Beach, Bags, Reflections, and Sunsets

Robb and I spent Christmas in Southern California with my fam...it was a longer trip than was expected, but that turned out to be just fine. Robb was supposed to head back to Brooklyn on Sunday and wound up having to stay until Wednesday...poor guy, stuck with the crazy inlaws, right? To make our delay a little more fun, I declared that Monday should be spent doing something insanely Californian. So we woke up, drove Las Virgenes Highway down to the beach, ate some seafood from a shack while heating up in the sun, then drove down to Leo Carrillo to look at the tide pools (which we couldn't find due to high tide), watch surfers, skip stones, feel the cold water wash over our feet and suck our heels deeper into the sand. As the sun set, we drove through Topanga Canyon, stopped at thrift shops, and bought Robb a brand new pair of cowboy boots from the Boot Barn in Canoga Park. That night, we ate Wood Ranch Barbeque. Not too shabby, SoCal!

On the way to the airport the next day (another failed attempt at getting back to Brooklyn), we stopped at the beach again and took photos of my new batch of HeyAllday bags! You can check them out in my Etsy shop. I know I know...I'm a terrible business person. Where were these bags during the Christmas rush? Well...I didn't quite get around to photographing them. Sorry! But you know what? I'm not gonna beat myself up about it too much. In 2010 I accomplished two creative things I've always wanted to do but have been too overwhelmed to begin: I started a blog and I started an Etsy shop. At some point in the process, it became clear to me that neither of these ventures are about money or fame. They are about me sitting down to write a couple times a week; photographing anything and everything that I find beautiful (or hilarious); putting together a collection and noticing what I am drawn to; reaching out to friends and family to show them what I've done, and sometimes even showing the world what they've done. So I missed the Christmas rush...it's the least of my worries. For now, I'm daydreaming of spring and the kerchief headbands that I want to create and the people I want to meet and more In God We Trust backyard bazaars and a trip to Mexico that will likely influence my preferred color palette for the next year. A lot to look forward to, my friends. Thanks for following along this year...so much more to come!

And finally, a sunset snap from the 23 Freeway in Thousand Oaks. The silhouette of this landscape is so familiar. I could probably draw its lines with my eyes closed.