29 July, 2011

Bringing back the 90s


photo


First of all, this counts as a dress???!! It's more like a tee shirt.

And secondly, I wore almost the EXACT same babydoll dress to my first school dance in the 6th grade when I was 11 years old, except mine was navy blue and had white daisies on it.

Isn't it weird when things you wore as a kid come back in style? It makes me feel a little bit old... and nostalgic. Long live the 90s!

(And, for the record, I did NOT buy this dress... waaaaay too short.)

28 July, 2011

Hello!


Well, hello there to my neglected blog! I seem to be taking an unplanned break! This last weekend and this week have been craaaaaazy... like "is this my life?!?" crazy. The days have been full of good things and really frustrating things, but, overall, I'm happy so I'll take the good with the bad. The most exciting thing that happened this week was our purchase of a KING SIZED bed!!! Ohhhh my gosh, I am so happy about this. It's incredible. It's like we're sleeping on opposite sides of the room, and we LOVE it. Cuddling is great and all, but we both like to stretch out when we sleep. And our new bed is incredibly comfortable too. Really, anything is an improvement to the queen we upgraded from. We were sleeping with springs hitting our ribs, hips, and backs for about 6 months. Goodbye to waking up sore and hobbling around all day!

SO, enough about the bed (for now)! You guys know Lauren, right? Well, I guest posted for her today! So head on over (by clicking here), and check it out!

22 July, 2011

GO! See!!


The Summer issue of The Violet is up!! It's finally here! Huzzah!

websiteheader

It's a truly gorgeous issue full of beautiful photos, inspiring articles, great recipes, and fun ideas. Camilla, her team, and her contributors worked so hard, and the result was totally worth it.

I actually contributed to this issue! I did the flower feature and wrote a piece about falling in love with life.

IMG_0370

So? What are you waiting for? Go check it out, and enjoy. :)

20 July, 2011

She was my idol.

When I was little, all I wanted was to be just like Shirley Temple. I wanted to watch The Little Princess every single day, and I wanted to wear my "Shirley Temple dress" to church every Sunday... not sure what made me think it was a Shirley Temple dress... probably because it was short. That was my look - short dresses, curly hair. Just like Shirley.


One of the patients who came into the doctor's office my mom worked at knew that I was a big fan, so she brought me a cassette tape full of Shirley Temple songs. I played that thing nonstop and learned all of the words. I would stand on top of a big counter we had in the living room and put on shows all by myself. I still know many of her songs. They randomly pop into my head sometimes. Tonight, I started singing Polly Wolly Doodle out of nowhere. I love that those songs are still buried in my brain. And I love that Shirley Temple was my idol.

She's pretty dang cute.

19 July, 2011

Healthy Living


Since I wrote this post last week, I've really increased my efforts to adopt the lifestyle I want. I think blogging about what I'm working on is a great reminder to continue to work on these things!

In case you forgot, here's what I'm trying to incorporate into my life:

1. daily green monsters
2. yoga
3. more water
4. less processed foods
5. multivitamin and probiotics daily
(btw, this is a helpful article on the different types of probiotics and what they do)

Right now, this is what it looks like... on a really good day:

Get up. Drink a glass of water. Do some slow, gentle yoga to get my blood flowing. Make my green monster. I'll drink them at any point in the day, but I find that I feel best when I drink them in the morning. Eat a little bit of granola. Then, later in my day, I do an hour-long yoga workout (or part of an hour-long workout). I take my multivitamin and probiotics in the evening, and I try to make my meals at home... which is a lot easier to do when our kitchen is clean!

It's funny how all aspects of your life can really work and flow together. If one area is out of whack, all areas can be out of whack. This has been especially true for me lately. And sometimes it really freaks me out. It makes me feel really pressured to keep everything running smoothly and perfectly. And that leaves me feeling overwhelmed, which usually leads to me becoming inactive in almost everything. Right now, making my health a top priority seems to be helping in all areas of my life.

This week, a couple things clicked for me. It occurred to me that most of my thoughts are stressful thoughts. I can be thinking about putting moisturizer on my face before I go to bed, and that leads to, "Oh crap. I'm almost out of moisturizer. I need to buy more. Ugh, but it's expensive. I hope we have the money. Maybe I'm using it too quickly. I suck." Or I can be thinking about how I'd like to use a peach in my green monster, and that leads to, "Shoot. We've had those peaches for a few days now. I should have put that last one in the refrigerator. It's going to be moldy. Crap, why did I forget??! I suck."

UMMMMM, no thank you!!! No wonder I feel like I'm falling apart physically. I live in a stress bubble! And stress is a MAJOR factor in health issues. So anyway, this realization made me think about how you try to focus on your breath when you're practicing yoga. It occurred to me that I can do that in other moments too. When stress-y, negative thoughts start to creep in, I can slow down, breathe, and focus. I can literally breathe those thoughts out. It takes discipline, and I am certainly not the most disciplined person, but I'm really trying. I'm trying by doing all of these things, and I'm trying by being more gracious with myself. If I keep going, I'll get there, and where I'm at today is where I'm at today. And that is OKAY.

16 July, 2011

This Week.


This week has been one of the happiest I've had in some time. Levi and I got to spend a ton of extra time together, and we made good use of it. We didn't slip into any stupid, pointless arguments. We didn't have any conflicting agendas. We both wanted to be together, and we both wanted to just enjoy ourselves. It was pretty great.

My alone time this week was pretty great too. I've been feeling really guilty, anxious, and overwhelmed about how I spend my time lately. These feelings never get me anywhere. They don't motivate me to a place of productivity; instead, they paralyze me into doing absolutely nothing. I hate when I get to that place. That didn't happen this week. I made great use of my time. And instead of sitting motionless on the couch, staring at some mindless television show once all my work was done, I made a point to actually enjoy my spare time. I did yoga. I read. I flipped through magazines. I cooked. I felt inspired, happy, and satisfied.

See?? This is what happens when the kitchen is completely clean for the first time in three months. I can only imagine what next week will bring if we clean the rest of the house over the weekend...

14 July, 2011

Powell's & City Scenes


We didn't get to hang out at Powell's Books (a.k.a. the biggest used bookstore everrrrr) for as long as we'd like, but we did get to visit! I loved looking at all the little knick-knacky stuff they had for sale. When I was a child, I had an eraser collection. My grandma used to buy me erasers shaped like anything and everything. I remember that I loved how they smelled. They smelled a little like candy... to the point where you almost wanted to taste them (what's up with me always wanting to taste inedible objects??). Powell's had all kinds of fun little erasers and notebooks and stickers and all that kinda stuff... oh, they had a lot of books too....

Honestly, we didn't have much time to look at the books. We only spent about 15 minutes inside. Next time!

IMG_0481

IMG_0482

IMG_0477
(These appealed to the editor in me.)

IMG_0480

Powell's is located in an area of Portland called The Pearl. While we were walking around The Pearl, I snapped a few photos of buildings and the city. These are my favorites:

IMG_0490

IMG_0493

I love old buildings.

Anthro & Cacao!


I always make it a point to visit the local Anthropologie whenever I travel, near or far. It's not like I can't see the merchandise at my local store or on the website. I just really like to see the design of all the different stores. They have such an incredible visual team, and I love to see how creative they get.

IMG_0466

While we were there, we picked out some knobs for a dresser we're refinishing (we're doing mismatched knobs). We could have gotten them at home, but now, whenever I look at them, I'll remember that they're from our trip to Portland. I was super disappointed to find out that there was another Anthropologie in the area, and I didn't get to go inside! How am I supposed to do my Anthro tour of America now?! We drove past it on our night of driving though, so maybe that counts.


During our two-night stay at the Heathman Hotel, we were in three different rooms. Our room from the first night wasn't available the second night, so we moved to a different room the next morning. Then the air conditioning didn't work in the second room, so we moved to a third room. It really wasn't a big deal, and we didn't mind at all, but the hotel gave us certificates for free chocolate drinks at Cacao anyway. Score! This particular store (there are two) is located inside the hotel lobby. Free is always fun, so we hightailed it over there and got two cups of drinking chocolate - the rich dark drinking chocolate and the special spicy drinking chocolate.

IMG_0461

Oh yum. The rich dark one was exactly like it sounds... rich and dark. So decadent. The spicy hit you at the back of the throat. It was warm, rich, and had a really great kick to it. I don't remember everything in it, but I do know that it was made with dark chocolate, cayenne, ginger, and paprika... among other ingredients. If you've never had drinking chocolate (versus hot chocolate) before, and you're a chocolate lover, give it a go! You'll love it. We definitely didn't finish both cups though. It's just too rich.

We also had some pieces of chocolate while we were there. We actually popped into Cacao two or three times throughout our trip. Our favorite was the mint dark chocolate by Theo. I need to find where I can buy those locally because I can't stop thinking about them. It was dark chocolate ganache steeped in mint leaves and coated with dark chocolate. It tasted like actual, fresh mint. Mmmmm. Heaven.

IMG_0463

(Don't forget to enter the haircut from Levi giveaway!)

13 July, 2011

The Ace Hotel

The Stumptown Coffee we visited most while in Portland was adjacent to the Ace Hotel (a.k.a. Hipster Paradise). Besides the WORLD'S LARGEST COFFEE TABLE, guess what the Ace Hotel's lobby features??

IMG_0448

IMG_0449

IMG_0447

Did you guess?

An old black and white photo booth!!

IMG_0446

So, obviously, we had to give it a go! One afternoon, when we were in need of a pick-me-up, we chose to go before and after style in the photo booth, as in before coffee and after coffee.

IMG_0450

IMG_0453

I'm pretty sure all the hipsters hanging out reading Nietzsche and sipping their single-origin brews thought we were totally bonkers, but that's okay! We had a blast! This was probably one of my favorite memories of the whole trip. I love that our poses look so planned in all of these. They totally weren't. We just went for it. I guess we're pretty in sync.

For a really hilarious spoof on the Ace Hotel, watch this video. Please. Do it. I love his creepy shifting around the 0:40 second mark.

IMG_0455


(Don't forget to enter the haircut from Levi giveaway!)

Haircut Giveaway!! CLOSED


I think you all know already that my husband, Levi, is a hair stylist. He's been doing my hair since we started dating almost four years ago. However, he hasn't been doing much with it lately because I'm growing it... well, I think I'm growing it. I can't make up my mind.

ANNNNNYWAY, he's very good at what he does, and in May, he moved to a new salon! He is now at Molly Moon in the Belmont Shore area of Long Beach, CA. It has been fantastic so far. He's really close to home (0.7 miles), and he can see the ocean from his chair!

In belated celebration of the move, Levi is giving away a haircut (male or female) (valued at $60+) to a local reader!

Here are some of his cuts:

Michelle 1

Jocelyn 1

Jasi books1

You can see more of his work here. I promise he does long hair too... short hair is just more fun to photograph. :)

Besides women's hair cuts, Levi is also really great at men's hair cuts, color, highlights, straightening treatments (he has something that kicks the Brazilian keratin and keratin smoothing treatments out of the water, and it won't POISON you), and blowouts.

How to enter:

1. Leave a comment!
2. Tweet, blog, or facebook a link to the giveaway for a second entry, and leave a second comment letting me know.

Rules for entry:

1. This giveaway is open to local readers (Long Beach, LA County, Orange County, etc.) only. However, if you have friends or family who live in our area, you can enter on their behalf.
2. New clients only please.

I'll announce the winner next Friday, the 22nd of July. Good luck! And if you'd like to schedule an appointment with Levi, please call Molly Moon Salon at 562.439.7706!

UPDATE:

We picked a winner using random.org. Congratulations, Kimberly Julie!

Screen shot 2011-07-23 at 1.56.58 PM

Thank you so much to everyone who entered!

12 July, 2011

23rd


23rd Street (it's actually an avenue... but Levi said they only ever called it 23rd Street) was Levi's go-to hangout with his friends and his (barf) high school girlfriend. Naturally, while we were in Portland, we had to spend some time there.

We got drinks and something to eat at Papa Haydn. The food was mediocre (we had the steak frites), but the drinks were deeeeeeelicious. Levi had an IPA (of course), and I had a strawberry basil champagne cocktail. It had freshly muddled strawberry and basil in it! Yummmmm.

IMG_0420

IMG_0423

IMG_0424

IMG_0427
(see how he savors his IPA?)

IMG_0428

IMG_0433

'twas fun!

Healthy Living


I've been really focusing on my health for the last few months. I've had a hard time, health-wise, this year, so I want to do everything within my power to feel good. Right now, this includes:

1. limiting processed foods
2. drinking lots of water
3. taking probiotics and a multivitamin daily
4. green monsters
5. yoga

The green monsters have been AWESOME. I first heard about them from Camilla. They have been really easy to incorporate into my daily life because they taste really good, and they make me feel really good. I tried the blueberry-banana one first (we use vanilla coconut milk with ours; recipe here). Levi and I share one almost every single day. My favorite right now is to add coconut flakes and half of a peach to the basic recipe. Soooooooo delicious.

IMG_0007

IMG_0010
(us with our first ever green monsters about a month ago)

I've also been really good about taking my probiotics and multivitamin every day... even though my vitamin makes me gag. Blech.

I'm a pretty good water drinker, and I don't eat tons of processed food, but there's definitely room for improvement in those areas.

My latest triumph has been yoga. It was difficult for me to get going with it, but something finally clicked this week. And now I feel like I need it. I love waking up really early and starting my day with yoga. Last week, I was having a really bad day. I felt like a failure at life and like everything was getting away from my control. Levi suggested that I try spending a lot of the day practicing yoga... and I did. I still worked, of course, but I kept my mat out all day and went back to it several times. It helped me so much. My mood completely changed. My body felt so good. I felt more productive. I felt so proud of myself. And I slept SO well that night. If you're interested in doing some yoga from home, try looking up Tara Stiles on youtube. I really love her, and she teaches you how to incorporate yoga into any part of your life, anywhere, for anything. (Here's Tara's tumblr if you're interested.)

I still have a long way to go with all of these things. I haven't found "the cure" for what ails me yet, but I'm feeling better, and I'm really proud of myself.

11 July, 2011

Multnomah Falls


Ohhhhh my gosh, this place is spectacularly gorgeous. On the drive there, I told Levi, "THIS feels like America." That was the only way I knew how to describe what I was feeling. I guess what I meant was that I could picture what it was like when early settlers arrived. It felt rugged and natural. And strong and powerful. And beautiful beyond belief.

We took about a hundred thousand pictures. It was hard not to. Every step closer we got to the falls, the more beautiful everything became. I ran around in shock from all the trees. I told Levi that it felt like Disneyland. I climbed a stone wall to rub the moss on a tree. I totally gave myself away as a Southern California tourist...

IMG_0358

IMG_0364

IMG_0369
(when the world slips you a jeffrey, stroke the furry... tree? anyone?)

IMG_0379

IMG_0380
(I managed to get the top in the picture!! Not easy.)

IMG_0383

IMG_0404

IMG_0405

IMG_0408
(enjoying the mist)

IMG_0411
(TREEEEEEEES!!!!)

If you're ever in the Portland area, please go!!!!

08 July, 2011

Gretel and the Tiny Cheeseburger


Have you seen the Tiny Tuesday posts on Johanna's blog, Whirly Bird?

In these posts, she celebrates all things tiny. They're pretty adorable. This is my edition of Tiny Tuesday... except it's Friday.

On Fourth of July, when we were barbecuing burgers, Levi got the idea to make a tiny, raw cheeseburger for Gretel. We put together a pretty great little burger, complete with cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and a tiny bun.

IMG_0002

IMG_0003

Needless to say, she loved it.

IMG_0005

IMG_0016

IMG_0019

Lily just laid on the couch and watched. She has too much sleeping to do to bother with things like eating.

A Day Without a Plan


I'm taking a break from Portland posting before I forget about how we celebrated Independence Day! It ended up being a really great day so I want to remember it.

We walked a lot.

We made burgers at home.

We laid on a blanket in the park. I made a failed attempt at a self-portrait.

photo

When I got bored, I decorated Levi's hat... while whistling?

photo 1

He hid his face in shame when I asked him to try it on and quickly removed all the flowers after this picture was taken.

photo 2

We took the bus to the movies and saw Midnight in Paris. It's the best movie I've seen this year. I liked it better than Tangled even! GO SEE IT NOW.

After coming out of the movies, we ran to the deserted harbor to watch fireworks from 7 different cities all around us.

We skipped the bus home and just walked, stopping to get champagne cocktails at a restaurant near our house.

We played with sparklers.

IMG_0029

IMG_0045

Pretty good for a day that had no plans!!
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...