the nomads.

{hiking in big bear with kiyoe}

that's what patrick and i have been calling ourselves. we've been on the move for about the past 4 months now. crazy! i think though now we've found our spot, and are ready to plant ourselves and begin blossoming.

moving sucks!!!! right?! the worst!!! this evening we are driving to santa barbara to stay with my sister for the night, and then heading to our storage unit to begin packing up our shit into the dreaded uhaul trailer. we're going to get a little buzz on before we pack. we did this last time we moved our crap into storage, and man, we moved EVERYTHING (broke a few things) in about 2 hours. unreal. oh, and by buzz, i mean we will drink about 2 glasses of red wine. at palapas mexican restaurant. with burritos. :) and then we'll drive on out to topanga and move into our new humble sunlit abode.

i can't wait to set up our house and see all the lovely sentimental items that have been locked away for the past month. decorating a home is my favorite!!! so i'm pumped for a fresh beginning and a blank canvas to work on. FUN!

but i am going to miss it here, for sure. pat and i are definitely feeling a bit isolated after 1 month, but it really was the perfect amount of time, and i will hold these memories here so close to my heart. we've found such kindred spirits in our friends, the clines, up here in big bear. when i think about leaving kiyoe, my dear dear friend and running buddy, my eyes leak a little. :(. and the mountain air, the trails, the sunshine, the blue skies- truly, i am smitten. so we will be back!! we know we can always come stay at this sweet cozy cabin another time, when we want to get away from it all. and we will of course keep in touch with these kind generous people, who have so sweetly welcomed us with love into their home. i am so grateful.

but for now, i must finish up my work, clean, pack, and all that good stuff!!

talk soon! xo.

happy birthday to my true love puppy boy!!

i am fully aware that i post too many photos of liam. haha deal with it! i mean, look at him, how cute is he?!

today is liam's 7th birthday!!!! my have the years flown by. i am SO lucky to have found such a sweet and loyal friend in my doggie boy. everyday liam reminds me how to breathe, how to have fun and be silly, how to take care of myself, and how to always seek out the joy in every situation. it's incredible, each morning when liam wakes up and sees me wake up he is smiling, hopping around, panting, and just beyond excited to start a new day. imagine if we all woke up like that!

today i took liam on a run, later i'm taking him swimming at big bear lake, and this evening i'm making him a special dinner with a slice of cake for desert! (i'm going to post a photo of liam blowing out his candles. yeah, should be interesting!).

my angel guy is my very best friend. i am totally in love with: liam's smile, the smell of his paws, the sweet relaxed groans he makes while falling asleep, his snoring while he's awake, how he goes and grabs his big bone and parades around whenever he's excited and proud, the way he runs in quick circles making sharp turns when he's blissful, how he rests his chin on a piece of furniture until pat or i give him the ok to hop up!, how sweetly he cuddles with me every night, the way he tilts his head when i talk to him, and just the overall fresh optimistic perspective liam lends me every single day. liam truly is someone i look up to.

so happy birthday to my sweetest baby liam!! i love you with all my heart!

feeling free.

the mountains up here will do it to you. going into the wild and inhaling deep big breaths of pine and lupin filled air effortlessly resets your mind and heart right back to their natural state of peace and freedom. big bear city has caused me to fall head over heels in love with california. oh, the sunshine state, you have been so good to my soul. 

white, wood, and seafoam.

yeah, we're moving yet again next week to a beautiful little bungalow! unlike our last places, this cozy abode is not furnished, so i've just been dreaming up how i'd like to set up our new sweet spot. i have a really good feeling about this house, and feel so excited to set it all up and make it pretty! decorating interiors for me is right up there with fashion design. sooo much fun. i get obsessed. in a good way ;). (i gave my blog a makeover like i'm imagining our house too!)

i've been imagining lots of white, touches of wood, and bits of seafoam greens. and maybe a hint of golden yellow here and there. very light and airy! pat and i have been talking about getting very DIY.. perhaps building some furniture ourselves... can't be that hard, right?! hehe.

here are some photos i've been digging and drawing inspiration from! (some are pretty fancy, but hey, they're just to inspire!)

it's all so lovely, ain't it?! :)

when you feel a little off.


today i woke up not feeling 100% awesome. little sore throat, nauseous vibrations. but not bad enough to lay in bed all day or anything like that.

my latest morning routine has been drinking apple cider vinegar, fresh squeezed grapefruit juice (or lemon juice), with warm water. today, i went for the usual, and pretty much gagged that stuff down. so i thought hmmm.. that's not good! i got on my yoga mat and felt so tired and weird. i did a little yoga, then met up with kiyoe for our morning run. you know when you're not sure if the exercise will help or hurt? i decided it would help. and... it did! the fresh mountain air, the joyful and easy conversation with my friend, yes- it surely helped! and sweet kiyoe brought over some vitamins for me- acai, bee pollen, vitamin C, some antioxidant green tea- so now i'm really making a full recovery. and it helps i'm typing this in bed with liam ;) .

sometimes all you need is an extra little push, some fresh air and sunshine, a friend, and some doggie cuddles and you are back to 100%. yay. :) !

 in love with this photo of my friend noelle <3 it makes me feel better too!

a few quick updates.

hi! how are you?

this weekend was shitty/fantastic. hehe. patrick, liam, and i had plans on saturday to drive to topanga canyon and look at an apartment! but our car had some problems so we had to get towed to redlands, and pretty much spent the day waiting for our brakes to get fixed.

i laid in a parking lot most of the day gazing into this tree. pretty, isn't it?

we took waaay too much pleasure from putting sunglasses on liam. that helped pass the time.

the drive from big bear to redlands though is pretty freakin gorgeous. you gotta be careful not to drive off the mountain taking in the scenery! our saturday was made better when we found a jerky shop that is over 100 years old at the bottom of bear mountain. best jerky i've ever had!

in other news, i can no longer drive on the highway. especially in LA. i sweat all over, puddles coming out of my hands. ergh. what has happened to me? i had to pull over and have patrick drive. pat thinks i need to face my fears and keep driving, but it doesn't seem to get any better the more i do it. i just get so tense surrounded by cars going 70 miles an hour. it almost seems surreal... oh well. what can i do?

so we attempted to head to topanga canyon again sunday, and it was much more successful! topanga is so beautiful and intimate and home like. it's just outside of santa monica; and loaded with artists, musicians, yogis, cool people. i walked into cafe mimosa and asked around where to look for rentals and met a few people already. everyone was so nice and welcoming. i feel like i could love it here.

we took a lovely hike in the boiling sun. but it was really joyous. can dogs get heat stroke!? haha we turned back 'cause liam seemed sooo hot!

the little bungalow apartment we looked at was precious... and guess what?! 

we're movin' in! we're moving to topanga canyon next week! can you believe it?!

so we're feeling good. and enjoying our beautiful time left here in big bear.

now i'm off to go dye some clothes. life is awesome!

oh yeah, a butterfly landed on patrick in topanga! i think he's gonna be loved here :) .

a perfect circle.

honestly, there is nothing as satisfying as working hard at something you love and believe in. no, things aren't perfect and sometimes i just don't "feel" like it... but it is ALWAYS worth the gratification. it's definitely not instant, but once i'm in the swing of creating beautiful things for beautiful people, a gradual and peaceful content-ness swallows me up. and i am whole, doing what i trust will take me to magical places in my one sweet lifetime. i am SO lucky to create, to share my passion, and have people ACTUALLY like what i make too! and then to have my creations inspire others to create, so that they can inspire me once more. it's totally full circle, and that right there is just perfect.