Happy hump day everyone. We're almost through the week.. I wanted to share my birthday festivities from May.  If you're a avid reader here (thank you!) every year I go out to different tea rooms and celebrate.  This year was a little different since it was my golden birthday.  What is a golden birthday you ask?  It's when your age is the day of your birthday.  So I turned 28 on April 28th :)

For that special occasion I had 3 separate celebrations at 3 different tea rooms.  Birthday tea #1 was at my go-to tea room in Glendora.  I wanted to celebrate with family so I had D and Leanna join me.  It was lovely and low-key just how I wanted the day of my birthday to be.  Prior to tea, I took the day off, went to the hair salon, then nail salon, dressed up and went to tea!

Birthday tea #1 was splendid, D brought me flowers and goodies from William Sonoma that M and I use all the time when prepping dinner.  After tea, I went thrifting a little, then headed to M's family and enjoyed a quiet dinner.  The following day we spent our weekend in Vegas, where I had Golden Birthday Tea #2!

How do you like to celebrate your birthday?

While spending the weekend with my cousins T and Joe we were deciding what to eat for dinner.  Instead of going out to a fancy/hip restaurant in Santa Monica, we decided to sip on wine and cook dinner.  T had an amazing idea of making homemade pasta.  The recipe we used was from a similar William Sonoma cookbook here.  I've never made homemade pasta before so I was pretty excited and intrigued!

We wanted to do it exactly how the book states, but when making the dough and keeping the eggs in the flour was a bit difficult and funny :)  It was easy, but a good amount of labor.  Using T's kitchen aid definitely made me itch for one!  Homemade pasta is something i'd absolutely do again.. Not to mention, the simple yummy salad T put together and she even made her own dressing.  Now seriously, all this is #goals.

What are some goodies do you make in the kitchen?

Now that the weekend is coming upon us we will be enjoying the 100+ degree weather that's approaching us tomorrow until the beginning of next week.  This weekend's plans are to go to the it's lit yard sale stillillvintage is throwing and sip on endless mimosas.  Speaking of mimosas, i'm thinking which champagne to bring.. I always love picking one up at trader joes, or even exploring the selection at bevmo.  One weekend I spent time with my cousins T and Joe in their home in Santa Monica. It was both their belated birthday so I decided to bring a bottle of bubbly and other little treats.


I went with a bottle of Perrier Jouet to gift.  One morning T and I went to the Mar Vista farmers market and found an awesome mix of fruits and juice from middlebar.  It was an amazing mix of bubbly and fruit together. We sipped throughout the day while preparing brunch.  It was the perfect weekend spending time with family.

Cheers to the weekend! Stay cool darlings.

Usually in at the end of May or June, I put together a list of things I want to do during summer.  The list was originally posted on my tumblr, and the list was called: Things to do while Clippers are off season. My list always concluded two things: Palm Springs and San Francisco.  This year is no different.  I always told myself that after traveling Paris, that I would go out of the country each year to a new place.  Last year traveling out of the US was not in the books as I was transitioning and settling on the job I have now, and building a foundation with M.  Now the balls rolling, I'm settled at work and even traveling for work which i'm truly thankful for.  I spoke with M about traveling and we decided that this year will just be San Francisco next month, and Texas to visit his parents for the Holidays.  Here is my travel list beginning next week!


Everyone thinks i'm crazy for going to Palm Springs during the summer.  Yes, the weather is 110+ but I've been coming here since I was 13, it's my second home and I'm all about traditions! I'll be closing summer in Amsterdam and Oslo with my best friend.  We bought our tickets a few weeks ago and we're in the process of finding a place to stay.  Other than traveling, i'll be crafting, taking evening strolls on trails, going to the beach, and making endless cups of iced tea!

Cheers to the summer!
What do you have planned?

I've always been a fan of snail mail.  I've been trying to push myself more and more to do the snail mail challenge and send something out every day for 30 days.  Although, I only send handmade goodies to handful of people (any takers?!)  One day, I hope to achieve the challenge. I have an elementary school friend that moved out of California recently.  We don't see each other, but we always keep in touch via social media.  I thought I would send her over some handmade love..

I will be mailing out a package soon of custom baby shower invitations I did.  After I'm completely done with them i'll be sharing next week!

Sundays are for brunchin!
If you know me well, you know i'm all about the brunch life!  One Sunday morning, M and I walked down from our hotel and took a stroll to Pierside Kitchen + Bar.  This restaurant was my first pick, it was so close to the hotel, and they had bottomless mimosas. We sat right next to the patio and had a lovely view of the palm trees and beach.






I had ordered the Cali Benedict, and M ordered the Short Ribbed Benedict which looked amazing!  We spent a few hours there laughing and sipping on endless champagne.  I say champagne cause they would fill the glass up with bubbly and leave you only an inch or two in your glass for orange juice!  It was the perfect way to start Sunday Morning.  Hopefully this summer you can visit San Clemente and check it out!

View Brunch Menu here.

Not too long ago M and I spent the weekend in San Clemente.  I managed to book us a hotel right across the street from the beach.  We drove in Friday morning and stayed all weekend long.  Mornings were relaxing and spent on the balcony sipping on coffee, or at the beach admiring the sunrise and surfers. Evenings were spent watching the sunset and walking the pier.  We enjoyed it so much we were going to come back here for 4th of July too bad it's all booked!

One place I did want to go was bear coast, but at the time I went, it wasn't opened yet. Mmm possibly another reason to come back!  I highly recommend coming here during the summer.  It's not all crazy and touristy like Santa Monica or Venice.  It's beach vibes are no were close to commercial businesses, it's mostly local.  Oh how I'm daydreaming to be here right now..  Cheers to the blazing weekend!

Happy Friday!

If you noticed in my previous posts, I've been crafting up a lot of white paper flowers lately.  After celebrating my birthday D mentioned to me that she's throwing a graduation party and birthday party all in one and would love me to help out her sister with the party.  Anytime someone asks for my help I always ask these three questions:

What are the two colors you want to work with?
Do you have cake in mind?
How many tables are you going to have?
Along with similar questions.  D's request were simple and her sister Leanna made it all come true with my little help of putting color combinations together, what to place where, and what to have on all the tables.  It was definitely a dream team when putting our thinking caps together!

I had been over the week of the party and helped cut streamers with Leanna.  I managed to use a whole pack of coffee filters, just so I had enough to fill all the tables! The food was easy as D hired a taco man, and also a corn and fruit man.  Not to mention her mother is a cook, so there was plenty of  home-cooked Filipino food and desserts.  I put together the dessert table and Leanna put together the memory table for D's graduation.  I brought over a few birdcages, a plate stand, cake stands, and decorations I used from my birthday tea which all fit perfectly!

It was such a success and everything came out wonderful.  My next project is now baby shower invitations I can't wait EJ! ;)

In honor of #nationalmacaronday a few days ago I wanted to share the lovely box I got from M from when we went to Vegas.  I've always had my eye on this bakery and have only tried 3 of their macarons at a little stand in the hotel, but have never received a box.  One morning M and I were deciding on where to eat for breakfast and we came across the Franois Payard Bakery/Cafe.  I had coffee and we both indulged in a small breakfast.  I knew I had to get something for dessert, he picked out the box and handed it to me after my meal.  It was the sweetest treat.  I love how bright the macarons are and they taste amazing!  Not to mention the packaging totally reminds me of Hermes ;)

If you can't make it out to any of the three locations.  You can always order the macarons online!

A while back, I was shopping around for little decorations for the front console located in my living room.  M came across an antique looking clock with a drawer underneath (good eye!) that we had to get.  Along with shopping for other trinkets, I came across this little saying and knew I had to get this for my little niece Layla.  Buying something for Layla was perfect timing as her birthday was coming up -




I used recycled craft paper, a little scrap paper, along with pink fabric ribbon and fabric washi tape.  Of course all was pink and girly just like Layla!  It's lovely to see how kids grow and the personality they grow into.  Every little girl is a princess, some are sassy, some are quiet, but all are just plain stinkin' cute!!  Watching Layla grow reminds me a little of how I used to be as a baby/toddler.  The gift now lies on top of her white dresser with all her accessories and the little jewelry box I got her from pottery barn kids, when she was a newborn.  Is it too soon to start shopping for Christmas? (yes, I went there!)