What Happens When You Pull The Carpet Up

Nothing like getting a phone call from your husband one day letting you know he has decided to pull up all the carpet in the master bedroom. And thank God he did because he found marvelous hardwood floors under that nasty, old and gray carpet. We'll post pictures as soon as we have them refinished.

The old carpet leading downstairs with just a glimpse of the hardwood flooring and our color samples for the walls on the right.

Hhhmmm - could we possibly be doing more than just refinishing the floors ;)

As you can see from the paint splatters on the wood floor the crew that fixed up this house before we purchased it had actually used the flooring as a drop cloth!

New Items Feel Just Sooooo Good

Got some new placemats, which I'm usually not the biggest fan of, but when James found these neat white and yellow ones with a modern print on clearance at Bed, Bath, and Beyond for only $2.99, how could I resist? We also picked up (during one of our weekly Target runs) a white sheer curtain for around $10 and a new rod for the back door for under $6.

And since some nasty little bug has decided to destroy my rose bushes, I've been putting clippings from my chamaedorea palm in vases, which I think looks very fresh and modern.

Drink Drink - Our Top Wine List

Okay, before I start rambling about my favorite wines here are a couple of recent inspired wine items that I just so happened to fall in love with.

An adorable apron

Oh, that age old question...."If I can't drink and drive then how am I supposed to get to work?"

And without further ado...

Wine and Why Trader Joe's is Your Friend

When it comes to affordable wine most people probably think of the efficiently named Two Buck Chuck or it's actual name of Charles Shaw. This value conscious wine comes in a hand full of grape varieties with prices ranging from $1.99 to $3.99 depending on the area you live in and can only be picked up at Trader Joe's. Anything that's not in a box and is under $5 is my friend. I also like to go outside my comfort zone of Trader Joe's exclusive cheap wine. Below is a list of James and I's 5 favorites for this quarter all between $10-$15 a bottle.

*Mark West - Pinot Noir
*Gnarly Head - Old Vine Zinfandel
*Woop Woop - Shiraz
*Hob Nob - Chardonnay
*Cycles Gladiator - Pinto Grigio

And don't waste your money on these 3

*Shoofly - Chardonnay
*Fish Eye - Pinto Grigio
*Voga - Pinto Grigio (Keep the very cool bottle, but ditch the wine)

Farmers Market - KC style

Lately I feel like I blog more about KC than St. Louis. My sister, who lives in KC, is due anytime with her first child, so James and I are trying to spend time with her and her husband before the little one appears! Last Sunday we all took a 'family trip' to The Farmers Market located near the Missouri River in Kansas City. The market is actually pretty good. Mainly produce and spices with a small variety of seafood, flowers and vintage finds. There are also local restaurant's that frame the open market.

This farmer's market features over 100 vendors

How many of you remember the Fisher Price Family Farm toy that when you open the barn doors the "cows" moo?

The skyline not far away - My sisters place, which has the urban rooftop garden, is actually the tallest building in the picture.

Gettin' crazy at the Farmer's Market

Zach refusing to participate

Not to be left out, St. Louis features an expansive farmers market near the Mississippi River called Soulard Farmers Market. Open all year round Wednesday-Saturday this historic market (opened in 1779) features baked goods, restaurants, produce and even clothing. James and I will be posting more pics of this market soon!

Downtown St. Charles

We love, love, love that we live near amazing historic homes. We always drive or bike by our favorites just oohing and ahh-ing at the parts we wish we could duplicate on our own home someday. This is just a small sample of the neat homes near historic Main street in St. Charles.

This green home with the glass garden room in the front was actually built in the 1920's and is original to the home. The house is also believed to have had the first air conditioning in St. Charles.


This home below is just behind our street and is one of our favorites.


Although far from being an historic home, I love how they've used minimalistic landscaping to modernize and set their house apart from the pack. Apparently other people think so too, as they have been awarded a local landscape award.


I love the lookout deck at the very top of this home

The $5 Makeover

James and I finally solved a small issue we had been struggling with in our bathroom - window treatment or not to window treatment our only source of natural light in that room. Now to our neighbors, seeing inside our bathroom probably was more of a bigger issue then small ;) so we needed to solve it fast.
First we had mini-blinds that came with the house up for almost half a year, which every time I saw them I felt like we were renters instead of the actual owners of the home. We pulled those down and put up a dark brown, natural roman shade, but it just made the room too dark during the day. So off to Home Depot where we found Rust-Oleum Specialty Frosted Glass Spray. Incredibly easy to use and cheap!

We just lightly washed the windows and after taping the sides up,
we sprayed about 3 coats on each pane.

In less than an hour we had the perfect amount of privacy and natural light. The only downside was the smell! Just terrible, so make sure it's a nice day so you can open some windows for fresh air. Also, between coats make sure you wipe off the extra frost dust on the glass so the next coat applies thicker.

Baby Shower

I recently had the honor of throwing a baby shower for my sister in Kansas City and wanted to share some of the pictures of this wonderful event!

My sister wanted to make sure everyone had a great time so there were no mocktails at this baby shower! I made refreshing mimosas, sangria, and watermelon martini's (used real watermelon for the puree and froze some for 'ice cubes'), while also serving red and white wine. Don't worry my sis had lemonade.

We played a couple of those fun baby games such as guess what's in the baby food jar, guessing how big the mommy's belly is with toilet paper, and transferring cotton balls from one bucket to the next...blindfolded (which was a big hit)!

We served lots of snacks - homemade cheese fondue, not-so-homemade quiche appetizers, fruit and veggie trays, as well as cupcakes and a strawberry cake from the Ozark-famous Spring Creek Tea Room.

That cake topper was actually the same one I used for my wedding. I just reperposed it for another fabulous occasion.