In anticipation of a feast.

I simply cannot wait until 3pm today when get to leave work early, while it is still light out no less, and start enjoying my four-day weekend. So excited.

We are having a FEAST tomorrow. And, because I love this word and around the holiday season is really the only time to use it without being strange...there will be a smorgasbord of food.
***Le Menu***

Basil Pesto Deviled Eggs
Baked Brie
***
Gourmet Mac & Cheese
Creamed Spinach
Swiss Chard & Sweet Potato Gratin
Rotisserie Chicken
Stuffing (NOT from a box!)
***
Apple Pie
Bourbon Pumpkin Cheesecake

I also plan on...
planting flowers outside,
outlet shopping on Friday in Camarillo,
continuing a holiday apt window display with Naomi,
working on my hexagons,
going on a 6-mile (nervous though, it's been awhile since 5+) run...

...and simply enjoying not working. :)

Here is a snowflake preview...they're addicting to make. We've been having whoever comes over try and make one, it's fun to see what each person comes up with.
*before*
*after*

Jason Segel + Swell Season

Project Hexagon

So I've always thought that crocheted afghans blankets are just about the most beautiful and soft as blankets come, and I had this beautifully crocheted blanket growing up that my great grandmother Snowdie made for me as a little girl that I've always loved. Now, thanks to my birthday gift from Jackie and Naomi of yarn, knitting needles and a crochet hook, I've been inspired to learn the basics of knitting and am moving on to my dream crochet project - a hexagonal blanket.

Hexagon how-to HERE.
While the colors I'm using are much more "retro" than this picture...isn't this beautiful!? It's just so bright and simply radiates color, I love it.

I will try to take a picture of two as I learn how to make hexagons, guided by the ever-patient craft mistress Naomi.

our little monster.

Bad iPhone picture, but Moby and his little heart made it safely through surgery yesterday. Poor little guy was on serious drugs last night, he was snoring and burping and everything. So funny.

I bet he's so mad at us though...I think he feels like this about Jackie, Naomi and I at the moment.

What happened?!

[via Neon Polish]

Where has 2009 gone? That's what I'm wondering.

an apple a day.

Can't afford a sweater this fall like this beautiful Gap cardigan?

Well how about you save yourself some ca$h and knit your favorite piece of fruit a camel-colored sweater* instead like this Etsy shop? Much more cost effective. I wouldn't actually mind shielding my usual bananas from excessive bruising in my purse, but I can't even keep a straight face thinking about how awful the connotations of a banana-sweater would be... ;) Enjoy thinking about that the rest of the day - Happy Monday.

[from HandmaidenBC's Etsy shop]


*I'm not actually serious about knitting fruit sweaters.

Happy Halloweeeeen.

Runway Halloween fashion.

Me as a more down to earth riding hood at my desk. With a really strange look on my face for some reason, I look like I tasted something gross.

Have a wonderful weekend, I'll have better pictures at some point. :)

Ps. Look! P90X is now mainstream enough to be a Halloween costume. Although this guy doesn't look like he's even thought about starting the program yet...

A thoughtful mug.

[via Smitten]

Sister sister.

So Jess has been visiting for the last week...and needless to say we have traversed Los Angeles, hung out in Berkeley and at Treasure Island, been on multiple adventures in Hollywood, gone thrift shopping, eating, eating and more eating...we fit in so much in a relatively short amount of time. One of my favorite things we did was on Sunday. This is one of my ideal days, consisting of...

1. Bay Cities Deli's "Godmother" sub. And oh my God, it is a mother.

2. The Getty - specifically, I really enjoyed the Irving Penn special exhibit they have on display right now. This is the first time all of his 252 photographs of his "Small Trades" Collection have been together in a single exhibit. It was just a cool reminder of just how many professions do exist, and kind of takes you back to a different era when different jobs existed. I felt like a kid sort of, when you have the most wild ideas (vs. when you get to college and decide to be "practical") about what you want to be when you grow up. For example, I wanted to be a firefighter for the longest time. At least five years. Here is of my faves...old school scuba:
Other faves I couldn't find pictures of online were the "cheese man," a smiling man from Paris with a "fromage" tub as well as the "female dancer" (NAOMI, she had tassels) and "female acrobat" (who was still smiling in a leotard at at least age 55).

But anyway, this combination of activities, combined with a Hotel Cafe Greg Laswell show FOLLOWED by finally seeing Where the Wild Things Are, made for a fabulous Sunday.
Doesn't her hair look amazing there? Pretty long locks.
Such beautiful gardens at the Getty, Jess took some amazing macro flower pictures that I can't wait to get my hands on. Much better than my pathetic iPhone pics. I'm so lazy, I should just carry my camera.

I'll have to get more pictures of my adventures with the clone and post a few later. Now back to real life/work.

Friday.

Jess is here, the work day is over, Naomi kidnapped me from work today for a fabulous FREE Sprinkles cupcake run (thank you Naomi for being on Twitter!), I met my goal of working out five days in a row...and I am taking Monday off. *sigh* it just feels great to think about it...

:) Have a wonderful weekend.

In search of a skirt.

I'm feeling the need to browse (more like wade really) through the massive amount of clothing at Forever 21 and try on these skirts! I think these are really cute, and skirts are just...so much better than wearing pants. Bottom line. No pants is a good thing. I feel like these skirts have the capacity to be either extremely great or horrid looking. That's always how it is at places like F21, H&M...there's no in-between. Fabulous or the most unflattering cut possible.

All of these are under $20. Perrrfect.

[This feels like a cute denim skirt injected with some flare. I'm a fan.]

[might look like drapes...but could be so fun too!]

My new green friends.

Okay kind of nerdy that I think of my plants as little green companions, but they kind of are. So easy to cheer up when you have a healthy, happy plant just turning your CO2 into oxygen. Here are some new plants that I have gotten good deals on recently that have just made my room so much more green. I think Naomi said my bedroom now looks like an Arabian prince's (did I get that wrong?). I'm down.

The palm I bought on sale in an Arizona grocery store...random...and the little striped succulent is from a really cool art & plant store on Abbot Kinney in Venice. After Moby's destructive couple of episodes of knocking over my tiny spider plant and killing it in addition to slowly eating his way through my original succulent, I went for sturdier plants this time around. Notice the foil? The kitties hate the foil.

Also, I really really like the tenthings shop on Etsy as I have previously said before. Like too much. This is why:
Ahhh I just can't help myself, I just want to endlessly buy jewelry on Etsy. All day long. I have yet to give in to this desire, but it's there...also I'm craving skirts. More on that soon.

A thing for a ring.

I've been on a quest for some new, creative rings and I have fallen in love with these vintage typewriter-key rings on Etsy. I don't always like monograms but I love this.

But now the questions remain...black or white? A "B" or a "W"? Decisions, decisions. Check them out HERE.

Oh and a different Etsy shop, but another interesting ring. I like the wrap-around.

SQUASH.

Wow I just came across this recipe! I love the blog Jen Loves Kev, and no food represents the fall better than squash. Yumm. Recipe HERE.
[via Jen Loves Kev]

This & That.

I had so much fun hanging out with Naomi's fam on Friday night / Saturday, we had so much good food and they were so amazing to include me in their time together...here is the product of too much fun at Malibu's best Thai restaurant (and my fav) Cholada along with my P90X-ident. Courtesy of Ms. Nathalie Con. (Carrot, by the way.)

[via The Bedroom Pantry]

Not much going on this week, I've been fighting a cold so I've been laying low. I've been learning how to knit thanks to Naomi the craft-mistress, and although all I am working on currently is a scarf, this is my ultimate dream.
[via Design Sponge]

Someday...

this is how i feel...

This is how I feel about making it to the weekend.

[via FFFOUND!]

This is really weird, but I thought it was really funny for some reason. Partly the dog, the gaze, those tattoos...haha.
[via FFFOUND!]

Here is an adorable long gold necklace, my favorite of late. Looks like you could just float away...I've never been on a hot air balloon. But someday, I would like to go.
[tenthings shop on Etsy, featured on Daydream Lily]

I'm off with my favorite boy-duo to see Mutemath this weekend. Apparently they put on a fantastic show. Other than that, I hope to rest and sleep. The new fitness program I started is really taking it out of me. Time to recoop.

Have a great weekend.

Arizona.

Not much going on this week, but I am starting a "90-day challenge" at work on Monday and have committed to doing 5 days a week of Insanity in addition to setting some personal goals including lowering my body fat percentage, which was recently tested in a Hydrostat tank. The title speaks volumes. I did one of the harder workouts today, and I am so wiped out. It definitely is going to push me however, but at the moment five days a week is sounding pretty daunting. It's intense cardio / plyo, which is defintely the right kind of workout for me. Also, pretty awesome that I'm encouraged to work out at work.

Also, I'm really digging (tacky?) What I Wore these days, she posts great pics of really practical but creative style. In particular, I love this look (those Oxfords!).

Funny video, poor guy. Makes me glad my friends aren't all married. Yet. ;)

Win!

I won a blog giveaway!

It's kind of the family / friends joke that I am rather unlucky (shingles in college at age 20, random parking / towing mishaps, strange infections, etc.) but I entered a giveaway at one of my favorite blogs, i am a greedy girl, and was informed today that I won this print from Bread & Butter's Etsy shop. How my luck has changed. ;)

[Post Consumption Anxiety Print]


Also, check out these cocktail napkins from their site. So great, the font is perfect.

Musings.

Cute. If I said this to someone they would realize that I REALLY meant it given my deep love affair with all things coffee.

This weekend was definitely full and fun.

Bon Iver knocked our socks off at the Wiltern Friday night. Amazing musician, truly.

I now own this in preparation for "fall" in southern CA. Feels like a blanket. It's not as white as it looks in the picture. [Forever 21]

Picked up this necklace at the Abbot Kinney fest in Venice yesterday. I'm a big fan already. Bad picture, can't really see it that well but it's from the iPhone. I tried.

After seeing Coco Before Chanel yesterday, not only am I obsessed with her style but she had this amazing nautical shirt on...I am now craving something similar. I think this dress would hang so nicely on a real person. Also it was a simply fantastic, well-done movie.

Used this amazing marinade recipe for a steak this weekend. I don't think I'm as nervous about cooking red meat anymore, seeing as this was absolutely delicious!!