a Handsome latte | Nicely making deliciousness at Myrtle (Will knew him in Venice, what a small world) | bean perfection | almond flour pancakes w/banana + citrus, scrambled eggs w/ sweet potato + spinach + avocado | fluff | Barnsdall Park trees | the Great Lawn | gratuitous lens flare on the Hollyhock House | lovely hill

Kicked off the weekend with an awe-inspiring volunteer orientation at 826LA – I’m so amazed at all that they do, followed by deliciousness at Mohawk Bend before heading to the Myrtle Valentines shindig where my Seattle girl heart was stolen by the perfect latte from Handsome Coffee. The rest of the weekend was a blur of relaxing and Harry Potter watching and we wrapped things up with a sunset visit to Barnsdall, where I obviously had more than enough photo ops. It was such a gorgeous, clear weekend and the park was a perfect end to a great weekend.

Packaging | Seattle goodies | the LA Municipal Art Gallery + peach fuzz, growing back | breakfast | two cats, hanging out | pretty chicken on our walk | purple carrots | dinner | moving photo (somehow I forgot about these): stamping (music in the background is Sharon Van Etten and because you ladies are so predictable with your questions, my nail polish is Topshop’s “Big Smoke” [thanks Anabela!])

I’ll start with the fact that Will surprised me by showing me a side of his old spontaneous and adventurous side on Friday night but you can’t laugh at what it was: he asked me if I wanted to go to some bars. We were eating dinner and I was like, “What? Like, tonight? And drink alcohol?” Because I’m not even entirely sure we’ve ever really done that in LA as it’s hard, but not too hard in our neighborhood (as long as you are OK with wearing sensible shoes), but for obvious reasons we hadn’t tried that out yet. And it was expensive and not that trilling and we were home by 10, but we got out, had fun, and came home and drank copious amounts of water like the adults that we are and slept like babies. And I thought to myself, “Hey! We’re still young people, who knew?” I feel one million years older than I am.

I realize while reflecting on what happened this weekend that big decisions were made and delicious food was eaten. I’m trying to refrain from telling those of you in cold winter weather right now that it was 80 degrees all weekend, but I can’t. Because being back from Seattle makes me want to hug LA and all its nasty, warm glory.

Note: I’m trying out not using Flickr so I’m trying to caption images better that you can see when you hover over the image or my captions at the bottom.

ps. thank you for such a successful shop update! If you missed it, fear not, there are still some necklaces left. Plus, shop updates are every month now.

Hi all, Jessica here! Kate was kind enough to invite me on board to contribute some bits from my weekend while she’s away enjoying a real winter outside of sunny Los Angeles. I was a little nervous about having enough interesting things to share with you, but this weekend ended up being pretty action-packed (and particularly art-filled). It started off with a memorable breakfast at Square One that I didn’t capture, but Kate did (see + drool over the previously posted banana french toast), followed by an evening out and an opportunity to get some use out of this vibrant red dress I recently thrifted. Saturday was spent perusing the Art Los Angeles Contemporary show at the Barker Hanger and a trip to a moped shop, the latter of which was surprisingly more fun than I would’ve imagined. Sunday began by purchasing one too many artisanal goods at an underground pop-up market in Venice (read: jalapeño jam, tandoori marinated olives + homemade lemon curd), followed a trip downtown to the LA Art Show and ended with a delightfully slow pre-fixe dinner at Church & State. All-in-all, a lot of fun despite a lot of running around. But sometimes weekends are for adventures, wouldn’t you say?

Mostly a working weekend as we’re going to Seattle next weekend and I have to cram in my to-do list in before then. Freelancing doesn’t mean you get to take a vacation whenever you want to without pulling some serious extra weight to make that happen! But, there were tiki drinks and Mexican food with Lisa and a matinee at the Vista (so beautiful) to see The Artist (really great, give that dog an Oscar!). Also, not sure if you knew this but I’m officially 50% cat lady, 50% plant lady these days, so Wendy and the plants fight for Bits attention. They are all my babies. Sometimes Will catches me squatting down by the plants, inspecting them with a q-tip, and just laughs at me.

Oof. Will and I caught that awful cough that is going around LA like wildfire (seriously, everywhere I go I hear it.) I guess cold season gets to you even if it’s 70 degrees. So the weekend was cozy, barely leaving our our apartment, working and making lots of healthy food. It’s funny, when I’m sick I switch into super healthy mode, and when Will gets sick he just wants take out and comfort food. Too bad for him I make all the meals around here! He turned his nose up to the almond milk I made on Friday, but by Sunday I’d convinced him it wasn’t disgusting, but delicious. Other things happened like watching an entire season of Bored to Death in two sittings (tear, I will miss you), figuring out how to make my new haircut work (didn’t go as well the second attempt) and marveling at how gigantic and bright the moon was last night. A small, good moments kind of weekend.

I can’t tell you how happy I am to get back to our regular lives again. Sure, it’s not completely normal with Will still out of work (and searching! hard!), but to leave the house and DO things is so awesome. The best thing is that we’ve been walking a ton. We walk every day for at least two miles, usually much longer than that. Will is determined to get healthier asap. Things accomplished during this little heat wave this weekend (70-80 degrees!): The Craft and Folk Art Musuem, Ethiopian food in Little Ethiopia, champagne and a movie for new years eve – falling asleep before midnight, waking up early and walking to the Hollywood Farmers Market for goodies (like white cheddar goat cheese, SO good), necklace making and shop redesign/relaunch prepping, preparing a return to reality this week with design work. Trying hard to not think about Wednesdays doctors appointment too much, focusing on the present.

I’m trying to finish a roll of film so that I have some wordless posts to schedule while we’re in Phoenix for Christmas, a glorious seven day trip I’m so looking forward to. So, I don’t have much digital this morning to share. But it was a great weekend – kicked off on Friday with an epic walk with Lisa to discover some secret stairs in Silverlake that blew our minds. Then Saturday Will and I got up early, got breakfast take out and drove to Griffith park while we stared at the beautiful view and ate French toast and bacon. We wandered around a little and it felt pretty fantastic to be outside with Will again. Sunday we were complete and total bums, with a little bead making here and there (my hands hate me). We’re easing back into normal life, slowly.

I have to admit that this past week was one of our roughest. But with the help of care packages (more on that later) and seriously taking it easy this weekend, we got through it. I even at one time felt bored on Sunday. Bored! I forgot what that was like.

Here’s one super awesome not boring thing that happened. Lisa is my new neighbor and I couldn’t have been happier to put on a dress and a pair of heels and have a delicious meal with her (and slightly ridiculous holiday themed cocktails) at Mohawk Bend and check out an awesome new store, Myrtle, in Echo Park. Myrtle is pretty much stocked with products made by every awesome lady friend I know on the internet and it was so cool seeing that stuff in person. I tend to maroon myself on the island that is my apartment lately and I was reminded of how good it feels to have some girl time. I can’t wait for Will to be well enough to be around friends again because he is probably so sick of me right now he never wants to see a cute baby on instagram shoved in his face again (that doesn’t cheer everyone up??).

Let’s do this shiz, week 9, aka THE END, we’re taking you down. They don’t have a bell you get to ring at Cedar’s when you finish treatment (I’ve read about other places having this) but Will says he’s glad they don’t as that would make him feel crappy to see other people ringing the bell if you had a long ways to go. Instead I wish they had a punching bag with the words “cancer” on it that you could beat the absolute hell out of at the end. Maybe something you could safely blow up?? Just some angsty week-fuled ideas I’m throwing out there, guys. I just want to throw scalding hot coffee into cancer’s face, is basically what I’m saying. No big deal!

I will start by telling you briefly that the weekend consisted of nothing too terribly interesting between all the hospital back and forth driving besides the above that was worth photographing, so it’s misleading to call this Bits Of My Weekend when this is really Bits Of My Epic Walk, or Urban Hike, which is most fitting for what I did. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been really into walking lately. I just take a peep at Google Maps and pick a place to walk to, double check to make sure I’m not getting myself into any insane hills that might destroy me or streets with no sidewalks that may kill me (this is LA, afterall), and put my sneakers (yes, I own some) and headphones (my new key ingredient) on and hit the road. But I haven’t been able to go for a walk in almost a week because long infusion weeks are nuts and there is no time for a walk unless I want to get nothing else done. Well, not taking on any more projects lately has paid off in the sanity department (the bank account department is another story…) and Sunday I finally had time for a walk. But since it had been a while I was getting bored of my usual northern route, I decided to take on a much longer walk than usual. I decided I would pick a destination to reward myself with, which I decided would be Trader Joe’s because snacks were calling my name. When I looked at the map, I found a cool way I could walk through the Franklin Hills that didn’t require much of a hill at all, but what looked like an amazing little bridge (Shakespeare Bridge). When I finally made it to the bridge and up and over to Trader Joe’s, I was hungry for more awesomeness and surprisingly not snacks, so I turned around (also Sunday at TJ’s sounded so unappealing after a peaceful walk where I barely saw another human being). I double checked the map on my phone and decided to hike. Literally. I climbed this massive hill on a winding street in the Franklin Hills and when I got to the top I could see the Griffith Observatory and all of Los Feliz and beyond. I kept going and came across one of those secret staircases I always hear about from LA walking legend (ok, my LA walking legend) Alissa.  I didn’t go down it but the view of downtown from above it was pretty spectacular. Now I really want to buy the Secret Stairs book. And speaking of spectacular, the houses up there only get more amazing the higher you go and the quieter the street, but I decided against being a stalker and taking photos. I finally started winding down the other side of the hill, saw the little baby Jesus, and then right when I was back to my boring neighborhood was rewarded with a hummingbird.

I am so ridiculously sore even my arms hurt (why??), but it was pretty amazing. After I picked Will up I felt a little guilty telling him about how amazing it was, but he said he couldn’t wait for me to go again and take him with me when he was better. And I will. Here’s my route if you’re interested. It looks wacky due to my turning around. I edited my address to conceal my secret lair, of course. I actually live farther into the beautiful, trash-free, polite and quiet neighborhood of East Hollywood, thankyouverymuch.

In other news, I am hoping that there will be a shop update tomorrow evening that I unfortunately have to announce a bit last minute. Our apartment building hasn’t received mail in three (!) days for some reason (Santa Ana winds damage?) and I was supposed to get some important supplies for jewelry. So, fingers crossed, it comes today and we can make this happen. Stay tuned!

Holy cow, did you read this whole post? Well if you’re still here I would like you all to join me in high-fiving Will for completing his last long infusion on Sunday. Just two more short visits in the next two weeks. The home mothereffing stretch.

plant table | cardamom meringue pumpkin pie | Heath | finding Fall | mandarin season | a little gift | work desk | glowing cheer

Things that happened: over eight miles of Los Feliz covered by foot – seeking out Fall and a little quiet in my head, some little plant tables were constructed to keep me busy and productive, brunch at Little Dom’s with pals (the day after Thanksgiving, what were we thinking??), jewelry was made, turkey leftovers and pie were eaten (that pie is the only Thanksgiving evidence I have), Christmas lights were strung for cheer, mandarins were eaten by the pound.

Today is Will’s 30th birthday. I’m grateful that he’s in between cycles so he’s practically feeling normal today, and an old friend from Brooklyn is in town and coming for dinner, which will make things feel more special. Could a 30th birthday be more monumental and a little shaking than having cancer? He’s taking it like a champ though, and we are so thrilled that Wednesday he starts his last cycle, his last bad week and then two easy ones. A strangely good birthday present. I’m about to order him a ridiculous brunch from our favorite neighborhood spot and eat omelets in bed. Top notch.