a fun autumn weekend

ghostbusters in the park

friday night we grabbed a blanket, a few beers and some snacks to head over to the park for an outdoor viewing of ghostbusters. it was great! i realized that this was actually my first time watching a movie outdoors and hopefully the first of many. it's more fun in some ways than going to a theater because everyone sings along with the theme song or recites their memorized lines along with the actors. you don't have to be as quiet since it's a classic movie everyone has seen a dozen times.

oak glen california

a couple of friends told us about oak glen, ca when we first moved here and we've wanted to go ever since. it's best in fall because there are rows of apple orchards, pumpkin patches, press your own cider stands, hayrides, bee hives, petting zoos and all of the other quintessential autumn activities. it's about an hour and a half or two away from los angeles so it's a really nice getaway from the city. we took along a couple of friends and set out for a mini roadtrip on saturday.

autumn is definitely my favorite season and i really feel like i've relished it this year. i've done some baking, started working on a homemade costume, taken this roadtrip to oak glen and of course the movie in the park.

fresh pressed cider

we're scarfing down some delicious cider while watching some people press their own.  it was really fun and it's amazing how MANY apples it takes to make a gallon of cider. not pictured are the dozens of honey bees swarming around. 

comet the miniature donkey

i have dreams of one day owning a bunch of land and having farm animals - horses, chickens, and now a miniature donkey, obviously. this sweetheart was so cute i had a really hard time saying goodbye!

hawk's head publik house

we decided to try out the most popular and best reviewed restaurant in oak glen. considering this is a tiny town with only a handful of restaurants we weren't totally surprised when the hostess told us it'd be a two hour wait. yes, TWO hours. we put our name down and walked around a few of the farms in the meantime. 

it's a pretty neat place and overall if you visit oak glen i'd say you're not getting the full experience without eating here. the only lighting in the restaurant is the flicker of taper candles on each table and all of the employees are dressed in period costumes. it's an experience for sure.

happy fall!

i hope all of you are having a great fall as well. we've really been enjoying it and i'll be sad to see it go! luckily, christmas is right around the corner and we'll be going home for two and a half weeks so we have that to look forward to. can't wait!

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