Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving! I love Thanksgiving food and eating leftovers for days.

Excuse all the pictures of San Francisco, but I spent most of the vacation like this:

These pics are from Muir Woods. So beautiful, I could walk there every day!

Here are some of my film pics I took with my old Nikon! I'm planning on printing a bunch of them and hanging them in the bedroom so hopefully some of that peaceful feeling of being in the middle of the woods will be transferred to my apartment!

Also, in regards to questions about what cameras are used for pictures on my blog... I use a Nikon D40 and a Nikon N2000 (and my Diana F+!), and Charles uses a Canon 7D. The top pictures on this post are with his Canon and the bottom half are with my Nikon N2000.

San Francisco (part 2 of many parts...)

Here are a few forgotten pictures of Morro Bay on our drive up to San Francisco. We stayed right across the street from it and got there at night. It was so dark, you couldn't see anything, then in the morning there was this giant rock right in front of us!

We went to the Conservatory of Flowers in the Golden Gate Park. It was nice, but it's not really the season for flowers, so it seemed a little sparse.

The park was huge, it felt like we were walking around forever!

We got back tonight, it's so nice to be home, but I'm so exhausted and I can't believe Thanksgiving is coming up so soon! It always makes me a little sad that I can't spend Thanksgiving with my family since they're in Ohio and I can't afford to fly home for Thanksgiving and Christmas, but it's nice to share the holiday with good friends and be thankful! Do you all have some fun and exciting plans coming up?

Along the coast

Charles and I left LA Friday after work and spent a day and a half driving up the California coast and got to San Francisco last night! It was so much fun, here's what we did on our drive.

First we stopped at Hearst Castle and did the "Experience Tour."

The place was amazing, it was so hard to imagine that someone actually used to live there and people like Charlie Chaplin, Cary Grant, Clark Gable, and Franklin Roosevelt used to hang out there. The statues were probably my favorite part, and the indoor swimming pool, which had the bottom made to look like a starry sky and the ceiling looked like fish in the ocean. It was absolutely breathtaking!

This one was so bizarre...

Next we stopped and saw elephant seals sleeping on the beach.

They were mostly sleeping, but we saw one climbing out of the water and occasionally they would sneeze or throw sand on their backs. It was pretty cute. There were these sea squirrels that lived there and they would just poke their heads out from around a bush or out of a hole just a few feet away from you! It was a little startling.

We stopped a few places in Big Sur to take pictures and hike.

There were lots of beautiful views.

I'm so excited we're finally here, time to explore San Francisco!

Inspiration

Lexie of Little Boat shared her inspiration board and asked me to do the same, and I thought that was such a great idea! I don't really have a board for inspiration, so I'll just share some things that inspire me. I think I'll start with these lovely flowers I got from the production team at work! Flowers are such a sweet, simple way to say thank you to someone and these definitely made my day.

Other recent inspirations...

This awesome music video of Charlotte Gainsbourg (who doesn't love her?!) and Beck...

And this video with Zooey...


Art (click for sources)...

Some lovely photos...

*After posting that Charlotte Gainsbourg video, I came across these pictures and just had to put them up too!

Lovely November Day!

Whew, where does the time go?!

Thanks for all the nice comments on my last post! To answer a few questions, my shoes were from Asos and the hat video is pretty old, I can’t even remember when I made it, but it was fun!

Also, thanks so much for all the tips for San Francisco! I’m so excited, I'm sure we're going to have the most amazing time ever! I don't even know when we'll have time to pack and get the apartment ready for us to be gone. I want everything to be set by Thursday night so we can hit the road after work Friday, but who knows if that will happen.

Lastly, I'm so excited to be able to put up some Blogger Awards! Kelley Anne of Kaleidoscopic Refrains nominated me for the Stylish Blogger Award and Anne of stream-of-consciousness nominated me for the Honest Scrap Award! I'm blushing, you ladies are so sweet!

Some things you might not know (because I didn't tell you yet!)...
1. Charles and I went to the park today and it was so nice out! I wanted to stay there all day.

2. I've been craving the perfect pair of navy tights and I thought I'd found them, but I think these have a weird sheen to them that I'm not crazy about. Kind of reminds me of workout attire.

See? Too shiny.

3. I've lately begun to realize that no matter how badly I think I want something, if I don't get it, I usually forget about it after a week or two. There were definitely a few clothing items I was dying for this summer, but now I think I wouldn't have worn them much anyway, so my new rule: if there's something I really want, I'm going to wait a week and see if I still want it as much.

4. Last Friday we went to see a play by one of my favorite performers, Charlyne Yi. If you didn't see Paper Heart, make sure you watch it! It's super cute. And if you regret it, you can blame me.

5. Even if I leave my apartment for just a couple days, I usually pack at least two bags. I used to try to pack light, but I give up, I pack more stuff than anyone I know! I'm sure our trunk will be full this weekend.

6. My blog has been outed to all the guys at work! Slightly embarrassing, but if you're reading...hi, guys! :P

7. I can't think of ten things about myself!

P.S. Did anyone get to see the meteor shower? I was a little bummed that I missed it, but I'm sure there will be other chances to see them!

Waiting for my vacation to start!

Sourcs: 1, 2

Ahh Sunday morning... A time to relax, watch tv, and, oh yea, go to work. Sometimes I think I spend more weekends working than I do not, but when my boss called me last night and asked if I could come in, I couldn't really say no. But it doesn't really bother me because next weekend there is no way I'm going to be working!

What was going to be a 3 day vacation has now been extended a bit to a 4 1/2 day vacation and I'm soooo excited! When I go on trips I like to have a pretty specific plan of what I want to do, and now I just keep looking up reviews and pictures of all the places we'll be going. We're spending a day and a half driving up the coast, then 3 days in San Francisco.

No matter what's going on this week, I know this trip is going to be occupying my thoughts and I hope the week flies by!

Sunny Morning

Hat from Etsy, shoes from Asos, shirt from Macy's, cardigan from American Apparel

I distinctly remember being at Macy's with my mom and seeing this shirt on the sales rack and begging her to buy it for me. Obviously that was quite some time ago because it's far too short for me now! A fact I will cleverly disguise by buttoning up my cardigan. I love this shirt though. It's pink with little flowers on it and the colors and pattern are just so bright and fun!

Charles and I are in for some hard work tonight. We're planning on staying late to get ahead on some things since we have a friend coming into town on Sunday. On top of that, we finally decided to do something special for our 6 year anniversary and we're taking a trip! We've been trying to go to San Francisco since June and I'm so excited that it's finally happening. It didn't feel real until we booked the hotel room.

Also, as evidence by the picture below, my hair is driving me crazy. I keep going back and forth between wanting to grow my bangs out and wanting to keep them. What do you think? And since I trimmed my hair a little while ago, it feels so much shorter, even though I'm sure no one but me can tell the difference.

Type type type

Boots and belt from Urban Outfitters, leggings from American Apparel, shorts from Forever 21, shirt from Old Navy

The combination of this blouse and these boots is a little too peasant-ish, but they're both so comfortable, once I put them on, I didn't want to change. I bought this shirt when I was still working a job I had to dress "business casual" for and the first morning I wore it, I spilled coffee all over me! Luckily, the stain has faded enough that you can't tell. I don't know why, but this is the softest button down shirt on the planet, I love the way it feels!

Last night I decided to pull out our old typewriter and write a letter to my sister on my vintage stationery. There's something very satisfying about how loud it is to type a letter on a typewriter. Each letter is emphatically pressed into the page. Sadly, when I went to the post office today it was closed, so that was a bummer. But I'm sure she'll love it when I finally get it mailed!

Hope everyone has a great day tomorrow! Only two more days til the weekend!

Bread Pudding

Shoes from Modcloth, blazer from Forever 21

It looks like I'm happily enjoying a little bread pudding and hazelnut coffee on the back porch this morning, but actually I was really cranky and feeling rushed to get to work.

And it looks like a nice, peaceful morning to sit outside and enjoy the weather, but there's construction that's been going on across the street for the last few months and it was annoyingly loud today.

Appearances can be deceiving, huh?

If there was ever a Monday that I've had a case of "the Mondays," today was it. Sunday was so incredibly nice, which I think set today up to be an even bigger bummer. Work was dull...except for the fact that Morgan Freeman came in today for an Amnesty International thing. You'd think it'd be incredibly exciting to have an A-list celebrity walking around the office, but once you see him and realize there is no way you are going to get to actually meet him and he's really just there to get the shoot done and leave, it kind of wasn't all that exciting. Charles is working late tonight and going to a movie, so I came home to an empty apartment and I kind of felt like, ugh, I wish I could have skipped this whole day. BUT I decided the day isn't over yet and I'm going to have a relaxing evening involving pink nail polish, mint hot chocolate, and a few episodes of The Office.

Anyways, I have been craving bread pudding lately and I found this recipe online and decided to try it out. I made a few changes, but it turned out pretty good, so here's the recipe!

Chocolate Croissant Bread Pudding:

Ingredients: butter (for the baking dish), 3 egg yolks, 1/2 cup milk, 1 cup of heavy cream, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, 3 croissants, 4 ounces of bittersweet chocolate

Cut croissants into 1 inch cubes

Break up chocolate

Separate eggs

Mix everything together

Put it in a baking dish and bake at 375 degrees F for 30-40 minutes

Yummy!

Here's the original recipe just in case!

Sunday!

Hope everyone's had a good weekend so far! Yesterday Charles and I were helping a friend out on a shoot about epilepsy, so it's nice to have a day to just stay home and relax. I finally watched "Lying" last night. I was really looking forward to it, there seemed to be so many things about it that I would like...four girls taking a trip to a country house with forests and hills, drinking wine, reading books in tree houses, and playing dress up.

Unfortunately, it wasn't very good. I've learned to appreciate quality and even though I don't always notice the differences between film and video, this just looked terrible. I thought there was potential for some really beautiful images, but it honestly just didn't look very good. I did my own color correction on the images below, which I think helped a lot. (By the way, I've had a couple questions about who takes my pictures and such. Charles and I are the only people who take pictures for my blog and I correct them in Photoshop. I did a post on my favorite photography and photoshop blogs to learn things from here!)

Beyond the image quality, I thought the potential for a story about four girls sort of in the middle of nowhere and one of them being a pathological liar could be really interesting, but it really wasn't. She never really lied about anything that would cause some sort of conflict or twists and turns in the story. It mostly just caused weird looks and asking "Why would you lie about something like that?" I heard the writer/director wrote an outline of the story in two days and they never bothered to write any dialogue beyond that. I think it really shows, the story isn't interesting and neither is the dialogue.