An afternoon at Joshua Tree

Just before Christmas, Luke and I made a quick trip over to Joshua Tree. I had been meaning to go for ages. We got a bit of a late start out of LA so we didn't have that much time to explore before we started losing light. I think we hit some of the main highlights though. We had a lot of fun climbing around on the rocks and exploring all the nooks and crannies. As the sun went down, we drove further into the park so I could try to take some pictures of the joshua trees against the sky. The moon was nearly full and it was amazing to see it way out in the desert! Once it was dark, we were making our way back to the park entrance and we passed someone slumped over on the side of the road. We immediately turned around and went back for them. We found a girl who had gotten separated from her friend and had been walking for miles and trying to find help. We took her to park entrance and left her with a ranger. I hope they found her friend.
On our way out, we stopped by the welcome center where they were doing a cool night sky talk. The ranger had a really great telescope that we were able to look through. It had a GPS so you could just input the coordinates and it would point itself in the right direction. Really interesting but it was so cold out there and we decided to move on. We stopped over in Palm Springs for dinner at The Ace. If you find yourself there then I would recommend the black bean burger! All in all, it was a fun little departure from the usual.


All images by Maureen Price. Please do not use without permission.

Long Beach Adventure

Last weekend, Luke and I took a little day trip down to Long Beach. I'd never been and I wanted to check out the Aquarium of the Pacific. We made our way there and walked along the coastline across from the Queen Mary. I want to go back and have afternoon tea and a walk around on the ship! It was interesting to see a Carnival ship boarding right next to the Queen Mary. After a stroll, we went in search of food and, of course, the one vegetarian place I wanted to try was randomly closed (??). We ended up at the aquarium later on which was a pretty big deal for me as I'm deathly afraid of certain marine life (the toothy, predatory variety). Going to the aquarium was a step towards facing my fear. I did better than I thought I would but I definitely had one minor freak out along the way. My favorite part of the aquarium...jellyfish! Having been brutally stung by one as a kid you'd think I'd want to nothing to do with them but they are fantastic to photograph! I hogged the prime real estate in front of the tanks to get some decent shots. Such amazing creatures. I was hoping to see the sea otters in action but they were totally not having it. Most incredible sight there? The weedy sea dragons! I have never seen anything quite like them. I didn't leave empty handed (I'm not usually a sucker for gift shops). I bought a great watercolor print of seahorse species. Lovely. All in all, it was a fun day. We'll have to head down there again for tea on the Queen Mary!



All images by Maureen Price. Please do not use without permission. Thanks!

Dwell on Design: 1

I've been meaning to post my pictures from this year's Dwell on Design convention for a few weeks (yikes!). Here's a post from my adventure at last year's convention. It's always more fun to go with folks you know (last year I flew solo). This time around I met up with my friend Beth. She worked some magic on one of the exhibits and then we ran into Abby who had also been working behind the scenes. We had some champagne at the Miele booth, checked out some very modern chicken coops, toured a luxury Airstream trailer, and I got my heartbeat made into an air brush painting. Yep. One of my favorite parts of the convention was Sasaki's Heartbeat Drawing Project. He began the project in 1995 and now travels the world listening to and painting heartbeats. At the convention, the proceeds were going to Architecture for Humanity's rebuilding efforts in Japan. It was too cool for me not to participate. You sit in chair in front of the giant canvas and Sasaki places an electronic pulse monitor on your finger. The sound is then amplified and he paints based on the speed and rhythm of your pulse. It was kind of surreal to know that everyone in the convention hall was hearing your heartbeat in real time as you watched someone methodically paint to its sound. Stay tuned for a bit more from Dwell! I'll share my own painting project and some very cool, new, eco-friendly paint.


All images by Maureen Price

Adventure calls...

I'm really itching to go on a smallish trip sometime soon. Feeling spontaneous. I need to get out of LA in a big way. Well, I guess there's still time to possibly book some train tickets out of town for the upcoming Traffic Armageddon (the 405 freeway will be closed next weekend and LA will come to a grinding and totally miserable halt...get out of town or stay home). There's so much I want to see in California and in the South West. Sometimes you just have to walk out of the front door and GO. I need to stop putting it off. Let's just go and figure it out!


Image

Tasty

The other day, Luke and I decided we wanted some treats so we made our way over to Le Pain Quotidien. They have the most delicious (and legit) Belgian waffles. Mmm! I always get their lightly sweetened lemonade with mint leaves. The tartine pictured below is also very tasty for summertime as it's served cold and it comes with a spicy tahini sauce that is glorious. Their desserts are pretty irresistible too. I'm partial to the fruit tarts but they also have cookies the size of my head. I kid you not. Luke and I tend to be creatures of habit when it comes to ordering at restaurants so we almost always get the same things here but there are lots of tasty-sounding options on the menu. I also love that LPQ labels their vegan/vegetarian option as SO many restaurants don't do this. Anyway, they have locations worldwide if you want to get in on some of the waffle goodness. How could you not!?



All images by Maureen Price

BLOGSHOP LA

B L O G S H O P 2 - Los Angeles from Son of Shark Pig on Vimeo.

Last weekend I did the second BLOGSHOP with Bri and Angela! It was definitely the most fun I've had in a workshop in a looong time. Good food, good company, good goodies! If you want to learn more about designing in Photoshop then I would say this class is a huge leap in the right direction. I was already very familiar with Photoshop but I am thrilled to have learned so much. My confidence has really multiplied and now I just want to keep going!

Wanna see more? Check out the pics here and here!

Pasadena Chalk Festival

Yesterday I fought my way to the Pasadena Chalk Festival. Seriously, it took me almost an hour to turn off of Colorado Blvd. (which was completely closed), get on the detour, enter the parking deck, drive to the roof, wait for someone to leave, park, walk the 4 blocks to the Paseo area where the festival was going down. That should have taken 15 minutes tops. Nightmare. Anyway, I obviously made it! I really like going to this festival because it is so great for photography. Colors, texture, interesting looking people. There's also a really fun antique mall there and I can spend ages looking around at the crazy stuff they sell. I'll show you the little treasure I bought once I get a chance to take a good picture of it. Apparently this festival made it into the Guinness Book of World Records last year for the largest display of chalk art. Here are some of my favorite shots from yesterday.




All images by Maureen Price

Renegade Craft Fair-Los Angeles!

Ok, folks, I think we all know I've been super neglectful lately. I have been in a massive no-blogging-rut the past week and a half. Between my new jobs, running, personal projects, and general day-to-day business, my poor blog has been ending up at the bottom of the list. I'd get home feeling exhausted, make dinner, tidy up a bit, shower, and then think about posting and it just never happened. Sorry!!!!! I'm determined to get back on track and thanks to a lovely reader's request for me to get my bum in gear (haha, my words not her's) I'm bringing you a brand spankin' new post about the Renegade Craft Fair from two weekends ago. The fair was nestled between the Chinatown Metro station and Dodger Stadium in the lovely LA Historic Park. It was seriously toasty and seriously CROWDED. I can't really complain about the crowds as I'm glad people are so supportive of handmade goods and the artisans who craft them so lovingly. Although the big people-pet-stroller clusters made it hard to photograph the way I wanted to and I had Luke with me (and being the thoughtful partner that I am, I didn't want to make him spend 6 hours in July heat looking at letterpress cards and succulent terrariums). Therefore, to preface my images, I don't have the names/links of all of the vendors I photographed. So sorry! It was just too crazy to keep track. That being said, let's look at my highlights from the FAIR!!!



Here we go!




It looks a bit more like the owl is eating me and thumbing for a ride...no shame.


{paper & type} Display... Their designs are so sweet and basic.


Scarlett Garnet jewelry designs...lovely! They also win my Most Unique Business Card Award because their logo rocks my socks. I love the cool art nouveau design!!




Miniature Rhino had this cool message in a bottle display and their awesome embroidery (see their Etsy link).


Succulent Terrariums!! It took everything I had not to buy one of these. But I knew I probably kill it in a month.


Cool way to display these vials of seeds!


Another great display idea! This would be so easy to recreate at home too. Just find some interesting frames and a bit of mesh or a few pieces of pretty chain, add a few staples or nails and hang them in a cluster by your dresser or in the bathroom. Bonus point: arrange your earring collection by color or style *wink*.


Crafty and inexpensive and recycled display! I thought this was such a great way to house these earrings!


Yay! I can't wait to have my own Etsy shop.


Hah.


Poster Displays. I saw a few that were new to me. I feel like I've seen every poster design out there lately.


I loved this paper crane mobile. Another cool idea to make at home on the cheap!


Ok, now on to one of my favorite parts of the craft fair! Threadless Tees had an Airstream trailer you could go in and post your own shirt design on their templates. It was a really fun idea and there were some pretty funny ones in there.




T-Shirt designs EVERYWHERE!


My favorites:




This one summed up what I was thinking all day.


On a more serious design note, I really liked this one a lot.




So, there you have it! My experience of the Renegade Craft Fair! Oh, I was VERY good and bought one SMALL print from Honeylux (I was a bad photographer and totally blew out my image of her table)! This is the print I bought! If you're interested in attending a fair, the next stop is Chicago on September 11th and 12th. They are also having holiday events in Chicago and San Francisco. Check out their site for more information. Over and out! Thanks, special reader for throwing some accountability my way!

California Anniversary!

Wow. Today marks the one year anniversary of my arrival in California in my giant Penske truck. While this year did move quickly, it certainly didn't fly by for me. I feel the need to stop and look back at the changes I've gone through in the past 365 days. There have seriously been moments of blood, sweat, and tears. Heh, as far as the blood goes, I'm considering that moment to be when my metal legged sofa was dropped on my face during the BRUTAL move in process of the first apartment out here. Awful, awful day. Since that nasty day I've explored loads of Southern California, my parallel parking skills have improved 10 fold, I've been interviewed on the Warner Bros. lot, I've tasted the sting of the lay-off like millions of others, and I've built my website and started this blog. Thousands of other little bits and pieces have happened along the way but it's been a year of immense growth and experience. It hasn't been easy but, then again, I typically don't make easy life choices for myself. Often times, I prefer to take the trickier and more difficult path and I'm usually glad I do (at the end after a lot of sleepless nights and whining). So, California, Happy One Year Anniversary, you've been an interesting, trying, polluted, rain-less, and sometimes beautiful companion and I hope my next year with you will bring about some great moments and accomplishments. Cheers.

A visual trip down memory lane...

Don't be jealous of how amazing I look in this picture. But seriously, it takes a lot of work to look like this.


Navigation is important. Sock monkeys are excellent cartographers.




This pretty much summed up the trip and the move in process for us.




Ugh...so close yet so far.


Yep, this happened.


...and this happened for what felt like 17 years (when you're only going 60 MPH). Is it just me or do the hills sort of look like herb encrusted salmon?


Finally! Oh, wait, we still have to navigate our way through the freeways of Los Angeles in a 16ft truck with an attached car on the back. Can't wait!

Dwell on Design Convention!

As I mentioned a little while ago, I made my way down to the L.A. Convention Center on June 26th to check out the Dwell on Design convention. It was a huge exhibition space with loads of architectural and interior design vendors, booths, and displays and plenty of great ideas for environmentally friendly and sustainable design. I spent several hours exploring the space and chatting with a few vendors (more to come about that). There were also lectures and a design competition or two. All in all, a fun, exhausting, and informative day. Here are a few images!!

Finally! After parking on the wrong side of the convention center and walking 37 miles.




Nice banner set-up here.


Some amazing vintage posters (the real deal) that were so far out my price range, we're talking thousands of dollars. Really fun to look through and the staff could tell you ALL about them.


Design contest! Winner got a Wacom tablet. I'd love a Wacom tablet as well *wink, wink Christmas list*.


Lovely pottery pieces! Wouldn't this make a gorgeous collection!?


Wasn't expecting to see laundry detergent at the convention. Look at them being all hip with their Eames chair!


The model IQ haus. Pretty nifty...


The new Dyson fan that is so far out of my price range that I can't even see it on the horizon.


I'll go with along with this...


Jealous of this playground set...


The fireplace for the woman (or man) in your life who doesn't have enough Swarovski Crystals.




These lighting fixtures were very cool!


Absolutely gorgeous surfaces from Soli Architectural Surfaces


I love this Italian tile. I don't want to think about having to clean it all the time, I just want to think about how lovely it's going to look in my imaginary bathroom.


Bad picture on my part, but coolest hammock EVER!


While most of the goods at the convention were pretty spot-on, I seriously have to question this rug. Why did this happen? This pug needs medical aid.


Hah, on that note, I will ride off into the sunset...and by sunset I mean Burbank.
PS: Congrats to all hard working folks who made it all happen!