My Favorite Things

So it’s been an entire week since I perused my 5 fave shopping sites (Anthropologie, Gap, Nordstrom, ASOS & Mod Cloth) *because I have absolutely zero will power and I buy everything I see* so yesterday I proceeded with extreme caution when I took a quick peek while my girl was napping.

**Bri (DesignLoveFest) posted about the Anthropologie event!! *why can’t my photos come out this awesome?* How did I miss Joy & Emily Henderson? We were at the store for like 2 hours. Oh well, I signed up for the Oh Joy! event at Kate Spade in April so I’m see her there.

Tell me, how can you resist this skirt?

Field of Vision Skirt *Boo, it’s sold out online but I’ve seen it stores*

I love the vibrant colors and I have no maxi skirts….super practical!!

Speaking of maxi skirts…yes please!

Crinkle maxi skirt

I would wear this top with it.

Embroidered floral top

OMG, I almost died when I saw these! They will make me look 7 feet tall but…

I am dying over how amazing these are, but of course they only have 1 left in my size!
Angelic Houston Wedge

Ridiculously adorable!

I have mentioned the Bossi camera bag before but in black. I kinda NEED it in nude.

The Bossi Camera bag

I really must have it for our Paris trip, really!

Here are a few other items I find to be necessary for Paris. Does anyone have any suggestions for fun things to do in Helsinki? I will be with my friend Aura who will be our host but I’m not up on fun things to do there besides sauna and the beer trolley.

Like this adorable tote for souvenir shopping.

Thursday Friday Black Diamonds Tote

I think these would be comfy for all day walking and will go with everything.

Børn Ibis Oxford

Asos is killing it with this romper. I love how Puritan it looks. I would totally wear it with those wing wedges and these tights.

Playsuit with Collar

I am obsessed with playsuits!!!

This model is adorable! Floral Playsuit in 40s Print

FABulous!

OMG! I have been wanting a scarf from this etsy shop for over a year now.

Puffins Circle Scarf by Yokoo
This hat is too much for Disneyland Paris

I adore this model, so androgynous.

Liv’s sparkly blue Toms are starting to lose their sparkle, so I’m considering these as a replacement.

Toms Cruz Slip On

or these so we can be twinsies?

Toms Glitter Slip On

I am not giving up finding Liv an agent. It’s harder than I thought but we put together a new comp card. I love it!!

Contact Momager Elizabeth

I’m submitting her to a bunch of new agencies today. *Fingers crossed!!*

And lastly, I am normally not a fan of the oldies. They are slow, grouchy and can’t drive *I’m such a bitch!* but this memaw is all kinds of awesome. I usually don’t give a shit about sports but when it comes to gymnastics, I’ll all about it. Get it Granny!!

She wins at life!!

It’s quite sad I can’t do most of what she’s doing at 86. I am on the verge of my sore throat leaving me, still have that damn ringing in my ears. Note to self; wear ear plugs next time I go to a show!

Happy Doing Nothing

Occasionally, I enjoy having to run around in a chaotic state. I have absolutely nothing planned this week and I am so grateful. I can recover from the awesome CSS show *my throat is sore and my ears are still ringing* how’s that for an old lady? My phone is not alerting me of any appointments and I have nothing on my agenda except playing with Olivia, cleaning and late night Draw Something *I only play the third word cause I’m hardcore, bring it!!* sessions. I really need this week off. We have been going out everyday for the past 3 months!

Check out how huge this guy is!!

While playing in the backyard with Liv yesterday, I noticed the house behind ours is getting some work done.

I would die if this was a Steve Jones *he’s my blog crush at Better Shelter* flip

It appears to be a flip because so far they have sandblasted the awful stucco and are building a lovely little deck. Only investor money can afford fancy doors and windows like that. Before it was two craptastic little shacks. Thank heavens the neighborhood is emerging. Antz & I are both hoping they may even throw in a new privacy fence and we get some more awesome people moving on the block. Our 4 year old bamboo is looking pretty shredded from the rain. I am planning to use my free time to work on refinancing our mortgage. If this HARP program is legit, I am going to roll our second into our first mortgage and somehow bring down our payments by $500. We can use that to boost our new house savings. As well as we’ve been doing with our Etsy shop *we are averaging 1-2 orders a week now* it’s not enough to hit our target savings for Paris in 2 years. It doesn’t help that banks are offering the lowest interest rates ever for savings acoounts. We are savings Liv’s tuition in a yearly CD but it’s earning so little, it would take a 60 month CD to make anything substantial *like a whooping $60 annually*. Okay, enough boring money talk. We are excited about all this building in the hood, Antz is going to clean out our garage this weekend. I am going to work on de-cluttering, particularly the kid’s too many toys and outgrown clothes *we have 2 bebe friends who can use them* I may even work in the garden if the weather stays nice. Sunday I’ve got a date with some stuffed mushrooms, I mean, Story & Chris.

We may possibly be going to the Nickelodeon Kid’s Choice Awards this Saturday. I am not as excited as I’ve been previous years cause the venue isn’t as fun as UCLA. It’s enormous and we were sitting in the ceiling section so it gave me vertigo most of the time.

 Spazzing out over Mr. Johnny Depp

I also still have ringing in my ears and I’m certain a bunch of screaming tweens will not be pleasant. However, we are hoping to invite our friends and I would love Kieran & Liv to have a kiddie fun time.

May the odds be ever in your favor!!

Yeah, We Wore It 3/12

Made it just under the gun. I wasn’t going to use this photo but we literally took hundreds of shots and it wasn’t happening that day. I was using the camera tripod and the remote but I couldn’t get a decent shot no matter what. We were on our way somewhere and Antz was over it so I had to use what we had. It’s incredible that this shot *with Antz face covered and Liv not jumping* was the best of the bunch. I  love how sinister and spooky the sky looks, it ended up pouring the next day. Next month I’ll strive for a more flattering shot.

f06cd-weworeitmarch

So about 90% of what we are wearing is from Gap. They really need to hire us as a spokes-family because we rock that shit every day. Our shoes are from Nordstrom and Liv’s hat is from the boys section at Target. You have seen my hat in a cuter photo here, which was $12 from Mod Cloth. We were celebrating daylight savings *love more sun when Papa comes home* and welcome to spring!

Here are some outtakes…I suck at the new camera remote!

 b811c-dsc_0581 e8ab1-dsc_0572 9e79b-dsc_0567 187bb-dsc_0600 f4f4d-dsc_0601

50% of them came out like this

Tired of Being Sexy

Don’t worry, I’m not tired of being sexy at all, that is the translation of the Brazilian band CSS *Cansei de Ser Sexy* that Aimee, her son Holden and I saw last night at The Observatory. They were amazing!

 

The venue was deep in the OC *yuck* and the first 2 opening bands sucked. Aimee and I went apeshit when CSS was on. We danced and dorked out. I filled up my iphone with pictures and video and of course, it wouldn’t be Liz fashion to have non-blurry photos. I actually have to take credit, I was dancing and jumping around so much I didn’t have much of a steady hand. Enjoy

My rawk face
Loading up on pre-show snacks. WTH is Holden drinking?
SLURRRRRRPEEEE!
Uh, Talapia & the Fleas?
Just wow!
Ready for some fucking CSS!!!
You can’t tell but that’s a CSS pin on my hat
This is how teenagers rock out
My BFF is so damn cute!!
White Arrows *aka we sound just like Vampire Weekend*
ROCK FACE!

Lovefoxxx is amazing!!!!

 Music is my HOT, HOT SEX!!!! my favorite song

Crowd surfing

Rocking Out!
Aren’t they adorable?

It was an awesome show, I didn’t get home till after 1. I must go to more shows!!! Oh! Wasn’t  the season premiere of Mad Men wonderful?

Hungray Gamers

I went into this film with my usual cynical, unenthusiastic attitude. I knew it wouldn’t be as painful as the twitards but I am bummed it’s such a blatant Battle Royale *which is kick-ass!* ripoff!

The Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter trailer was pretty sweet. Hungry Teens had a decent start. I was annoyed by the overwhelmingly fugly Nicki Minaj dressed extras and what’s up with the overly-responsible, serious kids in this movie. I was with Primrose, if they told me I had to fight 23 other kids to the death, I would be having major panic attacks too. Katnap or whatever her name was, seemed like she could give a fuck through the whole thing. Antz was distracted by Woody-I’m-stoned-all-the-time-Harrelson’s wiggy. I wanted to know the name of Lenny Kravitz’s gold liner. Whenever I see him I hear someone shout “Get it, Gurl!” I’ll let the secret out, the unknown star of this film is Stanley Tucci’s fake teeth. The villian was whoever shaved Wes Bentley’s horrible douchetasche! So, of course it’s the typical heroine wins at everything cliche film and it was a half an hour too long for me but entertaining enough. The last movie we saw was We Need to Talk About Kevin, which I loved, so I needed something with a little more optimism. Thanks Mommy for Livsitting for us!!

Oh! I finally saw Carnage. SOO GOOD! It could be that I adore Roman *date rape* Polanski, the amazing cast *Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet and bad-ass Christoph Waltz* but also the superb writing. I highly recommend it, even though Antz fell asleep during it as he does any movie lacking explosions or aliens. So, enough of my lame film critic-ness. After the movie we hightailed it across town to pick up dinner from our favorite BBQ place. We had Terry, Morgan and Kieran come over for some meat and playtime with the kids *I just realized how gross that sounds, sorry*. Now I must bid you adieu, I’m pretty sleepy from the BBQ-itis and I’m ready to hit the sack. Liv hasn’t napped all day so we all need to go nighty nights!

Playing in the backyard this morning
Olivia is OBSSESSED with peeling and eating clementines
Our jasmine is blooming in all its glory, it smells sooo lovely!
Hello? Is it me you’re looking for?

Terry & Morgan brought us delish vintage pop

Cool Color coordinated peeps
Don’t worry, Morgan caught them
They are such big kids now

Love that face!!
Kieran was having a no photos please moment

I die when they hug!!

He totally knocked her down for the kiss but they were fine!!
Before I go… Check out how big our caterpillar Milt is now!!!

A walk in our hood

Surprise, this morning I was planning to run some Friday errands when I saw that Antz accidentally left Liv’s car seat in his car, D’oh! Since it turned into a lovely afternoon, we hoofed it the 4 blocks to the Post Office. Liv was happily meandering along, checking out the new shops, and ducking from the smoke clouds made by the out-of-work hipsters who babysit a cappuccino while sitting with their legs crossed in the teeny chairs all day outside of Cafe de Leche. I guess she was feeling tired and sleepy on the walk back home because she totally refused to walk home. Yet she cried when I carried her. She has been conked out for the past 2 1/2 hours!

Liv was fascinated by this graffiti, I have no idea what it says “Lanv Gurb?”
Doing her hipster impression

California coffee, imported from Oregon
Excited for this place to open *love this font!*

Thank goodness this pet shop closed, it was the creepiest shop I’ve ever been to. They only sold pigeons and birdseed and Norman Bates ran the place.
It is always packed at this bar, day or night
The food smelled yummy in the York

New gallery/furniture store/design studio the 4th to open on York

Don’t let the sign fool you, this bakery is gross, I went inside and it smelled like socks more than fresh baked goods,

This new restaurant is coming soon
Liv having her brat-attack
No animal products menu, hmmm?
Highland Park, food truck mecca

I am feeling so much love for my hood. Now hurry up and build the new park on the corner!!

Crafty at Anthropologie

Bri, Liz & Jen holding my banner

Yesterday was pretty rad, Kim and I went to a crafting event hosted by Bri Emery of *DesignLoveFest* & Jen Gotch of *Ban.do* at Anthropologie at The Americana. Kim and I made magnificent inspiration banners. I brought a ton of stuff to use for mine *photos, postcards, my Girl Scout camp badges* We had a FABulous time in spite of my camera sucking balls. I got some decent shots *I was nerding out in a major way* but missed out on some great ones. It was cute girl overload at the store. I even asked a few adorable girls for a photo for the blog. Their haircuts were super awesome and reminded me of the BFF. I am pretty sure I’m going to the Chic Entertaining Ideas event hosted by Joy of *ohjoy* in April.

Big yellow balloons make me happy happy

I love Kim’s silly face
They had really fun stuff to work with provided by knot & bow
My banner in progress

Kim is going to finish hers at home, I know she’ll make it all fresh and junk
Bri was super nice and just as awesome as her blog is
I look like such a dork
This little girl came up with the cute idea to add glitter inside the balloons

ann shen’s postcards
Fabulous golden animals provided by angela+ithyle

Yummy alcohol-free Mojitos
Hors d’oeuvres
This girl wins at being adorable, she was sweet too
cute girls
NERD ALERT!
I am considering buying this Let them eat cake vase, it’s just mega cute

One day, I hope to own these lovely dishes
Hoot!

Anthro kills me! Every square inch is filled with lovey things and smells

Kim & I had a yummy dinner at Frida’s

Kim enjoying her Black Cherry Mojito
I had a delish sangria
Interesting Fact: Kim is a Pescatarian *she loves her some fish*
My tacos con pollo, el blurry!!
Hot air balloons are so awesome
I’m dying over how adorable the rainbow staircase is at Madewell
Super cute windows at Crewcuts

I bought this lovely necklace with my gift card from Aimee, Merci Beaucoup Bestie!!!

 
Stellar evening!!

Dreaming of Hawai’i

As it seems, the entire world has been to the lovely islands except us. Outside of us renting a kayak and paddling there, I don’t see us going this year. I have been scouring Living Social deals, Groupon, Travel Zoo and Orbitz with no luck. Sure I find great deals everyday like this one, but I have yet to find in all-inclusive package that includes airfare and a decent hotel for the dates we want to go. Yes, it’s still early for August but with Olivia starting school in September, we need to prioritize.

I suppose I should stop dreaming and figure out a more economic approach for 10 year anniversary date. Going out of town just doesn’t seem like an option at the moment.

Ten YEARS??!! Holy shit, that is a long time. I cannot believe how lucky am I to have married this wonderful guy. Sometimes, I don’t think I deserve him. He is so devoted to Olivia and me. He has been a part of my half-brain schemes for 16 years. We were babies when we met *he was just turning 21 and I was 19* We have been through the good, the bad and the ugly. I can count on 2 hands the number of times we broke up. Destiny or insanity kept bringing us back together. I cannot even imagine my life without him. Aimee has listened to me cry about silly arguments, and played referee for us countless times. I can think back to us unofficially living together in my Mom’s tiny apartment both working menial jobs, with no real bills to pay, always broke. Happiness to us was simply going to the movies and eating at gross Denny’s every Friday. It was a happy time but we have matured and done a complete 360 in our lives.

I think this was taken in 2001
One month before our wedding in 2002

Sigh, we were so young.

Well, I’ve found this awesome option for the weekend of our anniversary. Gourmet dinner in a beautiful field in Santa Barbara…but at $220 per person, I’m not yet completely sold.

Outstanding in the Field

Santa Barbara is so lovely but I don’t think we could take Olivia and I don’t want to exclude her. I’ll keep thinking.

The First Day of Spring

Which also happens to be my 35th birthday. We met Terry, Morgan & Kieran at Legoland.

It’s been 13 years since we went to Legoland on opening day *my 22nd birthday* and sadly the legos didn’t hold up well. They were sunfaded and dusty.
 Miniland

 Star Wars Miniland

This kid sucked at driving
They loved this ride

Liv is trying to give the peace sign
What a curious face
 We checked out the Legoland Sea Life Aquarium


Once again, my camera blows
Daddy kisses
I am totally serious, the restaurant Terry & Morgan took me to for my birthday dinner was called MISO HARNEY!!! Love it
Thanks guys for the yummy grub
Liv was going in for a kiss, Kieran was too fast for her
Tempura strawberries
I’ll help myself to some of that
Hubs and Olivia surprised me with this yummy birthday cake

I got my lovely present from Antz. I love it soo much!! Thank you, sweetie

Quincy ipad case
Thanks to my BFF for the Anthropologie giftcard

***I don’t want to toot my own horn or nothing but this so happens to be my 700th post, Say whaaaa?!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It rained pretty much all day yesterday. It’s great for our backyard and cleaning up all the smog in the city but it’s bad news for our foundation. Our doors stick and our front stairs crack. However, we met Terry, Morgan and Kieran for lunch at Chipotle and look what they gave us!!

We are the proud adoptive parents of a Caterpillar
Milton is living in the Robot nest until he moves into his larger container

 

 

He’s already bigger today!

Last night we dropped off Liv at her Grandma’s and went to Keith & Tina’s St. Pattys Day party, The food and drinks were soo good!

Mrs. Tina!

 

 

It started hailing but they were so small you couldn’t see them
You can see one little hail stone on Story’s sleeve
Party Peeps!! Leslie’s wig wins
H-Bombs!!
OMG, It was so good to see Maeve!
Our silly little Leprechaun!
Today we are hanging around the house not doing much but playing.

 

Cali Girl

 

Somebody transforms into a Cool Kid when they put on their shades!

 

 

 

 

 

I hardly recognize her without her curly fro

 

Our peach tree lost quite a few petals last night during the storm

 

It snowed in the mountains close to us. Pretty sky

I am picking up Aimee when she gets off work to come over tonight. We might go to Anthro to get my birthday pressie, FABulous!! So, now we are going for a walk.

Laters!