Beach Side Yoga

This weekend I had the extreme pleasure to practice yoga in a park near the beach.  Now I am not a person who particularly likes yoga but my friend Jessica teaches it.  I don't know what it is but she is just the most fantastic instructor that I have ever had and I can't help but love every yoga session I have with her.  As a person with zero balance you can imagine how proud I was to be able to do tree pose!  Check out the pictures below (that I totally stole from Jessica's blog).  Feel free to check out her yoga blog here or if you're interested in more beach side yoga sessions visit her website ladyjyoga.com.

Beach Side Yoga, OG Yogies

Warrior Two

Tree pose, doin' it!

Etsy Craft Night - Magnets

Inspirational Quote:

When someone says "you've changed." It simply means you've stopped live life their way
-not sure who its by

Etsy Craft Night - Magnets

Sometimes, my life is really busy and sometimes it’s not, but all of a sudden it’s September and I’m like, woah! When did that get here!?  Well on September 1 there was an Etsy craft night and usually I see it on my calendar a few days ahead of time but because it was on THE NEXT PAGE I didn’t see it until the day of.  Luckily, I hadn’t made plans for that evening and was able to go. 

The craft was making your own magnets using a kit they provided and cut outs from magazines.  Turns out, the same guy from the last craft night was leading this craft night.  Apparently he has a lot of awesome crafts in his Big Ass Book of Crafts (no really, that’s what it’s called).  I met some fun new people, one of which moved here from Boston, and I also managed to burn my fingers several times using the hot glue gun (no pain no gain right!?....sure…). The stuff on display at the museum was the same but I did take a quick jaunt through the museum store and found some really awesome mugs.  Check them out below!

Here are my magnets.  As you can see (upper right) there were some technical difficulties, they kept pulling themselves apart! My favorite one is the one that looks a little orange and has a moon (its the one that is closest to the camera in the lower left image).

MUG SHOT:

I thought that these mugs were very cute and creative.  Great for kids...or adults who act like kids (which is all of us, don't judge!).  These mug are only for sale in their brick and mortar store but you can find out more info about it here.

The Engagement Party Finale

Well the engagement party has come and gone.  There was definitely a sugar hangover the next day what with seven different types of desserts and six different champagne beverages. We were able to get four of the desserts from Starbucks and then two from Costco and finally we dipped our own chocolate covered strawberries (with the help of Wes’ family).  Our champagne beverages were mimicked from a local restaurant in Chico and were fun and fruity!  I think that everyone who came had a really spectacular time.

The Bride and Groom to Be

As promised, here are the thank you cards I made for this party.  You can see the full process here and here.  I stuck with the champagne theme but to add a splash of fun I used multiple colors.  Also I used the Loopi font that I liked from the beginning.  The bride and I decided that she didn’t want to use their married name on the card because they’re not married yet so we stayed with ‘Thank You’ and called it a day.

These thank you cards are available for purchase here, in my Etsy shop.

Weekend in Photos

Today's Quote:

"Dreams are illustrations... from the book your soul is writing about you."  - Marsha Norman

Weekend in Photos:

Figured I'd make this one as simple as possible.  This is my weekend in photos!

The iPhone didn't do too bad did it!?

Mug Shot: Postcup(TM)

Love this postcard style cup.

You can buy it here

Melissa and Wesley

Maid of Honor, a prestigious title, second only to Bride, Groom and equal in strength as Best Man. This role comes with a ton of responsibility and not in the, let me order balloons and appetizers for this party, kind of responsibility (though you have to do that too). It comes with, no that dress doesn’t make you look fat, sure those flowers will match the napkins, your mother doesn’t hate you, and no hubby-to-be won’t refuse to marry you because you desperately want to have 'Everybody' by Backstreet Boys added to the playlist…but you should probably run it by him just in case. There is a lot to do, and while you’re definitely relieved when they finally say their ‘I-do's’ and it’s time to kick off your heels and shake your groove thang on the dance floor, getting there was still a lot of fun. I mean, before the wedding day is even close you get to spend hours with your friend doing all the things most girls like to do, shop, eat fancy food, try on frilly dresses and then go to the spa (gotta look great for your friends big day).

My roommates/best friends from college are getting married this September and I was asked to be not just the Maid of Honor but also the Best Man (we’re still trying to figure out logistics as to where I’ll stand and what I should wear). At first I was like wow how awesome, I get to be both! But then you start calculating in your head, that’s one shower, one bachelorette party, one bachelor party, and one wedding and OMG I’m going to be so insanely busy…and did I mention they live 468 miles away (yeah that’s right, I totally just Googled it)!? Luckily my wonderful friends thought of this and decided that the best option would be to have just one all inclusive party for the both of them just before the wedding. That party is next weekend, and naturally I made the invitations for them.

This is the one that was mocked up for purchase here at my Etsy shop.

Well with a party like this, one that will more than likely include a wedding gift or two, naturally, they will need Thank You cards, and guess who they asked to make them….yours truly! I’ve already started the design process and I’m totally in love with this font:

You can find it here.

I’ll keep you posted as the design process continues…since the party is next weekend you can guess this is going to be a rush order, who's pumped for a design-tastic weekend!!? ME!

Also, fear not friends! I have not forgotten about the Housewarming Party invitations, they’ll get their time to shine soon enough.

To the Beach

Today's inspiration:

To the Beach:
Living in Los Angeles you find that you are never really very far from the beach…ever.  However, because of this pesky thing called traffic, people here generally stay within their neighborhood bubble and never leave it unless forced to.  Well two weekends ago I decided that I wanted to go to the beach, but was feeling kind of lazy, and while it is within my bubble it was still kind of a hassle.

Let me explain to you why going to the beach isn’t as easy and wonderful as it sounds.  First you have to remember that it is summer here in beautiful sunny southern California. With a population of near 4 million people living in Los Angeles proper, you can imagine the number of people you may find on a sunny So Cal beach. This means that once you get within, oh I’d say seven blocks of the ocean you’ll sit in a half hour’s worth of single lane, stop light-tastic traffic.  If you stop and try and park prior to that you’ll either be in a 2 hour metered spot, not worth it, or in neighborhood parking that requires a special permit…which of course I don’t have.  Assuming you haven’t given up and actually make it close to the beach you have a choice to make.  Santa Monica, the beach I was thinking of going to, is at the base of a cliff.  When it comes to parking, you can park on top of the cliff, hike down it using the staircase and bridges (which means you have to hike back up it at the end of the day) and then walk across what I can only describe as the Sahara Desert before you can even touch water.  The cost for this is free for 2 hours and then a max of $8 for the day.  Your other option is to skip the hike up and down the cliff and just park at sea level.  You pay $10 for the day and still have to walk across the Sahara Desert.  Plus, everyone on the planet knows about Santa Monica, making it a tourist trap, meaning good luck finding a spot on the beach that’s not somewhere behind a lifeguard tower.  You didn’t think you were actually going to get to sit by the water did you?

Back to the point.  I was feeling kind of lazy, and instead of going to the ocean just drove by it instead.  I took a nice trip up PCH (Pacific Coast Highway or Highway One, whichever you’d prefer) and every time I thought ‘I should probably turn around’ I just kept driving.  An hour or so later I found myself in Oxnard, which isn’t really that close to the water anymore and turned around and dove home.

On Monday I had dinner with friends, and they said “let’s go for a walk on the beach.”  Having not made it the day before I thought awesome! Now I’ll get to go to the beach! Well the driver had the same dilemma I’d had the day before – the beach is just so FAR and requires STOPPING.  We ended up doing another quick drive up PCH before turning back.

On Tuesday I saw a blog post about someone who went to the beach with her family and I knew I had to go and touch the water.  Of course this week is jammed full of events (like picking my friend Stella up from taking THE BAR!! – fingers crossed she passes) and making it to the beach just wasn’t going to happen.

On Saturday (after my week died down a bit) I was invited to travel down to Manhattan Beach and see a Volleyball Tournament.  I was instructed to wear a bathing suit, which in my mind means, I’m going to get to touch the water!  Unfortunately it didn’t work that way and we walked along the strand NEXT to the beach but never ON the beach let alone near the water.

Finally…FINALLY on Sunday I got to touch the water. I went out to lunch near Hermosa Beach, and afterwards we went all the way down and touched the ocean.  The water was just perfect.  Maybe next time I’ll get to swim in it!

Feet finally IN the ocean!

MUG SHOT: Mr. Tea

'nuf said

Buy it here