Tomorrow's To Dos

Blowin’ out candles

Posted on October 26, 2012 by tomorrowstodos

Saturday every day update: The cooking class went off without a hitch last night and we had such a great time together. I highly encourage you to check out Alessandra’s cooking class schedule and pick out a date to try something new. Another idea is to keep this on your list of possible Christmas gifts for those ‘hard to shop for’ people.

The weekend is upon us and it is lining up to be a great one. On top of volunteering for the Komen Race for the Cure, all of the Scare Us Hill decorating to be done and the Branstad Christmas photo shoot (last year’s outtakes), I almost forgot that I turn another year older on Sunday! Happy birthday to me – now here’s hoping I get a visit from the breakfast in bed fairy again this year…

Posted in Birthdays, Family, Recipes | Tagged birthday, cooking, Cooking with Alessandra, tiramisu | Leave a comment

Saturday every day

Posted on October 24, 2012 by tomorrowstodos

Gobble, cluck, quack update: Turducken invites are done! Printed, addressed, stamped and on their merry way. Can’t wait until November 11th to celebrate with our families!

I received an email yesterday about a brand new, lower-priced line that Kate Spade is creating to reach 20-30 somethings called Kate Spade Saturday. It’ll launch next spring and according to the company’s president Craig Leavitt, it is “meant to capture the spirit of Saturday every day of the week.”

I have put checking out this collection on my future to-do list. Will you?

Tomorrow night the Branstad ladies are heading out on the town – more specifically, to the East Village, to partake in a cooking class with Alessandra. We had purchased a gift card for a free class for our mom(in-law) for Mother’s Day this year and, due to crazy schedules, are just now getting around to it. We will be taking on the chef’s world winning recipe of Tiramisu’ della signora Marcella. Can’t wait to bust out that apron!

Posted in Fashion, Parties | Tagged baking, Cooking with Alessandra, East Village, Invitations, Kate Spade Saturday, Turducken | Leave a comment

Gobble, cluck, quack

Posted on October 22, 2012 by tomorrowstodos

Mini vacay in Minneapolis update: We took the saying ‘shop ’til you drop’ to a whole other level! Fresh off a weekend getaway and I’m pleasantly surprised by how much I didn’t spend. I even managed to do a little Christmas shopping too!

Fall flowers in St. Louis Park

H&M goodies

Amazing dinner at Grand Cafe

Heavenly breakfast at Colette

Dream kitchen at IKEA

What shopping?

Until next time Minneapolis (photo courtesy of my sister, Morgan)

With all the Scare Us Hill (you can still get tickets!) hubbub going on lately, I’ve almost completely forgotten about planning for our annual (well, annual except for last year) turducken feast. I always send out invitations for this little family gathering because, well, who doesn’t like to get a hard invite in the mail? I’m hoping to finalize the design and get them printed and mailed in the next few days. I’m finding more and more turducken invitation designs each year, which means the trend for multi-bird dinners is on the rise!

Posted in Family, Parties, Shopping, Travel | Tagged H&M, Invitations, Minneapolis, Turducken | Leave a comment

Mini vacay in Minneapolis

Posted on October 18, 2012 by tomorrowstodos

Lust list: H&M update: So after I created my H&M must have list for our shopping excursion this weekend, my little sister Morgan decided she should be as prepared and made her own. Here are the items she’ll be scouring the store for:

[ jacket, blouse, iPhone case, cap, socks ]

Tomorrow is a half day for me (woowhoo!) and we’ll be hitting the open road due north shortly after. Do you have any fun weekend getaways planned for the near future? Perhaps involving a little retail therapy or possibly even Christmas shopping? It never hurts to start early 🙂

Posted in Family, Fashion, Shopping, Travel | Tagged H&M, lust list, Minneapolis, Morgan, weekend getaway | Leave a comment

Lust list: H&M

Posted on October 17, 2012 by tomorrowstodos

To-do list Tuesday update: Over the last couple of days I designed the Scare-Us-Hill auction bid sheets and even started to create the event signage, but I have to admit that I got sidetracked by the revealing of the Target+ Neiman Marcus collaboration look book. After all this hype, I was a little underwhelmed by most of the products. If I decide to shell out some benjamins (and am able to get my hands on them in store without hurting anyone) I think I will go for one of the following items:

Carolina-Herrera-for-Target-+-Neiman-Marcus-Holiday-Collection-Travel-Bag

Carolina Herrera for Target+Neiman Marcus, Travel Bags, $39.99

Marc Jacobs for Target+Neiman Marcus, Gold Pouch, $69.99

Tory Burch for Target+Neiman Marcus, Beverage Container, $24.99

I know it is only Wednesday, but I am desperately looking ahead to this weekend because my mom, sisters and myself are heading north to Minneapolis for a little girls getaway weekend. Being the hyper-organized person that I am, I have of course mapped out our every move and created a ‘must hit’ store list. On it are the likes of Lululemon, Nordstrom Rack, HomeGoods, Bibelot and, of course, H&M.

With particular regard to H&M, I have even taken it (my crazy) a step further and put together a ‘lust list’ just for this store. I hope I can find all of these a-mazing items…

[necklace, flats, top, cardigan, sweater]

Posted in Fashion, Shopping | Tagged ballet flats, Carolina Herrera, collaborations, H&M, lust list, Marc Jacobs, Minneapolis, necklace, Neiman Marcus, stripes, sweater, Target, Tory Burch | 4 Comments

To-do list Tuesday

Posted on October 15, 2012 by tomorrowstodos

Weekend warrior update: My how the weekend flies when you are running around the entire time. Can we do that over again?

After a run in the rain on Saturday morning, I decided to get to work on decorating my pumpkin that will go along with a silent auction item for Scare Us Hill. My sister-in-laws and myself are auctioning off a Little Girl Terrace Hill Tea Party for 10 lucky ladies to be held in the dining room of the mansion.

Princess pumpkin – a work in progress.

On Sunday morning I had the chance to catch up with my high school gal pals over coffee and brunch at an idyllic location – my friend’s new house that looks like it should be sitting among the mountains. How cute is her little guy?!

My lady friends [photo courtesy of the hostess, Jenny – far right]

After tearing myself away from all the gossiping I headed up to Boone, only to miss out on most of the chili cook-off (although I heard the white chili was the winner). While there we got to go through storage rooms filled with things my in-laws had collected over the years, including these gems:

After a trip down memory lane I was off again – this time towards Terrace Hill to do a little mock decor set-up for a Scare Us Hill interview we had today. We are just a few weeks away from the event and I’m definitely getting excited!

Scare Us Hill sneak peek

I feel like I have a thousand things on my to-do list this week, yet I can’t pin at least a few down to talk about. Guess you’ll just have to play along until I decide what it is I’d like to accomplish this week before my girls trip to Minneapolis this weekend.

Posted in Family, Friends | Tagged Halloween, memories, old photos, pumpkin, Scare-Us-Hill Pumpkin Ball | Leave a comment

Weekend warrior

Posted on October 12, 2012 by tomorrowstodos

Covered up update: I’m on a wedding high right now! Congratulations to the newlyweds – Andy & Kristin a.k.a. Kandy! So glad that I got to be a part of their special day.

Kristin + Andy = KANDY

On the books for this weekend: get my Pilates on, catch up with high school friends, judge a chili cook-off and do a Scare-Us-Hill decorating dry run for an upcoming interview.

What are you up to this weekend?

Posted in Friends, Wedding | Tagged Kandy, wedding, wedding dress | Leave a comment

Covered up

Posted on October 11, 2012 by tomorrowstodos

Millie-wa-kay udpate: Fresh off my trip to MKE for the 2012 High Ed Web Conference and I am settling back into things today. I met some fabulous people and had a few takeaways that I’m planning on implementing at DMU. One of the highlights was listening to our keynote speaker, Adam Savage, talk on Monday afternoon. For two hours, the entire room hung on his every word as he gave us a peek inside how he develops ideas and shed some interesting light on his relationship with Mythbusters co-star Jamie. Next up: HighEdWeb 2013 in exotic Buffalo, New York!

Tomorrow, Marcus and I are off to our ninth and FINAL(!) wedding of the year. With a chill in the air these days I’m thinking a 3/4 or long sleeve dress might be in order for this shindig. Here are a few long-sleeved faves that I’m eyeing right now to take me into winter in style.

[ASOS purple peplum, J.Crew red anytime dress, H&M black rib-knit, Target polka dots]

Posted in Fashion, Wedding, Work | Tagged highedweb, long-sleeved dresses, Milwaukee | Leave a comment

Millie-wa-kay

Posted on October 5, 2012 by tomorrowstodos

Go Red for Women update: The Go Red For Women Luncheon was great today and I got to meet some great local bloggers as well (Brianne from BS in the Midwest and Amber from A Little Pink in the Cornfields). Various speakers took to the stage to shed some light on the heart disease and what we as women can do to prevent it. They shared their first-hand stories of struggles with the disease and gave us practical tips and information about preventing heart disease. Here are a few:

Stay active – try to get at least 30 minutes of exercise most days of the week.
Eat well – a heart healthy diet is low in saturated and trans fast and cholesterol.
Watch your weight – maintain a healthy body weight or lose those extra pounds around your waistline.
Quit smoking – stop or don’t start, smoking can increase the risk of a heart attack or stroke fourfold in women.
Manage stress – try meditation, yoga or deep breathing.

Every small change we can make is one step closer to a healthier and longer life!

Local bloggers Go Red for Women

I take off Sunday to head north for this year’s HighEdWeb Conference. Last year we got weird in Austin, this year we take on brew town U.S.A., Milwaukee. What is even cooler is that our keynote speaker this year is none other than Adam Savage from Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters. Cool, huh?

Posted in Blogs, Health, Travel | Tagged Adam Savage, highedweb, Milwaukee, Mythbusters | 3 Comments

Go Red for Women

Posted on October 4, 2012 by tomorrowstodos

October already update: Today the temps dropped and it now officially feels like fall. To celebrate I did the following:

Busted out a new pair of shoes,

opened up my box of goodies from Lands' End, including my monogrammed puffy vest

opened up my box of goodies from Lands’ End, including the monogrammed puffy vest,

went for a run and then took Karl for a walk to check out the colorful foliage,

worked on a little side project,

and caught up on a few shows.

Tomorrow I am attending the American Heart Association of Iowa‘s Go Red For Women Luncheon. I am excited to join a table of local bloggers to learn more about the number one health risk of women, heart disease, and what steps we can take to reduce our risk.

Posted in Health | Tagged Corso Como, fall, Lands' End, leaves, puffy vest, Shoes | Leave a comment