Muddy Paws & Hangin' Jaws...

It's Sunday afternoon - it's cold frigid outside, play offs are happening and people everywhere are rooting for the Packers or the Bears...

And I'm on a budget...(meaning I shouldn't be hanging out at Target all afternoon!)

So where does that leave me... ???


Hanging out with some of my favorite tweeps at Muddy Paws Cheesecake!

The sweet sweet gal (Tami) that owns and operates Muddy Paws invited us in to use her space...She hooked us up with lovely appetizers and awesome conversation...

Myself and Kate out front ~

Alexa, Liz, Tami and Anna in the second row! :)

Kate supervised & gave us some directions on how to use icing bags...

And then Alexa got busy on some pretty awesome GIANT chocolate chip cookies!!

Sin. Full! SINFUL! I tell you!

I only ate one...but I wanted one DOZEN!!

***And I don't even LIKE chocolate chip cookies!!

My weakness...

well, my weakness is usually made in pans that look like this...

I looove me some cheesecake...oh boy do I.

Mixer Envy anyone??

I know I do!

I use a hand held kitchen mixer on the rare occassions I bake...I wonder if I'd bake more if I had a mac daddy that made things a tish easier? (Ok, I'd settle for a smaller version of this one!)

But as delightful as the yummy treats were...

It's the company of friends that I savor the most...

Can't wait to do it again soon ladies!!

And a very special thanks to Tami for not only letting us hang out in her awesome space...but for treating us to a little of her made from scratch goodness too!

Which my children promptly devoured when I returned home...saving me JUST ENOUGH to not feel deprived!!

Yep - this was my very own superbowl playoff of sorts!

Minnesota Blog Conference...

So the first ever Minnesota Blog Conference came and went...
Literally FLEW right by actually...

Saturday found me venturing to downtown St. Paul...to what has to be one of the coolest, most awesomesauce buildings I've been in in quite some time.
Oh how I would love love love to have an office in THAT space...The ceilings that are open several levels, the hardwood floors, the exposed brickwork...
What a DREAM!
One of the work spaces I saw even had a dog bed, tennis ball and water bowl nearby~
um...bringing your dog to work? ok!

Man, what a difference THAT would be versus sitting in a windowless pocket of a building where I work...And I could have lunch with my hubs who works down the street...
Ah...

::wakes up::

ok, where were we...ah, yes...beautiful building...
I'd love to show you some pics I took of the spaces...but that would imply that I took some...and I have been sort of a mess lately - and so I didn't...but Heather did. And you should go here and see them...
but then come back ok?

Anyway - over 140 bloggers came together in this fantastic space...donated (for FREE!) for our use by CoCo ~

Organized by VOLUNTEER Coordinators
Arik & Missy -


With the help of Suzi & Katie & Lindsay...

Here's a group shot of many of the 140+ bloggers writers that spent the day together...
(I have learned my lesson in the group shots...I'm near the back!)

There were soo many wonderful sessions planned...I fretted over how I would decide what to attend...
Not just interesting sessions. Useful sessions. Sessions that an everyday person like myself could put to good, no, GREAT use, even if I don't aspire to be one of *those* big name bloggers...

Sessions on how to turn your blog into a book by the talented Carrie ~

Molly spoke about how to do give aways without giving away your integrity...
And Allison was part of a group talking about generating a few bucks from these here spaces...

There were soo many fantastic sessions - Kate Hopper - someone whom I have admired since I first saw her work (and her classes!) in Cribsheet eons ago...
And the beautiful, talented, and so so honest, Heather King spoke of sharing yourself, your whole self, on line...

If only I could have been everywhere at once...
Alas, I couldn't...
So I spent the majority of my day...
Hanging out here...
An out of the way nook on the 5th level of this most amazing building...
(photo taken by Missy of The Marketing Mama)

Nancy - you know Nancy - THE Nancy of s.w.a.N.k photo - who took this amazing picture of our little girl the other week...

Well, she generously donated her time & talents to take headshots of those who wanted them...
with the donation of $25 going to ...

In a very short while, we were able to bring in $550 for the foundation.

I can't stress it enough - it's the little things that add up to big huge things. Little things like donating a few bucks here and there, (in this case, $25) which then add up to much bigger things - things like grants for 44 (and counting) families assisted by the Liz Logelin Foundation ~

And while I would have loved to attend each and every session and spend hours gabbing with my wonderful and awesome tribe...

A small smattering of said tribe seen here,
(picture again thanks to Missy)

Me, Missy, Jen, Liz and Trish -


I was thrilled to be able to meet some of the conference attendees while helping out a foundation that is so dear to me...

And when the picture taking was done and the conference was nearing the end...
My friend Matt, The President of said foundation, took the microphone as the closing keynote speaker...

It was truly a pleasure to hear Matt speak in this capacity (from the hip I might add!) to the crowd, about, well, if I can quote the title of his session - "How my blog saved my ass" - Even if I WAS crying for a good part of the time! I certainly wasn't the only one...From where I sat, it looked like the entire crowd was moved to tears...

And after speaking for over 45 minutes and taking audience questions...He got a standing ovation - Perhaps everyone was just so thankful he was done talking...but maybe they were giving kudos to a guy who has lost, and gained, so very very much.

And to think it all came about - because of his blog....

Giving Back...

So last month I had the honor and privelege of helping out with an awesome group of folks helping to raise both awareness and money to fight child hunger...

Together, we all pitched in and helped put on a pretty big charity rummage sale and even though the weather man's predictions were pretty far off, we managed to raise over $900 in just a few short hours.

At the end of those few short hours, my friends Jenn & Mike showed up, in the rain, to pick up the items that had been donated that hadn't sold - for use in a rummage sale that THEY would be holding to raise money for the Breast Cancer 3 Day walk - which Jenn is walking for the first time this year - (pregnant mind you!)

I'll be honest - when they showed up - I felt a little bad. It had been raining. We were wet. Items for sale were getting wet. Mike and Jenn had driven over an hour in the pouring rain with two young children, only to show up and within minutes of them being there, a dozen of us shoved donations into every possible nook and cranny of not one, but two separate vehicles. We waved buh-bye and sent them on their merry way...

I felt guilty that they would have to get this stuff home and figure out what to do with it for 3 weeks while getting ready for their own sale...

Last night - I received the following email from Jenn -

Darcie, I’ve been meaning to email you to give you an update on the garage sale but I haven’t had much energy after last week. We worked like mad people to get ready for the sale. The donations just kept coming, which was a good problem to have. As of Tuesday night, or Wed morning (1:30am) we weren’t sure how we were going to get everything in the garage before we tried to get a little sleep. We managed to shut the door but barely.
Wednesday was our best day by far. It was sunny and we sold a ton of the big stuff which was great. It rained off and on Thursday and Friday but we had sold enough stuff on Thursday that we could pull everything into the garage and still had room for people to move around.
We ended up raising $1100 which I think is amazing because we were giving things away. Most everything was priced at $0.25/.50 and up. We just priced everything to sell. On Friday we had bag day – Everything you could fit in a bag for $5.00.
The best part is we ended up helping out 3 other charities. All the baby and Maternity stuff went to a foundation that helps single mothers. The everyday clothing and shoes when to a group who is working to cloth Africa and the rest of the stuff is going to either the Goodwill, Salvation Army or to the Vets. So it felt great that this stuff just keeps on giving to other causes. Please share this info with your other bloggers and thank them again for everything they donated. We appreciated it so much.
Thank you again for setting everything up so we could get all those donations. Everything you do to help these causes is very inspiring.
We still need to find a date to get the families together. I hope all is well with you guys.
Jenn

I cannot tell you how much JOY it brings me to see people giving back. While I only donated one truck load of items to these sales (much to my husband's dismay I'm sure, as he would really love to see me move out about 10 truck loads of *stuff*) I still feel good about knowing that some of those items potentially raised money for a great causes...and if they happened to be one of the items that didn't sell - they still went to great use.

That, my friends, is what makes this all worthwhile!

Much love to the Minnesota Bloggers who helped organize the charity sale and donated not only their old treasures, but their time and talents as well.
xoxo

Minnesota Bloggers Fight Child Hunger

So, if you've been coming around here for any length of time, you know that I have formed some absolutely amazing friendships with some absolutely amazing people, all via these here interwebs...
And the even more amazing thing...is that this group uses their time, their talents, their friendships...to do great things.

Remember back in January when 40 of us came together and packaged food for Feed My Starving Children?

This weekend, Minnesota Bloggers did it again...
We kicked off by getting together at Nye's Polonaise and donating non-perishable food items ... We had a great time meeting friends old and new...though it was a pretty tough atmosphere to socialize in, even without the Polka Band playing!
With over 50 people coming in and out - it was hard to get a chance to talk to everyone - next time - I say we do the speed dating thing - blogger style - 5 minutes gabbing with each other before the buzzer goes off and we move on to the next new/old friend? Anyone?

A handful of the amazing ladies that came out...
And to check out their blogs along with many many other great bloggers who came, saw and conquered...Check out Molly's post with link to everyone!






I cannot say THANK YOU enough to Betsy for not only watching our kids for us so that I could go out and Daddy could still play ball (and participate in the Big Foot Challenge! More on that later!!) but she also took the kids TO the ball games...and then let H have a sleepover with some of HER daughter's American Girl Babies!
When I got home, THIS is what I found...
This picture shows success no?


Then, on Saturday, working with Molly from The Snyder Five, who is a blogger correspondent for ConAgra Foods & The Child Hunger Ends Here Campaign - An enormous number of bloggers, and non-bloggers, donated their things and sold them at ridiculously low prices, all to raise money for this great cause.



In just over 3 hours (because even though the weather man didn't tell us we were going to get rained on, we did!) The charity rummage sale managed to bring in $841.00! Talk about amazing!
And while Trish borrowed my camera and snapped some pretty awesome shots at the charity sale...I really don't know if I need to share any of those with you - because what follows below is what I caught...and really...

does it get any better than this?
(But if you ARE so inclined to see the other pics from the events - click HERE to view a slide show in my Kodakgallery...again - most of these shots of the folks shopping were snapped by Trish...so she should get credit for her mad photog skills!!)
This gal here - she told us it has long been a goal of hers to learn to hula hoop...








Good thing she bought this brand new hula hoop...She is going to need a little bit more practice! Though if I'm being honest...she would have probably killed me in a contest! She was so awesome!

So are these girls...
Cindy, Suzi and Missy!

And what happens when bloggers get together in real life?
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Even though the weather man didn't warn us...some kids came prepared!

Special thanks to Molly for letting me take these two pics...

And when the sale was over, instead of taking all of the left over donations to good will - Molly and the rest of the bloggers agreed to let my dear friend Jenn - a brand new blogger - take what she could to sell at her OWN fundraising rummage sale that will be taking place on June 9, 10th & 11th in Albertville. Thank you Mike and Jenn for letting us cram every inch of space of not one but two vehicles full of things for you to sell!!!

Jenn is walking in her first ever Breast Cancer 3 Day walk this August and while the walking 60 miles in 3 days is pretty daunting...I think you'll all agree that the fundraising can be just as daunting...
Want to head over to Jenn's newish blog and give her some love? AKA - leave her a comment?

MN Bloggers Unite ~ AGAIN!

This coming weekend - dozens of awesome bloggers and their families who have sorted out their treasures they no longer want or need, will be coming together and selling them at ridiculously low prices for charity.

Organized by Molly over at the Snyder 5 - We will kick off by converging on Nye's Polonaise on Thursday night...where over 50 of us will come together. We will be donating non-perishable food items and raising cash for the Child Hunger Ends Here campaign...

** Did you know that just $1 provides 7 meals? So if we can raise even $500 this weekend that will be 3,500 meals for children right here in our community.

That's the part that really had me sold on this gig. Not to mention the AMAZING sisterhood that I have found amongst this group. AMAZING!
But even MORE amazing...is the fact that together - we really can make a difference. A difference RIGHT HERE...where WE live!

** The statistics on hungry Minnesotans are heart-breaking. According to the Emergency Food Shelf Network, the number of people being served by food shelves in Minnesota has risen 45 percent in the past four years.
Yep...that's FORTY FIVE PERCENT!

** In Burnsville kindergarten, half of the students qualify for the reduced lunch program.

** In Farmington the food shelf is serving 100 people a month, and requests are going up.

** The amount of food distributed through Dakota County food shelves, which was fairly consistent earlier in the decade with about 800,000 pounds annually, jumped to 1.1 million pounds in 2007 and doubled to 1.6 million pounds in 2008.

Jennifer over at Unplanned Cooking has some great facts as well - stuff about stuff...

oh the stuff...
While I'm not blogging about it like Molly is...I'm really trying to work on the stuff in our home too - hopefully one day soon - you'll be able to tell the difference!
Perhaps this weekend will be my turning point?

Won't you join us?
Here are the details you need to know about...and the weather - oh the weather - it looks FABULOUS! See you there!

MN Bloggers Rummage Sale
Saturday, May 22, 2010
8:00am - 1:00pm
Highland Park Shelter House
1227 Montreal Ave
West Saint Paul, MN

together - we really CAN make a difference!
Remember the last time this many of us got together?

Winning Me Over...

So this post in long over due - and I have nothing to say for myself except that I wasn't sure exactly how to go about it...

Knowing that I couldn't possibly put a post as eloquently as my friend Erin did, or my friend Jen did...

A couple few? weeks ago I was asked to be among a select group of VIP bloggers invited to Cub Foods for a special behind the scenes look and tour of one of their biggest and most beautiful grocery stores...(Did I really just call a grocery store beautiful?)
Anyway - their store was pretty sharp if I do say so myself...

I admit...I haven't really been shopping at Cub Foods for the past couple of years except for a few things here and there...They stopped mailing out their coupon books and if you don't stop in the store - you have no way of knowing what sort of values those awesome little books hold...

But one of Cub's new promises...



Lower prices on over 8,000 items - every. day.
That's pretty awesome.

I admit it - I shop for value/price over nutrition...The girls in our house are pretty picky eaters...so...I shop for our tastes a lot...

And if you know me - the double coupons that Rainbow offers pretty much make my week - (most of the time...)

I know a ton of people who say that it doesn't pay to clip coupons...those folks have never shopped with me! I'm pretty good at getting FREE yogurt, free pasta, free pasta sauce, free milk, free sandwich meat, free toothpaste and many many other things for free or next to free - a lot of that has to do with putting coupons on top of sale prices and having Rainbow double those...

Sometimes, like today, it doesn't pay to double your coupons. While I was excited about doubling 10 coupons today at Rainbow for a savings of $20.00 on top of the sale prices...it took the 187 year old check out lady (and the manager who had to help us out too) over 45 minutes for me to get one bag of items.

GRRRR....

Which of course, has me sitting here thinking about why I stopped shopping at Cub in the first place and what it would take for me to start again -

One of the (many) things I learned about on the VIP tour of Cub Foods was the Nutrition IQ System -

You simply look for these signs on the shelf while you are doing your shopping. They're color-coded to point out key nutrition content in qualified items throughout the store. All foods that have a shelf tag are low in saturated fat and, at minimum, meet criteria for healthier sodium claims.

For people like me who look at prices first, nutrition second, (I know. I know...I'm trying to get better at that!) this makes it very easy...And I was happy to see that H & I's favorite cereal (frosted mini wheats) and quaker chewy granola bars (staples in our house) make the cut!

I learned a lot of great stuff by visiting Cub...and they really do have one stop shopping ~ Have they won me over? That's yet to be determined but I am grateful that they invited me to check things out up close and personally, what they have to offer busy, working folks like myself...(I'm also grateful for the delish food they fed us as we toured and the AH-MAZING swag bag!)

If you'd like to be added to Cub Foods email list for their newsletter - simply sign up HERE!