if only...

BREAKING NEWS. for fear of falling in love with unattainable items (which is something i do quite often as it turns out), i have never immersed myself in the depths that is david yurman jewelry. tonight, i broke my fast and found out that there is something for every budget.

i say, forget tiffany's (forgive me... i know not what i'm saying right now). forget van cleef & arpels (i'm really digging myself a hole here). forget cartier (and now i'm underground). sidebar: you could never forget harry winston - can't even utter the words - so i won't go there. but it has been done; david yurman has won me over. in fact, i'm mentally saving for a few rings as we speak.



from left to right, up and down: $75, $325, $595, $790, $975, $1400, $2200, $5900

and funny enough, the first 2 are my favorites, with the onyx to die for. however, the wheaton ($2200) is my dream right hand ring, and also one of my favorite dog breeds.

i'm all over the place. i know.

Super Bowl Sunday

While getting ready before heading out to our friends R+A's house to spend SBS, I had what I thought was a really amusing idea. Definitely something different, and maybe something the man would be interested in. It would be a wager on who would win the big game, and the stakes? Valentine's Day. Yep, you read right. Instead of going right for his wallet, I was willing to bet on the Steelers getting the ring (like I really cared) and that would determine whether we celebrate the trite holiday. I win, we do. He wins, we don't. Now, I'm glad this was never officiated because I would have been out a holiday, many of which I get pretty animated about and hate to miss. Feb. 14 included, despite how little I really care for it. But in the end, it turns out that G wouldn't have agreed to the terms anyway. Good sign of a good man. So all in all, I suppose V-Day lives on this year. Can't tell if I'm happy or disappointed... I'm a very backwards woman sometimes.

who's MIA? not me.

back but doubt it is for long. not much has changed except: 1, i no longer work for the people i couldn't stand (long story i'd rather not go into), 2, which means yes, i am newly unemployed, and 3, i hold a greatly renewed interest in fashion. i'm talking eat-sleep-breathe kind of energy (because i have that much free time). will i ever direct my focus and blog on it? honestly? probably not, because it takes a considerable amount of time and i can't seem to focus on this thing for too long anyway.

with that, here is a quick synopsis of my current obsessions:

1
real simple magazine

2
via SOLESTRUCK
foxy wood by jeffrey campbell (as with most JC, it's just a restocking waiting game...)

3 allsaints leathers. their 70% off sale killed me to know that sizes sold out months before, and i will never be able to get my hands on the STANTON...

4 valentine's day crafts. love it/hate it, depends on the day. post more on this later.

5 chinese new year. again, more on this later. happy year of the rabbit! and good riddance to that awful tiger.

6 and last but not least, RUMI NEELY. i'm obviously terribly behind on all things music and fashion via blogs, as my previous job kept me from having time for my old life (spending hours "educating" myself on the topics of my choice...) but as it turns out, this gorgeous fashion icon of her own making is the much more focused, expanded and dreamy version of my own blurred vision. my style has always been all over the place, while slightly refined over the years, but in the back of my mind, i've always had this idea, this image of something more free than the confines of structured and overproduced clothing. literally and figuratively! for the past few years, i've begun to lean more towards loose and flowy silhouettes, even when G vocalizes his neutrality (psych) on it all. she makes me think, WWRD? what would rumi do? lame, maybe. but she is my current inspiration. and where i am at currently in my life, confused and stagnant, i think that's a pretty big deal.

until next time, whenever that time may be,
L

real talk

- HARD summer was great fun, until we were faced with the daunting possibility of walking an hour and a half back to a friend's apt bc no cab driver in the entire city of Los Angeles wanted to drive a bunch of people 5 miles.
- Gary and I celebrated our two-year anniversary! Time flies. Cliche, but true.
- my one-year anniversary with the company I work for was a few days ago... Yikes. But with that also comes a possible glimmer of hope for a change of scenery (and staff).
- of the many goals I have, the only ones I can plausibly accomplish are saving $ and paying down my credit card (singular! How wonderful) while aiming for near-perfect credit... I'm so close!
- we have tried one of the many places we want to go to that have been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (North End Caffe in Manhattan Beach. Pretty good.)
- I am currently trying to narrow down what I want to dip my feet into in terms of an actual career, and I am slowly turning towards the police department. But not as an actual officer.
- my dear friend Heather leaves for London later today for months and months and months and months. Guh.

For the month of August, this looks about right.

tough guys sing savage garden

darling.

a darling friend of mine named heather is leaving for london soon as she is studying abroad for months and months, so we came up with a french-themed surprise party! clever, i know. the employees at party city must have been really confused, as i asked them for berets, dirty bachelorette games (we are naughty people), bon voyage-themed goodies (of which they have none fyi) and happy birthday sparkler candles.

also on the agenda was a laura marling (who is a darling with an incredible voice) show at the el rey (one of my favorite venues with darling chandeliers) after which we spent quality time on the downtown standard rooftop. ahhh, LA. how i strongly dislike your stereotypically douchey male residents.

tomorrow, gary and i finally have time to go to the oc fair and next week is hard summer @ exposition park (my first music festival in two years) + our two-year anniversary! time flies. on the same note, i've started to realize that as i get older, the more i love j.crew... nothing wrong with that!

GUESS WHAT?

not much has changed except for ONE BIG THING: all these years, i thought my parents were married may 7, 1986. turns out, they were married may 7, 1985. which meant that this year was their 25th anniversary but there was no celebration because I HAD NO IDEA. i also had the completely wrong idea of how long the were dating before they got married (9 months) and now have no clue where 3 yrs fits into the picture (which is what i was originally led to believe). 'how could you possibly get the wrong idea?' you ask? because not even my parents remembered their own stats, thus leading me to believe falsities for nearly 23 years.

also, i have become an IKEA building queen. gary and i spent 3.5 hours putting together a new entertainment center for his center of entertainment and i've got to say... it really ties the room together.



tada! we are quite proud.

oh, and the 4th was great. rob + alex had a great big bbq/12 hr food fest at their house where everyone nearly got rolled for lighting fireworks. luckily, her mom used a baby as a ploy to act innocent and got us out of it. god bless america.

clever little giants

Those "giants" being internet corporations such as Nordstrom and/or any other web retailer that try and trick you with free shipping ploys... Because as the darkness is my witness (I tried to hide my dirty habit with the lights off), it gets you every time! When you only want to buy a pair of shoes and hopefully it isn't the full required amount you have to spend before you are allowed the luxury of not having to pay to get your goods shipped to your house, then you realize you have to buy more than you originally were planning!

Ugh. Good thing my mom's birthday is coming up (as is Father's Day, but he never ever wants anything. And I mean, he gets a teensy bit grumpy if you spend money on him...), or I would've never gotten out of the spidery web that is online shopping... Late at night.

We'll see if those precious booties I spent so much time strategizing for will work out. I hope they do but I secretly hope they don't bc even though they are wonderful, they are also out of my budget. Even on a killer slashed $ scale. I have yet to find a pair of Pour La Victoire heels in my size, though, which makes it all so irresistible!

i think...

i may have a shopping "habit." and there's always an urge to browse online late at night, which leads to more spending (which i kind of forget about till later the next day). hmmm...

also, editor's note: what the heck??? i didn't remember writing that last entry post, but then again i do bc it all rings true. guess that's what happens when i browse online too late at night, have had a long day and am exhausted. case and point.

preface: i am grateful to have a job but...

I NEED A REAL JOB!
I AM TIRED OF RETAIL!
I HAVE A DEGREE IN CRIMINOLOGY, LAW & SOCIETY!
SOMEBODY, HELP A GIRL OUT!
WHAT CAN I DO WITH THIS THING?

it's who (or what) you know... right?

i'm torn between staying in this industry (somewhere above the ground floor) because i can be who i am (sassy) without being stuffed into a stuffy little cube but that stuffy little cube could mean financial stability... i have never known what to do, what i can do or what my options are because criminology is such a vast land of opportunity. and i have never been good at deciding when there are too many options. or are there few options? in which case, someone throw a 9-5 at me, and i'll take it. bc working whenever, wherever is getting tiresome, and i would like to be reacquainted with weekends...

i need to have a sit-down with a working professional. tips, pointers; i don't care what you do but i need to know how you came to land the job you have now, or the jobs you have had in the past bc chances are, you have not worked as many retail jobs as i have and i need to find a way out of this cycle! okay, i've had two jobs which is including the one i am at now bc i am far too loyal and get far too comfortable too easily to just break free and jump from place to place. a good quality to have , maybe. not so good experience-wise.

holy crap it is almost the one-year anniversary of my college graduation... i think i might have an anxiety breakdown all over again.