Cute frames

Saw these at Marshall's last weekend:

Think they are SO CUTE and a great price, but maybe a little too "young" for me and Mr. B.

I wish there would have been such fun and affordable items available when I was younger! Or maybe there was but they just weren't on my radar?

Restoration Hardware's Beverly Hills Gallery

Well, I finally checked out Restoration Hardware's new digs on Beverly Blvd.

And.it.did.not.disappoint.

Here are some pictures for you to drool over.

I wanted to buy everything in this store but until I win the lottery, I will have to stick with "Inspired by Restoration Hardware" items.



I got a BUNCH of ideas and hope to turn some into new additions to my home! Here's the main one:

Marion Davies' Guesthouse

Mr. B, T, and I visited the historic and beautiful Marion Davies' Guesthouse.

Even though Mr. B. and I had toured the amazing Heart Castle in San Simeon last year, we didn't know all the romantic (slash adulterous!) history behind the Guesthouse or the former Mansion. We are even more up on the details, both historic and gossip!

Marion Davies

Here is the full story: The Beach House, but the short version is that William Randolph Hearst built a 100 room, 50 bathroom, 30 fireplace Mansion for his long-term mistress, Marion Davies. This Mansion had tennis courts, an awe-inspiring pool (which is no Neptune pool, but still), and a 7 bedroom "guest house" which was rumored to be for staff, but for some reason this tenants of this house remains a mystery. This compound was right on the beach in Santa Monica.

The couple sold the house due to financial troubles and it was turned into a private beach club. Then, an earthquake hit and the Mansion was demolished, but the Guest House was saved. Then a few years ago, the Annenberg Foundation donated money to refurbish the whole property and now it is a very nice and affordable public space in Santa Monica. Which puts The Annenberg Community Beach House at Santa Monica State Beach in a world all its own! 

Pool circa 1930

Pool today in 2011

The Mail Package! Revealed!

So, here it is:

I'm so excited to try out this great Cutting Edge Stencil! 

Mr. B. and I have started on the base coat, but all will be revealed soon!

TOMS, again

Got the shoes in the mail that I had waited and waited for!

On cream background.

BUT, the shoes labeled as "ivory" to my eye were "cream/ivory" instead of the "white/ivory" I was hoping for.

On white background.

But oh so cute!

Oh well, maybe I'll look into some other colors.


Clearly, hasn't been my shoe week.

The Getty

Mr. B. and I checked out a great exhibit at The Getty last weekend, A Revolutionary Project: Cuba from Walker Evans to Now. 

Stevedore © Walker Evans Archive, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

I have a weird and explained fondness for Cuba and its people and love learning more about Cuba's culture. The exhibit also recommended many great books, so I've already been on the LA Library website reserving all the titles!

But, before we perused the photographs, we had brunch at The Restaurant. I had a yummy Crab Cake Benedict,  which which had an english muffin, wild mushrooms, nueske bacon, poached eggs, asparagus, with hollandaise sauce. Mr. B. had Duck Confit “Chilaquiles” which had roasted tomatillo salsa, scrambled eggs, sautéed vegetables, goat cheese.

Both were yummy!

We encourage everyone to try The Restaurant and see the Cuba exhibit because The Getty never disappoints!

Mr. B. overlooking the West L.A. skyline!

Hollywood Pies

Since leaving Chicago in 2008 for life in sunny Los Angeles, we have been so happy with our decision to try a West Coast adventure. The weather, the proximity to the beach and the mountains, the wineries, one could go on and on, except...... Mr. B. and I haven't found a place that could satisfy our Chicago-Style Pizza craving! 


And it hasn't been for lack of trying, we have tasted many a pie here in the land of the stars and none have rang true to our fond memories of oozing cheese and crisp crust. We have even tried our own homemade versions, but without a true pizza oven, its been rough. For my 30th birthday, Mr. B. actually ordered Giordano's and had it sent by overnight airmail, on dry ice. I'm not proud of this, but use it as an example of the desperation that has plagued us (and I'm sure many other transplants)!


And then, like an oasis in the desert, HollywoodPies broke onto the scene. And in true Chicago style, it has a bit of secrecy and to me, this makes it all the more intriguing! 

Here's the dish:

CURBSIDE PICK-UP SUGGESTION: IF USING GPS/NAVIGATION SYSTEM KEY IN 415 WESTMOUNT DR. WEST HOLLYWOOD CA 90048. WHEN AT THAT LOCATION GIVE US A CALL AND WE WILL BRING YOUR PIE RIGHT TO YOUR CAR.

Who could resist this amount of secret-handshake-mob-kissing-on-the-cheek antics? I think they made it even more cloaked-in-the-shadows to appease us Chicagoans!

So, last Friday night Mr. B. and I tried @HollywoodPies, mystery pick-up instructions and all. The pizza was good, definitely the best Chicago-Style we have tried in Los Angeles, but not quite Giordano's. Even so, Mr. B. and I will be becoming regulars at "the spot" for HollywoodPies, so maybe we'll see all you other former-Chicagoans there soon!

These shoes are too good to be true!

Love to go into Payless Shoe Source and pretend like I'm rich because I don't have to look at the price tags. I think that their shoes are great and I have a closet full of cute funky pairs and have no guilt about it! 

Found these adorable heels this last weekend and was dreaming about all the fun outfits I could put together when......

Screeeeeeeech!

60 dollars?! For shoes at Payless?!

Needless to say, I sprinted out of there and am crushed that my dearly beloved has sold out! :(

Epic Burger, The YOB

When a hankering for my all-time favorite burger hit, Mr. B. came through with a suprisingly authentic version of the YOB Burger from Kuma's Corner in Chicago.

The ingredients and price, from Kuma's menu are:
Smoked Gouda, Bacon, Roasted Red Peppers, Roasted Garlic Mayo - $12


But the secret my friends, is the pretzel bun.....YUM!

Mail!

Came home to a special package today!

Here's a hint:

The Chamelon Girls are amazing!

The reveal is coming soon!

Birdcage

Found a cute wire birdcage at Ross:

Again, Restoration Hardware's Vintage Birdcage Chandelier for a mere $2,795.00 is calling my name and wondering how I can do this with it:

Which may be a little too involved, so maybe I'll just do something cute and fun. I saw this cute yellow birdcage on the @csiproject Outdoor Spaces Challenge, like this:

Jen at Tatertots and Jello has a great eye for design and I just love looking at her blog for inspiration! Check her out!


I'll let you know what I decide and show you the results soon!

Restoration Hardware

Saw this amazing two page ad in the L.A. Times on Sunday about Restoration Hardware's "The Gallery Beverly Blvd" and now have been trying not to obsessively look at their website before I see the store in person.

Did you see this ad? Are you going soon? If so, see you there!

Thrift store dress

The thrift stores in LA are not like the eh-what-the-heck-I'll-buy-it-and-give-it-a-shot-because-it-only-costs-2-bucks-anyway thrift stores of the midwest, oh not even close. This dress was a BARGAIN at $8. I'm getting worn out by the prices around these parts, especially since Target clearance is the same price (without the headache of alterations)! Maybe I should make a trip back and load up on thrift store stuff!


Found this dress at a thrift store near my house and thought it had much potential, but now I'm starting to reconsider.

Sorry, couldn't get the picture to rotate!

I thought I could take the long sleeves and transform them into a cute short ruffled sleeve, but after looking into it, it seems like it might be a bit past my sewing-expertise level. I have a friend who is a whiz at sewing out here, maybe I'll see what she thinks....to be continued.

Wine Corks

Mr. B has been collecting wine corks waiting to stumble upon a reason that will justify this collection. Here is a tiny sample of what he's got so far:

There are lots of interesting ideas out there (please help me cite these artists/crafters):




Cork Necklace



Cork Trivet

The Cork, Corkboard.





Cork Wall



But, Mr. B and I saw a really interesting "painting" when we were in Cambria, CA on our Memorial Day convertible road trip, but neither of us can remember the details (maybe too much wine?).





It was NOT as extravagant as this:



Whoa.

Anyone have any "painting" ideas that are more reasonable? Or anyone who lives in and/or visited Cambria, CA and went antiquing recently?

New patio find!

Found a great bucket with a stand at Ross a few weekends back. It had a few dings and dents, but Mr. B and I were sick of having our other drink holder sit on the ground:



And the price reduction reflected the wear-and-tear:

Pretty easy to put together, too!

Ta-da! A fun, new "vintage-y" addition to our patio!

Window treatments, improving!

When we moved into the apartment all the amazing, beautiful floor-to-ceiling windows were tarnished by their ugly coverings. The window coverings are the "sliding blinds" ala college apartments and the landlord refused to take them down. Hmm. Mr. B. and I decided that even if we took them down, where would we put them? Its not like there's a lot of storage in this apartment, especially for giant 6 foot bars and 10 foot blinds. Ugh.

After hours of staring at them, I decided that we could just put curtains in front of the sliders and "pretend" that we couldn't see the blinds. Somehow, Mr. B agreed!

Off to Ikea we went and bought some inexpensive curtain rods and curtains to try out this little experiment.



IRJA curtain rod set $1.99



Bomull pair of curtains $19.99





We ended up zip-tieing the blinds back and were mildly happy. Well at least happier than we were feeling circa 1999 with red plastic cups.



Mildly happy about the dining room



Mildly happy with the living room



THEN!



About 10 months later, Mr. B was examining the slider bars/rails (a better window treatment vocabulary would clearly be beneficial here!) and realized that they snapped out. Genius!

So, we unscrewed all the curtain rods and unsnapped all the slider bars/rails and then screwed the curtain rods into the walls UNDERNEATH the slider bars/rails! The look (to our eyes) is so much cleaner and a little less "noticeable."

You can really see how far out in front the curtain was before!

Not to be outdone by Mr. B's astounding discovery, I decided to use the hemming tape that had come with the curtains (10 months ago, sheesh) and hem the curtains to fit.

Curtains dragging on the floor



Then to put it over the top, I sewed the top loops in half so the blinds show even less!



Obviously not the greatest window treatment of all time, but my fellow apartment dwellers will appreciate the little ways to look more homeowner-ish. I hope?



Thanks for reading!