You’re probably sick of hearing about it, but we’re back from Coachella and I figured it was worth a little Bits Of My Weekend reunion. We could only take one work day off and afford a hotel for two nights, and in hindsight we both wish we’d skipped Friday (rainy, freezing, meh lineup) and stayed Sunday night because we had to miss some amazing acts to leave at five that day. The experience overall was interesting – all weekend we kept going back and forth between “I am never doing this again” and “this is amazing”. At first I was so annoyed with everything – the ridiculous amount of people, the half naked teenagers, the frat boy crowds – but I when St. Vincent played I decided I’d get there super early and put my claustrophobia aside and worm my way up as close as I could get. This proved to be an excellent idea because the show was life changing it was so amazing (seriously) and being that close and feeling everyone around me excited was such a high. I did that for two other shows - tUnE-yArDs and First Aid Kit – and had the best time. But I didn’t have the energy for that every time and when you’re far away and people are stomping on your fingers it’s not particularly pleasant. So I guess it’s just what you make of it and how much energy you want to put into having a good time and trying best to be zen about all the BS. Plus, we had a Shields date shake every day, so that helped.

Bits Of My Weekend: Coachella is a post from: For Me, For You

This is not Bits Of My Weekend, and that is because Bits Of My Weekend is going to take a break for a while. I’ve been thinking so much about the purpose of this blog in my life lately – what it was started for, what it has become, and what it will be. It has always been, above and beyond, a creative outlet for me. I wasn’t much of a photographer before this blog, I didn’t make jewelry before this blog, I didn’t have so many amazing connections with creative people before this blog. I credit much of the “success” of my blog (I put that in quotes because I don’t exactly know how to define that) to Bits Of My Weekend. It’s my most popular reoccurring blog series and what people tell me they like the most. So why take a break? My heart just isn’t in it lately, and I’ve always firmly believed that blogging should never be forced. I take photos to fill a blog post and they’re no longer something I truly look forward to doing. Reading Brian’s post about food photography and honesty really hit home for me, I read it right after making this decision and it solidified it. I have a knee-jerk reaction to taking photos of my food and the same photo of a dang cup of coffee and everything is starting to look the same to me. I have to take digital photos because there’s no time to develop film in time for Monday, even though I prefer film and neglect so many of my fun film cameras because there’s just never any time for them when my weekends are spent taking digital for Bits.

What I want is to push myself in terms of photography and step outside of my comfort zone. I want to take my film cameras out more, I want to take more photos of people, I want to stop being nervous about pulling my camera out in certain situations even though I so badly want to capture a moment. I want to not be confined to time restraints like weekends and I want to step away from so many photos of my meals – and who am I kidding – my cat. I live in a beautiful place with endless treasures to be found – I want to go on day trips just to take photos. I want to be inspired. I want to be more serious about my photography. Less snapshots (I’ll leave that for Instagram), more thoughtfulness.

So what this all means is that photo posts will be looser, less scheduled. I know I don’t need to justify this all to you guys, you support me no matter what I do with my blog (for the most part, wink!) because you’re so awesome like that. This is really just me making a promise to myself, putting it on record. I realize that my weekend posts are my one outlet for personal stories on my blog, but don’t worry, I’ll still share personal bits, maybe even more, through random posts. There’s even one coming later today.

Onwards!

I used this photo above of a girl I met in NYC wearing one of my necklaces for this post because it’s sort of my gold standard for the type of photos I want to take more of. I think it was the first time I’ve ever asked a stranger if I could take their photo.

PS. There was a glitch with the shop update this weekend and it was about 30 minutes late. I apologize if you came and tried to purchase something and gave up! There are still some necklaces left – including brass drops. I made more than usual this time. Thank you to everyone who did snag one!

On Bits Of My Weekend is a post from: For Me, For You

Oh dear, where to start? Busiest, best weekend ever. Lots of neighborhood exploring, coffee drinking, pickle and sauerkraut making with Jessica at SQIRL (a highly recommended class! more here – I just noticed she has a tea making class coming up and I am tempted), a visit to MOCA, ramen in Little Tokyo (cheated on my no gluten and sugar thing like 800 million times, sigh). Then a very early and successful trip to the Long Beach flea with Lisa where we both found awesome furniture! That never happens to me. I got two bedside dressers that need a little TLC so I’m going to clean them up before sharing photos. The weekend was concluded with beer and burgers at Umami (Cheater McCheaterson) and watching the greatest SNL episode in forevs. I slept like a baby last night.

Bits Of My Weekend is a post from: For Me, For You

ranunculus at the table | arrows at the Rose Bowl | breakfast (super successful grain free banana bread!) | a smirky leopard coat pose from Taylor | The Story Of Blood – surprisingly disappointing inside for that rad cover | chicken, kale, and leeks | Burbank sunset

There were brunches and family and Downton Abbey and the Rose Bowl and an art opening, but all I want to tell you about is that it’s happened: I feel at home. I f*cking love LA. I don’t have that exact list yet (and I don’t know if there ever will be one), but I at least have the feeling down.

Bits Of My Weekend is a post from: For Me, For You

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.

Bits Of My Weekend is a post from: For Me, For You

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.

Bits Of My Weekend is a post from: For Me, For You

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?

Guest Series: Bits Of My Weekend With Jessica Comingore is a post from: For Me, For You

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.

Bits Of My Weekend is a post from: For Me, For You

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.

Bits Of My Weekend is a post from: For Me, For You

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.

Bits Of My Weekend is a post from: For Me, For You