SUNDAY FUNDAY

LINK LOVIN'

This weekend was beautiful and I was outside every second I could be. I ran the Santa Monica stairs, did a 5 mile hike in Malibu, met with an old friend for lunch, and taught about a million swim lessons. Things could be worse. Here are some posts from around the web  that sparked my interest to kick us off into a new week :)

Could your dog know you have cancer before you do?

Beautiful interior design inspiration.

Amazingly timed animal photos. 

Places I'm putting on my bucket list 

Hot Springs  in Big Sur, can't wait to go!

Thinking of buying tickets to this...

Pretty summer dress

Hiking trail turned lake  and back again

Madewell  has cute summer shoes

Pomskys are a thing?

This salad will find it's way into my kitchen soon :)

(photo taken of random field of flowers in GA by muah)

ERNIE UPDATE

Ernie is now ten months old. I can't believe it. I just realized this today when someone asked me his age and I started to say 8 months....then realized I have been saying that for two months now. The other day I promised to take him for a walk but decided to take a shower first...and it didn't go over well. I  pulled back the shower curtain to find the bath mat missing, while Ernie laid on it across the room. I couldn't even be mad. He is one smart little guy, I think he has just as much (probably more) emotional intelligence as my boyfriend. "Oh did you need this mommy? Well I needed my walk and I haven't gotten that yet either. Life's a bitch, ain't it?" Thats my boy. 

COACHELLA STYLE

Refinery 29's article of 50 snap shots of awesome Coachella street style made me long for next years festival. I think the pictures must be from the first weekend, which was cold and rainy, because the second weekend had highs of 100 degrees - yikes!!! Kate Bosworth looks effortlessly chic in her rain digs, and ASOS's Jennie Wachtmeister paired a bight dress with a dark sweater and it looks so comfy and adorable. I think I could wear something like that every day. 

(Photos from Refinery 29 by Mark Lantosca) 

AMERICAN GIRL GOES TO CHINA TOWN

Last weekend my new friends Jenny and Jerry took me to one of LA's "China Towns", and it was awesome.  I've been to the Chinese markets in NY and San Fran and it was nothing like either one. It was almost like a strip mall of asian stores with a gigantic grocery filled with extremely affordable yummy goodies I have never seen before.  Here are a few pictures from the day: 

For lunch we had Vietnamese pho - a type of noodle soup with fresh vegetables and meat. It was delicious. Mine came with thin slices of raw beef on the side, when you put them in the soup they cooked perfectly. This gigantic bowl was only 6 dollars and could have fed at least two people. 

An entire aisle filled with hundreds of different types of ramen! All a dollar or less. A college kids dream!

This tubed mayonnaise made me laugh.

I had never tried dragon fruit before and I loved it.

Fresh fish, crab, and shell fish. 

So many types of nooodlesss. And pretty pink packaging :)

I can't wait to go back!!!!

PS- yes, I did get strange looks taking so many pictures in grocery store. 

WORDS TO LIVE BY

(photo found at neofundi)

P.S. A cute way to remember to be yourself :)

(from positivemed)

TEXTS FROM YOUR DOG

Text From Dog  is a hilarious new tumblr based on texts a man gets (would get) from his bulldog. SO funny. Anyone with a dog can relate. 

(images from http://textfromdog.tumblr.com)

CAINE'S ARCADE

9 year old arcade enthusiast Caine Monroy built his own arcade in his dad's used auto parts store in east LA. Thanks to short filmmaker Nirvan Mullick you can watch as Caine has the best day of his life. Caine raised almost 200,000 dollars for his college fund, which is being matched to go into Caine's Arcade Foundation,  to help find, fund, and foster creativity and entrepreneurship in young kids. This is so adorable it made me tear up a little bit. What an awesome kid. I would love to check it out one weekend. Visit Caine's Arcade website, here.

OLD LADY LOLITA

"Life is as dear to a mute creature as it is to man. Just as one wants happiness and fears pain, just as one wants to live and not die, so do other creatures." — The Dali Lama

This is Lolita, she was basically poached, ripped apart from her pod, and brought to the Miami Seaquarium when she was just 4 years old. She has been living their by herself, in the smallest orca whale tank in the nation, for over forty years. She is now at least 44, and is still forced to perform. The average female orca lifespan is 50 years. This breaks my heart. How can an animal be happy living in the same small tank by herself when she used to have the whole ocean to explore and an entire pod as family. This is absolutely a case of animal abuse and exploitation. But now she has a chance to live out the last few years of her life as a free whale. Below I included a link to a story I wrote about Lolita for the magazine I write for: globalanimal.org. 


HERE is the link to the full heartbreaking story, and HERE is the link to the petition you can sign to help set her free. :)

(photo from slaveforentertainment.com)