15
Jun

Pillow Roundup

posted by , June 15, 2009

We’ll now be taking a break from the regularly scheduled LA programming trip updates to talk about one of my favorite topics, and that’s pillows. I love pillows of all kind. I sleep with at least three on any given night.

But isn’t it crazy how expensive pillows can get? I’ve seen some for up to $250, and I wonder why?! I particularly adore pillows by Thomas Paul and Madeline Weinrib, but can’t bear to pay the full retail price. (little hint: If you’re nuts about Thomas Paul like I am, get thee to eBay! There are some amazing bargains to be had: I’m talking $19 for an $80+ pillow!)

I love this one from Thomas Paul:

Or this lovely:

::sigh:: Actually, there’s not a single one I don’t love. I could bore you to tears with it here, or you can go look at them yourself here at his website. Moving on …

Williams Sonoma Home always has beautiful pillows, but once again, at a high price point. All of these I’ve posted here are on sale, but they’re still not really inexpensive. ::sigh:: A girl can dream. I adore this silk twill zigzag print — it also came in a tan color which I could envision in our back living room on the couch, but it got an ixnay from the hubs because of our sticky-fingered little one. :)   I also adore this silk twill seashell print. I would almost like to have this as a framed image. The colors are so soothing, and yet still tropical. And finally, a little ethnic link print, in tan or coral. Of course, my girl Madeline W. has some amazing pillows, too. I keep seeing them pop up in various mags like Elle Decor. This Ikat print is fab, but in silk, so it’s a no-go for us right now. It would become silk-dotted-with-animal-cracker-goo. I really want to find a similar version of this print, especially in navy. It would look so cool in our room! And I love love LOVE this print — more on this one later, my dears. It’s enough to send you into bankruptcy if you let it!  So it was with great relief the other day, as I’m perusing Target.com, looking at slipper chairs, that I stumbled onto their pillow section. I’ve had good luck lately at their stores w/ pillows. They’ve got some fun, Thomas Paul-esque pillows, and even more of a selection online! Look at these lovelies that are not only stylish, but inexpensive –

Gorgeous Thai Silk Decorative Pillow

Blocky Boudoir pillow — also in a red print too

Another Thai Silk, this time in a green brocade print

Ah ha! Recognize this one?! I snatched this one up the second I laid eyes on it. LOOOOOOVE it! A pair of them now reside in the guest room, but I can see them making their way down into our room too. I only wish it came in as many colors as the Weinrib version does.

This fun floor pillow is apparently sold out now, and if memory serves, it was the most expensive of any of these, but isn’t the print refreshing?

And finally, a cheerful yellow embroidered canvas in a pretty calligraphic design.

Now wasn’t that fun? It’s like going into a candy shop…

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14
Jun

Eating Around Los Angeles

posted by , June 14, 2009

Let the vacation fun continue! We’ve been home almost a week, and I guess we’re back in the swing of normal lives. I think I’m experiencing post-trip depression. There’s nothing to look forward to for awhile. :(  I need a project.  I’m thinking I’ll take Jude on a field trip this week to the Bass Pro Shop or something. I wish we had an aquarium here. I may have to haul it up to Tulsa to visit a friend and go to their aquarium.

Ok, some more Los Angeles fun. One of our hobbies is food. I really think that my husband missed his calling as either a chef or a food critic, because he loves food that much. Apparently, he has just come into this realization, because at some point during the trip, he says out loud, “You know, I think food just really makes me happy.”

No! No way! SHOCKING! :)  I’ve only known this for years. I look at him and say, “Um, and you’ve just now realized this?!”

taverna tonys - malibu

taverna tony's - malibu

Much of my love for LA stems from my year at Pepperdine. I had a lot of fun experiences, just exploring the city, so anytime we go back, it’s fun to revisit those favorite places, but also to find new ones too. We like to go to eat at Marmalade Cafe (in Malibu, or at the Grove in LA) as well as (OF COURSE!) In-N-Out. I confess, we drove straight to In-N-Out the second our flight landed. We’re that addicted. Jude decimated his cheeseburger — as if  all cheese on earth was to be eradicated for eternity tomorrow.

Simon had heard about Crumbs Bake Shop. Apparently there are several outposts of it around the country. Similar to a Sprinkles cupcakery, but with a more old-world/circus design (and less I-could-care-less-about-your-baked-goods attitude from the hipper-than-thou employees), Crumbs had a wide variety of delicious cupcake flavors to try. My personal fave was the Boston Cream Pie cupcake. The chocolate frosting was thick and rich, much like the Guittard chocolate frosting you can buy from Williams-Sonoma, a special treat.

Other good eats in Malibu: Howdy’s Taqueria, Malibu Seafood (inexpensive, delicious seafood – a mile north of Pepperdine on PCH), Paradise Cove Beach Cafe….

Since we had the convenience of a kitchen at our apartment in Venice, we were able to do a lot of grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods Market. We remarked numerous times that if we had either of them here in OKC, we would spend soooo much money, but we would be eating oh-soooo good.  The farmer’s market in Venice was also particularly fun. Those grape tomatoes were so sweet — and so poppable!

I wish I would’ve bought some of those snap or snow peas. I loooove them. And every time I look at this picture, I want some.

Let’s see, where else did we eat….  Oh! Pink Taco! I didn’t get any photos of it, but we enjoyed sitting out on the terrace and enjoyed eating some delish tacos after Jude FINALLY passed out after a no-I’m-not-gonna-nap showdown. Yeah, that was a delightful day.

On our last night in town, Simon had a special request for dinner. He wanted to go wait in line at Pink’s hot dogs, the legendary hot dog stand on La Brea & Melrose. To be frank (ha!), I don’t get the appeal of Pink’s.  I’m a Ball Park hot dog kind of girl. So this didn’t really do it for me. But my boys love hot dogs, so to Pink’s we went, and Simon is still raving about it. After waiting in line for about 20 minutes, we finally got our order in and sat down on the terrace back behind. Jude also got in a great poopy diaper change in the trunk of our car, much to everyone else’s delight, I’m sure. Hey, it was cleaner than the Pink’s bathroom floor! I hate it when public bathrooms don’t have baby changing facilities.
Because I was a good sport to go along with the hot dogs (FYI, the seasoned fries were totally worth it), I got to pick where we would go have dessert. That last day in LA, we had spent the day cruising town, exploring Griffith Park and far eastern Los Angeles. I happened to spot this cute little place called MILK, and after a quick perusal of Yelp.com on my iPhone, I decided this was it. To be fair, I was first captured by their fab logo, but it turned out it was more than just form — it was function, too!

Two words, my friends: Blue Velvet.

Yeah. You heard right. Blue. Velvet. It’s a blueberry cake with LOTS of blue dye, and DELICIOUS cream cheese frosting.  

They also have a wide selection of ice cream sandwiches (homemade ice cream!) made with enormous macarons (not macaroons — macarons, little French cookies). Oh, and the homemade chocolate milk? Uh huh. Yup. Divine.The little red velvet poppers were pretty delish, too, although more red than chocolatey. (FYI, red velvet really should be a chocolate cake w/ red food coloring. If it’s too red, it’s minimal on the chocolate and is not true red velvet).

Here’s me and Jude, showing off our blue tongues. There was other, um, blueness, too. But that came later. Just be forewarned if you eat heavily-dyed food. You will see it again.

Ok, moving on from dyed, um, stuff. Lemonade! Once again, we were attracted initially by the cute design, and then we stuck around for the great food. Four fruit-blended lemonades every day round out the beverage choices, but there’s also a variety of lemon-themed desserts as well. But if you’re needing more than just lemony sweetness, we were surprised by a variety of other choices too. Pot roasts, mac & cheese, and other items were there for the taking, cafeteria-style.

All in all, a delightful culinary experience! Now, who’s hungry?

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12
Jun

Traveling with a Toddler: Must-Haves, Must-Dos

posted by , June 12, 2009

Everybody’s been on that flight: there’s a screaming toddler who can’t be contained or maybe the impish tot who’s sitting behind you, kicking your seat until you’re numb in the rear and your last nerve is fried. I was totally freaked about flying with Jude and being those people. Who among us hasn’t watched with semi-dread the parents and small child walking down the aisle of the plane, hoping they wouldn’t have to sit by them? I’m raising my hand right now — I was that person.

Last year when we went to Florida, he was tiny and unmobile enough to just sit happily on our laps. He was a smiling, happy watermelon, if you will. This year, I knew it would be another story. Having a direct/nonstop flight was going to help us substantially, as well as having a really good schedule in terms of time of day. We went ahead and got him his own seat because I knew there was no way I or Simon wanted to wrangle him the other time. Plus, he knows that when he sees his carseat, he is going to be strapped into it. So, we planned to haul onto the plane his massive Britax carseat.

Enter stage right: Grandmother to save the day! I owe my mom BIG TIME. She found us the most ingenious item I’ve ever seen. I didn’t know how we were going to wrangle (1) wiggly toddler, (2) La-Z-Boy size carseat, (3) wiggly toddler’s stroller, and (4) our two FAA-approved carryon bags. I was exhausted just thinking about it. So when Mom offered to order us this, I said YES YES YES! The GoGo Baby is basically a set of wheels that converts your toddler carseat into a wheeled seat, allowing us to check our stroller with our luggage, and roll Jude throughout the airport with ease.

It really saved our life. And numerous people stopped us along the way to ask us where we got it. I could be a millionaire if I had been genius enough to think this little contraption up! Genius!The other bit of priceless advice came from my doctor. She told me that when traveling with kids, bring new books and/or toys for them to see on the airplane so it really captures their attention. I went to Half-Price books the day before the flight and got some Elmo and Thomas the Train sticker books, as well as a couple of other little doodads, and he was entranced. Once again, great motherly advice to save the day!

My only gripe about our traveling experience was the lack of the pre-board. Remember how they used to offer pre-boarding for people with kids or those who needed a little extra help? Yeah. No more. That’s been kiboshed. Whoever decided to nix that obviously never had to use the pre-board. Because let me tell you, it was realllllly not fun to have to carry our La-Z-Boy-sized carseat onto the back of the plane, smacking all the rows of passengers already boarded as we passed by. Dee-lite-ful.

Traveling with kids is hard, no way around it. And I will never ever judge anyone again for having fussy kids on an airplane! It’s just flat-out difficult, but it can turn out well. Thank you, Mom, for helping us out! We love you!

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10
Jun

Staying in Venice

posted by , June 10, 2009

Hey everyone! I hope you had a fantastic week. We are back from our sun-and- fun-filled week in Los Angeles. First of all, I want to say how thankful I am to my husband Simon for making our little getaway possible. It’s only because he works so hard that we get to enjoy the fruits of his labor, both here at home and when traveling. Thanks, honey!

Simon found us these really cute little vacation apartment rentals, the Venice Paloma Suites. Having not been terribly familiar with Venice from my Pepperdine days, I thought ok, let’s do something totally different than our norm. We had also considered staying at the Venice Beach Eco-Cottages, so we made sure to do a drive-by when we were there. For the record, they are just as precious in real life as they are in the photos. More on that later.

our street

our "street"

Like the eco-cottages, the Paloma was also just as perfect in real life as it was in the photos. No bad surprises here. Remarkably well-designed for a small space, we were pleased as punch with the entire arrangement. It was perfectly decorated and very spacious. I really have no complaint at all with the experience and I would stay there again. The beds were pretty comfy (memory foam mattresses!), the kitchen was well-appointed, and there were TVs in each room. The location was close to the beach, (one block!) and it was very quiet. Oh, no washer & dryer, but apparently there was one in the building? Never explored that option.

The only downside is that there is no on-site parking. You take a five-minute walk to an enclosed garage in a new-construction apartment building. Kind of a pain.

To be honest, the neighborhood was on the fringe of sketchiness. In other words, I wouldn’t have felt super comfortable walking around the ‘hood by myself at ten o’clock at night. Did we feel unsafe in our apartment? Never. It was totally private, and we had to have a key to even get in the gate. However, just walking a few blocks to the north, we were in an adorable part of town with lots of shops and cafes to choose from. In fact, one morning, Jude and I walked from our house all the way up to Santa Monica’s 3rd Street promenade, a distance of about 2 miles. More on that later, too.Isn’t this fun? In the hallway, there was a long row of hooks to hang your stuff on. Surprisingly practical and extremely useful, especially since there was minimal closet space. Hmm… good idea!


All in all, we were totally pleased with our Venice experience. The Paloma was the perfect spot for our family, with lots of room for Jude to run around, and with bedrooms for him and for us. The entire time, I kept thinking, “We would have been miserable in a tiny hotel room.”  Alternately, if we had stayed in the eco-cottages, it would’ve been a totally different experience and would not have had enough room for all 3 of us. (side note: It was in a neighborhood, much further from the beach, but very well-designed and close to Abbott-Kinney, the hipster street (also with lots of fun shops and cafes). This neighborhood did not feel iffy at all, and had lots of beautiful landscaping, cute houses, etc. So. Something to keep in mind for your next getaway, no?)

All in all, I’m almost sad to be home! It was such a perfect little vacation for us, and I wish I was back on Paloma Court, laying out on the chaises longues and enjoying the (non-humid) sunshine. ::sigh::  Oh well, we’ll be back.

Lots more LA stuff to come!

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