Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes...

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The Los Angeles Cupcake Meetup Group!

I just signed up for this and I can't wait for the next meetup. I've been a cupcake devotee since Sprinkles first opened their doors several years ago and try to try all the latest cupcakeries around. (I even read the cupcake blog, Cupcakes Take the Cake, at least every other day.)

I love cupcakes for their precious smallness, their yumminess & endless possibilities for cute design. I have this beautiful cake plate at home and the thought of placing perfect cupcakes on it makes me perfectly happy.

As for what cupcakes are my favorite, I'll save that for another time (hopefully accompanied with a pic of them on my cake plate.)

Cherry's Jubilee

While in Monterey this past weekend, K & I happened upon the annual Cherry's Jubilee classic car event. This was definitely a treat, probably more so for K, who couldn't stop snapping pics of his favorite cars. I was able to wrest the camera away from him to snap a couple of shots of my favorite car there:

The lines on this car are so gorgeous. I love the creamy color and the burnt orange. They just don't make 'em like this anymore. (Truth be told, on the safety side, I'm glad cars have all sorts of airbags, etc., nowadays. I just want them to be designed a little bit more elegantly)


I tried to do a search on this car, but came up with nothing on the name below:


Anyway, this reminded me of L.A.'s own treasure trove of classic cars: The Nethercutt Collection. If you love classic cars, especially pre-war ones, this is the place for you. K & I went there several months ago and he certainly got a kick at seeing all of the Packards (especially since he's a descendant.) To see the best cars and hear some unusual automated instruments, reserve a spot in the San Sylmar tour.

Art Deco

If you haven't visited my blog lately (as I haven't written much lately), you'll notice that it looks a little different. I got bored of the standard Blogger template I was using, so I put together this Art Deco-inspired background.

Art Deco is one of my favorite architectural styles and I spend a lot of time scoping out Art Deco buildings and objects. In fact, in addition to living in an Art Deco building, I lead an Art Deco walking tour of downtown L.A. for the L.A. Conservancy. My next tour is scheduled for Saturday, September 22 at 10 a.m. If you are interested in walking through downtown with me, visit the Conservancy's Web site and reserve a spot.

Art Deco exterior molding from my building.

Shark Obsession

Hello, my name is Annabel and I'm a shark-aholic...

Most people who know me know that I'm pretty obsessed with sharks. You know those little boys who go around spouting random facts about dinosaurs, insects or cars? I'm like that with sharks, except I'm a 30-year-old adult woman. I can identify most species of sharks, tell you what the Ampullae of Lorenzini are, locate primary feeding and spawning grounds, etc.

I go to aquariums with one primary objective... to see the shark tank. I've seen zebra and other carpet sharks in the petting tank, ragged tooth/sand tiger sharks (the scariest-looking shark, but fairly benign), a bull shark, numerous types of reef sharks, and some hammerheads. But next week, I get to see a (knock on wood) great white!!!!!

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has had several great whites in the past, but eventually they would have to return them to the ocean because the sharks get too big. They are usually housed in the Outer Bay exhibit, which is one of my favorite tanks in the world. I could spend hours in front of the glass there, watching the sharks, tuna and other large fish whizz around.

Last Monday, they introduced a young great white into the tank and will keep him there as long as things go smoothly (in other words, as long as he doesn't eat the other fish or get really depressed). Hopefully, he'll still be there when K & I go to visit. If so, I promise to post pictures.

I do have a feeling that this little viewing will have me wanting more. Perhaps, one day, I'll get to go on a tour of Seal Island in False Bay, South Africa and see this:

Testing out Mobile Blogging

Most of the time when I'm out and about, I see things that I think warrant a blog post, but then I get home or back to work and I forget or I just don't have the time. So in order to possibly (hopefully) increase my blogging productivity, here's my first attempt at mobile blogging. After this post, a flood of new posts should follow (crossing my fingers)

National Parks Passport

After our Thanksgiving break in Palm Springs, K and I visited Joshua Tree National Park. I am generally not a huge fan of the desert, but certain desert landscapes have managed to enchant me over the years: the plentiful saguaro cacti at Saguaro National Park in Arizona, the red rocks outside of Santa Fe, and now the joshua trees and massive rockpiles at Joshua Tree.

We didn't spend too much time at the park since we got there as the day was fast losing light. (Did I mention I hate daylight savings time?) We did have the chance to hike the Hidden Valley trail loop and check out Keys View:

After that, we headed back to Highway 10 to return to L.A. However, earlier in the day, we stopped by the Joshua Tree Visitors Center, where I was able to complete my part of a chain that has been going on for awhile.
I have a National Parks Passport, which lists all of the National Parks and has designated pages for you to get a stamp at each visitor center. It's pretty fun, and while I doubt I'll ever collect every stamp, it's cool to see the stamps from each park you've visited. Anyway, I don't know where this started, but if you have one already and you visit a park with someone who doesn't, then you have to buy one for them. I got mine from my ex, who in turn got his from my friend, and this trip, I was able to buy one for Kip. Obviously, you can always just buy one, but it's much more fun this way.

Stoned

While I love going to cemetaries during the day for the serenity, you'd be hard-pressed to get me to go to one alone after nightfall for obvious reasons...decomposing bodies just six feet below, too many screenings of Night of the Living Dead, etc. At Recoleta Cemetary, I would think that it would be even more creepy, because it resembles a housing tract for the dead, where a zombie could just open the door of its fabulous crypt, without having to dig its way through compacted dirt. Add to that the multitude of gorgeous-during-the-day, but eerie-at-night statues that decorate many of the masoleums:

I can just imagine any one of these statues coming to life with a turn of the head in a not so charming Pygmalion kind of way. To be honest, though, while I was actually walking through the grounds (with the full strength of the sun), all I could do was take in the beauty around me.

Amidst the dead stone, there were wonderful little signs of life moving on:


And there were unexpected things, like a faucet that became much more:

Recoleta Cemetary was one of the highs of my trip. I was anticipating an overhyped tourist trap, and I'm glad I decided to visit anyway, because it truly is a special place. And to cap off my postings on it, I'd like to share my favorite tomb embellishment:

Her lips are sealed, indeed. Though, to me, it looks as if she's concealing an oh-so-sweet secret. Perhaps a different kind of death...

For the full set of my Recoleta Cemetary photos, click here.