Author Archives: LA Blogger Gal

It’s Monday So Let’s Have a Giveaway!

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Enter for Your Chance to Win an Envirosax Bag!

The good folks from Envirosax contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in doing a giveaway here.  I’m all about using reusable bags for shopping that you better believe I jumped at the opportunity.

The goal was to get it up about a week ago and tell you all how great these bags would be for the dad in your life.  But as you all know, I’ve been so busy that I just didn’t get around to it.  I was also waiting for the bags to arrive so I could see just which designs I was giving away.

I don’t yet have my own Envirosax bag (well, when you have 10+ large canvas sacks, there’s just no need to buy the bags), so this was my first time seeing them in person.  Wow, not only are the bags HUGE, the designs are just way cute.  So as they say on their site, you can spread “the eco-friendly message with style!”  And the convenient part is that they fold up nicely so that you can keep one in your bag – no more forgetting your bag back at the car.

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I think my only complaint about the bags is that I’d love for a longer handle.  These bags can hold SO much stuff, that it can often make carrying the bags difficult.  With a longer strap that can go over your shoulder you can not only carry more weight, but you can also have your hands free to do the important stuff like unlock the door.  For many, I’m sure the handles are just fine (and can indeed slip over the shoulder), I’ve just gotten so used to my canvas bags with their long straps, that I like when my bags sit lower on my body and not right under my armpit.

Eh, it’s all preference and these bags are so cute (and fold up so tiny), that it more than makes up for it.

Be sure to follow them on Facebook as well, as they’ve been known to host more giveaways there.

To enter for your chance to win one of these two bags, just leave me a comment telling me why you’d love to win one or where you would use your bag.  The winner will be chosen at random through Random.org.

Fell free to tweet, blog or post this on your Facebook for extra chances to win – just make sure you give me the link so I can verify the posts.

The contest will close on Sunday, June 21st at 11:59 PM (Pacific)

Good luck!!

Whale Watching in Marina del Rey

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June Gloom finally lifted today. So having the first beautiful day of June, I demanded (no really, I did indeed demand) that we head out to Marina del Rey to visit the breached whale that’s visiting.

He’s on his way north to Alaska and has decided to take a bit of a break, call it a vacation, if you will here in LA. He’s been there for a couple weeks now, just hanging about. The authorities aren’t too worried as he appears to be in good health and is quite playful. Though they are concerned with just how close some of the boats have been getting.

I only took a few pictures because I realized early on that 1) I can’t see a damn thing on my screen in the bright sun so I don’t know what I’m even pointing at and more importantly, 2) whales aren’t easy to photograph – they move around, they’re always in a different spot and well, they’re not on the surface for too long. So only the bottom two photos actually caught the slightest glimpse of the little guy.

It was a fun day though. And once again, while I remembered to sunscreen my face and decolletage, I left my arms and neck untouched. And um, yeah…sunburn. Go figure.

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This Looks Like a Fun Way to Help Out Locally

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100 volunteers + 300 orange trees = 100% to feed the hungry!

FOOD FORWARD is an all-volunteer grassroots group of Los Angelenos who care about reconnecting to our food system, making change around urban hunger and stopping food waste. Several times a month volunteers convene at a private property they have been invited to and glean the excess fruit on their trees, donating 100% of it to local food pantries. They run picks, big and small, with their next large event to be held June 28th at CSUN where over 100 volunteers (all ages welcome) will glean free fresh fruit from a grove of over 300 trees in one day.

Their current main receiving partner is SOVA Community Food and Resource Program, which distributes food to over 7,700 clients a month across all of Southern California. In just 4 months and 20 picks, they have gleaned over 14,000 pounds of fresh free fruit for the hungry which would otherwise fall to the ground or ended up in land fills.

Come join this inspired and growing new group of urban gleaners on June 28th at CSUN! Following the same format of their hugely successful first BIG PICK in March, they are inviting you to volunteer for either the 9 am-12 pm shift or 1 pm-4 pm shift.  At noon all participants are invited to join a potluck picnic in the orchard. This time, the 1-4pm afternoon session will be open to children and families. More info/sign-up at www.foodforward.org!

To hold your spot for June 28th, email them directly or call Food Forward at 818-530-4125 – leaving your name, email, age, and phone/cell number.

Source: Jen’s List

Photo by Stewart Johnson

My Dog is Refusing to Eat

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No, not because he’s not feeling well.  Not because he’s not hungry. He’ll go to his bowl and nibble on some kibble when the mood strikes.  But he won’t actually take the time to EAT his food.  He’s going on his second round of two days without eating (just nibbling).

It seems he’s refusing to eat because he’s fallen in love with a sample of some dehydrated food from The Honest Kitchen.  So much so that when he hears the rustle of the sample bag he comes running. The good news…it’s all good for you stuff.  And in theory, I believe it costs less than his current Natural Balance kibble (which the cat loves to eat).

So today I broke down and picked up a box.  I figure I’ll mix it up with his kibble so he wouldn’t be eating just soft food. Thing is, this could come back to bite me in the ass when we’re traveling and he’s with us or when we board him.  Then again, just having to add water to some dehydrated food might not be so difficult when traveling.

Of course, now I’m scared to have the cat try their dehydrated food.  He yells at me enough when I feed him his wet food.

I Can’t Believe it’s This Cold in June!

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Seriously, I’m sitting here in my slippers and a fleece sweater thingie.  Granted, there are still windows open here in the apartment as well, but most are closed.  My widget says it’s only 65 degrees out.  In June.  In Los Angeles.

That’s just insane.

And I think it might be giving me a migraine.  Or the overcast skies are.  Or maybe it’s all the coffee I had earlier at a brunch meeting.  Either way, I’m cold and feeling some migraine twitching.  And I seem to be having some challenges focusing – caffeine? migraine? Shivers?  Hell if I know the reason.

Of course, this totally messes up my whole wardrobe choices for tomorrow’s speaking gig.  I mean if it’s 65 here and it’s not going to be much warmer in Costa Mesa tomorrow. It’s typically about 5-10 degrees cooler when you head south and towards the ocean (though we only seem to be a couple of degrees off right now).  Either way, I’m so not looking forward to it.

Will that stop me from wearing my cute new outfit?  Hell no.  But it certainly won’t make me happy.

Now back to work…

School is OUT for Summer!

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It’s official, school is over for the semester.  Can I get a Woot!Woot! in the blogosphere?

Well, kinda over.  I still plan to attend their “art show” on Friday (once I figure out where on campus it is – there’s a reason I sent to a small school, big campuses freak me out).  But after that it’s officially over.  Yay!

I was actually pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed working with this batch of kids.  Saying goodbye to them a day early was odd.  I’m sure next year it will be even more [insert word here] considering I’ll have the kids for both semesters.

And of course, this is all fabulous for so many reasons…in no particular order:

  • I can sleep late and not worry that I’m waking my crazy ass husband up after he’s only been asleep for two hours (what a freak!)
  • I can go back to blogging more regularly and having a bit more fun with it all.  You know, I went to a blogger party about a month ago and I STILL haven’t written it up yet.  To say nothing of the fact that I had a gazillion or so some tabs open the other day to write some biz blog posts about and the hubs closed them all down.  He’s kind of anti-multi-tabs and was trying to make a point or something.  Either way, with three blogs (and one more I’m crazy insanely seriously considering starting up) that’s a lot to get busy on.
  • I can actually sit down and READ blogs.  I don’t think I’ve been in my google reader (except to do a clearing “mark all read” in at least 2-3 months).  I feel so out of the loop.  It will be nice to catch up again.
  • I can clear off my desk…again…and maybe just create some positive flow here.  I finally filed both last year’s and this year’s backed up stacks of files over the weekend and I’m continually surprised at how much I can now SEE on my desk.  But we’re still not done here.
  • I can do something about the seemingly ever growing, life of its own, pile in the middle of the office here that seems to be claiming more and still more of my personal space.  And yes, yet another box of ConstantChatter giveaway stuff showed up on my doorstep today (which I’ve yet to find a moment to open – oh, didn’t I mention, I just woke up from my nap about an hour ago now).
  • I can get the bookkeeping filed and up to date AND get cracking doing our extended ’08 taxes.
  • I can hopefully, please dear God, hang those damn shelves in the bathroom already.  I mean it’s only been about two years now.  Wait, it HAS been two years since I bought them when my friend’s little guy was still teeny and she was still home on leave (and now she’s on leave with wee little #2).  Wow, that’s crazy.  I blame it on the fact that I have no idea where this saw my husband tells me we have is hiding.  Well, and that I’d really like to use a stud finder and I don’t know if I should buy one or borrow my brother-in-law’s.  To summarize…I’m scared shitless to hang shelves.
  • I can get cracking with work.  I have my first ebook to polish up.  I have an idea for a pre-quel (so to speak – think more basics) and I have two tele-workshops I’d like to finalize and get going (I outlined them over lunch yesterday).  Of course, the one needs to be DONE tomorrow since I’ll be pitching it on Thursday at my speaking gig.
  • I can finally get the next quarter’s batch of contests set and designed and ready to go and then start working on our new plan for the 4th quarter.
  • I also finally got my wall art in and I’ll need to get the one up in our bedroom and the other here in the office.  Can’t wait.

Whew!

Come to think of it, I think I need another nap.  That’s one helluva lot of shit to get to.

Wish me luck and I’ll be seeing more of you starting Monday!

Makeup Primers, Oh How I Love Thee

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I’ve known about makeup primers for a couple years now. I remember before I moved out here to LA, my girlfriend was in love with a particular primer (I don’t think Smashbox had their product out just yet). She’d pick up a new tube any time she came out here to LA. Sometimes I was lucky enough to even borrow it from time to time. Man, that stuff was impressive.

Then I moved out here to LA and the land of beauty and learned about the Smashbox primer that everyone raved about. I’ll admit that I’m not a religious user, though I do keep a small tube in my travel makeup case.

Nowadays, since I mostly use mineral makeup, I use a primer from Bare Minerals made to compliment the makeup and whatever stories they sold me along with the tube. If I’m wearing mineral makeup, then I’m wearing that primer. I like it, but I’m not so sure it works as well as the Smashbox primer.

But my favorite primer yet…shadow primer! Why did no one ever tell me about this before? I mean, it can keep your eye shadow on for the entire day. Seriously, I can nap with this shit on and I wake up (with sheet creases) and full shadow still on. It also helps to keep my eyeliner on longer. The fact the the colors are much brighter is just a pleasant side effect.

Since no one thought to tell me about what a difference shadow primer can make to your look (trust me, using my regular primer on my eyes didn’t make a difference like this), I thought I’d share my find with you. I can’t talk about what brand is better than another, but I can tell you that I’m using the Too Faced Shadow Insurance and loving it.

So if you wear any eye makeup beyond just mascara, give this a try. You can find them for under $20. Let me know what you think.

The Rarely Talked About Side Effect of Blogging

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When I first started blogging, I never really gave much thought to the fact that people would be reading my thoughts. During this time, I was already keeping an online journal where I did have people reading my thoughts. And as you would expect, you write differently for both situations.

When I got started, I didn’t even let anyone outside of my husband (who I believe doesn’t bother to read anything I write – though for all I know, I could be wrong) know that I was blogging.

So of course, as time went on, my readership increased. As my readership increased, I felt more comfortable letting others know about it. I went so far as to tell my friends to add me to their Reader or to subscribe to my blog emails.

And now, as goofy as it sounds, I kinda, almost, sorta, but not exactly, regret that move.

In many ways I feel like my privacy has been invaded. Well, not really, I mean, I am inviting the world and all her friends over to read what I write. I sometimes feel like I can’t share what’s going on in my life because it either involves my friends, or people that specifically know me or my friends.

You know, I seem to have lost that sense of anonymity.

Sometimes I have things that are going on in my life that I’d love to write about and share. But I’m always afraid that my friends will either recognize themselves (or just assume I’m talking about them whether I am or not) or they’ll be bothered that I’m writing about them at all.

The tough thing though, is that when you share your life for so long (over 6 years now, give or take) that it’s not easy having to having to censor my sharing like that. It’s almost like not being able to talk with closest friend about something that’s personal and just need to share.

Has anyone else felt this way about blogging and their loss of anonymity? I mean, how does Dooce do it?

I’m a Celebrity My Ass!

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“If you give me a script, I’ll do what you want. I’m not a reality star. I’m on ‘The Hills.‘”

Okay, so who watched it? 

We’re running kinda low on quality TV so the hubs set up bunch of shows to record. One of which was “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.” I have no complaints about the show itself, seems like an interesting concept and a pretty decent group of people.

Except…

Except for the newlywedded douchbags, Speidi. Okay, confession time, I’ve been watching the Hills since the beginning and I can’t say that I’ve ever liked these two.

They’re total star fuckers and enjoy nothing more than fucking themselves and each other. They think so damn highly of themselves they actually said that the other “celebrities” on the show were devaluing them.

Who says shit like that?

The funny part, they couldn’t even make it through the first day. First they had their initial “we’re leaving” moment where they whined to the producers how horrible it is there and how D list the people are. Then they wandered away from camp too long and the rest of the teams divied up their stuff (awesome moment!)

Then they came back, said they’d be in it for the long haul, blah, blah. Well, turns out once the cameras turned off for the night, they’re gone! TMZ reports they’ve left the show.

The students are arriving…will finish after class.

Update: 101 in 1001

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normal_barbedOkay, I just took a peek at my 101 in 1001 list and well, things aren’t looking too good.

I do believe that my time limit will end this year (should add figuring out exactly when to the damn list) and well, I still have quite a few things on there that haven’t been done. Not only have they not been done, but they might even be out of my control to get done.

Which is kind of interesting and makes me question to process a bit.

I mean, it’s not like a bucket list, yet some of the items on the list are things that might take a while.  Yet it’s more complex than just being a shopping or a to do list.  If it was that simple, I’d have (hopefully) been done that first month.

If I don’t complete everything on the list within the 1001 day time period, does that mean I’ve failed?

When I look back over the past couple of years, I realized that I’ve accomplished quite a bit.  In some ways, many would say that I’ve accomplished quite an impressive list of things.

They weren’t goals that I’d set for myself.  They were things that I just went and did.  Things that life presented to me all wrapped up in a pretty bow.  So it’s not like it’s something that I could cross of my list.

Then there were those things that changed – you, best laid plans and all that.  I’d planned for our first trip to Europe to be to visit my friend in Spain.  Instead, she came back stateside and visited us in Sonoma and we headed out to Ireland instead.  The knitting thing…yeah, I think until I get some central AC, I won’t be spending any time soon learning to knit as much as I might think I want to.

And what about those things that I did get to…like cleaning off my desk and cleaning out the fridge, only to have them look like a heap o’mess again?  Does that mean I can’t cross it off my list as done? There are also those things that I think I already did, but never bothered to stop and take notice – blogging daily for 60 days? one new photo a week? I think I did them, but I’m not exactly sure.  Do I cross them off anyway?

I will say, some of the things on that list crack me up.  I mean it’s been five years and I STILL haven’t put my wedding photos in an album.  I’m going on three years and I still haven’t put up damn shelves in the bathroom (though I still HAVE them sitting under my desk).  What’s holding me back?

So yeah, not quite sure what to make of this whole 101 things in 1001 days.  Maybe I should just call it quits.  Or maybe I should just know that I won’t finish each list, but I’ll always have something to aspire to.  St. Augustine does warn us…

“You aspire to great things? Begin with little ones.”