In My Dreams, I Drive a Food Truck

In My Dreams, I Drive a Food Truck

Sometimes the food gods shine down on this semi-little beach town, and grant us with a slice of culture not normally found amongst our consistently uniform terra-cotta rooftops.

This weekend was one of those times.
Bored on a Sunday afternoon I did what I always do when I'm bored. I started surfing the net. It's kind of where I find the best things in cyber-life (and real life too, like when I found Hicksville Trailer Palace)

Anywhoo I stumbled upon the fact that Santa Barbara was hosting a Food Truck Festival, at that very moment! A magical place where food meets means of transportation, sprinkled with a dash of alcohol and general gluttony.
Basically heaven. I found my way there as fast as my feet could take me.

And it was just that. Foodie-heaven. Who knew they had fro-yo food trucks? I enjoyed my first banh-mi experience, dined upon some pommes frites with wasabi-mayo dipping sauce and washed it all down with some tasty Kalyra Chardonnay.

I encountered some characters that I dont think fall under the category of "5 people you meet in heaven" (were talking 70's porn-star dude, and a creepy lone cowboy) but in my opinion, they made the event that much more interesting.

Don't mind me, I'm just a cowboy creeping up into your pictures

DIY Succulent Garden

DIY Succulent Garden

Trends are such funny finicky little things. Take for example, succulents. I remember growing up my mom had heinous amounts of them strewn across our patio each with its own terracotta pot painted some awful shade of 70's blah that I would just gag over and tell her how they looked "soooo outdated". Don't forget my well practiced eye roll.

Like many things associated with childhood and parents, I thought succulents were so uncool. Cue my surprise, when in 2011, I started seeing those fleshy little blossoms everywhere. And I kind of liked it. It turns out they are interesting, full of variety, color, shape and size. To my amazement, there's no law of nature stating they have to be planted in ugly pea green pots (heads up Mom! lol) They can be modern terrariums, pretty planters or kind of what I was going for which is a sort of neo-classicism.

Below is the result of my new found love for succulents. I bought this awesome cast iron pedestal planter ( If you are Googling, I think it's actually called an urn, but that sounds so morbid!). All I did was put some stones in the bottom, add the cactus planting soil, and stick those puppies in their new environment. I had a jar of smashed shell bits I got from Michael's like two years ago (any hoarder crafter out there can relate to having such random things in your house you never know how you'll use! ) that were shimmery and pretty so I put them on top of the soil for added sparkle. Succulents are pretty sturdy so it should be no problem and I would definitely recommend adding something decorative atop the soil or else it doesn't look as clean.

The best part of this is that succulents only require watering like every two weeks. So my chances of killing these things just got much, much smaller.

*Side note, this project does adhere to my "takes less than 20 minutes to do* rule of DIY

Paris Je T'Aime

Paris Je T'Aime

The ring was too big for the right finger!

Paris. The City of Love. The City of Lights. The City I got engaged in!
Yep, this little lady is engaged. How exciting right?

I waiver between total euphoria and absolute terror. I'm no fool, I have a great amount of respect for the sanctity of marriage, and as such I know what a huge deal this is!

It's like a crashing wave, a thunderstorm, a bolt of lightning. It's beautiful, it's magical, it's awe-inspiring but you know the force behind it is beyond you, and above you and totally greater than you could ever be.


I am so proud to be marrying the bf. I read this quote the other day (cheesy love quotes time) that said:

"Lovers don't meet somewhere, they're in each other all along"

and I thought it was so fitting for the bf and I. Even all those years ago I knew there was something in him that fit something in me. I didn't know we'd get married, and our love wasn't always easy.As Donkey from Shrek would say, we were like onions, many layers making it hard for us to see each other clearly. But that little seed was there. Little roots spread out between us and intertwined. I knew when one of our first official dates was sitting on his futon watching Ferngully & eating take-out Chinese--this was something special.

And now, many adventures later we are here. He proposed in a quiet courtyard in front of our Paris apartment. He got down on his knee, heart beating wildly ( I know because I felt it when he hugged me) and asked me to marry him so he could love me forever. I said yes, (and what? and omg? and really?) and now we're at this fork in our lives.
And it's so exciting.

Preparing for Flight

Preparing for Flight

Paris is oh-so-quickly approaching.
Despite all my planning, I feel completely ill-prepared.

Operation learn French in one month: fail.
My list of restaurants to visit is far longer than my stomach capacity is wide.
Sadly. **sigh**
And as the primary planner in our household I feel all the pressure of creating a successful trip full of wonderful memories.
The bf's only plan revolves around stuffing his face full of crepes.
Oh, and the daily bottle of wine and block of cheese he's been moo-ing about for weeks now.lol
( if you've never met the guy, he's real skinny, so i'm allowed to be bitter and crap-talk about his eating habits!)

I've been distracted lately with my graphic design class.
We've been learning a lot about the importance of having a strong concept for a project.

It's really had me thinking about this here little blog, and how I really need to focus in on a concept.
As you can tell by my ever changing decor around here, my ideas change with each shift in the wind and turn of my mood.
And Little Girl Shiny World, as cute as I think it sounds, well its a little long. and it might give the idea that I am a little girl, which my dears I am definitely not. I will share with you here that I am 24 years old. I don't play with dolls, and my view of the world can sometimes be quite cynical.. I wouldn't say the world is shiny all the time, some days it's barely a sheen for me.

The point is I've been doing some re-thinking about this blog. I would never abandon it. I love all the interesting blogs I've found and inspiration I encounter daily because of my outlet. But it needs some re-tooling. To be decisively me. Or decisively what I'd like to be, and share. A little cleaner, less scattered. More of me doing things that I love and searching out what those things are.

I think I'm having a kind of "Reality Bites" moment in life, and that extends into this realm as well. 
(if you don't get the reference, Google it. 2 hours of 90's angst perfected).

So I'll be back--Paris beckons after all.
But don't be surprised if I've changed.
Perhaps a little wiser, most unavoidably older.

Or maybe just fatter. From all the damn good food I've eaten.
Stay tuned!

From Pa Design

**oh and I just had to share this. it's a tripod that can mount onto a water bottle. no more cutting each others heads off or long arm shots of you and your honey! if it actually works its genius**

99 MILLION Balloons.

99 MILLION Balloons.

It always catches me by surprise.
The remnants of childhood that still lurk within us.
Like the sense of girlish excitement I still get from seeing a big, bright, bouquet of balloons.

Given the terrible weather right now, I wish I could just grab onto the strings like a cowgirl grabbing the reigns and ride the wind (because--dear God it's windy here right now) away from this place.

But that won't happen for a few more weeks. And sadly I wont be traveling on anything so whimsical as a bunch of balloons. No no, I'll do the adult thing. I'll take a plane.

But don't be surprised if you see a little girl (in stature not in spirit) heading down the Champs Elysses followed by a trail of sweet bouncy friends. Only about a dozen or so, I promise.

from vi.sualize.us

Ah Miss Dior Cheri, Mon Ami

from Oh, So Darling

The movie Up

What do we think of Lauren Conrad's new line? I love the name and this ad!

For my wedding (in the far & distant future) I'd love to release balloons like these with little *best wishes* notes on them as opposed to throwing rice. Gotta get biodegradable balloons & plantable paper! :)

A Little Love Shack. DIY.

A Little Love Shack. DIY.

Few blogs are as consistently inspiring to me as Design Sponge.
I was over there getting my daily fill a bit ago when I came across the mother of all romantic-DIY-Valentine's Ideas.
A. Love. Fort.

Yes you read right. There, in front of my face, lay one of my greatest fantasies come true.
An adult fort, eclectic, fun and just plain super-cool looking. I was brought back to the days when I would drape blankets across the dining room chairs and make a fort under the dining room table. It was so fun--on the rare occasions my mom was willing to sacrifice her dining room table for my whimsical games.

A plan immediately began to form in my mind. The bf and I are on the tightest of budgets right now trying to save money for fun in Paris. This love-fort seemed the perfect solution: sweet, different, and most importantly free!
Now the original version is pretty professional, meaning it involves hanging a dowel with hooks into your wall.

As you guessed I couldn't do that. It would break my "takes-under-20-minutes" rule of DIY.
But I realized that I could do something similar by just arranging a few pieces of furniture in our giant bedroom nook. I knew there was a reason I buy so many blankets and pillows!

Check out the before and after.  I just used that tall standing lamp as my center "support" pole for my tent, and stretched a sheet over it, and closed it between our nook's two side windows. (I opened the windows, stuck the sheet edge underneath, and closed the window down on it to hold it up!) I stuck my little "stove" heater in there and turned it to " display flames" only, so it looked like a real fire (but no heat)


The bf loved it surprisingly enough (what little boy doesn't love a good fort?). And our bedroom nook is perfectly placed to watch our bedroom T.V. so we snuggled, watched Netflix movies, and ate some chocolate covered strawberries. I HIGHLY recommend this for anyone looking for a sweet simple Valentine's gesture.

Our bedroom with the my fort's support pole. Aka the lamp :)

Based on the above picture you should have an idea of the scale of this, the upper right of this picture is our left window frame.

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope yours is super sweet. I'm off to enjoy some home cooked Filet Mignon made by the bf (best V-day present, EVER)