Category: Fun Days

MOCA’s First Thirty Years

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Ed & I headed up to catch the awesome First Thirty Years exhibit at MOCA two weeks ago, and being the modern art lovers we are, we have to say we enjoyed every bit of it! The exhibit is sort of a “greatest hits” of modern art. Of course, there are many pieces that you’ve seen before – but nonetheless, it was really cool to have them all in spot. Be sure to click the exhibition link as mentioned above, the site has a really great photo gallery that shows a lot of the work! (Unfortunately, Ed & I were only armed with the iPhones, so we didn’t get many pics!)

Probably the most impressive was the photography collection. I have been fascinated by photos of people ever since I was a kid, and two of my favorite photographers were on display:  Garry Winogrand & Diane Arbus. Both of them have a real knack for capturing the most odd, yet beautiful images of ordinary (and in Diane Arbus’ case, NOT-so-ordinary!) people. Doesn’t hurt that they capture some fun 60s stuff, which both Ed & I love. Here are a few of my favorites from the show:

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Diane Arbus: (top) Lady Bartender at Home with Souvenir Dog, 1964, A Jewish Giant at Home with his Parents, 1970; (bottom) A Family on the Lawn One Sunday in Westchester, N.Y., 1968, Identical Twins, 1967

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Garry Winogrand: (top) Couple in Central Park Zoo, 1967; (bottom) Kennedy Space Center, 1969

There were lots more that we really loved and hadn’t seen before.  Ed looked pretty space age in RM669 by Doug Wheeler (1969), and I loved Mirror/Mirror-Table/Table (1964) by Richard Artschwager!

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Go see First Thirty Years at MOCA before it’s gone!

Another Sunday Funday in Los Angeles

This past Sunday we headed up to Van Nuys for the annual Best of France and Italy car show. This show was basically Ed’s dream – it featured French and Italian cars mostly from the 1950s-1980s. It was not your typical car show! I have learned quite a bit through osmosis just by being with Ed for so long – so I must admit, I really enjoyed it too! Many of the cars you just wouldn’t see here in the States, and we were impressed by the variety and condition of the ones on display!


This little number was one of our favorites – a 70s model Citroen DS21! Ed and & I LOVE these cars. They look so space-age and so unique. Just a bonus that this car was red!

The DS models have these really cool lights on the back and just don’t look like any other car! We’d love to own one, but they are really tough to find stateside, and they are waaay out of the price range!

This is a fun 60s era ad for the Citroen – so space-age!
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Some other favorites were this Caravelle Convertible …

And, who could forget the Renault “Le Car”?!?

Then, as if Ed’s morning couldn’t get any better, he unexpectedly spotted his favorite car ever – an East German communist Trabant! These are extremely rare and even more random – this car had Hungarian plates!

Ed stands happily by the Trabi

After leaving Van Nuys, we decided to do something completely different – we headed down to Culver City to see Sanrio’s Three Apples art exhibition, which was celebrating 35 years of Hello Kitty!

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Hello Kitty was such a staple for girls in my generation growing up … the pencil cases, stickers, lip gloss, you name it – every little girl coveted their Hello Kitty stuff, and she’s certainly maintained her staying power through the ages! Three Apples was cool because in addition to showcasing TONS of HK merchandise throughout the years, they also had a lot of favorite low-brow artists showing work inspired by HK. The space was impressive and we had an awesome time!

Here are a few favorite art pieces from the show:

(L): Mermaid w/Hello Kitty by Gary Baseman, (R): Awesome Velvet Hello Kitty Elvis!


Tara McPherson’s HK piece


Loved the colors and “classical” twist to this one.


Crazy Lady Gaga Hello Kitty Portraits!


A darker side to HK

As I mentioned earlier, the show also did an entire product retrospective. All the stuff they had there was amazing! Our pictures don’t really do it justice – there were entire rooms just filled to the brim with stuff – but here are a few:

Notice the dress made of stuffed HK’s!


An obsolete “plug in” phone I would’ve loved as a kid! And, lots of HK sweet treats.

Just when our day couldn’t have possibly gotten more fun, we had dinner plans with our dear friends Britt & Wade. Wade was making us dinner – and when he cooks, its ALWAYS amazing! He ended up serving a beautiful salad and the tastiest beef stew we’d ever had!

Salad with greens, avocado, yellow and red tomatoes, onions and toasted walnuts = YUM!


An amazing Beef Stew to welcome the fall – who cares if it was 90 degrees that day? :)

And that concludes another Sunday Fun Day!

More Baby Shower Crafts!

On Saturday, I was lucky enough to be a part of Jennifer Shrier’s Baby Shower! I volunteered to make the favors, and we decided on making a CD. The theme of the baby shower was a Mama Bird/Baby Bird, “nesting” theme, so all of the tracks on the CD had to do with birds in some way. Here’s a few shots of how the favors turned out:


As usual, I also knew I wanted to make a diaper cake. Ever since I found out Jen was pregnant, I knew I wanted to buy her these kitty Mary Janes for the top of her cake! This is how it turned out:

Close-up of the shoes (available in grownup sizes, too!)

And of course, the amazing Joni Newman made the cake and the cupcakes. This was her first time using fondant, and I think she did an outstanding job! Joni can do anything she puts her mind to, and I am very proud to know her! Here’s a shot of her cake and cupcakes – all vegan and delicious!

Overall, it was a fantastic day. We all even got to make our own onesies at the shower! Our host Elizabeth Arzate had the great idea and she rounded up tons of fabric swatches, felt, stamps, paints, and ribbon for us all to make our own creation.

I stuck with my kitty theme:

And here are a bunch of others!

Our hostess with the mostess Elizabeth, along with the Mommy-to-be-Jennifer!

Congrats to Jen & Laurence – we love you guys & know you will be amazing parents!

Sunday Funday with the 4Foodies

This post is a little belated, but word on the street is that we’ve got a few readers asking why we haven’t been posting any of our culinary adventures lately. Well, the truth is, we’ve been busy – and kinda broke! But whenever we get together with our friends Brittany & Wade, we become the 4Foodies, and we always end up with a crazy food-related day! We spent the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend bouncing from one food quest to another!

crabpot This picture accurately depicts our happiness in discovering that The Crab Pot features $3 mimosas and bloody mary’s from 11-4 every Saturday & Sunday! We can’t recommend sitting out on that sunny, scenic patio and sipping cheap beverages enough! (By the way, The Crab Pot is fully endorsed by Ed, who says it is probably his favorite restaurant in Long Beach. He can’t get enough of “The Feast”) We sampled a crab cocktail, and it was alright – but those $3 drinks induced a huge craving for something else. So, after we’d had our fill of champagne and crab, it was off to the next location that offered something with Brittany & Wade’s “HIGH CRAVEABILITY RATING” …. “THE SPECIAL” at Joe Jost’s!

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Apologies for the dark iPhone photo, but The Special is a hot dog that’s split down the middle with a pickle in it, resting in a cozy bed of rye bread, cheese and mustard. Brittany says YUM!

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Even more legendary than The Special, Ed and Wade are showing off Joe’s famous pickled eggs! Apparently, you gotta get an egg when you go to Joe Jost’s. Wade insists for a good pickled egg experience, you must chase your bite with a peperoncini. So, I even tried one – and as I represent the “sometimes-finicky” segment of the 4Foodies team, I have to admit that after getting over the initial shock value, they weren’t as bad as they sounded! :)

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Amongst all the drinks, specials and eggs, we decided nothing could be more fun than to rent a Duffy boat and cruise around Naples for an hour.  So we gathered two more couples and hit the open sea! We had lots of yummy wine and our favorite pita and hummus from the best Farmer’s Market ever – the Long Beach Southeast Farmer’s Market at the Long Beach Marina, that we scored earlier that day. This is why we live in Southern California!

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Man Overboard! Wade couldn’t contain himself – he had to jump in.

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An awesome 70’s style silhouette pic of Ed & I – so cheesy!

After our escapade on the boat, we went back home to prepare for dinner! Wade swears by “the fish guy” at the Farmer’s Market – and he always scores amazing seafood from him. You see him cut it right in front of you! He’s always got fresh, sushi-grade fish, and Wade always ends up with a masterpiece! He bought swordfish and he made homemade pesto and pasta to go along with it – so there was much to prepare! Wish we would’ve gotten some pics of Wade’s fantastic dinner – but we’ll have to take more next time. Consider it a reason to come back and check up on us!

The verdict is in – and Labor Day Weekend, although gluttonous, was the best ever!