Renegade Pretties

While at the Renegade Craft Fair, I collected a bunch of cards from my favorite stores. So as promised, here are most of them with my favorite items from their stores.    NEOCLASSICS, Brandon actually got me something from this store. You'll just have to wait for an outfit post to find out what!   Daub and Designs Yellow Wallpaper Handmade   VOZ   Coldwater Canyon Provisions, I got to try the Watermelon Jelly and it is to DIE for. Seriously. I want it.  1337motif... I've been craving a wooden cutting board. Isn't this one cool?!   Mac Cutting Boards and this one too.    Gnome Enterprises   strawberryluna And best for last, Love Nail Tree. This store is just inspiring. I love their whole concept.
Speaking of stores, next Saturday I will be doing another fashion market. It's going to be indoors and TWO STORIES! One story for vintage dealers (that's me!) and another for designers. I'm so so soooo excited. And I looked up the location and it's in this really cool warehouse building! So cool! 
It's free to the public so if you're in Houston, you should definitely stop by (: Here's the facebook event page: facebook.com/events/270581536381758/
Hope you guys are having a wonderful weekend! It feels so good to be home and catching up. 

Some Music

I'm officially back! Today I'm catching up with work and homework. While I was studying for my American Popular Music class I came across some fun songs. Here are a few that I liked and a few extra that I put just for the fun of it!  This is the extra part. I was studying about "world music" and "alternative" music and somehow thought of these guys! Their name is Die Antwoord and they are a rap group from South Africa. They're pretty out there, you may not like them but for some reason I find them so fascinating!  So this is a music video of one of their songs.... And this is a short movie made by Harmony Korine. LOVE it.  I happened to read one of the comments and thought it was great. Exactly my thoughts:  The first time I saw her I was like "IS SHE EVEN REAL!?" she's so beautifully weird. Even her face is just so wonderful to me. She's like a magical elf from some future galaxy who came here to mindfuck idiots.  -annaisjesus  
P.S. I'm looking to start advertising my store on other blogs. Do you guys have any suggestions of blogs I should look at?? Thanks! 

Mini Gouda Pizzas

When I was home alone a few weekends ago, I had to think of simple food ideas for just one person! I hardly ever make food for just one so at first I was just completely out of ideas. And then I decided to just go to the store and see what they had! I found these little personal pizza crusts and thought they would be perfect just for me! 
I remembered that I had some asparagus left over and grabbed some gouda to go with it (perfect combo). I made a few different versions and thought I'd share! 
So here is my mini pizza. I like to get the pizza crust that's already baked. All you have to do is top it with your favorites and stick it in the over for about 8 minutes.    I loaded it up with gouda cheese (a little too much I might add)... Added the asparagus, and whatever else I could find in my fridge which was goat cheese, some jalapenos, and some shredded parmesan.     Bake for about 8 minutes and done!   For my next one, I started out the same way. A little less gouda though and I decide to cut the asparagus in half lengthwise and down the middle so that it was a bit easier to eat.   Then, I added some slices of a roasted tomato (left over from my tomato puree) as well as some shredded parmesan.     And of course, goat cheeese (I may have a slight obsession with goat cheese).    MMmmmmMMMmm.  These pizzas come in packs of three so for the last one I just made a gouda, margherita pizza. Gouda, tomato, fresh basil, shredded parm, and some italian seasoning. I was so hungry I almost forgot to take a picture of it! So here's half of my margherita pizza!  It's no secret that I love cheese. I actually can't eat pizza anywhere now unless it's at a REALLY good pizza place. No more Dominos or Pappa Johns, they just don't compare to the pizzas I can make myself (and I make them 10x healthier!). And in only 8 minutes baking time, you can't really beat it! This is also a great way to use up those left overs. Whatever I have that'll take good together gets loaded up on top! 

A Few Things: Road Trips and Thoughts

As I write this, I’m on the road to California. I’ve really enjoyed the trip thus far and forgot how much I love road trips. It’s a little harder with a child to care for but nevertheless I am fully enjoying our time on the road.

One great thing about road trips is that it gives you lots of time to think. Quiet time in your head to loom over thoughts and ideas. That’s something I don’t get a lot of. It also gives me time to just do nothing and basically forces me to relax. To just enjoy the beauty of the landscape around you. I think that’s my most favorite part about road trips, the sight-seeing aspect. I just love going to different places and experiencing different cultures. It’s just so amazing to see how different life can be when living in a different place. Every city is different and unique in it’s own way but then again has some similarities. I love it because it gives me a chance to see things I cannot see in my own town such as mountains and hills. I don’t know why, but to me they are so mystifying. Where I live, it is FLAT. But here there are hills with houses on top, mountains that you can see in every direction and I think it is just beautiful. They just make everything so much more interesting! I wish I lived somewhere with mountains…. Or at least hills.

I also love the water. We got to go to the west coast ocean and it was gorgeous. Now, not to complain about our beach but this was the real deal! Our beach has brown sand, brown water, and a musty, fishy smell. This beach had soft white sand, clear blue waters, and a crisp, salty sea smell that was just wonderful. Not to mention, the cool ocean breeze, heaven!

And man, the succulents here grow like weeds! It’s insane, I’ve never seen anything like it. And bougainvillea! I love bougainvillea. I have some at home but here it is everywhere you turn! Also, they don’t have AC here, which would be an awesome thing. And hardly any bugs, a HUGE plus. It’s weird to go outside and not sweat your boobs off or get eaten alive by mosquitoes. 

It kind of feels like a dream out here. LA is so big and overwhelming. Just so much to take in on one visit. And it’s weird having Eliza.

Something I’ve been thinking a lot about is traveling with a child. It’s definitely a risk and outside my comfort zone. I’ve grown pretty confident with taking Eliza out and about in Texas but in an entirely different state, it’s a little different. I’ve found myself being kind of unsure and self-conscious about being a young mom on this trip. Just out of place maybe? I’ve been trying to push it to the back of my mind so as not to upset the trip but it’s definitely come up a few times. There are just so many struggles that come along with traveling with kids and you don’t really realize it until you have one. And then when you travel with younger people that aren’t used to little kids being around, it can just make you stick out even more. Like I’m supposed to be young and be able to do whatever but I have this child and am limited to what I can do. And I always have to think ahead and be prepared. I have an extra being to be responsible for and think about.  So when we are hanging out with child-less friends that are our age, it’s like “Let’s do this, oh wait what about Eliza”.  Not that it’s their fault, but for them, thinking about Eliza is an after-thought. For me, thinking about Eliza is the center of everything we do. For example, when I was with my family last week (my aunt and her kids), it was just the natural thing to think, oh how many car seats are we going to need to get here and what are the kids going to eat/do blah blah blah and all the adults look after each other’s kids and it’s no problem. But here it takes an extra effort to plan out everything involving Eliza and I don’t want to burden anyone to watch Eliza so it’s like all on me (well me and Brandon). And I have to evaluate every activity and decide whether it is Eliza friendly or not. She’s at the age where she’s kind of independent but things like going to a museum are a little difficult (too boring for her!). Our friends are really good with Eliza but also, I sometimes wonder if it’s a bore? Or maybe too much for them at times. I hate being a burden to people and can’t help but to wonder how they feel about it. I mean, they love Eliza, no doubt but kids (especially2-3 year olds) are hard to deal with sometimes.  

Of course, none of this is going to stop us from going on road trips. It’s just a realization I guess and letting out my thoughts.

As Eliza gets older and we (hopefully) have more kids this is just something I’ll have to get used to I suppose. Traveling is something I’ve done my whole life but not until I couldn’t travel anymore(when I had Eliza) had I realized how important it was to me. I’ve become very appreciative and grateful of all the places I’ve been and that we had the opportunity to travel so much as kids. It’s something I really want to give to Eliza (and also Brandon and myself!). And now that we’re semi-on our own, I’d love to try living somewhere else! As I said, was a big factor in our trip to California. It’s so far away and I’ve been feeling kind of scared about it but we really loved California overall. I don’t know, it’s not like we’re going to be moving any time soon (we have to finish school first!). It’s just something to think about. Maybe by the time we graduate, we’ll be ready to make the move. Who knows. For now, I think we’ll just enjoy traveling (: 

California to Arizona: Part 3

The last part of our trip, we stopped in Phoenix, AZ to visit Brandon’s sister & fam. That was really cool, we have only seen her a few times since she moved up there (almost 2 years ago). Before that she lived in the same town as us and we would see her every week! So it was really nice to finally visit her and see her new home. And Eliza played happily with her cousin the whole time, poor thing bawled when it was time to leave.

(thank goodness for sleeping in the car!) some celebrating for her third birthday...  Remember this cute little munchkin from our Las Vegas trip? Brandon is her favorite...    That's Brandon up there.... being a crazy boy.    And again, with the being crazy.... that boy.    And here's me, dressed for the desert! 

After a night in Phoenix, it was a 19 hour drive back home! We lost our 3^rd driver so it was just me and Brandon. It was a little tough but we managed. Not the best drive ever but we were elated to finally be back home.  We got in at around 8 o'clock Wednesday morning and all fell asleep in our bed till about noon. It. Was. Sooo. Nice.

Eliza and I had Wednesday to relax and do laundry. Then on Thursday we packed up and hit the road again for Georgia! This trip has been MUCH more relaxing (I haven’t had to do any driving so far!). I've definitely been catching up on some much needed sleep (and homework too!) We will be visiting some new places as well as some familiar places. Brandon wasn’t able to get off work for this trip and we miss him a lot! But my family has been a huge help in taking care of Eliza. Since I have less to worry about on this road trip (money, driving etc.), it makes it much easier to watch after Eliza. Definitely a little less overwhelming. 
Right now we are in Atlanta and tomorrow we start heading back, stopping in Florida for the night. Can't wait to relax on the beach tomorrow night! And maybe find some cool shells for Brandon! Hope all of you guys are having a wonderful weekend. I can't believe it's August and that summer is almost over!  

California, Part 2

After Renegade, we went to visit Venice Beach! And it was BEAUTIFUL. We all love, love, loooooved it. And then the day after, we visited The Getty which is a museum of sorts. I think that was my favorite part of LA, it was just beautiful. We saw an exhibit on Gustav Klimt (love him! I have some of his art here) and the landscape and architecture was just gorgeous.          Eliza ended up getting her dress completely soaked! Luckily Brandon had just bought a shirt and we threw that on her.     the gang

Visiting California was good, very good. But of course, every trip has some drawbacks. Traveling with a kid is obviously more difficult than not, I’ll expand more on this later.

Also, this trip was important because we have been kind of considering moving here. Although I LOVED lots of things about California, I was a teensy bit disappointed about a few things in LA. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great city and I’m glad my friends are happy there but I’m not quite sure it is the place for me? I just don’t know about the desert-ness. It’s just the complete opposite from where we live. I just really like grass and that is hard to come by in LA. 

I loved the cool weather though. That was a major plus in my book and definitely left an impression. I’m thinking maybe California but a different part? Possibly? Somewhere that’s not a desert? Who knows.

But it’s been a great experience for Eliza. She’s been loving the new places and she even made a new best friend! The people we are staying with have a young dog to which Eliza has grown fond of. It was so cute. Almost makes me want a pet.... almost.