A Walking Tour of HP

Yesterday was as good as any day to finally drag my butt to the post office to mail the book of photos I put together for my Grandmother Elizabeth in Michigan. I decided since it was a lovely day and God knows I need the exercise to walk to the PO. At a mere 7 blocks, it would seem like a piece of cake. Not-at-all! Highland Park is an urban jungle, the beginning of our journey was met to the sounds of vicious barking dogs and heavy traffic from kids getting picked up from school *not very courteous to a Mommy with a stroller *

My little hipster bebe *sans Van because she's keen on eating them*

I would LOVE Aimee to get a Vespa!

Hipstermobile

This coffee shop saves York Ave and Highland Park. It's really cute and charming!

Coffee is hipsters nectar, the Oxy College students come in droves on their bikes, with their skinny jeans, ratty converse and Mac laptops

This is a rare cute vintage clothing store, Aimee and I are going to check it out one of these days

This is a decent bar, The York, it's packed Thursday - Saturday

Here's where I begin my rant, this bakery has great potential but it's so uncute!! Why not paint, get rid of the awful dated windows and renovate it into a sweet bakery?

I popped in but quickly retreated, the shop is filthy, no design and no fresh croissants *BOO!*

This is a treat, a Glass shop opened over the holidays. I hope it stays open by Spring because it's a cool looking spot

This is a surprisingly cute dress shop

Unfortunately, the entire street is scattered with tacky party stores and pinatas galore *how many different pinatas stores does one need?*

This place is the pet shop equivalent of the Bates Motel *CREEPY* I made the mistake, when we first moved in, of going in there looking for dog food for Maxwell when I found myself in a PIGEON shop. Who the hell buys pigeons?? That is all they sell, seriously thousands of caged pigeons and it appeared that the owner never has cleaned the cages. It was the epitome of GROSS!

Once we got to the Post Office a seemingly nice older lady *a Memaw* struck up a waiting in line conversation *partly with me, mostly with Liv* I have no idea how to respond when it comes to the inane chitchat. I always half laugh and mumble thanks,...it's a girl...and she's 7 months. Then I start texting, looking for something in my bag or pretend to seem too busy. I am such a mean girl, it's hard for me to make small talk with strangers. I want to be like get your nosey ass out of my face, I do not give a fuck that you think they should open more lines! How does one properly respond to the statement "Who is this old lady talking to me?" directed towards Olivia yet staring at me with a crazy person smile...ummm, I don't know? Awkward!

Doesn't this house scream charm?!

During my walk home, I was greeted by a rooster crowing at 4:30 in the afternoon. Only in Mexi...Highland Park!! So this is it, this is the eyesore, needs-to-be-condemned-by-the-city, crapshack that I live adjacent to. Please note the lovely tarp patio where the scum lives. Yep, they live outdoors, they aren't allowed in the house *like indoors is any better* I am so terrified we will get lame ass neighbors moving next door *I spied a fatso pickup truck-driving dirtbag checking out the place on Thursday*

Last night was super fun. We picked up my Mommy and went to dinner at a Creole restuarant Harold & Belles.

 HOOLY COW soooo yummy in my tummy!

I ordered the Seafood jambalaya

Mommy had the Shrimp and crawfish Etouffe

Antz had the gumbo *and although he liked it he said mine was better, YAY!*

It was pretty pricey but well worth it, I can't wait to go to N'orleans and eat authentic cajon cuisine!

This morning we went to the flower mart *after I circled through downtown trying to find it*. I love that place, it always reminds me of the Friday before my wedding when we bought $500 worth of flowers *heavenly* We got some really lovely flowers for $20 bucks and I now have my eye on these potted branches for the living room.

We got hydrangas, antique creamy roses, spray yellow roses and randulums *I know I totes spelled that wrong*

Antz wasn't liking my randulums but I thought they would look sweet in Liv's milk vase. They reminded me of a cheaper *$2 a bunch* version of peonies. Antz put together the flowers *he's the florist in this family*

I must hurry, we are going to play The Accomplice today and I am super excited about it!!

Mix Tape Friday Vol. 8

New Year, New music...sounds lovely to me!

I found this amazing band on my fave show Yo Gabs during the Share episode. They are super cute and have made it to my Awesomely Happy playlist, quite the distinct honor! They remind me very much of Deerhoof with a dash of Freezepop.

I think Yuko Araki "Migu" *the girl drummer is super adorable.

"Count Five or Six" Cornelius



My next band is seriousnessly rad. They sound European but they are from the South *Say whaaa?* totally rocking my world.


"Tim, I Wish you were Born a Girl" Of Montreal

I have been playing this band too much *Antz can't take them anymore* but I think they are brilliant. Michel Gondry *frequent Björk collaborator* directed this genuis video. I wish they would put out a new album soon, I've worn Viva La Woman out!

"Sugar Water" Cibo Matto
Boo, Warner Bros *aka Tha Man* cockblocked embedding for this video but here's the link.

Now it's time for Björk song of the week. This week is an oldie but greatly. I know I'm biased but I have never heard such orginality, magnificent voice *even when I have no idea what she's saying*, such natural talent. Hearing her sing live brings tears to my eyes, it's so ethereal is the best word I could describe her as.


"Cocoon" Björk

I found out about this next guy from my Beauty School Bff, Jessica. She just saw him play at the Hollywood Bowl and now I'm super jealous. He so reminds me of Elliott Smith *they are both from Omaha* but I hope he doesn't end up like Elliott, who committed suicide at a young 34 *which I will be turning in 2 months, eeep*  His voice is haunting and sweet, I love this video *Antz cannot stand him, he finds him to be pretentious, haha*


"At the Bottom of Everything" Bright Eyes

Speaking of suicide...why are the most talented and successful people end up depressed and kill themselves? Alexander McQueen, Micheal Hutchence, Kurt Cobain *although, I seriously think foulplay was involved*

On a lighter note, here's the random song of the day. Brought to you from Space Ghost *a short lived awesome show that has a huge cult following* As a matter of fact, Story was Brak *along with Chris a Moltar* for Halloween one year and their costumes was so spot on I regret being too drunk to have taken a picture. I stole this one from her facebook. I do not love beans, for the record.

"I Love Beans" Brak

My last song for this Mix Tape Friday switches up the all Indie, all the time mix. Being a former MM fan, I get nostalgic for some hardcore rocking every now and again.

*yep, there was a semi-Goth phase in my life, 1997 was a hell of a year!*

That is a scrapbook I made of Marilyn Manson photos and memorabilia, one day Liv will find and say "What the fuck, Mom?!!"



"Coma White" Marilyn Manson

This was back when Rose McGowen was so adorable, before she ruined her face and hooked up with Robert Rodriguez *gross*

I'm going to dinner with my Mommy tonight, later skater!!

Random cuteness of the day!!

Cleaning up our Act!

As I mentioned Saturday night, we needed to clean our messy cave. That is precisely what we did Sunday morning/afternoon. I mean, deep clean, moved furniture, mopped, dusted, took everything off the shelves, went to war with the dust bunnies...

I found dust bunnies as big as Olivia under her crib, GRODY!!

I organized and de-cluttered her dresser, she had tons of clothes and accessories she no longer fits

Antz made this adorable little Brobee for her door

All sparkly and clean, too bad there is no smell-a-vision because it smells so yummy in there!

Antz picked up this guy at a Thrift shop on Friday, I wasn't feeling it at all but I don't have the crafty insight that he has. He has a total 6th sense when it comes to trash-to-treasure. I was complaining about not having a desk of my own and for $12.50 he went from this...

to this...

LOVE IT!! The color is fantastic, the Anthropologie knob we picked up on Saturday and the matching seat cushion *and chair we weren't using* He even painted a matching frame for me to use once we get our pics from Disneyland next month

I'll say it again, my husband is a GENIUS!! Somebody give him a HGTV show!

Now I'm hanging out in the living room more often instead of balancing my laptop in our bedroom. As soon as we finished cleaning and got all spiffy to go to Target *to check out the new Splendid Baby line* my Mommy stopped by. We took her next door to show her the neighbors house *there was an open house* and we found out that they dropped the price from $469k to $399k, short sale :( BOO! That makes me sad but seeing the condition they left their house sort of gives me hope. They basically moved and didn't clean, paint or make any repairs. The house is similar to ours in square footage and amenities

although they had their foundation repaired and they rebuilt their fireplace, they don't have as much charm.

The entire house has popcorn ceilings *obviously disguising cracks*

I do like the dining room built ins and they have orginal windows like ours and Tiffany light fixtures.

the kitchen is smaller than ours.

They do have a lovely tiered landscaped backyard and a screened porch with a bathroom in their over the garage guest house. They also left their fridge, stove and this play set with the house.

I guess it's what I expected in this market, most houses in this area are listed in the $250's YIKES!! Their realtor is coming over this Sunday to assess our place and give us some advice on where to put our money. She is a well-known agent in this neighborhood so it would be amazing to hear what she thinks of the place.  After the open house, we went to Fresh & Easy and picked up some dinner. Antz cooked while my Mommy and I played with Liv. Antz made a yummy dinner and my Mommy showed us a documentary she had been working on for months. I am super proud of her, it looked really professional and the music she created sounded rad!

Happily, Antz had Monday off so we went to lunch with Story. Chris had to work so we picked him and some of his co-workers up and we went to this cute place called Grub.

The food was really yummy, and we had a great time until Liv started trying to eat the plants! We missed out on the farmers market so we picked up Spuzz and our friend Dave came over our house with his doggie, Bam Bam. We hung out in the backyard with the dogs *Max was super happy to have a dogdate* and the weather was beautiful. After Story & Dave left, we went to Atwater Village to sign up for the World Citizen dance class *but it was full so we have to wait until March* it's actually better because Liv will be old enough to take the Scruffin' Rock class. We took a lovely evening stroll around Atwater and picked up dinner. I feel terrible that I haven't used the Wii Fit since Friday but I have definitely been active.