Vintage Elf Stocking

Happy Vintage Christmas!
Originally uploaded by truckertracy

I just can't get enough of making Christmas stuff. I designed this elf stocking to hold just a few great stocking stuffers, like some colored pencils and a cool vintage-style Martha Stewart ornament I bought last week. It was a really easy pattern to come up with. I like that the felt snowflake modernizes it just a bit.

Yes, I know, it's not even Thanksgiving yet. But did I mention how much I love Christmas? I think of Thanksgiving as the Christmas kick-off weekend. When it's no longer weird of me to be making Christmas stockings any more. I am anxiously awaiting it!

Got any good holiday inspiration this year? I'm inspired by my friend's work on the Juicy Couture holiday window. How'd she get the f*^&ing awesome job?!?!

Winter Sunrise in Minnesota

Yesterday the sun came up in Minnesota in what my mom would call a typical "Sailor's Take Warning" sort of way. Big, beautiful and full of purples, pinks, blues and reds. I wished I didn't have to rush off to work, but I managed to snap this shot off our deck before dashing for the bus.

Speaking of the bus, today was a particularly irritating ride. The enjoyment started with a sort of comedy of errors in which a man with a backpack got on and didn't realize that a steady stream of water was coming out of the water bottle stuck in the side. A passenger informed him of the problem and he, like a dog chasing his tail, did several turns around and around while a woman with a stroller tried to get on the bus. It took another passenger (now two passengers are helping) to take the water bottle out before the issue was resolved and the water bottle emptied outside. It just went downhill from there.

In brighter news, I got an email that my new holiday fabric is on it's way. I can't wait to get my hands on it! I also got a flyer for a big sale at Hancock's over Thanksgiving. Yipppee!!!

Martha Stewart Ornament Shopping

My grandma was a HUGE K-Mart fan back in the day. In fact, I have very fond memories of loitering there with her in wait for the much-anticipated loudspeaker announcement of the next big blue light special item. It usually went something like, "Attention K-Mart shoppers! For the next 20 minutes ladies plus size polyester Hanes underwear are 25% off! Head on over the Ladies Intimate Apparel to take 25% off today!" Off we'd rush, no matter how lame the sale item was, and stock up. Grandma Betty's philosophy was that a sale item was a must-buy, and some day you'd have a need for it. I guess that explained many a strange Christmas gift. But, I never really cared much, because I knew her secret.

My mom and I shopped there, too. I specifically remember these white tennis shoes my mom bought me there. It must have been in elementary school. They were so cool when they were bright white, but the faux leather got dirty and brown so fast and then they looked really gross. So we'd buy this shoe cleaner stuff there and try to polish them up. I think they might have been high tops with little "air vent" holes on the top. Boy, they were super ugly. But I know I went through several pairs of them, so they must have been stylish at the time. Or not.

Luckily, I tracked down a K-Mart store last weekend when I was really missing Grandma B. I thought it'd bring back memories to head over there and see what sort of deals they had going on. Much to my delight and amazement, Martha Stewart holiday stuff was on sale, so I scored big time. I left with about $50 worth of other random crap, too. I did Grandma proud.

Pleated T-Shirt Shoulder Bag Tutorial

A while back, I wrote about a bag I reconstructed out of an old Phillies tee shirt. I promised I'd do a tutorial. Well, I haven't gotten around to it until now. Better late than never, right? I love this project because I have a lot of tee shirts that are beginning to take out their own personals ads: "I'm a little on the large size, but there's so much more to love. I've seen a lot of livin' but I think there's a lot more livin' to do! Let's start a new life together!"

I'm happy I found a way to repurpose them. The bag is made up of three components: the main section, the top band and the strap. The photos are not the greatest, but I think you probably get the idea. Here are the steps for making your own Milli Vanilli tee shirt bag:

Step 1: Cut out the pieces
a. First, cut off the bottom 5" of the shirt
b. Then, remove the hem from the bottom of the shirt
c. Cut off the sleeves and neck


Step 2: Create the pleats on top
a. Fold over an inch or so from each side of what's now the top of the bag to form a pleat
b. Do the same on the back, but rather than fold over, fold under
c. Pin in place and sew




Step 3: Sew up the main section of the bag
a. turn the tee shirt inside out
b. Pin along the bottom of the shirt/bag
c. Pin along the sleeve edge
d. Stitch across bottom and sleeve edges, forming the main section of the bag


Step 4: Create the diagonal corners for the bag bottom
a. With the bag still inside out, measure up from the bottom of the bag three inches and mark with a fabric pencil
b. Do the same for the side by measuring in 3 inches from the side of the bag and marking
c. Sew a straight line between your two marks
d. Trim off excess fabric triangle



Step 5: Create the top band
a. Using the bottom edge of the tee shirt that you removed in step 1, cut a length that measures roughly double the width of the top opening (mine ended up about 5" X 18")
b. Fold in half so that you can pin and sew along the short side
c. Fold the piece in half so that the seam you just sewed is on the inside
d. Sew band


Step 6: Attach band to top of bag
a. Pin the band to the top of the bag on the right side
b. Sew all the way around the top of the bag
c. Flip band up and press seam toward bag


Step 7: Cut out and sew the strap
a. From the remaining portion of the bottom of the tee shirt, cut a piece that measures 5" by 27"
b. Fold the piece in half the long way; pin and sew along long edge
c. Turn the strap outside in and press so that the seam is centered



Step 8: Attach the strap
a. Pin the strap, seam side facing in to either side of the bag, centering
b. Sew in place by sewing a rectangle 1/4" from the top of the band


And there you have it! It's a project that will probably take you an hour to make, but can be a very simple and fashionable market bag or tote for you to use for many more years to come!

Spoonflower Front Page!

Remember when I was so tentatively at dipping my toe in the pattern design waters? No more! I just found out Spoonflower is featuring my design front and center on their redesigned home page. I have to say, I'm quite honored! The Flickr pool of Spoonflower designs is so amazing, I can't even believe that they chose me.

Now that I'm done gaga-ing over that, it's back to crafting! I just ordered a TON of holiday fabric, so stay tuned. The Christmas tunes are already on around here...it's so much fun!

Want to Win Big? No Coast Craft-a-thon Need YOU!

So a while back I had this crazy idea. What if at our big craft sale we had a contest pitting crafters against each other in a timed battle to see who could come up with the craziest, baddest craft project and win some awesome prizes? To take it even a step further toward a total MacGuyver smackdown, I thought that the teams should have to create the project out of junk. I mean, not true junk, but stuff we have just laying around.

Everyone liked the idea, so we got some awesome prizes. Janome sewing machines. Magazine subscriptions (cool magazines, too!). Gift certificates. Fame. Fortune. But, there's a rub. No teams have signed up to win the prizes. None. Nada!

I'm asking you to spread the word. This is going to be incredibly fun. We have some local celeb judges and MC and some great supplies for the teams to use. It only takes an hour and the prizes really do kick ass. AND, it costs nothing to show up and try. C'mon, folks. Step up!

Holiday Crafting Has BEGUN!

It's official! The holiday crafting has begun. Lately I've been loving the silhouette trend. Actually I've loved it for a LONG time. My parents had silhouette portraits of both my sister and I and I always thought they were cool (albeit a little cheesy). When I found a really great profile shot of one of my nieces (real name changed to protect the innocent), I knew it was my opportunity.

This project has been blogged in many varieties and mediums and final outcomes. I love this one from Inhabitots on making a custom silhouette tee of your kids. Also great is this one on Design*Sponge for making framed versions of custom silhouette art of your kids. I guess I'm a little late on my trendspotting, because back in 2007 Cookie Magazine had a write up about the silhouette trend and featured some awesome artists who will do the work for you (dog? cat? kid? couple? YES!). If you use Illustrator, you can even find a YouTube video on how to make a silhouette like in the iPod commercials. Wow.

I'm pretty lo-fi with my technology, so I used my old school Microsoft program to create a "cutout" of the image of my niece, then I selected a fill color (pink). Then I added an oval shape in the background and some text and done. Simple, but I think it turned out cute and my niece will think it's cool. I hope! Only 527 more gifts to go!

Popover, It's Nice Here in Minnesota!

It's the weekend after Halloween here in Minnesota and Global Warming is upon us! It's actually HOT outside. Whereas in years past we may have had a blizzard, this year I took off my jacket and opened up the windows (the same ones I put storm windows on just yesterday...bad timing!). We took the opportunity to drive to one of our favorite places in this neck of the woods: Stillwater.

As for what we actually did on Halloween, I have to say not much. We dressed Baby P up in an engineer outfit (all we had to buy was the hat) and handed out candy. Maybe 10 kids showed up in total. Everyone liked the decor outside, but one little tot wouldn't come near the door so she made her sister do her dirty work. Of course I was kind of snotty and said "Where's your costume?!" and then felt like crap when I saw the little kid out on the sidewalk, afraid to come up. Luckily this year we weren't visited by any other costume-less kids, cuz that drives me a little insane. I mean how many "rappers" (their words, not mine) does one Halloween need? I guess rap is dead this year, because none of them came here.

Anyhoo, not doing much baking right now, maybe due to the heat. I did make some popovers a few weekends back that were out of this world good. I can't believe that growing up I actually thought popovers were gross. I must have been out of my mind. Baby P didn't think they were gross. He ate two!

Hope you had a lovely weekend!

Halloween's Over, So's My Pity Party

I usually try to mask my true feelings as much as possible on my blog (kidding). Seriously though, I think it's a little weird to just "let it all hang out" when I have no idea who might see it all hangin out and later make fun of me for it. But, today I'm breaking loose and letting go. Today I'm saying goodbye Halloween, goodbye pity party. I need to say goodbye to something so I can start to move on.

You see, I've been having a pity party for myself since last year at about Halloween time. I pitied myself for having to go back to the cruel, ugly working world after giving birth to baby Pumpkin and staying home with him for the first three months. The days leading up to going back to work were awful. The worst was the night before I had to go back. It was Thursday, and my husband wasn't home that night. After baby P went to bed, I sat on my floor and sobbed. I caught my breath long enough to call mom and dad and bawl to them for an hour or so. I felt like my life was literally ending. It was the worst, most heartbreakingly sad night of my entire life so far.

Then, I had to get up the next day, get dressed and head into the office. I cried on the bus. I cried at my desk. I cried on the bus all the way home. And honestly, I've been crying for a year. Off and on, I cry. Sundays are the hardest, when I start thinking about going back to work.

My well-meaning friends have suggested lots of different ways of looking at the situations and my options. Get a different job. Work fewer hours. At least he isn't in daycare. Start a work at home business. Send the hubby back to work. Generally I'm all for taking the bull by the horns and not sitting around moping. I mean, moping should have its place, but should be followed by action. So I did get another job. Still, I wanted to mope. I was still not happy. Not really.

Here's the deal. I wanted to be hired for the job of stay-at-home mom. I was good at being a mom even though it was new and scary. My kid was happy and we had fun. I got dinner made. The house was clean. I didn't have to think about PowerPoint presentations. I didn't have to iron my slacks. I didn't really have a boss.

It was the best job I've had so far. It wasn't and isn't about getting a few more hours with my kid (not that I don't want that, but it just isn't the true problem for me). It was and is about having a job I loved and getting laid off from it. I got laid off, and the job I found, I didn't really like. Plus, my husband quit the job he kind of liked and hours that were pretty flexible. A recipe for a year long pity party, if you ask me. It all felt horribly unfair. We made a decision based on money, and what we thought was best for all three of us at the time.

So, in retrospect, I may have made a different decision a year ago if I had known that I'd spend all year pouting. But, my husband is an awesome stay-at-home dad, and I couldn't take that away from him. It's true that at least one of us gets to be home with him. Lots of people don't have that luxury. And maybe someday, I can switch spots. Who knows.

That's why I decided to end the pity party. I'm not going to switch places with Mr. P right now, and I'm not going to quit my job. We're lucky we have my job. Baby P is happy, and that's what matters. It's been a year of pitying myself, and frankly, I'm really freakin tired of it. Of course I'm sure there will be days when I am wishing I was wearing jeans and traipsing through the zoo with my kid rather than holding back-to-back conference calls in my tan cubicle, but I'm not going to let it ruin my life, my marriage or anything else.

Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday to usher in my new attitude. I'm thankful for so many things, I just have to remind myself how truly lucky I am. Thankful I have a job. Thankful my husband is so great. Thankful my kid is happy and healthy. Thankful we have a nice house. So many reasons...

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Feels good to purge it. Now back to the regularly scheduled sarcasm and crafting projects...

Did I tell you about my new favorite phrase? It's "steppin' out". Used in a sentence: "I got some new jeans today, and they're not for the office, they're for steppin' out." Now, let's hope I can get some opportunities for steppin' out real soon. You do any steppin' out this weekend?

Getting Out and Getting Lost (Almost)

I had a free hour today to do whatever I wanted while the Pumpkin napped, so I grabbed the camera and headed for Larpenteur Avenue in St. Paul where I knew there was a nice walking path by the off lease dog park. It was so unbelievably relaxing to wander around by.my.self and smell the smells and hear the sounds (unfortunately the least "remote" of the whole experience, lots of plane noise and traffic sounds) and look at the tail end of the fall colors changing.

The coolest part of the whole thing was the wooly bear caterpillar I saw on my way back to the car. Predictably, when I picked him up he curled into a tiny, fuzzy bundle and played dead. I stood there long enough to watch him slowly re-emerge and hoof it away from me and my camera. Ah, but that brought back childhood memories.

Hope you got out and enjoyed the weekend. It's supposed to snow here tomorrow. Seriously!

De-Stash...and I Don't Mean "Dustache"

I don't have nearly as much of a stash as some folks, but I have collected my fair share of fabrics over the years. Most of them are great, but they do seem to take up a lot of space. And I guess what really bothers me is that they are great, and they do deserve a great purpose in life. So tonight I decided to start setting them free by making this onesie.

This is a really easy project to pull off.

1. Take an embroidery hoop and use a fabric pencil to trace it's shape around something cool on a piece of fabric (I used the strawberry)
2. Then, trace the same hoop on a piece of fusible interfacing
3. Cut out the shapes (cut the interfacing a little smaller so that it doesn't hang outside the edges of the fabric at all
4. Iron the interfacing to the wrong side of the fabric
5. Peel the backing off the interfacing
6. Iron your fabric onto your tee shirt/onesie/whatever you want
7. Use a zigzag stitch to sew right around the outside of your circle
8. You could even add an embellishment over the top of this, like a button or some rick rack if it needed "sprucing" (Just don't use buttons if you're making this for a baby because they can get pulled off, choked on, etc.)

Have fun!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Here's an ode to my friends the McSmithleys, who've had a number of yard mishaps:

Dear Sh#theads Who Stole the Top of My Scarecrow,
Yes the one ripping it's own head off...the one wearing a sweater and with the freakish rubber mask on. When I find you, I am going to rip yours off and stuff it down your neck. You are a Columbia Heights loser just like all of your friends that walk past my house every day on your way to buy Mountain Dew at the gas station. I'm going to take that huge pumpkin you also stole from me, the one with the hockey mask on, and shove it up your @ss. You can stay living in trashy Columbia Heights with your loser friends while the Pumpkin Family moves somewhere nice, like the moon or wherever it takes to not have things stolen out of our yard five days after we put them there. You're lucky my kid is young enough not to notice that his scarecrow is gone, or I'd be driving up and down the streets looking for you.

Anyway, that was Friday. Today is a different story. It's beautiful outside, we played in the yard for a while and aside from the thumping music coming out of our alley, pretended like we lived somewhere nice out in the country.

Little Pumpkin starting to learn about chores


Little Pumpkin ripping all the flowers off my mum

And yesterday was fantastic, too. We had the kid party and many kids (and parents) came and there was lots of toy sharing and hugging and fun to be had. I wisely changed up my planned menu last minute and switched spaghetti and meatballs to Swedish meatballs. Can you imagine, 7 kids running around with spaghetti and meatballs? Be sure to bring your tide pens, folks. Instead everything we ate was beige in color and it worked out okay. I got to meet my blog friend and his lovely family in real life for the first time, and they are as nice in person (nicer?) than they are on the blog. Each kid went home with a little Pumpkin Girl treat, which I finished just in time. Phew! Guess I better go polish off all the leftover Sangria!

Getting Ready for the Kid Party

I've been busy getting ready for the kid party I'm having this weekend. There are about 7 kids under 5 coming over and I have promised that I'd have a little something ready for each of them. It's been SO fun, but also a bit intimidating. What if the kids hate the stuff I made? What if I can't get it done? It's coming together and it's kept me motivated to make some stuff this week, so I guess that's good! If you didn't RSVP, please do so now!!!!

Hopefully after Saturday I'll have some fun pictures of all the mayhem! I am really looking forward to all the cute kid goodness! After the crafting, gotta come up with some eats and drinks. Yipes!!!

Coffee Table Death Trap Redo

As I mentioned in a previous post, we had quite the death trap of a coffee table until a week ago. It was solid marble, taken right out of an old butcher shop. It perched precariously on top of plywood. Waiting for a forehead smacked on the corner, or a tot squashed under a collapse. No more! Now we have a TOTALLY kid friendy table, thanks to the thrift store, a little paint, and an Etsy seller.

The thrift store table was wood-like, but it at least had rounded edges so we slapped down our $10 and took it home. Then, Mr. Pumpkin suggested painting it and giving it a nice shiny clear coat over top. So I went at it with a paint leftover I like to think is "orange sherbet" color. And then I couldn't leave well enough alone so I took to the bottom tier with some decorative 80s style splatter paint and punked it up a bit. Then, I ordered a lime green monkey decal from ThoughtsThatStick on Etsy for $12. So, the $10 now actually cost $30, but it's worth it to save some poor toddler (maybe my own!) from certain doom. And it's over the top kid-friendly, which I like.

Speaking of doom, I'm feeling it lately. Are you? I support my hubby and son with my income, so I guess I just carry a bigger burden than I ever have before. It's a lot of responsibility and I'm not sure I'm mature enough to handle it. Too late!! I'm handling it! Anyway, I haven't been booted out of my job yet, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope. If I were young and single again, maybe I'd hope I WOULD get laid off so I could dink around on Etsy all day...or not. Who knows.

Anyway, hope you and your families are well and secure and happy tonight. Sending good financial karma your way!

Caught the Halloween Decorating Bug

This weekend the bug hit me. I drove by a house in our neighborhood that was so ridiculously scary that I ran home and immediately started decorating. This house is totally hidden from view -- it's got two painted facades out front, with a graveyard and all kinds of creepy tubs of legs and arms and eyeballs and stuff all around the yard.



I started with setting up the mantle over our fireplace. I cut out a house shape from a food box I had laying around and spraypainted it black. Then I found this skull we had laying around and added that. Top that with a little cheesecloth and some glow-in-the-dark zombies someone gave Little Pumpkin and it was looking pretty scary. But it was perfect until I made this cheesecloth ghost from Martha's website and we found some skeleton lights to hang above it.






Today, after a trip to the pumpkin patch, the whole family got involved in decorating the yard. It's pretty scary. Not like the neighbors, but good enough for a first try. It didn't hurt that Mr. Pumpkin had boxes of scary heads and limbs in our basement. Most of it got used.



Then, the final piece that I'm excited about is my Skeletons and Spiders wreath. I took a styrofoam wreath and hot glued these skeleton lapel clips to it. The skeletons came in a 144 piece bag and I only used about half. In Mr. Pumpkins stash I also found eyeballs, fingers and spiders, so I glued a few of the spiders on for extra creepiness. I think it turned out fabulous. I like that it looks sort of benign until you walk up to the door. Then it hits you that it's bodies on top of bodies, topped with spiders. AWESOME!

Got any more suggestions for good Halloween crafts? I'm interested, and now motivated! After all, I AM Pumpkin Girl!!

Eco-Friendly Etsy at All Prices

Recycled Firestarters by Crayon Bin: $3


Reusable Silk Food Bags by kootsac: $10.50


Recyled Red Stripe beer glasses by bodhicitta: $18


Ecospun Felt Stocking by rikrak: $18


Recycled Coffee Table by SeguinWoodWorks: $750

I've been thinking a lot lately about how our family can be more environmentally responsible. It's not always natural for me even though I think it's really important. I haven't converted our car to biofuel, or installed that green rooftop I've been wanting, or even gotten a rain barrel. Shame on me. But what is easy for me is shopping on Etsy. I discovered today that there are lots of really awesome recycled and environmentally friendly products being sold there (no surprise).

I thought I'd share some of my favorites at every price range. How I would love that beautiful coffee table instead of the painted monstrosity that I created this week (photos to come). But at least I bought a thrifted one instead of new, right?? And that felt stocking...wow. Totally cute.

Happy shopping!

Food on the Brain

I wanted to share a couple of new creations I made for my Etsy shop. I was inspired by my recent cravings for the lowliest of cuisine, "fast" food. What's next for me? French fries, of course! There have been a lot of layoffs at work lately, so maybe I'm also wondering if I might soon be flipping these.

How are you feeling about the "financial crisis"? I'm starting to worry, but I feel lucky that I'm employed. If I wasn't, well, I guess Baby Pumpkin and Mr. Pumpkin and I would be up sh*t crick as they say back in 'Sconi. So let's just stay calm and keep on keepin' on.

Anyway, stay tuned for more "good eats" as Alton Brown says.

If the Shoes Fits...

It's coming into fall here in the Midwest and my little Pumpkin is just starting to show signs that someday he might walk. I can't tell you how many times I've heard "You're not going to have to carry him to college" but I still long for this next milestone in his achievement. Mostly, it's my husband's longing so that he doesn't have to carry him anymore. But, I do think it will be a thrill to walk down the sidewalk holding his hand rather than pushing him in the stroller.

Recently he outgrew the gifted Robeez he had -- both the pair with the little fish and the pair that said "MOM" (my favorite). He also outgrew the pair he had that matched dad's Addidas soccer shoes...bummer! I went searching Etsy for some new leather-type shoes and found lots of great handmade and even recycled options. My criteria was that they had to be safe and non-skid, under $25, and also needed to have boy options.

Here are my favorites:
--Piddies shop (okay, kind of cheating since these are slippers, but they have mommy/toddler sets!!!)
--Chicksandeggs has some great monkey shoes!
--Softbabyshoes has some really cute penguin ones
--Plateauproducts has some fleece lined ones that look super cozy
--BellaTaylor has some absolutely adorable products all around, including shoes
--The winner was...StarryKnightDesign who makes recycled leather shoes with cars on them -- a must have for my kid who says 'vroom vroom' all day long!!

Now if price were no issue, I may have splurged for these ridiculously cool elf shoes by Randyandclaudia. For Halloween, anyway.

Got any more recommendations?

Lazy, Lazy Days in the Neighborhood

Little Pumpkin spotting an airplane

The bridge that didn't collapse

The fruits of my labor
Why does motivation go in fits and starts for me? One week I'm churning out 1000 baby hats and the next I'm glued to Project Runway and flipping through magazines? I can't explain it, but it's a pain in the ass. Last week I swear I could have out-Marthaed just about anyone and this week, I don't even want to get out of pajamas. Ah, well, I'm trying to coax back my energy with some long walks around our neighborhood, camera in hand and a fall bouquet for the table on my mind to inspire me just a little.

Today, after my walk and some prodding from Mr. Pumpkin, I did find a wee bit of inspiration to repaint this $10 table we found at a thrift store. It was part of a baby-proofing effort stemming from our need to replace the "babysmasher" of a coffee table we used to have. It was a slab of solid marble precariously perched on top of a rickety old base made out of plywood. Practically begged for a toddler to crawl underneath before it crushed them. The new $10 table has rounded corners, too, which is the perfect type of table to have with a kid just about to start walking. Anyway, when the paint dries I'll take a picture. Still haven't decided what color (of the many spare paint cans in the basement) I'll choose.

Whatchoo upto this weekend? Motivated, or not?

The New Earflap Hat: ManFlap!

My husband has always wanted a matching outfit with our son. So, after I had perfected my earflap hat pattern he asked if I could make matching ones for he and Little Pumpkin. Sure, right? No problem!

I "eyeballed" the pattern and whadda ya know, it doesn't quite fit him. It's about an inch too small. Oh well, it's perfect for Elmer Fudd. Or, whomever is so lucky as to purchase it from my Etsy shop. Since I eyeballed it, I'm not really sure how to make another, bigger one. Guess I'll eat some carrots and eyeball it a little better with my fresh beta-carotened eyes or something. Maybe this time I'll actually make a pattern so the results can be reliably repeated. Genius!

I looked around Etsy to see who else was making flannel or fabric earflap hats and I really didn't see too many. I guess I should step up production or expand the line a bit. Maybe my next hat will be a ladies hat. Pink flannel, anyone? I think I can come up with a whole family of earplappers.

It's hard to believe we're already thinking winter...yikes. Well, we do live in Minnesota, after all.