A breath of fresh air // City Walk

Winter walk to get inspired for a editorial shoot // grab your camera and walk off the tension // so much to see, hear and smell on Sunday morning in the Grand Minneapolis

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Immersion Mag | Seed

Editorial : Immersion Magazine

Band : Seed

Art Director/Photographer : Michaela Rae

Modern Street Art || Minnesota Artist

Please check out a new Minnesota Shop, Street Art Images.

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Woman on the street | #travelphotography

I remember being 17 years old and someone telling me about the Gum Wall in Seattle, WA.  Why that’s the one thing that suck with me, I will never know.  It feels fucking great to cross this moment off my Life List after 12 years of staring at me. Cheers to entering my Third Decade!

Cobblestone, going down

Turn Pop, finally

Bubble, stuck forever

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A picture of Photographer’s  ||   A picture of Photographer

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Twisted Pasty || Chicken Curry with a Sweet Basil cocktail  || Seattle, WA

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Uptown Espresso  ||  Velvet Foam  ||  Seattle, WA

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Wild Flower  ||  Olympic Sculptor Garden  ||  Seattle, WA

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Labor of Love | family adventure

webSteve and I packed the car, strapped in the kid and loaded the dog and booked it out of town on Sunday.  We couldn’t go anywhere for a long weekend away so instead we took a day trip to Franconia Sculpture Garden & Taylors Falls, MN.      http://www.franconia.org/

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I was really looking forward to this adventure.  Any adventure for that matter.  I have been oozing with creativity and hunting for inspiration. I wasn’t expecting the feeling I would have after being surrounded by all the wonder of this sculpture park.

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Needless to say the adventure didn’t start out as well as I hoped.  Olive was crabby during breakfast, through a fit in the middle of the diner which in turn set the stage of my husband’s grumpy attitude the rest of the day.  Our hour drive was delighted with the screams of my 19 month old hating the car ride.  With great sarcasm I say it was wonderful!

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When we finally arrived at Franconia Sculpture Park I was blown away.  I did not do any research so I could be a little surprised and I was overwhelmed with amazement.  It was wonderful, an open area to run, play and get inspired. I am not going to go into detail about the park, I want everyone to visit it for themselves. You won’t be sorry and it’s defiantly worth the drive, no matter how far.

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After our inspiring walk we headed into Taylors Falls.  I have heard about this quaint little town and the amazing hiking trails so I was pretty excited to see what it was all about.  We were hungary and I knew Steve wouldn’t go for another restaurant so the delight in my eyes when I saw the amazing Drive-In Restaurant on Bench Street.  Opened in 1956 the nostalgia hasn’t changed.  The young man taking orders was so pleasant but yet direct.  There are only so many places to “drive in” so he was directing cars all over the place.  They do offer picnic areas that have waitress’ in poodle skirts!
http://www.taylorsfalls.com/food.html
The food! The food was wonderful.  Better than I was expecting.  We had a cheeseburger basket, fried pickles, Raspberry Malt and a Butterscotch Malt.  The cheeseburger was cooked to perfection with what tasted like a homemade bun.  The perfect bun, chewy with a good density but sturdy enough to hold the beef juices, ketchup and mustard without any sogginess. I was so hungry I didn’t take that delicious cheeseburger’s photograph but let me tell you, it’s another thing that’s worth the drive! By the time we were done eating Olive’s eyes were quite heavy and we didn’t want to risk a toddler meltdown, 3 miles from the car on a hiking trail, so we decided the hike would wait for fall.  I hear there is an apple orchard close by.  Fall bucket list item!

We took the scenic drive home along the St. Croix River into Stillwater.  It was a beautiful drive on a perfect Minnesota summer day.  It was nice to get out of town and not have to come home to 10 loads of laundry!  We hope everyone enjoyed their long Labor Day weekend and I hope all the kiddos had a great first day back to school.

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Hey Saint Louie! | Spring Break 2014

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Smokey O’s BBQ

http://smokiosbbq.com/

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St. Louis Zoo

 

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City Museum

http://www.citymuseum.org/site/

 

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Arch

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Monty’s Subs

http://stlmontys.com/

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Farm Haus

http://www.farmhausrestaurant.com/

The best meal of my life!

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City Museum

http://www.citymuseum.org/site/

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Union Depot

Minnesota Livin’

In the past two weeks Olive has experience a lot of our great state.  These are a few places she has been…

We vacationed to Brainard, MN in August.  We went with my husband’s parents and his 5 year old nephew.  I had never been to Brainard before, it was really nice to get in the car and watch the city disappear behind us.  We stayed in a hotel with a water park and spent one day in Nisswa, MN.  I also drove my first go kart!

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The following weekend was Labor Day.  We went for a day visit to our friend’s cabin.  The last time we were at the cabin I was 18 weeks pregnant so needless to say this Labor Day weekend was a lot more fun!  The weather wasn’t that great but we managed to bundle up and go out on the pontoon.  Olive loved the boat ride and didn’t mind her life jacket.  We played a hilarious new game and drove home in the dark with aching bellies from laughing so hard.

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Lastly we went to the Sculpture Garden at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.  My friend Alyssa had never been and I was meaning to take Olive all summer.  It was a beautiful day to spend walking around.  It was Olive’s first time really in the grass, hence the confused face in front of the Spoon & Cherry.

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A Birthday Adventure.

I had the most amazing birthday.  My husband, my daughter and I toured our own backyard.  We left early in the morning and visited a donut shop not like any other donut shop.  Glam Doll Donuts is a retro inspired donut cafe with some out of this world flavors.  My husband order a dozen so we could try a little of everything.  All these beautiful donuts were packaged up in this very cool pink box.Glam DollGlam Doll had a VERY vintage photo booth that I could not reisits!  It was baby and I’s first photo booth visit.  I can’t wait until we can make funny faces together!  Thank you Glam Doll Donuts for the amazing sugar high and the kick off to my birthday adventure.Photo Booth

So my birthday was all about visiting places that I have never been in my own city.  Next up was the Stone Arch Bridge and Mill Ruins Park.

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It was also Baby’s 4 month birthday, so we did a little photo shoot in the Mill Ruins Park.

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The Guthrie Theater was a place I’d heard so much about and never been.  My friend has season tickets and her and her mother go almost every Thursday night.  I’ve had photographer friends shoot families and engagement photos there, so since I was so close I figured we needed to check it out!

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Lunch time was upon us and we set off for the Midtown Global Market.  I was thankful that it wasn’t very busy so we got to see every thing in there.                                                     We ate gyros at the Holy Land Deli.

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What a day!!  After we napped for an hour, the baby had been on the go all day and did a great job.  She’s a trooper and loves to travel!

We meet my in-laws for dinner.  I have been to Mozza Mia before, right when they opened.  I wanted a caprese salad and their’s is the best!  They make their mozzarella            homemade everyday.

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What a fantastic day.  Year 28 started out with new beginnings and an adventure.  I sure hope that the rest of my year is as enjoyable.

-A huge thank you to my husband and my baby, without either you it wouldn’t have been as much fun ❤

Tips for your own stay-cation:

  • Research your city.  Visit your cities website to find attractions and events going on.  I searched “cheap things to do in the Twin Cities.”
  • Use urbanspoon or opentable to find restaurants that you’ve never been.  I watch all local channels on TV, I found Glam Doll Donuts on Twin Cities Live.
  • Map out your adventure.  We used the Maps app on my iphone, I put in all the addresses and once we left one spot it directed us to the next.  It was very nice!        –I thought of this once we were out but use public transportation instead of your car, it will really feel like your on vacation.
  • Have fun with it!!  Every time we saw something new or had a fun experience we would say, “I can’t believe I’ve never been here.”  It helped set the mood of a “vacation.”

another year younger

Tomorrow is my 28th birthday.  In years past I made a huge deal about “my” day.  I’d plan big events and extend the celebration for a week or two.  One year I did a 7 day celebration, I planned super fun things to do every night of the week and had huge weekend parties before and after my actual birthday.  It was so fun, I got to see friends that I hadn’t seen in a long time and got to visit some new restaurants around the Twin Cities.

Now I sit here and think about what I want to do tomorrow and I keep thinking about the birthday I spent in Arizona with my brother two years ago.  My best friend and I flew out for a long Memorial Day weekend.  On my actual birthday in Arizona I visited my favorite mall, ate at my favorite restaurant, had Sprinkles cupcakes for the first time and had a lovely dinner with my two favorite people, my friend and my brother.

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There is something about being out of your comfort zone on your birthday, I was on vacation and having my favorite event of the year, how could it be bad?  It was the most relaxed, simple and pleasing birthday I had ever had and at the same time I believe it to be my best birthday I’d ever had!

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Last year my birthday was spent celebrating the positive pregnancy test.  So this year I have decided I am going on a vacation, a stay-cation in my own Twin Cities.  I won’t be able to spend the day in the desert or eat Sprinkles Cupcakes but I will visit some places I have never been and spend it with my two favorite people, my husband and my daughter.

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Birthday year 28 stay-cation photos to come…

A sister from another mister.

After only two months of knowing her we flew to Cancun, Mexico.  It was her first time flying and her first time ever leaving the mid-west.  I felt very “adult like” when taking her through the steps of researching hotels, buying a plane ticket & navigating the airport.

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Once we were finally there all those “adult like” intentions sailed away in the Mexico breeze.  I was 20 years of age with a wild spirited, blonde by my side. I was ready to have fun and let my hair down… we did just that and a little more 🙂

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Her and I have traveled a few more times together in our 8 year friendship but Mexico will always be the most special.  I hope to some day revisit these places we’ve been together but for now our biggest adventure we are sharing is motherhood.

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