Our amazing friend, Cesar, filmed our wedding in Super 8 as a wedding gift. Mark used that footage and put this together for me as a 1 year anniversary gift.

Over the coming weeks, I’m going to share some of the details that went into planning and share photos from our incredible wedding day. Reliving it all again over the past 24 hours has just been the best. <3

I started collecting Hello Kitty as a child of the 80’s. My dad often traveled to Japan for business and would come home with HK and Astro Boy goodies for me each trip. I’d collect my pencils, stickers, and erasers, keeping them in-tact and never daring to use my special treasures.

I’m going to be in Vegas for Halloween, so I have to miss the first Hello Kitty Con (SO SAD), but I did have a chance to visit the Japanese American National Museum to tour her exhibit a few weeks ago.

A good portion of the exhibit showed vintage goodies (several of which I own!) and designer collabs, but my favorite part had to be the artist tributes.

Hi Kitty by Audrey Kawasaki

Inconstruction by Kevin Earl Taylor

Block Hello Kitty by Yarns & Noble

Hello Lincoln by Scott Scheidly

The exhibit is going until april 26, so go check it out!

Mark and I met in person for the first time at Disneyland, specifically in front of the “A” at the giant California sign at Disney California Adventure. Disneyland has continued to be our special place and we try to go as regularly as our schedules will allow. A few years ago, our beloved California sign was taken down due to a renovation at DCA. I had no idea where it ended up, but Mark had tracked it to Sacramento, where it had been donated to the state and placed at the California State Fair Expo.

Mark’s bff tricked me into a roadtrip up north. He had told me that he was playing a show at a dive bar in Sacramento and to keep it a suprise for Mark! We weren’t going to be meeting up with our friends until the next morning so we had Friday night free. Mark told me that he had been looking up things to do in Sacramento and had a surprise that he wanted to show me and we pulled up to the letters! I was so excited to see them! At this point, I thought that this was all just a happy coincidence so when Mark suggested that we take a few pictures in front of it, I didn’t think anything of it! Video was rolling when he went down on one knee and the rest is history.

I cannot wait to be this man’s wife. Gosh do I love him so.

Let me know if you try this (I used one of my favorite Goody no-slip clips). And may I suggest that you always keep Mod Podge and a variety of glitters on hand? It is so easy to quickly cutesy up anything.. Mark better watch out before the whole house is sparkling!

To start off this little series, the area of the house that I am going to focus on first is the central living room/dining area. I don’t want guests (or myself!) to feel too formal when sitting in sofas or lounging in chairs. I grew up in a home where I wasn’t supposed to sit in the “formal living or dining room,” so one thing that is very important to me when decorating this space is for it to feel interestingly inviting, while retaining the comfort of a traditional living room. Here’s a quick tour of what we’re working with so far:

For the main living area, I envision a modern room with neutral walls and simple yet vibrant pops of orange, blue here and there. I also want to create two polarized focal elements: a huge television (of course!), and dramatic floor to ceiling bookshelves the width of the back wall to house our library, (which is also my covert excuse to have a mini Harry Potter shrine!)

These two elements are across one another so they can only be appreciated individually: you’re either at the television enjoying your Mad Men marathon, or you’re picking out a book from the Penguin Classics collection. I think the TV and the bookshelves will work great as distractions from a greater element of attention, the hillside view that’s better seen in the dining area.

Working with the view outside, the dining area walls should be white to let the outside light bounce around. A solid rustic dining table, eccentric chairs, and a minimalist chandelier can hopefully create modern relationships that make lounging and leisure interesting. Picking out these things will be fun too, as this space can be the most social. I love hosting dinner parties and I am chomping at the bit to have things a bit more in order and to commence entertaining mode.

I have gathered ideas and inspiration for living/dining areas over the years in the form of magazine tear outs, precious images stored on external hard drive, and bookmarked on Pinterest, here are just a few images that tell the story of what I envision the living/dining room to be:

The following are from Pinterest.. I hate not giving proper link credit so if you own any of these images, please just let me know!

I can’t wait to show you guys progress shots of this and the other rooms. I antsy for the day that we can put our feet up and feel as “done” as someone who loves decorating can ever feel!

PS: Once my floor to ceiling bookshelves are filled I’m totes doing this:

After years of working hard, Mark accomplished his dream of buying a house, then shortly after asked me to move in with him! It’s a splendid, cozy, modern house with breathtaking views! (a WHOLE lot more on the house later!) We are now official LA residents! I now commute LESS THAN 15 MINUTES from my job in downtown! I am very happy! That said, moving is a lot of work, as the last few weeks have been a complete blur!

The move started the last week of May, when we packed up a U-haul (by we, I mean our gracious friends) with all of our things and made the trek to our new hillside nest. The major furniture and objects have settled in, and all that’s been left are clothes, boxes, shoes, boxes, books, and more boxes, (you hear everyone say it, but you truly do not realize how many things you own until you are forced to pack it all up).

Very soon, I will have all of my clothing in one (very, very large closet)! This is huge for me because I have spent the last 2+ years living out of a suitcase on the weekends, when I was visiting friends and my boyfriend. I’ll have all my belongings centralized, with the City of Los Angeles as my new backdrop! Let the steady and stable outfit posts commence! I’ve been dying for this stability.

Clothing and essentials came first, but the main reason behind the whirlwind of chaos that comes with settling in has been the interior design, picture hanging, accent color choosing, furniture-building, furniture-selling, blinds/washer/oven shopping coordination color swatching hair-pulling “careful with that box it has my china” shouting bookshelf re-arranging Home-Depot-visiting-multiple-coat-painting-light-fixture-replacing-[catches breath], that our envisioned living space has required of us.

We’ve moved into a giant blank canvas that’s demanded our personal touch, at the high cost of our free time. These last few weeks we’ve fully thrown ourselves head first into it, with no regard to what our free time used to consist of! So now we’re close to our stopping point. Although Mark has charted his own near and far future for his home improvements (he’s been quoting/impersonating Home Improvement for weeks), we’ve set a goal for our initial stage to where we are comfortable and settled.

I’m crazy excited about this and have tried my best to hold back details and designs regarding our new nest! So, very soon, I will introduce a home decor mini series of posts showcasing our design/approach to three different rooms in the house! I could not disappear again because of great changes in my life, I felt that I must share these moving-in ups and downs through blog posts. After all, interior decor is one of my greatest enjoyables in life :-]

If you would have asked me anytime within the last 14 years or so if there was any band that I would want to see live, I would have said Refused. I went to a lot lot lot of shows throughout high school and my early 20s. I’ve seen many bands, both big and small. To this day, one of my favorite activities is enjoying live music. I may not subject my body to standing front row when the music is heavy anymore, but certain vocals, breakdowns, solos, and encores still give me goosebumps.

When I recently heard that Refused was getting back together to play Coachella, I flipped. My first instinct was to try to get tickets (even though I only wanted to see a few bands and the idea of camping out in the heat for 3 days sounded horrible). I tried to get tickets to a San Francisco show that they announced, but it sold out too quickly. When The Glass House announced that there would be a show there, I knew I would do everything that I could to obtain tickets. I had to.

The ticket sales were a logistical nightmare. 2 record stores in the LA area and The Glass House would all be selling 100 tickets each at 6 PM, each person could by 2, and you had to give the name of your guest upon purchasing a ticket. I left work early and booked it to Hollywood by 3 to no avail, the line was already nuts. I then would have to try my luck via Ticketfly so I hightailed it to Fullerton. I was simultaneously on a PC, netbook, and phone. Mark was on a PC at work and phone, and had friends trying to get tickets for me as a surprise birthday present to no avail. Long story short, not only was the nature of Refused’s 14-year reunion bringing extreme traffic to Ticketfly, the website also had serious technical difficulties and after about an hour of incessant browser refreshing, I was empty handed (and truly, legitimately depressed).

Throughout the entire day, I had taken to my favorite social media outlet, Twitter. I had been closely following all of the Refused Twitter chatter to see if others were successful where I had failed. Out of no where, a stranger by the name of @framerate struck up a conversation with me.. Justin had gotten tickets and encouraged me to keep trying my luck with glitchy Ticketfly.

Let me just take a brief moment to pause and tell you that in my life, Twitter is where magic happens. Through Twitter, I have cultivated several of my closest friendships and I have to give it credit to bringing me and the love of my life together. My love for the “micro-blogging” social network knows no bounds.

The next morning, Justin sent me a DM. He told me that back in 2001 he had been dying to see a sold out Weezer show and a good samaritan had let him have a ticket at face value and that he wanted to do the same thing for me. I was speechless. Furthermore, his friends helped him attain a second ticket. After letting go of skepticism and regaining my pulse, I said to hell with it so Mark and I met up with him and his friends moments before the show. We jumped for joy and kept pinching one another, for it was confirmed, that we were going to be attending this monumental event:

Thanks to someone that was merely an @stranger at one point I was able to see the best show of my life. All that he asked for in return is that I return the favor for someone else one day. It didn’t hurt that he was cool as hell and I’m pretty sure Mark and I made yet another virtual-life to IRL friend conversion. Justin, thank you for your generosity, for making my birthday week insane, for the show of a lifetime, and for already adding to what I’ve considered to be best month ever.

I am proud and tickled to share the second issue of Gadchick Magazine with you.

Have a great week!

If you are in Orange County, you have to go see Kat. Not only is she a wizard stylist, but she is also the most talented makeup artist that I have ever known! You can reach her at (714) 637-4845. You won’t regret it!

This past Saturday, I celebrated the launch of In Case of Fireworks, Break Glass! The night began by randomly enjoying my first conveyor belt sushi experience in Little Tokyo with a few good friends. After dinner we meandered through Japanese Village Plaza and finally to the official party which started at the downtown favorite The Library Bar. Within our reserved area, we drank house brews and mixed drinks, noshed on cupcakes and appetizers, and celebrated the launch. I had to push back the party a month due to the hectic holidays and our trip to Chicago, but I truly couldn’t have asked for a better evening. It was great fun celebrating with both blogging and real life friends. One of the more special moments of the evening came while toasting my blog and afforded me the opportunity to give thanks to the two that are responsible for it.

We moved a block away to one of my most loved drinking establishments Seven Grand (best known for its Whiskey Sour and Mint Juleps, but you MUST try the Gold Rush, 2 parts honey, 3 parts lemon, 5 parts Maker’s Mark). While in the bar, we all shared responsibility of coat stashing, balloon holding, and most importantly, guarding the last box of delicious cupcakes! I was surprised at how great the turnout was. By the end of the evening, I was able to spend time with about 20 different people from various groups of friends! My good friend (and amazing hairdresser) Silvy even drove 40 minutes to buy me a drink despite her jetlag! I missed spending time with a few people that had things come up, but look forward to seeing them soon as I don’t need a whole lot of persuasion for any life celebration. ;)

Eventually, we made our way back over to Little Tokyo to do a little karaoke, where we sang classic after classic and even some real SMH stuff. It was a hilarious after-party that left us with sore throats and incriminating video footage. At the end of the night, a few of us retired to our hotel.

I really do have wonderful, supportive people as friends. When I decided to shut down my old blog and start my new journey with In Case of Fireworks, Break Glass, I knew that I wanted it to be something that I could be proud of. And boy, am I proud.

My brilliant boyfriend Mark is the creative genius behind the design and layout of this blog. He spent hours tweaking proto-types, banners, and even my gorgeous icons. I swear I fell in love with him again at least 5 times as he edited my trailer. How I am lucky enough to be able to call the most creative and talented mind I’ve ever known mine, I’ll never know.

And then there’s our friend Jon. Initially I assumed we’d hire someone to put it together, but before a design was made Mark already pictured Jon for that role. Smart, funny, patient, and with a willingness and true support that he’d give you the shirt off of his back. Jon’s skill and design input is why In Case of Fireworks is a reality.

“It was a unique experience working with Mark on this project. Mark was not only heavily invested in the design, but also keen on getting everything just-so. That almost sounds like criticism, but really it was compelling to work with someone so driven to get the design just right. I guess what I’m trying to say is that he was definitely one of the best creative directors I’ve worked with. Even with his design, the site would not have turned out as well as it did without his direction.” – Jonathan Mabe

“Between the 3 of us there were sorted lists on Google Docs, numerous meetings at Coffee Bean, and sketched diagrams reminiscent of the Eureka! napkin drawing at the bar. Lucky for me and the design grind, Jon and I work extremely well.. he’s organized in approach as well as problem-solving. A true critical thinker. Jon, honestly, if I had chosen the field you are in, I hope I could have been remotely like you. Looking at the site now I remember the hilarious visual bugs, the celebrated tiny accomplishments, source code easter eggs, and the “what if” ideas that flourished.. and that’s what I miss the most about working with Jon. In the final hours, I told Aline that I already felt nostalgic, bittersweet of the blog’s creation. It’s one thing to work and get paid to create, it’s another when payment is deposited into friendship memory accounts.” – Mark Guerrero

Thank you Mark and Jon. I am reminded every time I see the site of watching two childhood friends work together to create this little corner of the internet for me. I’ll fondly remember the fun nights in Coffee Bean and playing with the cats while talking to Jennifer about Pinterest while you two slaved away. I am forever grateful for your contribution of time, creativity, and friendship. Thank you.

Thank you everyone for your support and thank you, dear friends, for coming this past weekend to celebrate with me!! <3

PS: And if you couldn’t make it, there’s always the gallery below :-)

Photo credit: Mark, Matt, Cesar

Photo Credit: Cesar of The Dead Format

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you and your family. Have a safe and wonderful weekend!