shattered: the coolest thing to happen to nail polish

lavender under white shattered

I have no idea how I came across this last night, but I knew I had to have it ASAP.  Thanks to my grandma who always gets me JcPenny gift cards for every holiday, I found myself in the JcPenny salon asking "where is your OPI shattered?!?"  It was not out in plain view and the women I had spoke with on the phone a few hours before TOLD me that had it.

They had it, it was locked up.  They keep this stuff locked up because it is that awesome!

There are only a few colors to choose from right now, but the possibilities are almost endless with the combinations.  You just put regular nail polish on, the usual 2 coats or whatever (they say it works BEST when used with OPI color underneath, but it's probably no different with another brand.  I haven't tried it, but I feel like nail polish is all the same...)  Then, after the bottom color dries you brush on the shattered and watch it do its thang.  You can try brushing it different directions and changing the thickness of which you apply it for different effects.  I like the way it looks when applied diagonally.

I can't wait for 4th of July, it's gonna be all red, white, and blue shattered all over my nails!

hot pink under turquoise shattered

Dark Chocolate Kit Kats, the Japanese got it right!

I'm completely addicted to these now.  I will never eat a regular Kit Kat again, and trust me, there have been many times I have eaten more than my share of Kit Kats in a single day.  This brings an interesting question:  Why do brands offer different versions of their treats in different countries?  I'm sure massive amounts of marketing studies go into deciding which product will succeed with particular demographics, but what about what I want?? When I was in Beijing, my friend introduced me to these amazing Oreo wafer treats, similar idea to the Kit Kat, but by Oreo.  They are amazing, and I want them in the States!  Until then, I will mosey over to Mitsuwa anytime I crave a delicious Kit Kat.

Incredible Design from Japan

I had to share this because it is so unique and I think it is beautiful.

the organic dilemma.

I always try to buy organic fruits and vegetables.  I'm particular about my eggs, lettuce, tomatoes, and check labels on anything packaged making sure there are no artificial dyes, preservatives, or HFCS.  I don't mind spending the few cents extra for higher quality food or the extra money for free range hormone free chicken for Danny.  One thing I don't do is buy organic milk.  It's just that it is 2.99 for regular, vs 5.99 for organic, I don't drink cow's milk, and Danny claims he dislikes the taste of the organic.  But every weekend at Trader Joe's as I lift the regular 2% milk from the case, I get this bad feeling coming over me, like I am doing something wrong.  When did I become so radical?  Am I radical?  I often feel I belong in Portland, but at least I am in LA where being the way I am is not looked at like such a freak, as it is my hometown of Poplar Bluff, Missouri.  I know my family thinks I'm a weirdo.

What are your food purchasing dilemmas?  I can't be the only one who has them :)

Living room makeover begins

We are finally getting around to adding some life to our living room by painting the walls and getting a decal for the tv wall.  Right now it has been a bit of hodge podge on the walls.  I have art I have wanted to put up, but need a new frame.  I have some art on the walls, but never really took care in placing it.  Basically we have finally decided we are probably going to be living here for a long time, so we may as well make it our own.  But what color to choose?  Even though I was set on grey, this was one of the lightest I found on a swatch that was true grey with not blue or purple undertones and it is still too dark for me.  Danny and I are both leaning toward the lightest yellow.  We also thought maybe just doing the tv wall in the blue or grey and making it an accent with the other two walls being white or the yellow.  Ugh, I am really not sure yet.  Perhaps some more sampling is in store for next weekend.

Either way, the tv wall will have an awesome decal on it. I am leaning toward these:


from DabbleDown on Etsy


from Kinky Wall on Etsy


From PlanetWallArt on Etsy


From What is Blik?

I'm thinking if the wall is yellow, going with a deep charcoal colored decal.  If the wall is blue or gray, going with a red or orange decal.  Pretty excited!

Grad School

I have wanted to go back to school since about 2 minutes after I graduated from undergrad.  I have always wanted to be an architect, but I just let a few things get in my path and thought I would try being an interior designer for a little while first.  Working at my first job, making the saddest wage a professional with a bachelor's degree should ever make, doing work that was more than often boring and not really gaining much knowledge of design or being inspired at all, I found myself looking up architecture schools in LA.  I ended up applying to UCLA, USC, and SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture.)  About a month ago I found out I was accepted to SCI-Arc, but it seemed I would not be getting any financial help.  Well, $36,000 a year for 3.5 years (meaning taking 52,000 in loans a year to barely cover tuition and living expenses) was not going to be possible.  I was holding out for more affordable UCLA, until one Saturday at 4 am I awoke to a rejection email. That same day later in the afternoon I received a congratulations email from the Director of Admissions at SCI-Arc letting me know I was being offered a half scholarship, renewable each year upon academic success.

All of that said, I will be attending SCI-Arc to get my M.Arch 1 beginning this July.  I am pretty stoked and can't really think about too much else.  I told my boss and she is letting me stay until I start school.  Now I am taking a distance Physics course to finish off my pre-req's and then it will be all about architecture for the next 3.5 years.

I'm hoping to make time to keep up with this blog during that time.  At the very least I will post my projects on here.

Happy Easter!

Being the non-traditional people that we are, this was our Easter dinner.  Avocado enchiladas with corn.  To drink: Trader Jose's (a Trader Joe's brand of beer like Corona, only tastier and half the price.)  Happy Easter everyone!

The Recipe:

Avocado Enchiladas (makes 5 servings)

Sauce:

1 tsp oil

1 small yellow onion, finely diced

1 garlic clove, minced

2 tsp sugar

2 tbs cumin

1.5 tbsp dried oregeno

6 oz beer (1/2 can/bottle)

14 oz crushed or diced tomatoes

1/2 cup water

1 tbs balsamic vinegar

Filling:

4 ripe avocados

1/2 cup cilantro leaves, roughly chopped

1/2 onion, finely diced

juice from 1 lime

10 corn tortillas

enough shredded mozzarella or monterey jack cheese to top the enchiladas.

Heat oil in saucepan. Add onion and saute for 5 minutes.  Add garlic, sugar, cumin, oregano and saute another 2 minutes.  Add beer, tomatoes and water.  Simmer for 20 minutes.  Add vinegar.  Heat oven to 400 F.  Chop avocados and toss with cilantro and onion and lime juice.  Spread 1/2 cup of sauce on bottom of casserole.  Dip tortillas in remaining sauce.  Spoon 3 tablespoons filling into each.  Roll up and arrange, seam side down in casserole.  Pour remaining sauce over top of enchiladas and sprinkle with cheese.  Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes.  Remove foil and bake 5 minutes longer.

Eclectic Cakes

Today is the grand opening of my new bakery, Eclectic Cakes!  Check out the cupcake tab up there ^ and place your orders!  The first person to order cupcakes or cake balls gets there first 1/2 dozen free.  That means if you order 12 cupcakes, you only pay $15 and if you order a dozen cake balls you only pay $5!!  I only ask that you tell everyone you know in LA about my delicious cupcakes!

Thanks!

Belated Beijing Trip

As I'm sure you all know, I took my first trip to the Orient a few weeks ago.  Sorry for taking so long to really talk about it, besides posting my disturbing picture of my back a few posts ago, then another disturbing photo of a garlic clove in someone's ear.

Well, I am fully back into the daily grind, but really wishing I were still on vacation.  China was a great experience, one I am glad to have a great friend who lives there and speaks the language, otherwise I don't know how we would have survived.  Especially me, being vegetarian.  I was a little naive going into China, thinking that most people would at least know some English.  This was not the case.  My friend Katie was around most of the time and her boyfriend (who is Chinese) spoke English well enough to help us as well.

My favorite things about Beijing:  Nan Luoguxiang, which Katie's boyfriend calls "rocker street" and literally knows everyone and every shop and bar in the area.  Tasting and buying tea at the East Market.  The guy we bought it from was so passionate about tea it was inspiring.  The Great Wall, especially the less touristy part that Katie took us to because after you hike up, you get to ride a tobaggon back down to the village below.  Overall the whole trip was really awesome and I'm glad to have friends in many places across the globe to share these experiences with.

Is that a garlic clove in your ear?

Why yes, yes it is.  I hate medicine.  Luckily I have a supreme immune system and rarely, if ever, get sick.  When I feel anything coming on, I drink loads of herbal tea and hot water, eat fruit, and stay away from dairy.  Yesterday at work I started feeling icky and I was out of tea.  When I got home my ear started hurting like a full sinus infection with ear ache was brewing.  I was not about to have that.  After a quick google search for homeopathic way to keep an earache from developing I discovered the healing power of garlic.  Seriously, I just peeled a clove, cut off the two sharp ends and stuck it in my ailing ear.  Within minutes I felt relief.  I left it in there for at least 30 minutes and massaged my lymphatic drainage massage for a few minutes.  Voila!  I wake up this morning still feeling a little stuffy, but no earache.  Check out this link here for more information.

My most unusual souvenir from Beijing

Yes, that is my back.  No, the Chinese government did not give me lashings as I went through customs.  Though it looks like something from The Passion, this is something that I paid to have done to me.  It's referred to as "gua sha" or skin scraping and it is a Chinese Medicinal practice that is supposed to remove disease and sickness from your body.  The red you see is not bruising, it's sub-cutaneous blemishing caused by the extravasation of blood from the peripheral capillaries.  

First she oiled my back and gave me a mini massage.  Then she proceeded to run her rock down the sides of my spine enough times to not really hurt, but to the point where I would tell myself, "If she does it one more time I'm saying 'ow!'"  Then she moved on to my other meridians, at least I guess that what she was doing since it's pretty symmetrical.

Danny and I just didn't do this with no knowledge of it, my friend has had it done multiple times before, and for the equivalent of $5 USD each, we had to give it a try.  I really felt light and mobile and awake after having it done.  Though I must say that it was uncomfortable during the process and it was sore like a bruise the next day on the flight home.

Would I do it again?  Only in China.

cake pops at Starbucks

Cupcakes are old news, the new things are cake pops.  The babies are popping up at local cupcakeries and online shops all over LA.  I have made some myself with left over frosting the "muffin" top of the cake, then you coat it in chocolate.  Anyways....  I am really proud of Starbucks being on top of the bakery trends by offering three flavors of cake pops.  I think today must have been the first day of it because I got one of the three flavors that were on display.  For you lucky people reading my blog, I will let you know that tomorrow through Saturday from 2-5 pm you get a free cake pop with any drink purchase.  You know me, I couldn't wait a day so I paid for mine and just finished it right now.  It was really good actually.  Super moist and really flavorful.  Bravo Starbucks.  There are three flavors: birthday cake (yum.), rocky road, and tiramisu.

Anyway, get yourself to your local participating Starbucks over the next few days from 2-5 for a free cake pop and find out how awesome they are!!

Giveaway at S&S Express

Hey everyone, check out this giveaway from my friends over at S&S Express.  They are workout Queens and give great work out advice and routines with videos.

Good luck!

happy valentine's day!

Some people hate Valentine's Day, stating that it is a "hallmark" holiday forcing consumers to go out and buy crap their significant other does not really need.  I say these people don't have anyone on valentine's day and just want to ruin everyone's fun!  But as a side note, I hate hearts and teddy bears holding them, so I do agree with some aspects of the V-day haters reasoning.

Saturday night my husband had made reservations for a super romantic spot on the edge of Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades called Caffe Delfini.  I was so surprised.  In the 8 years that Danny and I have been together, I have been working really hard to get him to be romantic and surprise me, this was finally it!  He reserved the window seat, tucked into a corner of this tiny Italian place, owned by real Italians none-the-less!  We ordered a nice bottle of Italian red wine and had a very lovely dinner just a block off the PCH.  And tiramisu to finish it off, some of the best I've ever had!

I also would like to point out the fact that we celebrated V-day not on V-day...this is another thing that can be said against the date is that restaurants love to take advantage.  Pre-fixe menus that cost double what they normally would.  Terribly obvious foods like chocolate covered strawberries (which I love, but come on!) and pink champagne.  Gag.

I am a hopeless romantic and Danny has learned how to appease my idealism.  Good job Danny, best Valentine's Day ever!  I love you!

I hope everyone has a pleasant day today.  Cheers!

biking 101

I am finally doing what I have dreamed about doing forever...Biking to work!  My new office is only 2.2 miles from my home, so two weekends ago I bought this sweet Raleigh bike, fashioned it with a basket for my goodies (AKA, lunch and change of shoes) and some lights for night riding.  I wanted a hybrid and this one is kind of, but it's called a comfort bike.  It's perfect for me because I haven't biked since I was a kid, and I got into some pretty killer wrecks back then.  I know I couldn't do a road bike because I'm too nervous to go that fast and a cruiser is out of the question for commuting on the streets.  This bike, the Raleigh Venture 4.0 is super comfortable and I knew as soon as I tried it out at Chubby's Cruisers that this was the bike for me.  I sit up straight but can get to work in about 15-18 minutes.

I was nervous my first few times out, but now after my 4th day of riding to and from work, I am more confident and today I stayed on the road the entire ride.  Plus it is getting darker later, so that helps on my ride home.  And the fact that Venice Boulevard has bike lanes helps for half of my trip.

I am a biker, and that makes me and my thighs very happy!

The grade:

Comfort: A+

Speed: B

Ease of Use: A

Look: A

Weight: B

Overall I give the Raleigh Venture 4.0 an A-