Tuesday With Vous

Today's Tuesday With Vous is brought to you by my wonderful friend, Sarah.  She lives in Minneapolis and is always up to something interesting-  whether it be starting a new business, working a gallery opening party at the Walker, going to local shows, writing books- whatever.  She's a Jill of all trades, if you will, and I'm enormously pleased that she's taken the time to share her Tuesday with us.  Enjoy! 

As always, all italics from here on out are mine, everything else belongs to SVK.  

Tuesday, December 11
Sarah Vande Kamp Edition

I actually woke up slightly early on my day off, all to indulge in this spicy chai tea, on a bright snowy morning. I had never tried this chai before, but I would definitely recommend it! Very delish and very easy to make (just add H20).

Helped a friend come up with her Etsy store name. We also decided to form a partnership over this, and so I will be doing the business side of her clothing and jewelry design company. She is such a talent, so look out for her and Auroral Elements. 

Went to meet my friend and business partner at her house. We went for a walk in the frigid air with her dog. 

My face froze but it was invigorating.

That snow!  So jealous. Maybe?

This is delicious lunch she made for us before we got down to business. Yum!

Just starting to work on ideas for the book we are collaborating on. It is on innovation and we will being using case-studies and market research to substantiate it.

So many books. Sorry this is a boring photo, but we were still working away in the office, and I do love books.

So starts the hour in the car I spent driving, well not driving, more like surfing over the road with my car. Birthday present in hand(passenger seat), I picked up some great czech dark lager from a specialty beer store and headed to my brothers place. It's his 21st today.

More driving. Or more like "not driving." As I waited in traffic in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, I snapped this photograph. Oh Minnesota, I love you and your snow, but not on the roads...

And here is the birthday lad! Relaxing before the festivities. And here, also, are my $15.00 prescription glasses that make me feel like I'm continually looking through a fish eye lens. I only need to wear them 6 days total, due to Lasik surgery...sooon. 

This was taken exactly at 18:00, which I'm very proud of. A beautiful cityscape. 

So much MPLS skyline these days, I love it! 

Wrote a blog post for my new blog The Business Observer. It's very new, but do check it out, especially if you like businessy things. I also just started this very interesting book on Hallucinations. 

At the bar! In honor of my brother, many people showed up on a Tuesday at a great bar called The Acadia. We have dark ale, a cider, and a lighter ale pictured. Kate, you will be jealous knowing that the two beers on the right belong to Amanda Kogle and Joe Whitson.  

So so so so so jealous.  Hi, friends!

There was also live music at the bar. Yesss.

Going back to my brother's place with the gang. The snow is still clinging to the trees which I love. 

We ate cake, confused some of the other guests by using esoteric language (including the fact that we used the word esoteric), and then smoked hookah. 

I'm going to break the rules here, but I really wanted to include this picture because I like it.  

Finally in bed with one sock inside out. Long day full of morning relaxation, an afternoon of hard thinking, slippery roads, and day-end celebration. I count it as a day well spent.

Thanks, Kate, for letting me be a part of your wonderful blog. It was a pleasure, really so much fun. And it forced me to capture some great things that happened throughout my day. Miss you much xoxo.

As always, thank you for reading.  I think I'm on the cusp of another cold and am having a restful Wednesday with my laptop on the couch and Sufjan Stevens' Silver and Gold playing in my ears; I hope yours is cozy and bright day, too. 

I'll see you here tomorrow.

Gettin' My Groove On

Last week, on Halloween, my parents took us to an intimate Colin Vearncombe concert at St. Pancras Old Church.  If you don't know who Colin Vearncombe is, let me enlighten you: he is an artist who is often referred to by his former stage name, Black.  If you still don't know who he is (and you won't, trust), he had a couple hits in the early 90s but his success was mostly in the UK and Europe.  Anyway, my parents are big fans of his.  His music is the music of my childhood and listening to it brings me right back to laying on our living room carpet, wearing a giant yellow plaid dress from The Children's Place (with a matching headband, mind you), listening to Everything's Coming Up Roses and literally imagining the world around me in bloom.  It was pretty trippy for being eight, but sometimes music makes you trip out.  You know? 

Anyway, Mr. Vearncombe had a lovely young woman named Liz Lawrence open for him.  She was genuine and sang nice songs.  I liked her voice and, from her overgrown bangs down to the tips of her Converse, she was pretty much adorable. Check her out.

And this, friends, is why I don't take pictures at concerts:

In other music news, I've been listening to Solange's Losing You on repeat for the last 12 hours.  More specifically, I've been watching it on repeat.  Her style is fantastic, the video is fantastic, it is all fantastic- especially her hair.  Her hair is fantastic to the extreme.  I cannot get enough. 

What are you listening to these days, dear reader?   Is there anything out there that you just can't get enough of?  I'm always looking for something new to groove to, especially now that my studio is almost complete (eeeeek!) and I need something to help me power through the creative-blocks that present themselves when I'm getting work done.  Alone.  In my studio! 

:)

Sunshine and Sunnies

Things here are sunny, both figuratively and literally, and they're getting sunnier all the time. 

I can't stop jamming out to these mixes by Chris Baio today.   I stumbled upon them on The Fox Is Black and they're perfect getting-it-done music.  They also remind me of being in the lounge at the Clift in San Francisco (or any of the Morgan's Hotel Group hotels, for that matter) and because I like feeling like I'm on vacation, I find this ambiance reinforcement to be mighty fine indeed.

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Just a note: I will not be doing a Tuesday with Moi  today/tomorrow because I am working from home all day today and cannot bear the idea of subjecting you to another reel of photos of my apartment/cat/Bernadette.  However, once I figure out the rest of my week, I will schedule one for Thursday or Friday.