8.30.10 Wedding Anniversary!

Yesterday was Darin & my first year wedding anniversary.. =)
We survived! Yay! lol

We had originally wanted to go away for a short vacation for the weekend but since Darin had to go to LA for work stuff and didnt get home til Friday night, we just decided on doin something low key.
I picked him up from work in SF and then he took me out to dinner at this restarant we both liked along the Embarcadero called Palominos. Yumm...

While Darin was at work the whole day I decided to make us a mini version of our wedding cake (or more so what it should have looked like...

The story about that is well, the venue we had our wedding at had a referred vendor for cake baker and so since we paid for the package that included the wedding cake.. we had to go with them. The woman that ran the shop seemed pretty nice & when we met with her I showed her pictures and she even drew out what are cake was going to look like and then put it in a folder which would be our "file". We all came to an agreement and what seemed like an understanding of what the cake would look like, etc. She even emailed us as we got closer to the wedding about the time she would arrive & how if she had to, she'd decorated while everyone was outside for the ceremony. She even offered that since we werent going to be saving the top tier for our anniversary, that she would make us one when the year came, for free. Neat huh?

Anyways.. wedding day came, and as soon as we walked in to the reception room and were seated at the head table (which happend to be right next to the cake) I saw the cake.. and sadly, it was NOT what we had spoken about, or even what the baker had drawn out for us. The designs were all off, and when I got a closer look, the swirly designs were very sloppy and poorly planned out (if that).
I know.. a cake shouldnt be that big of a deal.. and it really wasnt that Huge of a deal.. just a lil saddening when you have a dream wedding cake that was simple and then seeing something completely different. You only really get one chance at it ya know. Well, what got me was when I decided to email our baker to just give her a heads up on what happened, and I just didnt understand how she seemed to be all on top of everything before the wedding.. and then gives us a blah cake. I wanted to email her as well, just so that this didnt happen to any future couples. Yea.. I never got an email back.. That is until she saw my negative review I gave her on yelp.com . She replied back saying something about how her mind was focusing on some other event or soemthing she had to do, and time slipped away, and blah blah she should have emailed me back. Never once though, did I get an apology.

So when it came to our anniversary, we sure as hell weren't going to be asking for that free anniversary cake, so I decided well, I'm more competant in making my own damn cake.. and I did. =) Go me!

Just so you can see....

This is what our cake was SUPPOSED to look like on our wedding day:

This is the sloppy version from the baker:

Can you see how sloppy the piping is? How unplanned it was and she tried to squeeze some squiggles in there? Also, notice the uneven tiers? =(


And this, is MY mini, round version!:

My husband as he walks into the kitchen to see the suprise I made:

Darin "oohing & aahing"

And finally, a pic of us and our cake for our First year anniversary! =)

<3 <3 <3

Old Cartoons

I had just remembered about an old popeye cartoon I had seen as a kid and really wanted to see it again.. and luckily found it on youtube.

My favorite Popeye episode:

Popeye the Sailor meets Sinbad the Sailor (1936)





I love old timey cartoons. I'm still trying to find this other one I remember seeing.. I remember it was a black & white toon with something about inanimate objects coming to life in like a pantry or kitchen setting and they were all singing some sort of bluesy (maybe) song.. I have no idea what else it had to do with.. and I'll probably never find out what it was =(
Anyways.. Do you have a favorite old cartoon? What was it?

Neat Finds

So I thought I'd do a lil post on some neat things I've recently found through craigslist...

I posted not too long ago about trying to find a chrome & formica table on craigslist & how I had JUST missed a full set by a phone call 2 minutes ahead of me.. well, I finally found one:

Such a score.. and at a really cheap price! It's in great shape, and an actual Virtue Brothers table. The chairs however were not included and are actually a set(from Target) we had received as a wedding present last year. They'll do for now.

Oh and did you spot that lil cart in the background?... yep... our very own Cosco kitchen cart! Another cheap score! =)

I'll have to make a cover for that hideous microwave.

And another neat thing for our kitchen...

An Osterizer blender

$10 bucks! Works good too.

We also might be getting an old 1950s stove.. apparently Darin's grandmother hoards her old appliances in her garage and upon visiting her recently, Darin discovered she still had her old stove in there and asked if we could have it. She said yes, but she's not sure if it's still in good working condition. We'll have to check it out and also see if it'll work with our kitchen. Hopefully!!

Now that we are living in a house.. and have 2 extra rooms, we've decided to make one of the rooms my "hair & makeup" room so that I can take clients in there rather than the kitchen... and guess what I scored...

a Vanity!

I have no idea how old it is.. but I thought it was cute & couldnt pass it up as it was only offered for $30.
 

And to complete my "work station".. a styling chair!

I also scored a pretty big mirror to put up that I had found right before moving from SF. It was just sitting against the stairwell on the sidewalk outside our apartment and I knew I'd be able to use it. So I just picked it up and said you're coming with me! =)

I'll have to find a small lounge sofa to put in the room as it's still kinda empty, and it would be very helpful if clients brought along friends. I'm thinking of finding some neat pictures of old movie starlets to put up on the walls.. something that gives that old hollywood glamour feel to the room.

Oh and here's another thing I scored.. not off of craigslist but from a little antique shop in Niles, Fremont...well, actually my husband found it while rummaging through one of the stores...

We just bought it cuz we liked the looks of it.. but after doin a little research, it happens to be a 1947 Revere Chime electric clock. It works too.. sittin on our mantle for now.

We're also slowly trying to add older piece of furniture to our living room in exchange for the more modern pieces we have.. its a slow process, but it's coming along. We just found a green & gold? couch that I believe could be from the early '60s.. no tears, rips, or stains.. I'll have to post a picture of it after we clean it.. it's a lil dusty right now, and the arm rests show a lil dirt on em. Other than that, after a cleaning, it should be close to new!

Neat finds, huh?

The Cupcake Provacateur apron giveaway

So The Apron Goddesses are hosting a giveaway for a chance to win a hostess apron of your choice off of the Cupcake Provacateur website. Check out their blog for more details.

I personally would pick this one:

The Betty Apron
Pink, Black AND polka dots.. it just screams me!
lol

What's neat too is they give you a couple chances to gain more entries.. check out the Apron Goddesses blog for more info on that too!


Yay for cute aprons!

8.15.10

So today, Darin & I spent a bit of our day browsing through the antique stores in the Niles district of Fremont, Ca. I Loooove browsing through the little shops on Niles blvd., there's always neat things to look at & pine over. Some of the shops there are soo cluterred with stuff, there's no knowing what gems are hidden. I usually find some neat things hidding throughout the shops. Didnt get anything this time.. saw some things I wanted, but not necessarily things I needed. Can't wait til the Niles Antique fair at the end of the month though... I'm hoping I'll run into something I HAVE to have. =)
Unfortuantely, I didnt get any pics of my day out today.. I've always wanted to take a couple photos, but my camera was dead today.

If any of you didnt know, here's a brief history of Niles:

Niles was established in the 1850's and was a junction point of the Southern Pacific Railroad lines from Oakland to San Jose and southern coastal points.Vallejo's Mill was the first flourishing flour mill constructed and completed in this country. It was run by water conducted in a long flume from Alameda Creek. Niles at one time was noted for the location of the California Nursery, the largest nursery in California, with the largest rose plantation in the state.


In 1912, Essanay Studios was at the height of its movie making fame. The studio, owned by Broncho Billy, made famous movies of the time starring Charlie Chaplin, Wallace Beery and Ben Turpin. Many cowboy adventures were filmed through Niles Canyon and along the main streets of Niles.

August 15, 2010

So if any of you knew, this August 15th marked the 65th anniversary for VJ Day (victory over Japan).. and I'm sure many of you are familiar with this photo:

Well.... in honor of the photo and day, I thought I'd share with you the photo my husband & I took & used for our Save-the-date postcards we made for our wedding last year:

I loved our save the dates! lol. We actually had a bunch of people not even notice it was us in the photo. They all thought we had used the original photo & just pasted our wedding date in the corner. lol. I'm very pleased with how it came out. Darin & I actually just took the photo in my parents' garage with a grey background & my shitty lil point & shoot camera and then luckily my friend was able to photoshop us into the orginal photo. yay!

Craigslist likes to shit on me

Ugh, I'm getting very frustrated with craigslist right now. It seems as thought everytime I come upon something great, craigslist shits on me. Or well, more so, my craigslist experiences are shitting on me. =(
I've been scouring craigslist lately for retro/vintage things to decorate our house with. Once we found a super cool '50s long dresser listed for $60 and after having the dresser delivered to us in SF.. we were told the dresser was for sale for $260. We didnt end up buying it. Didnt look too good in person anyways.
Then after we moved into our house I started looking on CL for a king sized bed frame... came across a few.. and then came across something I had been lookin at on the ikea website, listed for like $40 and in great condition.Turns out the poster forgot to mention that there were some cracked pieces and a huge period stain on the matress that came along with it.
Lately I've been trying to look for a formica & chrome kitchen table... I've seen a couple listed, and some at good prices, but never in a color that will go with my kitchen's current color scheme. We've got a black & red kitchen theme going on.. so we'd like to find either a red, black(probably not) or grey/white table. We already have a dinky cheapo chrome/wood '50s-look-to-it table.. but it was purchased at target, and worked fine for our small SF apartment.. but we need something more stable & larger now.
So last night I was looking at the garage sale section of craigslist & came upon an ad for an estate sale going on today & tomorrow.. also noticed a picture of 2 RED chrome & formica kitchen tables.. so I decided to get my ass down there rather than sleeping in. Yea well, estate sale it was not. Junk was piled onto the driveway & it looked as if the couple had just collected things & then had their own lil garage sale.. & looks like they do it often since they had display cases, mannequin hands to display jewelry, & plus pictures on craiglist that were clearly taken on a different day. Anyways, they had some cool dressers.. but nope, not what I was looking for. I saw the chrome & formica tables, & they looked cool.. but waaay out of my budget. $600 for one, and $350 for a dinky foldable one. Not worth it to me. I've seen some listed for as low as $100 and thats about around what I am expecting to pay for one. I'll find it one of these days!
So then I come home... first thing I do at the computer is check for some tables.. and lo & behold what do I see?......
Chrome & formica table .. cracked ice top, grey&white, rectangular kitchen table, WITH 2 additional inserts to make longer AND six chairs... $80.
I just about peed my pants & called the number on the ad.. and damnit, I called a couple minutes too late. The poster said someone was on their way to look at it right then. He told me to call back in half an hr to see if the person bought it, so then I waited. And waited. Half an hour passed by and I called the guy back all excited, and boo, he said the woman was stil there looking at it & he thinks its being sold. It was very unclear, so I had my husband call a couple minutes later, and he too was then told the woman had bought the table.
shit fuck damnit ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!
eight fuckin bucks. That table would have looked perfect in my fucking kitchen. It pretty much looked like this:

but with the extra inserts & 6 matching chairs.
God damnit.
One day......

craigslist please stop doin me wrong. =(

Weekend wedding

So this past Saturday I did some hair & makeup for 2 different weddings. The first was for 3 women that were attending a relatives wedding. I did hair & makeup for one, and hair for the other 2. Unfortunately I only got photos of the one I did hair & makeup on.

Cecilia

The second wedding I had to travel out to Brentwood in the greater east bay area to do hair & makeup on the bride herself. She was having an evening garden wedding so she went for a simple hairstyle along with a rhinestone bow barrette for some bling, with a neutral somewhat smokey eye with a flash of gold.

Lauren

I cant wait to see more photos of her big day. I am also hoping to receive photos from a bride I did the previous weekend since I wasnt able to capture any photos that did any justice to the hair or makeup.

I have so much fun doing weddings.. hopefully there will be more to come!

8.6.10

So this morning I decided to hike Mission Peak in Fremont, Ca.
I've been wanting to tackle this beast for awhile, but have never found any friends who wanted to do it with me. It's been yeaaaars since I last conquered the beast, have tried since then, but only to make it a 1/4 way and then call it quits. This time I found my friend Liz to tackle it alongside me.

Mission peak elevation is about 2100 ft.. and probably around 6.5 miles round trip.

The trail starts off kinda easy, but there are some steep parts here and there, a few benches to sit on throughout but NO shade. As you get closer to the top, the trail is even steeper and rockier. It took us probably about 4 hrs round trip to complete the hike.

Unfortunately I didnt dress too well on this trip.. I thought it was going to be cold, so I wore some yoga pants rather than capri type & a sweater & 2 tanks. Even though we started around 9:30a, within 15 minutes the sweater was off. As we got closer to the top, it was harder to motivate ourselves as there was no breeze at all & staring out into the rest of the mountains made us feel like we were in the desert.
But we did it!

Me at the top

The view

And another of myself with my friend Liz in the background

Unfortunately since I had thought I'd be wearing my sweater most of the time, I didnt bother slathering on some sunblock.. so now I am a lil sunburnt and a whooole lotta tan.

=)

Well, I'm beat and my legs are tired. Gonna relax for the rest of the day. Got some wedding hair to do tomorrow =)

8.3.10

So this past weekend I had a wedding to do some hair for..
I unfortunately dont have any pictures to post as they didnt come out nicely on my camera. =( The lighting was off in the hotel room, & plus, the styles were sooo simple I really dont think they're worth showing off on my part. Perhaps I'll get some photos back from the bride & seeing the whole look put together with dress, jewelry & makeup will make everything look 100x better.
The bride's style came out beautifully even though all she wanted was a down style with curls & one side pinned up. That was easy peasy. She had 2 bridesmaids though that were kinda tough to work with. The bride wanted their hair to be pulled back with curls in a half up half down style to contrast her all down style. One of the bridesmaids had a short A-line bob with horribly placed sewn in extensions that were not even the same texture as her natural hair. (i feel bad saying that, but its the truth) Having the extensions placed every which way with no direction really, made it a lil tough to work with her hair.. first her hair was short, 2nd I had to curl it, 3rd I had to find ways to coax the hair into hiding the woven parts of her extensions & 4th I had to find a way to pin it half way up & away from the face. I was able to manage something though, luckily.
The 2nd bridesmaid had easier hair to work with. Asian hair, which I thought I was going to have a hard time with curling.. but it actually took to a curl very well. I styled her hair all back with volume at the crown, no parting, & pinned a faux rose in the back. Then came the hard part.. her indecisiveness. She said she loved it, left the room to hang out with another bridesmaid & then later came back saying her friend thought it wasnt appropriate for a Bridesmaid.. that it looked too Bride-like & that I should make specific changes to it. "cuz "so&so said..." jeeeez. Ok, so I ended up taking it all down, and just giving less volume to the top & sides. more sleek. Wasnt too hard to fix.. just a lil annoying on how I had put a ton of bobbypins in her hair at her request.. and then had to dig them all out.. and also the change her friend told her to do. So after I fixed the 'do, I asked her to check it out in the mirror & she said she liked it.. but oh wait, she has to go ask her friend.
REALLY?!
anyways.. other than that everything went well.

I later drove out to Roseville, Ca with my husband to attend the poor boys Midnight Mass car show..
Took us about 2.5 hrs to get out there, and unfortunately I found it disappointing. We probably stuck around for 2 hrs and then just headed back home.
The last MM we had gone to was in 2008 and we had a ton of fun there.. which was in Sacramento that time, and at the Cal-Expo center. To me, it looked like there were fewer cars & vendors this time AND the lines for alcohol were MASSIVE!
Also, I felt so overdressed.. I saw many spectators wearing jean shorts, tanks & flipflops. I however, went in a dress with 4" platform heels which were near impossible to walk in among the horribly textured ground full of lumps, grass, dirt and dun dun dun... gravel.
Unfortunately we didnt have much fun this year. I dont think we'll be returning unless we have our own car to showcase someday. It really wasn't worth the drive for us.

We have waaaaay more fun at the Booze, Broads & Hotrods event they have goin on here in the bay area once a year. Definately lookin forward to the next one. =)

The only pic I took at MidnightMass this year:

The hubby & I...