The Christmas Project

Posted in Accessories, DIY, Fashion, Film, Food, Fun, Inspiration, Music, Treats, Uncategorized by C.

Welcome to December! And if we’re lucky, we’ll make it through the end of the world into an uncharted 2013 calendar year. Gotta love those Mayans! They certainly know how to stir up some drama. Couldn’t they have at least waited until AFTER Christmas to dub civilization over? That way, we at least get to die near our Christmas trees with a full stomach and new toys surrounding us? I suspect it will be pretty anti-climactic in the end, kind of like how Y2K came and went. This doesn’t mean that we won’t hear about it for the entire Holiday filled weeks ahead. So prepare mentally now for your Facebook feed to change tone; or not much at all if you have sarcastic, someecards.com loving friends like I do.

I’ve decided to challenge myself this month to not only survive the end of the world, but to grab 2012 by the balls and go out with a bang (probably not the best word choice in light of the end of time coming soon?). I really liked doing this for Halloween. I guess in theory it won’t be much different, you’re just swapping out pumpkins and horror for gingerbread and cheer! Being the slightly (okay, more than slightly) O.C.D. lover of setting goals and crossing things off lists that I am, I’ve decided to make festivity priority number one this Christmas. Here are my month long to-dos, a.k.a. – The Christmas Project:

1. Decorate my apartment.

This year I want my very own Christmas tree! I made my first decorative purchase last week while at Trader Joe’s. This real mini poinsettia plant. It even had glitter on it! I couldn’t resist.

2. Watch at least 2 Christmas themed movies a week.

This one will be completely do-able for me. Aside from being a total movie whore naturally, I already kicked this task off with my first festive flick, Love Actually (I never get sick of this one). Also on my list to bring in the cheer: Home Alone, It’s A Wonderful Life, The Family Stone, Trapped In Paradise (suggested by the BF), and a slew of others I’ll be watching thanks to Moviefone’s blog entry.

3. Get Christmas shopping done well before Christmas.

I have a bit of a problem with waiting until the last minute to start Christmas shopping and then I’m in the throes of total chaos kicking myself. Not because I’m in the chaos (I kinda like being with other “last-minuters”) but because it takes circling 30 minutes just to find a parking space to even get in the door! Then again, I do tend to get the most creative and inspired when under pressure. Here’s an actual picture I took of the Westfield Culver City mall 2 Christmas’ ago on December 23rd (on my like 1 megapixel Blackberry I had at the time). What the heck was I doing in a mall 2 days before Christmas? This year, thanks to Pinterest’s awesome new secret boards; I’ll be visually prepared, organized, and done in a more timely manner…December 22nd, the latest. 🙂

4. Bake something festive.

{Photos courtesy of Pinterest and someone who stole them from someone else, who stole from someone else, etc..}.

I can’t decide if it will be cupcakes, brownies, or cookies – but they better look like snowmen, Christmas trees, a star, or something. These Pinterest photos I’ve been collecting (since like July) give you an idea of what I’m talking about!

5. Lots of Hot Cocoa.

Again, I started this to-do already. My first official hot chocolate of the season, complete with whipped cream, captured above.

6. Be present.

Literally, be present. Not in a gift giving sense, but to really slow down and enjoy this time of year: the weather, the decorations while walking the street, my closet full of scarves, holding warm beverages, smiling at strangers, ~~running up my credit card~~, parties, movies, shopping, wrapping presents, listening to Christmas music, and spending time with people I love to be around.

These are my Christmas to-do’s. I’ll report back after the holidays.

HAPPY DECEMBER TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD MONTH!

🙂

30Nov2012

Highlights: End of November

Posted in Dinner, Explore, Film, Food, Fun by C.

Things have been going so well lately, that I don’t want to jinx it by even talking about it! November was an exciting month: the election, our visit to San Juan Capistrano, and Thanksgiving were huge successes. Here are a few recent small pleasures and sightings that added huge smiles to end a happy month:

A stop at The Counter for a custom-made burger and yummy fries last week before catching a flick over in Century City, had me try something different this time between the bun: cranberries! Let’s just say, it works. Yum!

While I don’t personally have formal Christmas dinners, I would totally use these cute flatware stockings that I saw while perusing Crate and Barrel on my Holiday table. They’re so festive!

These adorable snowman cookies I saw while in line for a latte at Starbucks. The best part: the scarf!

Christmas music has officially entered my life once again. My favorites: Josh Groban’s Noel, Mariah Carey’s Merry Christmas, and Pandora’s Christmas Station.

I hope November treated you just as kindly. Have a great weekend! 🙂

28Nov2012

Snow in L.A.

Posted in Explore, Film, Food, Fun by C.

Location: 189 The Grove Drive, Mid-City

Without question, my favorite place to be in Los Angeles after Thanksgiving leading up to Christmas is a shopping center of all places. You read that correctly, a shopping center. And not for the obvious “you live in L.A. so you must be the poster child for consumerism while sipping your soy latte” reason you’re thinking (okay, there would most likely be a latte involved – minus that other stuff). When L.A. needs some Christmas cheer, we get in our cars, sit in traffic, update our Facebook status frustrated about sitting in said traffic, and head to The Grove!

The Grove is the ultimate one stop shopping destination (though they seriously need to get on adding an H&M to the block, like. now.), but this isn’t why I’m in love with spending time here as we embark on the journey of the Holiday season. It’s because it’s the Mecca for getting my Holiday festivity fix…well, as much as a gal can get in L.A.

The day after Thanksgiving, we headed over to The Grove to enjoy how an outdoor mall transforms into a fantastical celebration of Christmas. Lights everywhere, wreaths hang from lamp posts, and large ornaments suspend from rooftops right above you. Santa’s huge ~~Mansion~~ Cottage, complete with a digital “now serving” ticket numbering system (not kidding!) as you head inside the doors to give Santa your list of demands, sits at the center of it all. (Oh, what I would ask Old Saint Nick for now as an adult!) Music fills the air; and on that particular Black Friday night, fog was appropriately present enhancing the festive vibe. All this leads you toward the grand finale: a 100 foot tall white fir Christmas tree beaming with more than 15,000 lights and 10,000 ornaments. And it’s real, I’ve checked.

{Santa’s ~~L.A. Mansion~~ Cottage.}

{Standing at the base of the infamous 100 foot white fur Christmas tree!}

My personal favorite (though I’m sure super cheesy to those reading this from everywhere else in the world with actual weather) is the faux snow that drops every night at 7:00pm and 8:00pm as you walk about The Grove’s main street. It takes the whole experience to another level; and in this moment, I’m like a kid again, believing in the magic of the Holidays. 🙂

{Faux snow floating in the air.}

I urge you to make at least one trip to The Grove this Holiday season (if you’re in town) to experience the magic for yourself and hey, pick up a few gifts, or better yet – make it a dinner and a movie date night with someone special. There’s something in the air that a blog post nor pictures can accurately capture. Just be sure to be outside The Pacific Theaters at 7:00pm to get the only glimpse of snow in L.A. you’ll likely ever see.

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

27 days to go…

{Snow falling at The Grove.}

27Nov2012

Georgetown Cupcake Comes To L.A.

Posted in Explore, Food, Fun, Treats by C.

Location: 143 South Robertson Boulevard, Mid-City West

The opening of a new cupcake shop is almost (read: almost) as exciting as opening a Christmas present. What will the store look like? What flavors do they have? How well dressed (read: decorative) will the tiny cakes be? More importantly, how awesome will the experience be when you take that first bite? Let’s just say I wasn’t disappointed.

Georgetown Cupcake couldn’t have picked a better location to open its doors a little over a week ago. The shop sits on the very trendy, very busy, and VERY expensive Robertson Boulevard shopping district (read: rich people’s playground), Beverly Hills adjacent.

All my questions were finally answered a few days ago after a long anticipated wait, when we stopped in for an afternoon treat and unwrapped Georgetown’s sweet present. The store was very simplistic and welcoming in design; lots of white walls, with minimal artwork (all pictures of cupcakes, of course), hardwood floors with only a few tables in-store to sit and enjoy your frosted covered carb.

My favorite thing about Georgetown was the display of cupcakes sitting right in front of you, fully stocked, and perfectly organized in a way that made you want each and every one of them. One of my pet peeves with Sprinkles and other major cupcakeries in town is when you walk into the store and the bakery display is nearly empty, instantaneously making you feel like the flavors you want are already out of stock for the day (many times they are, other times they haven’t replaced stock yet). Not at Georgetown, they didn’t even grab our order from the counter display as they had tons of cupcakes sitting on racks behind the counter. Cupcakes everywhere! This made me happy. 🙂

{Cupcakes everywhere!}

Since I was between pumpkin pie feedings left over from Thanksgiving, with more than half a pie to still get through, I splurged on just one cupcake this time around – the lemon blossom. This cupcake was amazing; moist, flavorful, and my favorite part, lemony.

{Lemon Blossom.}

{First bite.}

I will add for my wheat intolerant friends, that my boyfriend didn’t seemed as impressed with his gluten-free lava fudge cupcake. He had issue with the frosting, and while saying that he would come again, he left Georgetown still a loyal fan of Cupcakes Couture in not so close-by Manhattan Beach for his wheat-free fix. I, on the other hand, literally had an internal dialogue in my head talking myself out of buying another.

When I’m done digesting all of the food I ate over the long holiday weekend, and detox all of the pumpkin pie still sitting in my body right now (too much info?), I’ll be back.

Welcome to L.A. Georgetown! I’m sure you’ll like the weather.

26Nov2012

Highlights: Thanksgiving Day

Posted in Breakfast, Dinner, Film, Food, Fun, Treats by C.

Wow, where does the time go? All the build-up and the planning, coordinating; then eating, sleeping, eating, watching a movie, and more eating until it’s all over. Thanksgiving was a complete success on my end. In large part because I had the best company, and we ordered the most delish ham from The Honey Baked Ham Store, with a slew of sides from Bristol Farms. Let’s just say we had Thanksgiving dinner two nights in a row, ham and eggs for breakfast twice over the long holiday weekend, and at some point this week a ham sandwich will be in my immediate future.

As I look back on an amazing, relaxing, and food-filled Thanksgiving Thursday these are the parts that made me smile and what I’ll always want to remember:

I stopped on Wednesday afternoon (in the actual chaos of last-minute grocery shoppers…I did it for the drama!) and got a fresh bouquet of flowers to give my place a bit more of that festive Thanksgiving vibe! They were perfect!

How the food arrived. 🙂

Thanksgiving entertainment. We tried to find movies that were themed for the holiday (and I just thought E.T. would be awesome to re-watch). We eventually got through everything during those 4 days, but Planes, Trains and Automobiles was the perfect flick to kick-off a movie-filled weekend.

Thanksgiving dinner: honey baked ham, glazed baby carrots, green beans almondine, mashed potatoes, and candied yams. That’s a little sparkling apple cider in the wine glass. Words cannot describe how happy I was at this moment – yum! 🙂

Dessert: Pumpkin pie, naturally!

The BEST surprise and my personal favorite, this Esque candle that my boyfriend gave me as a little Thanksgiving day present. Aww! I was totally shocked because I was admiring it a few months back at Z-Gallerie, but didn’t get it. It’s so pretty I don’t even want to burn it!

I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving holiday this year. There was much more for myself on the horizon as the long weekend got started (posts to come) but it truly was a day to be remembered. Thank you to my awesome guy for making it such a special day!

On to Christmas….yikes!

21Nov2012

Thankful

Posted in Books, Fashion, Film, Food, Fun, Inspiration by C.

I loved this festive cake I saw in a bakery while in San Juan Capistrano recently.

It’ll be pretty low-key on my end for the long Holiday weekend. We went the total lazy route and ordered our big feast from a combination of The Honey Baked Ham Store and Bristol Farms. We even decided to change things up this year and have ham instead of turkey. Such rebels!

While I write a weekly post (sometimes twice a week, or when I can’t think of anything else compelling to write) where I reflect on the “Highlights” of the simple things happening around me; I thought this would a good time to reflect on what I’m truly thankful for in life in the grand scheme of things that is the year of our Lord, 2012.

My first apartment! I moved into my own place earlier this year and words cannot describe the sense of accomplishment and independence I feel every time I walk through the front door. This is my favorite wall in my humble abode and I’m thankful for having a small place in the world to call my own.

My best friend, who happens to be my boyfriend, for being the awesome guy that he is! This is an old picture I took last year while in Catalina Island. It’s a favorite of mine of us.

I’m beyond grateful in the midst of a tough economy to be working and working in the field that I actually studied in college.

I joined a book club this time last year and one year later, not only have I given myself the motivation to actually begin and finish a book (rather than juggle two at a time and never finish either one of them); it’s also opened my world to a whole new group of girl friends. We’re all ages and from different walks of life, bonded by our nerdiness for books. 🙂

One of the happiest things I’ve done this year was start this blog. It’s really given me the creative outlet that I had been craving for such a long time. Thank you to those that read, comment, or like even one of my posts. I’m grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

20Nov2012

Highlights: The Weekend

Posted in Film, Food, Treats by C.

It was a pretty relaxing, non-eventful weekend on my end. I’m usually running about town, obsessing about what to blog about for the upcoming week. Two days of lying low, listening to the rain, renting embarrassingly cheesy (and sometimes just plain bad) movies that I never get the chance to watch alone, and sipping my first wine cooler (yes, wine cooler…don’t judge) in years was simply fun. Since it’ll be a short writing week because of the Holiday, I thought I’d share some highlights from my weekend because I’ve really come to enjoy writing these posts…

My first cup of coffee for the weekend. This isn’t super extraordinary for me on a Saturday morning; but what makes this cup of coffee a special one, was that this was the first time I used this cup and saucer. Awhile back, a former colleague of mine was headed to France for a few weeks on vacation, and sweetly asked if he could bring anything back for me. Since I’ve always had this fantasy of sitting in a french cafe sipping espresso, I told him I wanted a cup set from France so that I could channel it from the States. I packed it away a few years ago and after moving, came across it and thought it’s time to channel that French experience. I can’t wait to have the real version someday.

I spent a lot of time on the couch right next to my remote control and hit Redbox more times than I care to admit (okay, three times this weekend and 6 movies later…).

I re-discovered my love of cheese and crackers! Specifically, my new obsession with Gouda cheese of all things. Add some multi-grain crackers from Trader Joe’s and a few red grapes and I had my go-to snack for the weekend.

Ah, flowers! Something I love to have around me when I know I’ll actually be home to enjoy them.

19Nov2012

How I Custom Designed My Own Pizza

Posted in Dinner, Explore, Food, Fun, Lunch by C.

Location: 12103 Ventura Boulevard, Studio City

So I know that turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce are all that’s on the brain this week, but I just had to share the great news with you! I cannot at all take the credit for this awesome find, my boyfriend told me about it, but the moment we stepped inside I knew pizza would never be the same. It was described to me as the “Chipotle for pizza!”

Pizza Rev sits not too far from the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Ventura Boulevard in Studio City. Its motto: craft your own pizza. My motto: I’ll take everything on mine!

{Making the dough.}

{Over 30 toppings to choose from.}

Interestingly, the decor reminds me a lot of Chipotle, down to the buffet style ordering set-up as you move along in line to build your own pizza, starting with their homemade dough. Next, choose your cheese, choose your sauce, and then choose your toppings. The thrilling thing about this place is that for $7.95 you can put ANYTHING you want on your personal sized pie. The sky’s the limit. Naturally, I went overboard as one does with a buffet of toppings to choose from.

{Building mine!}

For our gluten-free friends, Pizza Rev has you covered. While a small $2.00 increase comes with ordering their wheat free crust, unlimited toppings more than make up for it. If you’re too tired to create your own (and who in the world would these people be?) you can also order from their “Our Way” menu and stick with the basics.

{In the oven.}

A short wait while your custom designed pizza cooks in their open deck oven and you’re out the door. I crafted a regular dough pizza with olive oil, mozzarella, feta cheese, ricotta, all beef pepperoni, ham, spinach, tomato, mushroom, pineapple, and black olives! Told you, I went overboard, but O.M.G. was it delish!!

{My finished custom designed pizza :)}

16Nov2012

Highlights: The Beginning Toward The End

Posted in Accessories, Fashion, Fun, Treats by C.

I love this time of year. It flies by in a flash because we’re in the midst of a season that’s unlike any other, celebrating all the way. After Halloween comes a birthday for a special person in my life, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and then my anniversary with said special person. As we enter the beginning toward the end of the year, I can say with confidence that it will be a memorable holiday season because I intend for it to be. Bring. It. On! Here are a few things that made me smile this week in the meantime:

{Scarf weather is now in full effect in the City of Angels and I’ve rocked them almost every day this week. This makes me happy!}

{After trying to enjoy loose leaf tea using strainers because I thought they were cool, I gave up and went with the more tried and true “T-Sacs” to keep those annoying leaves that still seemed to fall through the strainer out. I got these awesome filters during my recent visit to Bird Pick. The point? There will be lots of tea consumption this season. :)}

{I fell in LOVE with this limited edition Christmas ornament during a recent visit to Starbucks to grab a latte. It’s a ceramic shaped coffee cup encrusted with swarovski elements. It’s so me, a coffee cup that “glitters.” The hefty price tag made me put it down, but I had to get a picture!}

{My new “Fancy Peach” earrings purchased at Scarlet Mare Studio on Etsy arrived mere days ago. My first ever Etsy purchase, but definitely not my last. Check out their site if you like one-of-a-kind, eclectic jewelry.}

Okay, time to stop reading (though I appreciate it!) and head to the grocery store to stock up for all the Thanksgiving festivities coming next week. Have an amazing weekend! 🙂

15Nov2012

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Posted in Explore, Food, Fun by C.

Location: 26801 Ortega Highway, San Juan Capistrano

Hands down, one of my favorite days from this year will be Sunday, November 11th, 2012. For my boyfriend’s birthday, we enjoyed a sunny 60 mile drive to The O.C. to spend the day in the remarkable city of San Juan Capistrano to visit the 7th Spanish Mission established in California in 1776. Words cannot express the spirituality, the history, the enduring exquisiteness, and breathtaking grounds surrounding us that day.

Thankfully, we walked the property taking the time to listen to the audio tour (click here to listen online), which not only educated us about what we were looking at, but why the earth that we were standing on was significant. It brought the experience to life. From learning that the California wine industry originated at the mission while looking into the large vat used to stomp grapes; to sitting in The Serra Chapel, that’s still used to this day for worshiping; to walking through the cemetery’s resting place for 2,000 souls; and then standing among the ruins of the Great Stone Church after the December 1812 earthquake, was an overwhelmingly special opportunity.

After spending a few hours at the mission, we walked the town of San Juan Capistrano, perusing gift shops and an awesome antique mall before heading to an early dinner at El Adobe restaurant.

I scored an antique vanity tray for my bathroom from the antiques mall, had a wonderful dinner, a new education about Mission San Juan Capistrano, and an unforgettable day with my boyfriend. As they say, “a picture is worth a thousand words” and I took 131 of them! It was difficult to narrow them down for this post, but I hope that they capture why this was such a special day. Make it a point to see the mission if you’re ever in the area. Until then…Enjoy!