4th of July Weekend

This past weekend was the 4th of July, as I am sure you are all aware.  This is my first full summer living her in San Diego which is pretty cool.  San Diego is obviously a pretty big city with a lot to do and it's a pretty big tourist spot in the summer.  I always wondered what it would be like to live in a popular city where people would come from out of town to vacation, now that I do live in one I can say that it's pretty awesome.  I love San Diego; I would love to live in other places just because I want to experience new things but right now I am loving where I am at.  While I do spend plenty of days inside watching TV and such just like any other person it is nice to live in a place where there is no shortage of things to do; not to mention the beach is about ten minutes away from my house.  I have been trying my best on my limited budget to take advantage of the many things to do hear in SD and 4th of July weekend is probably the time that I had the most success with this.

On 4th of July day Arpi and I woke up and drove down to Ocean Beach which of course was packed.  So packed that we actually almost just left because we could not find parking.  We ended up finding a spot pretty far and just walking which was fine, it was a nice day and there were tons of people walking around in the area and BBQing and having parties.  After laying out for a couple of hours down there we had dinner at Fashion Valley mall and then headed towards downtown and Seaport Village for San Diego's famous fireworks show that can be seen from several spots in the city.  We ended up staking out a perfect spot on the Broadway pier near all the Navy ships and watched the show with about a million other people, honestly I'm surprised we were able to park at both the beach and downtown for the show that day, we definitely got lucky.

This is was in someone's front year in Ocean Beach, I obviously was not tall enough to reach the hole.

Our view of some of the buildings in downtown from the pier.

Waiting for the show to start

The USS Midway was all decked out in red, white, and blue.

Fireworks went off on three different boats in the harbor, we could always see the fireworks show from Sea World from where we were.  You may know this show after it was in the news last year for ALL of their fireworks going off at the same time, that did not happen this year, thank god.

That Saturday my family came down to SD to spend the day at Sea World.  We went for a little but but because it was the holiday weekend it was obviously packed so we didn't stay for too long.  We ended up going to Seaport Village and walking around and then going to dinner near my house afterwards.

A very proud California Sea Lion after being fed his lunch

This picture is self explanatory 

View of the bay and the Coronado Bridge from Seaport Village

An old restaurant in Seaport Village, I'm kind of in love with this old building

Hope you all had a great holiday weekend as well.  This was kind of my last ho-rah since my job started this week.  Yes my friends I did finally find a job; in retail at my local mall, YAY FINALLY!  I'll be busy the next couple of weeks working and MOVING!  I'm staying local just moving to a new little townhouse with Arpi and another roommate.  I've got a few DIYs for the new house and I'll be sure and blog about the move.  

I'm Baccckkkk

Okay, so I took a bit of a hiatus.  It was much needed to concentrate on school and then during the holidays to concentrate on spending much needed down time with my family.  Instead of telling you all what I have been up to the past couple of months I'll let you see in pictures.

I turned 22! This picture was taken at my sushi dinner before I got completely trashed and danced to The Backstreet Boys in my kitchen.

Finished my first studio class at State! Pretty proud of my final project for Design class.

Spent a day back in my home town Christmas shopping and day drinking at a country club with this lovely lady.

Spent Christmas at my parent's house with my family.

Celebrated Valentines day with my roomie Arpi with a sushi date, flowers from out waiter, margaritas and cookies.

Spent a day at Sea World with my sister.

Went to Sprinkles in La Jolla for Regdor's 50th!

Got a Kindle! Now I'm a reading machine!

Arpi and I traveled to my parent's to help my little sister celebrate her 18th birthday. We got cupcakes, shopped for her prom dress and went to dinner with family friends.

Those have been my highlights over the past few months. So happy to be back blogging. I've got a lot coming up I can't wait to share, including finishing my first year at State, another move, and maybe another summer in Washington. 

Have a Happy Autumn

We all know what a magical time autumn is and because I want you all to have a successful and cozy fall I have come up with some of my favorite things, essential to fall.

1.  Festive fall lights.  No house is complete during fall without some cozy twinkle lights or fun halloween lights.  These can be found at Target.

2.  I think this one is self explanatory, what's fall without pumpkins.  My advice? Have a pumpkin carving party with some friends.  Carve your pumpkins, bake the pumpkin seeds and enjoy some coffee and pumpkin muffins.

3.  In my opinion the BEST thing about fall are cozy blankets.  Save yourself a few lazy fall days, curl up in a cozy blanket on the couch with some tea and watch your favorite movie and/or TV show.

4.  If you include a cute mug into this cozy day on the couch I promise it will make you like 89% happier.  Happy mugs make a happy life, fact.  You can find this owl mug at modcloth.com.

5.  Wreaths aren't just for Christmas, there are also tons of autumn wreaths out there just waiting to hang on your door and say, "Welcome, this is a happy home."  Don't want to buy a wreath? Make your own, there are tons of tutorials on pinterest of DIY wreaths and you can get most of the items at the dollar store!

6.  Something I desperately loved about my youth were the Halloween cookie cutters my mom had.  Sugar cookies cut out with some of these festive cookie cutters are an easy gift for friends or favor to bring to a Halloween party.  These cookie cutters shown are from Crate and Barrel.

7 & 8.  Of course the easiest way to make your house smell like happy are candles.  Lucky for us we live in a world with Bath and Body Works and can buy just about any smell in jar.  Bath and Body Works has tons of holiday smells perfect for the season such as "Autumn" and "Apple Crumble."  

Hope you all have a successful holiday season and a safe Halloween this week! What are you favorite ways to make your home fall-like?