LABOR DAY WEEKEND : PART TWO MERAMAC CAVERNS

So the second part of our STL Labor Day weekend away was more nature related. We had planned our trip around the idea of visiting the City Museum, and then camping at the Meramec State Park. So after our day of playing in the city, we jumped in the car and drove and hour south to Stanton Missouri to camp. This was our first camping adventure together, and we will surely do this again, but all in all, it went well after we got all situated (the tent up, the fire started, and a drink in hand). The morning after we venture to the caverns, but before exploring underground we tried out hand at zip-lining thru the sky. Now if you know me, you'd know I have a fear of heights, that I've been working hard on overcoming. We had seen that the park had a zip course so we planned to give it a try, and you know what, after the first run (an we did 4 runs + 3 bridge walks of various lengths) it was actually super fun! I'm not gonna sugar coat it, I was super nervous at first, but I feel it was a great thing for me do. After this (which took about 2 hours) we traveled into the cavern's to explore some. Now these caverns were set up more like an attraction tour, which we did know. But non the less, they are all still original caves that we got to see up close, and boy was it beautiful! Hope you enjoy the few photos we we able to snap while there, an if you are in the St. Louis area I totally think it's worth the drive to check out Meramac. Have a great new week sweet friends. :)

MERAMAC CAVERNS + ZIP LINING  //  WHERE WE CAMPED >> MERAMEC STATE PARK

 

ARTIST // JOANNE NAM

I recently stumbled upon a painting titled "White Forest" (bottom right pictured below) by Joanne Nam and absolutely loved it! After hunting for a link to more of her work, I am just wowed by her pieces. She appears to work in oils on wood panelings and I am beyond impressed with the fine detailing, subject matter and muted color palettes she has chosen. Her stylized look is realistic with a whimsical spin. To see more of her beautiful work please click on the link below or follow her via IG. Happy Tuesday dear friends. :)

JOANNE NAM
WEBSITE  //  INSTAGRAM USER >> @INLANDER

COLOR PALETTE 61 : RAMBLE ON! BY PEDRO LOURENCO

Happy Monday an happy new color palette day which is brought to you today by artist Pedro Lourenco. This piece is titled "Ramble On!" and I just love the graphic styling and tonal hues. I hope you have a wonderful week ahead!

MORE WORK BY PEDRO LOURENCO

LABOR DAY WEEKEND : PART ONE ST LOUIS

So we visited STL and because I have so many photos plus I want to list what we did, I was going to break down below how our days went. This will be a two part series an I will share more from the next part of our trip on another post. But all in all, we enjoyed each others company, ate good food, played all day, and explored the city some. It's nice that it's just short car ride (approx. 4 hours) away, because we will surely be back to visit there again…



Friday night before dinner we arrived and checked into the HYATT REGENCY AT THE ARCH Located literally on the STL Arch at 315 Chestnut St, St Louis, MO 63102.

We were hungry and got a recommendation for Baileys' Range for dinner. We knew it wasn't to far from so we hiked a few blocks for some burgers, fries, drinks, and a sundae. Yum, yum YUM!!! BAILEYS' RANGE located at 920 Olive St, St Louis, MO 63101.

After dinner we headed back to the hotel to rest up for Saturdays adventure… 

 

Have you been to CITY MUSEUM?!! If you haven't been there you need to go! It's place is literally a play place and museum for both children and adults (that's right I said adults!). We actually planned our trip there to test it out to see if my kiddos are ready for it yet... Sadly I think we need to wait a few more years (just to be a bit bigger height and weight wise) but that didn't stop us from having a day of fun! City Museum located at 750 N 16th St, St Louis, MO 63103.

It rained while at City Museum which means the outdoor play area closes (for safety reasons) so we ventured out for lunch. We were told by a friend to go to an IMO's Pizza (photo above near Baileys' photo) for STL style pizza, so we had spotted one a few blocks down which we walked too. IMO'S PIZZA located at 1828 Washington Ave, St Louis, MO 63103.

It had stopped raining over lunch so we headed back to City Museum for more fun and to explore the outdoor area. When we finally felt done (after about 5+hours) we drove to the DELMAR LOOP because there was a comic shop I heard we may enjoy and hoped they would have something tasty for dinner also int he area. The Delmar Loop located at 6504 Delmar Blvd, St Louis, MO 63130.

We started walking the Loop, which is like an outdoor strip of shops and of course I kicked into snacky Sandi mode an spotted Ben and Jerry's and just had to stop. Hahaha! An a few doors down was the comic shop so we popped in there next...


The comic shop was called STAR CLIPPERS and totally worth a trip! I bought some stickers, some comics for myself and my kiddos, a Tim Biskup book and the boyfriend found a book he wanted and some trading cards. This store was cool and offered a great range of graphic novels and books thatI was thoroughly impressed. Star Clippers is located at 6392 Delmar Blvd, St Louis, MO 63130.

We ventured into AVALON EXCHANGE a consignment shop, which they had a bunch of cute stuff and priced fairly too. Found an asian vintage romper, I'll share an #ootd photo on another post. Avalon Exchange was located at 6388 Delmar Blvd, St Louis, MO 63130.

The boyfriend popped across the street into THE WIZARD WAGON to look at collectibles and vinyl toys. It was a cool little shop too, located at 6372 Delmar Blvd, University City, MO 63130.

Next up was dinner and we had heard there was a SEOUL TACO on the Loop so we walked to find food. My eyes were much bigger than my stomach, but it was still delicious. Seoul Taco is located at 571 Melville Ave, St Louis, MO 63130.

After stuffing ourselves for dinner we hiked back to the car and headed on our way to Sullivan, Missouri, about an hour drive, for our next adventure in camping, a cave tour and more… Part two coming soon... Hope you enjoyed all the photos! :)

STL WEEKEND SNAPS VIA INSTAX

I recently purchased a Instax Mini 8 for our Labor Day STL weekend trip. I have been wanting one for a while but just kept putting off buying it. Partially because the one I reeeeeeally wanted, which was bright aqua, was a limited edition via UO and after thinking about it more I couldn't justify the cost after realizing I could order one on Amazon, still brand new for 40 bucks less. An though white may seem blah in color some it is going to get a washi tape makeover in it's future. Needless to say I will go into more details of our weekend adventure on another post and list out a few things we did and loved. The Instax though... I knew that being a new user to this camera would mean patiences and that wouldn't get great results just yet. So we had fun taking a few photos, some didn't turn out for sure, but I thought I'd share what I can. And if you have this camera or one similar I'm up for any tips, tricks, pointers or fun things you've discovered while snapping away. Enjoy!

FREEBIE : SEPTEMBER CALENDAR

Hope your Labor Day weekend kicked off September with a bang. Our's was very eventful and I'll share some photos real soon but to get the month started how about a freebie calendar. Enjoy and Happy Tuesday!


CLICK TO VIEW & DOWNLOAD THE LARGER FILE ❯❯❯  SEPTEMBER CALENDAR