IFC's Portlandia--"Put a Bird On It!"

If you haven't already seen this...Enjoy!

My Weekly Habits of Health -- Week of January 23rd

 

Blue and White-Washed Mornings

Listening to: "My Moon My Man" by Feist

Hello!

I was spoiled with gorgeous weather this weekend in LA! It was my three-day weekend, and I was completely giddy about getting to sleep in a bit on Friday morning. After some journaling and an americano in the neighborhood Starbucks, I drove up the coast a little ways to Santa Monica to enjoy the ocean and meet up with Michael. We were trying to pick a fun half-way meeting spot and decided on meeting up in Malibu for an afternoon at the Getty Villa--one of my favorite art museums of all. This was my second visit and Michael's first--so we sat on the cafe's patio for hours and just talked and talked. And then when we came upon a pause in our thoughts, we decided it was time to take a look at the actual art. Soaking up the sunshine in the Villa's gardens completely inspired me to buy lemon and verbena lime trees of my very own. I also decided that I most definitely want to buy a little water fountain for my office.

Wedding dress-gorgeous. Hair piece-adorable! Reminds me of cotton candy.

 Do you love magazine clippings as much as I do?

What a sweet and dreamy photo! Love all of the extra light that they captured in the frame.

This photo reminds me of the time I drove down the beautiful Amalfi Coast in Italy. Absolutely love how they stylized this photo with beautiful fashion yet lightened it up with some playful balloons.

Saturday Morning Eye Candy

Who doesn't want to throw a little fun brunch or dinner party on the weekends with a lovely table setting like these?

I love throwing dinner parties and have actually been known to flip through Bridal magazines for new ideas on fun table arrangements and colors. I absolutely love Rebecca Thuss' of color palettes!

I think my next theme will be a seaside buffet--I live so close to the beach now (2-3 miles) that I can't help but want to incorporate more seaside themes into my decor. It's so soothing to look at whitewashed walls, clear hurricane lamps full of seashells and white pebbles, and foamy blue accents.

Weekend Love

I'm going to spend this January weekend:

• enjoying my new chai tea mix
• deep cleaning my bedroom: new sheets, scrubbing the hardwood floors, reorganizing my closet, and sorting my art supplies
• Going to the beach with my best friends: Lauralen and Heidi!
• Planning our girls getaway weekend to Monterey for this spring
• Dressing up and going out to dinner somewhere in the Beach Cities--Manhattan or Hermosa
• Meeting up with Lauren for a Sunday morning brunch and scrapbooking sess up in Sunland. Poor Lauren was sick with the stomach flu! 
• Spending some more time with the Artist's Way--I've fallen behind on my morning pages!

Wishing you all a beautiful and relaxing weekend ahead!

Pure Photography Inspiration for Today

Such lovely photos on Anna's and Melanie's sites: 
Anna Malin: http://heltenkelthosmig.blogspot.com/
Melanie Acevedo: http://www.melanieacevedo.com/

I absolutely loved browsing through their gorgeous portfolios this evening.

There are certain days when I just love my job with so much. Today was one of those days as I was able to climb up on enormous F-18s to take a look at what was causing some of our employees to get injured on the job. Crawling all over fighter jets had me beaming from ear to ear, I just couldn't help it. 

2011

(photo source: unknown)

Here I am again and it feels so good to be back writing here! I will be writing up a storm in 2011!

The Grand Finale to Grad School

After being home for hardly any longer than two weeks, I started the long trip back down to So Cal again. The one perk that broke the trip up for me was picking up my graduation gift to myself in Sacramento- a 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX. Coming back to Loma Linda after a six-month hiatus was quite the whirlwind of catching up with friends and getting ready for all the formalities of graduation. I spent part of the week jumping back on the work circuit as a health consultant out in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica for Health Solutions, Inc again. In the middle of all the chaos surrounding graduation, it was so special to be able to spend some much-needed time with my good friends, Heidi and Lauralen.

Graduation weekend (June 13-15) was packed to the max with a very nice Baccalaureate service at the Loma Linda University Church, the School of Public Health banquet for the handful of my classmates that were able to make it back to the States for graduation exercises, getting to see Lauralen receive her Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy and then finally receiving my Masters in Public Health for Global Health late on Sunday evening. It meant so much to me to have my parents and sister fly in to attend the ceremony and to celebrate with them all weekend.