Favorite Things of 2011

If you are looking for holiday inspiration, look no further than Pinterest.  If you don't know what it is, go right this very minute and sign up.  I swear it is one of my most fun discoveries this year. If you are anything like me you have old, tattered, exploding file folders full of images and nonsense.  Forget it- now there's Pinterest.  Go to the website, sign up (if you need an invite email me) and start pinning.  It's that easy, but don't say I didn't warn you- it is so extremely, super crazy addictive!  

You can literally pin anything on the web to create your inspiration boards- I have boards for interiors (organized by room!), travel, tablescapes, quotes, you name it, you can create it.  Grab the button for your dashboard so that as you are browsing the web you can pin the image, assign it to any board and have all of your inspiration categorized and organized right before your eyes.  Amazing.  And don't forget to follow your friends and grab what inspires them- it just might inspire you too!

Holiday Inspiration

Just for you, here is the first installment of (what I think) are fabulous holiday gifts, recipes, sentiments, and inspiration.

1.  The Perfect Hostess Gift 

Whether it is a beautiful candle, a bottle of red, white, bubbles, Bourbon or Balsamic make your gift stand out with beautiful wrapping.  A scarf, pretty piece of fabric or a tea towel makes your thank you gesture to your hostess personal and unique.  I will never forget getting a beautiful candle from a dear friend that was wrapped in one of her very stylish Grandmother's vintage scarves.  It was sentimental, touching, and completely gorgeous.  

Check out One Sydney Road for beautiful tea towels in muted colors and clever patterns, along with totes (my pick is below), letter press prints, fun gift baskets and clever baubles.  A recent discovery, One Sydney Road has quickly become my go to site for gift inspiration.
And for the hostess at your holiday book club...  

So true, right?

Dear Santa...

All I want for Christmas is a mudroom.  

It's that simple.  I don't mean to sound ungrateful, like this is more important than world peace, a stable economy or marriage equality, but this is kind of a big deal.  It's only snowed once so far this season and I am already tired of the winter crap and clutter that collects on my kitchen floor from every neighborhood child dressed head to toe in Gortex and Kamik boots.  They are wet.  They are dirty, and now Santa, these "children" are getting old enough that they are sweating underneath all that Gortex and starting to stink.  It's a disaster.  I need a room specifically for the boots, the snowpants, the piles of mittens and the endless hats.  And then there's the gigantic foul smelling hockey bag...

Santa, I need help.

Here is my kitchen floor on any given day from December through April...

Below is the organization system I currently have that I thought would suffice.  Somehow my kitchen looks nothing like this.

Santa, I think I need something a little more heavy duty, such as this.  I like how it's all enclosed.

I would even settle for a slightly upgraded version of what I have.  More hooks are essential for these kids and their coats.

Now we're talking- a full on locker room would be ideal.

Oh yeah...

 Santa, don't you have any elves that work at HGTV in the off season that might be willing to help a Mom out?  

Truthfully, I think this is all it might take.  

Mr. C, don't be surprised if you get a Santa hat for Christmas.  And a nail gun.  And a can of paint.  And about 20 hooks.

Chicken and Waffles

Friend #1- "All I want to do for my birthday is eat chicken and waffles."


Me- "What?!  That sounds completely disgusting."


Friend #2- (a male with a baritone voice that morphs back to his Southern roots while discussing soul food)- "They're the best."


Friend #1- "Really, truly, chicken and waffles are the bomb and you haven't lived until you've had them."


Me- "Chicken and waffles just sounds fucked up to me.  Quite honestly, I can't think of a nastier combination.  Can't we do something else for your birthday, like maybe Belle Vie?"


Friend #2- (now in a trance like state with his eyes rolling back in his head recalling a childhood filled with collard greens, grits, and chicken and waffles)  "When are we going?"


Friend #1- "Friday.  After Thanksgiving.  I'll make the reservation."


Me- "Really? Where does one get a meal like that, The Fair?  Don't you know it's November and that shit's closed down for the season?"


Friend #1- "The Bulldog.  You're going and you'll love it."


Friend #2- (now speaking in a complete drawl, even a slight twang coming forth, voice deeper than ever)  "Sign me up."


Great.  The day after Thanksgiving we are planning to consume sourdough waffles smothered in thyme infused syrup piled high with bacon and fried chicken.  Yum.  Can't wait.  Sounds like a big 'ole hot mess to me, but I love my friend and if she wants to celebrate her day with chicken and waffles then chicken and waffles it is.


Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle if it wasn't the best damn thing I ever did taste.  Looks like shit on a plate and I can't begin to imagine the number of calories but once you put a single savory, sloppy, drippy, gooey bite into your mouth you might as well have died and gone to heaven.  Chicken and waffles puts the soul in Southern cooking, the Hee in the Haw and practically makes you hallucinate.  


And when your fancy pants friend tells you to get down and dirty and eat something you might never, ever imagine like chicken and waffles, you listen.  

The tastiest plate of nastiness you ever did see

My Day with Andrew

Sorry people.  

Wine Wednesday is being moved to Thursday once again because I have to tell you about my day with Andrew Shue!!  

 Andrew talks jeans with the owner of Amore and Fede Edina, Kim Parmater

As you all know, Andrew (yeah, we're on a first name basis, but I'm not sure he knows my first name) came to town for the Twin Cities launch of Mom.com and it's not everyday you get to take him shopping for jeans (for his wife) at Amore and Fede in Edina, have lunch at Barrio, dash downtown to the KSTP studios for a spot on Twin Cities Live, head upstairs to the Lori and Julia radio show then back to his hotel in Edina (he didn't invite me in) and off to Pinstripes for the launch party.  Whew, exhausting!  Not really...

"Do you think these will fit my wife?"

It was fun.  Super fun and I figured it's also not everyday I get to have Andrew Shue in my front seat so I say to the guy, "Andrew, since I've got you in my front seat, how's Elisabeth doing?"  I had to ask, all my guy friends wanted to know so here's the scoop fellas- she's married with two kids living in L.A., still doing the acting thing and she's actually on the set of a movie right now, in New Orleans, I think.  Their families are all going on vacation together in the Caribbean the first week of December and I didn't ask where, even though I wanted to.  Didn't want to pry. 

A few of the ladies from Mom.com Minneapolis

But enough about Elisabeth, let's talk about Andrew.  He is is a pretty normal guy, extremely bright, a total businessman, a natty dresser and he is passionate about Mom.com.  He said the idea was actually hatched while talking with Meredith Viera about the power of soccer moms.  Brilliant, I say!  Brilliant!  As it exists now, there are only daily deals, but just wait people, there is more.  SO much more!  Andrew describes the site as "conversation, content, and commerce".  It's going to be fabulous and I'm terribly excited about it all and can't wait to share, but I digress.  

Now you all know me, I typically don't hold back and I hope I don't get canned for this, but I found it a touch odd that he was a super soft talker.  Even though he is extremely well spoken, he is a very soft talker.  It's not a bad thing, but one on one, he's a soft talker.  Publicly, not so much, but even when he was sitting right next to me in the car it was hard to hear him.  In fact, he is such a soft talker that I could barely make out what he was saying on the phone to his wife Amy Robach about a clogged toilet and how she had to put water in the tank and not the bowl.  I tell you people, so stinkin' normal!   I thought I was the only one with a clogged toilet.

Not being a soft talker with Lori and Julia at 107.1 FM

  

In addition to being a soft talker (which by the way is not a bad thing) he's also super serious, but the brainy ones usually are.  You can't go to Dartmouth and be some kind of dummy, yet the seriousness kinda threw me which is why I think I busted out the Elisabeth question.  I mean, the dude has traveled the world, done the Hollywood thing, been to dinner at the White House and is madly in love with a Today Show anchor, and here he is in Minnesota (in my front seat!) and I'm asking him about his sister.  I'm 100% positive he thought I was from Mars, but whatever.  He just rolled with it- no attitude, no fuss, he signed autographs outside of KSTP for a few strange men that were lurking about, and didn't even want a dab of powder on his nose for a television interview.  He simply wanted to deliver his message about Mom.com and get on with his business.  He totally gets that he has to do the dog and pony show and was so gracious to every single person that wanted a photo with him.  All in the name of Mom.com.  

He took the time away from his extremely busy life, his lovely wife, kids he obviously adores and is very involved with (just a note-he rewards good grades with family dinners at Olive Garden), to promote something he is passionate about and we all appreciated it.  

With Lori and Julia in front of The Man Wall

Will Andrew make it up on The Man Wall?

Oh yeah!

Admiring the wall backstage at KSTP- signed by the likes of Hubert Humphrey, Paul Newman, Jane Wyatt, and countless others

Here is Andrew's contribution- "Great to be a part of the history of storytellers".  He genuinely thought this wall was pretty cool.  I could tell.

Twin Cities Live

MinnesOOta says "thank you" to Andrew and the Mom.com team from New York- betcha' come back real soooon!