Wedding Issue! THE ART OF DANA SIKKILA STRUT YOUR STUFF Spring Fashion Pages Home & Living Natalie Schaefer Special Issue SETTING THE STAGE 232267 20 46 10 36 contents Publisher New Century Press { • 2014 } Chief Operating Officer march Jim Hensley { General Manager 6 Lisa Miller Managing Editor Eileen Madsen GO Sales Team Spring Boutique Week in New Ulm . .18 Charlie Bornhoft Fun, Festivals & Frolics..................................................26 Ruth Klossner Tami Leuthold River Valley Welcome Home Tour . .36 Dana Melius Deb Moldaschel Treasures . 42 Nissa Sugden Natasha Weis Chris Zelenka BE Strut Your Stuff: Spring Fashion Pages . 10 Designer Amy Leuthold HELOC: An Option for Home Improvement Financing . .24 Writers Be Well: My Feet Are Killing Me!.........................................30 Eileen Madsen Understanding the Thyroid System .....................................31 Ruth Klossner Dana Melius Fashion Fridays: Resort Wear Can Transition into Spring . .40 Photographers Shayd’s of Color Photography DO Green Lighthouse Photography Nissa NaKia Photography Tidy Tightwad: The Stuff that Drives You Crazy . 22 What Next: Spring Cleaning, Always in Process..........................25 Printer Corporate Graphics, Mankato, MN Garden Gal: Spring Planting for Winter Interest..........................34 Good Reads . .50 River Valley Woman New Ulm & Mankato, MN Good Taste . 53 507.354.6158 [email protected] Moving On: Tips for Selecting a Senior Living Community . 52 For advertising and editorial contact information and a list of newsstand CONNECT locations visit Lather, Rinse, Repeat - Editor’s Column...................................4 rivervalleywoman.com We Connect . 5 River Valley Woman is published monthly and Addie Stockman Brings Fresh Ideas to Rooms & Rest . .6 distributed free in the Minnesota River Valley area. The content used in this magazine is Dana Sikkila: Featured in Solo Exhibition................................16 copyright 2014 River Valley Woman and may Natalie Schaefer: Setting The Stage .....................................20 not be reprinted in part or in whole without written consent by the publisher. All articles and YWCA’s “Women of Distinction”.........................................32 editorial material represent the opinions of the respective authors. Justin Roberts: Mankato’s “Mattress Man” . .35 Sewing Seeds Quilt Company . 46 Love on the Prairie - Nicole Helget......................................48 RIVER VALLEY WOMAN | march • 2014 3 Lather, Rinse, Repeat by Eileen Madsen, Editor They say you can’t bluish frost on the glass could be kind of cheerful I guess. We have to take our cheer go home again, but I’m wondering if that where we can get it these days considering the brutality of this winter. is because maybe you have a litter box or Columnist Lori Mathiowetz tackles spring cleaning in her What Now column this piles of shoes blocking the entry and you month, and one of her comments gives me pause. She says “when does a ‘human simply can’t open the door...ever again. Or doing’ become just a human being?” Just sitting and being. Which reminds me once perhaps the world’s homeliest couch, boring when I called my sister, who lives in the backwoods near Brainerd, and her husband, walls, 1980s flooring (black and white checks Larry, answered the phone. I asked him what he was up to and he hesitated before anyone?) or gold shag carpet is waiting there saying, “Well, I’m just standing and looking.” I was inspired by this non-activity as a to greet you and you just don’t want to go viable activity and set out to be more like Larry. A human being. home to face it. If you’re standing and looking at a huge pile of clutter, then sit and look at our That’s ok, turn around and head to one of new column by Cindy Haugland, alias the Tidy Tightwad. I learned so much from the many home shows going on this month her common sense tips. One of my favorites was if you are hanging on to clothes in the area instead, and then high-tail it to that don’t fit in the hopes that after you lose some weight you will fit in them again, your favorite furniture and home improve- forget about it, give them away or toss them out. Not that you might not reach your ment stores and make some changes. Life weight loss goals, but if you do, then you deserve new clothes! That would be an is short, but the days are long and there is even better incentive. Shopping! Take a look at our Strut Your Stuff fashion pages for no excuse to live in surroundings that suck inspiration. There sure are a lot of groovy clothes out there these days at the many the very life out of you. Oh yea, there is that boutiques that have cropped up over the past few years. Grab some pals and GO thing called cash. No worries, there are ways shopping, BE beautiful, DO buy something you love, then CONNECT to your inner to spruce things up on almost any budget. model and strut your stuff this spring! If you have no budget at all you can always Speaking of looking on the bright side, columnist Laura Schwarz tells us how to look out the window. Oh look there goes a add a little “winterest” to our gardens by “planting ahead” and keeping in mind cardinal, they are always in style! And your the winter landscape in our garden scheme of things. Nifty ideas in her Garden Gal neighbor’s garden will be in bloom soon. column include adding texture, berries, and my personal favorite-dried seedpods. Look on the bright side. I got fed up last year trying to maintain too many garden patches so let the one Speaking of bright side do not look at outside my office go natural. Natural meaning embracing the weeds. However, I was my windows as bright they are not. Spring delighted by the overgrowth of milkweed with its subsequent dried pods. And, I kid cleaning on them will have to wait until the you not, today I saw milkweed pod tufts drift by my window. Windex stops freezing in its tracks. Although I had no choice but to stand and look. Thanks Larry. RVW CORRecTION: River Valley Woman apologizes for incorrectly spelling Jean Andersen’s name in our February issue and thanks the reader who pointed it out to us. 4 RIVER VALLEY WOMAN | march • 2014 We CONNect • We CONNect • We CONNect • We CONNect • We CONNect • We CONNect • We CONNect • We CONNect What one change have you made in your home Lather, that has made the biggest difference? We put a bin on our front porch for junk mail. It Wonderful new deck and windows to the Every so often we go without television for long Rinse, helped us cut down the amount of paper that south and the east brings in the light and has periods of time. When the TV isn’t front and actually makes it into the house. transformed the whole space downstairs. Things center, we do more reading, listening to music — Mary Lynn L. just feel so much more open and flowing must and playing games which is good for us and our THIS MONTH’S WINNER! be good Feng Shui. family. Repeat Mary Lynn wins a gift certificate to — Pam K. — Audra S. CreekSide Boutique in Mankato. One very beneficial thing I have gotten rid of Removed the deck on the hot, sunny, south side I ignored all the sound-sleep advice and moved in the past was a load of clothes. Getting rid of our house and built a sunroom there instead. my work area to my bedroom. I still sleep just of clothes I never wore, and that don’t fit right, Now we enjoy the space all year ‘round. fine, even though my laptop and to-do lists are made so much more room in my closet and — Deb. M only a lunge away. drawers, made me feel better about myself and — Dreaming Elk Studio made it easier to decide what to wear. We put a dry erase board by our back door — Brooke K. so that we can write our shopping list on it. If Many things but the best was replacing anyone runs out of an item they can immedi- windows in my dining room. Since my house is Gutted the whole house and made it ately write it down. It has helped to eliminate next to an open park and gets any and all winds, our own home! those store trips where, after you return home, the windows have made a significant difference — Clarice P. you realize you needed another item. in my CenterPoint bill. — Nicole S. — Sydelle M. One of the biggest things that I think a lot of people don’t think about is lighting and how We moved our computer to the basement. Painted a wall of our kitchen in chalkboard it affects your mood. We updated the lighting That means more play time for us and the kids paint. Makes meal planning a whole lot easier! in our front hall where you enter our house to because the computer isn’t at such an easy — Mari B. something much more ambient and welcom- access point! ing. Plus, we replaced our “haunted house” — Kelly B. Doubling a recipe – making one portion and chandelier (my husband’s words) in our kitchen freezing the other as well as learning how to to something more modern with a bright but properly store and save leftovers to prevent food not harsh light. It makes all the difference in the We use an online calendar to keep our schedules waste in our home. Both increase the opportu- world when you are working and living in good up-to-date. All of us can add events from our nity for healthy homemade meals for my family, lighting.