Endeavour Space Shuttle

Sep 21, 2012

For all you non-nerds out there, today we got real nerdy and waited outside in our backyard to see the space shuttle Endeavour fly past our house. We waited for 30 minutes but then Antz and Liv couldn’t take the heat and went indoors. He told me to text him when I saw it, like less than 5 minutes I heard the booming sound of a plane and all these simultaneous cheering. I almost dropped my Nikon and my phone trying to text Antz and take photos at the same time. By the time I sent him a text to come outside it was flying directly over my head. I had the Nikon D300 with the 200mm lens but for some reason *my camera is a douche* I couldn’t get it to auto focus to get a better close up. Here’s the best ones I got, all the crappy ones that make it look like a toy when it was incredibly massive. It was exhilarating watching it fly by. I am so happy I got a shot of Endeavour with Liv in it. I hope she’ll show her great-grandchild one day.

Directly over our house

The shuttle gets lost against the mountains

folks were watching on top of this hill next to Occidental College

Pretty fucking historic

this one is my fave

YAY!!

darn power lines!

headed towards downtown LA (City Hall)

It flew right over our house and then turned around and flew by the Jet Propulsion Lab which is in La Canada. Here is an article from LA Times explaining the shuttle’s route.

Anticipated fog in the Bay Area
has postponed Endeavour’s departure from Edwards Air Force Base from
7:15 a.m. to 8:15 a.m. That means the shuttle is now expected back in
Los Angeles air space around 11:30 a.m., when it will circle numerous
area landmarks.

Endeavour will fly over at least the following:

Los Angeles City Hall
California Science Center
Getty Center
Griffith Observatory
Queen Mary
Long Beach Aquarium
Malibu, Venice and Huntington beaches
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Universal Studios
Disneyland

Police are advising people to plan ahead. Consider taking public
transportation or planning where you’re going to park in advance. There
are likely to be crowds.

The Griffith Park Observatory should be a great spot to get a
close-up glimpse and photographs of the shuttle with the city in the background. There’s also plenty of space throughout
the park that should offer good views.

Los Angeles City Councilman Tom
LaBonge will provide free shuttle service from the parking lot of the
Greek Theatre to the Griffith Observatory beginning at 8 a.m. Friday.
With plenty of parking and ample room for crowds, Universal CityWalk
should be a fun viewing area as the shuttle flies over Universal
Studios.

In Orange County, Disneyland would offer a similar experience. Maybe
you can even take a picture of the shuttle with Sleeping Beauty
Castle in the background.

Downtown, the best spots for seeing the shuttle as it passes over Los
Angeles City Hall will probably be tall buildings or the top levels of
nearby parking garages. City officials will open the Tom Bradley Tower to
view Endeavour’s flyover, and they expect spectators to gather at the
newly opened Grand Park.

In Long Beach, the parks that dot Shoreline Drive or Ocean
Boulevard are probably among of the best places to see the shuttle as it

passes over the Queen Mary and Aquarium of the Pacific. The Queen Mary
will also offer free admission between 9:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. to anyone
who tells the ticket attendant the code word “Endeavour.”

And if you want to watch the shuttle land at LAX, you’re in
luck. El Segundo police are blocking off sections of Imperial Avenue for
public viewing. Beginning at 9 a.m., police will close the 300 to 600
blocks of East Imperial Avenue and the 700 block of West Imperial Avenue
to traffic, a stretch that includes Clutter’s Park.

We plan to see it in person at the California Science Museum.

The long Road to Stardom

Sep 9, 2012

Today I am feeling bummed. I am so frustrated with myself because I wish I could just give up trying to get Liv into modeling. I feel disillusioned, everyone thinks their kid is the cutest, smartest and most awesome, so maybe I’m chasing the same dream millions of other folks have that may never come true. I shouldn’t be getting upset over this but it’s difficult when so many strangers come up to me and tell me how adorable or pretty Liv is and when I submit her photos to agencies and kid’s clothing lines, I hear nothing in return. I didn’t think it would be as easy as walking down the street and a casting director spots her and shouts “There’s my next star!” and next thing you know she’s starring on her own show on Nickleodeon “The iLiv Show“. I have been hooked up with agency owners, friends of friends who are with major agencies and even people who work at the clothing company directly with promising leads that seem to go nowhere. I know I’m impatient, I also sound very much like a crazy stage Mom and that is bothering me the most. Liv’s childhood is a magical time. She deserves to enjoy being a kid and not working or stressing out over adult problems. I just think it would be so rad for Liv’s lovely face to be in a catalog or a lookbook while padding her college savings account. I’m not giving up but the industry is so complicated, I read awful things about agencies and I’ve watched documentaries about Moms who rent apartments and subject their kids to Pilot Season and end up spending hundreds of thousands for acting classes, head shots and therapy. I would never fall into those traps but it seems impossible to get a foot in the door. Baby Gap now discovers their models through an extensive contest that rewards the kid with the most relatives to vote online rather than cool looking kids that have the Baby Gap look *which I’ve been told Liv has* I wish I could get some honest feedback because maybe it’s just Liv doesn’t have the right look. I was told that some agencies don’t take children with similar looks so there’s no direct competition and I’ve seen plenty of kids with Liv’s look.

Zuri’s video has a little girl who looks pretty close to Olivia. She also has been going through a phase where she doesn’t want to cooperate with posing for pictures. Most of the time she’s into it, but she has moments when you will not get a photo of her no matter what.

Sigh, I suppose this isn’t something I can force. If it happens, it has to be the right place at the right time. I don’t want to make myself miserable wondering why and taking the rejection *or even lack of rejection* personally. I did some small scale modeling as a kid and I even took acting classes when I was 11. I never had a career or anything but I remember learning how to improv and the classes helped me overcome stage fright. I want Olivia to learn confidence and poise from every life experience, from good to sucky ones. I just see such a stunning girl when I look at these.

Giving us her Kate Moss pose

Pretty intense eyes for a 23 month old

In other news, last night we went to the NELA art walk. It was super fun, I saw our old friend Aja and bumped into the guy who works at the post office.

We picked up a sketchbook and Antz drew an amazing photo of the band we saw

Great band who’s name I forgot

Super delish corn and chicken skewers

Liv made a new friend named Olivia!

Telling each other girlie secrets

Such a lovely record shop

It was super hot so we got some strawberry mint ice cream from Scoops

Thank You is awesome, we bought this book for Liv

Peek-a-boo Aja!

Here’s my lovely, growing up too fast for words. *sads*

May the Force be with you!

Aug 11, 2012

Today we are going to a Star Wars birthday party. We watched The Empire Strikes Back with Liv to get her familiar with the characters. She liked R2-D2 & C3PO the most. She called them robots, I couldn’t get her to say androids. She could take or leave the rest of the crew but she was digging Chewy *who doesn’t love Chewy*. I’m really excited about how rad the birthday girl, Aiyana’s present turned out.

The card plays the Star Wars theme, Liv picked the Yoda marshmallow

Of course my genius hubby made the C3PO bag

You have no idea how hard it was to keep that marshmallow Yoda from Liv. I’ll upload photos from the party tonight. We are actually going to another party later this evening that is Hawaiian themed so I’ll have to dust off my coconut bikini. I also would like to make it to the NELA art walk tonight. I hope the new comic book store Thank You will be open. Can’t wait for Scoops to open too!

So next Saturday is our big 10 year anniversary *I know, I won’t shut up about it* well, now I am really going to shut up about it. Antz and I made plans but I’m keeping quiet about them until the day. Let me say I am ridiculously excited! I wish I could share more but for now this is my only teaser.

Not much has been going on, Liv has been super awesome at school. She really has matured and listens to her teacher so well now. We are glad we enrolled her in this class so she can seamlessly transition into pre-school next month. So far she’s only had one accident at school *she doesn’t wear pull-ups to school* I feel pretty confident that she’ll be fine going completely diaper-less in September. YAY!

Crawling through hoops

Liv certainly takes after her Dad in the artsy department. She LOVES to paint!

She discovered this baby strawberry in the organic garden. We visit it everyday but sadly last Wednesday someone picked it.

Shouldn’t every school have a teepee? I want one! You know what I love? The school has artificial grass. GENIUS! I have a weird phobia about laying in real grass, bugs and itchy. The fake grass is perfect with no messy grass stains.

Painting a magnet for the fridge

Oh! I know this is random but check out what I scored at Target yesterday.

Orla Kiely for Method

I was positive they would be sold out but I got 2 hand soaps and a cleaning spray. Aren’t they cute?? Speaking of cute…

Have any fun weekend plans?

Highland Cafe Part 2

Aug 5, 2012

This morning my friend Terry invited us to join them for breakfast at Highland Cafe. We walked over and encountered the largest dog I’ve ever seen in my life.

Antz was like, “Is that a rug?“

I find his little pal ironic.

Hi Lew doggy!

My pretty waffle

Liv enjoyed stirring her oatmeal but she ate some later at home

This waitress is super adorable! Her shirt had thread, bobbins and needles on it. We had a chat about our love of sewing and Peter Pan collars.

Lew is the sweetest, most patient dog ever.

Look at Terry’s adorable preggers belly, baby brother will be here in December.

Race!

There is a new comic book store across the street, AWESOME!!

We’re both so happy our neighborhood is getting so rad, but my heart still belongs to Atwater Village. A new market/cafe opened there called Bon Viv ant. We have to check it out soon.

Happy Happy Friday!

Aug 3, 2012

The first Friday of August is here. This month is always bittersweet since it’s one of my favorite months *our wedding anniversary* and it also goes by in a flash and ends summer. I am one of the few people who adore summer weather. I suppose the fond memories of summer camp and the beach always feels warm and happy in my mind.

We had a mini pool party last weekend at Carlos & Stephanie’s house. We had a delish BBQ salmon feast.

*Sophie Bloom is due this month!*

http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/181101_4366365641740_1147263443_n.jpg

Photographer – Jesse Tenorio

So to continue making fond summer memories, Liv and I had a lunch date at the Highland Cafe, a short walk from home. It so happens that a crew was filming a Best Buy commercial on York. York Avenue is certainly a hot spot in HP. We were lucky to miss the busy lunch crowd and snagged a perfect table to people watch and take in the scenery. I had heard wonderful things about Highland Cafe’s breakfast menu but my Cobb salad was fantastic. Liv munched on a few fries and sipped on chocolate milk. What blew my skirt up *besides the super friendly staff and the adorable decor* was my peppermint lemonade. Majorly yum!

really, really love this bookstore/curio shop

These are the stools I hope to own one day!


Liv found the Calveras-faced woman captivating

Photo by Olivia

Now to find Wild Poppy in bulk

Liv does this Japanese anime thing where she covers her mouth when she laughs

It’s nice to have a local place to get a huge salad

The fries were quickly abandoned in favor of iPad

So now we’re home and Liv is napping and my countdown to the end of summer has begun. This summer feels more significant than others since Liv is starting school in September. This is enormous for me. Our daughter *who is growing like a weed, a lovely weed* is going to school. She’ll make new friends, she’ll learn new things, sing songs, dance, go completely diaper-less and blossom her personality. As a parent, I am filled with pride, joy and anxiety. How will I protect her from the assholes in the world? How will I handle her first mean girl encounter? What happens when she begins to question why Mommy doesn’t work or compares me to other Moms. I wish I had the open mind of a child. Adults are full of fear, insecurity, judgement and we indirectly project that to our children with every comment we idly make. It’s such a transition for me from going from holding and nursing this child everyday for almost 2 years to now watching her run away from me at the park. She happily yells “Goodbye Mom!” when I drop her off at her Grandma’s. Olivia is totally comfortable in her independence and what scares me is she’s so much like me. I went from being attached to my Mom at the hip to distancing myself as a rebellious teen. I only now understand how hurtful that period must have been for my Mom and I tell her all the time how much I understand her and love her immensely. I want Liv to be confident. I want Liv to stand strong on her own and continue her fearless attitude, I guess it’s the world I don’t trust, not her.

So this month isn’t as crammed as the last 2 were. Antz and I are trying to be more spontaneous and not have every activity scheduled. We have a few parties we are going to, a few movies we hope to see *Savages and Dark Night Rises* and we’ll eventually finish the remainder of my Summer Bucket List. I love when he comes home early and we just take a family walk and try a new restaurant for dinner and then grab some ice cream. Maybe we’ll do that tonight…?

Check out Aimee & Liv hanging out in her tent yesterday.

I love my BFF!

Tossing my Cookies

Jul 4, 2012

This term was introduced to me as a cutesy way to describe barfing up my organs. I am beyond miserably sick. Last night I was tossing and turning all night, too hot then too cold. Going to the bathroom every 5 minutes. I feel physically sore and achy. No BBQ and firework shows for me.

Please allow me to be unpatriotic for a moment, I think it was a big mistake on America’s part breaking up from England. We would have awesome healthcare, drive on the left side of the road and I would have a bad ass British accent. The 4th of July is my least favorite holiday. It sucks that it falls on a lame Wednesday which also happens to be the dreariest, coldest day of the summer. In Highland Park these fools have been setting off fireworks for the past 4 weeks. Not the awesome pretty sparkly kind but the loud obnoxious enormous dynamite explosion that scare the bejesus out of me and makes every car alarm on our block go off. Boo!

So I’ll be celebrating our stupid independence in bed, simaltaneously shivering and sweating. This is what I look like at the moment. Sexy, I know!!

Hither & Thither

May 4, 2012

Aimee, Liv and I took a lovely walk to the post office this morning. I finally had a chance to show her all that Highland Park has to offer. She liked the coffee at Cafe de Leche and Liv made a new friend while playing dinosaurs. Then we went to lunch at Brite Spot where a creepy clown kept distracting me.

I love this photo of my girls

So fucking cute!!

The most lovely Veggie Clown AKA John Wayne Gacy portrait will haunt my nightmares!

Olivia looks like a teenager with a bandaged nose here *it’s a shadow*

J’taime Instagram!!

Jonesin’ for Steve

May 3, 2012

I am pretty sure I have professed my love for Steve Jones of Better Shelter in the past. Today my crush just reached another level. I heart him not in a creepy sexual way, *Steve, you’re adorable but sadly I’m taken* I have a serious crush on his stellar design style. He is my Jeff Lewis *who used to do it for me but I hate to say he’s lost his touch, blame Bravo* I have followed Steve’s flips throughout Los Angeles for over a year now and this guy has panache! I always wonder if he has ever sold any of his properties fully furnished. I would die to buy one of his gorgeous flips! I am blown away by his attention to detail, his devotion to keepin’ it retro while maintaining his modern combo of perfection with dreamy dark hardwood floors and bright, crisp white walls. So I was slightly overwhelmed when I had to chance to ~~peep~~ peek into his own home over at Apartment Therapy. Not overwhelmed by the style and loveliness of his habitat, I’ve come to expect that from him but he lives so modestly. I didn’t expect a 4 story-Los Feliz Cecil B. DeMille mega mansion, but his 1200 sq ft WeHo home seems itty, bitty for such a real estate mogul.

My design crush, Steve-sy. Everytime I look at him I imagine a slingshot in his back pocket and he says “Neato!” often

So LOVE the fox! One day I hope I am brave enough to own a rad piece of taxidermy *something small like a bat or a little owl* I adore his funky collection of art portraits.

Swoon, the staircase is like heaven, reminds me of an Abbey in 17th Century Paris.

If only we could make our backsplash this awesome

Small but efficient galley kitchen

His yard left me a bit disappointed, although the Louis Ghost Chairs *holy shit, the Dub has a store??!!* are the bomb. Where’s the pool? I failed to see a FABulous outdoor kitchen or a kitschy Tiki bar! Steeeee-ve!

His house is beautiful but I have seen so many divine flips by him, I get the feeling he is like those hairdressers who can do hair superbly yet their own hair looks a mess. I would love to be a house flipper, with a fat wallet. It would so much fun taking something ugly but with good bones and giving it the Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman makeover.

Geesh, now that I think of it, that reference is super dated!!

Highland Park is the new Pretty Woman sans the huge, goofy grin. Everywhere I look I see houses getting flipped and lovely shops, bars and restaurants are popping up.

La Cuevita formally Little Cave

After months of peeking behind their curtains, Ba has finally opened!

Can’t wait to give the French menu a taste…looks tres magnifique!

Not only is HP the hot spot, there’s a new gourmet market/deli/bakery *dubbed the West Coast Dean & Deluca* opening this fall in Atwater Village.

Bon Vivant market

AND…Sew LA *a lovely fabric shop I’ve been lusting to take a class at forever* is moving from Silverlake to Atwater. This Friday they are having an open house that we are hoping to check out. I am also super excited that Liv will be starting Create Together classes in June. I have a feeling we will have a busy summer.

Tomorrow my bestie is coming on my side of town and *weather permitting* I’m gonna take her on a walking tour of York Blvd. Hopefully she’ll like the coffee at Highland Cafe but she’s a loyal Starbucker or is it Starbuckee?

Hither & Thither

Apr 15, 2012

We had a fun, busy weekend!

Scruffin Rock class!

Running fast as lightening

Julie played a song by Yann Tiersan *whom I adore* from the Amelie soundtrack and this cute song from Mad Men, which has been in my head for days now.

It was a rainy day

I am obsessed with Instagram lately

Lovely garden

Swimming lessons at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center

I swam laps while Antz and Liv enjoyed her lesson, the water was as warm as a bath

This guy was hilarious, he spoke with a thick German accent and he kept talking to me about his 9 grandchildren and how he swims everyday to stay in shape. He was 65 and FABulous!

Our beach, where were got married, Topanga State Beach

The one great thing about not going to Coachella *possibly the only thing* is the city is empty, we had the beach all to ourselves

It was crazy windy but amazing!

Uhh, dinner?

What a beautiful day!

We happened to drive past Caine’s Arcade. Apparently business is doing well!

We have been to this park before but it was closed for renovations. We slipped past the already broken fencing to check out the playground *seen in the Weather episode of Yo Gabba Gabba!* it was awesome to have the place all to ourselves but creepy

The new landscape and pathways are lovely

This park always reminds me of Hanna-Barberra cartoons.

So, I guess we were in The Spits territory?

It may look like she slid down at a neck-breaking speed but she actually had to scoot down in super slow motion. The concrete has deteriorated over the years leaving the slides with no slide power. Good thing they are renovating.

In remembrance of the Titanic

This park is awesome but it needs a lot of TLC

Liv was too afraid to go inside the lighthouse, I don’t blame her

That’s SAN Gabriel, not SAD!

We headed home and had dinner before heading back out for the Nela Art Walk. We checked out a few spots and saw our friend at Matters of Space but the art has been disappointing for the last 2 months. Fewer people showed up and less galleries were open and the biggest attraction for the walk, an enormous art gallery/warehouse, has been closed. I hope they didn’t go out of business.

This former art gallery is a soon to be a Curio shop called Pop-Hop

Aimee has been wanting to check out this cute Vintage store Urchin

The Highland Cafe is now open and it was pretty packed inside. They are serving breakfast and lunch. I still love Cafe de Leche.

Lovely abandoned real estate office

I almost bought this dress from Mi Vida for Liv, maybe for school shopping.

Boo for being closed!

I love the interior of this place

Metal band at the Circa Studios

As we were leaving we heard about 5 bands performing. I hate to say it, but the walk has lost it’s charm since the first time we went. I guess we have officially worn it out. It could also be most folks were out of town at Coachella and hopefully it will pick up again in the summer months.

This morning Liv did something I used to do all the time as a kid.

It was just nice and warm enough for playing in the sprinklers. That’s how you roll when you don’t have a pool. Now it’s naptime. Taa-tah lovelies!

What’s Happening Highland Park?

Apr 1, 2012

This morning we checked out Milton to find that he is tucked away, nice and cozy in his new lovely cocoon. He is definitely in Chrysalis stage. Which means we need to upgrade his accommodations so when he turns into a butterfly, he has room for those pretty wings. It’s crazy how much he’s grown in 2 weeks!

Milt’s cocoon has iridescent flakes of gold, fancy!

You can see his old skin he recently shed

So we went out to find a container/mansion for Milt to move in to. On our way home we stopped to check out the new Highland Cafe that opened on York. It is super cute! They were giving out complimentary cookies and coffee. They officially open on Monday. I’m so stoked about our neighborhood.