Friday, April 25, 2014

Hey guys, remember when...?

Hey, remember when I told you that I'd applied for Patchwork and I was really nervous about it? I got the notification - I GOT IN!!! Hooray!!!

I'm as excited as this little girl is about her book!
So now I'm making things like crazy, because the show is one month away. Oh Emm Gee.

Long Beach - May 25 - Marine Stadium - Appian Way @ Bayshore - 11a-5p
For those not in the know, #PatchworkShow is a twice-a-year juried craft show / festival that showcases local artists, artisans, food gurus, and all sorts of other wonderful things. You name it, it's probably there: jewelry (LOTS of jewelry), clothing, guitar straps, handmade soaps, food trucks, music, tiny terrariums, ephemera, art, bicycle vallets...the list goes on and on. Right now they have 3 locations every spring and winter, and I'll be showing this year at Long Beach. So excited and nervous!

Tiny Lace Earrings
So, what's involved? Well, I need to come up with enough jewelry to fill a booth space, and then I need to design a booth, which means my brain is working overtime and many an evening has been spent on Pinterest searching for booth ideas. (Which are plentiful and all make my head spin with how awesome they are.) I'm also spending a fair amount of time worrying that I'm not cool enough to do this, and all these BuzzFeed surveys that keep popping up in my news feed on Facebook are not helping - apparently I am so far from being a hipster that I don't even know what the word means, and also my true age is supposedly 41.

A very depressing movie, even more so now that BuzzFeed tells me that I skipped my 30's completely.
But in all seriousness, I'm really excited and I really hope that this ends up being a good thing. If nothing else, it will force my shy little self to get out of her shell a bit and grab some confidence!

So don't forget! May 25th (it's a Sunday!) from 11a - 5p at the Long Beach Marine Stadium, Appian Way at Bayshore (don't ask me anything more specific, when an acquaintance asked me where it was the other day all I could come up with was "Long Beach...near some water..."). Stop by and say hi!

Monday, April 14, 2014

Cannoli: Yay or Nay?

Just past San Onofre
Sometimes, it's just nice to get away, even if it's only for an evening. We're lucky in southern California - we've got just about everything you could imagine within a couple of hours' drive. So Saturday after work, James picked me up and we drove down to San Diego to spend the remainder of the weekend in Little Italy and exploring Balboa Park.

Little Italy
We strolled down India Street in search of a restaurant, and oh my goodness, were we ever spoiled for choice. It was almost like it didn't matter where we chose to eat, because wherever we ended up would be fabulous! We chose La Villa and weren't disappointed. Wine. Rustic, handmade pasta. Chocolate mousse dessert with salted hazelnuts and praline. YUM. Afterwards, we had coffee at Caffe Italia (and I had a cannoli - yep, two desserts).

So, I have a question...what am I missing with cannoli? Am I just having really bad ones? Because every one that I've eaten tastes stale and slightly...odd. I keep ordering them because I want to believe that there are better ones out there, but maybe I'm wrong?

There was a man who squatted near her foot and took a photo looking up her dress. Total photobomb.
Sunday was spent walking from our hotel in Little Italy to the waterfront to see The Star of India and the USS Midway (we also saw a dolphin playing in the water!), and then walking to Balboa Park to the Air and Space Museum. I had two desserts and a giant breakfast with a mimosa to work off, after all!

Rigging

Balboa Park

Succulents

Organ

Sunken Garden

Flower-filled Fountain

Doorway

Spring Flowers
Probably the best part of the weekend for James. I made him pose with this Spitfire, since he's built multiple models of them since Christmas.
All in all, we spent about 7 hours walking. My feet may fall off.

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Procrastinate with me

Ooohhh I feel boring and uninspired this morning. Plus instead of working on my ever-present to-do list I'm procrastinating by looking at home interiors on blogs and Pinterest and wishing that I had hardwood floors and bright white walls. (Alas, my rental agreement won't let me...)

So, here are some photos of the last couple of weeks:

LACMA

Rose Bowl Flea Market

Irvine Park

New Shoes
Hot Hot Hot
Just for the heck of it, this (above) is what James and I look like to snakes. Apparently my knees are super-hot.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Catching Up

Eleanor, a friend from my first year in England, and her son, Eden, came to stay in March. It was an absolutely lovely visit, and I'm sad that they've gone home now. Here's a small taste of what we did...

Exploring at The Gamble House in Pasadena

Selfies at The Getty

Intense Concentration from Captain Cutie

Peacocks in Irvine Park

Late afternoon sun in Irvine Park
Plus, we had a mini photo shoot at the local farmer's market...

Modeling Chaps necklace
And then I applied to be a vendor at Patchwork Show!!! This is the first time I've ever applied to a craft show, so I'm really nervous that I missed something or that the jurors won't like my work, but...I did it anyway! I'll never know if I don't try, right?  I find out in 2 weeks...