Board games, puppies and cityscapes in black and white

Photo by my dad

Mabel's sister, Pearl, who lives with my parents in AZ

The majority of these photographs were taken on the rooftop of my parents' loft in downtown Los Angeles, where we played board games and sipped cold beverages underneath the warm sun.  I'm afraid this blog will be dominated by photographs of Mabel for a while, but I'll try my hardest to balance them with photos of people, too.  She's just too darn cute!

**The second to last photograph is a typical representation of Mabel at her laziest; she loves lounging on people belly side up!   

Meet MabieBaby

She's here!  Our French Bulldog puppy has finally moved in and she's absolutely adorable.

I'll be slowly adding posts from my trip to Los Angeles this past weekend where we celebrated my little sister's 21st birthday.  I've got LOADS of photos so it may take a while, but they'll hopefully be up by the end of tomorrow.  We had such a blast.

New this week at The Betties

90s grunge turquoise FLORAL ROMPER WITH SWEETHEART NECKLINE, pleats, and tie back....$22

RED JOAN DRESS with gold-faced belt, loops, and gold buttons down the back....$30

hawaiian print FLOOR-LENGTH HALTER-TOP DRESS with buttoned slit....$28

PAISLEY MERLOT BUTTON-DOWN BLOUSE with bow collar....$15

cream colored turtleneck sweater with RED PIPING AND RED EMBROIDERED BOW—perfect for the holidays....$26

Many thanks to Miss Krista Michelle Tatiana for giving up an entire afternoon to model clothes for the store!!  The photographs are lovely.

I will be putting these up on The Betties' site within the next couple of hours.  I hope you enjoyed this set of clothing items!  (I am absolutely smitten with them, but then again I say that about all the merchandise... :)

*Wishing for Winter

MAD MEN

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I can't get enough of Mad Men.  Though it's been on the air for a few years, I only just discovered the show while visiting my parents a couple months ago.  If you haven't seen it, I suggest you purchase the first season and start catching up!  It is the most well written show I've ever seen.  And if that isn't convincing enough, the main character is a total babe:

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I love the fashion, too. 

(Betty Draper's especially)

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See Colin's favorite scene here.

And mine, here.  

(I couldn't embed them so I'll have to trust that you'll click on the links to view them!)

We've only just started the second season, which explains why both of our favorite scenes are from season one, but we can't wait to see how the story unfolds.  The characters seem so realistically complex that you can't help but allow their stories and experiences to envelop you.  It's an incredibly intricate plot line, one that requires your undivided attention (Colin likes to chat while watching TV and he's learning that you can't really do that with this show--we're constantly having to pause and rewind!!) because every little bit of the story matters.  

I can't wait to see what happens in tonight's episode!

**Happy Birthday to my little sister, Carly!  I hope your 21st is everything you imagined it to be.  Enjoy this disturbing video of a hedgehog swimming in some women's tub.

Sickness strikes again

Krista's sickness has taken over my body and has left me confined to the couch once again.  Z seems to be unaffected by my unwillingness to move.  She gets complete pod time today (which is the name I've given to her little bed) and she loves it.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be feeling more like myself.

The good news is we're getting takeout tonight!  Yumm...

Skip-frogging rocks and poking sea anemones

Yesterday Krista and I went to the tidepools in Point Loma.  We weren't sure whether or not our GPS was a trustworthy navigator, as it led us through the hilltops of a military base of some sort, but eventually we reached the other side of the mountains where we found a small beach surrounded by immense rock formations.  We combed the tidepools for interesting wildlife (I really wanted to see an octopus), but only happened upon thousands of anemones and some crabs.  I spent a lot of the time poking my fingers  in the centers of the anemones and watching them slowly engulf my finger with their sticky tentacles.  We managed to keep dry while jumping from slippery rock to slippery rock, apart from Krista's Converse, which sacrificed themselves for the journey.  (My camera returned from the trip unscathed!)

Krista had said on Monday that she had really wanted to go to this local cafe near the apartment to "read and look sophisticated."  To pull this off, she insisted on finding and purchasing a pair of non-prescription glasses.  We ended up running a lot of errands during the day and were quickly losing sunlight so we abandoned the quest to find the glasses.  On our way out the door, what did I happen to see in the little patch of grass outside our apartment??  A pair of non-prescription glasses!  It was fate.  I love weird little coincidences like that!

Today we'll be heading out to the beach to catch some rays.  It's supposed to reach 92 degrees here!