#MNBloggerHH Recaps!

Last night was our first Minnesota Bloggers Happy Hour (organized from this ol' blog) and I have to say that it was HUGE success!! We hope that you all had a great time enhancing your friendships in real life and meeting new friends too!

A big thank you goes out to all of you bloggers who, despite your nervousness, came out to meet everyone! Apologies for not being a bit more organized, but we're learning :-) It obviously would not have been the same without everyone who was there. We had bloggers come all the way from Farmington to Coon Rapids to Medina to Forest Lake, some of us (err, just super genius Kelly) had just busted our butts with the BAR exam, some leaving work functions early, or having the husband take on kiddo duty for the night, etc... Thank you for coming!!

There was a ton of feedback about how we must get a 2nd get-together on the books soon. The general consensus is that now that many of us have finally been introduced, having a more specific activity would be fun-- like meeting up at The Paint Pub for wine drinking and painting! Stay tuned for more information soon! (I'll check to see if they have a chalkboard wall or not ;-))

Once again... If you were able to make it out last night, THANK YOU. I truly had a blast. If you were not able to join us, you were missed!! Blogger get-togethers are only as successful as the ones who attend-- the more the merrier and we'd love to have you next time!! :-)

If you have posted about last night's Happy Hour, feel free to link up below! Thanks again and take care, girls!

<3 Kelly

Don't Forget!

If you have time today, make sure to head over to last week's blog post to check out the fellow bloggers who will be joining us at tonight's Happy Hour at Psycho Suzi's! Hopefully the rain stops sometime today so that we can enjoy some patio action... But of course if it is still wet out, we'll move the party indoors.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at minnesotabloggers@gmail.com or leave a comment here. And it's not too late to join us-- the more the merrier!

See YOU at 5:30! :-)

A Week From Today...

A bunch of us awesome Minnesota bloggers will be getting together for our first Happy Hour (at least the first organized from this ol' blog ;-)) Personally, I cannot wait! It is going to be an amazing night. We promise!

First order of business, I want to apologize to anyone who might have fallen through the cracks or overlooked at all in the past month since this blog has started. Between work, life, our own personal blogs, and many other responsibilities, I never thought this little ol' Minnesota Bloggers blog would prove to be so time consuming (but in a good way)! I took some time to sift through emails and hopefully everyone who would like their blog linked in the Fellow MN Bloggers tab is listed above. If for any reason you'd like to ask questions, leave a comment or suggestion, become a featured blogger, or just say hi... Don't hesitate to email us at minnesotabloggers@gmail.com

Okay, so moving on to the fun stuff. After looking through all of the comments and emails regarding our first Happy Hour, I have compiled a list of those bloggers who gave anywhere from an adamant "Yes, I'm counting down the hours" to a "Sounds like fun, but I need to check my work schedule" RSVP response.

Andrea at Keeping Up With the Sonneks
Andrea at Love Is...
Becky at Nacho Average Blog
Bridget at Life As Bridget Knows It
Britni at Britni's Beginnings
Brittany at Bllissfully Britt
Carolyn at Life, Love & Puppy Prints
Chelsea at Sunny with a Chace of Sprinkles
Dawn at Mom-A-Logues
DJ at Just D and Y
Dottie at Crazy Little Thing Called Love
Jess at Jess is More
Kelly at Keeping Up With Kelly & Co
Kelly at Kelly B, JD
Kristin at Busy Bee
Kristin at Crown Jewells
Lauren at Our Crazy Ever After
Meg at Mr C & Me
Melissa at I Carry Your Heart
Michelle at You're My Favorite Today
Samara Dane at Wanderings of Miss Dane
Syndal at Synfully Delicious
Zhenya at Being Zhenya


Are you listed above?

If not, do ya wanna be? If so, just leave a comment and we'll be excited to meet you!

If you have already RSVP-ed with a "yes!" and I don't have you listed, please don't hate me. Just leave another comment and I promise to not only add you to the list but buy you a drink at Happy Hour too ;-)

And if you are listed but can't attend (boo) please let us know as well.


So mark your calendars (whether that be an Erin Condren planner, iPhone calendar, work schedule, or Mom Calendar on the side of your 'fridge ;-)) and plan to have a great time at Psycho Suzies on Tuesday, July 24th at 5:30pm. A handful of you also mentioned that you may be a tad late and that is a-okay! If having a contact cell phone number makes you feel more comfortable about showing up fashionably late, I am more than happy to give my number out as well, just let me know :-)

See you then!!

<3 Kelly

Minnesota Blogger: Melissa from I Carry Your Heart!

hey mn bloggers! i'm melissa and i blog over at i carry your heart. i started my blog a little over two years ago and i write about life with my hubby thatcher and our 15 month old daughter azalea. i love having a place to record everything and i've even printed my pregnancy posts and azalea's first year into books for her to have when she gets older. of course the other thing i love about blogging is getting to know other bloggers - like you guys! 


i'm a marketing manager at a small software company 4 days/week and i get to stay home with my daughter 1 day/week. i'm really thankful for that!

now for the fun part...describing myself in 5 photos:

i met my hubby when i was 17 and married him when i was 22. we were one of those weirdo couples who "just knew" very early on in our relationship that we were in this for the long haul. we've been married for 5 years now (and have been together for 10!). that's over a third of my life. hard to believe!

it goes without saying that the day my daughter was born was the best day of my life! in some ways, it feels like it was just yesterday, but at the same time i wish time would slow down a little bit. makes total sense, right?

we love to travel! thatcher and i have been to countless states (and england, italy, and canada) together and we plan to show azalea as much of the world as we can!

i have a serious sweet tooth, which results in a bad habit of eating dessert pretty much every day (usually just at home, but frozen yogurt shops are dangerous amazing!). so far i've been lucky to have a pretty fast metabolism, but i know all the sweets are going to catch up with me one of these days - let's be honest, i'm not getting any younger! 

i'm a city girl through and through! i grew up in minneapolis and plan to raise my kid(s) in this city too! i adore the lakes, bike paths, great restaurants, and countless events in the summer. ok, we won't talk about the winters, but those haven't been terrible the last couple years :) 

thanks for taking the time to read my post! i hope to see you over on my blog. you can also find me on pinterest and instagram (@melissa_lea). looking forward to meeting you all at the happy hour NEXT week!

Don't forget! If you would like to be featured as a Minnesota Blogger (or have any other questions/comments), feel free to email us at minnesotabloggers@gmail.com

Minnesota Blogger: Syndal from Synfully Delicious!

Hey there!  My name is Syndal, and I blog over at Synfully Delicious!

I love that all of us Minnie Bloggers finally have a way to connect-I am SO excited for the meet up at Psycho Suzi's this month!

I started my blog in 2010 after being inspired by some of our very own Minnesota blogging friends- Carolyn (who I went to high school with) and Amber (who I went to grad school with).  Since then, this little blog has seen me through getting my doctorate as a family nurse practitioner, getting engaged, getting ready for a new job, and now getting ready for my wedding in August!

To describe myself in just 5 photos, you should know that....

I love my fiance Pete and I love being a Bride.

I've been obsessed with weddings since I was a little girl and I'm afraid of what I will do with my time when I am all done planning my big day!  I am having the best time planning & I can't wait to share it all with you guys!

Being an auntie to this little guy Orrin has been the greatest joy of my life.

I'm obsessed with my cat, Choxie.

If you follow me on Instagram (@SyndalAnn), it is likely your feed will be a lot of pictures of her!

I love wine (in a very healthy way!)

A couple of my besties & I took a trip to Napa & Sonoma last summer and it was pure bliss.

You can read some of our stories of this amazing trip here-day 1, here-day 2, here-day 3, & here-day 4

I.Love.Summer.

I love the sunshine, I love the crazy heat, I love that everyone is just a little bit more happy.

A day out on the water (with lifejackets-I don't know how to swim!) on a sunny afternoon is my most perfect day.

I'm so happy you get to know a little bit about me-you can also find me on Twitter, Pinterest, & Facebook

Be sure to stop by & say hello!

SAVE THE DATE!

That's right! We have a date! 

We're all getting together for some Minnesota Blogger style fun! 

After looking over everyone's responses, July 24th seemed to work for the most people.

We decided on Psycho Suzi's because it's pretty central, has a great patio, and let's be real... 

there are some great photo opps, which is the most important thing for every blogger!

Let's all plan on meeting on the patio at Psycho Suzi's at 5:30pm!

If you didn't reply to the original blog post, you can still come! We'd LOVE to meet you! 

If you could, please comment on this post letting us know if you'll be there, just so we have a head count.

We'll be sending out an email to everyone that will be attending about a week prior, but please don't hesitate to email/comment if you have ANY questions! 

Can't wait to meet you!

Minnesota Blogger: Andrea from Keeping Up With the Sonneks

Hello- my name is also Andrea, my friends call me "Andera" [said like an-dare-a]- since we are friends, you can call me this too ;)

So a few [too many words] about me… in a nut shell; my husband and I have been together for almost 10 years [married for 2 years], we have a baby girl soon to be turning ONE- “baby a”

I am a SAHWM [stay at home working mom] occasionally working as a server when sanity is needed. We are a family that is on the go all. of. the. time.- which inspired the name of my blog “Keeping up with the Sonneks”.

I began blogging to keep memory of all our fun activities week to week. I was a big time journal keeper [we're talking journaling daily and dating back to ohh....2^nd grade!] after reading/following a good friend’s blog I decided to finally make the electronic jump! That was in 2007 and I have been blogging ever since! Life has been UBER busy with a baby, so I am always trying to catch up & keep up on blog life; posting, reading, commenting & following!

My blog header is a great representation of life right now, it is composed of three photos. The first photo is one of our engagement photos; hubby Aaron and I started dating in 2002 and then in 2008 became engaged!


The second photo is from our wedding in Cabo San Lucas- we were married February 20^th, 2010. We loved everything about our beach wedding- with a large MN party a couple of months after we
returned home.


The third photo is Avrie- our daughter, who was born into our lives last year on the 28th of June . We now experience a brand new kind of love here in the Sonnek household. Babies are truly AMAZING!


As a busy working mommy, I do my best to keep track of our doings as life QUICKLY
evolves all around us- but sometimes life it just TOO quick even for me!

Now I am going to try NOT bore you with some bits of randomness in my life via 5 photos and a little bit of a description/story behind each one.

Ok... I am a Beach bum/Sun Goddess- I LOVE the sun, I LOVE being tan and tan lines are like candy to me- so sweet!! This photo below is from our wedding vaca, where a bird pooped on me- BUT not even a little bit of drippy bird poop will ruin my sunny day! See… I’m still smiling!

I can get a little bit goofy at times… AND I always laugh with my mouth open. It’s strange but if you look back at my photos as a kid and all through life, there I am laughing- mouth WIDE open! I even find that my daughter does this as well! My cousin and I [who also laughs with her mouth open] have coined the term OML as “open mouth laughing”. Example... in the photo below it was last day of grad school, soo.... I was up late and with the assistance of self timer- I went a little crazy {an no... hubby was not home- but my dog was, she KNOWS I am nuts!} anyway- notice that 3 of the 4 pictures, I am OML all the way!

  

“Hi, my name is Andrea, and I am picture-holic” it true... I am a Photo-fanatic! and I take SO [way] too many photos, and photos of EVERYTHING! Naturally, my favorite subject this past year has been my baby girl [poor tiki, my dog]. I have managed to kept up with a ‘365 photo project’ of her all year long. It’s really pretty simple, I snap anywhere from 1 to 2,876 pictures a day and each Tuesday I share 7 favorite photos from the week & a little update on baby girl’s doings for the week. It’s so fun seeing her grow from a TINY fragile infant to a beautiful happy little girl- I am so happy I have been able to maintain this main highlight on my blog. Here is a side by side photo of weeks 1 & week 50. [biiiig sigh…..]

I am one of "those" that LOVE my birthday AND I also love YOUR birthday as well. I am a Birthday Guru- if you tell me your birthday I WILL remember it. It’s a true talent, passed down from my Grandma. I also have a “birthday buddy”. Him and I celebrate together each year! This is Kevin, he’s a triplet and, ladies… he’s SINGLE!

Last but not least- I am many roles but being Mommy is one of the greatest! Below is a nice SOOC of me with baby girl! I am usually the one behind the camera, so I know later on in life I will treasure sweet little moments of Mommy & baby caught in time {even if I do have a glass of wine in hand} hehe OML ;)

If you feel like I am kind of cool- feel free to also see what I find to be interesting via Pins, Tweets & Photos. Thanks a lot Pinterest- you keep me up WAY too late, on too many nights pinning my heart away! "Tweet Tweet" Twitter- I am a BAD tweeter, but you can find me out there once in a while- my last twitter bender, as I will call it, was used when I flew out to LA last year [8 months preggo] to meet BRITNEY SPEARS! yes... totally met her! hellooooo Instagram- one word: OBSESSED!

PS: If you would like to become a featured Minnesota blogger, feel free to contact us at minnesotabloggers@gmail.com!