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!

C-Street

Did some antique shopping in Springfield this past weekend with James and his sister, Ann. We hit up Commercial street in North Springfield where we found some interesting furniture pieces and neat stores. I feel it's necessary to bore you with a little history lesson brought to you by the public library -

The Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, Springfield's first railroad, came to Springfield in 1870. It actually bypassed the town and laid its tracks a mile north of "old" Springfield into the "new" town of North Springfield. A commercial district sprang up around the railroad depot and the street was thus name "Commercial."

blah, blah, blah....picture time!


The fabulous store Red Velvet Art with it's many handmade items suitable for children and trendy adults


The back of Red Velvet Art, which became my photography studio during our brief stay


This Historic Firehouse garden is used for small outdoor weddings

I'm obsessed with sunflowers this year

Okay, I'm sorry, but this is a terrible piece of "art"

Vintage find for only $85!!!! AHHHHHH!!!

This gray chair was only $35! If only we needed another chair...

$200 bones for this baby!

Mass Desctuction

We live rather close to Lindenwood University and when it gets time for us to move we will be using our home as rental property for students. Recently, Lindenwood has been demolishing all their rental property near our house, which is good and bad at the same time. They took out tons of really old shady trees, but the homes were so old and ugly that they really needed to go. We aren't sure what's going up in its place - rumors of a post office, grocery store, Target, new road construction, etc. have been floating around. Our Realtor has sworn it will only increase the value of our home, but we are just a bit nervous. If Lindenwood can keep it looking like its beautiful campus (tree lined with all brick dorms and facility's) it will be amazing.
Aerial view of the campus and our home that I took recently. Double click image for large view, as I've circled our home.

The magnification trees being pulled up


We went a explored many of the homes after they had cleaned them out. Some had really nice hardwood floors and other details that I was surprised they didn't try to salvage.

We really hope they lay down some grass seed

I wish I had more before and after pictures of the homes, but you can see the entrance to the University from this pic.

Lindenwood's campus

Ugly Smugly

To cover up some unsightly meter and cable cable boxes James and I used the fast growing and hardy English Ivy. After making a simple planter box to fit on the floor we drilled screws into the siding. Wire was then wrapped around each screw in a pattern. We planted some ivy , eased it on the wire and called it a day. We can't wait to see what it will look like when it grows!

Music Man

Man, my hands are still sore from this project, but it was so worth. James had purchased a Baldwin piano last year in need of some repairs. After sanding down the whole piano he spray painted it black, but never got around to sanding and painting the piano bench. The blond wood piano bench stood out like a sore thumb against the black beauty. Something had to be done.

After sanding down the whole item we painted the inside a bright cherry red


The whole project took about 3 cans of black spray paint

Jack inspecting the "new" item

Final Piece