Lovely Weekend

This seems to be the season for buying property. Elena, my dear friend, is getting married in two weeks but the celebration is starting earlier - she and her fiance purchased their first home in St. Charles and naturally, I had to stop by to offer my felicitations and just generally poke about. I cannot wait to sit on that front porch sipping iced tea!

My brother-in-law was asked to play at his old high school fundraiser, so later that evening I trooped out to Vianney with Aili, Mike and kids to rock out! Above, Joe awaits his St. Louis style pizza. At most fairs and carnivals accross the country you'll find the typical corn dogs, hamburgers and hotdogs for sale. In St. Louis you'll also find pizza, pasta, toasted ravioli and bread to go along with it. Hey, south St. Louis wasn't populated by Italians for nothing.

Cotton Candy is the perfect dessert after pizza, right?!

Sunday evening was even better when I visited a new friend's home for a delicious dinner to celebrate the Lost finale. I baked a lemon pound cake with cream cheese icing as a dessert - all in all, a meal that did justice to the occasion. Lost, you've been a great show, I've still got my questions, but at least you're all happy. Next week, my cousin's wedding in Oklahoma! I love road trips!

Rain

We've been experiencing all sorts of rain these past several days. The Mississippi is starting to flood a little bit as I've seen on my commute to work as I cross over to Illinois. It's kind of amazing that it all starts because there are a lot of these individual rain droplets right?! Here are a few that didn't quite make it to a river and landed instead on my geraniums.

This and that...

So, it's been a little over a week, now, in my new home. For Mother's Day I decided to make Key Lime pie for my mom because at the Canessa's house everything is celebrated with food. ha! Can I just say how much I am enjoying having a counter that is wider than 2 feet! I can fit everything I need on the counter now!! yay!

In other news, Darcy seems to be adjusting quite well to his new surroundings...

Celebration

Happy Birthday mom! We love you! (She's also never going to see this...my mom and blogs have just a passing acquaintance.)

Ugh

Moving isn't very fun. Last night, Caroline and I sorted through 4 years of accumulated stuff in our basement which seemed like it took forever. On the bright side, city scavengers will hit the jackpot if they stop at our curb: there you will find a gently used folding chair, a used computer monitor, and my first set of pots and pans that I bought for about $40 in graduate school.

On the even brighter side, we're hiring movers this time instead of using the backs of my family members which are free (thanks family for all of the previous moves!). I was full of gratitude to these movers by the way, when I was packing 6 huge boxes of books and am so thankful that I will not be the one moving them!

A Babler Park day

Parks are great for picnics...

Throwing rocks (or sticks) in a creek and seeing who makes the biggest splash.

And creeks are great for getting cool on a hot spring day!

My strange new world

Of homeownership! Yesterday I signed about 2,000 papers and officially became the owner of this lovely little condo on Bluebird Terrace. I love it!

Laura comes to town...

This is Laura. We've gone to school together since the 1st grade and we actually knew about each other since the 3rd grade. We have proof - since we both crossed out the other's face in our respective yearbooks. Apparently, we weren't on good terms at the time. Then 7th grade band rolled around and we've been close friends ever since.

We've kept in touch through the years, sometimes only talking once every couple of months to talking every week. What never changed was how much I love having her in my life and how rich our long friendship has become. So, to celebrate 20 plus years of friendship and to just plain old hang out, Laura drove all the way over to St. Louis from Tulsa last weekend and we had us a grand ol'time.

I promised Laura a long time ago that when she visited, we would go on a ghost tour. Now, ghost tours are actually more like historical walking tours and can be super fun. Unfortunately, March is still considered iffy weather-wise for outdoor walking tours, so I came up with the next best thing - a haunted tour of St. Louis' Lemp Mansion. It's actually very well documented as a haunted house and I was excited if somewhat apprehensive about seeing an actual ghost.

Well, we really didn't need to be worried. The mansion itself is, of course, super spooky and full of creaking boards, creepy paintings and stuffy rooms. The "orb" above is the only ghost-ish thing we caught on camera. Now, we photographed a ton of them though, so make of that what you will. Apparently, the guides didn't think much of it since they just shrugged when we showed them.

So, while we didn't actually see anything scary it was fun nonetheless to walk around a dark creepy house for a few hours!

Potential visitors be warned: I will fill your entire day with kitschy tourist activities, since that is pretty much what we have to offer in St. Louis. Starting with the fabulous (and non-kitschy) Soulard Farmer's Market. It's the oldest Farmer's Market west of the Mississippi, having been established in 1779. And it is just so much fun!

It's still a traditional market, with a butcher's shop, spice shop and cute grocery in the interior.

And the produce! Oh my, everything looked delicious!

We met a local soap maker and had a great time picking out various bars. I bought a "shampoo" soap, which I have yet to try but have high hopes for.

Laura and I most enjoyed this tiny, adorable little spice shop. I bought a large bottle of imported extra virgin olive oil (for $11!!) and some chicory coffee. Laura nabbed some chicken spices and some coffee as well.

Many of the sellers informed me that the best shopping days are Saturdays and Sundays, so I will be making another visit very soon!

After our visit to the market, I dragged Laura to the St. Louis Arch. She had never been and is scared of heights...PERFECT! Apparently, rides to the top are much in demand since they were sold out for the next two days. Meh, that was fine with us.

After lunch at Laclede's Landing, we decided to visit a wax museum. I had only ever been to a Ripley's Believe It or Not museum and so I was curious what this one would be all about.

Apparently not much. It was quite the kooky place.

After relaxing a bit from our day, Laura and I met went out to Sasha's with my sister, Caroline and her friend Lauren. Sasha's is a lovely little wine bar that offers tappas to go with the wine...

like this delicious "cheese from around the world" plate. The cheese was gone in about 5 minutes.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and just talking with friends. The following day Laura I spent hanging out with my family and enjoyed a very low-key evening.

Laura, I love you lots! Thanks to Brent and Avery for letting you go for a few days and I hope that we can make this a yearly tradition!!

7 reasons to go to the Zoo

1. Holding hands with a 20 month old while crossing the street.

2. Watching Meerkats watch you.

3. Seeing sea otters swim.

4. Hello, funnel cake!

5. Long, meaningful talks.

6. Riding the train.

7. Coming home with new, stuffed friends.

Away in a manger

My 4 year old niece, Mara, created an impromptu manger scene last Sunday. In case you were wondering, Mary is the Lizard sitting on top of the mouse and Joseph is the caramel horse in the middle. Also pictured, my favorite purple haired My Little Pony - she came with the ice cream shop I received as a birthday gift when I was 10 years old. I had no idea it was still here. I suppose children can sniff out toys like bloodhounds!

Remembering

Meh. I'm going to apologize for not blogging much - I've been busy and uninspired to take out the camera. It's been a good friend to me, but we're hitting that part of winter where I just don't think I can take any more cold days and I was beginning to feel like a zombie. Thankfully, it's 57 degrees today and I've been reading outside and enjoying the sunshine. Which made me remember warmer days...vacation days and I decided to photograph the mementos I have bought or received as gifts and displayed in my home from various trips, large and small.

Below is a photo in my hallway of a huge family trip to Costa Rica. We are posing beneath to the entrance of a church in the town my grandmother grew up in.

Above is a series of postcards I collected on my first (as in completely self-funded) mini-vacation with my best friend, Shalyn. We visited New Orleans and stayed the French Quarter for a few days over spring break. Goodness, I miss beignets and coffee.

Above is a series of watercolors my sister bought for me while she lived in Germany for 6 months. These were from a visit to Venice and were painted by an artist she met on the street.

These tiny tea cups are from China. My dad spent six months there for his job and he brought back some truly lovely things for his myself and my sisters.

This is probably one of my favorite mementos. It's a small replica of one of Rodin's sculptures that I bought at the Rodin Museum in Paris. Don't let its diminuitive size fool you, it weighs a ton, at least 10-13 pounds which will feel like 75 when you carry it around for about 15 hours while walking around Paris. I also had to hand carry it home, since adding it to my luggage made it too heavy and would have added a $150 fine. So, yeah, it's my favorite - since it's covered in my blood, sweat and tears. ha!

What kind of mementos do you have?

The search is over

I've found my little place! The owner accepted my offer this Sunday while I was hanging out with the family, so we celebrated by going out to Sears and looking at ovens. ha! Goodness, I have a lot to do between now and April.

Baby it's cold outside...

When the snow is falling and the wind is a blowin - homemade hot chocolate always hits the spot! Things around here have been pretty busy. I've decided to purchase a little home for myself and have been occupied with looking at places on the weekends and getting everything together for homeownership. The good news is that I've found a lovely condo in midtown and will be making an offer this week, the bad news is my nerves are going to be going crazy waiting to see if my offer will be accepted. So...anyone have a friend who works at Lowe's and who's loose with the employee discount??