film

A BIRTHDAY ROAD TRIP

Bubble Gum Alley

tis true, my twin and i turned 26 last weekend and to celebrate we took a quick road trip to monetery. to make the most of our weekend, we headed up to san luis obispo on friday after work. it was a tough task but we made it. we stayed the night in slo so we could get an early start the next day, a reservation at the copper cafe was a good reason to set an alarm on the weekend.

this place was a DREAM. i’m already trying to plan another trip to slo so i could stay at the madonna inn and be surrounded by pink at all times of the day. *i hated pink as a kid and i think i’m making up for it now…*

Madonna InnCopper Cafe

Copper Cafe

*cody making fun of the fact that i ordered three drinks with my breakfast* yes, i bought one of those goblets from the store and will be drinking all of my liquids out of it forever.

did i mention these two joined us for the trip?? dang i love them. (best roommates ever)

Copper CafeMadonna Inn

post breakfast we went to see bubblegum alley- where you can surround yourself with other people’s spit and bad breath by choice! no, we did not contribute to the wall…

Bubble Gum Alley

Processed with VSCO with e1 presetProcessed with VSCO with e1 preset Processed with VSCO with e1 presetwe continued our drive up north by stopping in morro bay to try and see some otters. SPOILER ALERT: we didn’t see any otters but we did see a corgi so we consider that a win.

after our corgi sighting, we continued on to cayucos for some cookies and stumbled upon a vintage store where i almost took home this jacket…some serious thought went into deciding against this jacket. i toss and turn at night wondering if i made the right decision.

Drivingand so the road trip continues to big sur! this was a long stretch for us; it took a few hours to get to the next stop… a lot of snacks and some terrible views were consumed within those hours (see below).

so we didn’t get the obligatory bixby bridge picture… as we approached the crowded bridge it was a pretty unanimous decision “DON’T STOP! KEEP GOING! WE’RE ALMOST THERE!” we were so close (yet so far) to monterey and as much as we wanted this road trip to be about the journey, we really wanted to just stop driving. in hindsight, we could have used another day (or two) to really explore but you live and you learn right?! once we got to monterey, we dropped our bags off at the hotel and headed straight to dinner to drink and eat our weight in pasta – WE DESERVED IT.

before embarking on our journey back home, we wanted to see the beautiful 17-mile drive. i know what you’re thinking…”before you drive the 6 hours back home, you’re going to drive 17 miles to see beaches?!” the answer is yes, and like i said, “you live and you learn.” i loved our not so little road trip up the coast and spending time with my loved ones in a car for hours on end. would do it again in a heartbeat.

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our weekend on film below. xx

PLAYLIST NO. 3: SUMMER DAYDREAM

Pergo

Pergo, Italy / 9-4-2016 / 35mm Pentax

summer is officially upon us… i know that because 1.) it’s june 2.) i’m sleeping on top of my blankets 3.) WATERMELONS EVERYWHERE… i love watermelon, nothing says summer quite like a sweet watermelon… i’ve put together a playlist with some tunes that have been keeping me company in this summer heat. grab your swimsuit, slather on that spf 100 (skin cancer is no joke) and don’t forget your speakers.

you can listen to the playlist here.

  1. “maybe (luck of the draw)” – the vaccines
  2. “fields of blue” – tennis
  3. “don’t delete the kisses” – wolf alice
  4. “radio” – sylvan esso
  5. “real love baby” – father john misty
  6. “don’t take the money” – bleachers
  7. “big sis” – sales
  8. “hunger” – florence + the machine
  9. “so sad, so sad” – varsity
  10. “on + off” – maggie rogers
  11. “let’s find an out” – snail mail
  12. “next of kin” – alvvays
  13. “stay high” – spector
  14. “outer space” – liz cooper & the stampede

PLAYLIST NO. 2: THROWBACK THURSDAY

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Fullerton Arboretum / 8-7-2016 / 35mm Pentax

over the weekend i was combing through my songs on spotify and couldn’t decide on what i wanted to listen to. i gave up and hit shuffle to see what the spotify gods had in store for me… and then a song came on that i hadn’t listened to in a veeerrry long time. so many memories associated with that tune, it made me feel good listening to it again. it got me thinking of all the songs that i used to bump through my speakers day in and day out, some now sadly neglected by myself over the years. so! i put together a little playlist for this throwback thursday in honor of all those tunes that don’t get much play time anymore… you are not forgotten.

you can find my playlist here.

  1. “sealion”- feist
  2. “always like this”- bombay bicycle club
  3. “postcards from italy”- beirut
  4. “run from the gun”- dead confederate
  5. “magnetised”- tom odell
  6. “put me to work”- papa
  7. “here i dreamt i was an architect> dreams”- Colin Meloy
  8. “fever dream”- young summer
  9. “four winds”- bright eyes
  10. “cover up”- lucy rose
  11. “some place”- nick waterhouse
  12. “now and again”- tor miller
  13. “hey mami”- sylvan esso

PLAYLIST NO.1 : CURRENTLY

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Stockholm / 9-2-16 / 35mm Pentax

you can find my playlist here.

  1. “same airport, different man”- julia jacklin
  2. “life worth living”- laurel
  3. “nothing, not nearly”- laura marling
  4. “roma fade”- andrew bird
  5. “get not high, get not low”- feist
  6. “say my name”- tove styrke
  7. “warhol”- lisa mitchell
  8. “umpqua rushing”- blind pilot
  9. “have mercy on me”- the black keys
  10. “smoke”- mosa wild
  11. “fish eyes”- haley heynderickx
  12. “mama said”- cat clyde
  13. “everything looks better (in hindsight)”- the wild reeds
  14. “kocaine karolina”- elle king
  15. “dear simone”- jacob banks
  16. “my mistakes were made for you”- the last shadow puppets

 

DESERT X

desert x 3after our failed attempt at camping in the desert this past weekend (who knew the desert got so hot? -that’s sarcasm) we decided to make some lemonade with our sour lemons so we stopped by the desert x exhibition on our way home to see mirage by doug aitken.desert 2

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SXSW: LEO JAMES CONROY

ljc-4 very excited to be joining these boys at sxsw this year. leo james conroy made his solo debut at sxsw in 2016 but returns to the stage this year with some help from his friends. i’ll be down there shooting some fun content for them so stay tuned for all things sxsw! below are some photos from the live session we recorded last month.

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THE PEOPLE. Hannah Efron

55490007hannah is one of my dearest friends so when i told her about this idea, i was so glad that she agreed to be a part of it. hannah and i first met through a mutual friend in high school but it wasn’t until after we graduated that we became close friends. hannah is an artist living with her fiancé in cortona, itlay. she graduated with a bfa in painting from biola university. when i went to see her work i fell in love, so much so that i bought one of her paintings. i found her life and artwork exciting and inspiring. i loved hearing her talk about it which is what led me to explore the idea of writing about it. i wanted to create a space to document honest portraits of people telling their stories; what they do, what inspires them, why they create. by starting this piece on the blog, i’ll be photographing and interviewing other creatives and posting under THE PEOPLE. whether you’re an artist, wood maker, cook, designer…whatever you may be, we want to hear your story. so without further ado, here is the first installment of THE PEOPLE. featuring the beautiful and talented hannah efron.

theblog: what has it been like adjusting to life in cortona?

hannah: “it has been tough but really beautiful. when i moved here last year i had a really hard time adjusting to everything. i missed my friends and family and the familiarity of my life in california…i still do, but i’ve adapted and i’m happy to call this place my home. i’m still here a year and a half later and i love it. i speak the language now and have integrated myself into the community. i have friends who i love dearly here and i have a boyfriend (now fiancé) who is the most interesting and loving person in the world. i’m convinced of it. bless his patient soul.”

“when i came back from the states after studying here i felt like california wasn’t the same to me as it had been before.”

theblog: what brought you to cortona and what made you want to stay?

hannah: “i studied art here about two years ago. it was a study abroad program with the university of georgia. it was the best. i fell in love with the culture and the language and the food, obviously. i also stumbled across a young chap who i fell in love with. when i came back to the states after studying here i felt like california wasn’t the same to me as it had been before. maybe because after you live on the other side of the world for a few months nothing feels the same. my life in california was lovely but it began to feel smaller and smaller in the sense that i knew the world was bigger. my relationship with my boyfriend continued long distance and one day i decided that i would move to itlay after i graduated and i did. and that was that.”

55490003theblog: everyone knows each other in that town, do you miss los angeles and how big it is?

hannah: “you know, it’s funny- when i first moved here i didn’t know anyone. i had a deep longing to build friendships and see familiar faces everyday. i wanted to be a part of the group of ladies that gossiped outside the grocery store every morning. i used to feel annoyed that everyone knew me only as the american. they would all speak to me in broken english and i would speak to them in broken italian, i guess we both wanted practice. over time it became a playful game and i feel like people were genuinely excited to see me so they could practice their english. in LA i always wanted to slide under the radar. i wanted to quickly grab my whiskey at the bar and sit down with people i knew and people i could have familiar conversation with. because cortona is such a small town, after a little over a year the people here feel familiar to me. i like that. all that to say i do enjoy leaving my house and saying hello to everyone i pass.”

55490001theblog: where is your favorite place to go in cortona-your happy place?

hannah:”this gelato place called snoopy’s. that’s where i feel most happy. all jokes aside…kind of… my favorite place to go is to the top of the town where you can look over the entire valley. i don’t know why i like it, i just do. it makes me feel good.”

theblog: when did painting start for you?

hannah: “i don’t recall a specific time when painting started for me. when i was a kid it was my favorite thing to do. i am and always have been introverted and it was something i could do by myself. i liked making stuff and i’ve always liked the feeling of pushing paint around.”

“painting has always meant discovery to me. it’s always been very natural. it’s my quiet place.”

theblog: what inspires you?

hannah: “people say i’m often distracted but i’m usually just overly intrigued by something around me, so yeah i guess that is distraction but average things inspire me. it’s a puzzle translating things i see and hear into abstractions and i like that. puzzles are fun”

theblog: are you inspired differently in italy than you are in california?

hannah: i am but i’m not. colors and shapes in my paintings have become more subtle but they always seem to be as they’re supposed to. i’ve always seen my paintings as recordings in my life. it’s pretty simple actually. if i see something i like, i paint it. different seasons in my life are very obvious to me when i look at my work.”

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THE WORLD: ITALY

55480021after my stop in stockholm, i was on my way to italy to see my dear friend hannah. i took a bus, plane and train to get to cortona and after a full day of traveling, it felt so good to see a familiar face and such a cute one at that! i met hannah’s boyfriend luca, their new pup milo (mee-lo) and i finally got to see the place that hannah’s been calling home for the past year and a half. after i arrived we met up with luca’s friends and went out for drinks and dinner. luca told me how they all grew up together, knowing each other’s families and playing on the same futbol team… he was explaining to me how where they’re from you’re born and raised there and you don’t really leave- his reasoning “why would you want to leave?” after my time there … even i didn’t want to leave!

in the mornings, hannah and i would walk down to the piazza with milo to get breakfast before she went to work. milo and i would wave goodbye as she left for the train, then make our way back home for some good old fashioned puppy cuddles. 55400003luca is an amazing cook and he really knows his stuff. i felt so spoiled having these two cook for me. coming from someone who is pretty terrible in the kitchen, eating delicious homemade meals was a highlight of my trip. for lunch they made homemade fish tacos… i still have dreams about it and hannah’s habanero peach jam!55480011

5548001655480019most of the time milo and i would keep each other company while we waited for our food to be ready. 55480012on sunday we went to luca’s parent’s house. his parents had a fig tree and we picked some right from the branch, they were so sweet! all the food here is so fresh, luca picked basil from the garden and made pesto from scratch for our pasta. like i said… he knows his stuff!55460018

we took a trip to florence so hannah could take me to eat the most delicious sandwich on the planet…i stand by my last statement.55450012florence55450004

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THE WORLD: STOCKHOLM

55390010earlier this month i went to visit a friend in italy. i booked my ticket through kayak which had an amazing deal…the catch was a 21 hour layover in sweden going to and from italy…fine by me! i’ve always wanted to go to stockholm so it was nice to get to spend some time there and explore the city, even if it was for a hot second. in my first 20 minutes in stockholm, i stumbled upon a record store. i went in and asked the guys who worked there if they could recommend a good swedish album that i could buy. they showed me a couple of options and then both agreed on det stora monstret. i was anxious to listen to it, i figured these guys would either take this seriously or just give the “american” the worst record they could think of. thanks to them, i now own an amazing record and one of my favorite souveneirs. 55390014walking around gamla stan i was going in and out of all the shops and cafes. i took this after i had loaded up on all the swedish chocolates i was going to bring back to the states. i love that this picture makes it look like a ghost town when in reality everyone’s actually inside the candy shop…that place was a zoo but it sure was magical. shortly after, i began to crash…my jet lag was REAL and my tylenol cold was wearing off. i desperately wanted a nap. i found this little garden behind a building and laid on a bench for a bit. i sat listening to the sounds of the city, watching people pass through, i think i could’ve laid there forever.55430004

55430014this cafe made fresh squeezed orange juice and the kids inside were mesmerized. it was really sweet seeing their excitement.553900175539001555390004

SACKCLOTH & ASHES

 

21180019for every blanket you purchase, sackcloth & ashes will donate one to your local homeless shelter. living in los angeles, it’s hard not to notice how many people are left on the streets and sometimes we’re not really sure how to help but with sackcloth & ashes, they make it a little easier to lend a helping hand. you can buy your sackcloth & ashes blanket here.

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