Yellow Daisies

My aunt and uncle in LA had a get well soon basket of yellow daises delivered to my door after having surgery on Wednesday and it was such a treat!

AUTUMN GOODNESS

It's starting to finally feel like autumn and I am LOVING it! The temperatures are starting to fall, the days are getting shorter, and we're finally starting to get a little bit of rain here and there- much needed in California!

SPRING EATING // Butternut squash and Edible Pansies

* When cooking with flowers, make sure flowers are free of pesticides and are intended for cooking
* cover lid of blender with cloth instead of the cap in order to let steam out but still prevent soup from splashing out

Spring is in the air, and I can't think of anything more spring like than eating actual flowers on a bed of bright deep orange butternut squash soup. Recipe adapted from here.

HELLO 2014

I'm a few days late, but here's to a wonderful, happy, full, meaningful, beautiful, rich and creative 2014!

The New Year is always one of my favorite times of the year- a chance to reflect on the year past, and spend a few moments to dream of things to come in the next.  2013 had a lot of milestones and "stuff" happening in it, but I think somewhere in the busyness of it all, I lost myself a bit.  At times it was just easier to dig myself deep into work and study or a really long to do list, and pretend that my negative emotions and insecurities weren't there.  I hope that 2014 will be about taking time to pause and work on some of those things. Making time for relationships, reflection and art; allowing myself to dream, take risks, be vulnerable, face the discomfort of my fears, and explore!

CALIFORNIA POPPIES- // State Flowers, State Birds and San Francisco

Yesterday my friend Sarah took me around San Francisco to look for apartments, and we saw a flower shop with a bundle of poppies for sale, and I was shocked!  shocked!  And on top of that, I also passed by State Bird Provisions, which serves our state bird,the California quail.  When I was a kid, I was always terrified to pick poppies because it was illegal to pick our state flower and thought the police would just somehow know and arrest me.  (As a child I never had a desire to eat a quail, but if I did, I would have assumed that was illegal too)  I looked it up though and it seems like the consensus is just that you can't pick golden poppies that are growing in the wild, but the rest are fair game.

If I eventually get over my fear of picking poppies, this could change my life forever, because I have a serious thing for poppies.  I love how tall and lanky the stems are, and how fluffy happy the tops are.  There's just something about them that doesn't take life over seriously.

Anyway, I really am falling in love with San Francisco! I'm trying to decide if it's worth the insanely high rent prices to live there, but regardless, I hope to visit often and spend a lot of time there!

SAYING HELLO AGAIN

Wow, it's definitely been a while since my last post!  What I've missed the most about blogging is that it makes me remember the small day to day moments that make me happy.

The Super Bowl was last night and the sun is shining in Los Angeles like a warm day in June- it's really starting to hit me that winter might have totally blew right past by me!  Fortunately, I found  these on my camera from several weeks back when it was still freezing and raining,  It reminds me of the days when I was happy as a log spending my days wrapped in a blanket with a cup of coffee and surrounded by as many library books as they'd let me take home.  Hope we still have a few cold weeks left here!

MOMS ARE THE BEST

This year, I made my mom a simple bouquet of flowers for Mother's day (who knew a girl as complicated as me came from a woman who has mastered the art of loving the simple and important things), and headed over to my aunt and uncle's house to have a get together with the rest of our family. 

As  I get older, my appreciation and sense of awe that I have for moms only grows.  Talking to friends who are new mothers  definitely opens my eyes to how much work and love it is to care for children!  I know I'll never fully grasp the countless sleepless nights, blood, sweat and tears my mom undoubtedly shed to raise me and my brothers.  As you can see from this picture, I totally thought I was a princess (it really is so weird, I totally posed like that in every picture at that age).  Let's just say, I wasn't the most compliant kid.  I was always super shy and quiet around other people, but at home, it was a completely different story.  (in other words, nothing's changed)

She was and still is superwoman, and is the glue that keeps our family together.   When we were growing up, she managed to juggle working as a pharmacist, raising three children (all born one year apart!), and bringing us up in a childhood full of possibilities, creativity and imagination.  English is my mother's second language, but she taught me and my brothers how to read before they taught us in school, and both my brothers are now writers.  If there were ever a woman who could make anything work, it is my mom! I am in constant amazement at how dynamic a person she is and how she is constantly evolving, constantly growing and adapting as life has thrown our family its share of curveballs.  She is pretty amazing!

THE FIRST DAY OF WINTER

In LA our "winters" are more like the autumns in other
parts of the country. My favorite part of this time of year, believe it or not
is my morning commute to work- driving past the changing colors of the trees,
snuggling up to the heater, and listening to a really great audio book.

1148 SENECA PLACE// Roses from my mother's garden

I went home last weekend to share one last dinner with my family before my brother Geoff set off to move to New York City.  This past year, my brothers and I returned from different parts of California, as semi-aduts having graduated college set in our opinionated ways and theories on how things should now be done.  It had the potential to be one of the worst ideas our family ever came up with, but it ended up being one of the richest summers of my life. We unpacked our bags and slept in our old bedrooms and twin sized beds, amidst posters and CD's containing dust containing particles dating back to the 1990's. We ate dinners together around our ancient circular breakfast table, and stayed up late talking about books and podcasts and gossiping about what the other sibling said to our neighbor, or who came home suspiciously late the other night. 

I took some photos of my mom's roses because they reminded me of the magnificent garden we used to have in our childhood home (which is now living its second life as a lively Indian bed and breakfast of all things!).  My mom would plant these amazing flowers everywhere along this winding path that circled from the water fountain at side of our house out to the backyard where my dad built us a tree house and a play pin for our dog Penny.  I used to think this was perfectly normal, but I'm realizing more and more each day how much love my parents poured out on us, and how they totally created this magical creative environment for us to play and grow up in.  I definitely have a lot to live up to if I ever have kids. 

Sometimes I wish life would just pause so that everything could just stay the same. But of course that never happens and life moves on.  I am excited for what is to come, but I also thank God for the grace he's showered on my life and my loved ones.

HAPPY 3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

A night spent making invitations,
and a lovely surprise from Taylor at work.

Last week Taylor surprised me on our 3 year anniversary by sending flowers to the office. I don't know what it is about flowers but they make me REALLY happy. They die in a few days, they're super expensive, and are kind of completely unnecessary, but they make me so happy even if I am buying them for someone else.

Anyway, we didn't really end up having much of a celebration this year because we were in such a big rush to finish our wedding invitations by the weekend. Taylor stopped by work after everyone was gone to help out and this is a picture he took of me at the end of the night when I was super grumpy and he forced me to take a picture with the flowers. I thought it was hilarious because that is the exact expression I would have on my face when I was 4 or 5 and my mom would force me to take pictures with things... I can be such a pain in the butt sometimes, haha.

A FRIDGE OF FLOWERS// Tiffany is getting married tomorrow!

Wedding Prep for Tiff's Wedding started going full force this week. Unfortunately I was in so cal and wasn't able to be there during the work week, but I'm glad I got to the Bay area just in time to help with the flower prep!