Home again, home again, jiggidy jig!

Well I guess the title gives it away. After quite a relaxing five days in California, I am home. It's nice to be back, although I have to admit, I have taken a liking to LA. There must be something in the water (aside from cancer).

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1- The CUPCAKE ATM MACHINE! at Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills. If you don't know what the cupcake ATM is, you're slacking and you need to get on that ASAP.

2- That is yours truly in front of one of the canals in Venice. What a beautiful area. 

3- The 'Venice' lights.

4- A delectable latte from Amandine (the only cafe ever to be closed on a monday. Lame.)

5- Two perfect palm trees basking in the glow of the sun, like I wish I was right now.

An LA morning

I'm sitting at a table outside of a bagel shop in Los Angeles right now. Across the street is a wonderful little cafe called Amandine. My original intention this morning was to nestle into one of their corner banquettes, sip a non-fat latte, eat french toast with strawberries on top, and use their free wi-fi to catch up on all I've missed since getting to LA (MM doesn't have Internet set up in her new apartment yet).

 But that did not happen. Because Amandine is closed. On a Monday morning at 9am. Unhappily, I walked back to the crosswalk at the corner (because that's how people cross the street here, always) and made my way to the bagel shop I'm at now.

It's on the ground floor of an office building, and I'm sitting at a steel table facing the traffic-filled Wilshire Boulevard, with a black iced coffee and a bagel with cream cheese. So...sort of a different experience than what I was aiming for. On the bright side, however, I was still able to pick up on Amandine's free wi-fi. So I suppose it's not a total loss.

The signal, however, is extremely weak, so that's all for now.

House Warming Gifts

Next week, I'm going to Los Angeles (EEEE!!!!) to visit one of my very favorite friends, MM (whose fantastic blog can be found here). On June 1st, which unintentionally coincides with my visit, MM is moving into a new apartment. Up until now she has lived with room mates, the most recent of which an insufferable human on oh-so-many levels.
So they're parting ways, not quite amicably, and MM is moving into a one bedroom apartment. This, of course, means she gets a house warming gift.

So now, What am I to get her as a gift? What do people WANT as house warming gifts?

Well, my first thought for MM was monograms. Monograms on EVERYTHING!

These salt and pepper shakers are from Design Darling. These are number 1 on the list of what to get her right now.

Another great option:

A customizable throw blanket from West Elm

Not into Monograms? Ok fine.

A cocktail shaker is always a great choice. It's not style specific, which is important if you're not sure of what style the recipient prefers. And will inevitably come in handy.

Jonathan Adler post-it notes (OneKingsLane). 

No one packs up their home thinking 'Oh, I better leave some paper and a pen easily accessible!' but the truth is, they'll need it. Think of all the appointments that need to be made: Internet, TV, painters, installations...the list goes on. Obviously this gift is best given right upon the move-in, but it's pretty enough to be appreciated even if they've lived there for months.

Coffee table books are another great choice. They can be displayed on a table or hidden away on a bookshelf. They can be funny, like the one above, artistic, photographic, design-centric, or anything in between. Here on Amazon they have a great array of choices.

If you know someone well, go ahead and buy something taste-specific (like monogrammed salt and pepper shakers). But if not...stick to generic. They'll appreciate it, and you won't be offended if you never spot it in their home again.

1 Year

After doing some general maintenance of my blog, I realized that last week was my 1 year blog-iversary! HAPPY FIRST BLOG BIRTHDAY, ME!
How cool is that??

My posts have changed quite a bit from the time I started, which I always anticipated, but just recently began noticing. When I started the blog, I was in a transitional period of my life (which I tend to say about every period of my life...which...I guess is a good thing?) and not really sure what direction my blog would go in. Lifestyle blog? Angry waitress blog? New Yorker blog? humorous? serious? It was all very up in the air, and some of my earlier posts really reflect that. I'm sure there will continue to be a not-so-interesting post every here and there, but for now I've found a format I like: Lots of pictures, not a lot of words.

It may be reflective of how hectic my life is right now, but I find myself not wanting to invest much time in reading my favorite blogs. I just want to look at the pictures. Which begs the question, if I don't want to read the words, does anyone else?

Perhaps this will change, perhaps I'll go through many different phases of blog- style. But for now, save for this long winded post, I'll keep it short, pretty, and photo filled.

That's a picture of how you probably feel after reading all those words. 

And if you didn't read any of it...that's a picture of me in college! byyyeee!

Words

All these words are ones that I wish would always stay at the forefront of my mind.

I think that everyone has certain sayings or quotes that motivate them to accomplish, achieve, or push through, and this bunch in particular have that affect on me. Do you have words or sayings like this? That boost your mood and remind you that things will be all right? 

No? Oh. Well you probably have no soul.

I'm just kidding, I'm sure you have a lovely soul.

Oh The Places I'll Go

Here's a list of places I'm traveling to over the next bunch of months, in chronological order:

1. Finger Lakes
2. California
3. Mexico
4. Las Vegas
5. Italy

These trips are all spaced out over the summer, with Italy in October to round out what is shaping up to be a ridiculously awesome summer. I'MSOEXCITED!

Now the question is...What do I pack?!

Spoon Flower

I've been working on a final project (yay school's almost over!) for which I have to design an entire apartment. Literally, the ENTIRE thing. I was given a blank floor plan and had to create a kitchen, living room, bedroom, bathroom, etc. After hand drafting the floor and furniture plans for this apartment, I had to choose fabric and textiles to create an inspiration board representing the "style" of the apartment. (Have I lost you yet? That's fine. Just scroll down and look at the pictures.)

For my inspiration, I primarily used the website Spoon Flower. Yeah, random name, I agree. But it's a website full of amazing fabrics.

This first one has an early 1990's vibe to it. This makes me extremely happy. I may not end up using it for my project, but I love it none the less.

The rest of these will likely make it to the inspiration board, along with a slew of others.

That is all.