AXE Restaurant

Posted in Breakfast, Brunch, Explore, Food, Fun, Lunch, Uncategorized by C.

Location: 1009 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Venice

Abbot Kinney is one of my favorite boulevards in all of Los Angeles. A short strip of quaint clothing shops, home decor boutiques, stationary stores, restaurants, bars, and cafes; fused together by a much more laid back L.A. vibe – thanks to the pacific ocean just 1 mile away.

Near the tail end of the boulevard, I recently spent a Sunday afternoon with 9 of my friends to celebrate a birthday at AXE (pronounced “ă • shay” I later learned). The menu is all about clean eating; using fresh, local, organic ingredients. The dining space promotes simplicity with a salute to earthiness. I have to give it to them when it comes to their intention with the design of the space and thoughtfulness in developing the menu, read more here.

For brunch, I went with the 9 grain pancake and a side of the crispy potatoes. One of the girls brought a bottle of champagne to share with the table to toast. Talk about Sunday Funday! I can’t think of anything more awesome than champagne and pancakes on a Sunday afternoon.

{Hello champagne.}

{9 grain pancake.}

{Crispy potatoes.}

Pros: Great atmosphere, awesome location, organic food, surprisingly not too pricey.

Cons: Took forever to seat our group despite our reservation (after waiting 30 minutes I went in and complained – lo and behold our table was ready); I was happy with my dish but the food wasn’t anything super special; service was slow, and the wait staff was pretty nonchalant and unwelcoming, with no sense of urgency at all, it took forever to get our food.

Overall: I enjoyed (as always) adding a new “been there, done that” to my LA restaurant list, but due to the vibe from the wait staff and food that was just okay it’s not someplace that I feel the need to ever return to. Especially, when my favorite place, Jin Patisserie, is a 5 minute walk down the boulevard. AXE really needs to work on service and their unwelcoming attitude. Oh, and I can’t believe a place like this would give a table of 9 a hand-written bill that was hard to read. I’m all for being more earthy, but get a machine to tally receipts. It’s 2012!

17Dec2012

A Holiday Party Hit

Posted in Beauty, DIY, Food, Fun, Treats by C.

My first holiday party of the season was on a chilly Thursday night. The premise was simple: bring yourself, bring food, and bring 5 of your favorite thing for a little gift exchange.

Since I knew I would be spending the evening with my more health conscious girlfriends, I wanted to bring something that was original, healthy, but still had a touch of decadence to it. (It was a party after all!) I did not, however, want to bring store-bought cookies from Trader Joe’s that would just sit on the counter untouched by the end of the night (like I did last year). It came to me rather quickly thanks to an old Pinterest find from earlier this summer. I wanted to do a dessert-type dish and I wanted to do something that I actually took the time to make (no matter how simple it might have been).

Strawberries (healthy) + chocolate (decadent) = the perfect party treat (that your incessantly dieting friends will actually eat).

An added bonus, besides the irresistible pairing of strawberries and chocolate, was presenting them in a unique way by stuffing them, rather than dipping them (there’s the originality).

(Click here for the recipe).

{Chocolate-filled strawberries.}

As for the gift exchange, the idea was to bring 5 of your favorite thing that was $6.00 max. Each person’s name would go into a hat 5 times and we’d each draw 5 names (minus your own) to pass your gifts out to after a small introduction as to why it was a favored item of yours. At the end of the night, you’ll have 5 different new favorite treasures from your friends.

I knew instantly what I would bring from the moment I learned of our gift exchange: L’Oreal’s Colour Riche Femme Fatale Collection nail polish in Tangerine Crush. I’ve already raved about it as one of the great beauty finds of 2012 (now you know why 5 were featured in the post). Since I’m all about presentation, I wanted to give out my goodies in a special way. I got 5 super cute Chinese style take out gift boxes from Cost Plus and placed the nail polish inside with a touch of tissue paper. Voilà!

{L’Oreal’s Colour Riche Femme Fatale Collection nail polish in Tangerine Crush.}

{Gift boxes.}

The chocolate-filled strawberries and nail polish in these awesome gift boxes were a holiday hit! And not one strawberry was left over after our potluck-style party. Take that, store-bought cookies! 🙂

14Dec2012

Highlights: Holiday Inspired

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

It’s amazing how literally everything around you changes during this time of year to bring the spirit of the holidays alive. Magically, green and red colors infiltrate your world, the make-overs in store window fronts and shopping malls prompt you to spend away, Christmas trees pop up all over town, homes glow from the sparkle of lights at night, and egg nog, peppermint, and gingerbread everything become all the rage. 11 days until the big day. Here are a few Holiday themed highlights that have been making the season extra festive:

{Starbucks’ new holiday themed paper cups.}

{“Operation: watch tons of Christmas movies” has been going well. So far I’ve watched 5 festive flicks, including this fun stay at home and get cozy comedy, The Holiday.}

{These adorable reindeer made from real Christmas trees.}

{Goodies received from a recent holiday party gift exchange.}

{Gifted homemade toffee crunch.}

5Dec2012

2012: How Pinterest Made Me Cooler

Posted in Accessories, Beauty, Dinner, DIY, Fashion, Food, Fun, Handbags, Inspiration, Treats by C.

March 5, 2012. The day I joined Pinterest, the latest social media craze that spawned yet another online addiction that I probably didn’t really need, but am more than happy with having. Once I figured out what the heck it was (and how to pronounce it), 2012 was never the same.

Pinterest appeals to my deeply visual side, my organizational side; and that side of me that loves to learn something new, how to do it better, or when I just need a little inspiration to change things up.

Pinterest has made me cooler. How, you ask? Let’s just say that thanks to the ideas curated onto my pretty awesome profile (if I do say so myself :)), I cook better, dress better, and my apartment has benefited from a few ideas sparked from a simple photo.

As of writing this post, I’ve pinned 643 images. Of those 643 images, I’ve managed to put a handful into action. In the spirit of looking back over the year, I thought it would be fun to share the recipes, tips, and products that I now treasure. Here’s how Pinterest made me cooler this year:

HOW I COOKED BETTER: Easy Garlic Chicken

{Photo source}

Without a doubt this very popular brown sugar and garlic chicken recipe pin turned me into a mini-rock star in the kitchen and was my first ever Pinterest experiment. It’s super easy to make, and only takes a few ingredients: chicken breast, garlic, olive oil, and brown sugar. I like to add a bit more garlic to the mixture to give it a little more punch against the brown sugar and top it off with a few dashes of salt and pepper for more flavor.

HOW I ACCESSORIZED BETTER: Kaela Designs Cheryl Katch Hobo Bag

I stumbled across this unique and trendy bag on Pinterest from Kaela Designs earlier this summer. Aside from the shape and pattern of the handbag, I fell in love with the ring style handles. It really makes it stand out. To read about this addition to my collection from earlier this year, please see my blog post.

HOW I HOME DECORATED BETTER: Flower Arrangements 101

I love flowers. I them so much I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to them! Awhile back, I found Lauren Conrad’s “how-to” for flower arrangements via a pin. Above were my results! They added such a great touch of brightness and liveliness to my home for a week straight. I wrote a blog about making this simple and affordable flower arrangement courtesy of L.C. here.

HOW I BECAME CRAFTIER: D.I.Y. MAKEUP BRUSH HOLDER

{Photo source}

The first image above was a pin I came across that made me want to combine my love of candles (but not the left over jars), organization, and presentation into one. This photo led me to try re-purposing an old candle jar that turned into the photo below complete with an organized make-up brush holder on my new antique vanity tray. I’ll eventually upgrade to a nicer candle jar, but liked how it turned out! To see how I did mine, please visit my post.

These are just a few ideas learned from my online passion, pinning images! I look forward to 2013 where I’m sure a new resolve to make it the best year yet, with Pinterest’s help, will spark new ideas and motivation from a simple image and I’ll be cooler than ever! Happy Pinning!

3Dec2012

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!!