Tales of delicious conquests and sparkly ones...

Because we all know sushi is delicious, and things from Pottery Barn are sparkly. Quite literally, I'm afraid.



Behold my new "initial ornaments." I brought them home from work a couple of days ago, and plan to hang them on my bulletin board until I put up my Christmas tree.

I know, I know. You're all saying, "But Marina, surely you could make those!" Yes, they are quite simple and plain, but I have no glitter on hand, nor ribbon, or heavy off-white cardstock. So, you see, by the time I gathered all of those things, they would have been much more than a buck fifty a piece.




Bought or made, I think they're pretty cute. You should go check them out if you can, or, for those of you that actually have glitter on hand, make them!

Now on to the delicious part of my blog post. Kyle and I went out for a spontaneous sushi date the other night. We haven't had any sushi in 6 months or so (!!!) and we needed a sushi high. So we went to our favorite place in Emeryville and got all of our favorite rolls.



49'er Roll. (Yes SF for the win!)


Poke Tuna Roll with Seaweed salad on top. Nom.


My favorite, Godzilla roll. <3 Sarachi.


The sushi was nearly as amazing as the company, but not quite. :) Not as handsome either. Kyle was not feeling very open to photos across the table from me, so unfortunately I can't support that case with photo evidence. *shrugs* Oh well.



As for today, I don't have work until 5pm! Finally! A morning to myself, where I can drink a cup of coffee, read blogs, and perhaps crack into my book if the fates allow. I have a strong urge to go to Anthropologie before work...but I'm not sure that's such a good idea. We'll see how it goes. Until then I feel like sitting here and getting some of my Christmas creative projects started. We all know those will get pushed back until Christmas eve if I don't get a head start.

I'll leave you with three upcoming milestones.

1. My 100th blog post is coming up next! I'll make some art to go with it.
2. Kyle and I have almost been dating for 2 years. Exciting stuff.
3. New Moon comes out in 13 days...

You all have a fantastic weekend! Sending chilly fall smooches your way!

~ Marina

A candy bag's load of Halloween Pictures...

Because I don't have many interesting things to say at the moment, I'll overload you with pictures to describe a lovely Halloween (aka my Brother's birthday!) weekend spent with my family.


Visited Squeeze Inn, my brother's favorite burger joint. A teeny tiny hamburger shack in Sacramento, CA that will have you questioning the normal size of a burger. I forgot to take a picture of the actual burger and decided to show you the after picture. Hah.


Then we carved teh pumpkins. Methinks you've seen these guys before.


Carving...


Results! I think mine looks like Chewbacca. Kyle has snot coming out the nose of his pumpkin, and my brother's has devil hons. Also, I should note for his benefit, that Kyle's pumpkin had an 1/4 of an inch pretty much SOLID green layer right under the skin. My man works hard to carve his pumpkin.


Here's the night shot. oooooOOOOOooooo....spooky.



Dinner noms. David's favorite dinner is "snack-dinner," as we used to call it when we were kids. Buncha small plates and appetizers. Very delicious.


Birthday boy! :)


Drive home. <3 Cali scenery.

I'm off on a sushi date with my man. I have a plan for a post later...here's hoping I go through with it :) Night!

Love,
Marina

Weekend Happiness...

Happy weekend before Halloween, all! I hope you have many a-wonderful fall plans. Tomorrow I have a full day off (due to serendipity) and I'm hoping we can venture back to Livermore for some wine tasting/buying.

Anyway, I've put together some of my favorite etsy links from the past coupla weeks. All of which I'm coming to terms with when/if I can buy along with my Pottery Barn christmas purchases coming up. Oh...money...I hate you.

Etsy first.



Here we have a lovely and unique sweatshirt that looks oh so soft and edgy. I like it when sweatshirts aren't baggy and this one is just the right amount of long. I really really like this.



I found this brooch the other day and I am in extreme love with it. In fact I may just go click "add to cart" as soon as I'm done with this... I'm a sucker for brooches and I think this fall/winter they're gonna be huuuuuge.



You all know I love birds. I saw this little fella on the front page the other day. Not to be confused with a hacky sack.




I think I found this jewelry maker in a gift guide or something, but she has some really lovely, delicate silver pieces in her shop. I especially love these tiny twig earrings and this necklace with a glass and silver bauble. Really, truly, love these.



I missed out on the whole fingerless gloves/wristwarmers last winter. I think this year I need to jump on board. Especially since I still have my black chenille gloves from high school...:[ Anyway, these are especially adorable and I really like the buttons on the wrist.



After admiring her posters for a very long time, I finally decided to invest in JHill's beautiful wall calendar for next year. June FINALLY has a good picture in this calendar. (I usually feel shafted when it comes to June's calendar picture.) The colors and print patterns are just lovely and I can't wait to hang this on my wall!



We're starting to get the new holiday merch in at the PB store. We may or may not be setting up holiday next week. I find myself getting much too excited about the upcoming holidays, then I get very depressed because I realize that it's not even Halloween yet! Yikes! Anyway, this quilt caught my eye in the catalog first. I need a new red-themed cover for the bed, and I love the look of this quilt. Plus plaid on the back? I'll keep my fingers crossed and see how it looks in the store.



We got this pillow in the other day and I carried it around with me for a few minutes. Small little lumbar pillow with bells on the corners. Oh gosh, it's cute. I think it shall rest on my couch this year. :)



On the other side of my couch shall be this pillow. I love this over sized mistletoe pattern. It's beautiful and the colors, in person, are very vibrant and...Christmas-y. (Hmmm, imagine that)

I won't even get started on all the ornaments I want, or the live Christmas tree I want that probably isn't a very good idea. For now I'm going to look at my pumpkins outside my window and remember that it's still October. Enjoy your weekends everyone, and I'll hopefully have some more to share next week.

Love always,

Marina

P.S. I'm about to go click "add to cart." Are youuuu going to make any shameless purchases today?

So Many Fall Lovelies...

After having a somewhat rough-and-tumble start to my day, it ended up quite well if you ask me. I feel like I'm finally in the mood for fall, gourds, colors and all. I was very excited for the possibility of getting to the pumpkin patch today, and was pleased when we actually DID get a chance to go. I conveniently forgot to take my camera out of my purse, but worry not, there are plenty of photos later.

Kyle wanted a warty, weathered pumpkin, and I wanted a classic shaped pumpkin. Unfortunately for this little pumpkin patch, neither of those existed for us. I settled (unwise) for a very lovely gourd with deep folds and a lovely shade of orange and Kyle waited until we stopped at the grocery store where he remembered seeing some pumpkins to his liking. Warty indeed, let me tell you. Also, right on top of the pile, was a perfectly pumpkin-y shaped pumpkin. I started feeling bad for my poor purchased pumpkin in the car and am now quite smitten with him.

Anyway, while walking outside to photograph our new friends, I fell in love with the colors of fall and got a little trigger happy.




So beautiful.



Even when, in truth, the outside looks like this. It's nice to know that there's a little smidgen of beauty even in the strangest of places.





I was, of course, greeted at the door by our little monster. I think He's going to attackz me.

I have also been quite busy with a little craft idea of mine. Saturday I had about 2 hours to myself in between scheduled work, so I stopped at the fabric store. I've been seeing these beautiful fabric necklaces all over. I'm sure you remember this necklace I posted a while back, and I was again reminded by the Urban Outfitters catalog that popped in my mailbox last week.

I've been braiding lanyards, Barbie hair, pony tails and fabric scraps for years, what's the worst that could happen? Leftover fabric scraps? Bring it on! So I braided and twisted and came up with this necklace which I'm quite fond of.




I found this lovely stretchy fabric that comes in these great muted desaturated colors and I'm thinking about making this a gift for Christmas. Am I the only one who thinks this is kind of cool looking? Maybe I just look like a hobo...no offense to hobos.

Anyway. Aside from the mountains of work that I have piling up, that's about what I've been up to. I promised I have a few more photos from the Treasure Island Music Festival. Quite a fun day that was. A perfect blend of my favorite kind of music and the eclectic San Francisco style. I was very surprised how cool and hip the crowd was. I didn't feel out of league at all (as I sometimes do at hipster rock shows). In fact the only thing I regret, was wearing my Toms instead of my boots. Turns out boots are the new flats this season and EVERYONE was wearing them.






Grizzly Bear


The Decemberists

Aside from the ambiance, the whole campaign for the show was quite impressive. Beautiful type treatments, lovely merch, and of course a great new graphic poster I managed to find. Of course I'd be gaga over the TYPOGRAPHY at a MUSIC festival.



That's all for today. Still building up some more Etsy faves. I'll try and do another post this week. Happy fall everyone!

Love,

Marina