I’ve been finding inspiration in the most unexpected places. I am obsessed with the color orange lately and love how vibrant this orange is combined with the yellow, whites and pinks. This shot was some shag from a pillow at a recent photo shoot. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Last weekend I picked up this new little guy from a random swap meet we stopped at out in Ontario. I love succulents and this String of Pearls goes perfectly in our kitchen. We have a few hooks that the last tenant left above our stove, which I’m now using to hold plants.

Christopher and I celebrated out 9th anniversary a couple of weekends ago! It’s been a great ride and I look forward to more adventures together. I love this shot Jamie took about a year ago of us at Cafe 50′s… I think it captures our dynamic so well.

Last weekend for Memorial Day, we went back to Joshua Tree on a whim and it was one of the best trips ever! We camped at our spot again but this time, only had to make one trek out. The highlight of our night was watching the moon rise over the rocks. Yes… rise.

We stopped in Crossroads Cafe in Joshua Tree for breakfast. I love this spot so much! They have amazing vegetarian options and the restaurant has such great vibes all around. Highly recommend going there if you’re ever in the area.

I’ve really been getting into beer lately, especially local micro-brews. We discovered The Tap Room in El Segundo a while back and have now been popping for a growler every now and then. Support your local breweries!

They say growing your own food is like growing your own money. Well, we finally planted our garden on the side of our house and it’s begun to bear fruits + veggies! So exciting and rewarding.

Katie brought in her amazing new collection of work to share with us. This set of postcards she and her friend Julie created is entitled “The Highs and Lows of Summer” and I think I am now obsessed with their collaborative project The Slow Season. Incredibly beautiful stuff.

Our friends Jose and Dennis came to visit! They stayed at The Cadillac Hotel in Venice which equated to too much fun. Can’t wait to see them soon…

We found these treasures yesterday while thrifting on the west side. 70′s Snoopy rug hooks and a 50′s Dennis the Menace doll. Such great finds – it’ll be hard to part with them next weekend at the Venice High Flea Market… we’re going to be selling stuff!

During our venture out and about yesterday we also stopped by one of our favorite record spots. Digging for vinyl is most def one of the best ways to spend a weekend afternoon.

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(Rifle Paper Co. Botanical Journal, French Days Pen from Urbanic)

A couple weeks ago I began reading The Artist’s Way. Part guide to creative discovery, part self-educational course, it’s basically a 12-week journey to higher creativity. So much has been going on in all parts of my life recently, that I actually haven’t done a full week of what should have been week 1 and what the book calls “morning pages.” (I know, I know… get with it and just do it!) Each morning, you are supposed to write out three pages or thoughts, frustrations, joys – anything really. But, you must do this first thing in the morning. The thought behind this concept is that you need to get out all of the random things that are stuck in your head out, and only then will you be able to focus on other thoughts. I’ve managed to get about 10 days of morning pages done but starting next week I am dedicated to truly completing a full week so I can get on with the rest of the course. I have to say though, that I believe this works and even from the little I have done, I have felt a difference. Days when I do morning pages, my thoughts are more lucid and I am more focused. It’s interesting that the simplest of exercises can help bring about creativity, right? I’ve heard so many great things about doing The Artist’s Way that it makes me want to learn more about what others do to help with their creative process. Anyway, wish me luck as I attempt week 1 once again… hope to report back with week 2 soon!

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Christopher officially has a night at Carbon in Culver City! O U T E R  D R I V E is every 2nd and 4th Wednesday and features our friends Jordan and Christian. Tomorrow will be their first night with a special guest DJ – Tommy Moye. The boys will be spinning vinyl all night, so come by and say hi if you live in LA!

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I put the flowers (by Kristen of Moon Canyon Design) I brought home from the Splendid party we threw with Bri a couple of weekends back in a mason jar on a table in our kitchen. I love how it brightens up the space, so perfect next to all my mirrors.

My gal pal Jamie brought me to Pygmy Hippo for the first time and I about had a heart attack. Cutest store seriously like E – V – E – R! I bought like a bazillion little things as gifts for now, later… and of course a thing or two for myself including the most amazing eyeball collar clips.

We went to happy hour at Buddah’s Belly with John + Jamie and I had this refreshing Gingerita. Oh, let’s not forget to mention the $7 crispy rice. Yum is right!

My life has been taken over by pom poms, but I’m not complaining. Mimosas + a video shoot with the Ban.do gals = best day ever. Can’t wait to share it with you all!

I love this photo I captured of Truman fast asleep, tucked beneath our new Too by Blu Dot for Target Woodgrain Duvet Cover.

Last weekend I was lucky enough to visit Anna Bond’s lovely Rifle Paper Co. store + studio space. A full post to come soon!

This article on J Crew and Jenna Lyons is a must read. I feel so lucky to work in a creative environment and with such talented folks. I love what I do so business and pleasure often mix – and it’s a good thing.

Snapchat is the shit. No, this isn’t just for tweens and nudes – and if you think so you probably need to grow up a little. I think this app is pretty genius. #seriously

Finally got to check out The Lash on Friday night and I’m totally digging it. A couple of my favorite humans ever, Andrew and Gabby, were on the ones and twos all night. Vinyl forever y’all! Who needs a computer when you have records?

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I am obsessed with the Lauren Moffatt Spring/Summer 2013 line. It’s the ultimate perfect mix between nerdy quirky and lolita sexpot. I have to say, my favorite is the polkadot long sleeve onesie. I mean, c’mon right?! See the rest here and check out this behind-the-scenes video from Modcloth.

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A couple weeks ago Melanie and I stopped by Shark Pig‘s #whatstheinternet Party at Heirloom LA. I have to say, these folks really know to put on a bash! Outfitted in furniture from YEAH! Rentals, the parking lot of Heiroom LA was transformed into a eclectic wonderland of tacos, specialty cocktails and Smilebooth shenanigans (in a van, what?!). My libation of choice that night was the Ginger Eye (Old Overholt Rye Whiskey, Herbsaint House Made Fresh Ginger Extract, Torani Mer, Meyer Lemon) which was absolute perfection. And can we talk about the food for a second? They had a taco bar (Shark, Pork Belly, or Turnip) with sides of beet salad, rice, beans, corn on the husk and fries. What’s that you say? Y-U-M is right, not a bad way to spend a Thursday evening!

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Oh Spring cleaning. It happens every year, whether we like it or not. Out with the old, in with the new. De-clutter, toss, clean. Decorating on a budget? We’ve all been there, right? Well, I’ve been trying to simplify nearly everything in my life over the past couple of months – from my closet, to our bungalow and even my desk at work. I’m not sure how it happens, but I somehow always end up with clutter here and there, especially RIGHT after I’ve cleaned and de-cluttered. Does that happen to you too? One thing I’ve been really trying hard to do is to only buy things that I really, REALLY love… and I actually think it’s been helping. One great example is this vintage mid-century lamp I found on Sunday at the Fairfax Flea Market. I’ve been looking for a new lamp for our living room for-like-ever and am so happy I never settled on others. Can you believe this near-mint condition made in the USA, metal meets plastic beauty only cost $20? Yes, keeping things simple can actually save you money!

I’ve also really been getting into flowers lately – especially foraging and picking them around my neighborhood and basically wherever I go (shh… don’t tell my neighbors). Thanks to my friend Mel for the inspiration! I’ve been putting them in pretty much every single room around our bungalow. The best part is that I simply use mason jars as a vase and voila – you have a beautiful and simple piece of decor for any table top – home, kitchen, work… literally anywhere! The desk shot above are some flowers I picked up last week from Trader Joes, but here are some pretty little buds I found on a tree branch in the parking lot over by our studio in Atwater Village. Now if only I can figure out how to keep them alive longer… any suggestions?

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A couple of weekends ago I went camping for the first time in my life. Really, the very first time ever. I mean, no big deal right? Wrong! I was excited but the nerve-wrecking part was that we were going to be off-site camping, aka backpacking. There wasn’t going to be any cozy restrooms, electrical hook-ups or any of the usual comforts of living in civilization. Just us, Rusty, a campfire, our tent and the desert.

We’ve been to Joshua Tree before so I actually wasn’t too worried, but adding in the component of camping and not just hiking made it a bit daunting. But… we searched high and low for a campsite and after about an hour, we literally stumbled across the most perfect spot ever. Nestled in the southern half of the park, it was located all the way back by the larger rocks about a mile away from where we parked.

It took us a few hours, hiking back and forth the get all of our gear including this amazing portable “pack-a-table” picnic table we had picked up at the Venice High Flea Market several weeks back. Christopher mastered the art of creating a campfire, and our lantern tucked away in the little rock cove by our tent illuminated our entire campsite all night. It also definitely helped that we were shielded from most of the wind from all angles. Totally amazing.

One of my favorite parts of our campsite was the rock that overlooked it all. There was some talk about a coyote wandering in our area earlier in the day from a friend we met, so a lookout point was essential. As the sun went down, it definitely got much cooler, but not much different than living by the beach.

Camping in Joshua Tree was seriously so much fun. There’s nothing like being in the middle of a National Forest, hanging out by a campfire you built, and being away from everyone and everything. It was such a great time, that I actually bought an annual pass to Joshua Tree. Can’t wait for our next trip back!

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I’ve always been fascinated with textiles and fabric dying – especially the process which I mentioned in my earlier post on the textile show that’s currently up at The Sacred Door in Venice. A couple Sunday nights ago, I ended up taking the Shibori Workshop at the community/gallery space taught by Anton Nazarko who works with Raquel Allegra. I had no idea what to expect – Was it going to be hard? Was I going to super suck at indigo dyeing? Would I have smurf hands when I was done? It was actually much simpler than I had anticipated. 

Anton went through the basics, showing us examples of what he’s done and how to achieve that look/pattern. He explained that we can basically go as simple or crazy as we want. It’s all about how you fold the fabric you’re working with, then how you wrap it with rope around the pole (the specific technique we learned was Arashi Shibori) and many times, even the way you sew it together before wrapping + dyeing. This book is basically the bible of Shibori, which he had at the workshop for us to peruse.

Next up, Anton explained what to do during the actual dying process and then it was time to experiment! We started with strips of cotton gauze and then worked up to larger pieces of gauze and eventually pieces we brought from home to dye. It was probably one of the most fun things I’ve done in the past year, and I hope to do it again soon. Our studio actually just moved into a new space, so I’m hoping once we get settled, we can have a tub of indigo dye chillin’ in the garage/work space at all times for us gals to play around with during down time!

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A couple of weeks ago, Supreme released a capsule collection with Vans that made my heart stop. The two super brands teamed up for what I consider the most epic collaboration ever, based on New Order‘s 1983 cover art for Power, Corruption & Lies - which was a reproduction of the painting “A Basket of Roses” by French artist Henri Fantin-Latour. Power, Corruption & Lies is one of my favorite albums of all time. I mean, I DO have the Peter Saville color bar from that album tattooed on my wrist. (Please see photo below of when I finally found the US pressing of the record brand new + sealed for a few bucks at a random record store in Kenosha, WI several years ago. Oh, the thrill of digging for records in the middle of nowhere).

Anyway, I had no idea that the line had even dropped until I saw a tweet about it from my gal pal Rachel. I immediately went to the Supreme website and saw that of course, everything had sold out since the release the day prior. #epicfail on my part, right?! Then just last week I realized that not only did they create shoes and a skateboard, but there was a tee, hoodie and shorts as well. Needless to say, I’m pretty bummed I don’t have at least the tee (shoes only came in a men’s 8+) but hey, I guess it wasn’t meant to be. Regardless, I’m still a way bigger New Order fan than you, so in case you did buy that shirt or hoodie in a size small and feel like sending it my way – trust that it’s in good hands!

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