Halloween Roller Derby

Halloween AND Roller Derby? Be still my heart! Two of my favorite things in one. Our team is headed to their very FIRST away bout and we are getting pretty excited!  If you are going to be in the area check it out. H

Happy Haunting! And Rolling...

Beer Fest!

What is Beer Fest you ask? It is a Fest of Beer. In the best sense. This past weekend up near the Mall of America (the parking lot to be exact...super classy!) my friends hit up the second annual Twin Cities Beer Fest. Your ticket gets you in and you are presented with a small cup which you then take up to the different booths and you get a little 2oz sample of beer! There were all kinds of beer to try so most tastes had plenty to try. Ciders are my favorite! There was also music, giant jenga, bean bags, fake tattoos and a plethora of fake mustaches! I was a last minute addition to the group and I am really glad I went!

 Trouble makers...I tell ya!

I also helped out with the 'days of yesteryear' at the History Center that morning...but since I had to run off to beer fest I didn't get any good pictures!

Have you been to a beer, wine, or other tasting? What do you recommend?

State Fair 2011 Part 2: Everything else

Well we hit the food hard, now let's take a gander at some of the other stuff.

This last pic is the Current Stage where they were broadcasting live with Barb Abney. This is the band 'Peter Wolf Crier' setting up for their show on 'The Local Show'. We left before they actually got to play. A little bummed about that but we already saw them at the St. John's Block Party earlier this summer so I didn't feel so guilty.


If you have never heard them here is a little youtube love for ya. (The drummer is from Rochester!)

State Fair 2011 Part 1: FOOD

  

Aww. The 'Great Minnesota Get Together'. I heart the state fair. For the second year in a row we have celebrated the day with pretty much one thing- FOOD! Get ready to be amazed boys and girls...here  is the visual food journal of this year. 

From top: Pear and Gorgonzola salad (so healthy!), apple cider freezy, chocolate shake, pronto pup, giant lemonade, mini donuts, bucket of Sweet Martha's cookies*. Tummy ache.

*most of the cookies went home to family who didn't go to the fair.

Camping Win, Glamping Fail

 

Well my dreams of a glamorous camping experience did not really pan out. I was looking super cute as we traveled the 4 hours to our lake in Wisconsin but by the time we got there it was so cold I had to change into the warmest clothes I brought. Of course I would be more worried about how warm it was going to be! I had barely any warm clothes at all! But layers are my best friend (along with sunblock and bugspray!) and I made it work. Also once we arrived at our destination I realized the sad truth that it was really just us friend there and that I had no one to impress. Enter no-makeup and rumpled clothing. Perhaps most shameful of all? I went FISHING. This was the one activity that I was fairly sure I did not want to be a part of but they hooked me (excuse the bad pun) and so the first night we were out I bought myself a 4 day fishing license. It was really fun being out on the lake and I actually caught some good fish! Of course we had to let my 16" bass go because it was Thursday and the season didn't start until that Saturday. Boo. Also fishing is a pretty gross business- live bait, unhooking fish, etc. but I will put a shout out to the guys who were not only patient with me but helped me with many of the 'gross' tasks that I just could not handle.



We spent so much time out on those little boats that I still feel them moving when I sit really still. We had two boats for our group and the first night we just had 6 of us so four of us (and a dog : ) were in one boat and then our other two friends Brent and Ellen were in another. We joked and laughed and shouted when we caught something but at one point Ellen shouted over to our boat..."Hey! We just got engaged!" Those two have been going out forever and as a group we were pretty sure that Brent was finally going to pop the question but we didn't know when. It was really cute for them but I still think that someone proposing to me on a fishing trip would be a "no." But she is really happy and that is all that matters. Now we get to plan another wedding!!!!! Yay!!!!!

Besides fishing and life changing moments we ate really well. Of course this is the "foodie" group but I wasn't sure what was going to happen on this kind of trip. Bless Sabrina's little heart she sent out a spreadsheet the week before the trip dividing up all the meals. Couples had two meals and singles just had one. I actually only had 'sides' for our fish fry that we were planning on having Saturday (depending on us catching enough fish for the event!) so I made a couple of sides and then also some snacky food for in between times. I ended up bringing two kinds of potato salad, two kinds of hummus, mini banana chocolate chip muffins, mini trail mix muffins, and fixins for smores. The mini trail mix muffins were a new recipe and I thought they were fantastic, little bite sized portion of granola, mini chocolate chips, walnuts, and dried apricots. I also took it to the next level for the smores. I made homemade marshmallows and homemade graham crackers. They made fun of me for not making my own chocolate but they all thought it was delicious.

Everyone else brought their A-game as well. We had two different versions of stuffed burgers, hobo dinners, an entire rack of bbq ribs (oh my god yummy), sausage and eggs, the list goes on! By Saturday night we also had quite the catch for our fish fry. The boys took the fish to get them ready (I was not going to watch that). They brought a little fryer and fried up those fish right in front of us. From lake to table in under an hour? Do you get any fresher than that? I had never done anything like that before and I was just in awe. It was so yummy.

 

So overall it was an excellent trip. I was ready to go home though, the boys have a collective maturity of about 12 years old and I swear if I hear another bowel movement joke I will shank someone. But I got in a good chunk of fresh air, reconnected with mother nature a bit and rebooted for now that I am back in the city.

Shout out to one of my besties Krista! It is her birthday today! (Later in the week I will post about the gift I made her.)

Cheers all!

Glamping

I get to go camping this weekend! Usually I would not actually be this excited for this kind of thing (nature and I have a very love/hate relationship) but this upcoming weekend I get to spend some quality time with friends in the great outdoors. The only thing is that I am not technically going camping...I am going glamping. Glamping, or glamorous camping, is the best of the real world meets camping. Now actual people who go glamping are usually on the richer side of things and go to places with beautiful fully furnished tents and things like that. We will be in cabins (big step up from a tent-on-the-ground) and I am taking this opportunity to show off some of my favorite sundresses, big hats, and sunglasses. I will be sitting lake-side either reading or crafting (yeah I am planning on taking some embroidery with me!) While all the other people do real camping things like fishing I will be lazing about movie-star style. I am also planning on bringing a ton of make-ahead food for snacks and sides for our meals.

Some cute plaid would be in order for this weekend as well...

Glamping by rubymarilyn featuring retro sunglasses

So pack your sunscreen and bugspray kids! Two more days of work and I am FREE!!!

Epic Zoo Trip

I love the zoo. Especially the Minnesota Zoo because I have such a long and storied history with it! I mean every field trip to the zoo was always an adventure but 6th grade I got to go on the best trip ever! For the people that signed up we got to go to the zoo AFTER CLOSING TIME and hang out with some of the zoo peeps. I remember making t-shirts with paint and animal shaped sponges. Mine featured a dolphin and some seaweed. Then we got to SLEEP OVER at the zoo. How cool is that? The boys got to sleep down by the tropical aquarium and the girls got to sleep right in front of the dolphin tank! Sure the ground was pretty hard and most people were too excited to sleep but I still remember it being a really magical night. At 3 or 4 am they turned on the speakers that picked up the dolphin sounds so we could hear them chatting it up. Damn that was cool. I will never forget it.

So before the summer got too crazy busy on all of us we decided to go to the zoo. Well only 2 of us ended up going but it was still really really fun and I am glad we went! We grabbed sandwiches on the way up and I packed us zoo themed snack packs. (Including old school juice box, zebra cakes, animal crackers, frosted animal crackers, and goldfish- are you sensing my theme here?). It was a gorgeous day to be out and about and although the place was swarming with kids and parents it was more adorable than annoying (which surprised the heck out of me!).

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day, you can see more over at the flickr.

I forgot Spring=Baby Animals!





Omg tiger! Oh. Its only Aimee.