Back in October, some friends and I vacationed in Joshua Tree for a few days before heading out to the dopest wedding ever. We flew into Las Vegas and drove 3 hours through the beautiful Mojave desert. Joshua Tree turned out to be one of my most favorite places in the world. This trip was just special. Life-changing, even! We stayed at this airbnb, and it was amazing. The pictures don’t do it justice.

The pool was legiiiit.

There were beautiful succulents and cacti all around the yard. I took a million photos!

We barely cracked the surface of Joshua Tree National Park. I’d love to go back and do more exploring. We hiked the Barker Dam trail which was a feast for the eyes at every turn. It felt like we had stepped onto a different planet – it almost didn’t seem real. The sky and landscape were so expansive.

Sad Cactus Series:

I took about 5,000 photos of Joshua Trees. I could.not.stop.

Oh, Integratron, you magical little thing! We made a reservation for a group sound bath and I’m really, really happy we did. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I found it to be  both calming and energizing at different times throughout the session. Definitely visit this place if you’re ever in Joshua Tree! Make a reservation in advance and give yourself time before your appointment to wander the grounds. Buy a super-charged crystal in the gift shop and lounge in the hammocks!

A few other favorites in Joshua Tree:

Natural Sisters Cafe. We ate here every day, sometimes twice a day. Delicious and fresh vegan food, juices, and desserts.

Joshua Tree Saloon. A fun place for dinner, drinks and karaoke. I love the western dive-bar vibe.

Grateful Desert. A natural food store and apothecary located next to Natural Sisters Cafe. I bought a handmade ring from a local artist, some delicious snacks, and a few sticks of palo santo.

Ricochet Vintage.  Funky vintage clothes, souvenirs, and trinkets.

Las Palmas. For the best fish tacos of your life.

We drove up Route 66 on our way back to Las Vegas and stopped at Roy’s Motel and Cafe in the Mojave desert town of Amboy, which is basically in the middle of nowhere. An art installation was staged throughout the six motel rooms and visitors could wander through the rooms freely. There were cryptic messages written on the walls, nails sticking out of the beds, and furnishings in disarray. It was fascinating. I could have wandered around those rooms for hours.

The drive back to Las Vegas was peaceful. We made a shared Spotify playlist so we could each add our favorite road trip songs to listen to during the drive. I’m such a sap, I listen to the playlist often.

I recorded a bunch of footage with my phone and compiled it all together to make a little video of our time in Joshua Tree and Las Vegas. Memmmories!

xoxo

Back in October, two of my dear friends, Mike and Tiffany, got hitched at The Neon Museum in Las Vegas. They are quite the creative couple and they managed to pull off an equally creative wedding that was intimate, gorgeous, non-fussy and ridiculously cool. They asked me to photograph the event, to which I was very honored, but also STRESSS BARFFF. Shooting a wedding is very intimidating, at least to those of us who don’t spend our lives doing it professionally, because you literally only get one chance to get it right. Not that they put any pressure on me, they were in fact super chill about it. I was all ‘I’M NOT A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER I DON’T KNOW HOW TO INTERACT WITH HUMANS WHAT IF MY CAMERA SPONTANEOUSLY EXPLODES AND STABS YOU IN THE FACE I’M SCARED’ and they were all ‘whatev, just do yo thang, girl’.

I visited The Neon Museum once before, so I was super excited when they told me they had chosen it for their venue.  This place is a party for the eyes!

We had an hour before the ceremony to wander the museum and take photos of just the two of them. Are these two not the ugliest human beings you’ve ever seen? #opposite

Their good friend Meghan officiated the wedding (so smart – why didn’t we do that?!) and her 1960s Priscilla Presley look was ON POINT. Y’all made my job so easy.

An intimate group of Mike and Tiff’s very best people flew to Vegas to relax, hang out, and party for days. And party we did.

We all gathered around as they read their vows which were sweet, sentimental, funny, and smart.  STOP BEING SO PERFECT, YOU GUYS.

The table settings for the reception were effortlessly casual and pretty, although we all know these things never happen ‘effortlessly’. White wooden tables with burlap runners, bud vases with single cut flowers, loose greenery, and succulents made for a casual desert vibe. The sun had set by the end of the ceremony, but I had a few minutes to snap some photos of the tables beforehand.

Then there were speeches. Everyone cried (again). Dinner, drinking, dancing, ensued.

Love love love.  Mike and Tiff, thank you for the best time ever and thank you for trusting me to shoot these photos (except for the one directly above which I believe Drew took after I drunkenly handed him my camera so I could get crunk). I love you guys so very much. CONGRATULATIONS!

Two of my good friends, Eve and Shiloh of Grateful Paws, recently fostered a mama cat and her four kittens through Ferndale Cat Shelter. I stopped by a few weeks ago to cuddle their faces and shoot some photos to help generate interest in them. I’m happy to report that the kittens were recently adopted as pairs into two loving forever homes!

Unfortunately, people have certain negative perceptions about shelter animals. These animals need a little extra help to get people excited about them. Great images bring people into shelters. That’s a fact. I wish I could show you Eleanor’s low quality Petfinder photo, but I forgot to save it. The photo was taken from high above her crate with a flash. She looked like a scary little blob with glared eyes. A few days after I adopted her I took this photo:

Who wouldn’t want to meet that dog, right? So when Eve and Shiloh asked me to set up a photo shoot with the kittens to help them get adopted, I immediately jumped on board. In fact, I plan to donate my photography services to more shelters in the area moving forward. It’s so important to get these fur babes out of shelters and into loving homes.

At the beginning of the photo shoot they refused to sit still and gave me a run for my money. If only I had that youth and vigor! By the end though, they were falling asleep on each other in a cuddle pit. IT WAS SO CUTE I THREW UP.

Check out these kitten pics, yo:

Let me tell you, nothing cures what ails you quite like a kitten cuddle session. Thanks for looking! Meow.

Several years ago, when I threw our breakfast nook together, I slid these two chairs under the table as a temporary fix while I shopped around for a more cohesive pair. While I love the eclectic vibe of having two different chairs, I never really loved the ghost chair in there, and the danish arm chair always felt a little too heavy.  I searched for a while, then got busy, and well, these chairs were *fine*, so I just never got around to replacing them. Lately I’ve been itching to switch things up, so when Chairish reached out and asked me to share my two cents on how to successfully mix and match dining chairs, it was perfect timing. For those of you not familiar with Chairish, it’s an online marketplace filled with gorgeous vintage finds. It’s kind of like Craigslist or Ebay, but more curated and organized.  You don’t have to spend hours scrolling through pages of ugly Walmart chairs from the 90s while trying to get to the good stuff, and I appreciate that.

I don’t think most people want their furniture to be super matchy, they just don’t know how to mix furniture styles, so they run to the nearest furniture liquidator store, buy a generic dining table that comes with 8 matching chairs, and call it a day. It’s cheap and convenient. I get it. But honestly, mixing and matching furniture is pretty simple, it just takes a little bit of thought and intention. When done right, it can make a space feel interesting, unique, and fun.

An important key to making disparate styles of furniture look intentional and not like your drunk uncle’s basement, is to keep everything within a consistent color palette throughout your space. My color palette is mostly white, black, varying shades of grey, pale pink, warm metals, neutrals, and light/medium wood tones. If I’m shopping and see something I love, but it doesn’t jibe with my color palette, I let it go. It’s truly a lesson in self control. At a garage sale a few years ago, I impulse purchased a set of teal 1950s dining chairs. I *knew* the color was wrong, but the tiny delusional hoarder that lives in my head was like I CAN MAKE THEM WORK. Spoiler alert: They looked terrible. I hemmed and hawed about reupholstering them, but then I lost them in the floodpocalypse of 2014 anyway. Lesson learned. Stick with the color palette!

I’ve been re-envisioning my breakfast nook by playing around with a design board, virtually swapping different chairs in and out. Here are a few that I love, both new and vintage.

Clockwise from top left: Rug, hanging planter, set of bertoia chairs, wooden planters, rose chair, gold chair, acid/glam mugs, moscow mule cup, lucite bar cart, wooden chair, light fixture, dining table.

My house is tiny, so I try to maximize space, including visual space, as much as possible by choosing airy furniture with open backs and thin legs. This allows your eyes to travel through the furniture and makes the room feel visually more expansive. And obviously, lucite is great for the same reason.

So what do you think? Which ones are your favorite?  That gold chair is quite an investment but it makes me INTENSELY SWOONY.

I just spent the last two hours listening to Ann Delisi’s thoughtful tribute to Prince on WDET. She ended the show with Purple Rain and I ugly cried, big heavy tears, for the first time since he passed away.

Ever since the news broke I’ve vacillated between disbelief and numbness. The grief has only just started to creep in. Truth be told, I’m still reeling from the death of David Bowie.

These two mystical, magical, alien-rockstars seduced me before I was old enough to know any better. They emoted this irreverence of gender and style that just DID something to me. Their rebellion against the norm awakened my inner weirdo. They taught me to walk in through the out door.

“I’m not a woman. I’m not a man. I am something that you’ll never understand”.

I was about five years old when my parents brought home Prince’s album, 1999.  I took to it like a moth to a flame. It was hard for me to stay in my body when his music was playing. During an impassioned moment I jumped from my bed while belting the words to Delirious and sprained my ankle. Later, while performing a dance routine to Baby I’m a Star, I over compensated a flip and broke my toe. I guess if I’m going to have arthritis, let it be from Prince!

Last year I saw Prince perform for the second time in my life. I never guessed it would be the last. As I stood 18 rows from the stage at the Fox Theatre I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. He could have easily sold out a stadium, but he chose to play a three-hour marathon set inside an intimate theatre. To Prince, the music has always mattered more than money. And the music slayed us that night. I’ll never forget it.

I read that Prince passed away in the elevator of his home. An erie example of how life imitates art. Toward the end of Ann Delisi’s radio show she played Let’s Go Crazy. I listened to Prince’s eulogy of “this thing called life” for the billionth time, and I could still hear his message loud and clear. In that moment I realized he’s not really gone. He just punched a higher floor.

Truth be told, I’m not the biggest Las Vegas fan. I think gambling is boring and depressing. My club-kid days are long over, and I have complicated feminist feelings about hookers. But an opportunity came along for Mike D and I to spend a few days in the city of sin to celebrate our friend Ellie’s birthday with ten of our friends, so we were like “VIVA LAS VEGAS!”. And now I’m here, an unreasonable amount of time later, to tell you about the trip. How long has it been, you ask? A month? Nope. Many multiple months? Yep. And that’s what’s up.

After our flight landed in Vegas, we dropped our bags at the hotel, rented a car, and drove to Red Rock Canyon. It’s only a thirty minute drive from the Las Vegas strip and it’s breathtaking. I highly recommend going in the evening and watching the sunset. It was a real treat despite the 8,000 degrees of blasting solar heat that day.

The following morning we visited the Neon Museum for a guided tour. Colorful vintage signs of old casinos, shops, and restaurants are artfully arranged along gravel paths. This is a dreamland of vintage typography and the colors were very pleasing to my eyeballs. Definitely check it out! Tip: Bring plenty of water and sunscreen because there’s nearly no shade.

And then we melted into a sweaty puddle of despair. Have I mentioned that it was hot in Vegas? Effing HOT HOT. Walking on the sun hot.

That evening we celebrated my friend Ellie’s birthday with dinner and drinks at Park on Fremont. The prices were good (especially for Vegas because DAMGURL that city is expensive) and the ambiance was on point. Quirky art, good food, craft cocktails, and a sweet patio with an old Cinderella-like carriage and a teeter totter. Highly recommend!

After dinner we walked along Fremont street and things got REAL silly. Ridiculously overpriced cocktails may have been involved.

The next morning we rented a private cabana by the pool at MGM. Each cabana has it’s own mini-fridge, lounge chairs, chilled towels, inner tubes, a music dock, a safe for wallets/phones, and a waitress. It was quite luxurious for us hobos! We spent all day lounging around, drinking, swimming, stuffing our faces, and having long theoretical pool-side discussions. It was delightful.

After a quick nap and a shower, a limo picked us up and took us to The Tunnel of Love Drive-Thru Wedding Chapel. Mike D and I, along with two of our best friends, Charlie & Halina, thought it would be fun to renew our wedding vows in a double drive-thru ceremony. *Spoiler Alert* BEST ONE HUNDRED BUCKS I’VE EVER SPENT. We almost didn’t do this and I’m so glad we decided to just go for it. The chapel was… um, interesting?  The pink Cadillac they let us “rent” didn’t run and had four flat tires. Ha! I’m sure there’s a metaphor for marriage in there somewhere. Empty love tank something or other? Doesn’t matter. WE DOOOOO!

My friend Kate captured the faux nuptials so perfectly. Truth be told, we were a little tipsy from spending all day at the pool and it was hard to keep a straight face. SUPER SERIOUS WEDDING TIMEZ COMING AT YOU.

Thank you, Kate! Because of you, I’ll never forget my second wedding to my first husband.

*dabs at a tear*

On our final day in Vegas, Mike and I wandered along the strip and came across The Polaroid Museum. This was a totally random and lucky find. I NERDED OUT over rare cameras, Polaroids by Lucas Michael and Maurizio Galimberti, and an installation of Andy Warhol’s silver clouds.

That evening we met up with our friends for dinner at The Peppermill Restaurant and Fireside Lounge. It’s iconic, weird, gorgeous, and offers the quintessential throwback Vegas experience. You HAVE to check this place out. Make sure to head into the fireside lounge after dinner for a nightcap. The ambiance in there is insane. Honestly, the food and drinks are nothing over the top, but the decor is what really makes this place special.

We ended our trip with The Beatles LOVE at The Mirage. I basically ugly-cried for a straight two hours. The costumes were BONKERS. The dancers’ bodies were BONKERS. The trapezoid acts were BONKERS. OMG SO MUCH BONKERS.

And then we flew home. Happy, heat exhausted, and hung over.

Ok, Vegas. You win.

I like you now.

PS: I shoved my iPhone in my friends’ faces the whole trip to create this video just for you.

We recently upgraded to a king-size memory foam mattress. After years of sleeping on a queen-size garbage mattress with a pit the size of Grand Canyon in the middle, it was long over due. I often woke with an aching back, hips, or neck and it made me depressed and annoyed. But now I wake up every day feeling like this:

A king size bed has been on our wishlist for years, and I figured if we were going to get a new mattress anyway, we might as well upgrade to a king now. I researched a bunch of the online bed-in-a-box mattress companies – Leesa, Brooklyn Bedding, Casper, Tuft and Needle, and honestly, they all seemed kinda the same. Free shipping, 100 night risk-free trials, a bevy of glowing reviews. In the end I chose Casper because, based on customer feedback, it seemed to be the softest of the bunch, which is good for side sleepers like me. It arrived in a sturdy box, just like my favorite wine, and was super easy to set up.  The mattress came compressed, so all we had to do was pull it out of the box, unroll it, and watch it expand to size. Mike D and I loved it immediately. It alleviated the soreness I was waking up with in my back and hips, which was great, but after a few nights, I began to notice some soreness in my shoulders. I made a quick call to Casper to see if they could recommend anything. The woman I spoke with was very nice and offered to send a free topper to alleviate some of the pressure on my shoulders. YASSS! So nice. She explained how the mattress is designed for an average size human, so those under 140 lbs might find the mattress a bit too firm. That explains why I (a grown woman trapped in a 12 year old’s body) had some shoulder soreness but Mike D was fine. I received the topper within a week and it totally did the trick. No more shoulder soreness, and I’ve been sleeping like a baby ever since. It’s the perfect combination of firm and soft now, and Mike still loves it, even with the new topper (in fact, he didn’t even notice a difference). This isn’t a sponsored post by the way, even though it seems like it totally is. I just wanted to share my good experience with you. Because y’all my dudes.

We sold our queen sized bed it and replaced it with this  bed in sky gray. It’s a real grown-up kinda bed – it’s sturdy, comfortable, looks nice, and you can’t beat that price! I picked up some new sheets (on sale! Hurry!) and traded in my great grandmother’s chenille bedspread for a down alternative comforter for the winter. It’s all so comfy and warm now. I just want to spend the rest of this stupid dark winter lounging about on my new mattress-in-a-box, drinking wine-in-a-box and watching dick-in-a-box.

Our bedroom is tiny, so with the addition of the king sized bed, there was room for only one nightstand. The mirrored table I had there was pretty, but I  always kept a pile of junk on the nightstand – a book, lip balm, eye cream, remote, vitamins, you get the picture, so I wanted something with storage to hide all that garbage out of sight. I looked around in stores and online, fruitlessly, before remembering I had an old nightstand from my parents house in the basement that might work. I brought it upstairs to try it in the space, and low and behold, it was the perfect size and scale. It just needed some zhushing.

Ok, fine, it was totally whacktastic. First I wiped it down with some Mrs Meyers soap and warm water, then I lightly sanded the surface to roughen it up for paint. I brushed on two coats of “Soot” by Benjamin Moore in satin finish (the same color I used on my dresser a few years back) and it was looking pretty good. Then, the pièce de ré·sis·tance – these fancytown handles from Anthropologie.

I bought 8 of them on clearance several years ago, but only needed six for my dresser. I’m so glad I held onto those two extra handles. They are bringing the heat and they are bringing it hard.

Is your head, like, totally exploding from the transformation? Just wait until you see the drawer liners I cut to size with my very own hands.

DAYYYYUM those drawers are SECK. (Like your mom).

That blanket and that dreamcatcher were totally separated at birth! Now they’re best friends and plan to bring their wayward parents back together.

That’s our sassy ghost cat. She came with the nightstand and terrorizes us in our sleep.

NO BIG DEAL.

The end!

Recently, the incredibly nice humans at West Elm invited me to share some photos of my home on their blog, Front & Main, and I was ever so happy to oblige. You can see the full interview here.

As we head into the new year, I want to thank you all for being here. I truly appreciate every single one of you who support this creative endeavor of mine. I LOVE YOU GUYZ! I hope you all have a very merry New Year spent with the ones you love! xoxo

 
Everything in my Etsy shop is currently 20% off until 12/13/15 with the code: hohoho. Everything ships for free to the U.S.!

 
Get in here!

Happy shopping! xoxo