Rodriguez

​I'm usually not this late to the game, but this time I am. I just rented and watched Searching for Sugarman. I saw that it won an Academy Award for best documentary and was sure I'd heard about it last year when Sundance was in full swing. It made me recall that I'd seen this tweet on twitter: "Searching for Sugar Man' lets u realize, unknowingly, something u did that didn't work for u might be the biggest inspiration for others." [Bonnie Tsang]

I quickly put the movie in my Netflix queue. I watched this tonight, while I crafted away.  What a moving story. This touched my heart and brought to life the quote tweeted above. What stood out to me was the lack of bitterness from Rodriguez or his family. This is a man that was into the music for the craft and love. He is a hard working Mexican immigrant and he instilled values and work ethic into his children.  If you haven't seen this you should. Not to mention the way it's shot in Detroit. I loved all the images from this movie. I predict Detroit will be the next big filming capital. It's raw, needs a lift and stories like Sixto Rodriguez story inspire us all.

Instagram

Is Instagram stalking or just an amazing community. I say both. Here is why:​

Currently I follow about ​194 people that range from friends, family, photographer's, athletes, bloggers, models, and designers. I am sure I am missing a category or two.

Besides Twitter I haven't been a big adopter on social media. Maybe because I grew up where privacy was ​valued. Having a blog has taken me out of my comfort zone and I found Twitter a great way to post a quick snippet about my blog or just a cool article that I'd like my friends to read. What about Facebook you may ask, well I've had a test account for several years and may be finally turning it around to represent my blog. Still debating, we'll see what happens.

​Back to Instagram. I can't remember how I found this app, might have been Mashable.com. In my social naivete I had no idea the images I was taking on my iPhone and posting were viewable to the public. Then a few friends started commenting..."hey you sure like those plates" and then all of a sudden BAM I realized what I was doing. I was in it for the filters and fun way to look at my photography.  Now this is part of my daily routine.  Every morning and everything evening I check my feed.  I'm still not a big commenter on this app, and personally get annoyed at the private conversations. "Pick up the phone peeps or text your friend privately, we don't need to hear it all."

​Why you ask stalking? This seems to be a theme over the last couple of months on my blog. Sometimes I feel like I'm stalking, but really I am truly inspired by the photographers, bloggers and small business owners out there. I'm shy about introducing myself when I run into them in person.  What do you say, "hey I'm itsweetsavory and I follow you on Instagram?" That's really how it goes. Do you say anything? One person I follow, but didn't know, posted an image and comment that told her viewers she'd lost someone dear in death. I was moved by her pain so I wrote her a letter and sent it to her business.  I just thought she should know that strangers sometimes can care too. So I ask is that stalking?  

Why I say community? Somebody I follow posted an amazing picture for a book opening and tagged a rental company.  So I started following that rental company. They rent vintage china, silverware, and glass for parties. Right up my alley. Now the rental company promotes a pop-up-shop to clear some of their inventory. I booked my calendar and made my way there in the middle of the day. I had to meet the person who posts on IG and tell her how I found her and how excited I was. I walked out of this pop-up-shop with the items shown above. That next week I was able to meet the person who originally posted those amazing photos and thank her and chat with her about her business and her images. 

​See the photo above. Well I found this similar photo (much better than mine) on IG. I commented on it and asked where was this place?  The landscape in the image looked exactly like my road trip surroundings at that very moment. The photographer was gracious and gave me exact directions to find that sign.  I took my photo and tagged and thanked him. He cheered me on and now I'm a regular follower of his.

​The best community story is here, it's not mine, but someone I use to work with and lives locally. He's a British import, avid Spurs fan (Tottenham, not San Antonio) and recently posted a drawing of the bunny that his son lost nearby.  He tweeted and IG'd the image.  A few days later he posted the image to the left. Max had his bunny back. How? Instagram.  Huffington Post and Today have picked this story up. Max and his bunny are famous. All because of the amazing Instagram community.

So what does ​Instagram mean to me? It's opened my eyes to see the world a little differently, to find the bright spots in your day all by a little 4x4 square image. I'm inspired by these images, even if it's just a cup of coffee on a lovely marble table with a lone poppy and navy blue wall.

​A few of my favorites to follow:

@casadeperrin

@bonnietsang

@eltidy

@alice_gao

@urbanic

@agoldenafternoon

@tartinegourmande

@cimek

@cindyloughridge

@colonyfurnitureco

@konstruktivist

@danorst

@davidlebovitz

@eeddbbmm

@oishieats

@ejaphoto

@handsomeroaster

@holleeee

@mylifeatplaytime

@cucinadigitale

@halfgirl

Who do you like to follow? You can follow me by clicking on the button to the left or find me on IG: itsweetsavory is my user name.​

Mindless Monday

Over the past week I've been working hard on gathering content, writing an editorial calendar and working on some branding effort. ALT offers so many great classes and opportunities to connect with like minded bloggers. I think I have knowledge overload and am having time issues getting all of the knowledge out into practical application.

In the meantime, I continue to explore the LA Westside area for great little coffee shops and breakfast places, my favorite meal of the day.  Also working on a baby shower coming up in April for Twins. Pinterest has served as an amazing starting point to gather my thoughts as well as theinspirationboard.com. I've been shopping on ETSY and taking pictures for inspiring some creative DIY.​

​Also coming up is a fun, but challenging task of finding 3 favorite items under $10, mylifeatplaytime is hosting this little event. Who knew this would be that hard. I've been to Anthropologie several times, hoping for a sale or some great home item for $10. I finally gave up as I couldn't just give one bowl, needs to be a set. So I'm still looking for that $10 favorite item. More to come later this week.

Mindless Monday

This could be more of a brain dump rather than mindless thoughts.  But here are my thoughts. I'm working on a new logo, fonts, and style, coming soon. Have you ever made an editorial calendar? This is really hard, what to focus on for the year. Make content in advance of major events. Not an easy task, but I'm determined to do it. I'm giving myself one year to turn this site around and be consistent with my readers. Is there anything your looking to hear about, other than Cuba, which I'm working on?

Random thoughts, yes I made more lemon bars, it's a request these days and again it's that season so I have lots of lemons. What was Julian Fellowe's thinking last night on Downton. SPOILER ALERT: All my favorite characters are dying. I know actors have other obligations, but when your such a major part of the cast, really, why leave now, there probably is only one more season, and yes, viewers want "and they lived happily ever after."

I entertained pre-teen and teenagers this week. Love em, but WOW lots of work, was fun and exhausting at the same time. Hats off to mom's with teenagers.

Lemon's

We have a saying in my house, "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade." Seriously, sometimes we can't get a break, ever, financially that is. Living from pay check to pay check is such a drag especially at our age, but we've made sacrifices in our life so this is what we chose. "It's not a sacrifice unless you sacrifice." Yes we live this everyday.

Enough of my self pity and on to lemon's. They are in season now and we have vowed not to buy lemons. This is because we have at least three friends with lemon tree's, including a Meyer lemon tree, so we are well supplied.

We received a generous bag of lemons, While I was away in Salt Lake City for the AltSummit they were starting to really ripen (next step is green mold). Upon my return I went to the recipe books and idea's.

On top of the supply of lemons we received a gift of mini loaf pans, a Madeleine pan and a few other baking goodies. All my friends know I love to bake, plus they know I usually give more then half of it away. I like the process of baking, it's relaxing. I love to have a movie on in the background and the smells bring up good childhood memories.

Here's a few of my recipe's and images from my lemon baking Super Bowl Sunday. No chilli cheese, mini-burgers or seven layer dips this night. This lemon cake was adapted from Ina Garten's recipe on the Food Network. Only difference is I added in the full 3/4 lemon juice to the cake, I'd do it again, it was a good mistake. I just requires you to juice more lemons. Also I used 5 mini loaf pans so it would be cuter and easier to give away.

Soaked Lemon cakes on a cooling rack with a cookie sheet underneath, easier to clean up.

Next on my list to bake were Madeleine's. I'm kind of addicted to these tasty morsels. While they turn out spongy, I will continue to explore a crunchy version of these goodies.  For this recipe I like to use Martha Stewart's, this is from her cookbook.

I couldn't find it online to link to, so the recipe is below with my added notes. Difference is I added 1 Tbsp of lemon zest and 1/4 tsp of almond extract. This recipe makes 36 Madeleines.

4 eggs
    1/4 tsp salt
    2/3 cup sugar

1 Tbsp of lemon zest

1/4 tsp of almond extract
    1 tsp pure vanilla extract
    1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
    1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled.

 

Preheat the over to 375F Degrees.

Make sure you butter and flour Madeleine pans. I do this even when I have non-stick Madeleine pans, just in case they decide to give me a hard time and not come up.

Beat the eggs, salt and sugar together until thick, this takes about 8 minutes.

Add the lemon zest, almond extract and vanilla. Fold in the flour. Fold in the butter make sure this is incorporated as the butter tends to sink to the bottom of the bowl. Spoon the mixture into your Madeleine pans. Bake until golden, about 10 minutes. Remove from pans. Cool on racks. If your serving right away dust with confectioners sugar otherwise wait till your ready to serve them as the sugar soaks into the cookies.

Madeleines and Lemon loaves packed and ready for delivery to my friends. 

Park City, Utah

I'm still trying to come off my ALTSUMMIT high.  Love reading the recaps from all the amazing bloggers.  Here's a few of my favorite posts:

I quit my job - You are so brave

My first Alt Conference - Great new LA connection

The business cards of Alt - Love my new friend Sheri Silver

Best cocktails - Available at the mini-party from @Vecco

A Guys Perspective - Love this post, so honest

Life Lessons - Emily is adorable

The inspiration keeps coming from all the amazing people I met. However, here's a quick tale of my Saturday at the ALTSUMMIT conference, well actually of Park City.  Saturday was a day of Design Camps and because of my late registration I wasn't able to get into the sessions that I thought would be most useful for me.  So instead I took a chance to see if I could hop on the Sundance Tour. This tour sold out on the first day of registration, but I decided to give it a try and see if there was room. Most likely because of the amazing mini-parties the night before quite a few people didn't show up. So there I was with 7 other people on a big rock star bus which included the amazing Stefan Sagmeister and his lovely fiance. SCORE!

After we arrived to a nearby hotel we took a quick shuttle into the main street of Park City and then basically we all went our separate ways.  Among this crew was Peggy Wong an accomplished Creative Director and Photographer who incidentally knew the same people I did in LA, small world. I so wanted to tag along with her and watch her work. She was at the conference shooting for Citizens of Humanity, she's a BIG deal and super nice. The other two girls Laura and Bree attend Alt and were newbies like me, I'm anxious to follow along their progress over the next year.

Below are few images of my explorations this day.

After all this exploring it was time for eats. I have to say the people of Park City are so nice, especially as once a year their little town gets turned upside down by Hollywood. I chatted with quite a few and the same place kept coming up as a reco. The High West Distillery. Whiskey, I was SO in. I walked down the street and got a seat at the bar.  Spaghetti Western rye whiskey, with short ribs was on my menu. Followed up by a butterscotch pudding and the local Wasatch brew to wash it down. Ok, so it was after noon and I did sit there a long time, but after all that and then walking up the hills of Park City's 10,000 ft above sea level I really needed and nap.

After food I continued my photo journey, trolley ride and shuttle down to the Library Auditorium for my very first screening of a Sundance file. Movie was "The Way Way Back." Was picked up by Fox and will be out in theaters later this year. Cute film and so glad I stayed, ate dinner with new friends and arrived back at my hotel at 11PM. Long day but all this was courtesy of Bing and I thank them again for the all-access pass and amazing day and evening in Park City. A local said to come back in spring it's lovely and full of flowers and great things to explore. I will be back for sure with SB in tow. Enjoy my little journey.

Stalker Sweater

AltSummit had many challenges and rewards, but the biggest challenge for me was the wardrobe pressure.  As many of you can clearly see I am not a fashion blogger. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE fashion. I make sure and watch the Spring, Fall and Haute Couture fashion shows online via Elle. My favorites are Chanel and Marc Jacobs.

Weeks before leaving to Salt Lake City I was on the hunt for fashionable clothes at a budget that I could easily afford.  My go-to stores are Anthropologie and J.Crew. I hit the sales right after the Holidays. I'd had my eye on the boucle sweater above. I usually buy a new black sweater every year as it's an easy quick layer for the chilly LA winter mornings. It's a basic for my wardrobe. While I'll was in New Mexico I made a trip to the local Anthro store to find this sweater. It was too small, even at my goal weight I'd never fit in that size. So I waited till I returned home to LA.

Here's where the stalking starts. On my day off I go into the local Anthropologie store. I run right to the ten sale racks. I go to the black sweater section, look all over for this beauty and well, it's not to be found. I had told myself I probably wouldn't find it, and I was ok with that. I said to myself  "you'll find something else you like just as equally."

So I go to the rest of the sales racks and scour them for fashion idea's and great looks. On my way out, low and behold is a lady admiring herself in THE sweater, it's my size I can tell. What would you do now? Wait? Say something to her? Let it go? I decide to wait and wait and wait, then it turned into hovering. This woman could not MAKE up her MIND! She tried it on, asked her mum, (she was English) and her sister and the mirror. After waiting a few minutes I finally spoke up. No I did not say "if you decide not to buy that I'd love to have it," because you know the moment you say that, they think it's a really special sweater and buy it, even when they are indecisive about it.  So I just ask "where'd you find that sweater?" She proceeded to point me to the rack, which I knew didn't have my sweater. SHE DID. So I continued to hover. Then in her indecisive mind she hands the sweater to her mum and says she'll be back, needs to visit the Loo (British remember).

Let me tell you she took a really long time. I looked at the entire top floor of Anthropologie, ridiculous, but I REALLY wanted this sweater. So I finally decide to sit down on a couch and Instagram away while I keep an eye on her, her mum and her sis.  Yes STALKING now. Finally, she returns, puts the sweater back on and off and on and decides to buy it. She gives me one glance as she walks away. She KNEW I wanted that sweater. Do I let it go. I tried, really, really, I did. No I didn't chase her down, but I did ask the sales clerk about the sweater, I pulled up the image above on my iPhone and ask her if she has any in the back. She looks, and no they don't. I sheepishly try to tell her I saw one in the store and someone just left to buy it (MY SWEATER).

She wants to help me out so she pulls out her mobile device connected to the store to see if it's anywhere. Oh did I tell you it sold out online, so the store is my only hope. No such luck. Super nice sales clerks talks with me about what size I want and asks me to follow her downstairs to look on the computers. Here it goes, you ready, are you really ready...as I am walking down the stairs, right there, on the landing, hanging on a rack, is MY SWEATER in the MY size. Yes my stalking paid off and the indecisive lady left me a little gift on the stairwell. The sales clerk was dumbfounded and hugged me, she was so glad I found it.

I tell you I had a shopping rush and ran right down the stairs so fast I practically knocked people down, ran right to the line and danced all the way home with my beautiful boucle 40% of the sweater. Stalking does pay, though I don't recommend the humiliation in admitting I did this for a black sweater. Enjoy!

Authenticity

I've been inspired, thus the new blog look and feel. This is something I've wanted to do, but thought better to wait till after the AltSummit. I'm glad I did. I'll continue to fine tune this space in the near future. Thank you @SquareSpace for being such a fabulous partner.

This past week I spent three days with some of the most genuine, uniquely creative people that I've ever been in one room with.  The #1 theme I took away from the AltSummit in Salt Lake City conference is "be true to yourself."  Just about every session made this abundantly clear.  Here are a few quotes from some of the power sessions and two of my favorite speakers, Jasmine Star (Personal Branding) and Karen Walrond (Finding Your Voice).

"stay true to your brand and audience"

"keep it real"

"take what you have, make it work"

"shake what your mama gave you"

"who am I, not who I aspire to be"

"what am I doing to capitalize on who I am?"

"stop comparing my insides to their outsides"

"curate my life"

"create my own story"

And Stefan Sagmeister, what to say about this uniquely witty, smart individual.  I heart him and his lovely fiance "Stefanie" I mean Vita! I was able to spend part of the day with them at Sundance in Park City on Saturday, amazing people. He was inspirational beyond belief during his keynote, a standing ovation, and that's not because he posted a full frontal naked picture of himself (gasp!). It was because he was an amazing speaker who inspired the entire room to greatness. Here are his top points to ponder on:

• Thinking about ideas and content freely
• Traveling to new places (you have to, to be inspired - me)
• Not stuck doing the same thing over again
• Working on projects that matter to me
• Having things come back from the printer that are done well (love it when I get a print of my photography and it's as beautiful as I imagined- me)
• Getting feedback from people (let me know what post moved you, what did you like/dislike about it - me)
• Designing a project that you feel is partly brand new and partly familiar
• Working without interruption on a single project

Once again I must thank @WilsonArt for selecting my counter post and giving me a ticket to AltSummit. I am beyond grateful. I have lists and lists of idea's, brands and people I want to work with, editorial calendars I want to create. I am giving myself one year to turn this blog around and attend next years AltSummit with idea's and much more confidence. Also with less lbs., love the photobooths, me, not so much. Might be inspired to write about that to, we'll see.

Trader Joe's

I have so much to share about AltSummit in Salt Lake City. This conference was beyond my expectations. I'm in the process of writing down the high points and action items for this space. I'll share more of that later.

Pre-Alt, well actually Wednesday morning, before our sponsored dinner that night I started planning my snacks. Everyone said you must have snacks during the day. I didn't want to pack snacks in my luggage and to take away valuable room for my wardrobe that I MUST have. So I did my research.

As many of you know who following me on Instagram (@itsweetsavory) I love Trader Joe's. The first thing I do when I get to a new city is look to see if they have a Trader Joe's. Low and behold Salt Lake City opened it's first TJ's in November. My plan was to go on Wednesday when I had all that time before the evening dinners. However, I got caught up in my explorations. Plan B was to get up early Thursday, 7:30AM walk to TJ's, it's only 7 blocks away, get my snacks, water, etc., and walk back to the hotel. Great plan right? Hmmm.

As soon as I embarked on my walk it started ice raining. I say that because as soon as the rain hit the sidewalks it was immediately turned into ice. So instead of walking to Trader Joe's, I skated to Trader Joe's. Oh and the 7 blocks, yeah not so much, those were LONGEST blocks I have ever skated.  Seriously, this was another one of my idea's that seem great and immediately went bad. By the time I made it to Trader Joe's it was 8:10, I shopped in 5 minutes and then asked if they could call for a taxi. I was not going to walk back, it was a blizzard out there. After waiting 15 minutes for the taxi, he called back and said he couldn't make it, traffic was bad because of an accident. I started to freak now, I was going to miss the opening of the conference and have to walk back in a blizzard.

What was I wearing you ask? Well I got dressed for the conference, while my sweater, jacket, hat gloves, and shoes were warm, my pants were paper thin Banana Republic. That equals frozen legs beyond anything you can imagine.

Here's where I praise the frozen city of Salt Lake. Despite the cold and gloominess, everyone in this city is extremely nice and helpful. The Trader Joe's staff were amazing. One of the employees, Erman (I know I'm spelling his name wrong), offered to take me back to the hotel. At this point I was desperate and willing to go with any stranger, I actually pondered asking a few of the soccer mom's in the store for a ride. But this employee offered me a ride and insisted I wait in the store till he brought the car up to me so I wouldn't get wet. Seriously, who does this, nobody in L.A. would do this (yeah I know it never rains in L.A). He drove me right up to my hotel and I insisted on giving him money. I told him "now you've put Trader Joe's customer service to a whole other level."

The Farm Shop and Kei and Molly

For the past several years when I go to Albuquerque I like to take a slow drive down Rio Grande Blvd (25 miles is the max speed limit). When I was a kid we drove down this street all the time where you can get views of the old ranch houses and horses, there use to be buffalo. I remember going to the buffalo house when I was in pre-school. During the Fall the trees down this boulevard are the golden color cottonwoods I love so much.  My favorite farm is the old Simms Farm which is where the The Farm Shop is. It's in the original Creamland Dairies building and is part of the property connected to the Los Poblanos Inn, which has a rich history found here.

My mom visits here yearly for the Lavender festival, they have rows and rows of lovely lavender.  It's an organic run farm and supplies the ingredients for the amazing dishes that are served up at the Los Poblanos Inn. The Farm Shop sells lavender spa products, artisan foods, gourmet kitchen and gardening tools and locally made gifts from all over New Mexico.

Lemon lavender gelato, refreshing and tasty. Thankfully no too much lavender, but just enough for the essence of the taste. I've had llavender panna cota which tasted like creamed perfumed soap, not ideal, this was the opposite.

Every corner is artfully directed and begging to be bought.

Lately I'm obsessed with the tea towels from Kei and Molly, here's their story. Next time I visit I want to look them up and see if I can meet these amazing women in person, I love everything they make. Their towels are beautiful and hang in the light filled windows of the Farm Shop. Check out their Etsy store

Mom has bought me two so far, and our last purchase was a typical mom daughter conversation.

Me:  I like the turquoise one, but it has a cross in it, so maybe not

Mom:  It's pretty, but how about the ones with the coyote

Me: Nah, I like the satelite dishes

Mom: Why?

Me: It's kinda cool, and sci-fi, and New Mexico

Mom: I don't get it

Me: It's ok, I like it

Mom: But why would you want that in your kitchen?

Me: Why wouldn't I, look at the conversation we're having about it

Mom: Your funny, you like weird things

Me: Mom don't you remember when I was a kid, if you don't like it, buy it, I'll LOVE it, that hasn't changed.

Mom: I guess, ok I'll get you that one.

Me: Thanks Mom.

So now I have two the orange citrus slices next to the indigo blue satellite dishes.

Lovely right.

Driveway up to the Inn and Farm. It's breathtaking in the winter and fall its AMAZING with the golden leaves on the trees.

I never get tired of this view when you walk to the Farm Shop, especially as you wonder around with chickens and peacocks, both white and the typically amazing blue and green.

White peacock.

Driveway out...just as lovely.

The Farm Shop

4803 RIO GRANDE BLVD NW

OPEN DAILY 9:00A – 5:00

505.938.2192

Alt Summit Salt Lake City

This time next week I'll be attending the AltSummit in Salt Lake City.  I am beyond excited to be attending it's really about getting back to basics (just needs salt) and building from there.  First off, I missed the initial registration day and it sold out, second I won a ticket to attend, and third I REALLY WANTED TO GO!! Oh and the bonus is I won a free counter top makeover and sink for my kitchen from Wilson Art, more about that later.

I am attending with 3 lovely ladies (Deborah, Felicia and Britney) my fellow bloggers and moms.
The classes  range from earning revenue on your blog, personal branding, being a contributor to other blogs, to finding your voice. Yes please, to all of them. Some amazing bloggers will be attending from all over the country in addition to the sponsors and special guest, Jessica Alba.  Can you tell I'm excited.  Hopefully I'll have much to share from all my learning's and who knows this site might be due for another amazing makeover.

Random Monday Thoughts

Random Monday thoughts: Weren't Tina and Amy perfect on the Globes? Can't decide what I thought of Jodies speech. Why wasn't Ben nominated for an Best Director Oscar? How cute were Ben and Jen (not Lopez)? Loved Kate Hudson and Lea Michelle's dress, but she was too tan. And for after the Globes for all you Downton Abbey Fans this is a spoiler alert...but I had to share a video clip about Edith and then you too can laugh at the music choice. Only Morrisey would do for this tale. Enjoy.

Route 66 Signs

Mid October we had to take an unexpected trip home to New Mexico for a family funeral. While I was devastated by the loss I appreciated the time to be on the road for 12 hours and unwind from the crazy L.A. lifestyle. SB and I pass these signs all the time and have taken some analog film shots, but this time we just jumped out and took a few iPhone and Android shots. It's such a competition between us to get the best shot, but it pushes us to try all kinds of filters, angles and apps.

In December we took another trip home to see family.  Unfortunately we got stuck in Gallup (worst town in NM) for 2 days while everything was closed to fix the car during Christmas Eve and Christmas day.  So we took advantage of the great signs in the town and took a few digital and iPhone shots.

On the way home I talked SB into taking a historical detour down route 66.  

Enjoy all the cool signs and a trip down the past.

Mini Cheesecake Cookie Dough Bites

I have an upcoming book swap party to go to and I've been experimenting with a few desserts.  I saw this one on Pinterest and decided to take a chance at it. I followed the recipe from the My Baking Addiction blog

here

. 

Only thing I got wrong is that she uses normal cupcake sizes and I went for the mini cupcake version. The portions for the mini-mini cheesecakes are 1 TBSP of graham cracker crust and 1 TBSP of cheesecake filling, 1 TSP of cookie dough. I have to say these were delicious and I'll definitely be perfecting this along the way. I did make the full size see above, but for me it's too rich so I think I'll stick to the mini cupcake size, was perfect for a party especially when there will be ton more desserts.

Fall in Los Angeles

Fall in Los Angeles can be beautiful.  These images were taken in early October, but I just found them on my camera.  Great sunsets and a slight chill in the air.  Also sometimes you find Tori Burch shoes on the sand, that is until the model twirling in the water comes back and claims them.

What do you do on your counters?

Let me tell you my story before anyone jumps to conclusions. Last weekend I played host to my niece (a dear friends daughter). We have no kids of our own so occasionally I borrow other peoples kids. Well frankly I love my friends children....especially when we get to give them back. [sly smile]

So I had a house full of teenage girls. I proceeded to walk them down to the mall, who wouldn't like the mall, I did, even if my feet didn't.  Upon returning home we chose a movie to watch. I so thought this would be the easy part, teenager girls like chick flicks right....answer here would be NOooooooo!  Though we did settle on a chick flick, iRobot was a serious contender, sorry Spongy, next time.

Ok, so why the pictures? Well I have added additional counter space for my kitchen, thanks to Ikea, It's a better place them my counter tops covered in 1960's old ceramic tiles (not the cool type, see below), that are broken and uneven. I sacrificed a kitchen table for more flat workspace. So I thought I would share it's multi-purpose use.

During pauses in the movies I had the girls roll out pizza dough, two girls to each pile of dough.  Then we put them on pizza stones, they chose their toppings, I bake.

After pizza's were in the oven we cleared the path for our art project that would start after the movie.  I got this idea from Pinterest and was posted from the 700 Experience blog

here.

  Those who follow me on Instagram (itsweetsavory) know I experimented with this by myself during the week before. By myself was the key problem, you need to have a buddy.  So each girl picked her color palate with the box of crayons I scored from the 99 cents store. Then we took some cardboard and a glue gun and glued the crayons onto the board, leave one inch of the crayon hanging off the cardboard.  Now it was ready for some melting.

Speaking of melting, here's our last melted cheese and veggie pizza....Nice right. This was delicious.  I made crust part easy and bought my dough from Trader Joes. Usually I make it myself, but I had too much to do. Toppings included cheese, obviously, tomato's, artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, mushrooms and pepperoni. I don't really like sauce on my pizza and though others do, I didn't remember this part, so no sauce.

Back to the melting crayons.  The girls perfected this part, they got tired of holding each other's crayons and figured out how to tape the cardboard with glued crayons on the wall behind.  And yes I have splattered wax on my wall before I realized it and then we pulled up the craft paper and fixed that. Thankfully this is my patio.

One request I had made to a few mom's, was "have the girls bring a blow dryer", weird right, well that didn't happen so we had one blow dryer, mine.  Yes I had to scrap off hard wax the next day.  So,

not

complaining, because this was easy and the girls got creative.  Some chose to cover the whole canvas and others just did one side and left white space below.

Here's one up close, great texture and color.  

Have fun and enjoy your counter as much as I do.  Enjoy!

This post is my entry into the Alt Summit Blog Carnival Contest sponsored by Wilsonart International, Inc.

Vegan Chocolate Sorbet

Quite a few weeks ago I was going to a friends house for dinner who happens to be Vegan.  So I challenged myself to make some dessert that she could eat.  I comb through a few websites and settled on David Lebovitz's amazing recipe for ice cream, he's genius and this was so rich and scrumptious you can't believe it has no eggs or milk in it.  Thank you DAVID...LOVE this.  Found his recipe on Food52

here.

Best part was I finally got my ice cream maker out again and forgot how easy it was to use.  Enjoy!

So creamy and amazing.

Day in Malibu

Quick post on yesterday as we had a full day in Malibu starting at 7AM and ending the day at 5PM.  Lots of adventures with great friends by the beach and in the canyons.  L.A. offers such a variety of things to see and explore which is why so many of us live here, but Malibu has it's own culture.  People run into friends on daily errands and coffee breaks.  There is a more relaxed attitude here. 

At one point we needed to make a stop at a restroom and we walked threw the camp grounds at Malibu State Park.  No one there except the fallen leaves of autumn and me and Heather traipsing in our sandals to the restroom.  After we made sure that there were no creatures lurking in the restroom we ran in and out as quickly as possible.

 Zuma beach was lovely.

Malibu Kitchen for quick breakfast.

 I guess we need to be Bob's friend if we want to park here.

 Clouds were amazing this day.

Canyon's were so quiet and beautiful.

Take a ride thru Malibu Canyon and Enjoy!

Madness

New song I'm kind of obsessed with, and well it's the kind of word that describes my week:

Perhaps you like a few other Mad related songs:

How about the remake of the above song:

Or how bout a little Prince Buster:

Oh, I could go on and on.  Anyone else have some goodies?

Milo & Olive

Milo and Olive, a neighborhood bakery and pizzeria, opened almost a year ago in November 2011. I've been hearing great local buzz about this place and have passed it many times on Wilshire Blvd in Santa Monica. It's run by the team of Josh Loeb and Zoe Nathan who are also behind 

Rustic Canyon, Huckleberry

 and 

Sweet Rose Creamery

. 

The 

menu includes fresh baked morning 

pastries

 and

 bread

, wood fired 

pizzas

, farmers market inspired 

salads 

and small plates in a hip and warm environment.  

Seats are readily available in the morning at the counter. This is always a fun place to sit and watch the tattooed cooks. I like to guess what they are making. At lunch, counter and communal tables are available. The pastries in front look mouth watering.  First trip there I had a latte, eggs and bacon (a no carb day), so I'll have to go back to try what looked like the best sticky pecan roll 

ever.

Simple exterior

Cool simple interior.  I like the no fuss.

Next time round I shared a lovely fresh salad and a few pizzas. 

The crust was divine, and I'm a huge mushroom fan, so this, with the melted fontina cheese, was delish.

Prosciutto, Burrata, Arugula Pizza...so mouth watering.

These desserts were entering the room while we ate our lunch, I was dying.

Zoe Nathan has stated that she's using different grains to enrich the flavor of her breads.  Well if this is any indication, it's working.  It's a cornmeal cake with a blueberry jam, topped with a vanilla bean cream cheese frosting and fresh farmer market blueberries, your going to die happy.

Please stop by and visit this place, you'll not be disappointed.  Enjoy!

Milo & Olive

2723 Wilshire Blvd. 

Santa Monica, CA 90403