Mindless Monday

Last Friday this is what the sunset at the beach looked like. As destructive as fires are, the smoke does produce some pretty amazing sunsets. And Friday it was 80 at the beaches. Today it's raining and now humid. Either by a food allergy, or the season or the smoke I have developed a crazy red face with puffy eyes over the last three days. I'd call this NOT sweet, more in the lines of bittersweet.

Is your month of May booked, mine is. First weekend out funeral and 50th wedding anniversary, followed by the next couple of weeks a baby shower, tea party and bbq. Oh the joys of spring. I'm doing some baking and experimenting with a few seasonal items. Not to mention there are so many movies coming out this month that I want to see, I'll have to pace myself. Hope your month is filled with bright, fun and inspirational activities.

Twins Baby Shower

I am starting to be the minority among my friends. I have no kids, but dearly love them, just a personal decision not to have any. However, I embrace my friends with kids, and well embrace their kids. Plus SB is a serious kid magnet. They just gravitate to him. Watching my friends I see it's such a joy AND a lot of work, really they are truly SUPER MOMS, I have no idea how they work, blog, shower, or keep their sanity.

Ok, so enough of that. My dear friend Darlene who already has a 2 year old little girl is pregnant with Twins!! Big surprise, she has twins on her side of the family, and she found out that they are identical girls. I wanted to throw her a nice little shower, so we invited a little over 40 people and a friend hosted it in her backyard.

To start of the creativity, the color palate was inspired by the invitation from Tiny Prints below.

I have to say I went a bit crazy with the colors, but it was outside and beautiful and well I wanted it to be happy and colorful. You've already seen my tissue paper pompoms here, well they were for this occasion and there were lots of them.

I also bought crepe paper and hung it as a back drop for pictures. Initially I wanted to take polaroids, but the film was way too expensive for 8 instant images, so I used my Nikon D80 and between myself and a 13 year old we managed to take photos of all the guests.

Darlene with Twin Identical Baby Girls and her Mom.

I also made a tissue paper board and used the initials of the two baby girls. Darlene was brave to wait and reveal the names at the baby shower to all her friends. Her family already knew. She texted me the week of the shower and asked if I wanted to to know, I said no, I've waited this long I wanted to guess with everyone else. Also, I SO didn't want the pressure of knowing and accidentally revealing them. Everyone had to put the P guesses with their name on the back and the S guesses with their name on the back in the appropriate container. At the end of the shower we read all the names off and let Darlene reveal the names. Names are at the bottom of the post.

Now for the food. We had a Sweet and Savory table. Go figure. We made fried wontons, chicken satay with peanut sauce, bruschetta, bacon wrapped mushrooms and salmon herb butter open face sandwiches. We had MORE then enough food.

For drinks we made a soda station with colorful vintage and new sodas along with water flavored with oranges. I love this table, it was my favorite.

For Sweets we had colorful meringues, mini cookie dough cheesecakes with chocolate ganache, madeleines, cupcakes, cream puffs and candy.

One of many things I loved about this shower was the range of guests from very young to much older, its a testament to Darlene's friends and made the day enjoyable.

For each guest I packaged up the Chocolate Bark I had made here. My friends girls all made the boxes in colorful paper for each guest to take home and enjoy.

And finally the Twin identical baby girl names. Their first girl's name is Charlotte and she revealed that they named their girls after cities. So P = Paige (as in Texas) and S = Sydney (as in Australia). So there you have it Paige and Sydney. What did you guess?

Griffith Park: Part 2 Details

I had too many images for one post and the details on the Griffith Observatory actually made me excited about shooting images. Made me update my Flickr account too, It's been a long time that I felt that way. Maybe because I work at home and don't get out as much, but I was truly excited.

I watched this day a father with his teenage son. He had his camera or iPhone and was taking pictures of the details too, his son said to him, "Really dad it's just ridges, how can that be interesting. Ugh." I had to laugh because I was drawn to the same details of the building. You have to open your eyes and really look at what's around you. Look close at things from different angles and you'll start to see the inanimate objects from a whole new perspective. Makes life so much more enjoyable. I think I kind of keep that philosophy in life in general, always trying to see things from the other point of view, helps to understand where people are coming from and why they say or do or choose a course of life.

Griffith Observatory

A couple of weeks ago we had the opportunity to spend a day with new friends who happen to be missionaries in Jamaica. They were here for a week and while they had lots of errands to do this day we wanted to make sure they got to see something Iconic in LA. So we choose the Hollywood Sign and Griffith Observatory.

Admittedly, I haven't been up here in a long time. And, I fear this post will be photo overload. There are so many details on this building that I had a hard time editing down my photos.

My initial memories of this place are coming up here in my early 20's with my cousin. He'd come to LA and wanted to visit all the top tourist, iconic spots. Being from the Westside, ashamedly I hadn't ventured out to far past Hollywood and Vine to the Palace dance club. I had never seen the footprints at Hollywood's Grauman theater and hadn't been to the Observatory as an adult. So we ventured up at night and stood in line to see the planetarium show. Pink Floyd and lasers, doesn't get much better than that. Though I do remember the chairs being uncomfortable, wood school chairs with iron stands that attached to the chair and concave wood headrests weren't really my idea of comfort. Since that first time the observatory has gone under renovation. Starting in 2002 they remodel the observatory, it's all done now, I will need to make a trip out again and test out the planetarium seats, I'm sure they promise to be more comfortable.

On this day we spent more time outside then inside, it's beautiful and the view on a less smoggy, marine layer day can be sensational.

History of this place includes a Welshman who wanted Los Angeles to have a great park like so many other cities in the world. He donated this land to Los Angeles and said this, "It must be made a place of rest and relaxation for the masses, a resort for the rank and file, for the plain people." I love these intentions, and indeed there are many trails through out Griffith Park and it truly is a place to just hang out and relax.

The Observatory was also part of Mr. Griffith's wishes, when he first peered into a telescope and saw the wonders of the stars up close he knew the rest of us needed that same opportunity.

So many movies have been filmed up here from Rebel Without A Cause, (there is a James Dean statue dedicated to him on the grounds), to Charlies Angels Full Throttle and Transformers. It's truly an Iconic LA place. Also Huell Howser and native from Tennessee who moved to California and TRULY loved California, did a show called California Gold where he featured the Observatory after the renovation. As much as Huell's accent annoyed me, he LOVED California and showed all the great things about this place that the average person would have no idea about had he not shared them with us. If it comes on PBS you'll have to catch it. He loved this place so much when he died this year they had his memorial at the Observatory.

I took most of these pictures with my Nikon D80 but couldn't help but snap a few photos with my iPhone and Hipstamic App.

Arches and view so amazing to see around every corner.

In 2002 they put new copper sheets on the dome, right now they are black or dark brown in a few years they will turn out to be the patina green color we have come to know and love.

Mindless Monday - Spring

Spring has sprung, this is probably my favorite time of year, next to fall. I love all the flowers and brightness of the sky, that is when it's not clouded over by the beach marine layer. Here are a few of my iPhone shots that I took while on my walks. See all the fun little flowers that make us smile each day. Enjoy.

Organic Still Life

Over the past few weeks during my walks about town a few things constantly catch my eye. I love the inspiration of the color combinations in nature. The sunlight peeking thru the changing fall leaves. The old windows with a pop of color in the landscape. The sunset light thru a lifeguard station (blur in purpose) and the distressed paint on rustic door and latch I see on my journey's.

Tissue Papers Flowers

I never thought I'd get this crafty. But I've done a few small parties and wanted to not have to buy premade decorations, so I had my friend Mia come over and show me how to make the Hanging Pom Poms. Then I got inspired by this Pinterest post, which led me to this blog post at Rust & Sunshine. I pretty much followed her directions, but modified the colors to match a baby shower invitation. Here are a few of my steps, but please check out Michelle DuPuis blog post above on Rust & Sunshine for all the lovely flower shapes and color choices.

The great thing about tissue paper is it's cheap, try the 99cents store. I was able to afford a nice bundle from there along with the pipe cleaners, so much cheaper then the craft stores and tissue paper and pipe cleaners are all the same. I cut the stems off my flowers as I glued them to a foam core board above to use as a backdrop. Seriously I love this these flowers and all the colors.

Supplies: Tissue paper. Fuzzy pipe cleaners and scissors.

Cut Medium size flowers into 10x10 squares. Generally 6 tissue papers work fine. Use any combination of colors. I found that I liked 4 lighter color tissues on the bottom and 2 dark colors on top to be my favorite. I also made smaller flowers so I cut the paper down to 5x5 squares and only used 5 pieces of tissue paper and this worked out well.

Once you've stacked up your piles start folding the paper accordion style. About 1 inch for each fold.

Next take your piping and wrap it around the middle of the folded paper, as shown above.

Next comes the cutting of the edges. This is where you decide what kind of flower you want. Rose, Dahlia, Daisy, Chrysathemum, etc... cut the edges accordingly. I like rounded edges best, but it was fun to play with a few different cuts.

Fan out the paper and then start slowing pulling it towards the middle. Remember it's tissue paper so be gentle, it tears easily. I have to say this is my favorite part.

Final Flower. It's up to you how you want to display them. Some people put them in vases and display them like real flowers. I chose to lop of the piping as I was gluing all the flowers to a foam core board for a special project above. My color inspiration was based on a baby shower invitation, which has lots of coral reef colors in it. Also the Madewell board below spurred on this whole idea.

What to do with all the scraps, I saved them and glued them to the foam core to fill in the holes where I didn't have enough flowers. Whatever you do, enjoy the process and the creativity.

Kitchen Makeover

As a few of my followers here and on Instagram know last year I entered a blog post into Alt Summit Blog Carnival Contest which was sponsored by Wilsonart. The blog post was about my counter tops and can be found here. Well I won the Grand Prize which consisted of a ticket to Alt Summit in Salt Lake City, you've already seen my post about that here and here. But the second bonus was I won new counter top for my tired kitchen tiles and a new sink from Wilsonart. BONUS!

Choosing the counter top was not as easy as I thought, but we made our mind up and choose a nice big sink. Once you start this process you begin to see all kinds of other things that need to be updated. First on the list was a faucet, the old one was sub par to start with, but now we have a nice fancy one. I can't imagine what it's like to redo a whole kitchen because choosing counter tops, sink, faucet, clearing everything out, cleaning up afterwards and organizing (still doing this) was no small task.

What turned out to be a good thing, but wasn't what we requested is we didn't want the back splash. My cousin had given me some subway tile and we were going to actually have a real tile back splash. But what we discovered after all the tile was torn out and the counters were gone is that they had indeed cut the counter top material with a back splash. So there went my tile idea. I say this is a good thing, because at the moment we can't really afford to have this done or purchase extra tile, as I'm not sure I have enough of the original. Solution? Paint. We went out and bought paint to match the other area of the kitchen and got that done super quick, moved the stove back and started using our kitchen again.

Can I say I love not having to clean tile and the big sink is super convenient to use. Items left to do are: 1. Freshen up the paint on the cabinets. Save that for another day. 2. Need to re-paper all the cabinets and drawers, as they look shameful. I've order some new patterns from Amazon.com and will start on that in the next few days. We still have items out of the cabinets and on our patio. [gasp] 3. Order a new kitchen rug as the old one now doesn't match and well it's pretty shabby too.

So once again, I thank Wilsonart for the lovely new counter tops and sink. And I thank Alt Summit for the amazing experience in Salt Lake City.

Here are a few before and after photos:

Before

After

Before Old Shabby Tiny Sink

After. Great Sink and new fancy faucet from Home Depot. Gotta love my sugar and creamer from Casa de Perrin too.

Before (I had all my boards covering up the old counter tops) I had 3 boards, now I just have two. One marble and one boos block for baking and chopping in that order.

After

Painted the wall Morning Sky Blue (Benjamin Moore). Kei & Molly tea towels and turquoise tea kettle (KitchenAid). I consolidated all my cooking utensils in two simple white canisters. (Bed, Bath & Beyond and Sur La Table). Spice Rack (Soho Spices)

Entire Before Kitchen (told you it was small)

After. Looks so much better.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Manic Monday

I'm kinda wishing I was on this road right now.

Alt Summit Blog

As most of my readers know I've ventured on a slight career change to a more technical type of job.

Still in the marketing area, but more tech focused. I am now working from home, yes I have set hours and I change out of my PJ's every morning, not saying much about the upper undergarments, depends on the weather.

Over the past 6 months I've been trying to be regular about posting and finding my voice on this platform.

I am interested in so many things. Travel and food seem to come to the top, sprinkled with my life activities.

Good friends and

bloggers

My Life at Playtime

and

A Simply Raw Life

have turned me onto

Alt Design Summit

. E

ach

year they have summit's that happen in a different city. They also have a blog with the best advice on being a better blogger and running it as a business. In January, the Alt Summit is in Salt Lake City. The registration day came and went for

SLC

as I was in the middle of 3 weeks of volunteer work and didn't log in on time to register. In the meantime I've been regularly reading their suggestions, tweets,

facebook

posts and their featured classes. This is invaluable information for any blogger, established and brand new.

For blogging inspiration and business advice check out

the new Alt blog

.

I'm determined to go to SLC to be inspired by all those bloggers out there.

One of my favorite blogs post on Alt is about

Building an Online Community

. This is practical advice and I said to

myself "DUH! Make it happen."

Lately I've had a little interest from the outside on my Cuba story and am DETERMINED to finish it. Yes my Dad knows about the story being in the

blogosphere

and has encouraged me to finish it. I have to say my favorite blog post is this one

Cuba A Bittersweet Tale Part III

, makes me cry every time I go back and read it.

Enjoy!

Mindless Monday

I am starting to love summer almost as much as I love spring.

One of my favorite flowers is the Matilda. They look like big sunny-side eggs. I took these images at the Adamson House in Malibu, but I see them everywhere now. Enjoy!