living on love

wild animal park.

yesterday we ventured out to the wild animal park for a lovely afternoon of watching some amazing creatures, being surrounded by beautiful views, & learning lots of fun little facts about the animals. 

this park is so pretty! i was so impressed with the "decor" of run down safari jeeps covered in forest growth, amazing trees, gorgeous ponds, & then the total opposite... grass, sagebrush, dirt, & rocks. the highlights of the day for me was feeding the ducks & seeing the gorillas. i read an article about this particular troop awhile ago & was fascinated by it. they talked about how the gorillas have "wierd" food habits similar to humans. for example, one of them will peel radishes before eating them & they all take the tops off strawberries before eating them. one of the females has just given birth in june so the article talked alot about the new baby & how the troop deals with a new addition. it was cool to see them after learning so much about them & seeing the adorable little baby was fun. we also happened to be there at snack time, so we saw them all chowing down on carrots & broccoli.

(the first picture is one of the females waiting for the snacks to be thrown down, the second one is of the male walking around with a big carrot in his mouth & the the last picture is the mama & baby... if you look real close you can see the baby eating a carrot.)

(if you look real close above my head you can see a lion.)

we also got see 2 lions doing the deed... not a highlight, but pretty funny. we were waiting in this huge line to go out on a safari tour & the lions came within view so everyone was getting all excited. lots of "ooohs" & "aaahs" & "look at the lions!"  followed by a wierd silence & some slight awkwardness once everyone figured out what they were up to.

it is such a giant park, we only were able to see maybe half of it. ran & i are pretty excited to go back a few more times before our memberships expire.

visitors.

rans parents flew into sunny san diego  yesterday for a little post christmas vacation. after a late lunch we headed to the beach (isnt that the first place you go when you come to california?) to watch the sunset & play fetch with the pup. 

its always so nice to catch up & we have some fun things planned for the next few days... balboa park, old town, & cabrillo national monument (im going to try & spot me a whale!).

new studio. new bedroom. clean house.

thats what we are working on today. we started re-arranging last week & now we are just finishing up the details... hanging up pictures, figuring out the best storage solutions, finding the "perfect" spot for our favorite things to have on display. we also started a really deep clean of the house... washing the blinds in the tub, scrubbing the walls, emptying cabinets to wipe them down. over the summer & fall we had lots of road construction going on around our house so it feels like everything has a nice coating of dust. yuck.

 we are going to take a little break to go treasure hunting at the thrift store... have a wonderful tuesday!  

holiday scenes.

how was your holiday? mine was wonderful & filled all sorts of happiness. as soon as the clock stuck midnight on christmas eve we walked around our neighborhood hanging up the classic "war is over if you want it" christmas poster that john & yoko first hung up 31 years ago. afterwards we warmed up with some hot cocoa & had a cuddle fest on the couch with pets while we watched elf.

christmas morning we had iced coffees & sweet rolls while we opened our stockings. the pup was pretty funny when it came to opening gifts... as soon as she figured out that there was the possibility of treats in the packages she was trying to open all the presents. i was really excited to give ran his gift... some pearl floor toms i had found at the antique store. all week i had them covered up with a sheet & then i had placed boxes on top & around them so the shape was not obvious. i had been so paranoid that a pet would bump them... it would be pretty easy to figure out what they were by the sound. all my nagging & paranoia paid off... he had no clue what they were & was totally suprised to see drums under the sheet. this is what he told me... "i think i love my drums more than you love your cricut & thats sayin' a lot cause you really love your cricut."

after we had sufficiently soaked up enough time around the tree we headed outside to enjoy the amazing day... clear blue skies, 67 degrees... absolutely the best christmas gift i could have asked for (no snow!). ob was bustlin'. surfers, picnics, castle builders, beach combers... everywhere people were just soaking in the sunshine & you could feel the merriment in the air. we walked to the end of the pier, checked out the ob christmas tree, explored the tide pools, played fetch with the pup, collected shells, & then watch the sunset. 

happy christmas.

im so excited for christmas... i have some fun things planned for the day, ran has today & tomorrow off, im busy making some last minute gifts for the 4-legged members of the family, & i just couldnt be happier!

i hope you are all having the merriest of days!

a day together.

since the joint re-opened, ran is working 2 jobs, so we only get a whole day to spend together about once a week. it makes me sad... going from spending everyday together to one a day a week, but its also a little fun. since we only get one full day a week together we try & make them count... doing lots of fun things & then spending all of the next week planning our next day together although it doesnt really matter what we do as long as we are together. 

 

little drummer boy.

i shared this last year & since its my very favorite christmas song i will share it again... little drummer boy performed by pink martini.

enjoy...

7 things. etsy taste test edition.

have you tried the taste test on etsy? i did for the first time tonight & it was really cool... i discovered so many amazing shops. so how it works is you are shown 6 images & you pick the one that best suits your tastes. then 6 more will pop up & you do the same thing... 9 times. then it will show a huge selection of items based on the 9 things you chose. 

these are a few of the things i found tonight via the taste test...

1.

these distressed wooden arrow signs from slippin' southern. love them! this shop has lots of great distressed wood cut outs... check out the letters, type, & symbols section. i think this ran has been wanting a beach-this-way type of sign for our little patio... this maybe part of it.

(image & listing found here.)

2.

this deer silhouette on book paper... totally something i would be into. 

(image & listing found here.)

3.

i love the quote on the front of this hand made journal... words to live by. 

(image & listing found here.)

4.

i am totally blown away by this "topography" paper cut of the great lakes. 

(image & listing found here.)

5.

up-cycled burlap + owl = awesome-ness! & it was made from a coffee sack... perfect.

(image & listing found here.)

6.

well i cant argue with the truth...

(image & listing found here).

7.

the cards in this shop seriously just made me lol (& im all by myself).

 

(image & listing found here.)

so now do you want to try it? here you go... & be sure to share with me some of your great finds!

o' christmas tree.

earlier this week we ventured out to get a christmas tree.  the last time we got a real tree 3 years ago... we went & chopped it down ourselves. this year, not so exciting. we went to our local christmas tree dealer in the grocery store parking lot. the small trees sell out quickly here with all the tiny apartments, so we had two to choose from... both noble firs & for the sake of ease we picked the one that was already nailed into a tree stand & brought it home...

doesnt it look noble? its a little squat-y & off centered, but we think its pretty great & it smells wonderful. as you see, kitten little thinks its pretty great as well. she loves to terrorize the ornaments & then when she gets sleepy from all the ornament stealing, she naps behind it. 

 

back to thrifting.

last week ran & i went thrifting for the time in 8 months... it was awesome! we had talked about going the night before, but our day was getting more & more crammed with things to do for ran art show, but at the last minute we decided to swing by... we deserved a little "fun" after how hard we had been working. score! we found a boogie board ran needed (we were actually on our way to buy a new one), some vintage frames, & a metal file organizer thing. we dropped by again earlier this week & found a pyrex dish that im going to use i my craft show set up, a randomly awesome old painting with lots of thick paint in an equally awesome frame. to be honest, i kinda thought to myself "why in the world am i getting this?" but i just really like it & i wasnt going to argue with myself... im glad i just went with my gut because it looks amazing on my shelf.

& then ran found this anthropology ceramic piece that is so pretty... i love the color of it:

we hadnt been thrifting since the beginning of the year, before we moved, & even then we were just looking because it had to be really cool to justify buying it when we were in the middle of a huge downsize & moving. i think we forgot how much we like it... i bet the people shopping around us get really annoyed because this is what we sound like...

"hey ran look at this cool thing" 

"oh that cool, look at this cool thing i found" 

"oh yeah, i like that. thats cool. oh man... check out this cool thing"

"yeah that is cool"

you get the idea... we find lots of cool things.