Thrift Style Thursday - Those Summer Nights

Today's Thrift Style Thursday theme was chosen by Kristi of Delightfully Kristi - Summer Nights. We were encouraged to create an outfit to wear on summer date nights or girls nights.  I have not had either one of those enough this summer, that's what I know!  But I came up with a look that I thought would work for either and bonus - Nate said he liked it, so I know it would work well for a date night!

I actually thrifted this light weight short sleeved sweater back in May and this is the first time I'm wearing it.  This is why I need to keep shopping my own closet!  It's really comfy, it's not too warm at all, but adds just enough warmth that if it was a bit cooler after the sun went down or something I'd be comfortable.  My first thought was to pair this sweater with my white jeans, kind of the "safe" look.  I also had out this skirt though and decided to be bold instead.  I really like the result!

Sweater - Pink Rose (thrifted), Skirt - Stitch Fix

Necklace - Lia Sophia, Bag - Urban Expressions (Stitch Fix)

Sandals - Mootsie Tootsie (from cousin) 

Nate and I shoot for a "date night" out about once a month if we can help it.  This month we'll actually be going away for a whole weekend, next weekend is our annual trek up to All Pints North in Duluth.  While this look is lovely, I don't think I'll be wearing it to a beer festival!

The next "girls" event I see on my calendar is going to try paddleboarding with a bunch of ladies, so I don't think I'll be rocking this look on a girls night either.  Might just mean I need to get some more dates on the calendar, both with my husband and with some ladies!
Check out what the other Thrift Style Thursday gals would wear on a summer night out at their blogs below!  And don't forget our new member Alison!

At Home Date Night

As soon as the weather got cold and we weren't taking Oliver on his nightly walks anymore, Nate and I realized we weren't getting a chance to really talk and connect as much as we had been.  On those daily walks we were able to talk about our day, how work was going, how Ollie was doing, etc.  As soon as we stopped going on those walks, we kind of went into hibernation mode - suddenly our evenings became, get Ollie ready for bed, get our dinner ready and then pretty much crash in front of the TV without really talking much. 

It's hard, we're both tired at the end of a long work day and while it sounds bad, sometimes we need that time to unwind to something mindless like a show we enjoy.  And we do a good job on the weekends of going out and doing things as a family and spending lots of time together, but we started to find we were missing the time we had to connect with each other on those nightly walks.  So we came up with a new tradition.  On Mondays we have an "At Home Date Night" after Oliver goes to bed.

I love this new tradition.  We sometimes do something super simple like a wine and cheese night. Sometimes we have some kind of Italian dish that we enjoy.  Or there's even been weeks where we pick up fried chicken from the grocery store, but we still sit at our table and enjoy each other's company while we eat it!  Our rule is neither of us can look at our phones at all.  It's been wonderful and it actually makes me look forward to Mondays right now!

I love when we can get a babysitter and go out for an actual date night too, but for right now this is an easy and relatively inexpensive way for us to keep our relationship strong and keep us connected to each other.  I plan on keeping this going even after the weather is nice out and we're going on those nightly walks again.  It's our special time and I wouldn't trade it for anything.  
What do you do to keep your relationship fresh and fun?

Norseman Distillery Tasting

Last Thursday Nate and I had an opportunity to do a unique date night experience.  You all know we're huge beer fans, but a couple of months ago there was a Living Social deal for a craft distillery near us.  It included a tasting, tour, two t-shirts and two glasses to take home.  We thought that sounded interesting even if we aren't as into hard liquor.  The options for the tasting were pretty limited, they offer two sessions on only two Thursday evenings a month.  I thought that seemed kind of odd, but it made sense once we learned more about them!

So, we dropped off Oliver with my parents and headed to Northeast Minneapolis.  Norseman Distillery is located in a warehouse type building.  We parked and headed inside.  As we followed the signs it started to feel like we were heading into a dungeon or something, it was way down in the basement of this old building! We finally found them and were greeted by this:

They had several barrels with bottles out and little glasses and they were pouring samples.  We quickly learned that this is a very small operation - it's a husband and wife team.  They have only been in operation since December and they're doing pretty well so far!  They make gin, vodka and rum and they're working on a whiskey.  We tasted the vodka and gin before heading in for the tour.  I'm not a huge gin fan, but I have to say, theirs is pretty good!

The husband led the tour as he does most of the work for the distillery.  He explained that he originally thought about brewing beer and getting into doing a brewery or something but then realized that there was nothing else like this on the market, so he decided to give it a try.  The response was overwhelming, they sold out of their projected amount of vodka for the year by February.  Slowly they've built up more equipment and are now actually going to be moving to a new space not far from where they are now since they are growing by leaps and bounds.

He explained the distilling process - it is very similar to brewing beer but there are a few more steps involved. Right when it comes out of the distiller it's more or less like moonshine and then you do some other steps to turn it into other types of liquor.  The equipment he has is pretty impressive!

As I mentioned, they pretty much do all the work themselves.  His wife even works full time still, so he ends up putting in some very long days on his own!  I was impressed to hear though that they have their product available in close to 400 liquor stores in Minnesota.  I think that's pretty darn good!

After the tour we were able to taste a little more, they poured their rum for us and also some strawberry rhubarb gin that unfortunately is no longer available for the year.  I think that one was my favorite, I might have even been willing to drink that one straight up!

We had a lot of fun checking out their facility, talking with the owners and tasting their product!  It was a unique experience!  We even stopped at the liquor store before we picked up Oliver to buy a bottle of their gin (Nate does like a good martini every now and then) and a bottle of their vodka to keep on hand. It's nice to support local businesses whenever possible!  I'd definitely recommend them to any of you local types out there!

TIGF (and TGIF!)

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm back with my weekly dose of gratitude for Things I'm Grateful for Friday.  I had a couple of yucky days this week with work and also was rather floored by the death of Robin Williams as many of us were, so it's nice to step back and reflect on my blessings for a minute!

This week I am grateful for:

Date Night - I get to go on a date with my favorite person tonight.  We haven't had a date night, just us, in longer than I can remember right now - I think it was our anniversary.  Yes we did leave Oliver for that overnight in Duluth, but we ended up meeting up with some friends there and well, it was a beer festival, not a true "date." Tonight we're going to a grown up restaurant and just enjoying some time for the two of us.  One of my favorite bloggers, Megan of two birds, has said that it's important to take time out as a couple to do those kinds of things away from your kids and that in turn it can make you better parents.  I agree.  We're long overdue for this!

My boyfriend is ever so dreamy (points if you know what that quote is from)

Beer - I guess it could make me sound like an alcoholic, but I tell you, after a tough day at work yesterday I was pretty happy to unwind with a nice cold glass of my favorite beer!

Baby kisses - So last week Oliver started doing this thing where he grabs my face in his hands and puts his mouth on my cheek.  At first I thought it was a teething thing, he was trying to chew my face or something.  Then I realized, he is learning how to give kisses!  It is the sweetest thing ever, when I pick him up at my parents at the end of the day he reaches for me and as soon as I have in my arms he grabs my face and gives me a sloppy kiss.  I swear I could not love this child more. 

Heart = melted

Making money in side jobs - I get to sing at a wedding this weekend and make a little extra cash!  I love getting that opportunity when I can!  Every little bit helps.  I also ended up making a pretty nice amount from the Just Between Friends sale when all was said and done, so I'm really glad I decided to participate in that!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Thanks as always for being here in sharing in my world!  Head over to Ashley, Nay or Laura's blogs for other posts of gratitude or to add your own!

My Target Field experience

Well it may have taken me all week, but I'm finally getting around to doing a post about my experience at the baseball game last Friday!  We had so much fun! Again, I commented on this last Friday - we've had this beautiful outdoor ball field for several years now, but this was my first time actually getting a chance to go there in person!

The seats were AMAZING.  I was lucky to have been given tickets from a vendor through work - my boss doesn't take those kind of gifts for himself, but is happy to let his employees have them, so he gave me first dibs.  I had no idea just how awesome these seats would be, even after a friend of mine had told me how great they were.  They were in what is called the Legends Club - so these are not just your average general admission tickets.  There are tons of exclusive bars and food vendors as well as tables and chairs inside behind the glass that still gives you lots of views of the field if the weather was not good.  Thankfully it was actually pretty decent outside, so we went ahead and found our seats once we arrived - they were padded!! No sore behinds for us!  We were also lucky enough to be under an overhang that provided some nice protection from the wind.

We were to the left of home plate, between 3rd and home.  I have heard people say there really isn't a bad seat in the entire park and I do believe that is true - but I sure liked our location!  I absolutely love the city skyline in the background as well!

After the first inning was over we decided to wander around a bit in search of food and beer.  The downside for craft beer lovers like ourselves, the good beer can be hard to find.  They had some Summit at the bars which is decent, but we were hoping to find Surly.  We chose Summit though because it's "better than a poke in the eye", as the Pants Monkey would say.  The bartenders were SO friendly and personable - they make sure to call you by name.  I forgot to mention, another perk of the Legends club is that there is a person that comes around takes food and beer orders at your seat and will bring stuff to you if you want!  We didn't take advantage of that, but the gal serving our area seemed very friendly and attentive.  For dinner I had a turkey bacon wrap (I love wrap sandwiches!) and The Pants Monkey had a Cuban sandwich.  I know we didn't even come close to finding all the amazing food the field has to offer - it was easy to just stay in the area where we were.

After another couple of innings we went and bought Mr. Monkey a hat, used the restrooms (no lines!  So awesome!) and then we found Surly beer!  One of the bars up there had it after all.  So of course we had to have one.  And I decided I just had to have one of the helmet cup sundaes I used to get when I was a kid and the Pants Monkey had to have a hot dog, because you just can't not have a hotdog at a baseball game!  We were definitely in food comas after that!

Sadly, the Twins really didn't play well that evening - they didn't score once - but it was so fun to just be out on a date without the baby, sitting outside on a nice spring evening and enjoying the sites and sounds of our fine city.  I know we would never be able to afford those type of tickets regularly - but I have heard you can sometimes score deals on StubHub - especially when they aren't playing so well.  I also learned my aunt and uncle have season tickets in this area too and sometimes are looking for people to use them, so my mom planted the bug that we'd be happy to help with that on occasion!  Overall I really enjoyed my first trip to Target Field, well worth the wait!  If you ever visit Minnesota, it's a must see attraction!

Mod

Hello everyone!  It's another beautiful sunny day!  It makes me happy to see the sun!  The other thing making me happy?  This super fun sort of mod like shirt I bought at the thrift store last week.  It reminds me a little of something out of the 1960's.  If it was just a little bit longer, it more or less would be a mini dress.  But since it's not and this mama doesn't want to look too odd, I added capris too.  

Tonight Mr. Monkey and I are going on a rare weeknight date night.  Our days and weekends have been just full of stuff lately.  Told you this baby wasn't slowing us down.  But it has left us with no time for each other and we need to savor those kinds of moments as much as possible over the next months, so we decided, let's treat ourselves tonight and get some dinner somewhere.  As long as this weather holds, you bet we will be eating outside somewhere!

Shirt - MixIt, thrifted

Capris - Simply Vera, Kohls

Sandals - Clothes Mentor

Necklace - Maurices

Bag - Coach Outlet

I might not be able to indulge in beer any longer when we go out but I'm rediscovering a love of many non-alcoholic drinks that I forgot how much I enjoyed - lemonade for example.  Especially places that make their own and make them with fun flavors.  Also, root beer - if it is good quality like 1919 or something, man, that tastes good on a nice warm day!  And you can never go wrong with an ice cream shake, but I try to limit those just a wee bit!  Trying to keep weight gain to baby only if I can help it!  Any of you have a favorite non-alcoholic drink that isn't sodapop?