Yesterday was a first for me. It was my very first bonfire at the beach. And it was as cool as I always imagined it would be.
It was our youngest niece’s 14th birthday. And instead of sweating it out in the Inland Empire like we typically do, they opted for a day at the beach. You better believe I was behind that! And while I’m not a huge play at the beach and frolic in the waves kinda gal (long story…but it has to do with being a Jersey Girl and hypodermic needles and raw sewage visiting our local beaches), I was all over experiencing this California bonfire tradition.
We’ve driven past the Bolsa Chica beach many times and I’ve always been in awe of the bonfires. Turns out, it’s one of the few beaches that allows bonfires in the greater LA area (here’s a list of CA beaches that allow fires). What makes it such a cool experience is that they have the concrete firepits already there and waiting for you. You still have to bring your own wood (or buy wood from vendors). But other than that, it’s all good.
Being that close to the ocean, and the ocean breezes leads to some might cold temperatures and quite a bit of smoke and wayward ash. But it’s so worth it if you ask me. Though I can’t imagine what it must be like in the winter months.
We got to the party late (fully intending to just experience the bonfire part of the event), after the sun had already set and the fire was roaring hot. Which was great, because it was freezing (even in late July). Luckily we still had jackets and a blanket in the car (especially considering I dressed for summer cute and not beachy cold).
I even thought ahead to pick up the ingredients for some s’mores. Too bad the fam forgot to bring the sticks – LOL. We managed to make a couple using the BBQ fork, but with that roaring fire, it wasn’t easy.
Oh well, maybe next time. And I’ve no doubt, now that the nieces and nephews are getting older, that there will be a next time.
This weekend, as part of a beat the heat promotion, Anthem Magazine was giving away passes to the Irish movie, Kisses. And yes, yours truly was lucky enough to not only win a pair, but was able to beat the heat as well!
While it didn’t have the happy ending that most of us Americans have come to appreciate, it was a great movie about two teenagers running away from home and heading into Dublin on Christmas Eve (full synopsis below the video trailer). If it comes to your neighborhood or on-demand, check it out. As Anthem Magazine puts it, it “features an original score by Lance Daly’s band, Go Blimps Go, as well as half a dozen Bob Dylan tracks, making the movie perfect for the audiophile and film buff alike.”
And yes, it is in English with English sub-titles. I have to say, we’d have been lost without them. Oh, and totally unrelated…I have pictures of that very Christmas tree in Dublin
Synopsis
“On the fringes of Dublin two kids, Kylie and Dylan, live in a suburban housing estate devoid of life, colour and the prospect of escape. Kylie lives with five other siblings and her overworked mother. Next door, Dylan lives in the shadow of an alcoholic father and the memory of an elder brother who ran away from home two years earlier. After a violent altercation with his father, Dylan runs away from home and Kylie decides to run away with him. Together they make their way to the magical night time lights of inner city Dublin, to search for Dylan’s brother, and in the hope of finding, through him, the possibility of a new life. Lance Daly’s vision of Dublin, as seen through the innocent eyes of our protagonists, is a kaleidoscope of magic, wonder and mystery. But as the night wears on, and Dublin takes on a darker character, the two kids have to rely on the kindness of strangers, the advice of Bob Dylan and their trust in each other to survive the night.”
After a month or so of some June Gloom, summer has hit LA hard! We went from days in the mid-70’s to days in the 100’s. This is something I was hoping to avoid as much as possible.
Luckily, this year won’t be nearly as difficult as the last years. While we are still in the same apartment (we didn’t feel comfortable moving since both of us are now working from home), we picked up a portable AC unit for the back office. So now we have two rooms that are cool enough to spend some time in. And since the new unit is portable and small enough to move about, we can move it into the bedroom if it gets too hot in there.
Finally, we can beat the crazy Valley heat!!
Of course, in full disclosure, the actually KEEP the cool in the living room, we had to go a little ghetto and use something to block the doorway into the hall o’hellish heat. So we have a piece of white foamcore blocking it. It stands about 3.5 feet high and it makes a HUGE difference in keeping that room cool. At this point, I’ll take what I can get, and this sure as hell works.
It’s keeping things so much cooler that I actually had the brilliant idea to tackle the fridge…inside and out! Of course, the sink is too small to fit the entire shelf and the drawers, so I’m dragging it all outside. Shelf by shelf. Piece by piece. The half-shelves sure look good!
And I’m just telling myself, as I sweat through it all, that I’m just clearing the clutter and old energy to bring in something bigger and better! I can’t exactly get a new place to love if I don’t love the place I’m in, right? Or else it would just be more of the same. And after nearly 10 years of bitching about this place, I figured it was time to learn to love it.
Last night was PrettyCity and Shape Magazine’s Green and Gorgeous event here in LA. A business acquaintance of mine, Golden Alchemy were there performing facials, so they made sure to let everyone on their list know about the event.
The event was held at Environment Furniture Showroom off of Beverly Boulevard. I had fears that maybe combining women, beauty products, food and drink might wreck some havoc on the gorgeous furniture, but they really did a great job. At no time did you feel like you were in a furniture store. There was not only plenty of room to move about, but there were tables full of vendors as well as beauty treatment booths all around.
I got there early enough that I was able to try out a few different treatments. From the folks at Bliss Hollywood I received a brief, but oh so delicious and much needed chair massage from Rosie (I can still feel the work she did in my shoulders) and a quickie Triple Oxygen Treatment. My skin absolutely LOVED all that oxygen!
I also decided to go a little curlier than usual and spent some time with Brigitte from Orange Berlin, a European-inspired, eco-chic Pureology concept salon (okay, I’m not 100% certain on the officialness of their Pureology concept-ness, but that’s the line they use…and I love it!). Of course, slave to the ponytail that I am, I just pulled it back today before heading to teach. But it did make for a fab ponytail!
They also had chair massages available (which I didn’t get to try) from Tikkun Spa, an holistic spa with integrative services in both the healing arts and holistic medicine. I’d love to check this place out, they have every cool thing you’ve ever read about: a jade room, an ice room, a clay room, a salt room, infrared therapy, and mugwart soaks. How cool does all that sound?!?
In the back of the store, ROB|B OPI Concept Salon (the only OPI concept salon in the US – and where I have a mani/pedi waiting for me thanks to Groupon!) was offering up polish changes. And sadly, I wasn’t able to spend any time getting facials from Golden Alchemy. I have to say, they were using some odd, tribal-looking wand and rubbing it over some gals face and all I could think while getting my curl on was “I so want that! Whatever it is.” It looked totally relaxing.
I have to say, these past couple of years, I’ve been to a few different fashion and beauty events. This event was my favorite by far. We were also given an amazing goody bag full of tons of eco-friendly, full-size products! I look forward to trying all the scrubs, lotions and potions. And the lippies!! I’m a very happy girl whenever lip balms (this one is super yummy), glosses and lipsticks are involved!
Great job Pretty City!!
I was hoping by now that someone would have posted photos or video from the event, but no such luck. You’ll just have to trust me that it was a great event. If I find anything over the next couple of days, I’ll be sure to post it up.
In the winter (or what passes for winter here in LA) I can’t get enough of tea. Strangely enough though, once the warmer temperatures hit, I turn to iced coffee. And while iced coffee may well be one of the least expensive things on your local coffee shop’s menu, it’s super easy to make at home. So easy, you’ll be rolling in the dough with all the money you’ll be saving this summer.
The key is to make sure you use good coffee (says the girl that’s just using whatever she has lying about). I’ve noticed that when I don’t use good coffee, it can be a tad more bitter (think: Starbucks). The cool thing though, you can easily adjust the strength and the flavor – see my modifications below.
1/3 cup ground coffee (medium-coarse grind is best)
Milk (optional)
1. In a jar, stir together coffee and 1 1/2 cups water. Cover and let rest at room temperature overnight or 12 hours.
2. Strain twice through a coffee filter, a fine-mesh sieve or a sieve lined with cheesecloth. In a tall glass filled with ice, mix equal parts coffee concentrate and water, or to taste. If desired, add milk.
My Modifications:
I typically make double or triple batches so I have a jug ready to go whenever the mood strikes in the fridge. Consider yourself warned, I think this results in a much stronger blend so either add more water or milk. But it’s already chilled and doesn’t require ice.
I don’t measure the water, I just eyeball it. I like mine with lots of milk, so I probably add more milk than the average person – so I use less water.
I like to sweeten the entire jug (at least lightly), so it’s totally ready to go.
I strain my concentrate just using a coffee filter. It takes a bit longer (it’s one of those single cup brew cones), but it works just fine.
I’ve found that using a wide mouth jar (right now, a recycled quart canning jar) makes cleaning up after the sludge of leftover grinds MUCH easier (especially compared to the glass juice carafe that I used last year).
Using either flavored syrups like Torani or flavored creamer makes for a lovely, decadent coffee.
I tend to let my sludge concentrate do it’s magic overnight – though to be honest, I’ve never timed it.
ENJOY!!
And if you want something yummy to eat along with your high octane iced coffee might I suggest Blueberry Boy Bait (again from the Smitten Kitchen site).
A little known secret about me…I love, love, love to enter contests and sweepstakes (which is probably why I enjoy arranging for the contests on ConstantChatter too). I haven’t done it much here, but in my not so distant past, it wasn’t uncommon for me to create massive lists of various contests. And lucky me, I’ve even won one or two – sadly, no cars or awesome vacations, but some fun things like a necklace and some bath and body products.
Well, I recently heard about the Wanderlust Festival. To be honest, I’ve never heard of the Wanderlust Festival before. But, then again, I’ve only recently started trying yoga. Basically, we’re talking about a lifestyle festival combining music, the world’s top yoga teachers, organics, and sustainability in the breathtaking Tahoe, CA. Music artists and yoga instructors such as Shiva Rae, Seane Corn, Baron Baptiste, Moby, Thievery Corporation and many others will be featured.
Seems the folks behind Wanderlust are teaming up with Honest Tea (some yummy bottled tea!!) and Whole Foods and giving away a pair of tickets, with full-access to the festival, three yoga classes and access to the stage INCLUDING a two night stay at Squaw Valley Lodge and a $500 American Express Gift Card. And on top of all that, the winner will also receive a one year supply of Honest Tea & Honest Ade.
They’re also doing some first and second prize winners as well, but you’ll have to check out the official rules and whatnot for the details. It’s pretty much a text-to-win kind of contest, so head on over to the nearest Whole Foods before 5/31 for the correct key word that you can find on their specially-marked displays.
Me, I’d be happy just to visit beautiful Lake Tahoe, work on my savasana and drink my iced tea!
I know I haven’t been around here much these past couple weeks, but we’ve had quite a bit going on. You see, we’ve been gearing up for the big layoff. We knew it was coming, and to be honest, we are quite excited about it.
And now it’s official. My husband is officially a socio-economic statistic.
Well, technically, it was official last Monday, but I was too busy running errands to say much about it.
Now both of us are working from home. Although for the past week, I basically spent most of my time trying to get things in order. I figure with the temperatures about to be on the rise and the hubs now working from home, I needed squeeze in one super good cleaning and do as much laundry as possible (still have sheets & blankets to do…hate the laundromat!).
On top of the basic household chores, I’ve been doing some shopping. I mean, FSA funds are use it or lose it, so you better believe we were using it! That’s a lot of doctor appointments to squeeze into two weeks. So I also spent a little time on Drugstore.com in their FSA store. Did you know that condoms and athlete’s foot treatment qualify for spending down those FSA dollars? Who knew.
Not to worry though. He knew it was coming (they all knew it was coming). His next project launches tonight!! Woohoo!
And presently (or at least until I’m done teaching this semester), my primary goal is to come up with lunch and dinner menus. We figure we spent a good chunk of our money eating out (together for dinners or alone for lunches), so the quickest and easiest way for us to save some cash from the getgo is to cook at home.
Now if only I knew what to cook. Or how to plan a menu.
Any suggestions? What’s your favorite at home, lunch item? What about dinner – what sort of easy recipes do you fall back on?
In particular…any killer ideas for leftover rotisserie chicken (we tend to eat a lot of rotisserie chicken here…especially when the triple digit days come and it’s just too crazy hot to even boil water).
In the meantime, I’m sure things will be getting pretty interesting at Casa de LA Blogger Gal…two of us, working from home, all day, with a dog that barks at anything in a two bedroom apartment that in mere days will surely be 85 degrees WITH the air conditioning running. Oh yeah, it should be fun.
For my husbands birthday, I had planned to take him a way for a day of wine tasting in Santa Barbara. But work got in the way.
Then we were going to go a couple weeks later, but again, his work got in the way. He then proposed that we go out that way for our anniversary weekend, but yet again…you guessed it, his work got in the way.
*sigh*
It was looking like our weekend away wine tasting was never going to happen.
Then he suggested that we head out for my birthday weekend and celebrate everything all rolled into one. He wasn’t able to promise anything because again, he was afraid that work would interfere, but this time, we were actually able to make it happen. Of course work again, had their hands in the way things played out, but it worked out for the better this time around. And due to reasons I’m not yet allowed to discuss, we won’t have these sort of life interruptions in the future. Yay!
Not being parents, we didn’t realize that it was Mother’s Day weekend. And not being marathon runners, we didn’t realize it was the weekend for the annual Santa Barbara Wine Country Half Marathon. Needless to say, anything in Santa Barbara, Santa Ynez and Solvang were completely sold out. So we headed up to Santa Maria instead.
Wine is wine, right? Well, that’s what we thought anyway.
We stayed at the newly remodeled Holiday Inn right there in town. Nothing fancy, but quite comfortable (aside from the very odd, cheap chair that sank down to nothing when you sat in it). And it had a kitchenette, so we were able to bring some wine back to the room and save money by not eating out for breakfast. We didn’t try any of the amenities, but I will say that this is the first time in a long time that we had free internet access and that alone was quite nice. I also loved how they went out of their way to ensure that we had a great experience: a welcome letter, a welcome voice mail message and a note to reconnect with my bill. Great customer relations.
For the most part, we just relaxed, drove around and tasted wine. We were a little disappointed in the wine tasting experience. Not only were the tasting and bottle prices much higher than in the Sonoma/Russian River valley, but they weren’t nearly as good. In fact, in three days worth of leisurely tasting (meaning about 3-4 wineries a day), we only found two that we liked.
We really enjoyed a Voignier at Melville and picked up a bottle to bring back home. Melville actually came highly recommended to us and we in turn, would easily recommend them to others. Nice tasting room. Relaxed staff that talks to you about the wines you’re drinking. And a lovely picnic area out back (where we enjoyed some of Trader Joe’s finest lunching goods).
The other winery we loved (and I do mean LOVED) was Lafond Winery in the Santa Rita hills. I’m not really a fan of Pinto Noirs and well, let’s face it, this part of California is kinda known for their Pinots. That said, they had a Pinot here I was in head over heels in love with. As the lady pouring explained, the Santa Rita hills don’t get nearly as much rain as other wine growing areas so the grapes don’t get quite as plump. This means that according to my uneducated palette, the wine doesn’t taste a “watered down.”
But really, we loved this place so much we wanted to take a bottle of everything to go. We didn’t. But only because we’re planning to join their wine club in a couple of months. Until then, we’ll just live on memories and do what we can to track down their wares locally.
The only other thing we really did on our trip (aside from try to go to the movies – they weren’t playing anything we wanted to see), was eat out a couple of times.
In Los Olivos we hit up a couple of tasting rooms (again, nothing to write home about) and at the recommendation of some locals (and marathon participants) decided to eat dinner at the Los Olivos Cafe & Wine Merchant. We were too late for more wine tasting at the bar (or happy hour, as they called it). So we sat outside for dinner. All I can say is 1) that bread and olive oil is AWESOME and 2) more people should cook with goat cheese. Yum!
Then our last night there, we decided to try the famed Santa Maria BBQ. We did a little research and decided to follow the truckers and headed to Pappy’s to share a BBQ tri-tip plate. Wow, I can see why the Santa Maria tri-tip is so beloved. What makes it so special? Basically it’s tri-tip that’s covered in a mixture of salt, pepper, and garlic salt and grilled over a fire using red oak from the California coast. Anyway you cut it, it’s good stuff.
Funny enough, I saw the other day that in the semi-prepared foods section of Costco that they sell a packaged Santa Maria tri-tip. So I guess it’s more legendary than I even knew.
In the end, we may not have accomplished much this trip. We never even got around to taking pictures of anything. But it was exactly what this couple needed – especially for the workaholic husband going through some job transitioning. I loved that for most of the trip we were in and out of cell range. Better yet, I loved that he actually kept his work phone turned off the entire trip. It was just the sort of laid back, low stress, relaxing sort of weekend away we needed.
I can’t believe that I’m not blogging as much as I used to. There was a time, a couple years ago, that I blogged almost daily. Sometimes, I had more than one entry on any given day. I loved it. Some might even say I lived for blogging. I loved calling myself a blogger.
Where did that excitement to blog go?
I know I’m still writing blog posts in my head. In fact, I’m still starting them many of them as drafts. But it seems that instead of sitting down to finish them, I just let them pile up. I’m not even getting around to posting weekly in my business blog. And forget about ConstantChatter, I’m rarely posting there these days. And this isn’t a trend I’m liking.
I have to wonder what brought about this change.
Is it because I’m busier during the week since I’m teaching again? Is it because I’m now running a business and that takes time each day? Is it because I no longer enjoy sharing the day to day details of my day?
Maybe it’s because of my increased time playing around the the social networking playground. I’m thinking that’s the case. I noticed when I got involved with Twitter about two years ago that my post count went down considerably. Then I started playing around with Facebook.
Nowadays if I have something to say, I tend to post about it either on Twitter or Facebook. Let’s face it, it’s quick and easy. And I can do it from my phone. Better yet, I can choose how I want to leave an update via photo, video, audio, or a good old fashioned written update. The choices are plenty. And while I can update my blog in similar ways, it’s still more work that a quickie Twitter or Facebook update.
I’ll do what I can go get better at updating the blog, but if you’d like to stay in touch better, feel free to friend me on FB and Twitter (links below).
So where are you most likely to be spending your time online these days?
Just be sure to drop me a note letting me know who you are so I can be sure to friend or follow you back…
My personal Facebook profile (be sure to include a message or I more than likely won’t approve the connection). My business Facebook fan page My personal Twitter account
I noticed a bit of a theme when putting together this week’s Fab Finds. All but one of them involve creativity with a focus on writing. The lone one that doesn’t is just there because it’s fun and quite silly.
Stupid Fight – This is the silly one. If you spend any amount of time on Twitter (and who doesn’t) I’m sure you’ve either seen this already or will get a big kick out of it. Basically, you compare two Twitter users to see which one has smarter followers than the other. I have a personal account and a business account, one has real people having real conversations and the other seems to be over-run with automated accounts (damn those internet marketers that think the mere mention of “business” means they should add you). So of course, I wasn’t surprised to find that the account riddled with automated accounts was marginally stupider (it’s killing me to have that there, so let’s just say “more stupid”). The only catch, you have to know the person’s Twitter username to get it to work. Have fun!
Google Search Stories – I’m sure by now you’ve seen the Parisian Love commercial. You know the one…the guy searches for study abroad opportunities in Paris, then, translations, then churches, then instructions on how to put together a baby crib. Too adorably sweet, if you ask me. Well, Google has now set it up so you can create your own search stories. You can pick the search terms, the kind of searches, the music, etc. If the Google folks like it, they’ll leave it up on the site as a sample (I like the pothole one myself). This could be something fun to add to your own website or blog.
OmmWriter - If you ever need to sit down and focus on writing without any sort of distractions, then this tool is for you. Ommwriter takes over your Mac so that the only thing you see is the blank, zen, text-only word processing screen. You can chose your background and your accompanying soundtrack (I like the birds myself), and then tune out everything else on your computer and write. I use this tool when I have to write articles or something where I don’t want to be distracted by my email or other little annoyances (Facebook and Twitter, I’m talking to YOU!). And unlike many other simple word processing programs out there, this one is free. Sadly, this amazing tool is only available for Macs. There’s talk that they might create something for Windows as well, but there’s no launch date being tossed around.
Wordspaceand Writer’s Boot Camp – Both of these great writing spaces are local to Los Angeles. Both offer some great networking and creative opportunities for writers. The cool thing, between them both, you’ll be covered no matter what time of writing you do. If you’re a writer (or wanna-be-writer), this can be a fun way to get focused, hone your craft, and network amongst your peers. No more toiling it alone at home or your local coffee shop. Sounds like fun to me!
