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 As most of you already know from my previous decorating post that I decided to have a woodland themed tree for our first year in our new home. I thought long and hard about real vs. fake. While I love the smell of real pine trees, there were so many reasons why having a fake tree would be easier for us. So when I finally made up my mind we went to Target to look at trees. The most reasonably priced tree wasn't very big and the branches weren't very long. We settled on a bushier tree that had a color of green that we weren't wild about and was a little on the pricey side when Erik's mom called on his cell and said there were two trees left at Lowe's, 60 bucks off and were really cute. We hopped on over to Lowe's and Erik's parents were waiting for us and had the second to last tree sitting in a shopping cart for us. It was exactly what I had envisioned and had an irresistible price tag and now it is happily sitting in our living room next to the front window where you can see it from the street all lit up. I had bought a bunch of ornaments at a few different places a couple of weeks ago to prepare but it didn't look quite as full as I wanted. So while I was out purchasing some pillows for the couch at Target, I grabbed some gold ornaments and some snowflakes to fill it in a little. While doing some house decorating the other day I was rummaging around in the closet and found some gold bead garlands and the tree was complete. ( ♥ )
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 I've always really loved decorating for the holidays, even when I was a kid. I would even offer to put up my own decorations for my birthday parties when I was little. I had a few decorations left over from when we lived at our old apartment a few years ago and the little pumpkins I put out at Halloween work pretty well for Thanksgiving too. I did however go a little crazy with the Christmas ornaments this year with it being our first tree. It took me awhile to decide what theme I wanted to go with. When I was little I always wanted a theme tree. I loved going to Green Thumb and seeing all of their beautifully decorated trees, all of them different. My family always put up the different colored lights and ornaments we collected over the years, which I definitely plan on doing in the future. However, this year I decided to fulfill my dream of having a tree with a theme. Erik and I went to Green Thumb's holiday open house this year. They had some pretty amazing trees like every year. They had a snow tree, an ocean themed tree, a red and green traditional tree, even a candy tree with cupcake ornaments and candy garlands. Seriously inspirational. ( ♥ ) |
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 I've been neglecting my journal for over two weeks now! Holiday hours have officially picked up but they hired three new people at work so now I'm enjoying three days off in a row and have no excuse! I have a million days and photos to update with but we'll start with the latest adventure since it was an extra special one. Erik and I had our second wedding anniversary on the 11th this month and while he always gets the day off and it's easy for me to get a day off, the next day we usually have to go back to work depending on what day Veteran's Day lands on. This year it landed on a Wednesday so we had to make the most of our day off together. First thing we did was go to Crush Cafe for breakfast. This place is perfect for a couple going out to eat together because they make the food look so special. I ordered the red velvet pancakes (oh my god!) and they sprinkled little chocolate hearts all over the plate and even added a little buttercream to it! We are talking about a restaurant connected to a cupcakery however. These are some of things you can expect from Crush Cafe. Erik ordered the Tree Hugger panini with tomato basil soup. They added a sour cream heart in the middle of his bowl of soup. I love it! ( ♥ )
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 My mom, Erik and I decided to go to the Santa Barbara Museum of Art to see the Noble Tombs at Mawangdui: Art and Life in the Changsha Kingdom exhibit. Seriously mind blowing and amazing. As soon as we got home I googled Lady Dai because I find her so interesting and I had to know what she looked like. They're going to show a film on her later this month that shows how she was able to be so well preserved after her death. After visiting the California Calling exhibit we ofcourse went to Crush down the street for cupcakes. I ordered the Trick or Treat cupcake. It was chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream and a little chunk of butterfinger candy at the bottom of it. So. Good. ( ♥ )
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 I had been meaning to visit Underwood Family Farms since this past summer. I believe they're open all year round and have an assortment of things for you to pick. We didn't get there in time to pick strawberries and blackberries but the Harvest Festival worked perfectly fine, and then some. I had no idea what to expect, having never been there. The place is huge. We got there early which when we go back for berry picking, is exactly what we plan on doing again. There was a huge line of cars backed up all the way down this long road leading to the farms when we left. Luckily I'm a get up and go kind of person. When visiting places on the weekends, this is a helpful thing. ( ♥ )
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 Feeling super sleepy after a long day out of the house. Erik and I went to the Harvest Festival and then to Big Lots and Ross to find outdoor Halloween decorations. They didn't really have anything spectacular so I think we're going to settle for our little pumpkins that we picked today and hope they're cute enough to bring in some trick or treaters. I did find some cute lanterns I'm considering going back for. I'm guessing most of the good stuff sold early on in the month. I have to work on Halloween so we'll be handing out candy at home this year which is what I was hoping to do. ( ♥ )
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 Definitely one of the prettiest places I've ever been. I've never been to a place like this in California. It felt like we were in another state. When we drove up the first thing we saw was Hawk's Head Public House which is a charming and beautiful restaurant. If you don't want to wait 30 minutes for a table, you can pick something up to go from the window outside. We decided there was enough to do outdoors so we waited for our table. Being it was a Monday, there was a class of kids there and all the employees were dressed in Colonial style clothing. While the kids were being taught the manual of arms by Civil or Revolutionary War soldiers, my mom and I picked strawberries out of a nearby patch. ( ♥ )
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 The trip to Oak Glen was much more amazing than I could have ever imagined. Our original intention was to go to pick apples. We found out before the trip that apple picking season is actually over for that area of California but we went for the fresh apples anyway and we were not disappointed. Up in the mountains where it was about 40 degrees, my mom and I found a little road path to about 4 or 5 different farms that sold apples and various things. We got to walk around the apple trees, tried some apple tasting, and ate several things with apples in them. I think the next morning I actually woke up with the taste of apple still in my mouth. ( ♥ )
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 My mom and I were trying to think of a place to have lunch after visiting LACMA and decided on the Farmer's Market since we hadn't been there in a long time. What I love about this place other than looking through all the windows at all the desserts is you have so many choices on what to eat. The place is huge and there is something for everybody. I was still on my sushi kick from class so I settled on a rainbow roll and my mom had some veggie tempura. Seriously yummy. After lunch we wandered around and looked at the market shops and after watching peanut brittle being made we decided we needed a cupcake and ventured on over to Sprinkles cupcakes. I know I swore I would never set foot in Sprinkles cupcakes due to all of what I consider to be bad publicity with suing other cupcake shops for using the word sprinkle in their name and using the famous dot on top of their cupcakes. Very lame in my opinion. But I love cupcake shops and I'm a completest so I decided to see what all the fuss was about. ( ♥ ) |
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 My mom invited me to go to the Pompeii exhibit with her last Friday. She recently became a LACMA member and wanted to catch the exhibit before it closed yesterday. We took the scenic drive through Malibu which I always love doing. We got there with plenty of time to look around at other exhibits before moving on to Pompeii and the Roman Villa. I always end up paying for the ear phone set and it's always been worth it. It was crowded like predicted and I didn't get to read every thing so I was glad I had it. I really loved this exhibit and even though it was crowded we spent a good two hours looking at every thing. My mom bought a large book in the gift shop and a 2010 Pompeii calendar for me. We contemplated walking through the Luis Melendez exhibit but decided we would come back when we had more time and were less hungry. ( ♥ )
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 I couldn't wait to break out my Fall/Halloween decorations this year. This was my first time filling up an entire apartment with decorations all by myself and I was surprised by how much we actually had. I cut up a black spiderweb cloth and laid it over the coffee table with some jack o lantern votive holders filled with orange tea lights. Decorated the fireplace with some orange and black candles and some glittery orange leaves. The monster candy dispenser I ended up putting in the kitchen with a jar of eyeball gumballs I got from the shop. The candle sticks that were given to me as a birthday present from my girls at the shop are going to have mini pumpkins on top of them and ofcourse I can't forget about the awesome ghost candle that my aunt got me for my birthday last year that I've never lit. It's too cute. She knows how much I love to decorate. While this is a bittersweet month for me I know my grandpa would be sad if he knew I wasn't going to celebrate the holidays this year. Last year my heart just wasn't in it. I didn't see the point in celebrating holidays that he couldn't be a part of. This year is going to be different. I'm going to celebrate for him and for me. ( ♥ )
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 For my birthday my awesome friend Diana bought me a gift certificate to a cooking class. We both love to cook, and we really like cooking and baking together so it was a really good idea. We picked a sushi class and I've always wanted to learn how to make it and never thought in a million years that I could. Well we did! And it was actually quite easy in the right environment where people are upbeat and encouraging. Our teacher had a lot of energy and a positive attitude as well as teaching us some pretty useful tips. I got a lot out of the demonstrations and can't wait to make my own Japanese food at home. The dish above is one Diana and I made together for the class along with another girl who helped saute the mushrooms. Inari pouches filled with sticky rice, green onion and shiitake mushrooms. Too yummy! ( ♥ )
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 I decided this year that I am going to start doing my Christmas shopping early so I don't get stressed out with not having enough time when the holiday hours pick up. It started out with a friend of a friend selling some items she brought back from India with her. She had tons of beautiful things, it was so hard to choose! I ended up getting my mom a glass heart charm, a hand painted jewelery box and a pretty bag for it all to go in to. I also managed to start on Erik's gifts, picking up a couple of things here and there this week. Luckily he's very easy to shop for. This week has been a busy one. When I wasn't working I was over at friend's houses, my mom's, at dinner, at concerts, etc. Today was the first day I got to sit and do nothing which can be nice too. Ofcourse I got a call this morning from a co-worker asking if I could cover for her which I do several times a month and didn't feel bad about saying no this time. I worked a long shift yesterday and did a lot of work so I think I deserve a day of doing nothing. Had some good Indian food today, went shopping for groceries and got some Snickers ice cream for my poor sick husband's throat, and now it's time for some Gran Torino. Also- cooking class with Diana tomorrow! So excited to learn how to make sushi! ( ♥ )
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 I could seriously use a billion words to describe how amazing last night was. I ordered Britney Spears tickets through Paypal on Ebay over a week ago and the people ripped us off. The tickets never came and after two great emails full of communication, the seller stopped responding to us once the money went through. We filed a claim (Paypal is insured thankfully) and after a little research we discovered either the email was fake or there were two people scamming us. The man I was communicating through email with had his account with Ebay and his own email account, and the Paypal account had an entirely different email address and the name of a woman from outside the U.S. No joke. So I was seriously debating whether or not to even still go but after a little disappointment, the morning of the concert I checked Ticketmaster and found some great seats for Diana and I. Worth every penny and more. We had so much fun. ( pictures! )
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 With the weather getting cooler I'm getting intense urges to start baking things like pumpkin bread and buying those tiny pumpkins they have at the grocery store. I almost bought two yesterday for 50 cents each but put them back. I see Halloween every day at my store. I might as well wait a few weeks until October gets here to break out my Halloween decorations because after that, the holidays are in full swing and will be here before I know it. Over the weekend Erik and I went in search of birthday presents for both his parents. We stopped at a local plant nursery and bought some african violets for the new terrarium I bought from work last week. There was another cute little plant sitting close to the violets that I thought would be perfect for a pot I had just sitting next to the kitchen sink empty. It really brightens up the kitchen. I'm kind of decorating the patio and the kitchen at the same time at the moment. I've painted a large portion of the kitchen a brighter eggshell white over the old dingy looking navajo white which didn't fit. Now the kitchen looks clean and new. Erik's parent's barbecue birthday party was celebrated along with Sophie's which was in between their birthdays this month. They usually have a joint celebration. I managed to get off work at the exact right time (or maybe they were waiting for me to start putting the food out). Lots of familiar happy faces from friends and family. My grandma came, which was huge. She's not real big on get togethers where she doesn't know a lot of the people. She seemed to have a really good time though, so this made me happy. While I know we're not ready to have a child yet, nothing makes me want one more than knowing he or she would be surrounded by such supportive loving people. Erik and I are truly lucky to have such wonderful people in our lives. ( ♥ )
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 I'm going to go ahead and cram the rest of the pictures into this post so we can move on from the "What I did this Summer" presentation that's probably putting everyone to sleep. Where were we again? Ahh, yes. Exploring the island. Erik and I said it maybe a dozen times that day: The golf cart made the trip. Without it we would have had to stay the night and hike a ton. ( ♥ )
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 We looked at a lot of the shops on Catalina Island. I found a couple of cute shirts and I thought about buying a magnet for the fridge briefly, but other than that nothing really grabbed me. While we were on our way back to the boat we spotted a shop that we hadn't been in yet. They sold food, drinks, goodies and best of all- jewelery. One necklace in particular grabbed my attention instantly and that rarely happens. It has white puka shells and pearly white shells made of petals to form a flower charm and tiny white beads in the center that look like little pearls. Love at first sight. ( ♥ )
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 Erik and I were supposed to go to Big Bear Lake for the holiday weekend. Unfortunately fires broke out in the area and we weren't sure roads were going to stay open. Plus the added smoke making it impossible to do fun things like hiking, sight-seeing etc. caused us to cancel our reservation and get our money back. We were a little disappointed because we were looking forward to going but decided it would probably be more fun when there is snow in the mountains. We decided to try and enjoy what little bit of Summer there is left and go to an island where we could soak up the sun, wear short sleeves and walk around outside. Erik had camped at Two Harbors once but neither of us had been to Avalon on Catalina Island. We had been talking about going for a long time so it was pretty much a no-brainer. ( ♥ )
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 Yesterday was date night. A nice relaxing break from the usual routine of going to work, coming home and eating dinner, a movie, then bed. We hadn't been to the harbor in while. It was a warm day but the temperature at the harbor was perfect. We got pastries at Le Petit. Erik got an apple pastry and I ordered the cheesecake. Both were amazing. The cheesecake's crust tasted like maple and the filling was fluffy and had the slight taste of cake batter to it. Erik's apple pastry was huge but easy to eat up. It was light and chewy and the apples were perfectly spiced. Yum! We walked through every shop that was open. I was really happy to see that my old favorite shop was still there- The Glass Touch. She has such amazing things in there. Her shop was closed but her window display was enough to keep us looking for a few minutes. It was all decorated with a pirate theme. Skulls, pirates and potions. The main reason for looking in a lot of the shops was to find some shell ornaments. The last shop we looked in had them. I figured if I was going to find them anywhere, it would be at the harbor. They were pretty, but not quite what I was looking for. Her ornaments were all white like I had hoped but were covered in glitter. I'm hoping to have a nautical Christmas tree this year and figured if I was going to find exactly what I had in mind, I'd better start looking soon. I contemplated getting them, but they were a little on the expensive side. Two ornaments for eight dollars. While I do understand that they would be that expensive because they are real, I figured I could save a couple of bucks gluing the string on myself and buying the shells at our little seashell shop down the street from where we live. Plus they wouldn't have all the glitter on them. We'll see if I actually get around to doing this. I did manage to find something I was willing to pay full price for. A gorgeous little lighthouse lamp. A tad bit expensive but I have no idea where I would find another one that cute. I haven't seen anything like it at any other store or on the internet. After taking a walk on the beach, Erik and I decided to watch a movie at home. I ordered a movie from Netflix called The Color of Magic. It wasn't bad, but not what I was in the mood for I guess. I searched Netflix for watch it now movies and found one called The Ramen Girl. I turned it on not expecting anything great, but wow, was it great! A little hidden gem of a movie. I did almost put my shoes on in the middle of it to go to the store and get some ramen to eat. This entry was way too long. ( ♥ )
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