Custom Photo Wall Art from Photography.com

IMG_1224Photography.com reached out offering me a the chance to review one of their awesome custom photo wall art prints. They print on a variety of media, such as canvas, metal, wood plank, and glass. With the different styles available it was a tough decision on which one to go with. With the look of our home I decided the style I should do with should be the wood plank. So I sent over a photo from our recent train ride and within a few days I had this awesome wood plank print in my hands. This measures 11×14 and looks amazing. The quality of the build looks and feels great. We currently have ours placed on our fireplace mantle.

I was happy that the photo I sent over was acceptable in quality. I had taken it on an iPhone 6+ so I wasn’t sure how it would turn out. We take thousands of photos a year and usually just keep them in a folder on a computer. Photography.com is offering up a great way to display those photos in a stunning and unique.

Photography.com is also offering a great limited time offer for St. Louis Dad readers. You can get buy 1 and get 3 free, plus free shipping. Just click the link here and see what options they have made available for this limited time.

Photography.com provided St. Louis Dad with this sample product as compensation in exchange for an honest review. Please visit Photography.com for more custom photo wall art!

Do you have any questions? Contact Photography.com customer service  through the phone at 713-647-7400, or by email at customerservice@photography.com

My Dogs Are Terrible at Fetch

chewy.comThe always great Chewy.com sent over what I thought would be an excellent product to review with the dogs. They sent over a large West Paw Zogoflex Air Dash Frisbee Peacock Dog Toy. The quality of this Frisbee is amazing. It is very durable, made for doggies to easily catch with their mouths and bring back to their owner for another toss out into the air.

IMG_0797Yeah, well, that’s how I imagined it would work. For starters there is absolutely nothing wrong with the frisbee itself. Like I said it is very durable and quality made, but there is definitely something wrong with my dogs. Remember how I said they can easily catch this with their mouths? Well with Clark is basically bounces off his head and with Miss Lady she just watches as you throw it and then have to retrieve it yourself. I guess my dogs just are not fetchers. I’ve tried many different times, on different days, with different techniques but I swear my dogs think I have something up my sleeve whenever I toss out the Frisbee for them to catch.

What they are good at is playing tug-o-war with the Frisbee. So at least we got that going for them. It makes a pretty good toy in that regard, however I didn’t really want them chewing it up. I have a feeling that I will need to work more and more with them to get them to start actually catching the Frisbee and bring it back.

Like I said the Frisbee is of great quality, and if you know your dogs better than I know my own then it would be a great toy for them if they are into playing fetch. I had always wanted a dog that would fetch, and my previous dog Brooke was a master at it. She would fetch whatever you threw out for her to grab. She would’ve loved this toy, but Clark and Miss Lady just do not seem interested in participating in the fun.

IMG_0839Being a parent sometimes you try out goofy things with your kids… Since I couldn’t get the dogs to fetch the Frisbee for me, I tried it out on the kids and low and behold, it worked! At first Abby would run out and grab the Frisbee and bring it back for me to just throw again and she got annoyed at that. But once it became a race between her and my son Alex to see who could get it first that is when the fun began. So yes, I am the parent who plays fetch with my kids. I’m sure I’m not the only one out there. I’d like to thank Chewy for sending out this awesome Zogoflex Frisbee and as much as I wish the dogs were into it, they just weren’t. I have plenty of family with doggies, so I will try to see if one of them may like to fetch more than Clark and Miss Lady, but for now I will just use it to tire my kids out.

Chewy.com provided St. Louis Dad with these products as compensation in exchange for an honest review. Please visit Chewy.com for more toys, treats, and other items needed for your pets!

Wild Colors Appear in the Kitchen!

IMG_1184Several months ago my wife Destiny wanted to spruce up our kitchen somehow. With limited funds there wasn’t much she could do in terms of redesigning our kitchen. But she had an idea about painting some of our cabinets to make them stand out in some way. She talked to me about it briefly and I was okay with whatever she had in mind. So I went off to work and went about my day. When I came home that afternoon I walked into something really cool. Destiny had taken some chalk board paint and painted the fronts of a few cabinets. I wasn’t sure about it until I got out some chalk and wrote a few things on them. I was sold, but I still felt like something was missing and I wasn’t sure what it was.

IMG_1189Fast forward several months later when ChalkOla contacted me asking if I would like to try out their chalk markers. They sent me two packages of chalk markers. They sent over their standard pack of 10 neon 6mm neon chalk markers as well as their new line of 15mm chalk markers. The markers arrived super fast and I got them opened and started shaking. I was shaking because that’s what you have to do with these types of markers. Because of their high density of chalk ink, they take about 2-3 minutes before you can start using them. This is important to remember so you do not start cursing when there is no color coming out of a freshly opened marker. I would also recommend testing out the marker on a small area before going all out with them. The chalk pens need to be used on a non porous surface, such as a chalk board, white board, glass, etc. And they can easily be cleaned up with a wet cloth or wet wipe.

IMG_1237Once the markers were ready I started getting to work on updating our lists on the cabinets. Immediately I was astounded at how bright the chalk marker color popped against the black background of the chalkboard paint. Amazed with how it looked I kept going. By the time I was done I had really made our cabinets look great with a few lists of things we need, our favorite family motto, and of course a list of those that are in our family. These don’t necessarily have to be used just at home either. An art professional, teacher, or restaurant owner and many other professions could use these at their job. They are great quality and work just as expected. The new 15mm chalk markers are said to last even longer than the 6mm. I do not have any data that proves that claim but being significantly bigger than the 6mm chalk pens, I would say they probably will last a good while.

So if you have a cool project or a chalkboard, window, or whiteboard that needs some easily cleanable color, then definitely check out these awesome chalk markers from ChalkOla!

Want a deal on these awesome markers? ChalkOla also has been gracious enough to provide St. Louis Dad readers with this limited time discount code!

15mm Markers- http://www.amazon.com/Platinum-Chalk-Markers-Teachers-Chalkboard/dp/B0112OP7BY

20% Off on Amazon – Use Code -> CHK20OFF

6mm Pens – http://www.amazon.com/Chalk-Markers-Chalkboard-Window-Whiteboards/dp/B00PM473TK

20% Off on Amazon – Use Code -> CHALK20A

ChalkOla provided St. Louis Dad with these products as compensation in exchange for an honest review. Please visit ChalkOla.com for more information!

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You’re at Union Station Charlie Brown!

IMG_0914This weekend we had the awesome opportunity to check out The Great Pumpkin Patch Express at Union Station here in St. Louis. You may have seen my previous post and tweets mentioning something about this event. The time came for us to go downtown and find out what was in store for us. We got the kids ready and packed up our diaper bag and were off down the highway. After a good 10 minutes we realized we forgot the diaper bag. So we made a quick exit and turned around to grab the bag. So now with the bag in hand we were off down the highway, again. I would probably suggest arriving 60-90 minutes before your train ride. This would give you plenty of time to check out all of the awesome activities available for the kids.

IMG_0887When you arrive you will check in with your ticket and get a wristband. This is nice because you can leave and go into the mall area or one of the other restaurants and grab something to eat if you have enough time. Once we got our wristbands we went in and started checking out all of the cool stuff. There was an awesome juggler who was getting groovy on camera for me. Abby and Alex both got a free balloon animal (flower and monkey). Children face painting was also available but we didn’t do that.

IMG_0881One thing we did check out was the mini-pumpkin patch there that the kids can choose a pumpkin to decorate inside at a craft table. Music played and a musician was playing the sax and showing off some awesome dance moves with the kids. There was free apple cider and cookies and plenty of photo opportunities, and we haven’t even stepped foot on the train yet!

IMG_0951The time finally arrived for us to board the train. We rode in the “Lucy car” which actually had Lucy from Peanuts in the train car with us! It was so cool and Abby and Alex had an incredible time. The train conductor was just as cool as Lucy. He was very friendly and asked all of the kids great questions. I was so impressed with how much Abby came out of her shell and participated by answering the conductors questions loud and clear. Conductor: “Who are you going to be for Halloween?”, Abby: “Queen Elsa!”. Conductor: “What’s your favorite candy?”, Abby: “Candy corn!”.

IMG_1021After we started rolling along the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown story was read and we got to see some parts of St. Louis like Busch Stadium (Go Cardinals!), the Arch, and the mighty Mississippi river. On our way back we rocked out to various Halloween songs. One of the best parts was when the Whip and Nae Nae song came on and Lucy, the train conductor, and even my little Abby got down to do the dance. It was so awesome to see Abby and Alex have so much fun.

 

Whip and nae nae on The Great Pumpkin Patch Express! #unionstation #peanuts #lucy #whipnaenae #stl

A video posted by St. Louis Dad (@dadstl) on

IMG_1086If you were thinking about going on The Great Pumpkin Patch Express but haven’t decided yet. I think you should go. It is a great experience for the kids. Plus downtown is beautiful this time of the year. We had so much fun and recommend checking it out. I grew up reading Peanuts in the Sunday papers and always loved watching the cartoons when they would show on t.v. The new movie will be out in theaters in November and the family is really excited to grab some popcorn and some nachos (my favorite) and see it!

St. Louis Dad was provided with these products as compensation in exchange for an honest review.  Check out the event on Facebook and visit STLPumpkinExpress.com to get your tickets before they sell out!

Check out more photos from our trip to The Great Pumpkin Patch Express in the gallery below!

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