Earlier this summer I was tooling around a beach town with Karen, my cousin/favorite shopping buddy. We were walking past this shop that was obviously serving a clientele that did not include me. Lots of things you’d see at your grandma’s house, doilies draped without irony or juxtaposition, tapestries, framed shadowboxes of nautical knots, images of cats rendered in every color and medium, and there in the back on the clearance table was this little bird family.

I snapped them up for $1 for the little ones and $2 for the mom and dad bird.

Karen, a beacon of fashion and style, gasped at my luck and pointed out that these birds would fit in perfectly at Anthropolgie or Urban Outfitters, just at 10 times the price.

Lesson learned. Do not turn up your nose at the grandma stores.

It has been SO. Darn. Hot. here over the last couple of weeks. Too hot to cook, too hot to wear clothes you’d be seen in public in, too hot to touch another human.

There are only so many nights that you can scrounge around to make a dinner out of cold cereal and crackers, so we had to do something creative.

We bought a fondue pot a few weeks ago and this seemed like the perfect time to bust it out. I just love fondue. Nibbles of cheese and carbs is like heaven on a platter to me. When we were first married Bear would throw me a carpet picnic on special occasions. We’d lay on our bellies on the living room rug and stuff our faces with grapes and fancy crackers and little bits of cheese and deli meat. This fondue party made me so nostalgic, and made me promise myself I’d bring back the carpet picnic tradition.

But this eating a solid pound of cheese was pretty great in its own right.

I wish I had a scratch and sniff blog. Because the smell of my studio brings me so much pleasure I’d love to find a way to share it with all of you.

I don’t know, some combination of the paper, and the fabric, and the wood furniture…I almost always stop upon entering the room and take a big deep breath. It just smells like possibility to me.

The patio furniture arrived last week, and this weekend it was finally sunny enough to enjoy it.

Whoever started the outdoor couch trend is a hero in my book.

All last week was gloomy and rainy and, sure enough, that was also the week that all the new patio furniture arrived. [As an aside – if you’re looking for patio furniture, Overstock.com is awesome and has free shipping.]

I may not have been able to go put the new outdoor couch to work, but the rain is perfect for one thing – curling up under a blanket with a snuggly baby and sticking my nose in a good book.

I spent a day a few weeks ago strolling through the resort town of Balboa Island with my dearest cousin Karen.

I really couldn’t think of a sight that was more Newport Beach than a Paul Frank beach cruiser parked outside a fancy seafood restaurant.

Southern California is such a deeply weird place at times. A place of extremes. The beach bums and the high society matrons are frequently married to each other, the arch conservatives shop at Whole Foods, and this little tiny island, with it’s quaint little houses and old fashioned candy store, has some of the most expensive real estate in America.

It’s fun to visit, but boy is it a whole different world.