Christmas Is All Around Me...

Come on and let it snow!
    Okay, cheesy film references aside, it is indeed that time of the year. And, in fact, my Christmas will actually be occurring tomorrow evening, as J and I will be in New Zealand through New Year's. So, before we hop on a plane and fly half way round the world, it's about time I share some Christmassy photos with you.
    The first set were taken from an evening walk. J and I decided to walk around our neighborhood one night to look at the Christmas lights. Unfortunately, Christmas lights don't photograph horribly well, and most of the photos are either too dark or too overexposed and blurry, but here are the few that turned out!

These next two are from our apartment complex.

This flamingo is always dressed for the season. So, of course, this December, he is wearing a very festive Santa suit and hat!

Our little window :)

Our Christmas Tree! (penguin themed, of course)

    This last set was taken on a lunch outing with Megan at Downtown Disney. I love the park at Christmas, and the hotels get all dressed up for the holidays too!
    The California Grand Hotel is one of the newest hotels at the park, and is the one attached to California Adventure. It is also, in my opinion, the prettiest. The lobby is very reminiscent of a lodge, with exposed beams, dark wood, and lantern-esque chandeliers. And it's Christmas tree reflects that natural style beautifully. It's lit with all white lights and its ornaments are composed of such items as poinsettias, pine cones, and ball ornaments coated in seeds/berries.The tree topper is a splay of leaping reindeer, and the tree itself is one of the largest, towering above multiple stories of the hotel's lobby.

     The Pacific Pier hotel had a more modern motif, with it's tree covered in brightly colored spheres of oranges and teals (sorry, no photo of this one). The Disneyland Hotel also has a more modern Christmas feel. Outside at the valet there are several chandeliers that appear to be inverted Christmas Trees, complete with reflective ornaments hanging from each layer. Bright balls of light burst from the poinsettia filled planters just outside it's entrance. The lobby had multiple trees all similarly decorated - silver trees (yes, the trees themselves are silver) and brightly colored ornaments. I'm not a huge fan of false trees to begin with, and am even less a fan of trees manufactured in strange colors, so I was definitely not a fan of the silver trees.

    However, if you go beyond the lobby, there is a hallway that has a beautiful Christmas Hearth setup where, Megan informed me, Santa comes to sit and greet children in the afternoons. THIS setup is a beautiful representation of a Classic Christmas style (in my opinion). There is a single tree, in it's natural green state, lit with soft white lights and covered in ornaments of red and green as well as beautiful red bows and sprigs of holly. Beneath the tree, an array of gifts, and behind the tree, a beautiful wood hearth decorated with garland and brass reindeer candlesticks. Above this is a beautiful wreath surrounding brass text reading: "Believe". Below are several red stockings filled with small gifts and toys. False walls/windows enclose the scene, and through these windows are a mini forest of flocked trees. Beautiful!

 

Thanks for the Christmassy tour Megan!

    Well, it is almost airport time, so I need to finish packing up (including the computer!). While J and I will have some internet access, it may not be a good enough connection to post photographs, so our trip albums may have to wait until we return. So, just in case I don't get the chance later, Merry Christmas everyone! And a happy and hopeful New Year!

New toys for the camera!

This wedding-planning stuff is hard!
Fortunately, I have new camera-related toys to distract me :)
    On Cyber Monday (which seems like it was eons ago) I was sitting around at my parents' house, bored. So I did what any bored person with computer access would do... I went on Amazon.com to check out the deals. I really didn't think I needed/wanted anything, and was only really intending to browse, but then, I remembered something that I actually did need! Well, perhaps not need, but something super useful.
    See, when I got my new camera, it came as a package with a bunch of other things: hdmi cable, zoom lense, and a carrying case. The carrying case that the camera came with is HUGE. It was clearly intended for serious photography use, with the capacity to hold not only the camera, but up to 4 extra lenses and all the accessories I could ever think of (which I hadn't even thought of yet). Anyways, the point is that it was just way too big! I mean, it's great for those days when I go out specifically to take photos. But for those times when I want to bring it along just for casual use (parties or the like), it was just too cumbersome.
    So, that brings me to my Cyber Monday search. I searched around for about an hour, trying to find a bag that would be compact, yet still hold my camera plus a few accessories, and durable, and would be easy to carry about. I ended up ordering a Vangoddy "Laurel" DSLR case in sky blue. It is perfect for my needs! It's small and looks a bit like a mini lunch box with a shoulder strap. It opens up on both sides, one for the camera compartment, and the other has small pouches for accessories/cords/batteries etc. Can't fit my extra lens, but that usually isn't a problem). Perfect! So I scroll down to check out, and notice the little scroll for "Customers who bought this item also bought.." Before I knew it, I had about four more things in my shopping cart. Fortunately, most were on super sale and fairly cheap! I ended up buying...



* the bag

* extra camera battery
* set of magnification lenses (gives illusion of macro lens)
* accessory kit which includes:
    * tulip lens hood
    * cleaning cloth
    * center-pinch lens cap (so much easier to grip)
    * cap-keeper (to keep the cap attached to camera body)
    * filter kit:
        * UV filter (for sharper contrast outdoors)
        * Florescent filter (for better color quality under florescent lighting)
        * Polarizer filter (supposedly eliminates reflections on non-metal surfaces, such as glass).




    I haven't really had much opportunity to fiddle with the filters yet (but am definitely excited to), but the bag has already proved to be VERY useful, and I've been having fun with the magnification lenses.
    Just as a quick example to show the effects of the magnification lens, I took a photo of clovers. The photo on the left is taken with just my camera, and demonstrates the closest I can get with my camera alone. The photo on the right is taken using the 10X magnification lens.

    Pretty darn cool, right?? Well, I think so, anyways. And it'll definitely get a lot of use, since I absolutely LOVE taking close up shots. In the future, I'll see if I can take some photographs to show off the effects of the other lenses and filters. But, for now, I've got a bit of cleaning to do around the apartment before I can finish my Christmas decorating.. which reminds me, there will definitely be a Christmas-y post coming soon ;)

A Tale of Two Parties (abridged)

    So, this weekend was J's (and my future) brother(in-law)(Jon)'s birthday. Still seems so strange to say! It was also J's company's Christmas Party.
    First up was the company party, which was taking place at a restaurant called Roy's in Pasadena. We'd never been to the place before (just checked, it's about $30 a plate for dinner, yikes!), so we didn't quite know what to expect, and I was a tad bit nervous, since I'd only met one or two of J's co-workers previously. It turned out to be quite fun! The food was Hawaiian Fusion, and it was delicious. We ate from a prix fix menu including an appetizer plate, salad, our choice of entree, and a desert. J got the Barramundi (which is a variety of fish that J and I knew nothing about) and I got the Tiger Shrimp. Both were beautifully presented and delicious to boot! The portions were a teensy bit small for the price, but I suppose that's gourmet for you.  (I think J took pictures.. I'll ask him later, as he is somewhat distracted by a game at the moment). We also ended up sitting next to the CSO(?), Chuck, who was very friendly and a well of classic movie knowledge (which was fun for me).
    After the party, we drove directly to Long Beach for an impromptu birthday party. We called a friend to pick up a cake and met at Jon's place to arrange carpools for dinner. Dinner meant a trip out to one of the boys' favorite spots for pizza and beer: Pizza Port in San Clemente. It's definitely a long drive for dinner, but the pizza is pretty awesome, and apparently, so is the beer (I'm more of a wine/cider gal). I was excited to find that I wasn't the only girlfriend tagging along (usually it's just me and the guys), and I had a great time chatting with the gals (I seriously miss talking to girls, sometimes)!
     I was only able to snap a few photos before my camera battery died:

    Oh yeah, and have I mentioned Jon's beer tree? Last weekend, J and I were invited over to watch football and told to bring canned beer only. J bought two packs and I even managed to find a canned cider to contribute. I have to admit, that while it's a bit boozy and odd, it actually is kind of a cool-looking tree.

   Well, I guess that's all for now. I am exhausted, and I think J just realized that it's way past his bed time. Goodnight all!

An Engagement Adventure

    So, most of you already know, but for anyone who may not have heard...
J proposed over the weekend and we are now officially engaged!

    As I mentioned in an earlier post, we've been together for just over 9 years now, and have been living together for the last year and a half, so most people weren't too surprised to hear the news. We'd talked about marriage and family before, and in our hearts I think we knew that we will always be together..
    I want to start by saying that J did manage to surprise me. I wasn't expecting it, at least, not entirely. We had already talked about it, and we'd been to visit my uncles (who are jewelers) and I'd told them what I liked and wanted.. and my uncles had hinted that the ring would be made before the end of the year.. but I also knew that J wouldn't really have the opportunity to sneak off and get it. So, to those few sneaky people (you know who you are) who helped J in his secret plot... thank you, but you are so sneaky!! Perhaps I can convince J to tell his side of the story in a future post ;)
    So, I should start by saying that J played it very cool and did a good job of making it seem like he wasn't up to anything. On Friday night, he asked what I'd like to do that weekend. It would pretty much be one of our last weekends on our own before our trip to New Zealand, so we definitely wanted to do something fun together. He made a few suggestions for places we could go, the gardens or the Getty or the LaBrea Tar Pits, and I told him that any of those things sounded good to me. So, later that night, he checked out special event calendars for all of our spots, and suggested that the Getty Center would be a great idea, especially since it seemed like it might rain.
    And rain it did. So we made our way to the Getty Center, J with a ring apparently burning a hole in his pocket, and me, unaware and with camera in hand (as usual). We had lunch at the cafe on the terrace, which was nice despite the spray of mist coming from the hills. I was a little sad that the gardens were closed (I assume it was due to the weather), but we decided to make the best of it and check out the galleries. We attended one of the free tours of their new exhibit, which was full of pre-renaissance art. My favorite things were the beautifully scripted and elaborate texts. Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take photographs :(
    After the tour, we meandered over to where all the large paintings are housed. We wandered around talking about the different pieces and what we liked and didn't like. Then, we wandered over to J's favorite room, which houses a few Monet paintings as well as one of our favorites "Irises" by Van Gough. J loves Van Gough! Perhaps this can give us another awesome reason to go to New York, since (I think) Starry Night is located there.

     We checked out the cactus garden from one of the many terraces, and meandered to the uppermost spot to get a view of the cityscape below. From up above, with the fog rolling over the hills, and the mist drifting in and out, it was almost like we were standing above the clouds. It was on one of these terraces that we lingered a bit longer. I was distracted, taking photographs of Birds of Paradise flowers. Taking a LOT of pictures of them. I told him I like them because they're so unique and interesting. They're rather peculiar looking flowers! J joked "like me!" or something, which made me laugh.

    When I finally put my camera away, he came over and hugged me tight, which was nice since it was a little chilly. He told me he loved me and that I was beautiful. I feel bad, because, whenever he says such nice things, I always jokingly rebut them (I'm very contrary), and this was no exception. He called me beautiful and I said "nah, not really" and told me that I was wonderful and smart, to which I said something like "that's debatable". He just smiled and said that he loved my sense of humor. Then said that he loved me and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. And that's when he asked me.. as we were standing there, holding eachother close, alone on the terrace, surrounded by mist.
    Of course I said yes! Well, I think I said something more along the lines of "yes, of course I will". And he hugged me even tighter, then reached into his pocket and fished out the little box. He hadn't opened it before, and it was still in it's wrappings with a little pink bow. We eventually got it open (my hand were shaking) and placed the ring on my finger. I hugged him as hard as I could and we just stood like that for a long while.
     Eventually, we wandered back towards our favorite room, stopping along the way to check out one of the exhibits we missed. This one was full of ornate furnishings and tapestries (I love tapestries), and they even had a room of mirrors. We took advantage of that and took a few pictures, trying to capture us as well as our numerous reflections.

We ended our day on a little bench right in front of the painting of Irises.

     After a nice dinner at our favorite restaurant, it was time to tell the family. I called my sister first, and then the rest of my family, one by one. J called his parents and eventually his grandparents. By the time we were through, we were thoroughly exhausted! It was such an amazing, surprising, wonderful, joyous day.. and I am so happy and excited to be engaged to the guy of my dreams, love of my life, and best friend in the whole world.

Arboretum Membership Deal!

     I have mentioned the Arboretum before in several posts. J and I LOVE going there, and our trips have resulted in some pretty awesome photographs :) And as I mentioned, this is all thanks to a Garden Pass that we purchased several months ago for about $75 for the two of us.
     Well, I am happy to report that Groupon is selling a great deal! Family Membership to the LA Arboretum (which also gives you access to over 200 other gardens) for only $35!! The family membership gives you access to said gardens for the whole year for 2 Adults and 2 Children. Even if you don't yet have kiddos, $35 is still half off the price that J and I paid, so it's still an awesome deal (and if you DO have kids, it's even better).
     If you live in the LA Area, it is definitely worth it, since it will give you access to the beautiful Arboretum, as well as several other nearby gardens. And, if you don't live in the area, I would recommend checking out their list of included gardens. You may be surprised to find that it provides access to gardens in your area too!

Click to go to the deal!

Important Note:
As I said, this would be great for anyone, even those who live a bit further away, since it gets you into countless other gardens. BUT, being a Groupon, you have to redeem it AT the Arboretum in Los Angeles before the end of the year. Which means either making a trip to LA or perhaps asking a favor of a good friend in the area ;)

Engagement Photo Shoot

    So, my sister got engaged a few months ago, and since I have a really nice camera now (and because Becca trusts my photo-taking skills), I offered to take some engagement photos for her and her fiancee Eric. There was only about an hour of sunlight left in the day, so we hustled over to Shoreline in Mountain View to take some photographs near/at the Rengstorff House. These are a few of my favorites:

  

 

 

And for your amusement (and mine) here are a few cute "outtakes"