well welcome weekend

listening to: ingrid michaelson's new album ::: everybody :: 

first time listening/buying it... i feel like i have been missing out.  it's so good.

on jackson's bunk bed while he is passed out

{photo by ryan muirhead}


so i hope everyone has a great weekend.


mine is going to be so crazy busy.  i just got back from the angels game where my whole family attended to see my littlest brother meet the whole team at the dugout to be the ball boy.  it was exciting.  tomorrow we have a fashion show i get to be one of the main directors for so i am excited/already tired about. 


here are some links to keep you busy if you need to just veg and read about something interesting:

need to make something sweet?  these look so good.

have you heard of trevor hall?  my friend ashlee and i went to a concert a few years ago and he was the opener.  our favorite song is called lime tree.  make him famous.

my family went to lake shasta not too long ago.  i could not go; sadly.  my sister is a professional photographer so our family suffers from great photography at each gathering. such a shame....

this new blog (to me) is great. i like the way she designs and thinks.

my close friends from arizona are trying to adopt a baby.  here is their story.  seriously, a quality couple.

oh i love this print from my buddy drew.

i am throwing jackson his fourth birthday party! he will be in arizona for TWO whole weeks; especially on his birthday (sad face) i get him back for a week then he is back in san francisco for another weekend so august is going to be a hard month for me.  i want this birthday to be REALLY special.  i would love input and your creative ideas.  i found some here but would welcome more...

enjoy!

loves
mel

and so i quote...

{image found on ffffound}

"The elephant hath joints, but none for courtesy; his legs are legs for necessity, not for flexure." 

-William Shakespeare  

beards on dragons?

listening to: the avett brothers :: i and love and you ::

so i'm house/petsitting my friend's bearded dragon, little nemos, swimming turtles, more fish, crabs or something and other animals in cages. 

she just had a birthday party before she left so i am in the kitchen mopping the confetti off the wood floors while jackson is in the kid's room trying to find a toy to sleep with.  i hear his little voice ask me, "can i sweep wiff this kitty box mom?"  i told him sure.  i get into the room and notice the cage is white.  i asked him if he poured the white lizard stuff in the cage.  his cheeks turned bright pink.  he said the bearded dragon was hungry. 

so i go to tuck him in... the box started to shake.  he put bearded dragon inside the box!!! ahhhhh! that cricket-eating, scaly, scary, smelly (probably), nasty lizard was hanging inside hello kitty and could have slept next to jackson all night if i didn't catch my sneaky son.

i dropped the nameless dragon back in safely. gave him an extra cricket for all of his trouble.

never a dull day. 

 (i shouldn't have done a post as i have a chemistry test tomorrow but i needed a break)

a little bit of this and that

listening to: kate nash :: mouthwash ::

on friday morning shauna and i decided to drive to san francisco that night.
'ya know, when our night plans were finished, we would just drive there.
so i picked her up and we did just that... starting at something like 11pm.

luckily she stayed up with me and we ended up talking and laughing the whole way there.
we arrived at 5 something a.m.

when we woke up we got some things done, i cut her hair by the pool and then met up with nicole gerulat ---------------------------->
who showed us a few new places around the filmore district.

one place in particular,  la boulange bakery that had the best of everything a bakery can offer.  at least that is what the girls said since i am no longer able to even think about having gluten.  their organic mint tea was pretty good though.


shauna and i walked around for a while in the boutiques, shops and stores.  if you haven't heard of her, she's pretty talented.  she can make and do almost anything.  in the jonathan adler store, we kept liking things and then i would ask her if she could make it or if together we could make it.  99% it was a yes.

{we left the trader joes peanut butter cups in the car which melted into a perfection of happiness. shauna is displaying this idea she made of just spooning it out of the carton. such a mistake turned good}

we drove around haight and ashbury but luckily she has been to the city enough that she doesn't need to be touristed around.  we made some funny music videos... shauna is a fun girl.  we snacked on my gluten-free finds all day.

at night she was completely fine with my idea of seeing inception!  we grabbed dinner to go (sushi and her BBQ salad) oh my goodness was it good.... (the movie)




picture by bree rio and makeup by my friend lindsey martins (reenacting the film's look)


i loved that movie.  i am still thinking about it.  i have too many thoughts about it that i probably shouldn't blog about it.  i want to see it again soon so i can piece more of it together.

the next day we both slept in.  i can't describe in words how happy i was when i woke up.  it's been THAT long since i've slept in.  i felt like a new woman.


we think this parking structure was once a hotel.  the ceiling was legit.

so was this lady...

S: "so if this place is so good, then where is everybody?"
M: "it's like, mid-afternoon"
she loved it.

after having a long day of busy things we did, i picked up jackson to take him home!


we drove back after having a huge dinner at my aunt's house in palo alto and are back now.
so nice to be home together.
so there it was, our weekend.

helmets

listening to:
gary go :: speak ::


my friend shauna showed me this design website that i adore.


we like the top one the most.

hope all is well with everyone!

missing mexico

i think about the kids from el sauzal orphanage often.

i wonder what they ate that day

or what games they played

or if anyone painted the little girls' nails

or if they went to sleep hungry that night

or if they are warm enough when they fell asleep
without heat or screens on their windows... 

or if anyone visited them that day.

i also wonder when i get to go back.

it's now been eight months since i've seen them

and i'm pretty sure they have all grown even just a little.

i wish i was there.

these photos taken by my friend michal ash
when we were there in december 2009 with kaiizen.

let it go

"Sometimes you're flush and sometimes you're bust, and when you're up, it's never as good as it seems, and when you're down, you never think you'll be up again, but life goes on." 

-Blow {from the movie}

little J update.

currently listening to: the kooks

so tired.  can time freeze so i can catch up on everything?

i have not updated this for a while about jack.

thank you all for your sweet comments about jackson.  if i don't reply about the nice things you say, i hope you know i appreciate them and read them.  you guys are so nice to read these posts about him and like jackers.

he and i have been up to a lot lately... 

here's a few to dish out...

- jack will ask me what one color mixed with another will make.

- finally he understands the goodness of pedros tacos in san clemente.

- he will pick a certain number of fingers to lift up and test me to see if i know how many he put up.

- he has new sun kisses on his nose from going to the beach or pool everyday

- he officially loves the ocean and goes far in now he has confidence to swim

- he knows all the words to "kids" from MGMT, a few ting ting songs and still in love with ingrid.

- i caught him dipping his wheat things in his "green goblin" juice tonight.
- he sleeps with a new toy every night.  one night last week he slept with legos so he wouldn't forget to play with them when he woke up.  too funny!

- when i read to him before bed, he starts tracing my face like i do with him.

- he has a rash on him bum from wearing his bathing suit all day and tells me they are bug bites.

- he still wants to wear his red shirts every day.

- at the grocery store the other day, he told me i could get one piece of candy as long as i let him get a new lighting mcqueen.... hmm, bribed much? possibly. 

- still every morning he asks me if he is four yet.

- before bed, he has me measure him.  he hasn't moved much since last night but i keep encouraging him.

- i laugh at his jokes. he likes that. i laugh at his.

- he talks about fishing everyday. 

- he tells me he doesn't want to eat fish though because he loves nemo.

- he loves toy story still be reminds me that cars are his favorite as they are being carried in his barely chubby hands.

- this morning he was talking to my mom.  she calls everyone "honey" as their pet name.  she called jack this name and his responded seriously, "mimi! you can't call me honey because i'm not honey from a bee! you can call me jackson!"

it's crazy how much you can love someone more and more everyday when you think you have hit the maximum.  he just keeps me surprised, in love, happy, humbled, strong and worth every sacrifice.

oh these make me happy

matt pond was super rad.
my friend corey cooper invited me to see him at the detroit bar in costa mesa. his openers were pretty cool.  i think he was a bit frustrated that the sound was off a little but
 shook it off with grace.  a lot of my friends happened to be there so that was unexpected.  this picture is stolen from my friend robin's blog... who we stood next to.




parlor hawk is on tour and fortunately i had the opportunity to go to both shows here in california.

first night was at my favorite venue, hotel cafe.
they were awesome!  the crowd really liked them!

then the next day they played in san diego at lestats.
the band hung out at my house before their show.  they are all such cool guys.
my entire family was there including my grandparents since they live in san diego.

we had such a fun time!
one of my favorite concerts i've been to.




MGMT:
my friend kylee johnson who is a new artist to the scene touring with sugarland soon. ..
invited me to come to the Greek to see MGMT
her friend chris picks music for many different networks on television so we had great seats.
that venue quickly became my favorite.
being outside with the thousands of people made it surreal. old people, moms with their mulleted kids, punk kids, indy kids, couples everywhere.
i wish they played "boogie down" as that is my favorite song, but they played a lot of slow songs.
we had a lot of fun!!!  kylee and i danced anyway.

i'm back!

oceanside photo by sis

sorry for the break.
i do have to admit it felt good to breathe a bit.
i'm not a daily recorder as much as i want to/need to be.

today jackson and i enjoyed most of the day in oceanside
at the harbor.  that place has lots of childhood memories.

i'll update more soon.
hope everyone is great!

wanting + wishing...

sit on a billboard.

how fun does this sound?

go here. i don't know where "here"is but i want to go here.

have a wall in my house that looks like this.

and not get sick over it.

take a train in colorado, along the rockies, sip hot chocolate, play scrabble on the tables, read and relax while its snowing.

i like to read... so this would complete me.

the ladder... ah.

have an all white room with accents of cherry wood.  filled with interesting books.

visit spain and bring a man to get the full barber treatment there.

i hear it's well known there.

go here. i don't even know where here is but i want to go there.

stay in bed all day.  for no other reason at all but because i can.

{here comes the sun again}

listening to: maria taylor + 

lisa mitchell

fourth of july:

it was very nice.  we spent the day at church, then lunch as a family and then headed over to our family friend's house in laguna.  we had a BBQ and then watched the fireworks from the sand.  jackson thought the fireworks were going to get him!  it was a really nice fourth.

one of my favorite holidays.

have you been to the great american park in irvine?

if you have ever seen the big orange balloon off the freeway, it's worth stopping by.

the area is where the old military base was but now an area where people go to see history, planes, firetrucks and the free orange balloon.

it was this park's 15 year anniversary so it was a carnival.

i remember when orange county was trying to vote for this area to be an airport.

that just seems silly... two airports across from each other....

running:
i also started to run more, faster and longer distances.  i got injured a month or two ago.  my arches are too high so when i step, they collapse.  my podiatrist said all the years of dancing effects my running as well but got some handy-dandy inserts so the running high is back.  i ran tonight for 8 miles and wanted to run more but it got too late.  i love this running bug.  my bum may not fit in a lot of my pants anymore but i love that feeling of running on new paths, reaching new goals and gearing up for this marathon.  i have this idea that after this marathon, i can do anything.  it's paying off for sure.  i feel like i am a better mom if i run at least 30 - 40 miles a week.  more energy, more concentration and endurance.

my mom's friends are running the same marathon as me + my friends and they told me about a book they read to help them get through their other marathons.  you run one mile, walk for a minute.  i'm going to try this sometime soon.  i have a path that goes from a beach far down south to my house which is 20 miles.  i will do it next weekend... sounds crazy.

hair:
i just learned how to to the brazillian blowout.  i am waiting for my bottles and am ready to start dishing that service out.  it's pretty amazing.

other than that, i do so many do's that i'm all dooed out by night time. 

i love it though.  

a few of my friends and i went up to pasadena for the IMATS.

it was pretty overwhelming to be around so many makeup artists.  it reminded me of going to a car show without the cars.  people were shoving their products at us, spraying us with self tanner when walking by, perfumes, moisturizer, etc.   not sure if i would go again but it was cool to try it out.


i had the opportunity to be behind the scenes for a photoshoot for a new short shorts company called YIMPS.  it was rad organizing models, hairstylists and makeup artists.