these are my confessions...

i love earrings.  i could do without rings, bracelets, and necklaces...but when i leave the house without earrings in, i feel naked.  during college there were many days that i stumbled out of bed, tucked my sweatpants that i slept in into my fake uggs (i know, i know, but they were sooooo comfy!!!) and began walking to my morning class only to realize halfway that i forgot to put on earrings.  egad!  i would then turn around to go back to my apartment, up the three flights of stairs, open up my finicky door, storm into my bedroom to grab a pair and dash out again, hopefully to make it to class on time (my approximate walking commute time to my classes was 7 minutes, as long as they were in the architecture building, 1 minute if in the fine arts building.)

so earrings are important to me, and boy was i excited to see a great variety of my favorite accessory at unique LA this past weekend (see previous post.)  i did a good job at being frugal, purchasing only two pair.  i had to tell myself that i already owned plenty of earrings (truth) and that there will be other unique LA's or other shows in which i can buy amazing one of a kind jewelry.

from gambetta beads are these one of a kind earrings made of ceramic and glazed in some beautiful glazes that make this great color and texture on the baked clay.  i took a ceramic class and made a sculpture in a similar glaze.

And these babies are from osec.

unique LA

this was definitely the place to be on this beautiful saturday.  unique LA is a great event held at the California Market on the corner of 9th and main in downtown LA. it is the largest independent design show in the country where attendees get the chance to meet and shop directly from over 300 designers and artists.  it is all about buying local, supporting LA's economy and supporting amazing artists and designers.  there were a few free workshops that popped up throughout the day.  there was free water from function water and honest tea was there with free bottles of tea (yummers!)  there were some local gourmet foods such as platine bakery (the best cookies i've ever had, ever....will probably have to be a future post solely on this bakery) and burlesque bakery (cute and amazingly delicious mini cupcakes with cutesy names like brigitte bardot, temptest storm, and bettie page---i tried this one which is chocolate cake, marshmallow fluff filling, bourbon buttercream, garnished with potato chips.)

anywho.  my friend tina and i went this expo today and it was the best way to spend our day for sure.  the set up on the top floor of the california market center was the perfect place.  our $10 entry got us this awesome bag from keith scharwath as well as the aforementioned free drinks and all sorts of other free loot from various booths.  also, i am now officially going to join etsy.com and add the majority of the designers that i saw today to my favorites list, and shop away!  i did come home with a few items, which i will blog about throughout the week.

i heart frank gehry

i'm having an affair with a famous architect.  his name is frank gehry, and he is a genius.
i'm not really having an affair, this is him:

the first gehry structure that i was able to witness up close is his work in millennium park in chicago.  the jay pritzker pavillion, the great lawn, the bridge, the titanium clad everything!!!  love to go here and dance around the great lawn and walk across the bridge.  and hug gehry's titanium, of course (do what?!?!)

the pritzker pavillion:

What brings me to the topic of gehry and his work is not this first experience a few years ago, but my newest experience here in la:  the walt disney concert hall.  this place is beautiful and decadent.  it completely inspires me to be everything that i know i can be.  frank gehry, will you teach me?  i will be your protege.  you could be like batman and i, robin.  ok, these metaphors are getting a bit creepy, but seriously, frank o gehry is one of my fave architects and the disney concert hall is a must see, so go check it out, and hop over to the moca too, it's pretty cool.

Oh the places you will go.

did you know that frank gehry graduated from the usc school of architecture?  i am applying there next year, i hope to get in.  he is also a studio instructor this coming year.  how cool is that??

santa barbara

ok la, i've had enough of you, and now that i've discovered santa barbara, i think i'll be moving there.  oh, wait...i guess maybe i should wait until danny is finished with school...so give me 5-6 years.

seriously, why do more people not live here?  this has got to be one of the most beautiful, laid back places on earth, no?  ok, there are probably some places in italy and southern france which beat it out, but for socal, i think this is the place.  it may have beat out san diego for me as my favorite city.  hmmm...maybe not, but one thing is for sure, it is the one place that after having only been there for a day, my husband and i can both agree that we want to live there...someday.

santa barbara just has that laid back college town vibe. it is sandwiched between the beautiful blue pacific and the gloriously green mountains.  what's not to love?

my husband and i went on a whale watching tour where we saw hundreds of common dolphin, sea lions, and at least 4 humpback whales.  sweet.

ucsb is literally right on the water.  i want to go to there.  why don't they have an architecture school?  arg.

there is a cute cafe just off of state street called crushcafe.  part of it is also crushcakes, supposedly the best cupcakes ever.  i'll be the judge...next time, this time we ate far too much cheese at a wine bar on state street. don't worry, there will probably be much more to come in my blog regarding santa barbara as the husband and i intend to spend a lot of our summer there.  yay.

check out santa barbara car free for great things to see and do in santa barbara county sans vehicle.