My Best Friend’s Wedding

Sep 25, 2015

My BFF, Aimee has never wanted a big, traditional wedding. Luckily I talked her out of eloping in Las Vegas, she choose to get married at the Beverly Hills Courthouse.

After an unfortunate disaster at the dry cleaners with her first wedding dress, we found the perfect Bianca Jagger inspired romper suit from Nasty Gal. Aimee bought some pretty gold buttons from Mood fabric store and had them sewn on the romper and she found the cutest gold brogues online. Her veil was custom made from Etsy.

I made her bouquet which featured her favorite flowers, daisies and Billy balls for a punch of color

FYI: The Beverly Hills Courthouse only schedules weddings on Wednesday and Friday

Gorgeous Bride

Olivia wore a navy blue boy’s suit from H&M, a plaid bow tie from Crewcuts and saddle shoes (sans socks) from Footmates.

We put her curly hair in a top knot and added a few springs of baby’s breath.

How is she this tall at five years old?!

The bride & groom have the same taste in 80’s rock music, French history and passion for traveling

The groom and maid of honor were having a serious conversation

New family

Liv was stiff as a board during the ceremony, it was pretty funny!

Antz and I were the witness signers

Married folks!

I couldn’t resist confetti bombing the newlyweds with my Thimblepress Push-Pop confetti

Even though the temperature topped 100 degrees we all enjoyed this love-filled day. The créme de la créme was taking photos of the happy couple in front of this perfect street mural in Los Angeles.

Congrats BFF!

Antz decorated Aimee’s Fiat, so cute!

The photographer was a talented friend of ours, Brian Averill. Jet’aime BFF! Happy Wedding.

First day of Kindergarten!!

Sep 22, 2015

As soon as we made the long, long fifteen hour drive back home from Portland, we had the busiest week of our year. Olivia went back to school and boy, Kindergarten is so much different than Pre-K.

We used to have priority parking in the school lot but now it’s a struggle to find parking. Luckily, we arrived early enough to find a spot. No longer can we go inside the classroom to drop her off and see what she is working on or chat with the teachers. I would sign her in and class begins ten minutes later than the rest of the school. Now she gets dropped off outside in the Kindergarten playground without signing in. We can stay and watch the kids play but on the other side of the fence. Her teacher doesn’t come out until it’s time for them to line up and go to their classroom. Also, no more naps! So, less teacher interaction and everything they work on is a mystery until I can dig it out of her. I had no luck with asking “How was your day?” so I’ve been using these questions to get more than “Good” as her response. The good news is she is already speaking much more French than last year!

I can’t believe she still fits these shoes I bought her in Paris back in March

You can see Liv’s first day of Preschool 2012, 2013, 2014.

She had a lovely first day even in 100 degree heat. We took her for ice-cream after school.

She got too hot so the socks came off!

Day trip to Astoria, Oregon

Sep 14, 2015

Our kid is really into my dvd collection from the eighties. The original Annie, Beetlejuice, Legend and The Goonies are her favorites. I must say, The Goonies is the perfect kid’s flick, a treasure hunt, pirates and Cyndi Lauper! Liv has inherited my good taste in cinema. I told her about the city where the Goonies was filmed and all about the awesome child actors. We knew we had to make a day trip to Astoria on the northern coast of Oregon to see the film locations.

We had to grab some donuts for the road since I missed out on Voodoo the day before. Blue Star Donuts is Portland’s best kept secret, well maybe not so secret. Lucky for us there was no stupid, long line or crazy expensive parking since it was in walking distance from Chris & Story’s house.

Olivia was always looking for her pal Blueberry the cat

Umm, are Toni & Candace working in there?

We will definitely try this place on our next visit

Antz attempted to eat my donut

I love phone booths!

We stopped by the kid’s shoe store Clogs N’ More. I could’ve stayed there for
hours but we had to hit the road.

Can you believe that after what happened in Santa Cruz Olivia asked if we could ride this guy?!

We took a crazy beautiful scenic highway with only one lane to get there but the view was
worth the two hours of curves and slow trucks.

We have arrived!!

This building is from the opening scene of the Goonies. We followed this film location tour

Yep, I have no shame in my cheesy tourist antics

Goonies never say die!

This goregous Queen Anne Victorian was owned by sea Captain George Flavel. It’s right across the street from the Jailhouse.

We walked around town, everything looked like a movie set

This creepy house belonged to George Conrad Flavel (those Flavel’s owned most of Astoria!)

I am all about abandoned houses with a spooky story behind them. I didn’t tell Liv the gruesome details about this house but she said it looked haunted! Someone has now bought it and plans to restore it to it’s original beauty.

Veda was like, it doesn’t scare me!

The town of Astoria is extremely charming but also has a creepy element I love.

This store wins at common sense!

Astoria-Megler Bridge connects Oregon to Washington state.

We had lunch at this restaurant on the pier over looking the harbor.

We could see Washington state from our table.

So the big attraction of Astoria is of course, the Goondocks, the house filmed in the movie. For thirty years this house has been a welcome attraction for tourists to come and take photos. Well, my bad luck curse struck and just a few days before our arrival, the homeowners decided they had enough of disrespectful folks intruding on their neighborhood. So when we drove past the house we found this…

It’s hard to feel sympathy for these guys since they knowingly bought a famous house. However, I do understand that people suck and are incredibly rude and ruin the experience for others!

I guess they got sick of people doing the truffle shuffle

Even with the tarp and signs, there were still a lot of people visiting the house.

We were bummed but we still had one more stop before we headed back to Portland, the Astoria Column. A beautiful 125 foot tower with the history of Astoria drawn into a spiral column with an observation deck. However as we approached, the tower looked different. As soon as we made it to the top of the mountain I knew it, the tower was closed for renovations! D’oh!!

We were grateful for the stunning views

Oregon is the land of millions of trees and bridges

We drove around downtown Portland looking for the famous Portland neon sign

Antz and Chris had a bro-date at a soccer game downtown. Story and I drank wine while the girls watched the Spongebob movie. It was a long but epic day.

Portlandia Day Two

Sep 9, 2015

Our second day in Oregon was incredible. We enjoyed lovely, mildly warm weather. We loved the food, the friendly vibes and the gorgeous nature everywhere you look! I swear we walked into a living Subaru commercial.

Friendliest cat we’ve ever met

Olivia snapped this awesome photo

I did some research for our trip and I found out that Portland is all about that brunch.

I had so many great options to choose from but when I saw Slappy Cakes on the Food Network I knew we had to try it! Story & Chris have been wanting to go there too but there is always a crazy long wait. We checked out a cool vintage video store while we waited to be called. It’s ridiculous how many great movies we’ve missed in theaters because we don’t go as often, but when faced with thousands of DVDs to choose from, all we could decide on is The SpongeBob Movie for Liv and Veda.

We parked near a food truck lot. There are incredible food trucks (and trailers) everywhere!

Brunch Time!

Here was my order, buttermilk pancakes and fresh blueberries

You guessed it, it’s a cook your own pancakes restaurant

https://player.vimeo.com/video/138588044 Slappy Cakes Portland from sunkissis on Vimeo.

Liv requested a snail, I ended up eating it

Obviously, this is my pancake, it broke during the flip

Pancakes de la Totoro for Antz

Our next stop was Multnomah Falls to take in the beautiful local nature.

Aren’t these photos insane? I didn’t have to edit anything.

I’m still in denial she’s five years old!

So pretty! I love this place.

We also checked out a fish hatchery where we saw a 100 year old sturgeon named Harold. We headed to downtown Portland for donuts at the popular tourist attraction, Voodoo Doughnuts.

We only had a few minutes on our parking meter and the line was ridiculous so we passed on buying anything. Story assured me she knew a better donut place closer to their house.

Every single thing that Carrie & Fred make reference to on Portlandia is 1,000% true!

We finished the day with dinner at McMenamins Kennedy School which is an old school renovated into a hotel, venue and restaurant. I heard they have an insanely beautiful soaking pool but it was closed to the public due to a private event. I took these photos of almost two year old Veda being adorable outside on the patio.

I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed our dear friends. So far we are convinced we are moving to Portland!

Our Epic Road Trip: Portland Day One

Sep 8, 2015

Despite our hotel forgetting to give us an early morning wake up call, we hit the road by 7 am for the eleven hour trek to Portland, Oregon. I went to Portland in my teens for basketball camp and all I remember is TREES EVERYWHERE!! If there is such a thing as a tree phobia, beware! Antz did most of the driving so I could read my new book, Go Set aWatchman by Harper Lee. I love how she dropped her sequel fifty five years later, so gangsta! I love long scenic road trips but by our eighth hour in the car, we were getting restless.

It’s sad to see how bad California’s drought is

I read most of Go Set a Watchman. I don’t know yet how I feel about it, it’s starts off strong but I fell asleep a few times.

Our first stop was in Eugene which is home to the University of Oregon. We needed gas and was shocked to discover that it’s illegal to pump your own gas in the state of Oregon. We found out the hard way that it’s unnecessary to give them a tip so we ended up having to go in the store and get change for the guy.

Another fun fact about Oregon, there’s NO SALES TAX!! Believe me, I was very happy to discover this, only we had so much planned, I had very little time for shopping. I did squeeze in time to pick up a pair of shoes for Liv but next visit, I will be ready! We arrived at our friends Story & Chris’ house around 6pm. Story told us we just missed a major heat wave. Yay! we were happy to move into their adorable attic guest suite. Their house is insane! We both had similar little 2 bedroom houses in LA but their new house is three times the size of ours. They have three stories and live in an awesome neighborhood. They walk everywhere. We settled in and walked to their version of Highland Park’s York Blvd for dinner.

Olivia made friends with every cat in the neighborhood!

I’ve missed these faces terribly

The tacos and sangria were muy bueno. Seriously, DO NOT go to Portland because you will never want to leave!

Learning computers

Sep 4, 2015

Hey There,

So I’ve officially had this WordPress blog since 2011, yet I never really had a clear grasp of how to use it. I’ve been so used to Blogger but also frustrated about their limited functions. Since I’m in the middle of taking a Blogshop (at home) class, now is the perfect time to start posting. Antz made my rad header so I can’t take any credit for that but I am learning how to edit the shit out of my photos so I’m going to post a few random events from this summer. I’m really having fun with Photoshop!

Mural by @peterroa

Have lovely night!

Liv’s Wonderland

Jun 16, 2015

These are the beautiful photos Jennifer took at Olivia’s Alice in Wonderland party. It was a very merry unbirthday!

Olivia's5thBday_JenniferYoungStudio-203 fixed

Ching Ching stole the show!

I am in love with these photos. Jennifer is so talented. I love the way she captures Olivia’s spirit. Thank you Jennifer!

I also am so happy with everyone at Alice’s Traveling Tea Party. They went above and beyond to make Olivia’s party rad.

Olivia’s Wonderland UnBirthday Tea Party

Jun 7, 2015

Our kid turned five this week. Every year feels bittersweet. Liv is growing up so fast and I miss my four year old already!

We threw her very first unbirthday party last Sunday at Vincent Lugo Park. Since we are used to spending her birthday out of town celebrating on a small scale, we needed to hire someone to help us plan and organize la fête. We wanted a fantastic experience for Liv and her guests but also to be able to hang out with the adults (and keep our sanity) while the kids were entertained. I found Alice’s Traveling Tea Party on Pinterest. Of all the Disney films, I’ve always loved Alice for it’s silliness and whimsical characters. Of course Liv is all about the princesses, particularly of the Frozen variety but every single birthday party we’ve been to has done that theme. Alice is rad for so many reasons, she’s able to solve her problems, remembers to be polite and lets her imagination soar. I mean, she’s not perfect but I love her sense of curiosity and adventure. So I began searching for the perfect Alice costume for Liv and was surprised to come up empty at the Disney store. I wasn’t fond of the cheap polyester costumes on Amazon so I was stoked to find a custom made dress and eyelet petticoat on eBay. I was a week from it being shipped when I got an email from the seller telling me she tripped on her ironing board and possibly broke her wrist. Just my luck, she had to cancel the order and I had one week to scramble to find something. I took a gamble buying an Alice costume I found online. I ordered a small based on the reviews of the dress sizing larger but sheesh.

Looks too sister-wives, right?

We took Liv to my dry cleaners and had the dress, petticoat and apron altered (which cost as much as the costume!) I was relived to see the result and the total cost ended being less than the original eBay dress. So my next task was finding a photographer. I was going to use the photographer recommended by the party planners but she was unavailable for the date of our party. Luckily I had an ace up my sleeve. I met lovely Jennifer Young back in 2013 when I was at Jihan’s studio picking up my birthday balloon. She shot Liv for Jihan’s party supply shop and she took these gorgeous shots at the Los Angeles Diner en Blanc. I have been a huge fan of her Instagram feed so I asked if she would shoot Liv’s party. I was so excited to hear she was available and able to come down to LA! Lastly, I had my heart set on having a photo booth backdrop. I liked this one I found on Pinterest and commissioned my Superhubs to build it for me.

He bought a piece of plywood from Home Depot and the frames, topiary/roses were from Michaels

Antz version is on the left

I love how amazing it turned out!! Antz is such a crafting genius. Next he made the Alice themed photo booth props and I ordered some party favors. Off went the invitations which are included in the party package.

The party included food and cupcakes so I wasn’t planning on getting a cake but as I was at Porto’s ordering snacks for the adults, I couldn’t resist ordering a small last minute cake for ma fille. Antz put together this rad cosplay photo of our Alice. The morning of the party was a bit hectic for us but I managed to take some shots of the set up. Once the party got started, I was so busy passing out name tags and chatting with guests, I hardly took any pictures. Luckily my BFF Aimee and my friends took photos with their phones. I am so excited to see the photos Jennifer took next week.

I can’t even with this little girl! She loves to get into character.

The party looked incredible!

All the guests signed this sheet that I will add our group photo and frame.

The photo booth was quite popular with the big kids!

I love this photo taken by Terry of Liv jumping for joy!

Thanks Alice & the Mad Hatter

Ching Ching had some cake too!

No more parties until you turn sixteen kiddo!!

Bon anniversaire lovely Olivia!

La Tour Eiffel

Apr 16, 2015

It’s been three weeks since my trip to Paris and I still can smell the fresh baked baguettes in the air. Visiting Paris during spring is such a difference than being there during the summer. I was concerned that the weather would be too cold, rainy and gloomy. Being cold makes me miserable but I loved the crisp air. It never rained, so of course I schlepped my rain boots and umbrella in my suitcase for nothing. I really don’t have much cold weather clothes so I bought a new coat from Asos (on sale!). Every day the sun would peek out just long enough for me to take some incredible photos. I know I was driving Aimee insane because I couldn’t walk one block without stopping to snap photos of buildings, flowers or even the lovely cobblestone streets.

So, I know it’s super cheesy and very American touristy but I had to test my courage and check out the new glass floor on the Eiffel Tower. It’s only on the first floor of the tower but it’s really high up *60 meters above ground!* I waited in line for 45 minutes for an elevator which ended up only going to the second floor so I took some quick shots of the view since Aimee was downstairs freezing while waiting for me.

Looking north at Trocadéro. It was totally cloudy but the sun popped out just as I took these

Looking east (there’s our Dîner en Blanc bridge!)

Southern views

I took this with my selfie stick and my hands were frozen. Don’t I look cold?

Sadly, I had no one to kiss so I blew an air kiss to Antz and Liv

The view from the 1st level glass floor

Can you see Aimee down there?

I’m not joking about how terrifying this was for me!

My best #fromwhereIstand so far

Mon trente- huit Anniversaire

Mar 27, 2015

My birthday was pretty rad! Aside from spending the day with my best friend in the city I love, I also went to an art show I have been wanting to see and had an awesome birthday dinner. I am so full of gratitude to my husband for giving me this incredible gift. I drank until I was dizzy and laughed so hard I cried.

Uncle Terry is a gross, little Midwestern perv but Aimee and I enjoy his photography. My favorite of his work is his shots of Marilyn Manson and his Daddy.