Monthly Archives: August 2013

08.14.13

I am very proud to be from St. Louis…in case you were wondering.  Which you probably weren’t, but at least now you know.  I think StL is an up and coming city, mark my words after we are done being labeled “the most dangerous city in the US” we will be where all the cool kids live.  Thug life forever.

  One of our favorite hobbies is pretending we are tourists right here in St. Louis and taking in all the sights.  I adore local bands and artists, and try to shop local as often as possible.  St. Louie has been brewing up some fantastic local chefs and restaurants….and even better food trucks.  For all these reasons and many more (ahem, hi family) we do not have the luxury of living on a beach.  It’s worth it though, because the StL has a lot to offer.  Just ask Nelly.  Or Molly Brown.  Or John Goodman.  Anywhoodles.

When I heard about Artopia, my jaw sort of dropped.  You mean to tell me you are showcasing all of our St. Louis talent while I chow down on awesome local eats and pretend I am fashionable?  Count me in.  Count me all the way in and shaking it all about.  Proving I am hopelessly un-hip…how have I not heard of this in the five previous years.  Can I get a do-over?  Feast your eyes on this awesomeness… artopia-st-louis I have counted on the Riverfront Times to keep me cool for quite some time so I am über excited to see they are hosting this event.  You know it will be good.  Nay, nay my friend…it will be great.  Tickets are $30 a piece for General Admission and that gets you three drinks, lots of samples, two fashion shows, and all the local art and music you can handle.  Just watch the video from last year and you will be chomping at the bit.

Want to know the best part?  If you are local (shoot, even if you’re not)….then I want you to come.  I want you to come so bad that I snagged two tickets courtesy of the RFT Streetteam to give to one lucky duck.  Then, once you are down there, come find me and we can take shameless selfies. win-a-ticket-to-artopia All you have to do to enter is leave me a comment below saying you want to go, easy peesy lemon squeezy.  If you aren’t within driving distance to ol’ Missouri, well I’m sorry…and also slightly jealous.

Have you ever been to Artopia?  Are you going this year?
Who is your favorite local artist or musician?
Anyone else craving meat on a stick now?  Can I get a corn dog?

PS….no one is paying me to say nice things.  I geniunely want to go to this amazing local event and when I was offered 2 free tickets I decided I wanted you all to come too.  I will be saving nickles for my tickets and everything you read above is straight from my heart.  Now you know.

Written by Christina and Tim
08.13.13

Confession:  I am not a very good secret-keeper.

So when I decided to try and throw a surprise anniversary party for my parents I got a little nervous about my loose lips.  I don’t need any sunken ships on my watch, I have enough problems.

I started planning back in April.  I considered making our Fourth of July celebration a super secret surprise party for them, but decided they needed their own day.  The seed of an idea grew into a real life party, the kind with more people coming than can fit in our backyard.  I shifted my attention to a no clean-up option, because that is so my style, and enlisted a few helpers (hi Aunt Joyce, hi Aunt Janet, hi Leika).

We decided on a local Mexican restaurant that my parents visit on the regular, nothing suspicious here folks…just your average taquito dinner.  I am not a newcomer to the fiesta themed parties, remember Katie’s baby shower?  Nachos and margaritas seemed like a thirty year necessity, hope that’s remembered for our thirtieth.

Once the plans were made and the invitations were out, the hard part came over me like a tsunami.  Talking to family, being sneaky, and keeping it from everyone….even you.  Can I openly admit that it was harder not to tell you all about my exciting surprise than it was to keep it from my parents.  Supposedly they read this little blog, so I thought I ought not post any sneak peaks no matter how bad I wanted to

While I was brewing up an idea to get my parents to the restaurant unsuspectingly while not sporting sweatpants, Tim popped the question.  Eureka!  We now had a plan, let’s have an (insert oversized air quotes here) “engagement party”.  Genius, I think I will keep that boy.

Then mass chaos hit.  We got engaged.  I got a new job.  I decided to go to Haven, thereby deciding to take the leap into redesignville.  So those cute favors and custom menus…well they went out the window along with sleep.  I did snag some giant balloons though, so I don’t think anyone noticed. happy-thirtieth-anniversary-to-my-parents great-friends-and-family-at-the-party I would apologize for the photo overload, but I feel like those 300 words above it even it out a little.  Sorry I’m not sorry.  When we got to the restaurant and headed to the back room, my mom peeked in the doors and mumbled, “what in the world…Christina that’s a room full of people”.  Indeed mother, indeed.

Then the doors flew open, “Surprise!” flew out, and the faces my parents made forever engrained themselves into my memory.  Priceless.  They were absolutely surprised, since this party was over a month before their anniversary they were not suspecting anything.  My mom even smacked my dad thinking he was in on it.

Y’all my heart swelled seeing all the love in that room.  There were so many special people there to celebrate, many that I haven’t seen in years.  Just looking at those photos could bring me to tears.  I hope everyone who came knows how much it meant to my mom and dad, and even me.  Whew, need to wrap this up before the tissue box calls my name….it was beyond great.  The end.

Have you ever thrown a surprise party?
Are you a good secret keeper?
Do you want giant number balloons just hanging around for photo-ops?

Written by Christina and Tim
08.12.13

When I was growing up my dad would start every new school year with a song, “School days, school days” and that’s generally all he got out before my sister and I got out a whiny, “Daaadddddddd”.

When my dad was younger, his father sang it to him and he never understood what was so exciting about the first day of school…until he had two rambunctious girls.  Then it all made sense.

While I was young we were very blessed to be able to go shopping every year for new school supplies, a new wardrobe, and sweet new kicks.  So many kids don’t have that luxury, so this year I want to help. students-running-to-school-back-to-school-backpack Tim and I are taking a backpack full of notebooks and pencils, folders and markers, rulers and pens up to a local school.  We are hoping they will find their way to the students that need them.

We are even trying to get some of our co-workers and family in on the fun.

Have you ever donated school supplies?
Have you seen some of the cute backpack choices out there?
Wish you could go back to kindergarten like I do?

 

Written by Christina and Tim
08.09.13

Ahhhh Friday….it is so nice to see you again.  Next time don’t wait so long to visit, kapeesh.

Hope you all have some weekend plans, Tim and I are crossing our fingers that we will be able to check “find venue” off the wedding planning list.  Then pondering why I have such a weak spot for personified animals.  I realized while rounding up my favorites for this Friday post that I am always drawn to funny animals that look like people.  Maybe I felt jipped that I never had a “dogs playing poker” print growing up.  Or maybe I am just weird.  Either way, these whimsical people-mals are some of my favorites. cocktail-zoo Seriously, Coco de Paris at Cocktail Zoo has a real way of giving those guys their own unique personalities….there are even little biographies on each one.  Adorable.  Wonder if they do custom work.  Can’t you see Taj surfing waves or Asti laying on a chaise eating bagel bites, or something.

I found so many other fancy and fun things this week…check it. design-fest-salmon-tacos Tell me that Salmon Tacos don’t sound like the tastiest thing I’ve never made.  Maybe I will get brave this weekend and attempt to make Bri’s version.  I feel like topped with the Mango Salsa it will be a flavor explosion in the best possible way. eighteen-25-colorful-fire-pit Have you ever seen a fire pit as fun as Nora’s colorful masterpiece.  It makes me want to step out of the box in all design decisions.  Tim and I have tried to embrace color in our lives, so I am nineteen percent sure I could totally talk him into this. apartment-therapy-tin-can-windowsill-garden Be still my heart.  I am kind of in love with these vintage colorful tins that I found on Apartment Therapy.  I want them lining all of my windowsills, and I really want a little watering fairy so they don’t all die.  Who do I talk to about making that happen. blonde-abroad-love-story Ok, if you do anything….in your life….click this link and read Kiersten’s story about the boy that wrote a song for her.  Then he did what most guys do, performed it in front of thousands of fans.  Seriously, this girl is living a real life fairytale.  Tim better bust his guitar out with a quickness.

Have you ever had a song written about you?
Got any fun plans for the weekend, do tell.
Think we will pick our wedding venue this weekend?

 

Written by Christina and Tim
08.08.13

Early this spring Tim and I declared the desire to be more self-sufficient.

One of the ways we decided to “make it happen” was to attempt to build some raised planters over our bomb shelter, just kidding.  Wanted to make sure you were still with me.  Raised, obviously, so I can avoid worms.  Yes, I know how good they are for your garden but I prefer not to be curled up in the fetal position soaked in sweat and tears.  In case you don’t know how weird I am, read this.

We weren’t quite sure where to start.  I told Tim I would love something that gained character as it aged, something rustic and made of real wood.  I wanted our veggies to feel like they were on a real farm.  I also didn’t want to bend, and can I get a ledge?  That sweet boy just smiled and nodded.

  So we wandered the aisles of our favorite blue store and gathered lots of different materials to experiment with.  Wood and screws and stain and tin and heavier wood and posts.  Then this happened.

Remember way back when, we hinted that we were building something.  Now you get the full picture, but don’t let that video fool you….he wasn’t doing it all alone.  I helped a lot, we just don’t have a third trigger man to capture those teamwork moments.  We are now accepting live in interns that also clean, cook, and sew.

When we call the project a wrap we had a perfectly imperfect rustic garden bed.  I love things that I don’t have to worry about keeping in pristine condition, because let’s face it I am not very good at that sort of thing.  I think these bad boys are only going to get better with age.  See how it’s already weathering, meow. diy-rustic-raised-planters The funny thing is, we had a beautiful garden for about three weeks.  Here I will prove it. our-garden-goodies Don’t those look tasty?  Then, this thing called Haven happened.  A whirlwind of mass chaos between preparing and attending left our garden, ahem, unattended.  Which also means unwatered.  And unpruned. watch-our-garden-grow Holy tomato growth.  It’s basically a jungle on the one side and a barren corn desert on the other.  When I came home from Haven, I couldn’t help but laugh at the tomato tree we had. diy-raised-garden-bed I know more than a few of you all are practically professionals at this, so help a sister out.  Do we cut those tomatoes back?  Is there any saving that corn?  Who wants to send me “watering reminders” every day?

Have you ever built a garden bed?
What do you grow each year?
Wanna come play in the tomato jungle?

Written by Christina and Tim
08.07.13

Oh what you forgot that we got engaged?

it’s okay, we did too.  Between new jobs, surprise parties, conferences, and all things crazy we sort of forgot that we are supposed to be planning a wedding.  We had debated starting a little sister blog just for wedding planning so that we could over-share all of our plans and ideas, but then I thought about how complicated things could get and scratched the whole idea.  Scratched it faster than I could say “domain name”.

 So we will be sharing some wedding details here and well, here.  Hope you all can get as excited as we are.  If it totally annoys you, then you should probably avoid my Pinterest account at all costs. wedding-pinterest-page So what do we have figured out?  Not much.

We have a tentative date….10-4-14 although we heard that is hunting season.  Maybe a hunting themed wedding, no?  I often ponder all the fun things we could do with that date (10-4 good buddy).  Plus, Tim would never forget our anniversary and that fact alone forces it into winnerhood.

We do know our wedding party, and it’s very unique…although we haven’t “officially asked” them yet.  There’s something special in the works for all that.  Don’t worry, you will be the second to know.

Our biggest struggle is going to be a venue.  We aren’t very traditional, so all the typical places are off the table.  Anyone know of a big empty warehouse or field we can borrow?

Which leads to our biggest decision….elope in Maine or throw the biggest party Missouri has ever seen?  Remember how we fell in love with Camden, Maine last year?  It would be a perfect place for a sweet little ceremony, and then we could use all that money we saved to get some hardwood floors.  Then again, I want our first dance.  I want to see all my friends laughing, and I really want to shove cake in Tim’s face.  I just don’t want to have to cut a guest list thanks to our meager budget….which is why we had the idea to throw a fair.

Yes, you read my crazy scheme correctly.  I want to throw a fair, filled to the brim with cotton candy.  A live bluegrass band, real rides, and tons of fun had by all.  Maybe a gorgeous gold dress.  Any idea how to make that happen.  Where there’s a will there’s a way, I hope.

We are going to look at Lost Hill Lake this weekend, wish us luck!  I feel like once we have a venue the ball will really start rolling.  Please tell me that’s the truth and that I am not doomed.

What kind of wedding did/will you have?
Should we elope or have a big, crazy shindig?
Think we can pull off a fair?

Written by Christina and Tim