Music gives me the warm and fuzzies

There aren't too many things that I miss about living in L.A., however this past weekend, I realized how much I miss the Hollywood Bowl and their summer music series (actually, the music scene in general I also miss)! An evening out with friends, picnicking while watching the sun set and listening to some wonderful music was one of my favorite pastimes of L.A. (the only other event that can compare is Cinespia - watching classic movies in the Hollywood Cemetery).

I am happy to have found a place for me to get the warm and fuzzies over with excellent music. The Montalvo Arts Center is such a unique and incredible venue for music and arts. The venue was built in 1912 by Senator Phelan and is a center for creativity that offers art courses, gallery exhibits and concerts. Another trip just to stroll the grounds is highly needed. It's an intimate center where every seat is a good seat (general admission tickets are the way to go, we had nice seats but didn't need to pay the extra money for it) with acoustics that make it feel like they are playing just for you. My favorite was feeling like I was at someone's home instead of a "venue."

• the villa •

• behind the villa •

We went to see Ozomatli who is one of my L.A. favorite bands and have watched them perform a few times all over the L.A. area so to have them play close to my new home was so perfect. They took advantage of the intimate setting, performing into the crowd, bringing out their children to perform and they closed the evening with an impromptu jam session in the villa's courtyard. Even after their mini-jam session ended, they continued to hang out in the courtyard meeting all their fans.

• lead singer, raul •

• raul was cool •

• music makes me warm and fuzzy - although wine can help •

I have been neglecting my musical self while living in Santa Clara (there really aren't too many places that are close by) but I am releasing the inner-hippie in a few weeks to see Phish at Shoreline. I haven't been to Shoreline so am curious if I will like the venue. I am happy to know that there is a little gem of a place now in the Saratoga area that I am going to have to frequent more! :)

Wedding Photos - sneak peek

We have been eagerly awaiting the photos from our wedding from our photographer, Joy Harmon Prouty (Wildflowers Photography) who teams up with her husband and is based in Thousand Oaks. All of their photographs evoke a feeling which is the most important thing when it comes to photography (you should really surf their wedding photos and newborn photos. If we're living in the States when we have a kid, I'm so going to them!) We are just so overwhelmed by their pure awesomeness!

We haven't received the final disc of all the photos and I'm sure that when we go through them, we will find photos that are our personal favorites but in the meantime, here are two links of what Joy loved (which are all perfect and the music from the slideshow is fantastic).

Wildflowers Photography - Best of Slideshow

Wildflowers Photography - Blog

• our first glance, what a perfect location •

• wowzers •

• i heart this photo •

• perfect family photo •

Semi-Scuba Diving Adventure

My parents came up to visit a few weekends ago and the main reason for it was to dive at Point Reyes, Carmel. Upon entry at the Point Reyes Park, they advised us that the visibility was only 3 feet with a high swell. We were determined to go scuba diving since my parents (mainly dad but mom joined as company) drove up from L.A. for diving. We decided that we should check other portions of the Monterey Peninsula so the next stop was Lover's Point, Carmel.

We were the only scuba divers in the area (including the parking lot/beach area which is uncommom) but figured that maybe we should give it a try.

• hi •

• time to swim out •

• dad doing a final check to make sure all is OK •

So we swam a few hundred yards to see if the conditions would get better. My dad decided to first go under to check visibility to only come up after thirty seconds to declare that there was no visibility even at twenty feet down. With that realization, we both concluded that it was not worth attempting to make the dive so we swam back to shore.

And herein lays why I don't like beach diving. As we got closer to the shore, I crawled on all fours to slowly move out of the water but took out the regulator, placed my mask on top of my head and breathed in huge gasps of air. For about those three seconds, it was the calmest moment that I could ask for... until the set of waves decided to come behind me and wipe me off all fours and I had to struggle with all the gear, trying to get the regulator back in and not lose my mask.

Valuable lesson learned! Do not take off the regulator and mask until I am fully out of the water. I have never been pounded so much before by the waves. It took about an additional ten minutes for me to grab my mask, regulator and get out of the water because every time I was able to gain some sense of balance, came another wave. Don't think that I'll be doing another beach dive anytime soon, it's just not fun with the waves!

I am itching to go diving so I will be heading down to L.A. at the end of July to dive Catalina Island. I am really looking forward to that! In the meantime, here is a picture of my mom doing what she does while waiting for us to get out of the water.... making warm Ramen for us! YAY!

Love Grows...

Surfing through some green friendly wedding prep website, I found an invite company that specializes in eco-friendly wedding invitations that was DIY (which was important since we did Dutch and English versions). Almost all of their invitations are tree free, 100% post consumer recycled papers and we fell in love with the Seedling invite which is plantable paper with embedded Cosmo seeds. Since we have a lot of the paper left over from our wedding, we thought that we should plant our paper and see what happens. We planted them throughout our backyard but due to the valley's heat, nothing seems to have sprouted (as of yet). However, we did plant some in a planter where it gets a lot of shade and to our merry surprise, they started growing! We can't believe that the invites are growing and can't wait to see what flowers grow! :)

• exterior •

• interior •

• quote from "The Alchemist," one of my favorite books •

• growing •

• our planter with part of the invite sticking out •

• Remember that wherever your heart is,
there you will find your treasure.
You've got to find your treasure
so that everything you have learned along the way can make sense •

Fifth of July

It's been a very long time since I've stayed at home to celebrate the Fourth of July. Usually, I aim to travel someplace far away to celebrate all the while trying to sneak in a firework show. I've enjoyed this awesome holiday from Boston, New York City, Prescott, Las Vegas and even Vietnam. So finding myself not making plans for this year was a little odd but I'm glad that I did. We kept it mellow by having a BBQ, playing games of Scrabble with our friends and we ended it with a bike ride to Santa Clara's Central Library for their fireworks show. There are not a lot of places in the Santa Clara/South Bay area to view fireworks and this was a spectacular show. It was free with lots of places to lay out, have a few drinks and wait for the unobstructive show to start. Of course, the Fifth of July has been a holiday to recoop from the wicked hangover (getting older definitely does make the hangovers last much longer) but it has been such a great weekend of relaxing and enjoying ourselves without the stress of traveling. I might get the hang of this!

• waiting for the show to start while moon gazing •

• relaxing •

• boom •

• bang •

• kabloowee•

• some of my favorite fireworks photos that i took.
wish that there were more fireworks shows
so i can keep working on taking firework pictures,
it's a toughie •

Things to do on a holiday weekend?

It's a three day holiday weekend and for once, we're actually staying in town and it's quite bizarre (although, in reality, I don't work on Fridays so I always have a three day weekend but for Marijn to be home is the bizarre part). So what does one do when they are staying local to try and avoid the crowds?

• laundry? eh, not out of clean underwear so that can wait

• clean the house? it's always neat, just needs to be cleaned but that's just too much effort

• do yard work? it's supposed to be a hot weekend so no thanks

• finish thank you cards? we're in the home stretch, just need to sit down and do it but since mail isn't being picked up this weekend, that can wait

• watch fireworks? drunkenly walk to central park in santa clara and watch them will be a must. or climb onto our roof and watch them from there (although drunkenly getting on top of a roof doesn't sound safe :)

• watch the hangover? have yet to see it so after a few margaritas, might be fun?

• drink beer? mmmmkay, no arm twisting on that

• catch up on my reading? that is a needed

Whatever we do decide to do on this long weekend, we'll be sure to celebrate this holiday with food, beer and fireworks - all the essential ingredients for a holiday!