Get Your Shopping Done in a Day

It's true. You can totally get all your holiday shopping done in one day. If you'd like, you could also spend every last penny of money you have, and happily so. Where and when is such a opportunity presenting itself? Why, the No Coast Craft-o-rama, of course!

Let me tell you the story of the No Coast Craft-o-rama. Oh, the year was 2005, I think. Right around the same time Crafty Planet opened it's doors. I had started crafting things to sell and was having very little success at the local craft sales. Around the same time my mom was retiring, and bugging me about what she was going to do with all this newfound time. So, I set about to recruit forces to help me plan a wee little sale in our fair city. And that is what I did.

To get things started, I dropped in on Trish at Crafty Planet. "Trish," I said, "...how can I get some hip crafty peeps together to help me plan this thing?" To which Trish said, "I'll help you!" And so it was. I created some flyers and hung them about town. Trish passed the word through the store and her wide network of crafty hipsters. The night of the first planning meeting arrived...and some people showed up! Real, live people! Who also liked the idea of a cool, indie craft sale! It was a thrill. To this day only one or two of the people who were at that meeting are still involved with the planning, but believe me, every one of them made a difference in how things came to be!

Fast forward past all of the agonizing hard work of putting together that first sale, trying to find vendors, a location, determine advertising needs, establish an identity and get organized to the morning of the sale. We all arrived at Columbia Manor in northeast Minneapolis with butterflies. Would anyone come? Would the tables all fit? Would everything run smoothly? As people trickled in, then crowds amassed, then hoards of made shoppers practically stormed the place, it became clear that we would far exceed our expected attendance of 500. In fact, I think I recall we had around 2,500 attendees! It was amazing, and one of the most exciting and rewarding feelings I've ever had to see all that hard work pay off. Our vendors said that shoppers were crazed, throwing money and snatching up crafts like it was their last ever opportunity to get a piece of the craft action. My husband dressed as Santa and dj'ed all day, and my mom had a banner day of sales. All of my friends came, and I made new friends and discovered some unbelievably talented local crafters and generally just had an awesome day. It whet my appetite for more.

As I said, the whole story is a long one, but I've helped plan this sale for the last four years -- everything from writing press releases to setting up and tearing down tables to helping design shirts and web sites and choose vendors and appear on media interviews. It's been a labor of love but also extremely consuming. This year I stepped away from it all to focus on (selfishly) me, my family, and lots of other things. But I can rest easy knowing that it's now in Trish and the Crafty Planet gang's capable hands. I feel like I set out to accomplish something really great, and I did -- and now it's got momentum of it's own! I can finally just show up and shop...with no responsibilities! It's a great feeling, and I plan to completely blow every penny I have there. So if you're expecting a gift from me this year, you can't come shopping with me. Or you've got to get lost...which won't be hard to do at this event!

Come check it out and support local handmakers. They deserve your business!

Oct. 24 Save the Date for Bundles of Love

If you're in the Twin Cities, please consider coming out to a fun fundraising event for Bundles of Love. It's for a great cause -- babies!!!

What: Bundles of Love Fundraiser Dinner & Silent Auction
When : Saturday, October 24th 6 p.m. – 9 p.m.
Where: TriCity American Legion
400 Old Highway # 8 N.W.
New Brighton, MN 55112
What: Dinner, silent auction and a night of fun.
Why: Because with your assistance Bundles of Love Charity can help more Minnesota babies receive the basics they
deserve.

We are delighted to invite you to join us in celebrating our tenth anniversary at our Annual Fall Fundraiser. It will be held at the Tricity American Legion (400 Old Highway 8 NW, New Brighton, MN 55112 • (651) 631‐1124) on October 24th from 6-pm. The tickets will be $15 a person for a delicious dinner of marinated chicken breast, whipped potatoes and gravy, mixed vegetables and tossed salad or Fettuccine with broccoli (our vegetarian choice). Amazing desserts will be provided by our volunteers. In addition to dinner we will be having a silent auction of items that were donated by local organizations and a raffle with first place being a Toro snow thrower and second place being a Llyod Security system. Kindly RSVP to Deb Persing by sending $15 per ticket to

Deb Persing
1352 155th Ave NW
Andover, MN 55304
Hope to see you there!!

The raffle tickets will be sold for a $5 donation.

First place is a Power Clear Toro Snow Thrower, Model 38583

Second place is a GE Concord 4.0 basic system- 2 doors, a keypad, 3 window contact and a motion Installed. A $395 value!

The Great Minnesota Get-Together

Here in Minnesota, where casseroles are "hot dishes" and the curious knack for passive-aggressivity (is that a word??) is called "Minnesota Nice," the annual Minnesota State Fair has been dubbed The Great Minnesota Get-Together. Maybe that's because Minnesotans, if I might stereotype for a moment, don't like crowds over about five people and therefore need to entice one-another to an event that annually draws over 1.6 million people and on the day we attended, over 200,000. Now how many of you would call that a get-together? A raging party? The population of the city you live in (or more)? I guess that answer depends on whether or not you're a Minnesotan. We Minnesotans like it better if we can think of it as just a little get-together among friends. Just poppin' in for a sit-down with some old chums.



Mr. Pumpkin, Wee Pumpkin and I stopped in for a spell at the get-together on Saturday. We got a real early start so as to avoid the crowds (in keeping with the attitudes of our state-of-residency). Even with a small crowd, though, we had a fantastic time people watching. Having just been introduced to People of Wal-Mart, we quickly drew correlations to the fair-goers. At an event where deep-fried candy bars and chocolate-covered bacon are easier to come by than a pizza joint in New York City, and where the muffin top still reigns supreme in women's fashion, it wasn't hard to find examples that could have easily found themselves in a "People of the State Fair" photo gallery. Mullets, mom jeans and Fair Do's, oh my! However, we restrained ourselves from too much mockery or stealth photography and just enjoyed looking at the animals and trying some new foods. I know, how boring, right?



We rode the Skyride, which wee one called "car up high" and looked at all the boats and tractors and plows on Machinery Hill. We tried a Spam breakfast sandwich (delicious) and washed it down with a shake from the dairy barn (at 9:30 a.m.). The honey lemonade was a hit with me and the family friendly magic show was a hit with the wee one. We saw the 1900 pound pumpkin and checked out all the seed art. We took a free trolley ride. It was a beautiful, perfectly sunny but not hot, not too crowded, pleasant day. I still regret that we didn't document the People of the State Fair. Maybe next year. Maybe if you go, you can do it. You won't have to work very hard at it. And now with the new-fangled camera-phones, no one will ever know what you're doing.



I love the fair. We go every year. Every time I go, I see something new, and I always miss seeing something, too -- because it's just so darn big and there's just one or two too many people at the great-big super massive gosh darn overwhelmingly gigantic Great Minnesota Get Together.

Dog Days

It sure hasn't felt like a "usual" summer around here. I haven't had the air conditioning on more than twice and I haven't felt inclined to stick my behind in the freezer or spontaneously turn the hose on myself at all. It's sort of like cheating. Global Cooling. It's feeling more like fall then I can ever remember summer's past feeling.



The bad news is we haven't yet hit the neighborhood pool. The good news is every other thing we've done this summer has not been done in a pool of our own sweat while we alternate sunblock and bugspray. It's actually quite pleasant to be outside enjoying summer. What a concept!



Tonight we hit the Dog Parade in our neighborhood and, although all the local merchants had little bowls of water out for the pooches, no one was at risk of heat stroke and everyone could enjoy being in the direct (although setting) sun to watch them swagger, run, sniff, ride and meander by, sniffing for treats and ear rubs.



It was a very short parade and the costumes lacked a bit, but hey, it was good, local, free fun and we got to pet a lot of seriously cute dogs that were seriously more well behaved than our own. I've already started thinking about how to dress two Schnauzers for next year. Batman and Robin? Sonny and Cher? Hmmm. I need some ideas here.



Happy Friday and good weekend to you! I hope you're getting some lovely summer weather wherever you are.

Off to the [Hamburger] Races

Hamburger Races
Originally uploaded by truckertracy

At our house we've been watching a little bit of the Tour de France. It's fun to try to figure out what everything means. Like Peloton? The Yellow Jersey? Did you know that Tour de France apparently started as a newspaper promotion? Wow, there's so much to learn, it's hard to keep track of all the stages and "trade teams" and strategy. If anyone knows of a good "Dummies Guide to..." book, let me know. Geez, so many things I enjoy I just need the Cliff's notes to understand. Like hockey. And most other sports.

Wee Pumpkin is really shaping up to be quite the athelete. He loves to run everywhere these days, and often declares before he takes off, "runanrunanrun!" We're in the midst of potty training, and so our code word for "I need to hit the potty, ma" is also "runanrunanrun!" Of course, 40% of the time he is saying "runanrunanrun" while the pee is forming a puddle at his feet, but at least he's starting to get the idea. I'm absolutely terrified of the potty training outside the house part of this whole experience. Again, do they make Cliff's notes for that?

Next weekend I'm off for my annual Girl's Trip to hit my hometown for some awesome shopping, relaxing and, if all goes as planned, some much needed jaw flappin'. Now to pick up some trashy lady magazines and some good snacks for the long car ride. I can hardly wait!!!!!!

What to do, What to do?

Luckily my kid isn't old enough yet to utter the words "I'm bored" or the various combinations including "This is boring" and "This is stupid" and "Do we have to...?" and "When are we going to...?" However, I am trying to proactively avoid such sentiments this summer by coming up with a "summer do" list. So far, it's only really included "make it through til July" and now we're ready to start checking the fun stuff off the list before the snow flies again (which, in Minnesota, is about a month and a half from now).





I came across this awesome list geared towards grandparents, but I think it's totally relevant to parents, too. I borrowed a little from this list, and came up with a few of my own to create my summer do list:
--Garage saling!!!!!
--Hit the drive-in diner (our local fave is the Dari-ette)
--Check out the farmer's market (more than once!)
--Spend a weekend at a cabin (we're thinking about the Girl Lake Resort)
--Have a picnic
--Spend a day at the Minnesota State Fair
--Give the dogs a bath
--Hit the water park (href="http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=4&parkid=364">Jim Lupient is our favorite)
--Take a weekend off (Girl's Weekend 2009 here I come!!!)

Mr. Pumpkin and wee pumpkin have already done tons more fun stuff, like watching a big Lion's parade, the beach and about 8,000 hours of park time, but me being the working stiff had to keep the must do list a little more brief.

What's on your must-do list this summer?

Buy Flowers and Be a Do-Gooder This Weekend!

This weekend you can buy your plants and Linders and support a local charity all at the same time. What's not to feel good about that!? Print out the coupon and take it to any Linder's greenhouse or garden center May 1 through May 4 and 15% of your pre-tax purchase will support Bundles of Love.

If you need something fun to do on Saturday, check out Craftstravaganza at the State Fairgrounds. Good fun!

Cake and Choo Choo

This past weekend was a bit of a birthday bonanza at our house, with both an auntie and a grampy having birthdays. We celebrated at our house, so we didn't have to travel, which was nice. It did mean we got to do all of the cooking, which I will gladly opt for rather than a long drive with an antsy toddler. I hustled around the kitchen to make sure everything was *just right* and I think it was. I made some sun-dried tomato and chevre scones, a gorgeous cake out of my new Dorie Greenspan book, and we put a pot of white bean and ham soup on the stove to cook all day (which was the easiest and yummiest thing I've eaten in a long time...basically throw two hamhocks, 12 cups of stock, 2 quartered onions and two bags of navy beans in a pot and cook on medium low). Yum!


To get out of the house, we loaded up the entire family and headed to the Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum to see the miniature Minneapolis and St. Paul train system they had set up. It was pretty remarkable, and even included a hobo campout on the sketchy side of town under a railroad bridge. Right now, through February, they're doing their Saturday "Night Train" exhibit where they turn off all the lights except the train lights after 6 PM. I wish we'd seen it, but it's too late for our wee one -- by that time he's usually finishing up dinner and getting into pjs. I do want to try to get back there for the circus trains, though. Cool. And man, that place was filled with nerds. We were in our element, being nerds ourselves!

What's going on in your neck of the woods? We're gearing up for another snowstorm and hoping it melts quickly!

Fun on Ice

We took a cue from our friend at Tapir's Poop today and visited the Art Shanty Project. It's basically a bunch of tricked out shacks set up out on one of our suburban lakes. At one, we gave confession to a carp and at another we opted not to take a dip in the freezing waters and get warmed by the sauna ice house. It was, as we knew it would be, a quintessential Minnesota experience, chock full of hipsters, old hippies, kids, dogs and those who just love winter and/or love the challenge of building and surviving out in the cold. Just as we left we saw someone start unloading big boxes full of hot dog buns. Dangit, I guess we missed the ice-side cookout.

If you want to see more about the art shanty project, check out the search I ran on Flickr.

Wedding Bells

It was a wedding-filled weekend for us as Mr. Pumpkin's close friend tied the knot today. I missed most of the festivities, but we did swing by the reception mostly to show off Little Pumpkin's new tiesie. Pumpkin had more outfit changes than I did as I realized that the 18 month tiesie was too big and a 12 month tiesie would need to be sewn before we left the house. I have to hand to the kid, he sat on my lap and fiddled a bit with the knobs while I sewed, but he let me get through the project and even allowed me to re-dress him. Pretty spectacular, right?!

The cake was beautiful, even though it apparently went through a bit of a cake-tastrophy in which four layers somehow became one. I didn't get a chance to taste it, but it looked lovely. And the accordian player was a particular favorite, especially after treating Little Pumpkin to "The Wheels on the Bus" and "Old MacDonald". What a guy!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend. I'm off to sleep! zzzzzzzzzz.

How I Became Rich and Famous: My State Fair Story

I should start this story by saying that I am not, nor do I plan to become rich and famous. But I feel about as close to a celebrity as I think I ever will. I won myself a red ribbon at the Great Minnesota Get Together, the state fair. This is my winning entry:

I entered four things and this little bugger got the ribbon. Never mind that it's not infant sleepwear and that's the category it won in. Never mind, either, that it's knee pads are sewn more in proximity of the tooshie than the knees. It's a big, fat, red ribbon winner and I'm darn proud. Not nearly as proud as I am of my friend from Hazel and Melvin's Room who won second place for Monkeys in the Meat Grinder:

...and seemingly every other award known to man on her awesome sweater:

And my friend Kristen Mary submitted only one thing, her adorable cloth "paper doll" set, and she won the BLUE RIBBON on it! She rocks, and I feel like her famousness might rub off on me by being her friend.

I'm sure I missed so much. I LOVE the crop art and this year did not disappoint. The fine arts building was full of great looking stuff. But what made my day checking out the fair the most special, was sharing it with this little guy. He ate his first Pronto Pup, enjoyed deep friend cheese curds and a real chocolate milk shake from the dairy barn. He was such a trooper!

Firsts: Parade Day and a Lollipop

Friday we had two Baby Pumpkin firsts -- a parade and a lollipop! It was terrific. The loud noises only bothered him in the beginning but he got used to it and was soon hopping up and down to the tunes from the floats. People kept throwing him candy (choking hazard) and I finally relented and opened up a lollipop for him. He did really good! He stayed up way past his bed time, didn't choke or freak out, and we all went home liking our neighborhood a little more.

I'm the process of trying to dream up some cool winter hats for the boy. I got some flannel and some nubly fleece and I'm going to try to make him a cool earflap hat. I also got a custom order for a really cute girl's hat that I can't wait to put together. I'm hoping I get inspired by my projects, because I've been feeling a little blah lately. I'm in the seasonal limbo. Should I be preparing for fall? Is summer in full swing or winding down? What's happening?

So, tell me, what should I do for some crafty inspiration?

MN State Fair Creative Activities Competition

Mr. Pumpkin and I have been soul searching for a while now about whether we'd like to move to a smaller city closer to our families. Apparently we're not alone in wanting a less urban environment; I just read an article on the so-called Dreamtowns that everyone wants to move to like Helena, Montana and saw myself all over it. But our dreamtown needs to be Midwestern and semi-close to amenities found in a bigger city, so Helena is out.

In thinking about moving away from Minnesota, I have been collecting in my mind all the things I'll miss about this place. Can I give up seeing my friends? Will I have to live without French Meadow cafe? What about the Sample Room? My house that I love? Proximity to my sister and kids? What about the Great Minnesota Get-Together, the State Fair?

Oh, the State Fair. It's my favorite summer activity, and I go multiple times per year to eat lots of food and check out the baking competition, the seed art and the bird with feathery feet. Not to mention the giant pumpkins! In a last-minute panic, I decided to prepare for a possible departure by entering some of my crafts into the Creative Activities Competition. I'm super excited! I really was hoping to enter the "Quilt on a Stick" category, but alas I do not have time to put one together in a week's time. So here's what I'm entering. Check it out when you're there, and see if I won (unlikely, but at least I'll be representin'!)!

It won't make up for all the things I'd miss if we do move, but it will at least I can say I fully lived the Minnesota life while I was here! If you want to enter, the last day to register is today (4:30 PM) and you need to drop the stuff off starting next Sunday.

Happy Birthday, Baby Pumpkin!

Suffice it to say that Baby Pumpkin's birthday party went off without a hitch. I'm exhuasted and ready for bed, so here's wishing my sweet boy another great year and many more cake-eating adventures to come!

County Fairs and Cardamom Cake

Phew, another weekend sped by at lightning speed. I'm sitting at the end of it, in my pajamas, belly full of wine and cake, wondering if 8:30 is too early to call it a night and hit the "hay". Saturday Baby Pumpkin checked out the cows, horses, pigs, and all manner of farm animal at our county fair. It was pretty awesome. He even got to ride a pint-sized tractor (we had to pull him away screaming he loved it so much).

Afterwards, Hubby and I got a craving for this wonderful cardamom cake we'd had at Bread and Chocolate a few weeks ago. I made this recipe, but it didn't really cut it. Too doughy, not sweet enough, and without the glaze it was a little blah. Anyone have a good recipe? This week I'm making strawberry pie for Little Pumpkin's birthday party, but maybe another week I'll have time to give it a second try. It did turn out beautifully, though, didn't it? Looks like a snow-covered mountain! Oh, and the SMELLS from my kitchen...DEEeee-licious!

Saturday is the big first birthday party, and we have relatives coming from all over to celebrate with us. Funny how I thought we'd totally not make a big deal out of this birthday. Now I'm wound up all in knots about making it perfect. I already ran out to the store to buy every kind of soda and for those who don't drink soda, there's iced tea, plus chips, and for those who don't like chips I got pretzels, and the list goes on. Not to mention all the Gourmet-magazine side dishes I'll be attempting...it's a recipe for a mama meltdown, most likely. Thank goodness I'm also planning to load up on a Martha recipe for sangria.

Because I'm a glutton for punishment and hold myself to high standards for entertaining out of town guests, I've also decided that it's absolutely *required* that we have a fire pit to sit by after the party's over. Can't you just see us, smartly dressed, perfectly sun-kissed, drinking sangria in front of our beautiful backyard bonfire? Anyone know how to build one...???

Laugh Your Arse Off

My sister and I used to entertain ourselves on road trips by reading the free trucker newpapers available at most rest areas. What? You didn't know that trucker newspapers were available FREE at most rest areas? Boy, you've been missing out!

We would pick them up for the personals. They were fantastic! Eventually, though, we noticed a theme. Most people seeking a loved one fit into this description:

Single [XYZ ethnicity] [ABC gender] seeks [whatever] for QUIET WALKS, MOVIES. You must have SENSE OF HUMOR, GOOD BODY, WILLINGNESS TO OVERLOOK MY EX WIFE AND 19 KIDS AND BODY ODOR.

We never did find our soulmates reading these personals, but we did really take an interest in the common love for humor and having a sense of humor. We often laugh about our discovery by saying "I like funny things" or "Must like humor". Since then I've really done some thinking about humor and funniness. Because we really don't all find the same things funny. There are college level courses and academic books dedicated to what's funny. How can we so flippantly seek someone who enjoys "humor"?

All this led me to Maria Bamford. She's hilarious. Her impersonations of "townies" where she grew up makes me pee my pants laughing. She's ridiculous, self-depracating, and she takes her Pug with her places. You really should read the Maria Bamford article on City Pages last week. If you like the clip, go visit Maria in Duluth at The Boring Rally. I am telling you, I can overlook body odor, but you've GOT to have a sense of humor.

It's Garage Sale Season!

Wanna hear a crazy story about the time a fight broke out and we had to call the cops? No, it wasn't last night at the bar. It was at the garage sale my parents had a few years ago. Yes, folks, there was an actual fight over something at their garage sale. It was one of the most ridiculous moments ever.

Here's the scene: my parents collected antiques, but when they wanted to downsize they sold most of the good stuff at an auction. The leftovers were part of the Great Garage Sale of 2002. They put an ad in the paper about their sale, stating clearly in the ad that the sale started at 8 AM, no earlier (a person needs to get coffee into their system before the sales can begin, right?). Regardless, a gaggle of people, we'll call them garage sale enthusiasts had gathered LONG before 8 AM outside the closed garage door. Eventually, despite the milling crowd of gawkers, we needed to open the garage door and start moving a few tables of stuff out to the driveway. We asked the crowd (geez, you'd think we were selling half price Feraris or something!) to respectfully give them space to move things and that they could begin at 8 AM promptly.

At 8 AM, my parents said "go ahead" and the whole mob leapt forward, sending "antiques" crashing to the floor everywhere. These GROWN MEN were yelling and shoving over who knows what. Whatever they were after couldn't have been that great (we never did really discern what they were after). We had to call the cops to break it up, but luckily it had fizzled out before the nice lady cop showed up. All day long people were walking up saying "Hey, is this the garage sale where there was the FIGHT?!" Yes, folks, it was pathetic, but it sure provided us with a chuckle.

I'm so excited that it's garage sale season again. I found a great list of Twin Cities neighborhood and group garage sales that I plan to print out and pin on the fridge. I'm for sure going to check out the the Como neighborhood sale, which is next weekend. I've also heard great things about the sale in Linden Hills.

Any other neighborhood sales you'd recommend? Please share!

Spring? Is That You?

It would be a major understatement to say that I am completely and totally DONE with winter. I want it gone. Like a bad break-up, I'm ready to throw its' s*%t out on the lawn with explitives flying and arms swinging. It's been too cold for too long. I've got this late winter head cold that's left a crust on my nose (I know, TMI), and dangit, I'm tired of it. I almost fell right on my butt walking to catch the bus today. And I would not have been happy about that.

Today it was near, like 50 degrees. In Minnesota we call that shorts weather. I had to work all day so I had to wait until I got home to put on my bikini. I'm thinking about wearing a tube top to work tomorrow.

Thoughts?

In other spring news, the downtown Minneapolis Macy's has this flower thing going on right now that's pretty cool. It's also got a bunch of Heart of the Beast puppets on display. A good outing, if you need some color in your life.

A Life Without Chocolate Is Not One Worth Living

There are few things I find more delicious than good quality chocolate. It's great after dinner with a cup of Joe (or latte, or cappuccino), I love it as a cake, I love it in brownie form, pretty much any way you slice it, I like it. I'm not as much of a chocaholic as my husband; it's because of him that I almost exclusively bake chocolate treats. One thing I have yet to find is a great chocolate cookbook. Any suggestions?

For Christmas, my sister enrolled me in a "Make and Take" truffles class at Cooks of Crocus Hill. I've always wanted to take a class there, but I'm also a tightwad, so shelling out $60 (or more) for one night of "entertainment" seemed a bit spendy to me. But, I got my chance to check it out last night.

Let me start by saying that I completely screwed up by not paying attention when I wrote down the class start time in my planner, and then by getting lost on the way to the class. Long story short I was 40 minutes late and missed most of the demonstration. Nevertheless, I caught the demo on how to make caramel, and that was informative. Also, I got a tip out of my fellow classmates that I also must have missed: when you melt chocolate in a double boiler, first let the water boil, then put your bowl with the chocolate on top of the pan, and then TURN OFF THE HEAT! Otherwise, you risk burning the chocolate. Not good. OH! And, the reason why you don't "ever" melt chocolate chips for uses in things like truffles is that they are specially formulated to not melt, for things like chocolate chip cookies where they need to be semi-intact when baked. Who knew? I thought that rule only applied to food snobs, not average pumpkins like me.

Our instructor was Robin Asbell, former head chef in the deli at one of our local co-ops. After we watched her demos, we broke into groups and tackled some of her recipes. I was on the "Peanut Butter White Chocolate Truffles" team. I felt a little weird at first, since I was the only person there without a "buddy" of some sort, but I just embraced my nerdiness and broke out my camera. Nothing says "outsider" like a single girl at cooking class shoving a camera in everyone's truffles.

After the class was over, and all the truffles were nestled into the fridge to cool, Robin talked to the group about the wonderful local resources for chocolate, and some of really yummy and unique things being done with it, like bacon chocolate bars by Voges Chocolate out of Chicago. I've had the pleasure of eating their Red Fire Bar and I can definitely attest that it is some fantastic stuff — super spicy, so dark, delicious! Locally, she gave shout outs to BT McElrath, Legacy Chocolates, Chocolate Celeste, and also a local candy making supply store called Sweet Celebrations. Now, my real homework of visiting all these places begins!

Thanks, sis. Wish you coulda come with!

I'm on a Roll: More New Cards!

I've put a bunch of new cards in my shop lately. This one was inspired by our very own Minnesota Rollergirls. Fellow crafter and rollergirl Cupcake invited some of us to the December 8th bout, just in time for my birthday. Yay!