A Gulp of Reality

I'm writing this post at 7am, which means one of two things - I've become terribly lazy or I was a straight-up party animal last night. It was actually neither of the two, but let's just say that two little girls are now sitting pretty on some leftover Chinese food and memories of another bad James Franco movie. Oh, how nice. On that note, I'm reminiscing about my days in Chicago where 8am wake-up calls consisted of fatty three hour breakfasts and bloody Marys. Unless I was that Formula One heiress who just wed some clueless fool for $5- $7 million, those days are gone...and I'm heading back to reality all too soon. 

{the top two are from The Purple Pig, where we sat next to Art Smith, and the latter is Marcus Samuelsson's C-View} 

One Sweet Craving

This past week I had a craving - for pancakes. So I concocted the best of both worlds one night after work, putting together a simple crepe recipe and adding a little of my own twist...some berries. The batter was extremely easy to work with, I think the next time I'll just have to work on my patience (some of them were flipped a little too early). Filled with sugar, chocolate or jam, these are a perfect and simple homemade treat. 

{I started with this recipe, and added some berries, 1 cup of sugar and replaced milk with buttermilk}

love

  
                          

Food + Fashion

Who knew food could be so fashionable? These fashion-forward ladies were spotted at this weekend's food festival - where horse poop and hay were more prominent than the people. So it was surprising to see some fashionistas in the presence of hot sun, food out of trucks and oodles of fried food everywhere. It was inspiration, none the less! 

If you're a foodie...

...I'm a foodie too. This weekend was jam-packed, and after a run we indulged in several food trucks at this week's Food Truck Festival. We noticed the lines for local trucks were almost as long as out-of-towners, but we took our chances with a few City of Angels based drivers - including White Rabbit and Tapa Boy LA - and it totally paid off. 

{top two: Tapa Boy LA; bottom right: Brats Berlin; bottom left: White Rabbit}

oh, hello.

 I realized not too long ago that I had yet to post a picture of my new camera, courtesy of the 'rents. The device is still a little foreign to me, but since I had little time to get myself acclimated to the new shoulder addition I have been extremely grateful for the automatic setting (as had Josh, who takes a few photos for me here and there). I've been experimenting a bit, but I always love the feeling of getting a great shot no matter the situation, lighting, or angle.

Orange Flare

This was the outfit that I wore on the plane trip to Chicago, where immediately after jumping off the plane into an airport taxi into an hour-long drive through Friday night traffic, we hit up Custom House Tavern. Little did I know when planning the evening that the night crawlers of Lolla would inhabit the area once we were finishing up dinner, but it made for interesting eye candy. 

{Anthropologie top, J Brand jeans, Nixon watch, White Apple Threads purse}

Chi-Town

This week I was lucky enough to visit Chicago for a travel story for the mag. I couldn't believe how gorgeous the city was - everywhere I looked there was green accents, smiling faces and amazing restaurants. Being that I'm a Cooking Channel junkie, I recognized practically every place in the center of the city, and even made us go outside the Miracle Mile to try unique gelato from Black Dog Gelato (via an episode from Unique Sweets). I was more active than I usually am during the week, so our long days really wore me out, but we managed to fit everything in that we wanted. Add the ideal weather, and it was one perfect trip. 

BOOM

I'm not quite sure if these are appealing to the eye, or just plain crazy stupid. But they pretty much summarize the jumble that has been going on in my head these last few weeks. I'm not sure if that is a good thing.

This makes me think of that YouTube video that got passed around before YouTube was actually cool, except that it didn't get passed around to me, I actually was force fed the five minute clip during one of my boyfriend's sessions with Tosh.O. Anyway, besides the point, here goes: 

"And BOOM Goes the Dynamite." Enough said. 

sparkle + practical

+

+

=

a fan-tabulous outfit.

 Or, if you'd rather, a semi-appropriate work ensemble that also reminds you to add some sparkle in your life while simultaneously breaking in your new Nine West shoes for Chicago. 

{beads: Anthropologie; tee: Urban Outfitters; watch: Nixon; bracelet: thrifted; shoes: Nine West}