Pumpkin Drilling

It has been awhile since I carved a pumpkin. Three years to be exact. Last year I didn't even think about it. Halloween came and went, sans pumpkin. The year before, the BF showed up at my apartment door with a surprise pumpkin. It was a beaut! It was the perfect big pumpkin I had when I was little. It made my apartment so festive, which I loved.

This year I had seen a whole bunch of pins floating around on using a power drill to "carve" a pumpkin.

Three words:

Sign me up.

One of the perks of co-habing...having access to power tools. You can just call me Martha....

The starting point. Let me tell you... I forgot how much effort it is to cut the top off a pumpkin!

My weapon of choice.

 

 

All done!

 Final product in all its Halloween glowing glory.

 

If only we had a stoop or outside space to put my amazing work of art. To enjoy I turn off most of the lights while I eat dinner and dine al-la pumpkin light. #apartmentlivingproblems.

 

Anyone else getting in the mood for Halloween this year?

La Jolla Wedding and Pledge Class Reunion; Part I

When I was in Idaho I was visiting in-between two weddings that were just one week apart. The first was the wedding of my dear friend and college sorority sister, Kendal, to the love of her life Brandon. Not only was I invited to the wedding, I was honored to have been asked to stand by Kendal as one of her bridesmaids.

The wedding was in La Jolla at the La Jolla Shores hotel. The BF and I flew in early so we could make a mini romantic getaway out of the trip and also spend some time in LA. (Did I mention that I LOVE to travel with the BF? We are good at traveling together, and I know that is important and it makes me happy)
We both flew to LA and on our first day we drove around, headed to Venice beach, dined on some amazing food at Gjelina, and then walked the shops before driving along the coast to soak in some West coast beauty.

Limes hanging down above us on the patio at Gjelina

California Ave in California!

What we think is the flagship Toms store. 

Palm trees and blue sky for dayzzzz.

Street shopping and neat signage.

 Venice Beach Canals

 That night I was surprised by the BF driving us through LA, and finally arriving at Ink. , Michael Voltaggio's resteraunt. It almost feels like a crime to include this snipit of the trip in a large post, as it was hands down The BEST Meal I Have Ever Eaten In My Life. We ordered a smattering of dishes including: charred avocado, egg yolk gnocchi (be still my heart), heritage pork chop, lamb belly (never ever have I tasted such delight!), then we circled around for the hamachi because we were in love with the food. To top it all off, we had the apple dessert.

I can't even summarize this flavors of this meal into words. All I know is that M. Voltaggio is a force to be reckoned with. His food is crazy good. Surprising and complex. I will say it again-- best meal of my life. My mouth and palate is forever changed.

The next morning we were in a food funk thinking about how nothing could compare to that amazing meal, but needing something before we hit the road and drove down to La Jolla for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The BF has been eyeing a large donut in the sky from some of his previous trips to LA, so without further thought we started our morning with some amazing donuts.

These were amazing. 

After breakfast we hit the road and headed south. Taking a few detours to see some more West Coast beauty, we decided to stop in Del Mar to have lunch at Sbicca where we had a great view of the ocean. 

Sbicca patio view for a relaxing lunch. 

 Quickly checking out the beach view before driving the rest of the way to La Jolla.

That evening, after a mad dash to the hotel, was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The bride and groom were so happy, and the whole evening was really memorable. Kendal went out of her way to make, yes I said make, personalized bridesmaid gifts. Mine was an adorable blue and cream colored soft ipad carrying case. It was embroidered with my name and had a soft fuzzy cream liner that Kendal picked because "it reminded her of poodles". Now that is friendship right there!! 

I mean seriously, how adorable is that??

Stay tuned for Part II.....

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The Fall Whomp Whomps

I have been some sort of ill for almost two months now. Seriously. It just hasn't let up.

Before heading off for the wedding palooza I came down with something that lingered the entire trip. Then upon arriving home I went into a full-blown illness complete with a hacking cough that made my brain hurt. I still have that cough on and off. To top it all off, Monday I ended up dragging myself to one of those emergency walk-in medical clinics as I was having back and side pain coupled with a fever the the shakes like no other. I am now on day five of a ten day course of antibiotics. All the meanwhile, starting a new job. Let's just say this hasn't been my finest fall. Luckily, I am finally feeling a bit better today and on the mend, but I've still got five days of doctors orders of laying low (no gym, no glass of red wine, no massive amounts of dairy and lots of sleep). Some years you just get all the luck huh?

There have been a few things that have been keeping me in good spirits despite feeling a little crappy. First off, can we just say n-e-w j-o-b. That adjustment is always hard, but when you feel proud of yourself for landing a job you really wanted, you feel pretty darn good waking up every day and turning on your computer. (That 2 minute commute to my "office" doesn't hurt either!). Also, did I mention that I got the second highest score on a post-training test?? AND I was in a training class with people who had been at the company for years! So what-what! Rockin-it!

I also brought these beauties home last weekend from my beloved Trader Joes.

They really make me smile. So much so, that I was thinking that I should challenge myself to have flowers around at least once each month. Kind of a twelve bouquets challenge for the year. 

I also cooked something. Amazing, considering I could hardly bend over to reach our pots and pans we store in the lower cabinets. I wanted to try a fresher-than-canned-soup chicken noodle soup. While it wasn't amazing, it was pretty good. It certainly tasted better than anything coming out of a can, and boasted a ton of fresh chicken, and tons of fresh veggies. I'll take it as a win.

Let's just hope I am on the up-swing of all this illness now!

Decorating a Home Office

After week one of working in my new "office"- or better known as the guest bedroom, I was pretty quick to realize that the set-up I had on hand wasn't going to cut it for a full-time office set-up. When I moved back in May, (not sure if I really mentioned that on here- but yes, I moved. Cohabn' it!) I was lucky that almost my entire apartment fit into the guest bedroom in the new place. What this resulted in was my dining room table that was used for everything in my studio became a full fledged dedicated desk. Granted I didn't plan on having it turn into my full-time work space, so the fact that it wasn't exactly comfortable was ok. 

So it isn't big, that chair clearly wasn't going to cut it and it was just the perfect height to make you look down at your screen all day which was not too comfy. Luckily I remembered that the legs on the table are adjustable and we battled IKEA to find a new padded and backed bar chair. 

Naturally, none of the cover options (and there really aren't many) were not appealing, but on the fly we remember that we had heard a lot about custom slip covers that a lot of online stores were doing for IKEA furniture. So my chair is just the gauze right now while I debate what fabric and vendor to order from. 

The bigger issue is picking a design plan for the entire room since we have a bed and other items in the room. I am leaning towards a purple and teal motif, but have yet to see it all come together in my head. If that panned out, I think a chevron cover in grey and white for the chair would be perfect. I have some shelves to hang, some accessories to buy (lamp, storage pins and such), and some brainstorming on printer location. 

At any rate, it is coming together and I now have a higher more comfortable work surface, coupled with a much more comfortable chair. (We also finally replaced that sad excuse of lamp for something a bit more...oh not torn and falling apart!). So if anyone is bored and wants to help me pull together my thoughts on decorating...let me know!

These Are Some of My Favorite Things

Phew! It has been awhile since we've done of these around here! I feel like I have a million things that have caught my eye since the last Favorite Things post, so I'll give it a shot to capture them all for your enjoyment! I apologize since I would love to source where I hear about some of these, but I can not remember most of the sources!

- I want to be married to a man who writes a song for me. May sure you have a kleenex for that one!

- Photos that show how things used to be always capture my eye. 

- The sorority girl in me runs deep and I get really amazed when I see beautiful houses like this and this absurd renovation. 

-I am still loving all thing Royal Baby, and I've been secretly wishing I wore nail polish simply for these. 

-Whole Foods is great, but also makes me laugh, so when this started floating around I couldn't help but laugh out loud.

- My love of IKEA is no secret, and when this finally hits US stores, I will certainly be carting out armloads to stash with my multitude of paper products. 

-On my love of paper products, this store is calling my name. I could do some purchasing damage. 

-Good thoughts on dating a man vs. a boy. 

-I've gone to two anthros to buy this, and haven't found it at either. I may be developing an unhealthy obsession on looking at it everyday. 

- When I was home I bought myself a Lit & Co. candle (the white tea scent) and I am obsessed! It makes my "office" smell amazing. 

- On my "funemployment", even while it was an epic failure, I focused on tackling some things that fit into this list pretty well. Really focusing on my gmail inbox these days.