“may” i offer you another photo dump?

yup.  another recap of an entire month in one post.  because it’s easier, and because not every little bit needs its own post, and also because why not?

we kicked off the month of may with a quickie weekend getaway for me and the hub.  it was work-related for him, and also marked the first time we left the bean home alone for more than a few hours.  the destination was a familiar one - the lodge at torrey pines in la jolla.  yes, the very place where we had another fun weekend almost 20 years ago…when we got engaged.  awwwww.

because we stalled so much, we didn’t get down there till well after midnight.

to be fair, the rooms aren’t really anything special.  but they’re spacious and comfortable and quiet, and in this case…free.  woohoo!

the next morning, the hub had an early wake-up call for his golf game while i got to sleep in and relax and basically just veg out.  i didn’t even have to leave for food - i ordered room service.

and then later that evening, we got dressed up and joined the work group for dinner.

the next morning, we checked out and headed into solana beach for some brunch.

one weekend, the kids and i headed to the fairplex in pomona for the l.a. county fair.

this year, they had a category in the culinary competitions for “working professionals” which i technically qualified for since i sell my cookies for profit.  but i wasn’t really feeling it, and instead submitted a few of my crocheted creations and a couple of bags for consideration.  i was pretty stoked to find that all four of my pieces won ribbons:

and then even more so to find that the hot dog on a stick kiosks had brought back the deep-fried cream cheese on a stick:

as afternoon turned into evening, it cooled off pretty nicely and i ended up snagging a new sweatshirt from one of the official fair merchandise booths.

as always, the bean hit up cathy’s cookies for a bucket of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies.

and then we stopped to see the farm animals.  there weren’t as many animals this year, i’m not sure why.

and then we went home to our own animals.  they’re always happy to see us (despite teddy’s side eye in this photo).

we celebrated the old lady’s birthday with the traditional “shitty cake mix” strawberry cake:

and presented her with a super fun gift basket full of a bunch of her favorite things.

on mother’s day, the bean set me up with this sweet snacklebox full of all my favorite sweet and savory treats.

and the hub hooked us up with some delicious steaks on the grill.

the old lady and i hit up the ‘land for a fun morning together:

while i struggled with conflicting feelings on him (and the old lady and the bean refused to go see him with me), i went to see justin timberlake on his current tour with one of my barre besties and her husband (more on that later).

the annual l.a. yarn crawl weekend snuck up on me, and i only had time to visit one shop this year.

the bean and i had heard of this “fried chicken ice cream” months ago, but never could bring ourselves to pull the trigger on it.  being in california, the only way we knew of to get our hands on some was by ordering it from goldbelly - and you would get ten pieces shipped directly to your door packed carefully with dry ice to keep it frozen to the tune of $150.  eek.  and so when i came across an instagram post from yama seafood in san gabriel that said they were going to have it in stock on a limited basis, i decided to make the drive out and grab some.

no, it isn’t actually chicken, or even chicken flavored in any way.  this is made of waffle-flavored ice cream with a chocolate pretzel “bone” in the middle, dipped in caramelized white chocolate and rolled in crunchy cornflakes.  and while that all sounds like a lot - it’s amazing.  i loved every bite of it.

the bean and i headed to the wiltern theater to see the “good mythical morning” tour (more on that later too).

and then to close out the month, as crazy as it sounds…the bean finished their sophomore year of high school.

i cannot believe that my child is now a junior.  like…they’re halfway through high school now.  and we’re looking at SAT prep courses and planning college tours and discussing different majors and omg. i cannot.

crawling for yarn

while i was learning how to knit and crochet during our months of lockdown in 2020, i learned about an annual event that was held throughout l.a. county, and it was called the l.a. yarn crawl.  a bunch of independently owned yarn stores picked a weekend that they would offer fun stuff like free patterns and specials on yarn and needles and accessories and all kinds of stuff like that.  they also had a passport that you could print at home or pick up at any of the shops, and you would get it stamped at each shop you visited.  once you were done with it, you'd fill out your contact information and leave it at any of the shops and you'd be entered into a raffle for a gift basket that they assembled.

i'm reading this as i type it and yes, i do realize how nerdy it all sounds.  but i don't care.  i'm still so stoked that i finally powered through and learned how to knit and crochet after years of trying and failing, and you know i like to have all the fun stuff.  and so when i realized that there were three of the participating shops close to home, i decided that i was gonna go and have some dorky, yarny fun.

my first stop was at the yarnaholic store.  i think they had started out as an online only shop, and eventually found a tiny space to open a brick & mortar store that they'd stocked and opened to the public just a week or two before yarn crawl weekend.

the ladies in the shop were really friendly and welcoming, and were pretty excited to welcome customers into their new space.  i had a couple of patterns saved that i wanted to find yarn for, so i picked up a couple of skeins here for one of them and then hopped in the car to move on to the next stop.

phebie's needle art is located in the packing house in the claremont village - just up the stairs from the claremont chefs academy that i used to take the bean to for classes (and where she had one of her birthday parties).  i never knew it was there - but then again, i never paid attention to yarn stores before either.

and inside i caught a glimpse of the gift basket that they had put together for their raffle.

when i got to the last shop in my circuit, i found that i was going to get one extra stamp in my passport because the yarnover truck was parked out front.  bonus!

buku yarns is a cute little shop in la verne, tucked in a corner of the same shopping center where my barre studio used to be.  it's really close to the house, which is awesome and dangerous at the same time.

and since it's the closest one to me, that's where i left my passport for the gift basket raffle.  it was definitely a long shot, but i figured if there was any chance that i might win (i didn't, heh) it would be the easiest shop to get to.  

here's my haul from the crawl - so soft and pretty and colorful!

and that's a wrap on my very first l.a. yarn crawl.  i have a pretty crazy amount of yarn and patterns to work through, but maybe by the time the 2023 crawl happens i'll be ready.

maybe.  probably not, but a girl can dream.