Sweet By & By

Juno

What a good, good little movie. Loved the soundtrack, loved Paulie, loved Jason Bateman, loved the music-related subplot, loved Ellen Page. I snuck out on my own this afternoon, and my movie choice was either Juno or Atonement , but I decided I needed something a little heartwarming and funny on this rainy, gray afternoon, so Juno it was. It was also good to see the Pacific Northwest in all of its lush glory -- I pegged the filming setting as Vancouver and sat through the credits to see if I was right. I was.

Autumnal interlude

We take what we can get of fall in SoCal. The trees wait 'til Thanksgiving to really turn, and sometimes we're really lucky and get a little rain and/or chilly weather to go with the color show.

We had the quintessential fall day at the Arboretum last weekend, and captured the fun and color (the reds - oh my) in some great photos (most of which B took - how 'bout that shot of the Night Heron? wow).

Felt Club XL

Felt Club XL Holiday 2007 was 100% better than last year. It was outdoors this time, with plenty of room to roam and browse, beautiful crisp autumn skies, great Gen X music, and amazing crafts at each and every booth. I had a blast, all by myself, lugging a bag that got heavier at each stop. What a fun outing!

My very favorites: Boy Girl Party, The Paper Princess, Rock Scissor Paper , and one more that I can't divulge because I bought everyone's Xmas presents there, it was that cool. That booth was jammed all day.

Meet "Brownie" and "Barney" (above, named by the kids) from Hot Dog n' Bun. How could I resist those faces?

I treated myself to an owl from Rock Scissors Paper and a mousepad from My Favorite Mirror.

On a related note, my mom participated in her first craft fair this weekend and sold a bunch of stuff, including her bird prints and card sets. We are very proud of her!

Leo Politi & ArtNight

Pasadena is such an amazing community for the arts. Last night was ArtNight Pasadena, and many of the cultural institutions were open late and featured hands-on activities, special exhibits, and shuttles motoring people all around town. It was a cool fall night with a rain storm heading in, perfect to be inside and viewing culture in all its forms.

Our favorite stop was the Pasadena Central Library's homage to Leo Politi, a local children's author and artist who wrote books centered on multicultural themes, used LA and surrounding environs as his setting, and paired his stories with his incredible pastel drawings. The library had a patio set up for kids to do crafts based on Politi's stories, folktale theater performances, Spanish dancers, exhibits of his paintings, live music, and much more. The kids had a blast. Politi died in 1996, and would have been 100 years old in 2008, so his centennial will be celebrated throughout next year;  the library event was billed as a "preview" of what's to come. 

Berries, boats, boogie boards

One family vacation down, one to go.

Avila Beach and surrounding environs were wonderful - gorgeous sights, plenty to do, relatively relaxing (as much as it can be with four young cousins in tow). We went berry picking at Avila Valley Farm (raspberries and ollalieberries were ripe for picking and turned each kid a lovely shade of red), took a "Sub tour" of Morro Bay and saw a family of otters floating lazily in the kelp, and watched L. navigate the waves with her boogie board.

We also happily discovered San Luis Obispo -- a cross between two of our favorite towns: Santa Barbara and Boulder, Co., where B. and I went to college. It has all the features of a larger town (great galleries, many coffeehouses and pubs, great shopping, a college) but has the sleepy feel of a smaller town - with awesome little historic homes to boot. We actually inquired about housing prices and were a little sad to learn they're quite high for the region. I guess we're not the first ones to "discover" it.

My favorites of the trip were the unplanned and unexpected finds, like the amazing Dinosaur Caves in Pismo Beach that housed several lunar-like islands directly off the park and that served as a pelican roosting spot for the evening. The sunset there - and the jousting pelicans - that night were unreal. We also loved finding the river-rock labyrinth in the forest on one of our evening walks.

   

Next up, Seattle in a few weeks, for the big wedding shin-dig and quasi family reunion.   

Big tree, little kids

  I love this photo.

Kids under a big tree (we can't remember what kind) at the Huntington Gardens on Mother's Day.

We spent most of our visit in the Desert Gardens, which are, needless to say given that its the Huntington, incredible.

Soothed

After our rough week, it was perfect to head to our favorite California destination, Santa Barbara.  We hung out on the beach and thanked our lucky stars for such incredibly blue skies and gorgeous waves.  The sunken garden's of the city's Court House proved to be a relaxing place to hang out and play with some new toys from our favorite consignment shop.

We spent the night, had decadent blueberry pancakes for breakfast at a great old house-turned-cafe we discovered, antiqued and thrifted, and headed home for dinner out with our pals Nick and Marci.  We feel better.

   

A new haunt

In the Why-didn't-we-do-this-before category, we joined the Huntington Library and Gardens last weekend.  Be still my heart. The gardens are expansive and contain countless themed areas. We obviously headed straight to the Japanese Garden and were just stunned by the beauty, simplicity, the colors ... wow.  The children's garden is a blast too -- lots of interactive water features and little tunnels and caves. The institution--world reknowned for its library and art collections, as well as the gardens -- is only 3 miles away. We'll be there lots this year.

Ringing in the new year

                                                                                  We marveled today that we live less than a mile from a national institution -- the Tournament of Roses Parade. We woke up, watched the "stealth bomber" fly-over from our front yard, and strolled down to the corner of Lake and Colorado to watch the parade unfold. The kids were mesmerized and could see quite well, thanks to a garden stool and the stroller, upon which they stood. B. was in awe of the Star Wars theme and even shoved L. next to a Storm Trooper to snap a photo.

Pasadenans on New Year's Day feel a little like the kid in school who has the best show and tell -- we bust with pride that our San Gabriel Mountains and historic Old Town form the backdrop to this nifty event and are shown nationwide on television. Swarms of people crowd every corner and cranny along Colorado Blvd., and streams of people walk along side streets all morning to get to the parade. The Goodyear Blimp is a fixture in the sky all day.

Our family has had quite a parade-float holiday week -- we went and watched the floats getting decorated at the Rose Bowl Pavillion on Friday morning, and then, serendipitously, stumbled upon several of them last night that were getting lined up for the parade as we came home from dinner. We parked the car and walked along the load-out path in the frosty Arroyo with only about 100 other people. It was magical.