Florence!

A couple of months ago I was browsing band tours on Ticketmaster. I typed in Florence and the Machine and voila! tickets were to be on sale the following Monday! I was so excited. Then it dawned on me that I could get these tickets as an early anniversary present for Steven since it was in October.
I tried keeping it a secret but apparently he heard KROQ announce the concert on the radio...

Anyway..
Sunday was the day of the concert so we finally went on a date (since moving we haven't really gotten to see each other for long periods of time). Steven picked me up and we stopped by this really cool vintage store called Super Thrift in La Habra. With the word "thrift" in there I was expecting an actual thrift store. It turned out to be more of a fashionable vintage store. They had great customer service and very wide collection of things. Some of their prices are pretty reasonable and some were overpriced.
After browsing we headed over to Hollywood and had an early dinner at The Safe House. It's a Thai sports bar/restaurant. I love their style. The interior had exposed bricks, wood, and concrete, giving it an industrial feel. The food there is delicious and they put effort to make their dishes look gourmet. Every dish is super colorful it looks almost too pretty to eat. Sike. No food it too pretty for me not to eat it.
We arrived early at the Hollywood Bowl and waited until it was time to find our seats. There were so many different kinds of people attending. I love people watching and I love looking at how people dress. The opening bands were the Macabees and The Weekend. Both were just ok to me. However it seems like The Weekend is pretty well known since everyone was screaming. Florence and the Machine was of course amazing. I think they had to dim the sound system because they sounded much farther away than the other bands. But I'm pretty sure it was probably because Florence sings so high pitch. She was so humorous and energetic. Jokes were constantly being made and she told everyone to get up and hug each other and jump around.
The only bad thing that came out of it was the people sitting next to me. I recently caught a cold and had bad sinuses. But the couple next to me chose to light a joint and smoke marijuana right next to me. The smoke gave me an allergy attack and I did not appreciate it at all. (say no to drugs!)
Other than that it was a wonderful date night and I look forward to many more with Steven.

Have a great tuesday!

Shirt from Anthropologie
Skirt and belt from Modcloth
Shoes from eBay

THE WEEKEND

This weekend has been a busy one consisting of a ton of family time and vitamin D.
Two of my cousins came to visit from Australia and they brought their friends and girlfriends along with them. So Steven and I went to meet with them in LA.
On Saturday we left in the morning to have breakfast at Mary's Market. It is a quaint little cafe/antique store within a small hippie-like neighborhood in Sierra Madre. I had the Gio Metro which is a bagel sandwich with eggs, avocado, turkey, tomato, cheese, and onions. Steven chose some type of muffin sandwich that came with salsa. Both were superb and we finished breakfast with an order or yogurt with granola and fruit. The service was amazing as well, the people there made us feel like family. Everyone was very kind and since it was a small community, they knew we weren't from the area and asked us questions.
After breakfast we explored the neighborhood and then went off to Santa Monica.

So I'm a bit of a fish geek and wanted to stop by Nature Aquarium. It's is one of the few stores in Southern California that caters to aquascaping (an art technique of making the illusion of a fish tank to look like a landscape). I will explain more on that later since this is one of my favorite hobbies. Seeing all the tank displays inspired me to start working on my tanks again.

While waiting to meet with my cousins for lunch we stopped by 3rd Street Promenade and checked out the farmer's market and stores.

After having lunch at The Grove, we all headed over to Hollywood.

Today, my family had our annual family reunion. Relatives from all over come to our picnic and we all get to see faces missed. We had lunch and proceeded to our family games. Starting off with soccer, then a water balloon toss, musical "hugs", bike riding, etc. 

photo by Duc Nguyen

photo by Duc Nguyen
A not-so-great attempt at a jumping picture

photo by Duc Nguyen

I think we've had enough sun exposure for the weekend. 

With another addition to my summer adventures, good night!