Staci

March, April, and May in Review?

Happy July! Are you sick of hearing about Google Reader-ocalypse from all the other blogs in your bookmarks? I am! If you’re reading this… you and your relationship with this little old blog survived!

Oh my, my. Seems like the nice little routine I had gotten into as far as month in review posts has… well, lapsed, to put it mildly. I went ahead and plucked my two favorite posts from each of the missed months, just to catch up (for funsies). Maybe you’ll see a post you missed!

March:

succulent garden

March marked our sixth month of living in San Diego! And it’s three months gone by, already! Wow, March seems so long ago! My Succulent Garden was a highlight, and I still smile when I look at it… Comparing it with these photos from three months ago, I think it’s growing! It has moved to the patio and seems to be thriving better out there. So much for my attempt at indoor gardening…

Wall Hangings

Another fun little post I shared in March was a DIY my mom helped me with in 2007…! two canvases which found their way back to me and now add some subtle color and pattern to the apartment.

April:

Happy Mosey Day!

In April I had the privilege of reflecting on Two Years with Mosey, the little sweetheart he is. My favorite time of day is in the morning (on days when I don’t have to head to work early) when he and I cuddle on the bed since we have nowhere to be. When he uses my leg as a pillow, it’s just the sweetest thing.

Ice Cream

The weather really started to kick into high gear right around April. We celebrated the early arrival of summer by visiting our favorite local hippie-owned ice cream place, Mariposa. My mouth is watering thinking about that Mexican hot chocolate ice cream!

May:

I had a really hard time choosing the two best posts in May, because I really liked a lot of stuff I posted about in May! Does that sound cocky? I hope it doesn’t, but the more I try to focus on creating quality posts, instead of just typing out some nonsense, the better the posts are! Who’da thunk… better effort creates better content.

Money Lei Process

Anyway, my post selections for May are the DIY Money Lei I made for my sister’s college graduation, and the guest post I asked my friend Libby to write for me about prescription sunglasses.

Warby Parker Sunglasses

After work yesterday, I reached in my purse to pull out my new sunnies and my heart skipped a beat–they were gone! I’m so paranoid about losing them somewhere! Luckily they were at home on my kitchen table. Phew! I’m going to be much more diligent about remembering when I’ve left them at home.

Since June just finished up, I’ll lump it in with July– a month from now.

Time really flies, doesn’t it?? What have you been up to?

Pondering a New Apartment

September is looming. The end of a lease is kind of like a DTR for apartment dwellers. It says, “where do you see yourself for the next six-to-twelve months?” To get the best price, you often have to lock yourself in to a longer time commitment.

Tons of thoughts are swirling around in my head. I am not in love with our apartment complex, but I know our “generous” 825 square feet is hard to find at a reasonable price. Most 800+ apartments/condos/houses are in the $1600/mo. range here in San Diego! I don’t know why I feel uncomfortable sharing how much we pay per month, but I do. I’ll just say it is certainly less than $1600.

We walked through an apartment that is 725 square feet yesterday. 100 less square feet, but over $200 less per month than we are paying now. I know that if we consider homes in the 700 square foot range, we might be able to find a few good candidates at a lower price point. Saving $200 per month amounts to $2400 per year! But can I (we) live in that small of a space?

The cons about our current place:

Noisy neighbors
Awkward layout
Expensive
Third floor
Little natural light
Inattentive management

The pros:

We already live here (i.e, no moving trucks!)
Unusually large sq. footage for a one-bedroom
Dishwasher
One reserved parking spot
Pool and hot tub (that is, during the rare moments when they aren’t too crowded)
Easy freeway access

Luckily, I have a couple of months to ponder this and troll craigslist to see if a better option opens up. I don’t really want to move again, but I do want a new place! The truth is: I want to buy a new place! With all these bloggers I follow making big moves I want to have my own homebuying adventure and start rolling some of our hard earned money into real estate equity (doesn’t that sound grown-up?) rather than filling the pockets of our property management company every month, and having nothing to show for it.

As I diligently try to squirrel extra cash into savings for a down-payment, I will continue to hem and haw about whether we need a new apartment or not.

Any advice for me??

Palm Springs Part Two: Things to Do

We got up bright and early for brunch at King’s Highway, the restaurant at Ace Hotel & Swim Club. A little research revealed that before it was remodled, it was a Denny’s! I seriously loved the interior at King’s Highway. The mid-century fab stone on the wall? Yes please! It’s a dream of mine to own a home with that kind of crazy retro stone on the exterior or interior someday. My favorite thing was looking at the marks on the ground where I could picture the outline of the old Denny’s booths and fixtures.

The food was great! Our host was a little pretentious, and the prices a little steep, especially for the coffee ($3 for a non-refillable iced coffee?) but the pancakes and french toast really hit the spot. The food tilted the scale from “eye-roll” to “awesome.” To be honest… we should have eaten all of our meals here!

After our bellies were full, I did my duty as a design blogger and snooped around the Ace. Unfortunately I didn’t get the chance to look in a room… they look incredible on the website… but we peeked over the gate into the pool area and walked around the grounds. Definitely a different vibe from our colorful hotel, but everything seemed very cool and went nicely with the desert landscape. I really wanted to hang out at the Saguaro pool the first day and at the Ace pool the second day, but the day-pass was $20! Yikes!

The Ace, Palm Springs

We rode our bikes back to the Saguaro and drove downtown and walked around–just a little bit. The midday sun was roasting! So we grabbed some food at the grocery store and hung out at the pool for the rest of the day. All day! It was so sublime!

Later we got dolled up and went out for dinner–it was our anniversary celebration after all! We went downtown and found a really yummy place, Matchbox Pizza. We had a half Prosciutto and Fig and half “Q Special,” which featured chicken, portabello mushrooms and red peppers. A finer pizza was never had! However, we still had room for more so we followed it up with a little Ben & Jerry’s as we walked around downtown at dusk (it had cooled off some).

Palm Springs

For our last day, we checked out of the hotel and headed to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. I had no idea what to expect but wow!! Heading from the desert floor to 8,000 feet of altitude was very, very cool! Of course, I was petrified on the tram the whole way up and down. I shudder to remember it! I’m not afraid of heights per se… tall buildings and such don’t bother me, but suspended on a cable? That’s another thing.

Here’s the tram. Can you see Palm Springs in the distance?

As some of you know, we try to fit it into the budget to take an anniversary trip every year. Travel is such a passion of ours and we make it a priority! For our first anniversary we visited St Louis (little trip), last year the whole family took a trip to Europe (big trip), and this year Palm Springs was our low-key destination. We were lucky enough to visit Kansas in May and this short but very sweet trip was the perfect getaway to feel refreshed and rejuvenated from work. Now, I guess we’ll stay put for a little while!

In case you missed it, Monday I shared some photos of our hotel The Saguaro.

March:

April:

May:

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