Weekend in LA

Sweater (Brandy Melville) // Denim Mini (Free People) // Booties (Free People) // Bandana (Oli Rose Designs) // Tote (Fossil)

Hello, my loves! I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and have been having a fun and relaxing Sunday.

I feel like I say this every other week these days, but I am riding out the tail end of a crazy stressful time at work (think conference calls that last 10 hours and waking up to 50 emails with action items every morning), and could not be happier that I could relax and rejuvenate this weekend! Between work and all of the blog projects I have going on, there is a ton on my plate to catch up on. Last week I flew out to LA to visit my sister and celebrate her 21st birthday and we had THE best time, but it was a packed few days and I definitely got behind with… well everything.

So! I am super excited to be back in blogging mode, catching up on all of the upcoming holiday content I have planned as well as share the details of my trip to LA with you guys. I typically do my travel guides a little bit differently, but today I kind of feel like doing this post a la scrapbook style; I have some awesome food recommendations, lots of pictures of palm trees and Disneyland during Christmas time, some funny stories, some outfit details, so if that all sounds up your alley, keep scrollin! 🙂

Delsey Luggage // Adidas Sweatshirt // Zella Leggings // Sneakers

So like I mentioned, I flew out to Cali to visit my sister Kate and spend a few days in town celebrating her 21st! Which can I just say, is insane… I mean, this is my lil bebee sister we’re talking about here— For one, hanging with her and all her friends made me feel SO old. Like, I literally didn’t even know what they were saying half the time hahaha. I didn’t dare ask what some of the acronyms they repeatedly used stood for, in fear of being sassed to pieces by my sister. It also just felt so surreal seeing her in her 3rd year of college, killing it in every way, and just having turned into such a dope human being. I feel like yesterday she was 3 years old with little white blonde curls, running around calling me Mimi, and then here we are today and I’m taking embarrassing drunk birthday videos of her (hehe). It’s crazy how fast life passes you. Ugh, I just love her so much!

She goes to school in Orange, which is about an hour outside of LA (depending on traffic… this is LA we’re talking about), and a very convenient 15 mins from Disneyland. I flew in on Thursday morning and the two of us started the weekend by heading to the happiest place on earth! Which, let me tell ya, it’s been years since I’ve been, but it is just as happy and magical as I remember 🙂 When we first got in and were walking through Main Street, I kept thinking how crazy it felt to be there. They had all of their Christmas decorations put up, and everything was just immaculate; not a piece of trash on the ground, not a blade of grass out of place. It wasn’t busy at all when we went, so we managed to get on all the rides on our list! (Peter Pan’s Flight is juuuust as lit as I remember). Another fun discovery was how GOOD the food was! I got this chipotle lime corn on a stick that I would eat every day if I could, we tried this cheesy garlic bread, and we passed by stands selling super gourmet options. Disneyland is adjacent to California Adventure park, which seemed more geared to adults because they sold booooze! Which you could bring in line with you!! While you dance around to the Christmas music they have on blast; it was honestly perfect. We grabbed some pomegranate margs (bebee’s first legal drink!!!) and were very happy campers.

We spent the night in Orange and then headed to LA with her roomies where we checked into the Viceroy Santa Monica! Kate and I were fairly split when we booked our hotel; location is sooo so important since all the different areas of LA are so spread out. We toyed with finding something in West Hollywood, but settled on the Viceroy since Santa Monica is Kate’s favorite part of the city. It truly was so so darling; little brightly colored bungalow/cottage-y looking homes, palm trees everywhere, wall murals on every corner. There was good shopping right by us with some trendier stores we don’t have in Chicago, a trendy donut spot, cute coffee shops, all right by the beach! Which sadly, we never made it to haha. Next time.

The Butcher’s Daughter Santa Monica

We had planned on going to the Butcher’s Daughter for brunch but considering it was 4:30 by the time we got there, we decided ‘za was more appropriate. It was THE cutest spot and the food was delicious. They served their hot drinks in little mason jars, (I got a chai tea latte), and their smoothies came with fun printed straws (one had lil avocados on it). Definitely a quintessential Santa Monica spot, so highly recommend if you’re in the area! The pizza was unreal, and their brunch menu sounds (dare I say it) even better…

PUMP

So yes, this is indeed the Vanderpump Rules restaurant. Well, I guess the cast work at the other Lisa Vanderpump owned restaurant. I don’t actually watch the show haha. I totally thought that I had eaten there back in January during Fran’s sister’s bachelorette weekend; completely forgot about the sneaky lil second restaurant (we went to SUR)! To be honest, I liked this one waaay better; Kate had a 21 bday sash (it was subtle. ish.), which got 2 cosmos sent over right away and eventually these frozen, lime green, sugar rimmed shots… they were interesting to say the least, but I was a fan. These crazy college kids were trying to get me to do shots of cheap plain vodka with no chaser and I was like looool you clearly do not know my life.

Pump ended up being a pretty cool scene; it was outside, heat lamps everywhere, and the majority of the skyline was covered by trees and canopies. It felt very loungey and the drinks were great, so perfect if that’s more of the vibe you’re looking for! I was impressed with the food but definitely not the service. Our waiter was inattentive to say the least.

Dress (Free People) // Block Heels (Madewell)

I threw a leather jacket over this little red sequin number since it was a little chilly sans heat lamps. While on that subject, can I just point out how much I LOVE and strait up respect California’s seemingly shared love of heat lamps? Whenever we’re in Palm Desert over Christmas, allll of the restaurants bust them out and there just isn’t anything better!

This Free People dress actually sold out in every color and size when I rocked it in LA, but the Christmas gods have answered my prayers and it is fully restocked! It’s $108, has a nude overly, a deep v neck cut in the front and back, and comes in black, mint, pastel pink, so pretty for New Years Eve.

I had anticipated going out on the town while we were in LA, and had wanted to wear something fun, something that would really take advantage of the whole no snow and 30 degrees thing. Unfortunately, I completely forgot that none of Kate’s friends were 21, soo we were limited in our options… It’s been so long that I’ve had to think about that kind of thing; back in college, there was a solid period of time where social life all revolved around which bars were easy on fake IDs haha. I also have a late birthday for my age, so being in the minority of being able to order drinks at a restaurant and not have to stress about it felt like some kind of wonderful. Definitely a newfound re-appreciation for the power of #twentyfun.

 

The Ivy

Another adorable restaurant; located in West Hollywood, The Ivy feels like a colorful little French garden, filled with brightly printed decor, flowers, and all the charm in the world. Me, Kate, and the fam ate here when we were in town dropping her off at college for her freshman year; I vividly remember their amazing mojitos and that it was most definitely a trendy spot. I ended uo with a Bloody Mary and the crab benedict— the crab was fresh from Santa Barabara, soo good. They also make the sriracha english muffins from scratch… We also were greeted with a man pouring and handing out glasses of champagne, so you can’t really go wrong there. The food and service was fantastic; they even brought out this gigantic dessert tray of red velvet cake, cookies, brownies, adorned with a sparkler obvi, for Miss Kate’s bday.

Terroni 

Okay, so I apologize for the poor photo quality BUT Terroni is one of my favoriteeee restaurants in the world (there are two locations in Toronto we frequently eat at when we’re in town!), so I of course couldn’t pass up the opportu`nity to check out the sole US location. I got my one and only go to, the rigatoni arcobaleno. It’s super simple but my ideal pasta dish: burrata, cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced zucchini, fresh basil and tomato sauce… It’s the best.

Urth Caffé

Last stop on our LA weekend food tour was Urth Caffé for brunch; I had previously been to the Laguna location and was dying to get another one of their matcha lattes. Besides having soups, sandwhiches, and the usual suspects for all day brunch, they do out  They give you a big ‘ole personalized size one at Urth and I looove them for it. We sat outside on this little covered patio on our last morning before driving back to Orange. It was right after we ate that I officially started itching to get back haha; that’s the only issue with flying out to California— it’s about a 4 hour flight with a 2 hr time change, and my flight wasn’t until 3. The Sunday Scaries came in unusually early that day, I’ll tell ya. I was lucky to have a stress-free travel day and make it back in Chicago with a couple more hours of weekend to enjoy 🙂

All of my unanswered emails were enough to quickly shock back into reality when I got home on Sunday, but it was totally worth it; I had the best time with lil Kate and her friends, pluuus, with winter coming in hot, and the fact that it gets dark at approximately 4 pm every day now, I was in desperate need of some sunshine 🙂

Hope you all have a great week!