Come visit my neighborhood!

My husband and I have lived in Northeast Minneapolis for almost thirteen years now. We moved here from South Minneapolis seeking a quieter more relaxed life. We love our neighborhood for it's mix of people, fabulous art, and sense of community. If you are ever in search of a place to visit, please consider coming to Minneapolis. Contact me and I will show you all of the great things we have to offer. If you already live here then you know how lucky we all our to live in this beautiful city. I wanted to show you a few of my favorite places to walk to in our neighborhood. If you haven't been over here, come for a visit!

My absolute favorite place in the neighborhood!

The Coffee Shop Northeast is a great place to meet friends for coffee and really yummy food, or bring your computer and study or look at blogs. The atmosphere is friendly, the people are nice, and the food is spectacular. Seriously...my favorite place in the hood!

Who doesn't LOVE a good old fashioned bakery? Umm, I DO!

Sarah Jane's Bakery is my pick for old fashioned goodies. Bring some of the maple bars to your older, crabby neighbors. I guarantee you will be friends for life.

Next, let's walk down to Crafty Planet and buy some of the latest fabric, or take a sewing class. They offer knitting, crocheting, embroidery, and sewing classes. Sew yourself a new summer skirt! Crafty Planet is an independently run shop and I love to support them. I'm so happy to have them in our neighborhood!

Are you more of a vintage kind of girl? No sewing required when you stop into Rewind. They're website is currently down, but I will update the link when it is up again. Plan on spending a lot of time in Rewind. They are loaded to the gills with clothing, shoes, jewelry and sunglasses. Even if you don't wear vintage, you WILL find something to take home. I promise.

More food. Hazel's is where you must go for breakfast on a lazy Saturday morning. When you eat the Drunkin Banana French toast you will think you died and went to heaven. Cliche, I know, but I don't care. I have never eaten something so yummy in my life. Hazel's is always busy, the ambiance is great...and you won't mind waiting once you taste their food. Yes, those are turkeys. We have turkeys that roam our neighborhood. They even follow the garbage men. Hilarious!

Not a great picture of  Amici and I apologize for that. The pizza and pasta here are fabulous. My husband and I head here often for middle of the week dinners. Grab a glass of wine and some homemade pasta but save room for the flourless chocolate cake with salted caramel ice cream. The service is great here too!

If you live close I hope you'll consider visiting my neighborhood. If you live a bit further away, I'd love to hear what your favorite neighborhood places are! I love supporting my local neighborhood shops and restaurants. I don't know what I would do without them!

Happy weekend!

Stacy

Mini Pick-Me-Up #2 - The Backyard Edition. Day 6. More rain.

 We delayed our weekend trip to the cabin by a day... because the rain was not a comin' until this afternoon. As you can see, hopefully, progress was made. The dirt is almost all moved and almost flat. The next thing to happen will be for my dad to bring the grader over and really level the ground. It did start to rain about an hour ago, so Eric had to finally quit and we are getting ready to head out now.

 My soaked honey... doing a little clean-up. Note the Peony he moved on the left.. Huge.. and deep. When we did the basement finishing we added an egress window and as it was November when Eric was installing said window... he just dumped the dirt near the garage and it happened to be on the peony. Now because of that our peony is the last one out of the ground in the spring. I can't wait to get my garden in when this is all finished... and set up the dining and living area.. Eeee!

I also decided that the Allium had to move.. I was getting too nervous about it getting damaged... They look so cute up here near the front door now.

Alyssa

To go to the next post for this project click here.

Pinterest Post. Organization.

 Super smart addition to a closet door. Genius! Found here. Next week I will clean up Avery's closet and share my American girl organization secret with you all.

 Crafty fun and great crafty storage. Found here.

 Drawers under the benches. Again. Genius! No more wasted space. Found here. There are some great kitchen ideas on this blog... I will be spending some time here when I get back for sure.

So cute... I love this. Found here. Oh, ps... those are tension rods to create the slots and only Martha could make cutting boards look this good. 

One last image for good measure.

If I had time... all the toilet paper rolls in my house would look this good.

Found here.

......with that I am headed to the cabin for a quiet weekend... 

Alyssa

Mini Pick-Me-Up #2... Day 4 & 5... More Rain.

Well. It seems to want to rain. A lot. Which has not boded well for getting work done on what I am now calling our backyard debacle. :) That is a wry smile if you can't tell. Eric, my honey, did get some work done the other night before it rained again and made considerable progress. Unfortunately, the photo's do not do this justice in showing how much dirt was moved.. but believe me it was considerable. About 6+ inches have moved away from the sidewalk as you sort of can tell. Thankfully it is not going to rain tonight or tomorrow am... so Eric will be able to get lot's done during that time. Enjoy the show!

 Pushing the dirt back with the tiller... He is getting to be a pro! 

 Aww.. Ain't he cute! My farmer boy. 

 You can kind of see the mound he moved here. In real life it is quite impressive.. 

I also had to share the first garden harvest of the year. Our asparagus! So cute and yummy! 

Ciao for now... 

Alyssa

Oh and ps.. this dirt smells like manure! Yuck.. I bet you are glad the computer screen is not the scratch and sniff variety. I will be glad to get this covered.

To go to the next post for this project. Click here. 

Simple Summer Style...on a budget!

I've given you a couple of outfit options in the past but this time I decided to find a great outfit on a budget. With gas climbing to $4 a gallon I feel like it's time to be realistic when it comes to spending. There are so many great things out there if you just spend some time looking. Again, stick to the classics and you won't have any regrets! You will be able to pair all of the items that I have suggested in my style posts with many things you already have....and for years to come.

So we will start with this super cute ruffle tank. Get it in white because you will look fabulous in this when you have a little color. Please wear sunscreen though...I am here to tell you that age spots do happen! On your face! Don't ask me how I know, and don't assume that I bought a really super expensive prescription skin bleach cream to get rid of them! Also don't assume that I learned my lesson and stay out of the sun at all times. Learn from my mistakes!  Back to this tank...it's $8....yes, $8! Bargain!

Now lets add this really cute and bright ruffled boyfriend cardigan. It's lightweight and you can push up the sleeves. It's casual and cute, but more important it is classic with a twist! The price is right on this at under $23! It would be cute with white jeans, blue jeans, skirts...whatever you have in your closet.

How cute are these?! I'm not one for short shorts. I guess I'm a "leave something to the imagination" sort of girl. If you prefer them shorter, go for it! I won't judge. These are about $27. Remember, they are classic. Stay the same size (I have not mastered this) and you will wear them for a few years. Especially if you live in Minnesota like Alyssa and I do. Summer is a very short season here! You can find all three of the above pieces at Old Navy. Watch for sales because they are always having a sale for 15% off it seems.

Let's keep the shoes simple and go with white. You can wear them with anything and they're flat. These are from Macy's and they are on sale for about $20.  Macy's always ships for free so if you can't get there just order online!

Etsy, Etsy, ETSY! I told you it's my addiction. Go there and get this cute little mod bird necklace for $15 and you are all done with your simple, budget friendly summer outfit. You're going to look so cute! Not that you don't look cute every single day of your life, but you're going to look ULTRA cute when you wear this. You'll feel cute too! I promise.

Happy shopping!

Stacy

I went shopping.

So my daughter left for Army Basic Training yesterday and I've been feeling a little down. Today I decided that I needed some retail therapy, so after work I headed over to Anthropologie. Honestly, when I walk into that place the instant eye candy makes me want to crawl into one of their display beds and hang out for a few days. If you have one near you, you must go for a visit. I had the nicest sales woman too. I don't know her name, but I would like to say HELLO, and thank you! Yes, I gave her the name of our blog. I hope she enjoys it!

So, as you can see above, I bought a few things. Have you seen this Decorate book yet? It is by the woman who has the blog decor8. She has a fabulous sense of style! I love her mix of vintage and modern and I could easily live in any of the rooms she features. See those 3 little bowls? I got those for $2.50 each. I love them for a variety of things like olives when I have company over, jewelry on my dresser, herb butter, and a million other things. They are little and I love the happy colors. My splurge today was the tablecloth that all of this is resting on. I paid $78 for it. Don't tell my husband. It was hard considering I can sew, but the colors in this were so fabulous I couldn't resist. This picture does not do it justice.

Last, my husband walked in while I was putting my make-up on this morning holding these. We no longer have to take (steal) them in the early morning hours from our neighbor in the alley because we now have our own. I've been burning a lilac candle for the past month while I wait for them to bloom. Our lilacs were a couple of weeks late in blooming this year because of the cold weather. I will savor the smell of these beauties for the next week. I'm pretty sure heaven smells like this.

Tell me what fun things you have bought for your home lately... I'd love to hear.

-Stacy 

The truly mini - Mini Pick-Me-Up #3. Sewing edition.

This weekend I decided to have a play date with Ricky. Just for me. no burp cloths, blankets, pillows, skirts for Avery.. Something just for me. A few weeks ago I purchased a kit to make the cutest fabric scarf from Sewtropolis. The pattern is from Anna Maria Horner and is called 'Figuring 8'. This scarf is worn in a figure 8 pattern around your neck.. I took a few photo's along the way and love, love, love my new scarf..

 Pinning the rights sides together... I did learn to pin one side at a time as the fabric shifts along the way while sewing. I had a little shifting and had to do some minor trimming but overall not so bad.

 For those of you who have not met Ricky yet, say 'Hello!' This is Ricky the Riccar. He is my mother's old sewing machine still a chugging away after about 30 years of hard labor.

 This was the fun part. I am being facetious for those of you who don't know me. Next you aline the bottom edges after you sew the 2 long sides together. This was nothing short of an amazing feat for me. The edges didn't want to line up properly and for some reason an half an inch one side did not match the half inch on the other.. argh. major fudging here. After sewing the velveteen (the gold fabric) together you next blind stitch the sateen fabric (the purplish one) together to give it a nice finished edge. Yes, it looks nicer than a top stitch but it was so painful, I couldn't bear to photograph it...

If you go to Anna Maria's site she does a great job of photographing the process.

 But alas, I finished and love the outcome... 

My newest scarf addition. Love it and can't wait for fall. Knowing Mother Nature in Minnesota that should be in about 2 weeks. ;) Ha. Ha. 

Have a great day folks! Thanks for stopping!

Alyssa

Mini Pick-Me-Up #2.... Day 3. Not So Mini Anymore.

 I'm Sinking.. 

Eric & Kai having a little fun in the midst of our backyard debacle. 

 Once upon a time. There was a concrete sidewalk here. Now it is covered in mud. The end.

 This is the part where it gets bigger. Our final solution is to not remove dirt but move 12" of dirt from the west side of the backyard to the east side. We were going to stop at the garden, which would have made it a sunken garden by 12". Now, we are doing this on the cheap, but I still want it to look good. So.... today I came up with the solution to move all the plants and then level the dirt all the way to the garage. See plants above in their new temporary trough. Thankfully, I have not planted the vegetable garden yet.. so this was all possible. We are now on a bit of a time line because I need to get these guys back some where permanently and I have all of my loot from the weekend to plant still as well... On a sunshiney note the lilac has now bloomed. Scratch the screen & sniff folks. Just kidding. Sorry to tease. Wouldn't that be cool though!

 I did not want to move the Allium however as it is almost ready to bloom.. so we barricaded that against the tiller.. whenever we can get back to doing that. Which won't happen until the backyard dries out. Please let it be sunny for a few days.

And yet more rain... needless to say we did not get all the plants moved yet... due to this wonderful storm.

Well. That is all from day 3. Wish us luck and sun. We need both at this point.

Alyssa

To go to the next post for this project. Click here.

Holy Cuteness!

Oh how I love this! Its so cute I want one in every color!

You can find them here. Check out the hot pink one too!

Summer Style!

I love this outfit! Casual summer style at it's best. You will see I prefer classics.

I love this classic blouse from Eddie Bauer. It's simple and that is key with me!

These white jeans are perfect. Slight bootcut. If you know me, you know that I am not into the legging jeans or slim leg jeans. In all honesty, I feel that if you are not a size 4, they do not look particularly great. These jeans are a good balance. Not too baggy, but not too tight. You can find them at

Banana Republic and you can pair them with a t-shirt, or dress them up.

Do you know about Toms? For every pair you buy, they donate a pair of shoes to a child in need. You can actually feel good about wearing these. I like them in midnight Blue so you aren't too matchy.

Now go to Etsy (yes, again!) and buy this right away! I love it and I bet you will too! It is so simple, it will look great with your tan, and it only costs $17.50!

As long as you're on Etsy you should probably buy this too. Just because you are wonderful! It's a fun Hobo bag that will add color to your new outfit.

Happy Summer! Time to plant flowers, sip gin and tonics, have picnics by the lake, lounge on your favorite chair in the backyard, and be with the people you love!

-Stacy