We’re so excited to celebrate the incredible small businesses who are our local sponsors in the Twin Cities. We only invite businesses to work with us who we already respect and adore, so we mean it when we say:
These are our go-to Twin Cities businesses for realty, books, cheesecake, prints, and wooden signs!
If you need any of these items, please consider supporting them the way that they support us, women, and storytelling in the Twin Cities!
Melanie and John Willy - Realty team with 41+ years of combined Twin Cities buying and selling experience.
Below is a little about the amazing Willy Team, in their own words!
MELANIE AND JOHN understand there is a difference between PROVIDING A SERVICE and DELIVERING SERVICE.
In the real estate industry, there are HUGE differences in the quality of professional service between agents and brokers.
We simply offer more marketing and exposure of your home, a constant stream of current market information and communication, leading edge technologies, a more complete buyer representation plan = an overall SUPERIOR buying or selling experience for our clients.
P.S. The Willys sold my (Galit’s) home in 11 days! 11! Having personally worked with The Willys, we recommend them so, so very highly — honest, personable + quick service and so incredibly knowledgable. We felt like we were in the best possible hands every step of our process!
Red Balloon Bookshop - 891 Grand Ave, St Paul, MN
Red Balloon Bookshop
Below is a little bit about the history, story, and pure joy of RED BALLOON BOOKSHOP, written by its owner!
Red Balloon has been connecting children, teens, and adults in the Twin Cities area with great books and great authors for 30 years. Carol Erdahl and Michele Cromer-Poire opened Red Balloon Bookshop in 1984, just four doors to the east of our current location.
When they were looking for a name, someone suggested “Red Balloon,” and the imaginative french film with the flying balloon had just the right appeal.
By 1989, the business had expanded and needed a new space, so Carol & Michele created a new building and moved the bookshop to its current location. Thanks to a series of very fortunate events, Holly Weinkauf became the new owner of Red Balloon in August 2011 when Carol and Michele retired.
Red Balloon continues to inspire children and adults with a great selection of books, toys, and gifts, through author and illustrator events, and by offering a fun and exciting place to connect with other readers and book-lovers.
Because of their love of reading and fun, Red Balloon Bookshop is dedicated to serving our community with books, gifts and events that inspire, inform and entertain, helping children of all ages – and adults! – live imaginative and rich lives.
Contact Red Balloon Bookshop today.
P.S. Red Balloon is not only the perfect place to find a gift for the reader in your life (one more #hinthint), but their story times and author events are truly not to be missed. Make sure to check them out!
Lisa San Agustin - Founder and Owner with her beautiful family
Below is a little bit about LSA-Studio, from its incredibly talented and heartwarming founder and owner!
There is something wonderful about rediscovering a passion you have silenced for many years.
By picking up a pencil and paintbrush again, I have rediscovered joy and freedom. It is like an old friend I didn’t realize how much I have missed.
I have learned to really see the little things in life that go unnoticed.
The little things that stop us in our tracks and make us appreciate the treasures that surround us.
Pairing my love for creating whimsical watercolor illustrations and the art of hand written notes, LSA-Studio was established.
LSA-studio offers delightful watercolor illustrated notecards, notepads, melamine trays and original charming art prints.
Please visit LSA-Studio.com, I would love for my creations to add a smile to your heart.
P.S. We have LSA-Studio cards in our homes and we can’t express how stunning they are! Beautiful, thick paper + unique, lovely images. Sending these truly feels like an act of love and friendship!
SUBURBAN
LANDSCAPE DESIGN
Below is a bit about SLS Design by this business’s incredibly talented + wonderful owner!
Some of SLS Design’s gorgeous work!
Since 1962 Suburban Landscape Service, Inc. has helped over 9000 Minnesota families design, create and maintain upscale outdoor landscape living spaces.
Our innovative and creative solutions are specifically designed to suit your goals, exterior space, and budget.
We handcraft each of our items and take pride in producing things we would hang or place in our own home.
SLS Design is a full service design center focused on delighting our Minneapolis area clients with innovative and creative solutions that fit any lifestyle, home and budget.
We will work our hardest to exceed your expectations by providing the best solutions to your needs, goals, hopes and dreams.
Our team has over 100 years of combined design, landscaping and construction experience.
P.S. SLS Design built my (Galit’s) family’s patio space and I can’t tell you how well taken care of we were from the beginning to the end of the process. We’re IN LOVE with our space and not only did SLS start our whole process off with an expert designer to take the ideas from my brain into a ready-to-build design, but then they brought it all to life, exceeding every single one of our expectations. I can’t recommend this business enough!
BOARD & BRUSH LAKEVILLE
Below is a bit about Board & Brush Lakeville by this business’s warm, talented + innovative owner!
At Board & Brush in Lakeville, we marry the joy of wine and paint with the classic timelessness of wooden signs. Our instructor-led DIY wood sign workshops allow you to combine your creativity and willingness to learn new skills. We provide you with the instruction, materials and design for you to distress, sand, stain, paint, and customize your personalized piece of art!
Woodworking techniques combined with the latest trends and custom graphics is what created the DIY Board & Brush Creative Studio concept.
Our DIY wood sign workshops started as a “Girl’s Night Out” with wine and crafts in our founder’s basement and quickly turned into a business idea. What started out as one studio in Wisconsin has now grown to 235 locations across the US!
Today, Board and Brush is still the perfect spot for a GNO or a date night, and is also the best spot for unique and fun birthday parties, corporate events, bachelorette parties, bridal showers, team bonding events, and more!
At Board & Brush Creative Studio, our goal is to turn you into a “DIY master” by educating you to understand and appreciate the beauty of raw materials—the wood, the knots, the color variations and the simple imperfections that will make your project unique. Distressing, sanding with the grain, and staining are a few of the important steps we will guide you through to make your personalized wood sign look as though it has been with you for years—like a vintage heirloom.
Hone your own passion for décor & DIY projects; we hand you the tools & direction, you create the friendships and craft!
Are you looking for a night out with friends? Is your inner DIY itching for a fun new project without having to buy all your own supplies and make a mess at your house? Then BOOK A WORKSHOP for the ultimate paint and sip experience at Board & Brush Creative Studio in Lakeville.
Lakeville is the southern gateway to Twin Cities fun. Come visit us in historic downtown Lakeville, home of the Lakeville Farmers Market, Block Bash, Taste of Lakeville and the Pan-O-Prog festival. We’re excited to be in the heart of downtown, surrounded by cafes, shops, restaurants, brewpubs, the arts center and even a curling club. So, while you’re visiting, grab a cup of coffee, enjoy a meal, sample a local brew, throw a curling stone and visit the retail shops along Holyoke Avenue. We can’t wait to host you in a workshop!
P.S. I (Galit) have a standing yearly date with a dear friend at Board & Brush! The fun, friendship, and creativity we share mean so much to me as do the customized, unique, and made-by-me projects that fill my home! We’ve also hosted a birthday party at Board & Brush, and I can tell you that it was an incredible experience as well! I so recommend B&B Lakeville for your next GNO, kiddo birthday party, date night, or team bonding event!
ABOUT THE SHOW
Now affectionately known as LTYM, Listen to Your Mother is a series of live, on-stage readings across North America.
The mission of each LTYM show is to give voice to motherhood – the good, the bad, the ugly, the sad, the hilarious, the golden, and of course, the beautiful – in the form of original stories read live on-stage by their authors.
We're beyond thrilled to host the 16th LTYM Twin Cities show and celebrate 11 years of storytelling in the Twin Cities!
We’ll see you at the show!
