Venice Beach

John and I spent the afternoon exploring all that Venice Beach has to offer. Beach? Check. Densely populated street vendors? Check. Entertaining street performers? Check. Random, crazy people? Check. Possibly the best people watching in California? Double check!! We arrived around noon and strolled down Ocean Front Walk, taking in the sights and smells along the way. It was awesome until I had to use the public restrooms. Yikes. Not good. I will have the vision of the restroom burned in to my memory for quite awhile. Note to self: do not drink coffee while driving to Venice Beach. I'm sure I'll get over it, but I'd like to get a full physical and gynecological exam as soon as possible.
John and I enjoyed lunch, beers, and more people watching at an outdoor cafe at the north end of Ocean Front Walk. There was live music and plenty of dogs for me to go ga-ga over. This little lady was sitting next to us. She was just chillin', taking in the scenery.
Can't read the sign? Let me clear it up for you. It says 'eat shit and die satan'. I'm not sure what was going on in this street vendors booth. The general theme seemed to be peace, love, earth, faith, and poo eating by the underlord. Any way you slice it......awesome.
Check it out! It is C3PO and R2D2. John and I found these super cool Star Wars characters at a shop. There are constructed out of nuts and bolts, and other tiny pieces of metal. They had other characters, but these ones were by far the coolest.
More Venice Beach to follow.....

Venice Beach is like a bakery.....

Your pies are everywhere!! Ladies, I am always thinking of you, and I was able to pick out some yummy pies for you all today. Does pieing via blog count?

This intriguing man was standing on top of a number of milk crates, holding a bow in one hand, and two rubber "magic" snakes in the other hand. The loin cloth is especially for you Kim. I'm not really sure what his schtick was, but whatever he was doing, he wasn't drawing too much of a crowd. John and I gave him a dollar because I took his picture. He's almost nude people, holding a bow and two rubber snakes. He needs the dollar more than I do.

This dude was covered in all things gold, and what you can't see in the picture is the gold stuffed dog lying in front of him. He sort of reminded me of street performers I had seen before in New Orleans. Basically covered in one solid shimmering color, standing incredibly still. Kinda creepy, kinda cool, and totally Gina's pie.

This guy is not your pie. John and I stopped to watch him and some of his friends perform some super cool break-dancing and other tricks. Pretty sweet. I could have watched them all afternoon.

Joose art

I never thought I would see art made out of a 20oz can of Joose. Venice Beach showed me that yes, Joose art does exist. When I saw the Joose airplane, I couldn't help but think of this guy.......

We saw some other alcohol related items, including this t-shirt.......
Stay classy Venice Beach.......

Being crafty......

So there may be pictures of Frank in this post, but I'm not blogging about him! I'm blogging about this super cool new craft trinket I ordered. It is what is called an ATC card holder, made by 7 gypsies. ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards. As you can see from the top picture (from the side of the box), you can do pretty much anything with these cards, they are just waiting to be decorated. I used my favorite subject, Frank, to get started. I used some of my favorite photographs, taken by Kim Hayes, back in the summer of 2007. A couple embellishments, and a circular craft punch later, and I have my first completed card. I like them because they are pretty small in size, so you can complete one super fast. Now I doubt I'll be trading many cards, but I'll be posting some of my future trading card projects. Maybe there will be a trading card made about you?

I heart Dwight Schrute

My favorite character on The Office is Dwight Schrute. He is ridiculous. Most of my favorite lines from the show come out of Dwight's mouth. My favorite of recent episodes actually was said by Pam, but she was talking about something Dwight had said.....

Pam Beesly: There is a master key and a spare key for the office. Dwight has them both. When I asked, "what if you die, Dwight? How will we get into the office?" He said, "if I'm dead, you guys have been dead for weeks."

Dwight Schrute. Crazy. Love it.

Preparing for Atticus......

Gina is like two days away from her due date, and I'm getting so excited about this new little life that is going to be a part of her family. The past week I have been sleeping with my cell phone by the bed, just waiting for that "holy sh!T" text that is surely going to come one of these days. Gina is like my first really great friend to have a child. We have been friends since 7th grade, were pretty much inseparable from grade 8 through 12, and have hung out on a regular basis ever since high school. She is like a sister to me! I can't wait for Atticus to be a part of my life. This whole pregnancy has been quite intriguing to me since I've never been pregnant and I've never been this close to someone who has been pregnant. I've been asking a lot of questions, and getting a lot of interesting responses. Who knew there was a mucous plug, I mean, seriously? I am planning a trip back to Seattle for early June, to meet Atticus, and to do many an Atticus photo shoot. Gina and Demian have started a blog, and I've listed it under their names under links on the right hand side of the page. I'm excited to see her blog get filled up with all things Atticus.

Handbag Heaven.....

As most of you know, I love handbags. I have never counted how many I have, but it is more than I can fit on all my fingers and toes, I'm sure. A few months ago, I had been telling John that I wanted a new white handbag for spring and summer. On his last trip to China, he remembered and got me a white Jimmy Choo bag. Crazy, huh? What a great boyfriend! Anyway, I saw it for the first time when I moved here to California. It is a great size, has a nice tan interior with lots of room. I was a bit skeptical that it wasn't the real deal, just because I've never seen a Jimmy Choo bag in person, and John got a screamin' deal on it, in China no less. The texture of the bag is really nice, and the stitching seems like quality, but the zipper on the inside of the bag seems low budget. I did a little online research, and unfortunately, I don't think that it is the real thing. All the Jimmy Choo bags I saw online have the Jimmy Choo name stamped in the metal closure, not in the leather. Regardless of it being the real deal or a knock-off, I love it!! And I'm sure I will get a lot of use out of it this season.

Well, alrighty then.....

So I have been told by a one Mr. Hayes, that I don't blog enough. Wow. I guess I need to do something about that. Especially while I am still on haitus from employment. There are a ton of people that blog out there, and I definitely have my favorite blogs that I check daily. I have quite a few scrapbooking blogs that I check out multiple times a day! I'm going to lift something I found this morning while I was blog reading. It is a questionnaire type thing. I'm sure most of this information isn't going to be new to the people reading this, but we'll put it in writing......

4 jobs I've had:
delivery girl for a pharmacy
pea pincher
librarian assistant
pharmacist

4 movies I could watch over and over again:
The 'Burbs
Tommy Boy
Dazed and Confused
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy

4 places I've lived:
Marysville, WA
Bellingham, WA
Seattle, WA
Valencia, CA

4 tv shows I watch: (presently)
Dancing with the Stars
American Idol
The Office
30 Rock

4 places I've been:
Hawaii
England
Mexico
New Brunswick, Canada

4 people that email me (regularly):
Mom and Dad
Gina
Paula
Casey and Kim

4 of my favorite foods:
chips and salsa
oranges
sushi
sandwiches (or as Kim likes to call them....samwich)

4 places I'd rather be right now:
Washington (I miss everyone!!)
St. Barts
British Virgin Islands
Mykonos

4 things I look forward to (I actually have 5 things that I look forward to):
Casey and Kim's visit in a couple weeks
Santa Barbara Memorial Day weekend!!!
Going back to Seattle in June
Meeting Atticus
Chris's visit in mid-June

Anyone have any other questions or topics they want me to blog about? Email me or leave me a comment!

Zuma Beach

John and I spent a few hours this afternoon at Zuma Beach in Malibu. We had a lot of fun, it was a great beach! Neither of us had ever been to Zuma Beach, so we pulled over at the northern tip of the beach. I think next time we might try and get a spot a little south of where we were this time. There seemed to be more people watching opportunities at the other end of the beach. I don't know about you, but when I go to the beach, I am all about people watching. I want to see people of all shapes and sizes wearing bathing suits of all shapes and sizes. My dad and I like to joke about getting a picture of someone roller skating at Venice Beach in nothing but a thong bikini or speedo. As far as I am concerned, this blog will be a success as soon as I am able to post said Venice Beach-thong suit-skating photo. There is nothing more "California" to me than near nude roller skating at the beach. Anyway, I'm getting off course here. Back to Zuma Beach.... There were quite a few surfers out which was fun to watch. It was nice and warm, John had no problems falling asleep in the sun:) We brought our cooler and ended up having a nice picnic lunch on the beach. I think we'd like to get an umbrella for shade, and some lounge chairs. After the beach, we drove to the Santa Monica REI. John had a bunch of gift certificates to use. I checked out beach cruiser bikes (that is my wish for my birthday this year, along with world peace, of course). My ideal cruiser would be a bright baby blue, with some white accents, white wall tires, and a white wire basket with a bell.

Today was a great day!

P.S. Last night, John and I spent a great evening with Kari and her boyfriend, Bob. We had an awesome time catching up! Spotted my first A-list celebrity while we were out! Vince Vaughn! We were at a wine bar in the Los Feliz neighborhood, and he and his friend came in to the bar but there were no tables available so they left.

What is that?

It's Frank! He has decided that he needs his own adult sized bed. When my parents came to visit, we had them stay on an air mattress in our dining room area. The last couple days Frank has taken his extensive afternoon nap on the air mattress. He is such a dear, sweet, little man.

Yes, I realize that this blog has taken a turn away from my adventures in California, to being focused on Frank. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the original idea surrounding this blog, I'll turn it around here soon! I'm still fixated on my Frank-fest reunion. Things will slowly return to normal. But for now, my life revolves around the Frizz. Excuse me, I need to find my way onto the roof top, so I can shout my love for Frank from it!