(hands stained with berries)
Minnstameets + The Mall of America
Through our organization Minnstameets (www.Minnstameets.com) my friend Rita and I have been working with the Mall of America a lot in the past month! We worked very hard to curate a collection of 70 photos representing Minnesota's community of Instagrammers! We asked the community of 5,000+ people to add a hashtag to their top three favorite photos. A week later we went though all of the photos and selected what we thought was a good representation of our community. You would be amazed (I am!) at the quality and depth of photos our community produces... These are people who love photography. They do it with their hearts and it shows!
Once we had our selections, the Mall of America graciously printed them and gave us our own gallery space to display the photos! Rita and I spent an entire day choosing the layout and hanging the photos.
Once we were done, it felt so amazing just to sit in the space. Like we were surrounded by friends - like a big hug!
photo of the art gallery sign taken by my friend Ben Henning
On Thursday night we threw an Instameet there and we had over 200 attendees! If you live in Minnesota, check out our gallery - it is across from J Crew and will be up for about a month! I couldn't be more proud!
(photo by Rita Farmer)
So the Mall of America also invited us to their Art + Style Series fashion show last night! They asked 5 designers from past seasons of Project Runway to share their latest collections. We attended the VIP party beforehand & told we would get VIP seating too. Well you cannot imagine our surprise when we were seated in THE FREAKING FRONT ROW!!!! It was epic. The clothes were epic. The energy was palpable. Serious goosebumps material. I was especially happy to see that black and white with pops of red is definitely "in" this season!
And wow - we were in the front row to take it all in! The entire way home I kept wondering how this mom with an iPhone is suddenly sitting in the front row at a fashion show - next to the style editor from MSP Magazine. How the heck did that happen?! Crazy and wonderfully exciting at the same time! Thanks so much Erin & everyone else at the Mall of America! It feels like a wonderful start of a new partnership!
Fjällraven Opening in St Paul
It was an honor to be asked back by Fjällraven to photograph their latest flagship store opening in St Paul. It took place on a lovely fall evening on Grand Avenue. When I think of fall in the Twin Cities, I often think of this very street. Lined with golden trees and surrounded by beautiful old brick homes, it is the quintessential Midwestern urban fall scene.
It was fun to see all of my old friends from the last store opening. I really do love the people who work for Fjällraven. They have such a wonderful positive energy - they made me feel very welcome.
It was also fun to see the difference in attendees. St Paul definitely had more children, families & college students. And dogs! Just what you would expect when you look at the surrounding area!
I am definitely adding this red hat to my wish-list!
I had so much fun with these two!
This time there were some new goodies that caught my eye! One was a stainless steel growler by Stanley. Think old school army green. That is definitely going on my wish list and will probably end up under our family tree as a gift!
I also became obsessed with the hand mufflers! Someone likened them to what a quarterback wears & I thought that was a good analogy. It is just a very warm tube made out of a sort of sleeping bag material. See it here:
It has a strap that you wear around your neck & almost looks like a handbag. It hangs a bit above your hips. It is created to be used as a convenient spot for you to warm your hands without having to take gloves on and off. I am just DREAMING of how great this muffler would be for Instagramming! For those bitter cold days where you can't hold your phone out too long without your hands stinging... I could totally see these at a winter themed instameet! Maybe for our ice-skating meet in December! At the store, they paired it on display with an adorable cape. The whole outfit was very Mary Tyler Moore and so cute!
Thanks so much Fjällraven for the wonderful evening!! I was enamored with your brand once again!
