nancy.eike's blog

Are you hankering for a fresh, juicy tomato? Drooling for the perfect ear of sweet corn? How about dreaming of a warm pretzel with a hint of course salt and all its chewy goodness?

If so, it’s time to head to the Maple Grove Farmers Market, which takes place every Thursday from 3–7 p.m. in the parking lot of the Maple Grove Community Center. With everything from produce to flowers to honey to pretzels to frozen meats, there’s something for everyone. Read more about How About a Maple Grove Farmers Market Appetizer?

After interviewing Linda Bauer, an on-call Maple Grove firefighter, I got to thinking about my own experience with fire. I was 20 years old and living with three other girls in a townhouse in Woodbury. It was a very cold January evening, and as we often did back in the day, we were having a Jafra skincare party with a bunch of our friends. We were laughing, carrying on, giving ourselves that Jafra glow, (and probably having a sip of wine or two) and just enjoying ourselves. Read more about Memories of the Fire

I have always loved to decorate. In fact, I was kind of considering interior design as a major before I stumbled upon writing. So I have a love for folks who can take ordinary spaces and turn them into magical places that make you feel cozy, comfortable, and, well, at home. Read more about Sisters Start Sweet Transformations

When I first met Geena, the raven-haired black lab pup with the sweetest face ever, and Captain, the 2-year-old golden retriever who showed me how he could open doors with a handle and pick up items off the floor, I was instantly smitten. I was head over heels. I was enamored. Read more about Puppy Trainers Specialize in Selfless Acts

Chatting with all the fabulous folks at these wonderful dining establishments in Maple Grove kind of makes me want to kick up my heels and bust out the rut I’ve carved out for myself; which, truthfully, rather pathetically, consists of pretty much the same place every Friday night for dinner and another place on Saturday night. Yawn! Read more about Cure to the Common Rut: A Night Out in MG

How do you get to know someone you’ve never met? That, my friends, was my challenge. I had a name, a little background, a little context, but that was it.

So I set out on a mission to get to know this wonderful person that so many people loved and adored. I spoke with a dear friend of Laurie’s, a principal she worked with, and her sweet daughters, Michelle and Ashley, who appear as kind, compassionate, bright and strong as their mother. And during those conversations, I began to know Laurie Whitt. Read more about Getting to Know Laurie Whitt

The best part about my job is getting to meet all kinds of folks – folks who are passionate about one thing or another and have parlayed that passion into something fabulous. And that’s just what Mike Hillesheim, president of Creek Hill Custom Homes, has done.

How fabulous that a guy – a very unassuming and super nice guy, I might add – has turned a love of building and creating into a business that, quite literally, can make others’ dreams come true. Read more about Building a Passion

My daughter recently got engaged, and we are thrilled! We adore her fiancé and are so utterly happy for them and this crazy, wonderful journey on which they are about to embark.

That said, it’s hard not to think back to that sweet, little child who had such terrible separation anxiety that we got kicked out of Mommy and Me classes because she couldn’t stand to be away from me for the short 20-minute portion of the class where she was in one room and I, probably a bit relieved, was in the other.

She wailed. She threw herself on the floor. She could not be comforted. Read more about All This Talk of Weddings...

The Shoppes Go Red for Women, a campaign by The Shoppes at Arbor Lakes and the American Heart Association aiming to spread heart disease awareness, will take Maple Grove's outdoor mall by storm in February. Read more about A Heart-Healthy Fish Recipe from Pittsburgh Blue

My grandma Emma was a bona fide giver.

She and my grandpa lived in Fertile, a tiny burg in Northern Minnesota that had a post office, a Woolworth’s store that smelled of dust and time, a couple of churches, and a pool hall. She was a full-blooded Norwegian, and I never once saw her wear a pair of slacks, ever utter a curse word, or even raise her voice. “Uff,” was as close as she ever got to letting a few expletives fly. Read more about My Grandma, the Giver