Weekly Ritual

I try to walk down to the beach at least once a week. Being SO CLOSE (15 minutes max) I feel crazy to not take advantage of it.

The other day, I thought I would be fancy and record a video of the path I take to get there. But, I used an app. And the app won't process my clips. So. That's that.

Today I'm Wearing...

My aunt brought home several pieces of jewelry that used to belong to my Grandmother..
I need to photograph it all but I'm waiting for MY NEW CAMERA! that will be here on Friday!
I can hardly contain my excitement. This blog is about to get photobombed.

For now, here is the necklace I'm wearing today:

And all of the colors I chose to compliment it with..

Eggshells: for your face?

I did it. I ground my eggshells into powder Monday night.. it wasn't the easiest task, but I think I came up with something fine enough to work...

Here is what happened.

I started with 16-20 eggshells, I'm not sure how many I had exactly, and let them dry out for a few days before doing anything with them.

In retrospect, I think I would have gone in and removed the little thin liner inside the eggshells and washed them a little more thoroughly. I might even pop them in the oven and let them bake up a bit if I try this again in the future. But, this time, I just rinsed them and let them dry.

Then. I crushed them. With whatever I had on hand. I actually don't remember.

Then time got away from me and I let them sit in that little bag for about a week or so. This may have been a bad idea. And this may have been when it developed a strange.. odor.... it's really not that pleasant.

Next time, I'll do everything at the same time, and make sure everything is dried and aired out before I begin the process.

Next.. I put the shells in my handy dandy magic bullet..

But the result still wasn't fine enough. I don't really think face powder should pulverize your face.. right?

So, I tried my aunt's mortar and pestle..

That helped a little, but it was not at all practical. She mentioned she had an old coffee grinder that she used to grind up spices.. So. I popped everything in there, ground it all up.

After that final process, I poured everything through a sieve (which is where much of the little "liner" bits were separated as well as any remaining grainy pieces) and had a pretty fine powder.

It's still not what you'd find in a store, and when I put it on this morning, a lot of the little grainy bits were visible and fell onto my clothes. I'm not sure how to get it finer than it is.

I will say that it's been about 8 hours and my skin is not shiny.. but I never much paid attention to the longevity of my store bought powder, so that may not be saying much.

The jury is still out. I'm going to experiment with it a little more.. and see how things go :)

Jaden at the Market

This is my boyfriend's nephew, Jaden. He's pretty much the coolest kid ever. We went to the Farmer's Market yesterday and he was fascinated with the camera on my ipod.

He would also stand up, put the ipod to his ear, and walk away from where we were sitting, just chatting away.. mimicking his family I'm sure. They don't have cell reception at their house, and always have to walk outside to find a good signal. It was pretty adorable :)

Pitfire Pizza.. for dessert

I love this place. We went there tonight just to get dessert... a warm chocolate cookie with soft serve icecream, chocolate syrup and nuts on top. Definitely worth sharing. Mmm.

Venice Beach | The Waterfront

I didn't get any pictures of Josh or John. How how how did this happen? We met up with some friends from OREGON this afternoon! They were down for a mini-California vacation and we all met up at The Waterfront in Venice. It's a German biergarten right in the middle of all of the crazy. It was a beautiful day. The pretzels there?..are amazing. And my friends made me laugh :)

I did get sunburned. But that is my own fault. And I don't know what that face means.

Kelsey & Alex :)

New Things

Over the past few months, I've been trying to be more aware of the products I purchase. The quality of them, the impact their production had on the environment, and their chemical properties (ie. is this SAFE for me??)

Slowly, I've been upgrading.. (It can be more expensive, unfortunately.) Sometimes that means buying different products, and sometimes it's meant trying to make my own...

I'm still itching to make a cheek/lip stain from beets (as seen here) and sunscreen (which I can't find at the moment) as well as that face powder from egg shells I mentioned last week..

but yesterday, I needed mascara.

 I ended up at Mother's, because I knew they'd have an eco-friendly collection *wink* and I ended up with Lavera Bio-Organic Long Lash Mascara in black. And, already I give it 5 stars. I still don't know if it's worth the extra cost (this one was $19), but I figure it's the closest thing to my eyes... we'll see.

On another note.. I also bought a Diva Cup. I've read about them off and on for awhile now also.. and they had them at the market (how convenient). SO.. it may be TMI, but I'm going to see how it goes.. wish me luck!

Purging.

I'm trying to simplify my life.

I go through phases where I want to just get rid of everything I have and start from scratch. But then I remember that I have good things... and I don't want to be wasteful or ungrateful. It's a vicious cycle.

So. I'm donating as much as I can stand to live without, for now. Last week, I went through my shoes and my dresser. I'd already gone through my closet (dresses and hanging items) a few months prior. It's amazing how many things that I never wear. I mean never.

They all went into the bag. About 15 pairs of shoes and an entire bag full of tank tops, skirts, costume jewelry, you name it. Already I feel about 20 lbs lighter.

I'm letting go of a little at a time. Trying to see what has value and what doesn't. Visual clutter, I'm realizing, adds to mental clutter and clearing some of it away just feels. so. good.

the Promenade

I love the Promenade. We spend a lot of weekend afternoons walking around, sipping coffee and eating pastries or pretzels, ducking in and out of the bookstore, grabbing lunch at chipotle and scouring the sale racks at H&M.. We realized the last time we went that we're beginning to recognize most of the street performers. Our favorite little girl Sammie Jay (see us dancing to her HERE and HERE) wasn't there this week but she'll always be at the top of our list.

More recently we stumbled across this darling girl, Chelsea Williams. And she's amazing. The songs on her myspace don't seem to be very updated.. in fact, none of the songs I linked you to do her justice, unfortunately. but, every time we see her (or the two times we have) we stop and listen to her set.

I guess you'll have to come hear her for yourself!

Our Friend's Wedding

Sunday night, we went to a wedding reception in Long Beach.. and we had a great time! A lot of people from the wcs community were there, and there was a dance floor, need I say more? The food was delicious, and we couldn't stop eating the desserts.. mmm it was all so good!

A Wedding Dance from Jennifer on Vimeo: The son of the groom performing for us!

Supper, Soccer & Sushi

Well, my first legitimate game? Do my brother's games count? When he was 5? I didn't think so..

Real Madrid played against USA last Saturday night, and my cousins amazingly had two extra tickets and invited us to join them. We had SO MUCH FUN. They stayed in this chic hotel.. I should have taken more pictures, really. We met them there and then went to find an early dinner.. and ended up at Joan's.

After dinner, we meandered a bit around town, hit up the Rack, and then had a bit of time to kill before heading to the stadium.

And then we hit traffic.

And we worried our pretty little heads. And we made some tricky traffic maneuvers. And we found an AMAZING PARKING SPOT on the street, avoided paying for parking, and made it to our seats before the game began.

It was a good game.. 5 goals scored between the two teams. Madrid won :) and the boy was very pleased. I was possibly more entertained by a very drunk man about 30 or so rows below us who found it necessary to sing the hokey pokey at the top of his lungs during the last 30 minutes of the game. But, regardless, I'm happy to report that we all had a really good time..

But the night didn't end there. Afterwards? They took us to get sushi. And not just any sushi. Pretty much the most amazing sushi I've ever had. The kind of sushi that melts in your mouth while exploding with unique flavor combinations at the same time. Ridiculous sushi. I don't know if I'm ever going to be satisfied with any other sushi, kind of sushi.

Mmmm I'm reliving the experience right now.

THANK YOU to my cousins.. without you, this night would not have been possible. We love you and we loved sharing the entire night with you.

SOLVANG

A few weekends ago, the boy and I took a day trip to Solvang, CA.. a little Dutch? village about an hour north of Santa Barbara. We walked around, looked at the crazy tourist shops and admired the pasteries.. but mostly, we were sweltering in the heat and confused about why anyone would purchase anything from any of the stores at all.

But, it was fun to get out of town and see something new :) Cheers to adventures together!