Thanksgiving Love

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I got to spend time with my mom and sister which was nice (the two and a half hour traffic to get down there, not so nice). Of course there was yummy food and drinks although my sweet potato dish turned out very lackluster. I will definitely try something else next year. After the food, I rolled myself to the car and drove up to pet-sit at my Dad's house. Always so fun for me to be surrounded by animals and fortunately Blinky, their cat, was ready to have some love and comfort from me. Every time I sat down she wanted to be right there with me. Moving around once I was sitting was not prohibited and I was given quick, snappy meows each time I tried. I even got the evil eye when I turned the pages loudly on the catalog I was trying to look at. But oh how I loved every minute of it. The boys (their two dogs) were giving me the cutest looks and did their best sleepy, can't-get-out-of-bed-in-the-morning snuggles in the morning. It was so much fun, hope I get to head down there again soon.

-J

My New Walking Destination

 

 

West Elm finally opened! It's only a couple blocks away and just in time for the holiday season. Yes, I went there on the day that it opened and it was magical. I slowly walked around, looked at each piece and mentally put it in my imaginary home. So much fun! I thought that maybe they would have a grand opening special going on to celebrate, but that wasn't happening so in turn my purchasing wasn't happening either, haha. Oh well, it was one of the best walks I've taken in a long time (so much sights to see). 

 

My New Walking Destination by jillianso on polyvore.com

-J

New website addiction

 
Since my shopping is limited these days, I found a website to curb my urge. Polyvore lets me create "sets", basically I can put together outfits and designs to create something like the above. Makes layout design a piece of cake. Loving this! And it can post straight to the blog. You can bet that there will be more of these in the future. 


-J

You say it's your birthday

One way to make me automatically happy is to employ some trivia gaming tools. My birthday was on Saturday and my amazing friends took me to a new (to me) restaurant called Vodvil. Guess what? They have game night every single night and on top of that, they have some pretty darn yummy food. I was in heaven. They have a moderator that organizes the games and you break up into groups of 2, 3 or 4. So much fun to have different groups in our party tie a round, so then a member of the groups has to go on stage and answer the tiebreaker question under the spotlight. My group knocked the "name as many movies as you can that feature Brad Pitt" game out of the park! So proud! Haha. All this industry work has paid off for something. This is a place that I will definitely be returning to (and will be sure to get that mac n' cheese).

Tie Breaker

The old roomies

I have the best friends!!
-J

Tis the Season for...

Holiday Cocktails by jillianso on polyvore.com

 I am well aware of the fact that it is not yet even Thanksgiving, however for some reason this year I am ready to delve into the Christmas season already. Most every year it springs upon me much too quickly and I, like most, get those panicky thoughts right in the thick of it. "Have I bought everyone a gift?", "Do I have time to send out Christmas cards?" come to mind. This year I decided that I will go with the flow and just take it as it comes. I have already slightly started thinking about gifts so that definitely helps (you won't get me again this year, you evil crowded mall you!). What helps the most is that I am co-planning a holiday cocktail party in early December. This means that I must get in the spirit asap, which luckily is surprisingly easy to do right now. My ideas today are a special cocktail for the night. So many choices, but only one to choose. Maybe I should do a taster night! Yep, definitely going to start with that and then go from there. 

-J

Some San Clemente Lovin

Anytime for San Clemente is a good time. This past weekend, Brian and I drove down to have lunch with my mom and sister to celebrate my upcoming birthday. I chose to eat at Sonny's Pizza, which is our neighborhood Italian restaurant. This is the type of restaurant that you spend much of your childhood at and in this case, that is so true. I have a die hard love for this place and it was fun to share that with Brian. After a delicious meal, Brian and I drove down through downtown to the pier. It was  a perfect day so we took a walk to the end and enjoyed the view. We figured since we were there, why not get a beer at Fisherman's, a restaurant on the pier. It meant so much for me to show this to Brian and it was fun to just take a minute to breathe it and realize how lucky I really am.

-J

Pillow Talk

I was reading one of my regular blogs and she mentioned this new product that has come out. It's long distance pillows (link here). Basically when you and your significant other are separated by long distance, you each have a pillow and wear a sensor ring. When one person goes to sleep on the pillow with the ring on, the other person's pillow will slightly glow and vice versa. You can also hear the heart beat in real time. Not sure how this works (needs wireless internet right?), but an amazing concept nonetheless.

-J

Afternoon Jaunt

This past weekend, I was desperately in need of a new book. Instead of walking to the bookstore, Brian and I decided to check out the new West Hollywood library. It just opened up recently near the Pacific Design Center and made for a great afternoon stroll. En route, we happened upon the cutest little community garden on a quiet section of San Vincente Blvd. The fenced-in garden had plots of land for each house/family and you have the space to grow whatever you please. How fun to spend time every Saturday morning (in my mind) to head out with the garden tools, do some pruning and weeding, take home some fresh lemons, tomatoes, basil, what have you and cook an early supper using my fresh ingredients. I would love that! I wish there were more of these around here.
After I stopped with the scenario-making in my head, we made it to the library and it was gorgeous. It looks almost more like a museum than a library. I signed up, got my card and took two books home to read. One of which I started and finished on Sunday.
Of course, on the way home we took a detour for some happy hour beers at 3rd Stop. Such a fun afternoon trip to enjoy the city.  Plus, happy hour creates a happy Brian.

Community Garden

Pacific Design Center

Street Art by Shepard Fairey on the parking structure

More street art murals behind me

The ceiling in the library lobby

-J