice to see so many Minnesotans making the most of the season. But honestly, after today's snowfall, is it spring yet?

In 2010 I ... discovered the MOST amazing shop

Hunt & Gather, where have you been all my life? Discovering you will likely make my top list of fantastic things in 2010. This amazing antiques outpost on 50th & Xerxes came recommended by the stylishly on-point Diana, and she promised I would love it. She was so right. My only disappointment is, having grown up just a few miles away, that I wasn't aware of it sooner!

H&G is an absolute scavenger/crafter's paradise. Not a typical antique store by any means, I consider it more of a used supply house. Everywhere you turn you're met with vintage signing, salvaged letters (metal, porcelain, glass ... you name it) and all sorts of buried finds.

On my first trip I came across a pile of old school flashcards and fell in love with the simple sans serif typeface and manila card stock with rounded edges. So I snagged a few and pulled together this easy framing project:

The cards were a mere $1.25 each, and combined with IKEA fabric I already owned and a clearance frame from Target purchased for a rainy day project like this, the whole thing came out to around $8. Shamefully easy and super cheap = right up my alley. So, I couldn't resist a second visit last weekend to purchase even more cards.

Poor Brooke. We spent last Saturday brunching and shopping, with what was likely a painfully long H&G visit. No clue what I'll be doing with these yet (likely framing more for gifts or something similar) but even if they simply stay put in my crafting pile, I couldn't be more thrilled to have discovered such a fantastic shop just minutes from my house.

In 2010 I ... went to my first Metal Show

I like a lot of music. I'm very open to listening to new music. I love going to shows. But metal music and metal shows ... hmm. Metal hasn't exactly been on my radar before. Ever. So when a friend's metal band was playing at the Hexagon on Friday, my interest was piqued. Plus I'd never been to Hexagon before, which just seemed wrong.

A metal-enthusiast friend told me in advance that our friend's band was very talented musically, which turned out to be true. It's just the lyric yelling I can't get behind. (The neon orange ear plugs being sold behind the bar was another sign this genre might not become my music mainstay.) I did truly enjoy myself and am glad to have added metal show attendance to my show checklist.


It might have also been a bit more shocking considering the contrast between these guys and Caroline Smith and the Goodnight Sleeps, the first show we saw Friday at the Kitty Kat Club.


I love this venue and it was a perfect spot for a band with such a sweet, melodic sound. They've been on my to-see list for awhile, and I'm already looking forward to tracking them down at any outdoor venue this summer ... they'd be perfect on a blanket with a beer when it's finally warm again.