Real Estate Ads

After I left the marketing world I teamed up with my sister and brother-in-law in a investment real estate company called Midwest Area Properties, which is located in Kansas City and St. Robert, MO. When I first started I took a look around at all my competition and their ads. Being that St. Robert is located right next to the Fort Leonard Wood base and that our main customers are serving in the military most of the real estate companies focused their advertisements on USA themed ads. How was I going to stand out from the crowd in a positive way without going red, white, and blue in all my print? I decided to focus on the home part of house sales. Many of these soldiers are uprooted more than they would like and crave that feeling of home. I used images associated with homes to help remind people that their home can be in St. Robert, even if they are just temporarily living here for a couple of years. I'm out of real estate and ready to get back to marketing. Let me know what you think!

Hiking/Trail Running/Mountain Biking

James and I hit up a couple of great trails this week that are pretty close to our house. James did some mountain biking, while Mischka and I hiked and did some trail running at Matson Hill and Castlewood State Park. Matson Hill is a 3-mile singletrack that climbs and descends over 400 feet per lap. It has a pretty rugged terrain with several creek crossings and is dark even on sunny days due to the tall, old growth trees. Castlewood State Park used to be resort that was popular in the 1915's to 1940. Today, the 1,818-acre Park stretches for nearly five miles, straddling both sides of the Meramec River. Unfortunately, I only took pictures of Castlewood State Park.

One of the many lookouts on Lone Wolf Trail


Mischka leading the way

Looking at the railroad tracks that James told me not to go past, but....I did anyway :)

Mischka getting a little dirty. Becoming more like our 'country' dog then our 'city' dog.



My glistening forehead

Misch Misch getting a joy ride from papa

Her expression is priceless in this one!

Montelle Winery

Headed down to Montelle Winery in Augusta, MO for a couple of hours to watch the sunset on their amazing deck with our friend Jayme. You truly feel like you live in West Virginia with all the vegetation and the rolling hills. All their wine is very sweet so stick with the dry reds and whites. We got two bottles of the Chardonel to go with our cheese and herb focaccia bread.

James looking like a determined wine drinker

This picture doesn't do the view justice

Hardly Labor

Hope everyone had a great labor day weekend! Sorry I haven't been posting as much. Just keeping a little bit too busy. Here is a run down on our long weekend....

Scooping out the new autumn Target merchandise and falling in love with it all!


Love, love this hourglass....James said no because he could envision it falling over and us having to deal with cleaning up sand. Boo!

James fixing the chimney on our 12x12(!) pitch roof. Thank god he has rock climbing gear.

James isn't only a handy man...he also helps pick out fabric for drapes. Oh la la ladies!

So many great fabrics, but we were actually able to find what we where looking for at (you guessed it) Target. I'll be posting pics soon!

Headed over to Schlafly's patio for a lunch after hanging out at the Science Center. Yay for drinking!

Schlafly pumpkin beer signaling the beginning of fall.... a full-bodied, deep reddish amber beer made with pumpkin and butternut squash and spiced with nutmeg, clove and cinnamon = yummy!

It's A Dog's Life

It's a rainy day in St. Louis today so my attention is being focused on sleep items. Jack and Mischka have a nice dog bed that they both sleep on, but once when we had gone out of town they had used it has a chew toy. Luckily James' mom is a blessed saint and without us asking stitched the bed right back up. Nonetheless, I'm sure a replacement is around the corner.

Jack and Mischka curled up in the car


Usually not a fan of overly cute things for my dogs, but I think the Doodle Dog reverse pet bed from William Wegman collection would fit Jack perfectly!

James and I love all things nautical and what's nice is this Sailcloth Dog Bed is a....cover! So we could theatrically be very eco and keep their old bed and just freshen it up with a new cover with various numbers and sail insignia from actual sails.

Okay, talk about being eco-friendly today. This dog bed from Whiner and Dine is made from used wine crates!

Happy Camper

I've never been camping before. Never. My parents tried to take me once when I was little, but it rained that weekend canceling our plans. My husband, who absolutely loves the outdoors, finds this fact about me very hilarious. So last night (after a couple of glasses of wine) I bravely told him that we would be sleeping outside in the tent.

Let me tell you it was magical until at 6:30am the construction crews started working across the street...

James is really proud of his tent. He basically rattled off all its specs as we put it up last night. I know he will cringe when he reads this post and sees that I failed to retain any info about this tent other than the following:
1) It's expensive and I probably shouldn't touch it
2)Only used by hard core bad-asses
3)Deserves something more than our backyard

Mischka was very confused about us sleeping outside. She just stared at us through the window the whole night.

New Couch!

James and I picked up a new couch from Kansas City yesterday!

Still in the process of updating our living room, but this new addition has already made such a change!