What To Eat Wednesday, Jasmine 26

This is one of my favorite places. It is Jasmine 26. It is an elegant Vietnamese restaurant and bar. It is very vegan friendly and the food is wonderful. They also serve some of my favorite drinks in Minneapolis, such as the Pom Bomb (a pomegranate martini) and a Ginger Fizz (homemade ginger ale, gin). My absolute favorite appetizer dish is served here, Salt and Pepper tofu which even my hardcore carnivore friends agree is delicious. Have a look at some of the dishes. Some of which are served beautifully. It's nice to have a fancier place to go for holidays and such. A lot of vegan places are not very dressy. And I like to dress up.

Everything I've had here has been fantastic. I really cannot recommend it enough.

My First How To Post: Ferris Wheel Jewelry holder

So this is my first post about doing a little craft. It’s not very complicated and I thought it would make a cute project. This all came about as I’ve been remodeling my bedroom over the last 3 months. I wanted a new way to store and display jewelry. I have a lot of jewelry. I have been collecting handmade pieces for a very long time now. Additionally I make a lot of things for myself and I am lucky enough to have friends to make things for me as well. I searched and searched for display pieces but nothing was really striking my fancy. There’s plenty of pretty things out there they just were not what I was looking for. I came across some circus themed boxes on ETSY and loved the idea of a carnival. I adore the book The Night Circus and well, pretty much anything to do with magic, magicians and carnivals. Which got me started looking for carnival themed display pieces for my jewelry and there are pretty well none. What I did keep coming across was carnival themed party items and more importantly cupcake holders. They are tremendously cute for cupcakes but I don’t have cupcakes on display every day in my house although that would be quite spectacular. I started to consider if I could somehow make these work for my display pieces. I decided to order a couple from AMAZON. A carousel and ferris wheel, respectively. When they arrived I altered them a bit and I am in love with the results. Here is the alterations I did for the Ferris Wheel cupcake holder to turn it into a jewelry holder. I will post the carousel next week.

Things you will need:

-pliers

-Ferris Wheel

-paper flowers -these can be found at most craft stores often in the wedding decor section 

Optional: you can paint these no doubt, I wanted mine black and white to stick with a Dark Carnival/Night Circus theme and to go with a painting a friend made for me but you can do yours whatever colors match your room/display

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This is how it comes and what it's supposed to look like.

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Out of the box with all it's baskets attached. Also, see all the things I make in the background mess? This is why I need organization. 

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The paper roses I used to decorate the ferris wheel. The "stems" are made with very malleable wire so it is very easy to wrap these any way and anywhere you want. I got mine at Micheal's Arts & Crafts store.

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I used my pliers to remove most of the baskets. I left two on for counter balance and to put bracelets in. You could remove as many or as few as you want I would think.

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Add flowers where you like and earrings. Easy peasy. 

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And thus I began to build my own carnival.

Minnesota Monday, Little India Grocery

I would like to share with you today another place that I don't go to often but when I do I am so happy I did. I told you about United Noodle Grocery which is a great place for Asian foods. Well, Little India is a wonderful place for Indian treats. They have TONS of vegan treats and many of them are clearly labeled. It's a good thing I don't make it here too often since so much of the food is so rich. But there is so much to pick from and they have an extensive offering of spices too. You should certainly stop in if you are looking for something different to try.

Exercise via...Pinterest?

I get so bored in the cold at home exercising. When it's even 20 degrees outside I'll bundle up and hike. I love to walk, hike and ride my bike and thus I am in pretty great shape when it's warm. But this year especially has been hard for outside activity because the weather has been doomsday cold.  Like negative degrees cold. I've been searching for things to do to get me off my butt. But really I get super bored exercising. I looked on PINTEREST For some ideas and found a couple things I've been slowly working through. And no I am not joining a gym because I don't see that being any less boring for me.  :o) Have a look, maybe they'll help you too.

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The Glamorous What to Eat Wednesday

My boyfriend has a strongly held belief that a bad vegan donut is better than no vegan donut. Since we lost the wonderful Donut Cooperative getting a vegan donut in the Twin Cities was no easy task, if achievable at all. Imagine the delight of vegans all over Minneapolis and the joy of people trying to eat less animal products during their New Year's resolution when the tremendously adorable Glam Doll Donuts announced they had added vegan donuts to the menu. They added them to the menu about a month ago in which time we've been in to have them 4 times but on the fourth time they were sold out(good for them, bad for me)!! Thus I learned no vegan donut was indeed a very sad state of affairs. I have liked them all, at least to certain degrees. I am still skeptical on the peanut butter sriracha donut. 

The dark chocolate topping is OUT OF THIS WORLD that they created for many of the other donuts. In addition to having regular menu features they also seem to be having special editions. Including a vegan dark chocolate with salted caramel filling. Wow! That was yummy! I also really liked the vegan raspberry curd filled donut(the one with the heart on it). 

To drink I have had the jasmine green tea and it was so fragrant! I loved it and the iced soy mocha, two thumbs up there. 

The decor is very cute. However, I don't feel like it lends it's self to a night time hangout atmosphere. Maybe this is by design but the night time trip we took there a few days ago: the music was so loud you couldn't hear each other, the lights are uncomfortably bright and the chairs are dreadful for sitting on for more than 15-20 minutes. At some point a group of people came in and asked for the music to be turned down. 

My experience with the staff has been completely positive and they are tremendously fashionable and attractive people(I'm just saying -having cuties work for you doesn't hurt). 

One complaint I've read is that people think the donuts are too expensive but you know- I don't agree. As long as you are getting a well-made speciality item, shut up and pay a little more for it. If it was easy to make these kinds of treats everyone would do it. It's these unique, small places like Glam Doll Donuts that make a city special. Minneapolis struggles with this and we lose so many great places like Rusty Quarters(a wonderful retro arcade) and Heavenly Soles(a fabulous shoe store whose closure struck at the heart of women everywhere).

Needless to say, I'll be going to Glam Doll Donuts again. Although, as soon as the snow is gone it's gonna have to be by foot or bike because I have resolutions too. Sort of.

Inspire, The Met.

I love art museums. I love photographing them as well so that I can go back through what amazed me and be amazed all over again. I went to The Met in New York about 3 and 1/2 years ago, I fell in love over and over again. I was looking through those photos recently to be reminded of the wonderful things people can create.

Museums have given me endless decorating ideas for both home and events as well as inspired writing, never mind all the jewelry. Have a great day!

Minnesota Monday, Remodel Reality.

I love decorating blogs. I love looking on Pinterest for decorating ideas. What's more is that I really like doing a lot of things myself and so does my boyfriend. That said decorating blogs and pinterest can sometimes drive me more than a little nuts because no one ever seems to ever have any problems with anything. Everything seems to go smoothly and on schedule. Maybe it's just me and I carry some sort of remodeling curse but things almost never go right and they are NEVER on schedule. No one tells you that truth. What takes forever first in our world is that we won't go into debt to do house projects. With that rule we have not remodeled much of our house nor have we done a big project in about 5 years. We've remodeled our office, media room, master closet and laundry room. Well now we've gotten back to it and have been working on our bedroom and we are now nearly three months past schedule. There is an end in sight finally but let me tell you, if it could go wrong it has gone wrong. I'm going to share a few snapshots from my phone of the work and will hopefully be able to show you more soon. Like in a week, fingers crossed. Oh and the reason this is Minnesota Monday and not some fun winery or musem visit is because this project has been taking up most of our time....

In Summation Part 2, My Mother's Birthday

OR Why to Chase a Farfetched Dream......

To say my mother and I had a tumultuous relationship is being generous. It was difficult, downright horrible at times. My mother was mentally ill. She suffered from a long time misdiagnosed illness that got progressively worse as she got older. There were days that I wished she wasn’t my mother. There were days that I avoided going home as long as possible. There were stretches of time when I would not tell her a single thing about my life because I got so fed up with continuous miscomprehension and her inability not to live in the past. 

But there were also days that I marveled at my mother’s creativity. Days I felt great pride in the compassion she showed so many. And the days when my mother was the only one who encouraged me to chase my dreams no matter what anyone else thought or told me to do. She also always told me I was beautiful. Sometimes not in the greatest ways. She would say things about not wanting me to gain weight or the way I dressed but it always came back to, “It’s because you are already beautiful.” Something that I took for granted growing up but now realize how much it has shaped how I think of myself as I get older. 

If I am going to be completely honest I have to admit that my mother let some pretty terrible things happen to me growing up. Things that it took me a long time recover from and to forgive her for. The strange thing about that is though she let them happen when I had the chance to escape some of them she did help me escape them. I feel now that it is very likely my mother did not know how to stop these things from happening but only how to try help me survive them. Because I’ve realized more and more when I sort out her life in my head, my mother was a survivor. Sometimes she was the maker of the mess but often she was the victim of it. And I’m not entirely sure she knew that. The worst part of any of this, when bad things happened to her, I’m sure she believed she deserved them. I hate that. I really do because no one deserves bad things to happen to them especially not at the hands of other people. I wish I could change that and I wish I could say my mother had a happy life in her short 49 years but she didn’t. The relationship was hard, complex and sometimes filled with tears. But honestly, it’s the best we could do.   

I don’t find a lot of comfort in generalized platitudes that many people use to simplify what they feel and to comfort themselves. I’m just not that kind of person. Sometimes I hate hearing the truth. Sometimes it hurts and makes me angry, but eventually I always appreciate it more. The truth is our relationship generally sucked. But I miss it. And I wish I still had all the stupid fights and discussions as well as the lucid days that she seemed with me and understanding. It’s nice to think she might be somewhere else living another life, a happier one but I’m not sure that I am that esoteric. What I do know, is even though the ways I went about my life made no sense to her and often downright worried her or pissed her off, (and truth be told it hasn’t always made sense to me either)-she always told me to be happy. Sometimes begrudgingly. But she said it nonetheless. It’s the one thing I knew she really meant. And I try to say it to as many people as possible, don’t be stupid, be happy.

Your Weekly Meow-Featuring the Cats of Hawaii!

CatDay~ Have a Happy Weekend!

The Cabin in the Woods

When I first moved here I was continually hearing stories about "Going to the Cabin." This was something Minnesotans did all the time. Weekends, holidays, vacations. More often than not it was a cabin owned by them and one or two other members of the family a few hours drive time from the city. They had SUVs, boats, jet skis, bikes, canoes, kayaks, grills...anything you can buy at a fancy sporting goods store, they had it. Or I should say still do. As the "Going to the Cabin" activity has not lessened in popularity. I was baffled by this tradition. This is not something that was done very often in the South. I did spend a few weeks in cabins in New Mexico but it was not a weekly activity as it so often is here in the North. And we certainly did not have $100k worth of equipment to take with us to these places. Cabins are monuments for Minnesotans. They pay homage to the outdoors, to nature, to beer. Sacred places of bonding and drinking, of getting away from it all(well, except all the expensive things you are taking with you). A few months ago, I asked my boyfriend, who grew up here and spent half his childhood in cabins, WTH? He didn't really have an answer. Then strangely enough a week after that our neighborhood newspaper published an article about "cabining it" and where it came from. Minnesota has deep Scandanavian roots, the King and Queen of Sweden have been known to visit. Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands or as I jokingly refer to them: the places where white people come from. Spending weekends at cabins is a long held tradition in those countries and as people have grown up from generations of immigrants here in the States it has become a tradition here as well. Well, now I like it too. I've done it about 4 times and loved every visit. This last time a couple of weeks ago I went sledding for the first time and well, that was just ridiculously fun. For me and my friends- it's food, laziness, drinks, games and some sportlike activity(though let's not get too crazy because well, the laziness). I'll leave you with some pictures from Danbury and Siren,  Wisconsin as well as a video that will explain it all.

Frozen Wonderfalls

Technically, Niagra Falls is Wonderfalls but this is the first time I've seen a frozen waterfall so for me it is a wonder. Winter is long and harsh, no doubt about that. But it is also unusual and beautiful. It makes you grateful for nice weather and green growing things. I went out to Minnehaha Park, a place I love here in the city. I try to go a couple of times in the warmer weather to see Minnehaha Falls. It was above zero which translates to nice weather this time of year so off for a visit I went. Ice is so amazing.

What to Eat Wednesday but on Thursday, Forks Over Knives

So this recipe is not one of mine but it is one that I tried and thought came out great. It is a vegan au gratin from the website Forks Over Knives. The mission of Forks Over Knives seems to be teaching people about a plant based diet as a means to fight disease. Now, this information is not new to me but everyone has to learn in their own time. I highly encourage you to try out this recipe. I thought it was very good and it's a nice winter comfort food. The only thing I really changed was not slicing the potatoes with a mandolin. I thought they were too thin so I used a knife instead. I also soaked my cashews for the cream sauce for a couple of hours as opposed to 15 minutes. I think they're easier to blend that way. I used Rainbow Chard, a green I've not cooked with before. I found that I liked it quite a bit. I plan to try out more of the recipes on this site. Here is the link again: Forks Over Knives Au-Gratin. Have a Yummy Day!

Chaos

I am in the middle of a mess. My bedroom is being remodeled. This is very exciting sans the fact it was supposed to be done almost two months ago. Because of the way my house is laid out this has disrupted quite a lot of my space. Including my office which is normally my place of calm and organization. That is not the case right now and truth be told it's making me a little nuts. I know my room is going to be amazing when it's done but it can be difficult to live with such disorganization. Especially when you're attempting to work at home. But what are you going to do but keep working on it? Anyway, my What to Eat post will be up tomorrow as I am polishing it up, so to speak. I just started Photoshop lessons so I am looking forward to what I can do with my pictures. In the meantime, here are a few of my office from a few months ago when it was at it's nicest and most organized. Have a great and chaos free day!

Gifting GirlyGeekChic

I'm so happy to say that my little jewelry line and I had our best year so far. I sold nearly a hundred pieces and easily made twice that many. I have some bigger goals for this year but for now I thought I'd share some snapshots of things I sent out and some cute packaging I did for gifts. If you have time to stop by I'd love it! GirlyGeekChic 

Have a great day!

Minnesota Monday, Just get outside!

This weekend was in the 20 degree temperaure range and 30 degree range. This means it felt very warm to us winter people. Which means you go outside, at least for me. I went and walked across a lake and then around it. It was so nice to get some outdoor exercise.  I have a bunch of new winter gear that I found at REI so I am warm as can be in my new comfy head-to-toe black snow pants, baselayers, hat and gloves. Walking on the lake was challenging though quite beautiful. The snow was pretty high and since I don't yet have snowshoes (possible future purchase after I try them out) I was lifting my legs very high to climb over the 12"-15" deep snow. It was quite a workout. The walking path part of the hike was much easier in comparsion because a lot of it was shoveled. Sunday took me out to frozen Minnehaha Falls. I'll post pictures from that little trip in a day or two. I am learning to use Photoshop and had my first lesson this morning. That's going to make pictures much more fun. Happy Monday!

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Chateau St. Croix and Winery, St. Croix River

I'm not sure I'm ever going to get used to standing on frozen water. A few weeks ago my boyfriend and I went out to a winery in St. Croix Falls, WI. It is a very lovely place as it was modeled after a Chateau in the Rhine Valley in Europe. Wisconsin is a beautiful state and I have spent a lot of time there exploring. It has many unusual attractions as well as miles of undisturbed forest. This particular winery was very pretty and I loved the award winning Rośe they serve. I brought some home for Christmas Eve dinner and it was quite wonderful. I really want to go back in the spring when it's green to wander the land and to check out the little village nearby. On the way back to home, we stopped and I stood on the frozen St. Croix River which I have never done before. I've been on a frozen lake a few times but not a river. It was strange to see it unfrozen further down. If you'd like a nice place to spend an afternoon you should head out to Chateau St. Croix and Winery. They have wines, chocolates and snacks. Make time to stop in the town. It looks to be very charming. Cheers!

Minnesota Monday- Our Tree is as Big as Yours!

Of course we all know the tree in Rockefeller Center in New York. I would guess it might be one of- if not the most famous Christmas tree in the world. But what you don’t know is that right here in Minnesota’s state capital city of St. Paul is a tree just as big and just as lovely. Perhaps not as famous but maybe someday. If you can you should go visit the lights and trees in Rice Park….I wish all of you the Happiest of Holidays whatever they may be that you celebrate and a Happy New Year!