Tranformer Station in Ohio City, YOLO & Super Bowl Sunday, Baby!

Have you heard? The Transformer Station in Ohio City is now OFFICIALLY open! Woohoo! As an art-lover and Cleveland history nerd, I was thrilled to learn that the Cleveland Museum of Art would be opening a "satellite" branch, so to speak, on the west side.

"The Transformer Station is owned and operated by the Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell Foundation in order to share work from the Bidwell collection and to inspire creativity and innovation in our community. The Bidwell Foundation has agreed to loan the facility for six months of every year to the Cleveland Museum of Art which will develop original contemporary art exhibitions as an extension of its programming in its home on University Circle." 

The opening exhibit, "Bridging Cleveland" by Vaughn Wascovich was the perfect choice of beautiful artwork to "bridge" the rugged industrial history of Cleveland to modern day art housed in a restored industrial facility. Rust belt chic! "The Transformer Station was built in 1924, and is one of sixteen substations built by Cleveland’s one-time private transit provider, the Cleveland Railway Company. The substation converted power for the Detroit Avenue Streetcar Line, which carried 19 million riders annually at its peak"(source).

Innerbelt Bridge

See what I mean?  Eerily stunning. Raw beauty. Cleveland captured. Bridging our past to the present day.

my favorite!

CLE love!

You should totally check out the Transformer Station in Ohio City, if you haven't already. It's a treat to have such a reputable arts organization now on the west side! Appreciate CLE beauty and art, both past and present!

After checking out the exhibit I headed over to Battery Park Wine Bar for some dinner and a glass of vino with my Mom! I'll tell you what, a girls night with your mom as an adult is thebomb.com! I'm lucky she's awesome, and hilarious!

cotton candy winter sky!

 As we made our menu choices, my Mom noticed the catchy pop culture company menu tagline. YOLO. Of course, she wanted to know what it stood for. "You Only Live Once," I told her. She loved it. She then dropped the best knowledge bomb dating advice a mother could possibly offer and it went like this, "Jessie, you're mature for your age. Don't date anyone under age 30, because they're all just a bunch of pant-peers. YOLO."

I nearly fell out of my chair laughing. Man, I love her. Yes, crybabies, please keep it moving!

Battery Park Wine Bar
Grape, camembert cheese, pesto, & balsamic reduction pizza...YUM!

Our delicious menu choices! 

Battery Park Wine Bar
Stuffed grape leaves...always a big fan

We had a wonderfully good time and I was home and in bed by 9pm. Sometimes, those are the best weekend nights!!!

Pancakes, baby, yeah!!!

I started off my Sunday early and grabbed brunch with my besties and nieces. Seriously, I can't get over how quickly they grow after each week that I see them. They always bring me back down to earth, and really remind me of that "YOLO" theme. The world is their oyster! (...or  chocolate chip pancake for that matter!)

Open wide!

Sharing is caring! And these little love bugs always brighten up my day! They are officially becoming big girls and even using fancy utensils. Haha.

Get it, Chloe!!

Got the sassy smile down, sister :)

Post-brunch with the babes... I headed out to my sister's for her annual Super Bowl Party. Everyone brought their favorite Pinterest recipes (yes, finally made something we pinned!) I meant to take a picture of all the pinned party apps...but let's be honest, I hoovered that stuff down! Gina's Slow Cooked Pulled Chicken Sliders were a HUGE hit. Get the recipe here! And follow her BeautyFoodie finds on Pinterest.

Hahahaha!

As we chowed down, cracked jokes, soaked in the creative advertising during the commercials, and (semi)-watched the game, all of us girls were anxiously awaiting Beyonce's stellar redemption half-time performance. And seriously she worked it. <so much she blew out the stadium power, flipped the "off switch" from all those Bootylicious moves, insert the endless punchlines you read on social media during the power outage> As the guys all yelled at the TV because of the game delays, compared stats and checked their squares...we cheered... GO TEAM BEYONCE!

Left to right: Kayla, Gina, Jenna, me, Gizelle and Donna (Julie, pictured in spirit)
Go Team Beyonce!!!

Did you dig the Beyonce/Destiny's Child performance? I wish I could rock a Super Bowl dance routine/performance post-baby like that. YOLO, right? Work it, girl!

 And in case you live under a rock...catch the 2013 Super Bowl Halftime Performance here! How did you spend your Super Bowl Sunday? Have you been to any of Cleveland's awesome new art exhibits? Share your thoughts! And keep JAMmin!