wicked witch

I bought these flats that are sparkly but when I wear them I feel like they're something a wicked witch would wear on her days off. 

Well sometimes that suits my personality. I'll get you my pretty and your little dog too!

you had me at cute packaging

Sometimes I think I order things online just so I can see them come to me in their wonderful packaging. I ordered some office supplies I don't need from Poppin.com.

When you opened the box you got this:

Fun right? 

My sister Mary is hilarious

"I hate laundry day but someone's gotta wash my snuggie."

"Dude! Everyone stop calling the radio stations so I can win me some tickets!"

Her status messages make me laugh. I wonder if she's funnier than me...

- mobile blog post. spelling irrelevant.

they're doing well

The basil is doing so well it's taken to new heights.

The other guys are growing as well so I better do something with them to take advantage.

hey, it's only three months away

I may or may not have started purchasing stuff for this year's Christmas party. Actually, I started preparing for this year's party last year and had a theme picked out and everything (if I've already told you, shh! secret!). Unlike last year, this theme is a LOT easier and stores have plenty of options for me. I'm trying to plan for Christmas and spread the costs out over the next few months and it's the 27th so I think three months away isn't jumping the gun right?

Bottega Louie

What a landmark. It's in Downtown LA on the corner of 7th and Grand and it is very grand. It's huge actually. And it's always crowded and they don't take reservations and it's loud as all get out. So come with a girlfriend and dish about work and life and mini-vacays. 

Though it was loud and crowded: the food was spectacular and the service was divine. The host apologized for the wait (about 30minutes on a Thursday) and thanked us for waiting. The waitress treated us with the utmost respect. Sometimes they treat you like they're doing you a favor by having let you eat there but here I mean come on, they don't need our business, but they treated us with respect all the same. Kept refilling our water, kept checking on us, brought our food out quickly, just great service. I didn't take any pictures of our meal but it was great. We split three appetizers and then had pasta. I did take pictures of their pastry area. Marie Antoinette would have eaten here.

It was a good night with a good friend and a great meal. Gab gab gab.

The pastry counter helped me find vegan goodies for my honey pie. I don't think he realized how much stuff cost because he ate those fruit candies like they were gummy worms from 7-11. Look at that beautiful packaging:

Can't recommend it enough but you were warned about the busy-ness and the volume level. Totally worth it though. Which of my local gal pals will be coming with me next?

fall dining room

It's very black and white and green up in this hizzy. I put out the tablecloth we used on our wedding day.

The area in the living room also went back to neutral. 

No leaves. No pumpkins.

the mini-break

Almost exactly a year ago I knew I'd be working on our anniversary so Matt and I once again celebrated early. I was off and Matt had two days off in a row so I wanted to take a little trip somewhere not too far. I wanted ocean. I wanted quaint. I wanted peace & quiet and just us two. I went  onto Sunset Magazine's website (Sunset Magazine is a phenomenal resource) and just searched for affordable beach front. They pointed us to a few places but we settled on Pacific Edge Hotel in Laguna Beach.

As I looked up rooms I was happy to hear Matt was willing to pay a little extra for an ocean front room.  We got to the room and had a furry friend waiting for us on the bed. Needless to say, he came home with us.

Unfortunately Matt worked 'til 11 the night before but I booked the room for a late check out so we could wake up in the place and sleep to the sounds of crashing waves. I went out to the balcony to check out our view and you could actually see the waves crashing nearby thanks to the hotel restaurant shining a search light on that part of beach.

Can you believe it, the sound of the ocean was actually TOO loud. We had to sleep with the sliding door closed because the waves crashing into the rocks would have kept us awake. It was worth it though to have spent the night because in the morning we woke up to this view.

You can't see in this picture very well but there was a staircase nearby that you could take that led you right down to the beach.

As I browsed the room service menu I laughed at the "in case of a tsunami" warning. Good to know...

After breakfast we headed across the street to Taco Loco for lunch since they were supposed to have tofu tacos. We took them to go and ate them on the main beach.

This is where we sat. It was a little patch of grass on a park on the main beach.

And wouldn't you know it on my day off they were filming a freaking movie. One of Matt's favorite directors Oliver Stone was at the helm and we got to see him in action. Well Matt did, I tried very hard to avoid looking at filming since I was not at work.

We walked around the town a lil' and Matt was bummed we missed this Monster Fest. We later learned the theatre had been paid to change the marquee from the movie's production. They duped us.

We went to the hot tub and tried to chill in there but it was way too hot. Luckily the pool was heated and we spent awhile chilling in there. A heated pool has got to be the ultimate luxury.

As the sun set we headed for dinner at the Deck lounge which is on the property. They didn't have a lot of options for us so we just had a few appetizers and I had two very delicious happy hour margaritas.

The hotel room decor itself was very "endless summer" beach cottage. It really suited the vibe of the place though so I couldn't complain.

This is where we'd eat room service. If only I had that view every day.

The next day we had massages and I had a body scrub. HEAVEN. I don't think I've ever felt so relaxed. Then went to eat at this vegan place called The Stand. Nowadays it's just easier to just go for vegetarian restaurants if at all possible because we have better luck with Matt's food. The place was pretty good but the staff was a bunch of cranky hippies. This hippie insisted on lunch by the beach again and dipped my toes in the water one more time.

I'd actually never been to Laguna Beach before and I quite liked it. I heard that it was used for some reality TV show but I don't have cable or watch reality TV so I didn't know about it.

My impression of the city was unaffected and we hope to come back for a longer period of time.

four

Matt, 

You astound me. You love me the way God loves His church, faults and all, which is never easy. And for someone who once believed that a person got just what she deserved, its nice to know that God gave you to me anyway, that He was merciful to give me someone I did deserve, someone His son died for.

Just a little something I wrote.... four years ago.

Happy Anniversary my dearest friend.

i'm gonna go ahead and skip fall

I don't want to hang up any fall leaves or put up acorns. I'm not gonna turn everything brown and purple and tan. I'm just gonna skip fall decor. Gonna keep it black and white and neutral-ish colors.

I put up this little vignette on the bar cart.

Did you notice the woven baskets with the woven planter? Eh? Eh?

i just don't get it

When Target released their Liberty of London collection I was there. The blog world was excited about it and I was no different. But my excitement stems from Target being cool and releasing designer-y things at Target prices. That's the great thing about Target, making great design accessible to regular folks like us.

I'd obviously seen the Missoni line blogged about online, who hadn't, and I scoured the interwebs to see what they were offering and overall I was pretty meh about it. I made a list of things I wanted to check out in person though and decide if they were worth it once I got to the store. Most of the patterns consisted of that zigzag pattern Missoni's known for and I'm getting close to being over zigzags (don't tell that to my guest bath mat though) so I was gravitating towards mostly the home and stationery items since I found most of the clothes to be way too much for me to wear. I thought cool, I'll just go on Wednesday when we're been back from Laguna. No big deal.

I guess it was a big deal. People started buying stuff in bulk, posting them on ebay and the stores were barren. I didn't believe it myself since the Targets around me are low population and so not Los Angeles proper. Until I went to the Whitwood shopping center and saw the evidence for myself did the extent of the craziness set in. These were taken the morning after the items had been released.

Is that crazy or what? What is it black Friday? Sheesh!

I went to the Norwalk Target and as I suspected, they could have cared less about stationery so I got the 3 pack journal set I'd been eyeing and a notecard set 'cause why not.

I replaced the Liberty of London bin for the catalogs for the Missoni bin for the catalogs. Oh me.

And I got this plate and those cups and put them on top of Helmer.

I did buy a few towels I'm returning and hopefully the stores will be re-stocked and I can check out the other stuff in person if only just to look at them and admire the work.

early anniversary mini-break

We went to Laguna Beach for a few days. This was the view from our balcony:

That's right, there was nothing in front of us but the Pacific Ocean. It was... perfect.

Louie

I finally made it to Bottega Louie. I've had their food but not in the restaurant. Jenni and I went for a girly date and everything was delicious. We split three different appetizers and had the greatest brussel sprouts of all time. I thought it tasted like a burger, Jenni thought it had been a long time since I'd eaten meat.

At the end of the meal, I took dessert to go:



What's in the adorably wrapped box you ask?



What else?



I may be eating them as I wait for Matt to come home while reading shelter magazines.

I owe you a detailed review of Louie later.

- mobile blog post. spelling irrelevant.

helmer's new home

There it is. I knew it was small but it was extra small and it does fit perfectly under the desk without casters in case we move and I won't have room to keep it off to the side like it is now. I wasn't totally sold on it in the store but once I put it in place it seemed to work. 

It's industrial looking and rough around the edges but in place it helps un-feminize this already really girly office.

I wasted no time filling it with office supplies. Now all the decorative boxes and baskets in the office are empty and it's nice having office supplies a lot more accessible.

I moved the office supply bowls on display down here to make room for hopefully some new speakers for the office on top of Aspvik where they once were.

The colorful marker are dry erase markers from Ikea. And having the labeler in a drawer reminds me of Martha Stewart's drawers which makes me smile.

Overflow stationery I told Michelle I'd be putting in there. She was asking what I'd be doing with this unit so I had to prove myself.

This was the oddest Ikea build of my Ikea life. It didn't have any hardware except for the drawer pulls. It was mostly a series of clicks and metal folding. FOLDING. It was a really easy assembly without any hardware but I just couldn't get over how weird it was.

What do you think Michelle?