Long Beach Dog Beach

It was extra busy on a saturday.

Hufflepuff

The last Harry Potter movie is coming out next month. It's wild to think I really did grow up with Harry. I have spent so many nights dreaming about Hogwarts. I would undoubtedly be a Hufflepuff, and be extremely proud of it.

Clockwise from left:
1. Creatures of Comfort Sarah Cape from Oogaboogastore.com. 
2. Spells and Charms notebook from Celestefrittata on Etsy.
3. Care of Magical Creatures notebook from Celestefrittata on Etsy.
4. Deathly Hallows charm necklace from HollyPresley on Etsy.
5. Owl Post Telegram from Celestefrittata on Etsy.

Plümo

I just discovered this adorable site plumo.com. It is full of eclectic items for the house and simple but unique clothing... just my style. Below are a few of my most coveted items.

Although I am taking a break from shopping since I recently purchased the iPad 2, (and paid extra for the super soft and gorgeous tan leather smart cover) so for now I can only admire...

Fabric Printing #1

my first attempt at printing on fabric using a hand cut foam stamp.

Craft Spells/New Order

Last night we saw Beach Fossils at the Echoplex, a long awaited birthday gift from Megan. The band Craft Spells was the middle act and I quite liked them. Mainly because they sound like New Order and their album art for Idle Labor, even looks like an updated version of Power, Corruption and Lies. Either way I really like both albums and both covers. Enjoy!

Undecorate

I just ordered the book Undecorate from by favorite bookstore Hennessey+Ingalls at Space1520. This book is so lovely, I adore the light and airy rooms. That is one thing I like about having large windows in our living room. 

I love these trees painted on the walls. They remind me of my good friend Darla's house who recently passed away. She used to give me art lessons and hang out with me when my mom was working. She painted cracks in her walls with vines growing out, and fake bookcases on her cabinets. This painting looks so much like the one in her dining room.

 

I love this room so much. It is so bare and clean, yet looks cozy and lived in.

 

These chairs remind me of Chairy, my orange chair that it got at the flea market in Tulsa for $25. This was one of the first pieces of furniture I bought for myself. It  stayed in my apartment all through college. And she now lives with some good friends.

Yes it is named after Pee Wee Herman's chair.

These floors are great. I currently have fake hardwood floors. Wood is wonderful. It looks pretty, smells nice. It feels cool and warm at the same time. I have been thinking of ditching life in LA and moving to the country quite a lot recently. This photo is making a good argument for a log cabin.

 Can't wait to get my book and see more!

Griffith Park Pic Nic

My buddies, Melissa and Peter invited us on a picnic last Saturday. We decided to go to Griffith Park and enjoy our lunch in the abandoned Los Angeles Zoo. I had been there before, so I was excited to show some of my friends. It is kind of a creepy place, rusty bars, broken fences, and dark enclosures covered in graffiti. You can even lock yourself (or your dog) into the cages. But the open field (I think it may have been a lion pit) was actually a very nice place for our picnic. 

Melissa made incredible food, Turkey, Apple and Cheddar sandwiches, also Salmon and Cucumber! Sooo good. We also had lemonade and chocolate chip cookies! Yum!

Melissa's adorable parasol blanket side.

It wouldn't be a picnic without the dog. Here is Megan getting tangled up with Bijou.

She then of course came to attack our picnic. She has no manners!

then a tiny silk worm appeared from above to join us.

Walking back to the car we discovered this large and spiny pod. Since we are such a curious species we just had to cut it open. It's one of the coolest plants I have found in Griffith Park. So if you have never hiked up to the old LA Zoo, it is definitely worth the trip.

In the Dog House

Bill found some really sturdy poster boards in the dumpster recently and we have been discussing a use for them. One idea is to build a dog house for Bijou. I've been researching some of the coolest pet dens and found most of them on http://dog-milk.com. Here are some of the best..

Click the photos to learn more about these crazy cool dog houses.

Greenery

I got a few more succulent specimens to add to the collection. They really make me smile every time I 

look at them. 

............ I planted this tiny one in a vintage tea cup that I had been so afraid to break that I never used it. Now it has a very happy home by the window.

............ I loved this little aloe plant for it's awesome pink spines..

............ My new favorite. I love his fuzziness and his really bad-ass name.

Springtime With The Ones I Love

  

Birthday Love

Yesterday I celebrated my 25th birthday. I got so many wonderful gifts and love from my very treasured friends and family. This is just a small thank you and slightly an excuse to brag about all of my amazing presents.

Melissa and Peter went all out as usual. I received a special delivery all the way from Hogsmede Village. A PACKAGE OF CAULDRON CAKES! Delivered by owl of course.

My mom had a lovely bouquet of flowers delivered to my door. She also sent me this adorable mushroom container from Anthropologie. To top it off I go to go on a mini shopping spree at IKEA. I now have this awesome rug for the living room and my closet looks much more organized.

thanks to my pops, I now have the Wii Fit! I'm on my third day of my yoga routine. Very calming, I'm already feeling better and more limber!

My love, Megan Love gave me the most adorable necklace (a little pair of golden scissors), from one of my favorite stores PopKiller. She also gave me concert tickets to see BEACH FOSSILS. She is pretty amazing. Thanks joycie!

The lovely Sarah gave me records for my collection. The Tom Tom Club and Joy Division. If only my record player wasn't broken :( Gah. Thank you sarah, you are so sweet!

I got a long distance hello from my favorite people in Colorado. Meghan and Alex. I miss them everyday, so I was ecstatic to get a wooden birthday greeting :)

Finally my #1 love, billy got me many many gifts, dinner, magazine subscriptions, a trip to Pittsburgh! and this adorable little pocket knife necklace at the Melrose Flea Market. So cute, and functional! 

all in all, a magnificent birthday. Thank you so much for all of the love. 

Spice Rack

Last night I designed a shelf using Google SketchUp. It was my first time using the program and its awesome! I am going to be using this all the time.

Polyvore Album Art

I've been obsessed with polyvore.com for quite some time. It is a wonderful way to waste hours making mini collages and a very unique way to shop online. After making hundreds of collages based around fashion, I branched out into designing album cover art for some of my favorite bands. I strongly recommend polyvore to those who have not yet discovered it's awesomeness. enjoy!

Three New Succulents

recently acquired plants for our growing collection.

Privacy Windows (for free)!

My boyfriend and I recently moved into a new apartment in Hollywood. One of my favorite features of the new place is the enormous picture window that takes up one wall of the living room. I love my great view of the sunset over the Sunset strip, but I DON'T love that all of my neighbors can see everything I am up to inside. We had been keeping the curtains closed, but it was getting a bit dark and depressing in the place.

Since we are short on cash as usual, we came up with this idea to cover the bottom half of our windows.

We needed to give ourselves some privacy, but without sacrificing the light, our view, or any money. We wanted to stay away from window film, an obvious solution, since a) no money and b) we are renters, I don't really want to be scraping and scrubbing goo residue from the windows when we move. We were inspired by this post on Manhattan Nest, where a cornstarch mixture was used to affix fabric over windows. Fabric was more opaque than we wanted, and I've heard bugs can be attracted to the cornstarch. And again this needed to be a free project.Finally after some testing we came up with the solution for us.

We cut stripes from a roll of white tissue paper we had around the house and attached them to the window using very very diluted Elmer's Glue.  Elmer's School Glue is non toxic and washable, exactly what we needed for our project. We did a few test strips on the glass and after it dried, I was able to peal it off in one piece.  We dipped the paper into the glue/water mixture (about 1 part glue to 6 parts water) and smoothed it on to the glass using a sponge. It took a bit of care to remove all the air bubbles, but I enjoy doing things like that.

It turned out quite nicely in the end, it only took about 2 hours and it was all from things we already had in the house. It's so nice to keep the windows open :)