More Hot Rods...Really?

So as I was getting ready to post this, I realized that since I have started this blog this is at least my 3rd car show post (and we have gone to much more than that). When I stop to think about it, as a couple we go to a LOT of classic car shows! My hubby loves old cars and lucky for him, there are thousands of car shows in Southern California every year. This weekend we headed out to Irwindale for the Mooneyes Car Show.

While I can't tell the difference between a Chevelle and a Ranchero, it is something that we enjoy doing together. The cars are nice to look at, but I also like walking around outside, there is always good food, and I am totally fascinated by the culture of classic cars. Seriously, its like being in a weird time warp. Some of my best people watching hours have been logged at car shows.

Christmas is Coming!

It is amazing how quickly time passes when you are busy. While a lot has been happening I will just fill yall in on the highlights.

Thanksgiving was great. We spent it here in LA with family and friends and I have to say it was the most relaxing Thanksgiving I have had in a long time. Mainly because we decided to eat out this year. We had a lovely turkey dinner at Ruth's Chris. Everything was so delicious, and even though I finished every bite on my plate, they still sent us all home with turkey dinner leftovers. Yum.

This is my favorite time of year. Post Thanksgiving, I got all my Christmas decorations up and had Mase hang the lights. One of my favorite decoration is the advent calendar that I made for last year.

My girlfriend got the idea of a blog and we added our own twist on it. There are little felt ornaments for each day. Here is one of my favorites!

The other thing that has been keeping me busy is my adorable little nephew! He is 3 months old and such a happy little kid. I get to hang out with this cutie a couple days a week and it is so much fun!

Seasons Change

One of the (very few) downsides of living in beautiful southern california is that we don't have really distinct seasons. Growing up on the east coast, one of my most favorite things is when you wake up one morning and know that it is officially fall by the cool, crisp smell in the air. I miss that smell! So in an attempt to give myself a little taste of fall in 85 degree weather, Gus and I took a bike ride over to our local pumpkin patch : )

I picked out as many cute little pumpkins etc, that could fit in the basket of my bike. Let me tell you, it was a work out getting home but totally worth it!

Another one of my favorite fall decorations is this awesome wreath that my mom made for me.

It is October. It is fall, whether or not California wants to admit it. Now I just need to find an apple orchard to go pick some apples and eat cider donuts! Love me some fall!

Best Birthday Ever!!

Let me start out by saying that my husband is a great gift giver. Ever since we were dating he has given me the most sweet and thoughtful gifts. His knew I love flowers and he would always pick a few on his way to my house for a date. So cute. Sorry for the sidetrack, but it was a long winded intro to say that for my birthday this year my hubby gave me a plane ticket to Dallas to visit my best friend. This by itself was the best gift ever, but then our husbands got together and got us each a ticket to the Taylor Swift concert at Cowboys Stadium. I was completely blown away! So this past weekend I got to enjoy my birthday gift!

Cowboys Stadium is amazing and Taylor put on such a fun show! Her voice was beautiful, her wardrobe was to die for, not to mention the fireworks, acrobats and floating balconies. She played for almost 3 hours and I loved every minute of it.

As a side note: I would like to take this opportunity to say that I have a small obsession with Taylor Swift. I think that she is extremely talented. Her songs are so honest and I love that she writes them herself. She can also handle herself when it comes to instruments, I mean that night alone she played the guitar, banjo, piano and ukulele. She is classy and acts her age and it is so refreshing to me to see her succeed and still be genuine and nice. Okay, rant over. : )

Guest Bedroom Makeover

I have been a busy bee! So after finishing my bench, I became inspired to work on the guest bedroom. Up until this point it is just whatever leftovers I had and I just was not feeling it. Too many dark colors and all together just blech.

I have been stalling on redoing this room because I am very indecisive and after browsing websites, design blogs, restoration hardware catalogs etc, I started to feel overwhelmed that I would not be able to ever achieve something like these rooms I was looking at. (Silly I know) Finally I decided that while it is great to get ideas, that what it comes down to is that I just need to choose what I like. My house will not look like an interior designers house because guess what... an interior designer doesn't live there, I do! Once that epiphany happened it was fairly easy to do the bedroom. I found this amazing bed on craigslist and scooped it up. Other than that everything was recycled, or inexpensive items from Ikea. I wanted to go with light colors but not too boring, so its mostly white, with accents of red & blue. Anyways, enough talking...here it is.

This is a fun piece that I pulled from the old tv cabinet we scored and turned out to be the perfect size for a frame for our photo booth pics from the OC County Fair.

And here is my cute little bench I made : )

It is a work in progress, but I am having fun with it!

TV Cabinet Credenza Project

We scored this awesome piece of furniture for free and couldn't pass it up. How awesome is this?

It weighed about a million pounds and took 3 guys to bring it inside. So first things first, I had to dismantle the no longer working electronics.

This was tricky and it took hours of unscrewing and unclipping the intricate system. It was tricky and I had to get some help taking the tv out (that was were the majority of the weight was), but I got it all apart.

I would like to eventually use it under our tv so I put in some shelves to make it more functional. Nothing too fancy, but it is such a great piece I wanted to share!

Latest Obsession

So lately I have been obsessed with reclaimed wood furniture.I just love the look and feel of these pieces, but of course they are outrageously expensive. So I started looking online to get some ideas on if/how I could try a DIY version. I found some really helpful blogs and decided to give it a try. I used a weathered piece of wood that we found when cleaning out our backyard. I sanded it down really well, to avoid any splinters and whatnot. Then sealed it with a few coats of clear with a nice matte finish. It looks white when you you first put it on, but it dries clear.

I ordered the legs online and then had to figure out how to attache them.
I had to add an extra piece of wood to bridge the missing section.Then I measured and attached them. After having serious issues getting the screws to go in without this happening.Frustrated, I called my husband and he told me about a trick he learned from my dad. Rub the screw in a bar of soap.It sounds crazy but I have to say I could not believe what a difference it made. It was so easy, I literally laughed out loud that I sat there struggling for so long. Seriously try it. Dr. Mack knows his business. So this is the final product. Not bad if I do say so myself, and about 1/4 of the price.

Farmer's Market Afternoon

This afternoon I got a special treat. I stopped at CVS to pick up my prescription and it wasn't quite ready yet, so I walked over to the little farmer's market in the parking lot to take a look around.

It is super teeny so I have never really stopped by to check it out. But I have to say I was pretty impressed by how good the selection was.

There were a ton of veggies and fruit, everything from fresh cilantro to organic dragon fruit. I ended up just getting some yummy peaches, but I am excited to get some recipes together that call for fresh veggies. I don't know, maybe try making a little ratatouille : ) anyone have a good recipe?

Discovered by the Germans in 1904, they named it San Diego...

So last weekend the hubby and I went to San Diego. My best friend was in town for her brother's wedding, which they were so sweet to invite us to. It was a beautiful reception and so awesome to see her whole family who I adore!

The only problem is it really makes me miss having her the those babies around all the time! (even when they are not so happy : )

Mase and I decided to make a weekend of it and we did some sight seeing. We started at the to San Diego Automotive Museum which was awesome. Mason has a small obsession with cars so it was fun to see his reaction to some of the items there.

Then we stopped and got some yummy mexican food. I am pretty sure I consumed well over my share of calories in that one meal alone, but it was so good!

We also got to go the Mormon Battalion Museum. It has been completely redone since we were there last and I really enjoyed it. It was informative and entertaining and if you are ever in SD I would recommend going and checking it out!

We walked around old town and just enjoyed spending time together and taking a much needed break from work!

Be Prepared!

Ever since I was a kid, my mom had us pack backpacks with clothes and food for our 72hr kits and we had a basement full of home food storage. As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we have been counseled to keep 3 months worth of food, water and other supplies in case of emergency. Now that we are in a little house, I have room for some food storage which is exciting. At each trip to the grocery store I pick up a few extra things and add it to the stash.

Last month at church we focused on 72 hour emergency preparedness kits, so being the slacker that I am I waited until this last weekend to start working on our 72 hr kits. I have a checklist with all the items I need, from spare clothes and flashlights to ponchos and a pocket knife, and I pulled what we have into a backpack and a duffle bag. While at this point I only have about half of the items on the list, you gotta start somewhere!

Now I know that I am going to get some laughs for these next pics but whatever. We all know I love my dogs and in the spirit of emergency preparedness I decided to get them some backpacks for them.

Gus's is packed with food and Jax's has the water, since he's got the muscles. I took them out for a little walk to test it out and let's just say it will take awhile for them to get used to it.