slopes

with iphone. but i think they need to invent a case-thing with a wrist leash for taking pictures on the chairlift.

Isn't there something just inherently 70's about skiing? Maybe it's the childhood memories of my parents in their orange and brown gear, rocking the skinny skis and aviator glasses.

snow and lights

Little snow lanterns on our deck railing in Mammoth... pretty.







I love nestling into our living room up here at night, drinking wine, making big dinners and playing games. OH and getting back into legit blogging mode. Most everyone else seems to be on holiday but I've been so absent, this time is perfect to catch up.

I'm getting some wedding posts together for the curious. fun.

recycled wrapping (mostly)

Inside-out grocery/shopping bags tied up with pretty ribbon and butcher's twine = wrapping paper that makes me feel less guilty when all the presents have been opened and the recycling bin is full. Inside-out unless there are good graphics to be used, like the Spacecraft bag we lugged home from Melbourne. Couldn't resist the festive red dots.



And for spice, super easy tags punched from the papersource catalog and backed (using studio tac) with more grocery bag paper so there's a place to write.

It's amazing how much more comprehensive your craft supply area becomes post-wedding. Makes the last minute wrapping crisis much easier to handle.

merry belated xmas

So things were a leeetle bit crazy leading up to Christmas this year, due to a truly extraordinary feat of procrastination from yours truly. But we did get our house in order which always makes me happy when I get home from work and it's dark and cold. I love having lights on around the eaves, and on the tree. yay christmas decors!



look, it's our funky little house! all dressed up for December. I couldn't resist taking a picture a few weeks ago once I had it all cleaned up and ready for Sunday evening wine drinking and perusing of Gourmet/catching up on emails/spending QT with the computer.







And a few vintage ornaments from my grandma's collection that my mom gave me for my shower. Something about Christmas that makes vintage pretties a necessity.

I hope everyone had an excellent Christmas, if you celebrate, and an excellent few days of general relaxation if you don't.

We're in Mammoth now for a little snowboarding and general lazing by the fire. Everyone should laze by the fire for a few days during December, me thinks.

the other kind of photobooth

I'm kind of torn. We set up a photobooth for my company holiday party on Thursday night... okay WE is the wrong word. I had nothing to do with it. I was busy with the crudite and cheese platter and mixers for the champagne cocktails, but you know, WE as a company set one up. ANYWAY. It's pretty f-ing fun. And now I'm thinking is this better than real photobooth action? I like the teeny pictures from real photobooth but I like the artistic freedom that this allows, you know? we had pictures with people doing handstands and sitting on the tops of ladders. it was pretty good.

I'm not going to say who, but it's highly possible that SOMEONE had 1-2 too many ddlllrinkity-ddllrinks.



Disclaimer - we DID have a professional photographer friend set this all up for us with nice lighting, etc. But I think some wedding photogs can do this too.

Also, after your wedding, every party/event must be executed with wedding-like attention to detail. Which is not always efficient or necessary. You've been warned.

more etsy things to love

I've been trolling etsy. again. I can't stop myself. It's like a black hole once you start clicking,

mudpuppy






makes the cutest little ceramics. just when i think i can never look at another owl, i see these teeny ornaments and NEED.


also, there is lilfishstudios



and her perfect felted acorns in a range of colors.

why are little, thoughtful things so irresistable this time of year?

prettiest flowers for an as of yet to be determined event

So since the wedding has passed, i'm going to need to come up with an event that is important enough to rationalize employing Dandelion Ranch. Their work is so rad.







seed pods. love seed pods and persimmons and asparagus fern and succulents all together in one pretty vintage vessel. I'm trying to weasel my way into future sister-in-law Melanie's (now referring to her as FSIL Melanie) appointment with them. Maybe I can hire them for floral decors for my make believe backyard banjo party in the summer?

Images from Dandelion Ranch, (cutest name, BTW). Found via Daily Candy.

firey-eyed polaroids

Have you seen Nectar & Light? sooo pretty. i made a few purchases this afternoon from her etsy store... FOR PRESENTS. not for me. me will come later when the season for giving has passed. but i already have mine picked out.



(i think i originally found a link to her blog from P? cannot remember, but P's blog is muy excellente anyway.)

my bridesmaids, in their own shade of green

while i'm on the subject of my maids, want to see how my mismatched posse came out?





YEEEEAH. They look good, no? I loved them in their varied shades and different dresses. So those photos I showed you earlier didn't lie after all!

I saw Polka Dot Bride also did a post on this same thing a week or so ago and I cannot say enough how much happier your ladies will be if you let them pick something that looks good on them, that they feel comfy in, and maybe makes them feel just a little bit sexy. (It was a cocktail party after all.)

Now I'm aware this styling isn't for everyone, but just think about it. Plus it's less wasteful when you consider that they will actually wear these dresses again vs. stuffing them in the back of the closet for the next 20 years.

So if you hate the earth, GO AHEAD, make them all buy the same dress. But if you love it, you should consider this excellent option, is all I'm saying.

photos from michéle m. waite, obv.

gifts for my maids or anyone really

Being that I'm not sure where to start with the remaining DIY projects and the wedding itself, how about with something peripherally related to the wedding instead?

For my maids/matrons of honor (they were all equally weighted at our wedding) I wanted to give them something perty and useful and fun that in no way involved a heart-shaped engraved necklace charm. I apologize in advance to those who are into this sort of thing, but barf.

With 9, I also didn't want to spend a ton per gift. I mean I love them all to pieces but, well you know how things add up as the wedding draweth nigh. I decided to give them each a sample of things I love, that I pretty much cannot live without and that frankly, they shouldn't either.



1) A Baggu. I f-ing love these bags. They are super handy, hold a ton of groceries, and come with a little pouch that fits perfectly in your purse. I carry at least 2 with me at all times. And I don't limit their use to groceries. They come out at home depot, jcrew, wherever. Yes, I'm the weird girl who uses her own bag when she buys clothes.

2) Hanky Pankys. OBVIOUSLY. I cannot live without these. They fit perfectly, they are comfortable under almost any clothes, they rarely show lines, they come in as many colors as Baggus, and they make you feel just a teeny bit sexy all the time. And they have a new organic cotton line, bonus!

3) Mistral soap. You can find Mistral everywhere but I love them because their first store and "headquarters" is on Cedros in Solana Beach (my home town, baby) and I've been a regular shop lurker from the beginning. And of course they make the most delicious smelling soaps and lotions.

So my girls got something that makes them smell nice, feel nice, and live nice... in rainbow colors. And I wrapped them all in mismatched, re-used shopping bags, (like the ones from boutiques and Kiehls and wine stores), because I'm obsessed with recycled wrapped supplies.

banjo jam at the hollywood farmers market

WELL, we didn't come close to doing all the things i claimed we were going to this weekend... I mean, obviously. but who cares, right? I don't.

Instead we did things like go, for the first time in the 7 years that I've lived in LA, to the Sunday Hollywood Farmer's Market. Just the musicians alone made it worth the trip. That and the salted carmel ice cream.





I <3 this trio. They were so into their music, so soulful with their banjo and fiddling and old-timey music. I need to invent an excuse to have a party, next summer, in our backyard... so they can come play.

This is why you travel. Because then you come home and you look at your own city like a visitor and you again appreciate all the beautiful moments it has to offer. Plus for a thoroughly contented west-sider, going to Hollywood IS like traveling. We don't get out much.

Heath LA opens this weekend

I'm nearly as excited about this as I was about our wedding. Okay, maybe not THAT excited. But I'm pretty delirious with anticipation. Whhhhyyyy do I love housewares so much??? It's like coffee. My life would probably be a lot better if I didn't drink it, but it's sooooo good and warm and thoroughly essential to the very core of my being.







(pictures from Heath, invite from my friend Deja who works as an interior designer for one of Heath's partners, Marmol Radziner. Thanks Dej!)

Also this weekend, we are getting our Christmas tree, going to this, making our Thank You cards (yay - projects!), and continuing to dig ourselves out from under the wedding debris that is still covering our house (and our life) with a light to medium dusting of supplies, boxes, projects, and other ephemera.

Yay, weekend.

the one i've been waiting for all year

I have a thing for under appreciated flowers. And foods actually for that matter. I fall happily into line in what Molly from Orangette calls the Parade of Underappreciated Vegetables each winter. Anything odd and bitter, uncommon and under loved is welcome in my kitchen anytime. The same goes for flowers and plants - especially the shaggy, spiny, not quite flowery Protea/Banksia family. Which is kind of like the kohlrabi of flowers, both being curious and semi-prehistoric looking.

Isn't it neat? It's kind of photogenic with all it's varied textures and colors.





Happy holiday season. I can't believe it's December.

when you're away for a month

You come back to a sad, cold, unlived in house and it's raining and the house is a semi-disaster because you left in a rush. And there are lots of little friends now inhabiting your space. And some of them, no not you spiders, are really pretty:



This guy was having his merry way with the parsley growing in what used to be my vegetable garden. Now it's a tangle of dead tomato plants, weeds, cucumber carcasses, and the largest zucchini I've ever seen, which at this point I think I'll just let grow back there until it bursts.

I think he's a tomato worm actually, but since there are no tomatoes left, I suppose he had to settle for something else.

I'm getting back into it here people. I have a handful of projects for the wedding left, and then there's the wedding itself of course, but it's hard to just jump right into that.

where to start

How about with chocolate? it's really as good a place as any, don't you think?

Um, so we're back! we had the bestest time and now, back at work, it seems like we never left. Amazing how 2 days at the office can do that to you. But today is the farmer's market so everything will be better now.

We arrived back to reality on wednesday morning super early, drove to san diego for serious family thanksgiving time and finally slept in our own (very excellent if I do say) bed on saturday night. But before retiring to our lovely Tempurpedic, we made a trip to adult disneyland, aka Whole Foods in venice, where I discovered this chocolate bar:



Clearly, we only bought one that first night. But then the next night, I needed another. Bad. I don't even particularly like chocolate. It's FINE, don't get me wrong. But it's not my thing. Nor are desserts really at all. But this, this is different. It's the most deliciously dark chocolate with salty/sweet hazelnuts inside.

Salt + chocolate (or anything sweet) = divinity.

So, we drove back to Whole Foods the next night where I noticed there was only a SMATTERING of these bars left. Which of course put me into panicky disaster preparedness mode, overcome by the need to stockpile lest these bars disappear forever. You can see in the picture 2 empty boxes and 2 full boxes. We have to ration them.

So what I'm saying is GO TO WHOLE FOODS. Get these bars. They are from Charles Chocolates, a boutique chocolatier in the Bay Area, and these particular bars are specially made for Whole Foods. The Emeryville Collection, they are calling them. I won't tell you how much they cost. Just throw them into your basket along with a weeks worth of groceries and you won't even notice when you see your total.