summertime highlights

as it comes time to bid farewell to summer i thought i would round up some highlights from mine to share with you all. also, i haven't been the best at updating the blog for the past couple of months and i have all of these pictures that i really don't want going to waste.

our anniversary

may 30th of this year marks our sixth anniversary and my oh, my how it has absolutely flown by! we weren't sure what to do to celebrate this year so i hit up groupon for some ideas. i found a whale watching excursion that sounded really fun in huntington beach. our boat found a blue whale! that's him poking his blowhole right above the water in the bottom right picture. 

we've had such a fun time growing together and learning from one another. if we've learned anything it's that you inevitably have your ups and downs but through it all you know you have one another. that's the foundation in my opinion of a strong marriage, putting pride aside to stop an argument mid sentence and just hugging the other person because you love them more than you love being right and you'll do whatever it takes to make the other happy. you have each other and that's all that matters.

 i think we're both realizing that since we've moved to california that these are going to be some of the best times of our lives and ones that we'll definitely look back on fondly one day as we're reminiscing with our future children. it's an odd feeling to be knowlingly living some of the highlights of your life. but hey, we're  not complaining!

our birthdays

a household of two cancers over here! two days apart in fact.  on my birthday i was particularly feeling a little lonesome and homesick but coming home to this surprise from my thoughtful, sweetheart of a  neighbor sure did help! she's made me feel more at home since day one. she's always putting little notes in our mailbox and doing sweet gestures like this. i'm thankful for that!

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visits from old friends

we've been so fortunate to have lots of visitors this summer to help ease us into the transition of living so far away. it's been wonderful. we had such a blast showing emily and jimbo around hollywood, malibu, burbank and  road-tripping to veeegas! i can't even begin to tell you how insanely hot it was in vegas. i mean like literally take your breath away, sweat dripping the instant you step outside kinda hot. phew!

what really prompted the trip was us missing out on a concert that jimbo was really excited about in LA because the tickets ended up being sold out. he noticed they were playing in vegas so we decided to make the journey out there because well, why not?! in the meantime, all i was concerned about was finding a hotel with one of those classic pool parties i'm always seeing on social media. well, it certainly happened and it lived up to everything i was hoping for! 

sequoia national park

a couple of months ago benji's brother cal came to visit us and we made the three hour trek up to the sequoia national park. why the redwoods get all the glory, i don't know! these trees are seriously underrated people. basically the redwoods are the tallest trees in the world, while these are the largest by volume. so in other words these trees are massive! the largest tree in the world (by volume), the general sherman in this park, is 36 feet in diameter at it's base. amazing!

also, i finally got a national park passport on this trip and i'm pretty dang excited about that. i can't wait to fill it up!

another visit from an old friend

did i mention we've had a lot of visitors this summer? ha! my friend meg was on a business trip in vegas and decided to come visit us while she was at it. we had a great time. we went to runyon canyon park, venice beach, hollywood and lots of other places i'm forgetting at the moment. i'm especially thankful that she came because total she was away from her little girl for over a week. i know that was tough.

beach daaaze

we love beach days! we headed out for some sun and sand this past weekend. our favorite one to go to is hands down, zuma beach. the water is so clean and it's a great escape from the crowded, touristy beaches in the rest of LA. the weather was perfect and we even got in the water since it wasn't frigid like it usually is. let me tell you, the waves are huge up there! i can see why people like to surf here...it's incredible.

i hope you all have had a great summer! 

xoxo, 

ashley

summertime

it's funny, at the beginning of the 2015 i told myself that i was really going to live it up this year. it's the last year of my twenties and who knows, possibly my last full year without children so i made a promise to myself that i would go new places, see new things, put caution to the wind and have fun like i did when i was eighteen. with this milestone birthday looming over my head i feel a certain sense of obligation to myself to accomplish some things i've been wanting for years. a few of those things being: one really amazing trip to europe or a pristine beach somewhere, make headway on my career (hairstyling and makeup), either start keeping a diary again or blogging, get my creativity back, move to california once and for all, put forth a conscience effort to eat healthy and excercise on the reg, make new friends and have the most fun i possibly can through it all.

we are only on this planet once and only have a short seventy or so years, if we're lucky, to do everything we dream of and it can slip away within the blink of an eye. i'm bound and determined to feel like i've made the most of it. i mean, i've been really shocked at how many new places i've seen and things that i've done already this year. i'm not even seven months in and already i'm really excited about everything that has happened so far. cheers to life and enjoying it!

bookshop

being from a teeny tiny town in the mountains in the throes of city life, sometimes (a lot of the time) i just want to throw my hands up in the air and book a one-way ticket to easter island or some remote place far, far away from it all. someplace where they don't even know what pollution IS. (seriously, i watched a documentary on easter island one time.) especially living in LA with 24/7 traffic and smog. but then i find a place like the iliad bookshop within walking distance from my house and i feel thankful again to live in a city with some culture. i could get lost in these aisles for hours.

el matador

we've had a lot of visitors since moving out here and we're expecting to have a lot more. it's no secret that we are kind of obsessed with malibu. benji's parents came to visit us for ten days last week and our first stop was of course, el matador beach. there was some girl make pretty art out of roses on the sand. also, this picture of benji sparked a google search to see if 'merman' is a real word and i somehow instead found a man in florida who lives his life as a mermaid. he's on youtube. look it up.

but first, chaaai.

the next day i took benji's folks to a coffee shop in burbank i've been wanting to try, the commissary. it was the best chai latte i've had and i might just become a regular. 

warner brothers studios

the same day we also went on a tour of warner bros. studios here in burbank. it was a lot better than i expected it to be! the picture on the left is of their three story prop house. they found out after getting them that these chandeliers appraise at over a million dollars each. wowza. it's cool to know what lies behind that water tower i'm always driving by on the way to hollywood. also, we got to see the set, in the first picture, that they use to film a ton of their movies and shows and now i can't stop spotting it in everything i watch.

mission inn hotel & spa

this place, you guys, is nothing short of wonderful! it's so picturesque and birds are just chirping away everywhere you go. we stayed a night here in riverside california with benji's parents. we had a great dinner and brunch the next day. along with some good ole vitamin d at the pool. 

joshua tree

after leaving riverside we roadtripped over to joshua tree national park. we stopped at pie for the people for lunch before heading into the park for some sight-seeing. it was so stinkin' hot compared to last time i was there when hillary and i were in sweaters! it actually felt like a desert this time. 

the getty

i think if you're coming to los angeles the getty museum should be on the top of your list of things to do. good grief, it's gorgeous. i've been twice this month and i don't regret it. my in-laws loved it! this time they had better art on display. paul cezanne on the left and van gogh on the right.

pacific coast highway

when you have the option between a six hour drive and a twelve hour drive to the same destination you would choose the shorter route, right? duh! well, not us. we chose the scenic route up to san francisco, aka the PCH. all i ever hear about is 'oh, it's supposed to be the prettiest, most scenic drive in north america'. blahh, blah, blah. what they don't tell you? it's also the SCARIEST. holy shiz, you're on top of cliffs over the pacific ocean maybe 10-15 stories up the entire time. the only thing between you and a free-fall into the wildest ocean you've ever seen is a skinny little guard rail here and there. well folks, i lived to tell about it and although it's a nail biter, i'd do it again and i think you should too! it's one to check off the bucket list.

san francisco

one case of vertigo and twelve hours later, we made it! san francisco is my favorite city. i've been once before several years ago and forgot how much charm this place has. it's so unique with it's cable cars, bay bridges, row houses, trolleys and steep hills. we went to a concert, haight and ashbury, pier 29,  the golden gate bridge, telegraph hill, golden gate park, berkeley, mama's for brunch (omg, yum) and other places that i know i'm forgetting.

that's about it for now. hope you all are having the summer of your life! 

xoxo, 

ashley

life lately.

malibu

last weekend rebekah, benji's cousin, stayed two nights with us and we were able to show her some sites. we went to eat in los feliz at el condor and to bigfoot lodge her first night with us. both were great! then we ventured out to malibu and ended up having dinner in santa monica at blue plate oysterette the next day. it was a good time!

pasadena

we have been on the hunt for some mid-century modern dining chairs to match our table we got recently and it's been no easy task let me tell you. i've been searching every website i can think of for the perfect chair and it just wasn't happening. so, after rebekah left we decided to head over to the rose bowl flea market to see what we could find. it was a warm, sunny day and although we didn't find any chairs i did leave with a really cool suede fringe purse and a fresh squeezed watermelon lemonade. i was ok with that! 

griffith observatory

chances are if you've been to LA, you've been to the griffith observatory. it's a well known landmark around here and for good reason. we visited it a couple of months ago when we first got here during the day and it was pretty cool. we saw views of the hollywood sign and watched a video in the planetarium. this friday after dinner we decided to drop by just for something to do and boy, it was a great experience. the skyline view at night is breathtaking! it just goes on and on and on. unfortunately we got there too late, but if you have the time there's an amazing telescope that you can stargaze through. the line takes about forty-five minutes to get through, just fyi. 

also, i finally figured out how to get those dreamy light shots like i've always loved! i just love how the colors turned out in these.

the getty 

i had this plan for saturday that we would have this beautiful, lovely picnic on the lawn of the getty museum in LA. well, that didn't happen on account of it looking like the bottom was going to fall out of the sky at any minute combined with the fact that we can never leave our house on time. so we headed over to our favorite little taco stand, fiesta taco in burbank for a small (ok, large) feast. we like to eat.

another LA spot with fantastic skyline views! wow, the getty was a stunning place. the art exhibits were great, but i really enjoyed the architecture and people watching even more. lucky for us i left the picnic blanket in the car since there ended up being a free concert by Cathedrals. all in all, it was a great weekend and i can't wait for many more like this in our new city.

i hope all of you had a wonderful weekend as well! 

xoxo, 

ashley

c a l i f o r n i a

lots of changes have occurred over the past few months in my life. as i was getting my business off the ground and adjusting to a new position at a salon in atlanta as a hairstylist, my world was somewhat turned upside down (in a good way) very quickly. i had only had this new position for maybe three weeks when my husband was offered a job working for nickelodeon in los angeles, california. the offer came toward the end of february and his start date was in the middle of march which meant one thing: hurry! i sold lots of things, planned the logistics of moving across the country, said my goodbyes to family and friends and hit the road in a matter of two or three weeks! it's been a complete whirlwind! 

i have wanted to live here for literally as long as i can remember. i'm a beach bum at heart and have always been completely enamored by the film industry with dreams of working in it in some capacity. (hopefully that capacity will be hairstyiling and makeup. fingers crossed.) in fact, benji and i have put off buying a house and "settling down" for several years to keep this dream alive and possible. to be here, to actually live here and be making a go of it...it's an odd feeling. very surreal. like, how the hell did this actually happen? 

my plan for ashley williams designs is to rebrand my website to be predominantly hair and makeup. i love event planning and decorating, but being that i'm in a new city with fewer connections than atlanta, i think it's best to keep my focus narrow.  i haven't come up with a definite timeline yet, but stay tuned. my blog will continue to cast a wider net and incorporate a little bit of all of my loves: interior design, event planning, hair, makeup, fashion, cooking, etc.

onto our adventures! i'm just going to post a little bit about what i've been up to since we have moved here.

i went with my friend amy and her son, johnny, to the LA zoo a few weeks ago. it was super fun despite every child in the tri - county area being there for spring break! i've always been an animal lover and would watch them all day if i could.

oh you know, just your average neighborhood road in southern california. the palm trees make me so happy! 

californians love their donuts! there's a shop on practically every corner around here. these are from a favorite of ours, the donut hut.

across the street from the donut hut, the perfect photo opportunity. who put this there?!

i know, i know. california needs to stop being so ugly right?! ha. on saturdays we have a ritual of going to the beach in malibu. the mountains and scenery are absolutely glorious up there. this weekend we're going to break tradition and see what laguna beach is all about. i'm excited! 

weekends are for exploring. a couple of weeks ago we headed up to santa barbara for some sightseeing, a good dinner, and a walk along the bay. it was beyond beautiful. i'm dying to go back and either go kayaking or whale watching.

i'd live in this house. happily.

boats on boats on boats.

meet ol' handsome. aka, my best friend.

we drove over to santa monica last sunday to see what it's all about. i didn't realize muscle beach was in santa monica. i thought it was on venice beach. also, i didn't realize that it consists of lots of circus, acrobatic type equipment. there was a lot of tight rope walking and hula hooping. not quite the scenery i was expecting! 

well, hopefully that didn't bore you to death! i'm making it my personal goal to update my blog more frequently.  hold me to it. also, stay posted for the new changes that are coming to my business and website! 

xoxo, 

ashley