New Patio Set

So a few weeks ago we found out Cost Plus World Market was having a huuggeee sale on patio furniture. Perfect, we REALLY needed new patio furniture, especially considering the only patio furniture we had in the yard was a picnic table that looks like it's about 30 years old. Seriously, we were scared to sit on the picnic table, let alone rest a foot on the table or its benches.

Being the serious bargain hunters that we are, we drove to 3 different Cost Plus World Markets that day. By the end of night we ended up with a patio table for about $50, 6 chairs for about $8 each, a huge patio umbrella for $20, and a few pillows for a couple of dollars each.

Point of the story is we were pretty stoked with our purchases....

I spent a lot of time putting teak oil all over these babies to protect them from the very harsh San Diego elements, cough. ;)

I think the world always looks rosier through red and white polka dot sunglasses ;)

Now if only we could just fix up the backyard, so we would actually want to sit outside and enjoy a meal....

~Tammy

Almost Famous

A few days ago I wrote about our good friend's art show on the blog. You can see that post here.

That very good friend, Dennis, videotaped himself as he made five beautiful paintings in a week. Dennis turned the video recordings into a time lapse video. The whole thing is pretty awesome. You can read more about his design process and see more of his videos here. :)

Dennis Caco- Run/Cycling oil paintings in Time Lapse from TEKNO VIKINGS on Vimeo.

~Tammy

House Guests

One of my good friends is staying with us while she searches for a place to live. 

We're so excited that she brought along her sweet puppy, Paddington.

Paddington helping me blog

A little bit about Paddington 

 He responds to the names PePe, Monkey Butt, and Poopy Head

He is a cairns terrier, but everyone we meet on the street seems to call him Toto

His brother Corduroy may be coming to live in San Diego soon too 

He thinks he's our guard dog and barks at everything that moves past our front door (including all the pit bulls in the neighborhood. I keep trying to remind him he's little, but he's in denial about the entire situation)

Paddington wears a leopard print diaper around our house (see above photos)

He swears one day we'll let him hang out on our couch. For now, he's just a bit sneaky about the whole thing. Every time we time we turn our heads away from him he manages to sneak up onto the couch. Then, when we tell him to get off the couch, he looks away and pretends he can't hear.

Clearly, Paddington is more like a 2 year old child than a dog

Paddington grew up in New York City, but we're convinced we're going to turn him into a beach loving San Diego-an (San Diegan? lol insert Anchorman quote here) in no time.

You can probably tell, we're all a little obsessed with Paddington

~Tammy

An Afternoon at the Bay

I spent my last Friday of vacation at Mission Bay. Oh how I will miss the ease of lazy summer days....

Like most Southern California girls I live in my Rainbow flip flops. Us SoCal-ers fondly refer to these shoes as our "Rainbows". I managed to achieve a pretty awesome Rainbows tan this month.

Ze Rainbows

Behold the Rainbows tan

After a couple of hours I grew a little bored of laying on the grass and walked over to the Hilton San Diego Resort and Spa to "crash" the pool. Is it really crashing if the pool attendants know I'm not staying at the hotel and they don't care? ;) Anyway, the Hilton San Diego Resort and Spa is a beautiful hotel with an awesome pool if you're looking for a nice place to stay in San Diego. It's right on Mission Bay, really central (close to Downtown, Pacific Beach, Balboa Park) and minutes to Sea World.

Back to reality, cough work, I go......

~Tammy

About Us

- loves working out (yoga, pilates addict, + boot camp attendee)

- goes shopping way too often

- definite California girl

- trying to improve her interior design skills

- is happy laying on the beach with a good book and a towel

- loves a good cupcake

- grew up in California

- will watch ANY movie

- loves to surf

- definite computer nerd

- enjoys 80s music

- working on becoming more handy

- are loving + living in San Diego

- purchased our little run down beach bungalow in December 2010, and have been working on renovating it since then

- love to travel

- are the adventurous types, but are also happy spending Saturday night hanging out on the couch and watching movies
- are really just trying to figure out this whole "grown up" thing.

Favorites

I can't stop listening to this song, Regina Spektor "Us"

To make it even better, it was in one of my all time favorite movies, "500 Days of Summer".

~Tammy

Fill in the Blank Friday

Today I'm linking up with The Little Things We Do for some fill in the blank action.

1.   One of life's most simple pleasures is  taking a walk along the beach.

2.  Getting a stupid parking ticket for "not turning my wheel towards the curb" at 8am on the Saturday morning, when I'm parked on a slope and not a hill   makes me want to punch someone.

3.  I like   my home    because,    we've put so much time, energy, and effort into making it what it is today. Although it continues to be a work in progress I am proud of what we he done so far, and look forward to the progress we will make in the future.

4.    Shenanigans is my favorite word, and also   is a funny word.

5.  If I had to choose one beauty product to use for the rest of eternity it would be    Sabon Body Scrub in Patchouli Lavender Vanilla, it smells amazing and makes my skin oh silky smooth ;).

6.  I'm happy that    I have had the month of August off from work. It's given me time to rewind and think about what is important and what I value.

7.  I would never     sky dive or bungee jump. I am way too afraid of heights!

Hope you all have a beautiful weekend :)

~Tammy

Cruise Friends

In April Nadav and I went on an incredible cruise to Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas. Since we're the "cool adventurous type" (as we were referred to by the senior citizens on the cruise) we opted for the ziplining excursion in Puerto Vallarta. Cough, I'm so "cool" that I was so scared during the first 3 ziplines that I forgot what to do, and got stuck in the middle of the ropes. (At least I was strong enough to pull myself across without any help from any of the zipline employees. I attribute that strength to boot camp, thanks Ray) Luckily, I was able to conquer that fear and just have fun after the third zipline when my fear of heights subsided a little.

Nadav and I getting ready to zipline. Does my face read "uhm fear of heights, fear of heights AHHH!!!"?

That's me and Rach rappelling down a waterfall

Our zipline adventure was amazing, but the best part of the day was meeting these wonderful people, who we were so happy to find out lived ten minutes from us in San Diego. We spent the rest of the cruise eating having fun with these great people, and are so thankful we can call them our friends.

Oh look there we are eating, again.

We've been in touch since the cruise and the other night Dennis and his wife hosted a party at their home. Dennis is an artist, and challenged himself to paint five pieces in a week. The paintings were incredible, and were inspired by his dedication to endurance sports. Dennis, you're so talented and we're so honored you invited us to see your new artwork.

Here are some pictures from the evening

Looking forward to spending Friday evening with our cruise friends, woop woop!

~Tammy

9 Mushy Happy Things, and 1 Silly Happy Thing

This morning I laid in bed and finished reading The Happiness Project, by Gretchen Rubin. 

(I realize it's 7:40am, I am on vacation from work, and I am very much a morning person. I have always had a tendency to wake up incredibly and unnecessarily early much to my parent's dismay hehe) Rubin's book has impacted the way I think, perceive, and treat myself and the people I interact with on a daily basis. I am grateful for that, and hope I can maintain this more positive way of looking at life and engaging with others. 

Last summer in Maui.. siighhh

On that note, I'd like to start a " 10 Happy Things" feature on the blog

1. Those moments when Nadav and I are just hanging out and being our nerdy selves, and I look at him and I think, "Man, you're cute" or "Geez, I love you"
2. Driving into my parent's neighborhood and thinking about the times I rode my bike down this street as a kid, colored with sidewalk chalk on the driveways, and ran into my friends' homes to play. (There also was the time I rode my bike into a trashcan and chipped my tooth, which I also find pretty entertaining)
3. Watching Real Housewives of ANY city with my mom in her bed and talking 
4. Letting my dad show me around his front and backyard and listening to him proudly talk about all the beautiful flowers and plants he has planted
5. Seeing my brother growing up and being so proud of him
6. My best friend's baby's EVERYTHING... his laugh, fingers, smile. There's nothing like holding a baby you love.
7. The comfort of old friends and the memories we have already made and will make
8. Making new friends
9. Working on this blog, realizing it's become a hobby I love, and hoping that some people are enjoying following along.
10. One Sprinkles Cupcake (or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 Sprinkles Cupcakes)

Hope you enjoyed

~Tammy

Our Favorite Sushi Spot in San Diego

Nadav and I eat A LOT of sushi, and we try lots of sushi restaurants, 

but we keep coming back to Ikiru Japanese Restaurant

Ikiru Japanese Restaurant is a little sushi restaurant hidden in Liberty Station, which was a naval base in the early 1900s. It's an incredibly beautiful and historic place to walk around, and is now a large business/restaurant/shopping mall that is right on San Diego Harbor. Liberty Station is still growing, but we really enjoy finding great restaurants there and talking a walk along the harbor. We also find ourselves taking a lot of our out of town visitors there.

Now back to Ikiru Japanese Restaurant...
The fish is so so fresh, the rolls and nigiri are so so flavorful, everything has so much flavor, the sushi chefs are awesome, and it's a relaxed and friendly atmosphere.We like sitting at the bar, chatting with the sushi chefs (Jay is awesome!), and asking them make us their own "off the menu" sushi creations.

Appetizer: Fish and Chips... so so good

One of sushi chef Jay's creations

Another one of Jay's creations

And even another one of his creations ;)

..and we just came to the conclusion that Ikiru Sushi is our favorite sushi restaurant in San Diego.

A photo Dalphin took of us at Ikiru a few months ago

And to make it even better.... you can use one Restaurant.com coupon there a month ;)

Doing It the "Right" Way

Well, we headed to the races again this weekend, but we tried to do it the "right" way this time around.

Somethings that didn't go quite right the last time...
- Nadav forgot his wallet
- I forgot my ATM card, and had about $5 of cash with me (they don't take credit cards at the races)
- We didn't have any cash so we couldn't bet on any races
- We had just enough cash to buy lemonade... and none left for alcohol. Awesome right? I guess I was really craving lemonade...
- We got stuck in the parking lot for 2 hours after the concert ended, which actually turned out to be pretty entertaining

Oh well.. we still had an amazing time because we were together (watching Weezer!) hehe. :)

This time we tried to do things the "right" way...
- Nadav remembered his wallet
- I had cash
- I ended up winning 3 out of the 4 races I bet on. My strategy for betting is very mathematical and scientific, I pick purely based on the horse's names. This time the horses I picked were named "Full Fashioned", "Ron Burgundy" (an obvious pick), "Luv Dragon", "Jade and Diamonds", and "Dr. Evil". Clearly, I'm quite skilled at picking out winning horses based on the fabulousness of their names. ;)
- We met up with some good friends at the races
- We saw Devo (Nadav cough, was really excited). I'll admit I was hesitant, but I really enjoyed myself

Uhh apparently this contraption was once used to weigh jockies?

My "ok please stop talking blog outfit photos of me people are watching" face..Jacket-Lucky Brand from about 7 years ago, shirt-Macys from last summer, Skirt-Bloomingdales from last December

This woman's outfit and SHOES were so "Del Mar racetrack" I had to share hehe

Hope you all have a beautiful week

~Tammy

(Almost) Wordless Sunday

Live in the sunshine.

Swim in the sea.

Drink in the wild air.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

 ~Tammy

I Just Texted to Say I Love You

One of my new favorite videos.

I'm pretty sure everyone who reads this blog can relate to this video's amazingness. 

Enjoy :)

~Tammy

Random Nights

You know those nights that unexpectedly turn amazing? Ya, those nights are my favorite. 

They start with meeting one friend for a glass of wine at a great wine bar (Wine Steals in Hillcrest) and before you know it six new friends have joined you, you've had many more glasses, you've had Golden Spoon frozen yogurt (or maybe that's just me), you've walked to a Mexican restaurant for late night happy hour, and about six hours have flown by. 

Here are some pictures that sum up the night.

Wine Steals, cute wine bar with a really great happy hour

Oh Lizzaaa

Dress-Anthropologie, Shoes-Anthropologie, Belt-American Eagle from about 6 years ago

I'm currently convincing myself I need to go to boot camp at 9am.... must go work off the yummines I indulged in last night

~Tammy

Girly Getaway

I went on a short girl trip to Palm Springs this week with one of my best friends. I love Palm Springs, it's beautiful, relaxing, and incredibly stylish. ;) It's really the perfect place to unwind.

We chose to stay at The Riveria Palm Springs. A beautiful hotel with a great pool, yummy drinks, and a lot of retro style. Loved it. :)

The Riveria lobby wall

At the pool

Incredibly yummy breakfast at The Riveria

Free drink tokens at the pool. I know I know, they're cute!

Spicy tuna stack at Okura Sushi

Beautiful pool chairs/beds/cabanas

Anthropologie coverup

Happy Thursday :)

~Tammy