single ladies... motown version

just when you're sick of this song and can take no more, out comes another iteration.

i happen to like this one though.

take a minute and vote, will you?

help a community build a playground.

the st. louis language immersion school is so close to their goal. they just need a few more votes for their video.

vote here.

health care reformageddon

click to embiggen:

a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...

the other night, dabney and i had the pleasure of attending a meeting/soiree at a local resident's home for the sake of the neighborhood tour that's coming up in mid-april (more on that later). attendees were welcomed with plenty of wine, an enormous spread of food, and a generous invitation to take a self-guided tour of the house. how could we refuse?!

the home was meticulously decorated with antiques and splashes of red.

there was the master bedroom and bath, the office, the guest room...  blah de blah.

when we got upstairs, our jaws dropped upon this sight.  undoubtedly, the "star wars room!"



all four walls were covered in figurines - all lined up just so.  the shelves stocked full of other star wars memorabilia.

man, how happy was i when i realized that i had my camera on me?





can you imagine the restraint that some child had to have in order not to play with any of these toys?  dabney and i later debated how we could include a tour of this place on apartment therapy. however, we're not sure how our editor would receive it.

nonetheless, we're keeping it on our backpocket just in case.

and then there were three

remember these ugly things?  back in december, the city plopped four giant concrete planters? in the middle of our street unbeknownst to us or any of our neighbors.  the endeavor required a bulldozer and three workmen.

last night at 2 AM, a speedy, and we presumed drunk, driver took out one these giant heavy concrete objects in one quick blow. 



the s.u.v. responsible landed just to the right of the white car below after using it as its own personal backstop.



what was most astounding - a large chunk of the planter ended up thirty yards down the street.



luckily, no one was hurt. 

now, i know what a sill plate is.

i had been thinking of volunteering with habitat for humanity for ages and recently got off my butt to do it.  with all this talk about homes - our own and writing about others on apartment therapy, i thought it was high time i did something to help those who with little access to affordable housing.

after a two hour training session a few weeks ago, i was able to work on a construction site this past weekend in old north st. louis - one of the oldest sections of the city and sadly, one of the most neglected.

mind you, i don't know a thing about home construction, but with the help of habitat staff, i was out there setting floor joists and securing them - hammering and nail gunning my way through. 



at the beginning of the day, henry (our crew leader) pointed to the building's sill plate  - that horizontal piece of wood to which everything else attaches - and asked the group if anyone is comfortable walking around on it.  everyone was quiet, so i raised my hand before i realized why the silence - surrounding the foundation walls was a trench ten feet deep.  

i stepped out onto the sill plate and i thought my knees were going to buckle, but with one quick deep breathe, i overcame my initial nervousness and scooted my way around.  by the end of the day, i could practically skip my way around that plank.


here are all the floor joists awaiting placement at the beginning of the day.




by the end, we were able to complete this phase for two of the four sites.



besides being an incredibly rewarding experience, i learned a lot. i look forward to more weekends working on sites.

our first official AT post

thanks to our new good friend galen, our first official apartment therapy house tour is in the bag.

his house/gallery was a fun and interesting place to shoot and a great representation of saint louis' creative community with which we are finding ourselves more and more in contact.

here's the link.

transformed poodles

Holy smokes!

People are crazy about grooming their poodles... click here.

we're here, we're queer, count us.

if you're gay (or a gay-loving straight ally) and haven't filled out your census yet, it's not too late to obtain one of these stickers to let the census bureau know that we ALL count.



ours just arrived in today's mail and i am proudly sending this puppy back to the counters.

queerthecensus.org

thanks, zeebah!

the possible ann-cave and other housey stuff

i've been trying to convince dabney that the one room in our house with no real designation and nothing in it would make a perfect "ann-cave" - a room in which i can listen to records (if i can locate my old turntable), watch golf (if i can find a cheap old set somewhere), read my monthly pile of magazines, knit, nap, and snore in peace.

i got one step closer to my dream yesterday by purchasing a two-piece danish couch set at a local auction.



the set adorned the basement lobby of an old church that is in the midst of relocating. the upholstery isn't pretty but the cushions are in great shape.  i am sure we'll add this to our long and ever-growing list of sewing projects.  now, this room desperately needs a rug and a coffee table.

speaking of house stuff, the grand south grand house tour folks have asked us to participate this year, and we have obliged.



an open house is probably just desserts considering we'll be asking many st. louisans to open up their homes to us and millions of apartment therapy readers. (our first official post goes up on monday, by the way.)

hey! that's our kitchen!

little legs

just makes ya wanna knit, no?

this year's best animated short movie

ps22 sings phoenix

karaoke party

this old store was the site of a spectacular karaoke party on friday night - a first of many, i am sure. thirty-five revelers joined us for the festivities and the signature cocktail of the evening, which we dubbed "liquid courage" - a potent concoction of vodka, st. germain, fresh squeeze lemons, vodka, club soda, and more vodka (thanks, boston tara, for the recipe).

sadly, no photographic evidence nor any video exists , which is probably a good sign that both dabney and i were having too much of a good time to stop and take pictures.

but we do have this...

ok go - this too shall pass

watch this one through to the end. it's worthy and amazing.

root canal

brrr... it's tegan & sara

Alligator from Tegan and Sara on Vimeo.

for ashbloem

i dedicate this game to ashbloem, my sushi-eating, cat-loving friend.

get ready to waste half an hour (i certainly did)... i present to you, sushi cat!

(via serious eats)