The Beauty of....

I have a very charismatic and super ambitious friend, Jessica Hoffman, who right now is doing a 30 days of beauty blog run for Pure Beauty Project... She just had her dirty 30 birthday party and like we all love to do, had multiple celebrations.. we love going to multiple cities to celebrate our birth date.. Why not take advantage?! She still lives in Hawaii, although we're trying to coax her into moving back to her home state of California... she had a little celebration in Newport Beach at the Balboa Bay Club Resort. Beautiful place with lots of dancing, appetizers, and our ever so sweet trademark of cupcakes!! For this particular "day of beauty", she wrote about the Beauty of Friendship.. I have the most beautiful girlfriends who not only possess such great outer beauty, but it's their inner beauty that amazes me.. It's hard to find genuine people whom to call "friend" and I'm one lucky girl to have so many!! Happy Birthday Jessica!!





Check out the little video post she made..

Day 21: The Beauty of Friendship from Jessica Hoffman on Vimeo.

..taking each day one at a time but using each moment we live to the most advantageous..

...We Left Our Hearts in San Francisco...

So I mentioned that me and a couple of my girlfriends, Heidi and Giselle, were headed north to the bay area.. San Francisco to be exact.. I was happy that after only a week of being away from Hawaii, I was able to have a Heidi fix!! We stayed in the Union Square area at Hotel Abri.. a fascinating boutique hotel that was close quarters but absolutely perfect for what we needed.. I loved the decor of the place, right down to the Chuck Taylor's all the hotel staff wore... Not to mention the fab little italian restaurant with happy hour every night that seemed to never end that was connected to the hotel.. We walked up and down the hilly streets of SF and used practically every method of public transportation available to get where we were going to...

Welcome to San Francisco!!










On our first night we headed to the marina area and ate at Osha for some tastey thai food... It was technically party weekend number 3 for my Birthday too!





THEN we went to Bar None.. here's a helpful tip.. if you check out the back of the bar you can find Beer Pong tables set up.. not even kidding.. not even a little bit..




The next day was an adventure.. it rained pretty much the whole day.. My hair started out nice and poofy, by the end, we all looked like wet dogs.. BUT we still had so much fun on that overcasted day..




Haight Ashbury...







Fisherman's Wharf..




We trekked back to our hotel soaking wet and had to get ready for night number 2!! Stop number 1 was located conveniently right across the street from our hotel, Infusion Lounge... we wanted a change of scenery, so we took a short cab ride to Sloane to finish off the night.. We never let a good photo op go by...


For some reason we love making sure hotel beds are up to par as far as comfort levels go... So we jump on them to give it the ultimate test...


We didn't get to go everywhere because by the end of the trip we were exhausted and our little feet needed some rest, so our last day was spent pretty much in that little italian restaurant next door drinking champagne and downing cheese.. *the life* I have the best girlfriends ever and super sad not everyone could make it out but that's just another excuse to make another vacation in another destination!



Did someone say video montage??? Oh yes I think I heard...


...Goodbye for now San Francisco.. you'll hold a piece of our hearts forever...

Birthday Birthday Birthday...

So 2010 has been a pretty crazy year to say the least, so many opportunities and adventures.. I recently celebrated by Birthday at Nobu in Waikiki (you're probably going to read a few more Hawaii posts even though I've moved to San Diego because I have some major catching up to do) and it was definitely a milestone year. I had to celebrate the big day a week early because I was scheduled to be in San Diego for my actual Birthday.. Let's just say that it was amazing.. All my friends came and we had to use up 3 separate tables to hold everyone! The food was super tastey, we ordered pupu's, sushi rolls, tempura, of course I had to have a lychee martini, and to complete the meal, one of my presents comprised of Red Velvet cupcakes from famed Hokulani! I die!! It was definitely a memorable night and I didn't want it to end.. (I'll get to that later).. A big thank you to all my friends for making me super happy as you do everyday, but this night was extra special!

Here are a few pictures from the night thanks to Mark Ramelb and his photog skills...










Since it was SUCH a milestone (I'm not telling you what age I turned.. sorry), I had to have the most perfect Birthday dress.. I actually had a dress made a few months back with the intention of wearing it to another big event, but it wasn't ready in time so I was saving it for another AWESOME occasion.. My Birthday was obviously a good choice! I got the dress from designer Bekah Tuggy off Etsy.. I had Bekah slightly change the neckline from the more straight across look to a deeper sweetheart and I LOVE it! The dress is originally from design label Camilla and Marc and she nailed it, the dress was an exact replica of the original design and for more than half the price! Plus, something always makes me feel good about supporting artists..

SO here's the original Camilla and Marc dress "Elodie Rose":


And here's my version(s).. complete with tiara and cupcake accessories.. and ludicrous friends...



So remember how I said I didn't want the night to end?? I had a little slumber party with a couple of my girlfriends, Heidi and Giselle, at the hotel I was staying in, the brand new EDITION (Don't worry, that deserves a blog post all on its own and I'll get right onto that one next).. We made perfectly good use of the amenities inside the hotel room as well as outside the hotel, while drinking Sophia champagne because it was soooo necessary (room sevenseventeen will never be the same):




And we OBVIOUSLY had to make sure the beds were up to par for our backs:


Needlesstosay, the hotel room met our standards for the first night..

My friends and I are really big into multiple Birthday celebrations too.. We're planning a trip to San Francisco this weekend to continue on the madness... I mean.. duh right? Makes sense.. so bonus for me, I get to hang with my girls Heidi and Giselle AGAIN in SF!! (additional blog post to follow.. they're stacking up, but I'll get to all of them once I get my life situated here in San Diego).

Bay area... HERE WE COME!!

*Photo courtesy of www.bayareasolargroup.com

...somehow each year I age, life gets that much better thanks to those I surround myself with...