"hopped off the plane at lax with a dream and my cardigan"

We had a crazy awesome time in LA/Pasadena last week surprising my sister for her 25th birthday. We got her sooooo good.

We finally got to see where they live, we had a lot of great food, and we saw as much as we possibly could in the 50ish hours we were there. Here are some of our adventures!

 Um, Hollywood Boulevard is cah-razy. Like straightjacket crazy. I did manage to find one of my faves.

"The Hills"

Pretty Pasadena, where they live.

"Wah-r! Wah-r!"

Parks 'n Rec, anyone?

Posing with a toddler...

Giant Connect Four with Uncle Andrew

Venice Beach!

We had to reenact the serious playgrounders. 

Wore my Venice Beach shirt at Venice!

 People are allowed to graffiti everything at one section.

Jaina digs it.

Venice skate park

Next time I'll get inside to the Rose Bowl Flea Market. All my favorite bloggers shop there.

 That's the Father of the Bride house! 

(Decorated for Halloween, obviously. Notice the huge creepy cat eyes in the windows.)

Unbrushed hair; that was not a battle I wanted to fight.

This poor baby was dragged across the country and back in two and a half days, and she was a trooper! It was worth it to be with family and to actually get to step outside the LA airport for once. Plus, we got a few more sunny days before heading back east for the long, cold winter.

Miss you, Aunt Beka and Uncle Andrew! See you soon!

cozying up the walls and a giveaway

We finally hung stuff up above our couch. Yay! I've had some place fillers there for a while, but I finally assembled enough meaningful things to fill the wall.

The massive saw on top belonged to my Pappap who passed away this summer. He collected lots of old tools, and the inside of his garage was covered with them.

This is one of my parents' peasant paintings that they got while we lived in China. It's a furniture store! Jaina loves it, and she likes it when we look at it together and I tell her about all of the mommies and daddies buying fancy beds.

My homie, Brahms, and Zach's masks from Kenya.

Pretty prints by my sister, Beka. On the left is a Mucha cover, and on the right are the Sneetches she made for Jaina's birthday.

This is an old Parcheesi board I found in my grandma's basement. I love that it says "Home" in the middle.

 It's crazy how much cozier a room is once there's artwork on the walls.

So, in addition to the horribly lit photos of our living room, I wanted to share a giveaway that my real life and blog friend, Holly of Curious Sprinkles, is hosting. She just started a very sweet Etsy shop with all of her  headbands. They're very cute and make awesome gifts. She's giving away one free headband of your choice to a lucky winner!

This is my favorite!

There are four of us co-hosting with her, and the more of us you follow, the more chances you have to win.

AND, Holly is giving any of my readers 20% off at her shop through the end of the month. So click on over to the Curious Sprinkles Etsy shop and do some stocking stuffer shopping! The coupon code is SPRiNKLES1013, and it's good through October 31st.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Co-hosts

  1. Mandi @ All My Happy Endings
2. Melanie @ Now a Queen
3. Darlene @ Tales of a Young Mamma
4. Kara @ Kara's Domestic Life

make it rain

I had the pleasure of throwing a baby shower for my friend, Alaina last week. She and her husband just (and I mean just, like, a week ago) moved into their new house, and were excited to have friends over to see the house and celebrate their soon-to-arrive son, Zaiden. They were also nice enough to leave the blue paint in the dining room for the party, even though they were itching to get rid of it. So considerate. ; )

I made Alaina go out for lunch then head upstairs without peeking, so I had all morning and afternoon to set up our little rain-themed shower. Let's get started with the pictures!

My big, puffy cloud with tinsel rain was definitely the star of the show. 

Thank goodness for craft stores having Christmas stuff out in September.

I finally invested in a craft punch, and cut out a million circles out of magazine pages (you know I love 'em).

(Also, this is one of my wedding tablecloths. Nice, thick, durable fabric, 

but no iron exists that can tame them.)

Meringue "clouds"

Lemon Cream Cheese Cake Pops

Babybel Cheese Umbrellas!

How do you even eat rock candy? Bite it? Lick it? Seems painful. They sure are pretty, though.

Most paper umbrellas look like tropical parasols, so I made my own!

Here's the Martha Stewart tutorial.

Vintage blocks from my grandma's and the chevron runner I made

Most of the food and the signs were in circles to go with all of the cut-outs I made. 

All of the guests signed this cute book I found about a rainy day.

More vintage blocks. They're so pretty.

I found some neat verses about rain.

Gift table (before the gifts)

"Rainbooties"

I also made the cloud onesie and burpcloths on either side. 

Hershey's Kiss "Raindrops" for every one! 

The blue strips that the favors are nestled in were a contribution from my very thoughtful husband. He brought me a box of 10 ft. long blue plastic strips from work. Apparently they're the backs of extremely long stickers used in some part of the window making process. What others would see as trash he saw as decor for his wife's rain party. What. a. guy. 

I hung a bunch of them from the ceiling to make a photo wall, too.

Thanks for letting me indulge my imagination and take over your house, Alaina! Hope you felt loved and appreciated. 

And a HUGE shout out to the lovely Jess Harbold for taking such beautiful photographs! Someday I'll make it big in the party business and I'll have you to thank.

Party Credits

Party Styling: Kara Hallead of Kara's Domestic Life

Photography: Jess Harbold