Downtown Date

So this weekend my awesome hubby turned a errand downtown into an amazing date. A few months back, while walking through a doorway I caught my engagement band and bent it way out of shape. I mean this thing looked like I threw it down the garbage disposal, I wish I had a picture of the damage. Anyways, so I have been meaning to get downtown to have our jeweler fix it, but we finally got around it on Saturday.

While meeting with our jeweler Mason surprised me with a 3 1/2 year anniversary gift, I was floored. So sweet. We had some time to kill while waiting for my ring to be repaired and cleaned up, so we went for a walk. And our walk ended over at Bottega Louie. Say what?!

They have the most amazing desserts and I have the biggest sweet tooth. If you are ever downtown and love sweets you have to go! I especially like the blueberry tarts and chocolate hazelnut beignets, so yummy!

Such a fun little afternoon date. Delicious desserts and a my engagement band all shiny and straight. It seriously has been probably over a year since I had it cleaned last. Man what a difference it makes, I feel like a newly wed all over again!

Hitting Cars and Getting Cars

So driving Mason all over LA turned out not to be too bad. I felt like I am finally learning my way around LA a little better which is nice, but I also learned that the more you drive, the more likely it is that you will get in an accident. Yes, that is right. While driving Mason home one night from Santa Monica we were rear ended. Mason is okay (thank goodness!) but I have some serious neck pain. I have been seeing a great dr and he is hopeful in a few weeks I should start feeling better. I am over having a perma-headache! We are having an attorney handle all of this mess, but still just another thing to add to our plate. Grr.

Now on to some good news. Drum roll please.....We bought a new car! It is a 2006 Toyota Prius. After months of research, looking and thinking we finally did it. We are so excited! It is a great car and we will save about a billion dollars in gas now that Mase is driving a prius instead of his truck. Which reminds me, anyone interested in buying a Toyota Tacoma?

It's all fun and games until someone crashes and needs 85 stitches to hold their leg together!

So this has been a challenging week in the Wright house. It all started with my husband's trip to Glamis (the sand dunes on the CA AZ border, and Mason's absolute favorite spot to go riding). I got a call from him on Friday afternoon telling me that he cut his leg and needed to go and get it stitched up at the hospital, reassuring me it was no big deal. He then calls later that day to let me know that he is waiting to be taken into the operating room and will have to spend the night in the hospital. I was a mess! He tore a whole in his leg that was so deep that he had to be put under to clean it out and assess the damage. The result: 85 stitches inside and out. I will spare you the gore of the wound before it was all closed up, but needless to say it was pretty gnarly.

I have to be grateful though because considering the location of the slice, no major damage was done, no broken bones, and he should be off crutches and have the stitches out in 2 weeks!

This leads us to the challenge of recovery. Because he is not able to drive, and we need to keep our business running, I have been his personal chauffer to our 8+ jobsites located all over LA. This entails a massive amount of driving around LA, which is stressful in and of itself, but I also have to still stay on top of my office responsibilities, as well as take care of a invalid husband. I am beginning to see the drawbacks of being your own boss. Yeesh. But on the bright side, it is only for a short time and we have awesome employees and for the most part, very understanding clients!

Something I Love

So one thing that I just love is flowers! Weddings, baby showers, whatever it is. If I get to spend a morning walking around the LA Flower Mart, sign me up! So last week we had a little celebration at our church in honor of the birthday of one of the largest women's organizations in the world, The Relief Society, which I am blessed to be a part of. We did a vintage, wildflower feel and my friend snapped a few photos for me of the final product. At the end of the night, we sent home little bunches of the centerpieces with each one of the women who attended. Such a fun event!

Just for fun here are few of my favorites from past events...

Summertime wedding and I absolutely love the flowers she chose!

One of my favorite weddings because I got to be really creative. Serene I adore you, "All I know is I don't want pink!"
This wedding was like a flashback to my own(great minds must think alike), classic red and white roses. So gorgeous.
Fall "bohemian" baby shower. Fall colors are so rich and I got to play with mixing in dried flowers with live which was fun.
This baby shower was all about the purple and while I love lavender I wanted to mix it up. I then fell in love with these beauties: stock, boring name but beautiful flowers.

Missing the beach...

So last weekend we had the chance to stay at a little beach house in Newport. I have to say being so close to the beach made me start to miss living in Venice. But then I had to remember that the cute little beach town of Newport is a million times cleaner and safer than Venice. If there wasn't a bum sleeping in our front doorway or in the bed of Mason's truck it wasn't a normal day in Venice. They are all funny stories to tell now, but living it was not quite as entertaining. It makes me appreciate our quiet little neighborhood here in Long Beach, but man what a view. Newport was way too short of a trip but it was so great to hang out with Jon and Kate. We are seriously so excited you guys are moving to California!

A Hometown Visit to New Haven

So this last week I got to take a trip to the east coast to my hometown of New Haven, CT. My oldest sister lives there with her hubby and their brand new baby boy! I am aunt, yay! I was excited to meet the newest member of our family and it has been way too long since I have been on the east coast. A few highlights of my time there...

My nephew is the sweetest little baby and my sister is a rockstar! The look that he is giving her in this photo pretty much sums him up, he always look very deep in thought.

I also got to see my youngest sister who is living in New Haven. Who was the lucky one who got to shuttle me to and from the airport in 27 degree weather. Love her!
The weather was FREEZING but I did not run into any snow/ice storms which was such a blessing.

I got to eat at some of my favorite restaurants. New Haven has the best pizza ever.

I also learned some yummy new recipes from my sister> We made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting (which we sent to my little brother for his b-day) and nutella banana smores.
We also ventured into New York on a very blustery day. I got to see my good friend from college and meet her adorable daughter. It was so great to catch up! Then we packed up and made the trek to the subway to head into the city, only to find out that the trains were shut down due to a fire in the tunnel. Boo. As we carried the stroller back up the subway stairs we had to dodge the NYFD running down the stairs carrying axes and other large tools, looks like we got out just in time!

Beside our adventure into Queens, we mostly spent our time at my sister's house, which has a great view overlooking the river (if you look closely you can see her cat in the upper left window). I am also in love with her dog who reminds me of the dog from the Little Mermaid.

Awesome week. I miss everyone already. Why does CT have to be so far away?

Funny Dogs and Ghost Cows

So a large part of my life these days is spent walking my two dogs. Jax recently had surgery on his knee and in order to build up his muscle mass and for his knee to properly heal he needs to be walked twice a day for 45 minutes. My dogs are hilarious and I love my daily walks with them. Walking any two dogs can be tricky but two male dogs keeps me on my toes. We pretty much have the routine down, I just have to be careful that when one lifts his leg, the other is not also sniffing the same tree..or this happens.

The other excitement in my week came in the form of a phone call from my sister in law late on Tuesday. She asked me to fill in for her as an assistant to the stylist on a Adidas photo shoot in Camarillo. The location was called the "Scary Dairy" and is an abandoned dairy that is supposedly haunted by ghost cows. While I didn't have any run ins with ghost cows, I did learn that fake snow is the stickiest substance on earth and near impossible to remove from shoes and clothing and that after the big mess that mud can rain can cause, it can also bring some beautiful things.