Blast Off

Being that today marks the 40th anniversary for the first manned mission to land on the moon, I thought it would be appropriate to share some pics of a recent date night I had with my husband at a great lunar rooftop bar in the loop area of St.Louis called Rooftop Terrace .
Located on top of the Moonrise Hotel it features a great lounge atmosphere with pretty good drink prices and view of the Arch. The decor was a bit stark for our taste, but I guess that's supposed to be part of the lunar experience. Towards the later part of the evening the bar features local DJ's.

The bar was really pretty with blue-green iridescent tiles covering most of the space

Apparently James thinks he is too cool for the camera

Tiny House

Although, it can sometimes feel like James and I are living in a small home (especially since we are sharing one bathroom) I know how terribly grateful we are to have a home...and a wonderful one at that. I recently found out about the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company who specializes in building homes ranging from 65 to 837 sq ft!

Talk about green livin'. I think we all have memories of living in small apartments or dorms and having to make the best of the space you are given, well this company takes that to the extreme. For one guy, it isn't a temporary living arrangement. Jay, who owns Tumbleweed, has been living in 89 sq ft since the late 90's.

To see his home on video click here



My Favorite Tiny House: 837 sq ft - Naturally, I chose the largest plan available ;)

Urban Garden

James and I recently flew into Kansas City this weekend to go to a cousin's wedding and of course being the recessionistas that we are we stayed at my sister's and brother-in-law place in Kansas City.

(Their building is the largest one in the skyline in the middle of the picture)

After getting picked up from the airport by our pregnant chauffeur...

(okay, okay, it's my sister) we were whisked away to their new apartment in downtown Kansas City, complete with it's very own rooftop garden! James and I are in love with this great use of space.
You can read more about this green winner (literally) here. This urban garden is 17,000 sq ft and sits on top of an 8-story parking garage. It is an amazing place to sip coffee in the morning, sun in the afternoon, and drink wine in the evening. I know I just stirred up images in your mind about having a fabulous English picnic so may I suggest this one from Dean & Deluca

For those of you in the surrounding St. Louis area on July 28th the U.S. Green Building Council - St. Louis Regional Chapter will be presenting for *FREE* the basics of green building and LEED certification at Lewis and Clark Community College in Edwardsville, IL from 6:30 - 8:00 pm.

And to sample some herbs fresh from a rooftop garden head over to Bowood Cafe on Olive Street were they have utilized many green building practices including their 2,000 sq ft green roof.

Small, But Needed Updates

I love to cook and if given my choice I would kill to have a gas stove, but I suppose there will always be sacrifices I'll have to make through out life. OK, I'm really not that pretentious, but seriously our old white stove had to go. We have all stainless steel appliances and this bad boy was one of the last couple of pieces to our puzzle in the kitchen. We actually had our eye on this Frigidaire stove for a couple of weeks and to our surprise last night during one of our many weekly trips to Lowe's our stove had been placed in the clearance section with almost $140 taken off the price being that it was the display model. Well James likes a bargain and even more then that he loves a challenge so we asked for another 10% off. We got it for only $550!

Old stove with James hidding behind it ;)

Oh yeah, that's lookin' good!

But our light in the dining room wasn't lookin' so good. So while most people were having a pretty typical fourth of July holiday James and I updated this light fixture as well as painting the living room and hallway (which you will have to wait for living room pics).

Before

After

We’ve been looking for this type of light fixture for sometime now and were actually contemplating making it ourselves, but we were able to pick it up at Lowe's for around $250. Currently is not on the Lowe's website :(

Pom-Poms!

When I was planning our outdoor wedding I had envisioned a lot of different paper lanterns in the trees. Although James and I were able to find lanterns on sale, we wouldn't be able to keep within our budget and get the look I was wanting. Luckily I came across a cheaper alternative from Martha Stewart. Her Pom-Poms are easily made out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners and probably cost me only $8 to make 10-12 poms. We think they looked great mixed in with the paper lanterns!


Even one of my friends took inspiration from my wedding and used a pom-pom to make a topper for a gift at my sisters baby shower.

Lazy Dog Days of Summer

James and I love our 'kids'. We love our 'kids' so much that if we want to go on a bike ride we take them with us in our inSTEP bicycle trailer. Yes, it is very ridiculous, but the joy they get (or maybe the joy we get) out of it makes it worth it.

Both dogs fit comfortably (Mischka weighs 10 pounds and Jack is around 40 pounds), attaches quickly and easily to bikes, and includes a weather shield incase we should get caught in bad weather.

If you happen to be in the St. Charles/St. Louis area we suggest hopping on to the Katy Trail. This Missouri trail covers 225 miles with half of it following the Lewis and Clark’s path along the Missouri river. You can bike, run, or even do horseback riding on this trail. James and I are planning on biking from St. Charles to Augusta (27 miles) and hitting up the numerous wineries in that area, our favorites being Balducci and Montelle. We probably won't be riding our bicycles back, but isn't that what parents are for?

I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream!

Just how many ingredients should it take to make ice cream? Well the folks at Häagen-Dazs say only 5! I couldn't believe this when I saw their ad in a national food magazine. To me this is great design. Not that they have taken out those nasty calories that keep popping up in my favorite food, but they have made ice cream seem somehow healthy. I've worked in the food advertising industry for a bit, so I just had to do some checking on this myself to see where the artificial ingredients were being hidden in the fine print, but none was to be found.

Ingredients: SKIM MILK, CREAM, SUGAR, EGG YOLKS, VANILLA (VANILLA BEAN FLAKES, VANILLA EXTRACT).

So now that we have you wanting to dine on ice cream made for minimalist, why not spruce up your ice cream dishes as well? These from Target are under $15 for a set of 4.

Definitely seems fit for a pre-party for the Muny’s showing of Meet Me In St.Louis