Snowy Day

I wrote a post about the snow with a couple cute pics for the Light Grey Art Lab blog and wanted to share them here as well!
We had a ton of snow last night and it is absolutely beautiful here! Here you go!


10 inches of snow and counting

I thought you guys might appreciate seeing what it's like out today. I know that most of us have seen a snow storm, but man, we got hit hard last night and everything looks amazing with all this snow. It started last night as I was teaching over at MCAD and just kept going. I got the chance to chat with Teagan White, a wonderful person and very talented illustrator, last night over coffee. She came over to MCAD for a bit to talk to my product design class about her work and process and afterward we headed to the Spyhouse (a local coffee shop down the street from Light Grey) with Francesca to sit down and warm up.

It kept snowing even after we parted ways and I dropped Francesca off at home. Even so, I was still surprised to see all of it this morning.


A view down the block towards the prestigious Minneapolis College of Art & Design. The streets are super quiet.

Commuting to work today wasn't that difficult because Minneapolis has this snow-removal thing totally under control. I'm thankful for that, for sure. Still, it was amazing to walk the block or so up to work and see that absolutely everything was covered and looked really beautiful.

It's strangely quiet on the streets because of the snow, too. So it's almost like being wrapped in a cold, white sweater.


Chris and Atari head inside to get to work

I'm going to try and enjoy the snow for as long as I can while it looks this good. I know that city snow doesn't stay beautiful forever!


Twinkle, our other studio dog, is a little black blip amongst all the white

Studio : Dance Party

We're super thankful for everyone that came out and partied with us on Saturday! Seems like we've been silent on the airwaves (is that what you call this?) for a day or two, but it's all for good reason! We threw a Dance Party over both of our spaces, with what seems like a million awesome, dancey people!

We got the whole darn thing set up, staffed, and ready to go! Then all we had to do was wait! Thanks to the entirety of MPLS that came out and danced with us!! You guys are the best! Some day we'll edit together the video - but until then - Here are some funny pictures of us getting down!





















And the rest are here!

Studio : Cupcake Party

Another day, another cupcake. We had an awesome day at the studio today making art and celebrating something awesome. I'll have to tell you all about it tomorrow in an official post. (No one is getting married, and no one is having a baby, so cross those off your list) With that, I'll leave you to drooling over our vintage-tinted sweets. Until then... More patterns. :)

All the votes pointed to Wuollet Bakery being the winner of our impromptu cupcake-contest. With the Mocha Cupcake being the winner.

Studio: Desk Situations

Oh boy... We did it again. We had a really late night last night. All three of us. Besides the random deadline, we had our patterns to finish and we went to eat a new place that opened up down the street called Kinsen. We had a awesome time and great food!

We got up this morning a little late. (Whoops). And now we're finally doing our patterns! While we're working, we're always surrounded by our stuff, supplies and various drinks and things. Here's the situation happening today. Our Desk Situations - authored by the desk-owners.


Lindsay's Desk: Too bad you can't see the 7 empty LaCroix cans and the stacks of tea.


Francesca's Desk: Covered in drawings, sketches and tracing paper artwork.


Chris' Desk: Packed to the brim with sarcasm

I'm sure we'll get back on schedule someday..... ? Right....?

Today is a cupcake kind of day.

We got to the office late today, but for good reason. It's cupcake day today.
It seems like every day is probably cupcake day here, doesn't it? We picked up some cute flower-topped cupcakes from Kowalski's  - where they make a point to decorate each one perfectly.


Lindsay's chocolate cupcake!

Taisha's cupcake

Francesca's Red Velvet cake is gone already

Its' a little humid here today, so you can see that our once-beautiful flowers have wilted a little. It doesn't make them any less delicious! It'll help make doing billing and paperwork a little easier for me today. (Yes, it's totally one of those days, too.)

Nashville, Day 2

I had some early morning meetings to attend to with my new colleagues and then just an hour to walk around a small part of town. I found a cute 2 block radius that had ice-cream shops, great local delis, bookstores, and paper shops. Here are some of the cute stores. I grabbed some lunch at a place called Fido, which is a pet-shop-turned-cafe, and then shopped for a second. I really liked my stay in Nashville. Everyone was friendly, it was green and spacious, and if I could have had just a little more time, I'm sure I would have found some more, fun places.




An adorable paper shop/ stationery store called Social Graces








Inside Fido






The view from my window seat in Fido


My delicious Melted Mozzarella sandwich and Roasted Red Pepper soup








Great vintage signs everywhere


Pangaea, a cute boutique


Window Display and reflection of Pangaea

I drove my rented Mustang back to the rental car return after spending an hour or so in this little part of the city. Nashville, I am impressed. Hopefully I'll get a chance to visit again some time soon.

Paper Bicycle in Nashville!

I woke up super early this morning to catch a plane to Nashville. MSP airport was filled to the brim with people waiting to pass the security check point.
I'm in town for a meeting with one of our great clients - and so far I've checked in with them, had a virgin bloody mary at the bar with them, and settled in at the hotel. Tonight we're meeting with representatives from a Chinese ceramics company (exciting!). Here are some pics of Nashville and my sweet ride!


waiting for the plane

















My hotel is awesome and my car is crazy. I am excited to see what tomorrow holds!

Paper Bicycle NYC Trip

We're back in Minneapolis after a quick trip to New York City for Surtex and The National Stationery Show NYC!

We were there less than three days (only one full day), but we tried our best to have a good time when we weren't at the Javits Convention Center, walking the floor and taking classes.

We got there late in the day on Saturday. After stopping by out hotel to drop off our things, we made a beeline for Megu, a swank Japanese restaurant in TriBeCa.

The restaurant itself was gorgeous and the food was pretty phenomenal.



















After that, we headed to St Marks to visit an amazing psychic that Lindsay always forces everyone to visit (I don't know the name of the place, but her name is Ann Marie and her shop is opposite the TKettle on St Marks...). She's been scarily accurate and has totally changed the life of at least two of our friends and seriously rattled a few more.

Unfortunately she wasn't available so instead met up with Victoria and got bubble tea at TKettle some hot dogs at our favorite NYC hot dog place, Crif Dogs.











On the walk home we grabbed some cupcakes at Pinisi Bakery, just 'cause.





Sunday was dominated by Surtex and the Stationery Show. We arrived at 8:30 am and left around 6:30 pm. Photography isn't allowed, but needless to say it was visual overload. We took turns walking the show floors and attending various talks of the conference program. A big thanks to everyone we met at the show, everyone was super nice and cool.

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at Kinokuniya, a massive Japanese book store. Francesca flipped out over the original art by One Piece creator Eiichiro Oda, and the rest of us just flipped out over all the cute, cute stuff.

After that long, long day, we headed back to St Marks to take another shot at seeing the psychic. This time she was in. I won't spill any details, but her record for being eerily life-changing remains completely intact. I will just say there was trembling, tears and 1,000 yard stares for a few hours after the reading.

We got some Ramen from a nearby shop, which was super delicious. Poor Taisha doesn't like Japanese food as much as everyone else, so she just settled for some Green Tea ice cream.









And since we were near the TKettle again, of course we couldn't pass up more Bubble Tea.



We were all exhausted, so we retired to our hotel for a fun night of PATTERNS! and tarot card readings until 4 am.





Well, Franceaca and I just traded turns in Fruit Ninja trying to claim the top score.



The final day was a short one. Lindsay and Francesca headed back to Surtex for one final conference. Taisha, Mary and I took a trip to ABC Carpet.





Before we re-grouped to head to the airport, we stopped at a little diner for some non-asian food, for Taisha's sake.





So that's that! A whirlwind trip summed up in a bunch of pictures. There's a whole bunch I'm leaving out, but that's ok. Don't sweat it.

I'll leave you with one subway photo, since we spent about 40% of our time in NYC down there and it feels a bit under represented...