The Cinnamon Rabbit

How's this for adorable? I found this blog in a completely disjointed, 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon kind of a way (friend of a friend's girlfriend's friend....not a lie, not a lie). I love Julia's illustrations for a few reasons; not the least of which is that they're basically the type of thing I'd like to spend the rest of my days doing, but also because she infuses these images with such style and also a blank slate kind of innocence.

I'm sorry, but do you or do you not covet the above girl's hairpiece?

The Apartment

Oh boy, am I ready to free myself of this empty, empty place! The beautiful (excluding the ugly carpet), memory-filled apartment I've called home for nearly 5 years has truly been reduced to a shell of its former, glorious self. We're talking a bed in a white box. Sunday, all will be cleared out, and it will be time to move on to bigger and better things- such as Los Feliz!


I'm so overcome with excitement about moving into the fantastic house across the street from the Enchanted Royals tree (the one that makes up our homepage- talk about meant to be!) that I can't help but buy tons of art. Some of my purchases:

from hisss:



(found these because Alyson from unruly things posted this amazingness- not for me, but I could think of about a million people who would obsess over this guy for hours!)


I'm also very excited about my new Keep Calm poster from Keep Calm Gallery. (I'm buying it in yellow.) They're based in England, so I have yet to get the final shipping price quote, but I love that it comes in a great, ornate frame to juxtapose the stark typography. Man o man, decorating overdrive.....


All of this illustrated amazingness makes me so excited for Haley and my upcoming project involving our Aspen trees.(Not to mention a new development that just appeared on the horizon that has us bouncing off the walls! Updates on all that soon to come.)

Be on the lookout- it's going to be lovely.
---Dara

Michael C. Hsiung

A few nights ago, I met Michael Hsiung, a friend of a friend based here in LA who does some great illustration work. His line drawings have a sort of cohesively weird and whimsical tone that I really love. Dig the mermen! Check out his website here, and his etsy store here!



-Dara

Opening Ceremony

I was seriously beginning to wonder when this mecca of insanity was going to open an online store. While most of these pieces are out of my price range just now (move out date: T minus 8 days!), it's only a matter of time before that lovely "sale" section is installed!

Love these:


also these:

So long, farewell, auf wiedersen, goodbye.....

After 4 1/2 years of living together, my wonderful roommates and I are parting ways and heading off to new, exciting Los Angeles neighborhoods. You can't leave a spacious apartment that has housed so many lovely memories in the past (most notably 4 fabulous Thanksgivings, often with 20+ mouths to feed!) without a proper send off! So send off we did.













---Dara

Much delayed

Okay, this is getting ridiculous.

It's been far too long! We do have an excuse; life has been quite a whirlwind for us girls this last month. Firstly, my trip to San Francisco was an overall success.
I drove the 6 hour drive by myself, listening to The Reader on CD (nothing like a harrowing tale rife with Holocaust-related themes to brighten a lengthy night drive, right?) and stopping only once for a bite of grilled cheese at the Peach Tree Cafe.



They really, REALLY like thermoses and lunchboxes. And I mean, who can argue?

I'd gotten new Oliver Peoples glasses mere moments before beginning my drive up (thank goodness- driving long hours at night in contacts is a bit of a scary, blurry mess), so I wore them most of the weekend. Perhaps a bit too excited about my first new pair of glasses since sophomore year of college...I kept going into frame stores all over San Fran to see if there was another great pair. Oh boy.


I stayed with my college "heterosexual lifemate," Laura. Laura and I were roommates for a year and a half of college, and besties extraordinaires. She lived in LA for a little while also before her job at a certain unnamed online networking community took her up to San Fran. It was great to hang out with her and her wonderful boyfriend, who works with her and lives down the street.


The school itself was pretty amazing. I got to see examples of graduate work (completely inspiring and of course utterly daunting- boy do I have a lot of learning to do when it comes to using Illustrator and Photoshop!) and meet with an advisor. I also got to see the fashion department....if I still were pursuing a fashion-related career, Ithat would be a pretty exciting place to be, as well. Their program looks pretty fantastic. The tools at your disposal are certainly inspiring- most exciting for me was a device that you plug a hand-drawn pattern into, and out comes a machine-woven knit featuring your design! (No pictures allowed on the tour! Definitely disappointing.)

I got to hang out with my other friend in San Fran, Elena, during my last night there. We had insanely amazing fries at a place on Valencia and she did a great job of talking me into a frenzy of excitement about the city that I will hopefully be a citizen of come fall.

Luckily, my drive home wasn't quite as lonely as my drive up; Chris's best high school bud, Dave, decided to take the trip down for the weekend, so I had a road trip buddy!

This sign was outside his second-story apartment.

All in all, quite an eventful trip. Haley's experience in Aspen was no less insane, but I'll let her tell you!!
hearts
Dara