A Minute in the Life: 5 Fabulous Things from My (4th of July) Weekend

Hoping you all had a wonderful 4th of July weekend! Time spent with good friends, lots (too much) of good food, 10-15ish episodes of Arrested Development and countless hours of sleep is how I spent my extended weekend. It was beautiful. I also got around to creating my first new card this year-- I know that sounds rather lazy of me considering it's already July, but please know that I spent the first half of this year on my biggest, most ambitious art project yet...designing and making by hand the 150+ wedding invitations for our wedding later this year! More to come on that...for now, please enjoy...

1// Handmade, watercolor "Happy Heart" Birthday Card by Yours Truly

2// Life-sized Jenga on the beach!

3// Dirt & Worms and Nerds Cupcakes-- surprisingly delicious.

4// 'Merica

5// The Charleston Burger from one of my favorite spots in LA, The Charleston

A Minute in the Life: 5 Fabulous Things from My Weekend

You know those weekends where you get to catch up on all the things on your to-do list that you somehow never get to? Welp, I finally was fortunate to have one of those! Did I get to everything on my to-do list like 'buy a shoe rack' or 'sell iPhone' or 'decide on a bridesmaid dress'...no, I didn't. But I did get to some things like organizing my Pinterest Boards and sleeping in 'til noon.

Other cool things/findings/experiments happened this weekend as well, let me share...

1// Maybelline Dream Bouncy Blush in Pink Frosting + Maybelline Super Stay 14-Hour Lipstick in Fuchsia Forever = Simple Summer Look

2// My fiance made these irresistibly hot, gooey and delicious, Cheesy Jalapeño Cornbread Poppers for a friend's Chili Cook-off....so good. Thinking he'd add a little spice, he left in a couple (too many) jalapeño seeds resulting in some party guests searching the kitchen for something to cool their mouths off with. Key finding: Ice Cream will cool off a mouth set on fire by various hot peppers.

3// My yoga teacher shared these words which really resonated with me. I paired his words with a work in progress of mine to create this as a reminder.

4// Have you ever been to Cafe Gratitude? Everything about the Cafe Gratitude here in LA is different than the one in San Francisco, except for the delicious factor. Basically, they took the Cafe Gratitude from SF and LA-ized it. Stopped in here for some dinner on Friday night with some girlfriends and throughly enjoyed the 'I Am Whole': Macrobiotic  bowl with sea vegetables, stewed adzuki beans, raw kale, butternut squash, house-made red cabbage kim chee and sea whip and black sesame seed gomasio with your choice of quinoa or local brown rice, tahini-garlic sauce and teriyaki almonds. You see this big bowl? I ate it all-- without regret. 

5// Brussel Sprouts are said to lower cholesterol, are packed with antioxidants, are full of fiber and loaded with Vitamin C. I had a bag of brussel sprouts from Trader Joe's and made these delightful little bites in no time at all. Cut off the stems and halve the sprouts. Place on a cookie sheet and drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle sea salt, black pepper and any other spices you fancy, bake at 400 for 30 minutes and enjoy!

Did you have a wonderful weekend, too? Make any new discoveries?