Paris in St. Paul!

Last Saturday, Hannah and I got all dolled up and headed off to Paris...in St. Paul! 

I was invited as an honoree representative of my company to attend the annual Ordway Gala, and this year's theme was Springtime In Paris. As springtime in Paris is actually one of my favorite things ever, I was ALL about it. 

We met up at my place, popped a bottle of bubbles, and got ready together...

OMG YOU GUYS I WORE A COLOR! Details to follow...

After enjoying our Prosecco and dressing to the nines, we headed off to the Honorees' Reception, held in the gorgeous US Bank Rehearsal Hall. We were treated to an open bar, a giant spread of amazing French appetizers, and a virtuosic performance of Eugène Ysaÿe's Sonata #2, "Obsession," by the St Paul Chamber Orchestra's Francisco Fullana. I, being me, immediately fell deeply in love with him and turned beet-red and giggled every time he came near for the rest of the program. Oops :)

Of course, I had the prettiest date ever!! In keeping with our love of spontaneity and adventures, Hannah was totally willing to rent a gown and come hang with me for the evening...what a gem of a BFW!

After our VIP program ended, we headed out to the second-story Atrium to enjoy live French music and more champagne, and to browse the silent auction items! I couldn't get over the transformation of the space from our usual evenings at the opera. So charming and so quintessentially "springtime in Paris!"

Before we go too far, a quick note on that gown...

It's Badgley Mischka, and I rented it from my go-to obsession, Rent The Runway, after being...let's say "politely advised" to not wear "another black gown to this one," HA! The deep cobalt blue was WAY out of my comfort zone initially, but it paired perfectly with current-season J.Crew earrings, an old J.Crew necklace repurposed as a bracelet, and of course, the Ordway's carpet...every girl's best fashion accessory, naturally! (Please ignore my turquoise rubber bracelet...that was for the VIP bar selection, of course!)

The gown was an absolute dream to wear...I actually tried it on the Thursday before the event and didn't take it off for several hours, oops! Fortunately for me, it comes in a plethora of other colors on RTR's site, so I have a feeling it's about to be a go-to for black-tie events. 

Champagne and chardonnay in hand, we explored the event...from the adorable hand-drawn "cityscapes" featuring the names of sponsors...

...to the INSANE Wall of Wine raffle! $25 got a participant a raffle entry to win the entire rack of wine. Hannah and I were hopeful, but unfortunately didn't come out on top. Next year!

We rested our feet...

...took plenty of selfies... (With my other crush of the evening, the super-hot haberdashery model behind me who complimented me on my blue dress, naturally)...

...and ran into friends!! I was tickled to see Mike's mom, Martha, there representing the Minnesota History Theatre. 

One of the centerpieces of the evening was the three-story tall Eiffel Tower watercolor, which also prominently featured on the tickets, programs and advertising for the evening. We couldn't resist an official photo!

But we quickly figured out that the best viewing spot for our very own Tour Eiffel was halfway up the Grand Staircase (yes, it's actually called that, ha). 

The official program for the evening moved us into the Ordway's gorgeous new Concert Hall, an acoustically-perfect space that's home to the Schubert Club and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. As my company was the premier sponsor of the night, we got top billing:

After a few speeches, we were treated to performances by the Ordway, Schubert Club, and Minnesota Opera. The Ordway did Gershwin (love), the Schubert Club brought in one of their scholarship recipients who played Erik Satie's "Gymnopedie no1" and a Ravel sonatina, and the Opera rolled out the red carpet and imported Parisian mezzo-soprane Marie Lenormand to perform my all-time favorite, "La Vie En Rose," along with cabaret classic "Je Cherche un Millionaire." TOO FUN. The fund-a-need portion of the night, including live auction, was wildly successful as well. 

After the program wrapped up, we grabbed one more glass of champagne, along with the entire dessert buffet...

Then we tried to get a "nice photo" by the chandeliers and Eiffel Tower. Turns out coworker AJ's idea of "nice photo" differs drastically from Hannah's/mine...candids below for your enjoyment! 

We have a winner! Followed by a photobomb c/o AJ's sister, Kathryn...HA.

So we took a girl pic...

...and a coworker pic...

...followed by the sweetest, most awkward, most incredibly homogeneous dance party in the history of wealthy donors' events ever. Hannah's Snapchat, below, really says it all...the woman in the photo is, I'm pretty sure, an Ordway. As in, the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. 

We hopped in Snap Yourself!'s photo booth for a few hilarious moments, involving a lot of confusion around the clicker and wrestling with a beret that didn't want to stay on my updo...

And before I knew it, it was time to head home, take off painful heels, and flop straight into bed (yes, in my gown, oops) to relive a night in Paris without ever having to leave my backyard. 

The loveliest evening with the most wonderful people! If every night could involve champagne and ball gowns, I'd be a happy camper. Alors, I guess I have to cherche un millionaire of my own... ;) 

A playlist to unlock your inner badass.

I've been needing little boosts here and there lately, and this playlist is perfectly designed for it. Looping it here and there and everywhere - en route to barre, in the shower, before meetings and speaking engagements - and it's exactly the right amount of extra oomph to put me in the mood to rock whatever's coming up. Favorite lyrics and snippets below: 

Lizzo, “Good as Hell” - "Boss up and change your life, You can have it all, no sacrifice"

Katy Perry, “Firework” - "You're original, cannot be replaced"

Yuna, “Rescue” - "Yeah, she's got a light in her face, She don't need no rescue and she's okay"

Daya, “Sit Still Look Pretty” - "Oh, I don't know what you've been told, But this gal right here's gonna rule the world"

Sara Bareilles, “Brave” - "Let your words be anything but empty"

Beyonce, “Schoolin’ Life” - "Stop living in regret, baby, it's not over yet"

NONONO, “Pumpin Blood” - "You're a catalyst to your own happiness, you know"

Robyn, “Dancing On My Own” - "I keep dancin' on my own," duh.

Jimmy Eat World, “The Middle” - "Little girl in the middle of your life, everything, everything's gonna be just fine" (also see here)

The New Radicals, “You Get What You Give” - "You get what you give," also duh. Also see here. 

Sia, “Elastic Heart” - "But you won't see me fall apart, 'Cause I've got an elastic heart"

Florence + The Machine, “Shake It Out” - "And it's time to dance with the devil on your back"

La Roux, “Bulletproof” - "Tick, tick, tick, tick on the watch, And life's too short for me to stop"

Lizzo and Caroline Smith, “Let’em Say” - "But if you’re giving in then don’t you change, Cause living well's the best revenge"

Idina Menzel, “Let it Go” - DUH.

Elle King, “America’s Sweetheart” - "You tryna change me, you can go to hell, Cause I don't wanna be nobody else"

Adele, “Send My Love (To Your New Lover” - "Baby, I'm still rising"

Paramore, “Ain’t It Fun” - "So what are you gonna do, When the world don't orbit around you"

101 in 1001 #85: See "Hamilton" again!

You guys, we had the best weekend in Chicago! So good that it's taken me until now to recover slash be able to write about it without instantly tearing up wanting to be back with my Schwegfam.

Papa Bear, Jodester and I took off mid-morning from MSP and were just a liiiiiittle bit excited for our trip and all the epic surprises we had in store!

The plan was to rendezvous with Jonny D at the Palmer House...little did we know that he had a surprise of his own up his sleeve! We arrived for check-in and he was waiting at the bar with a bottle of champagne on ice and ready to pop. 

Well done, yiddle brudder! Pleased to say you've officially learned from the best. 

After check-in, it was off to kill some time at Goddess and the Baker, snacking on sweets and starting Jodester's birthday celebration a little early! 

Gotta give them props for the insane cuteness of their baked goods...and their life motto, which dovetails perfectly with my own. (Food, coffee, everything else.)

We met up with Em once her workday wound down and headed off to a very special happy hour...one of my mom's sorority sisters has a place in Chicago, and they started talking after one of our previous trips there. Having not seen each other in decades, the reunion was incredibly fun! Great to meet the Schmidts and see their gorgeous home...which happened to be very high up in Trump Tower, right in the heart of the Loop.

Yeah, the view was incredible. I salivated over it the entire time we were there...watching the sun set over the heart of downtown, with views all the way from Navy Pier and the Shedd Aquarium to the Willis Tower, was an experience to remember!

After we left the Schmidts' home, we headed back to Palmer House for a quick series of very special surprises! My dad gifted my mom her birthday surprise, a stunning pair of diamond earrings that we marveled at all weekend...and they in turn gifted US our Easter baskets! 

Containing...

"Hamilton" tickets! Fun story: I went down to Lakeville for a corned beef dinner on St. Patrick's Day, and we drank A LOT. Like, Manhattans, champagne, and wine a lot. My dad had been listening to "Hamilton" at the club every morning after we downloaded it to his new iPhone, and he was jonesing to see the show in a big way. Naturally, me being the terrible influence that I am, the next thing we knew I had scouted out five orchestra-level seats for us on Easter weekend. Dad, under the influence of Manhattans and wine, was ALL about it...so we pulled the trigger!

It was a nightmare trying to keep it a secret for a month - we were so excited to tell Em and Jon - and they did it in the cutest way. They made Easter baskets and filled them with fancy tea (Boston Tea Partayyy, duh), $10 bills (Hamilton, also duh), a bottle of the Federalist Wines's Visionary Zinfandel featuring Hamilton on the label (THIS IS A THING AND I WILL BE COLLECTING THEM ALL), and a t-shirt for each of us featuring perfectly-suited quotes from the musical. Em's: "When I meet Thomas Jefferson, I'ma compel him to include women in the sequel!" Jonathan's: "SIT DOWN, JOHN..." (you fat mother_____!) Mine: "I am inimitable, I am an original," which is my life mantra forever and always. My mom's: "What time is it?!..." (SHOWTIME!) And my dad's: 

He is in fact the General of our family, and of surprises, and of winning at life...in general. 

After way too much excitement over the surprises, and a fabulous dinner at Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, we headed home, slept it all off, and reconvened Saturday morning at Melrose Diner, a BYOB breakfast joint that we did UP: 

Poppin' bottles for Jodester! 

Functional and always appropriate.

Fortunately, the coconut-crusted French toast soaked up enough of the Chandon for me to (mostly) keep it together when we rolled up to the PrivateBank Theatre!!!!!

You guys, I was so excited I could hardly function. Seeing "Hamilton" last November was a top five day for sure, and seeing it with my whole Schwegfam was sure to be even better. We took full advantage of our extremely early arrival to appropriately document the experience. 

YUP I'm a grownup. Fun fact: several cast members of "Hamilton" Chicago liked ^that^ photo when I Insta'd it, which obviously means they're going to let me come be a general understudy any day now, right? 

What can I say? The experience was, I think, even better this time around, despite having an understudy instead of Karen Olivo for Angelica. So many of the actors/actresses had clearly grown into their roles since November, notably Miguel Cervantes as Hamilton and Ari Afsar as Eliza. I adored being on the orchestra level and seeing everything much closer up...it gave me such a greater appreciation for the insane choreography and impact of the staging. And watching Dad and Jonny react to the show after loving it for months was a heart-burstingly happy experience, too. 

The best Schwegfamilton imaginable! We rocketed off to dinner at Balena in Old Town, and found our next theatrical experience: 

HA! Best dinner, best wine, best company and best time dissecting every minute detail of the show. We've already started discussing a Schwegfamilton reunion as soon as the Eliza tour comes to Minneapolis in the 2018-19 season...my dad even said that it trumps "Phantom of the Opera" for him, and that is a HUGE statement. 

Sunday dawned absolutely beautiful for the resurrection of Jesus and, even more majorly, for JODESTER'S OFFICIAL BIRTHDAY! We scored a brunch reservation at Little Goat Diner...

...where we champagned, cocktailed, and toasted to the best of wives, best of women. Her surprise birthday dessert was also delish. 

From Little Goat, it was off to the Riverwalk to walk off brunch...and re-up with a cold glass of sauvignon blanc at City Winery...

...then across the river to clown around a bit...

...and then on to Wendella for a Chicago Architecture boat cruise! Em took one last fall, loved it, and knew we all would too. 

With perfect weather, the most charming guide, and our nerdy little fam getting way into it, it was the perfect way to spend a sunny Easter Sunday. 

I love these people SO FREAKING MUCH. Thank you to Mom and Dad for a weekend to remember forever - truly a Schwegfam top five of all time! 

101 in 1001 #65: Learn calligraphy!

I have a new hobby!!!!! Last night after nearly two months of anticipation, I took my first calligraphy class by Hooked Calligraphy through LAB Minneapolis, and it was an utter dream. 

Rewind: I've always had excellent cursive handwriting, and have always enjoyed that little nerd skill. See holiday to-do list, below, for example: 

I have ALSO, however, always had an absurdly intense desire to learn calligraphy. Fans of EL Konigsburg (one of my favorite children's book authors) may remember "The View From Saturday," a book about a quiz bowl team in which calligraphy plays a major role. No? Just me? Nbd. Throw on top of that the fact that my brilliantly gifted younger sister Em is a graphic designer and has a true artistic gift for lettering in all its forms, and you have one envious sister. See her work below, for example: 

HI RIGHT? So I signed up for the Lab class as soon as I decided to make calligraphy a goal on my 101 in 1001. Last night found me strolling across a drizzly, gray Loring Park (getting chased by a territorial goose in the process) to the Loring Corners building. 

My calligraphy companions and I wound our way through a labyrinthine warehouse/office space until we came to this most Instagrammable of setups for our evening class: 

I'm such an aesthete. Why not take the extra bit of bother to make something beautiful? The prettiness of the event set it up to be a truly fun and lovely evening. Major props to the team at LAB for ensuring the night was off to a gorgeous start! 

Our instructor for the night, the crazy-talented Clair of Hooked Calligraphy, walked us through the intricacies of the calligraphy pen and then threw us right in by telling us to dip our pens in our ink and try writing our names. Needless to say, I was NOT a natural. 

After hilarity ensued all around, and once I'd blotted the ink off my hands, sleeves, and the table (fail), we started with the basics...the downward stroke, the downward/upward combo, and then drawing "O"s. The tip of a calligraphy pen splits based on how much pressure the writer applies, and that drives the thickness of the line...thick lines and pressure for downward strokes, and the most feather-soft drag upward for thin upstrokes. It is HARD. 

That said, I was so pleasantly surprised by how fast I started to get the hang of it. Not saying that I instantly became a Martha Stewart-worthy calligrapher, by any means, but as soon as I got accustomed to the different grip and handfeel of the pen, and the excruciating slowness and attention to detail it required, I started improving. 

While we practiced, Clair passed around amazing samples of her work, on everything from wedding invitations and envelopes to postcards and gift tags. My favorite? She scanned her handwriting into her computer, and used it to make lasercut wood "place cards" for a wedding...they were spectacular and looked so impressive. 

By the end of class, I was utterly hooked...exactly the goal of a company called Hooked Calligraphy, duh! I can already tell that this is going to be a dangerous (and expensive) new hobby. It's perfect though...the careful intention behind the art, and the way it forces the writer to be slow and focused, is exactly what I need to unwind. 

Before you know it, I'll be hitting Emily levels of skill and artistry...HA! 

If you're into any kind of artistic endeavor in the Twin Cities, I can't recommend LAB highly enough...find them here. I'd also suggest you follow them (and Clair!) on Instagram for some major prettiness in your feed on the daily. Otherwise, check out the rest of my second 101 in 1001 here...and come along for the fun next time! 

Snapshots of Sonoma

Lots of photos and very few words today: it's snowing here and I'm missing gorgeous wine country and San Francisco like crazy! The good ones are by Em and the crappy ones are by me :)

We started our trip off with a stop at Gloria Ferrer. The men enjoyed red wine, while Jodes, Em, and I sipped champagne flights...

"Yes, utterly delighted to be here in the homeland of California sparkling wine."

Meems doesn't eff around - wine and chocolate pairing. So fun!

La Crema is a family favorite, and their new tasting room in an old hops barn at Saralee's Vineyard is stunning.

"Hey look kids! I bought us a vineyard for Christmas!"

We headed deep into the Alexander Valley and stumbled on the cutest roadside market I've ever seen. Their Mexican hot chocolate was the perfect palate cleanser between wine stops! 

Hanna Vineyards, high on top of a ridge in Alexander Valley, had some of the prettiest views of the trip...and we were the only ones there, which added so much to the experience. 

A few quick snaps of San Fran for the day...we checked out the Painted Ladies...

...strolled Fisherman's Wharf and scoped out the sea lions (this iconoclast loner was our favorite)...

...and consumed like four baskets of sourdough bread, an obscene amount of crab cakes, and an undisclosed number of cocktails and glasses of wine at Fog Harbor.

We made a late-in-the-day stop at Domaine Chandon for sparkling, mostly for Em's benefit - she designed their Summer 2017 special edition bottles and packaging, and we cannot WAIT to see them hit stores soon! 

After dropping Em at the airport, Dad, Mom, Jonny and I hit up a few other vineyards, including Merry Edwards, home of the first female grad of the UC Davis Vinology program. 

...and Iron Horse, my favorite of the trip! A sparkling winery with open-air tastings at the top of a giant rolling hill...they bottled the champagne that Reagan and Gorbachev drank to end the Cold War, and have had a sparkling wine served at every state dinner since then. I adored it!

^^Isn't that just quintessential Christmas in Cali? I loved the weird juxtaposition of gorgeous weather and celebrating the holidays! 

Also noteworthy: our final stop of the trip at Merryvale, another old Schwegfam fave, for a cask room tour and tasting. So fun!