From Stillwater to Excelsior and Seward to Linden Hills, women from every neighborhood in the Twin Cities came through the snow to enjoy one another’s company and connect with fabulous women who own their own businesses at Lululemon’s Minneapolis Showroom in South Minneapolis. Rockin’ bakers Sheela and Emily from Cake Eater Bakery offered scrumptious goodies such as strawberry balsamic cupcakes, darling mini cupcakes filled with lemon custard and raspberry brownies. Kathleen of Just Truffles fame was keeping the crowd in stitches and good health with her award winning truffles made from pure chocolate–no sugar added to make it a truly healthy treat!

Music was pumping while wine and Hibiscus Iced Tea was pouring as the energy of the crowd kept women confident in the strength of their sisters of Minneapolis/St. Paul to weather the recession as well as the blizzard!  How true it is that we are all strong women with even bigger hearts when it comes to showing our support for other women.

CRAVE gals were there to flip through the CRAVE city guides from Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago and to hear about all the women who will be featured in the Minneapolis/St. Paul guide. Everyone was making sure Kathy Hanson, the curator of all things CRAVE in the Twin Cities, knew about their favorite women and their incomparable shops. It was an amazing show of Girl Power to see Stacie Clark, co-hostess with Kathy, be introduced to so many women who wanted to meet her in person after hearing about her athletic training business through CRAVE.

Darling Krista of Sweets Bakeshop had the most sophisticated display of Valentine’s Day sweets packages to order, along with samples of her fabulous French macaroons and mini cupcakes–my favorite was the cornmeal with whipped honey frosting. Those macaroon simply melt in your mouth!

Sairey Gaines of irely was hosting a chatterbox of fun with all the women who stopped by to see why her panties are patented! Jenni of LunaLux displayed a fun selection of her witty cards. Little packages of cookies and lotion from Petunia’s were available for sampling.

Thanks to bubbly Becky of Stormsisters Spatique, every women could leave with fizzly bath bombs and body goodies for themselves or a girlfriend, daughter, sister or mother. Becky’s table had women gathered around to see why they must shop her store tucked away on the hill in St. Paul!

It was an evening filled with laughter, joy and vibrant support for women who have followed their hearts to open businesses that speak to their passion of fashion, fitness, food, photography or their desire to simply make the world a more beautiful place.

* photo credit- Stacy Dunlap and Jessica Barker