Light It Up

In my opinion, one of the best parts about le old internet is crowd-sourcing. My friends on Facebook and Twitter are responsible for helping me make so many of life's hard decisions. I found my movers a couple months ago based on a Facebook friend's suggestion. I regularly get restaurant recommendations from Twitter pals all over the country. So why not have my blog readers weigh in on a decoration situation?!

Here's the deal: our new apartment has a light fixture in the dining room that desperately needs updating. It is quite possibly the grossest thing I've ever seen - cracked, peeling, discolored. No way in hell am I posting a picture. You'll have to use your imagination. 

Anyway, I cannot handle looking at it for even one more second so it's time to find a replacement. Apologies in advance for the many pictures I'm about to post - I did some shitty Photoshopping of pendants and chandeliers I like OVER the hideous one... so please use your imagination and help me pick the one you like best! NOTE: most of these are NOT to scale so please don't vote based on size!

Let me make a disclaimer: this room is NOT done. I am constantly in a state of near-vomit about the blinds (they are going BYE BYE and we are getting neutral curtains), I will be switching out the chairs to white linen dining room chairs (similar to these) shortly, and the carpet gives me anxiety but there's nothing we can do about that. A sassy leopard rug is going to have to do for now. 

Also, I wanted to pick lighting options that were mostly $400 and under, since this is a rental and the odds are we'll be leaving it behind whenever we move next. So without further ado - here we go. Time to vote!

Option #1:

James Pendant - $379

Option #2:

Jonathan Adler Parker Flush Mount - $231

Option #3:

 

Haven Collection Copper Bronze Pendant - $423

Option #4:

Quatrefoil Pendant - $249

Option #5:

Melasso Pendant - $359

Option #6:

Angelina Hanging 5-Light Rust Chandelier - $199

Option #7:

Metal Straps & Linen Shade Pendant - $125

If I'm being honest, my favorites are 1, 5, and 7. I also really like 3. AH! See!? So hard!

Help a sassy gal out and leave your choice in the comments. I very much appreciate it in advance :)

Emmy Entertaining

You know I love any excuse to throw a party and I think my boyfriend has caught the bug as well. The ink was barely dry on our lease before he was calling all his friends to tell him the news and announce "We're throwing an Emmy party!" Adorable. (And yes, everyone made fun of him, considering this announcement took place in July.)

We are BIG fans of TV in our house so I knew I wanted to do something extra fun. Someone suggested ordering pizza but that wasn't creative enough for me... if we were going to have pizza, we were going to make it ourselves. So we did! 

Setting up a Make-Your-Own-Pizza party was way easier than I had expected. We bought individual Boboli pizza crusts - they come two to a package and bake for less than 10 minutes at 425 degrees in the oven. Super easy!

As for toppings - we went all out. I bought tomatoes, onions, mushrooms, pineapple, turkey pepperoni, pesto, olives, feta cheese, artichoke hearts, and of course, shredded mozzarella and cheddar cheese and pizza sauce. About an hour before everyone arrived, I chopped everything up and put them in little bowls - I love getting to use my pretty dishes!

I also set out a big green salad made by my friend Blair with goat cheese, yellow tomatoes, and avocado, garlic bread, and my very favorite meatballs (Trader Joes Sun-dried Tomato & Basil). My friend Cary who is an incredible baker made a banana cream pie from scratch, and GB brought brownies. Quite the feast!

My oven is tiny so we could only get four in at a time, which was kind of a bummer, but no one seemed to mind as we were all engrossed in the show! Here are all the pizzas lined up ready to be cooked:

There were 16 of us there - not including two dogs and a baby :)

The rest of us engrossed in the show:

Speaking of the show... I thought it was good but I personally was DEVASTATED that Max Greenfield didn't win the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy. Without a doubt I find him to be the funniest character on television and I was utterly convinced he was going to win. MAJOR BUMMER. Max, you're a winner in my heart!

And I'd be remiss to post about the Emmys if I didn't include a list of my personal "Best Dressed" - I thought Julianne Moore, Ginnifer Goodwin, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Kelly Osbourne, and Leslie Mann killed it! Loved every single one of those dresses.

Until next year, Emmy's! Now I've got to start planning our OSCAR party!

A Week Til Paradise!

I am so excited I can barely contain myself. I know I travel a lot and I'm very lucky enough to go on lots of fun trips but I am FREAKISHLY excited for this next one...

A week from today, my mom and I are going to HAWAII!!!!

Maui, to be exact. For a whole week! AH!!! 

With all the Jewish holidays coming up it seemed silly not to take advantage of all those days off from work and go somewhere fabulous. When I was little my family used to go to Hawaii every summer and I have nothing but wonderful memories of the entire place. I can't wait to do nothing but lay on the beach, read lots of books, swim in the ocean, eat delicious seafood, and of course, get lots of sun. My tan needs some work!

Unfortunately, Bailey J cannot come because it is Fashion Week and she has to work, and Ramekin is being left behind as well. So it's just the two of us - a little mother-daughter trip!

Here are some of the things I've been drooling over online that I'd love to pack in my suitcase. 

A girl can dream!

Clockwise from top left:

Love these wedges - yellow leather and stripes for only $35!

This green sarong is awesome. It would also look great wrapped around the waist!

Everyone needs a beach bag - why not get one in leopard print?!

The cutest preppiest swimsuit I ever did see, by J.Crew of course.

Blingy rainbow rhinestone sandals? How are these not mine?

Pretty little sundresses - this patterned shift and the ruffled pink sundress would be perfect!

I can't picture a more flattering one piece bathing suit. And it's sexy too!

Awesome flat sandals with baby blue leather and zebra calf hair - amazing.

I am obsessed with this Ella Moss flowered dress - so perfectly tropical!

A whole week in paradise with my best friend... I cannot wait! Counting down the days til next Monday!

Celebrating The New Year in New York!

Well hello!

Believe me, it was NOT my intention to take such a long absence. I was supposed to be back in town Tuesday night -- HOWEVER, due to a massive storm that grounded my plane and caused me and Martha Jewart to sit on the JFK runway for three hours before going back to the terminal for another two and a half hours of waiting, I didn't get back in LA til Wednesday. And then life (and unpacking) happened. So please pardon my absence.

With the exception of that little mishap, our trip was great! I flew in late Thursday night and joined my mom and the rest of the fam. Enjoyed some calamari pizza, cuddled with a dog, watched the Kardashians with my grandmother (she complained the whole time), and hung out with my amazing cousins. What could be bad?

Bailey gave me my birthday gift -- this UNREAL Diane von Furstenberg clutch. Words cannot express my love for this bag. Leopard print calfhair? Are you KIDDING ME? My sister is the BEST.

Rami arrived Friday night to join in on all the shenanigans. He and I took the train in to Manhattan on Saturday morning so we could spend the weekend in the city. We were barely there for 24 hours but still managed to have lots of fun. Our first stop? Eataly, obviously. We promptly demolished this amazing cheese & charcuterie platter - it was phenomenal.

Full stomaches and big smiles. I love this picture!

While we were there we also saw The Master in 70mm film, walked around the Village, did a little shopping on 5th Avenue, stopped into Momofuku for some delicious bun action, and of course, hit up Pommes Frites to kill it with some French fries. (Everyone always asks our dipping sauce choices - we got parmesan peppercorn, horseradish, rosemary garlic mayo, and my favorite, sweet mango chutney!)

We met up with some of Rami's friends for brunch on Sunday (hi K! great seeing you!) and afterwards, seeing as we were already uptown (is that proper NYC language? I have no effing idea), I convinced Ram to take me to Laduree!

HELLO DELICIOUSNESS. I got a little six pack of macaron deliciousness in an adorable little keepsake box so my cousins could enjoy them, too. SO GOOD!

Then it was back to Long Island for the remainder of our stay to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. The first night of the holiday my aunt hosted 25 family members at her house for our normal insane family dinner. This was the first time that Ram had met many of them and he was SLIGHTLY overwhelmed to say the least. We're not exactly quiet, in case you haven't figured that out. And speaking of figuring things out... on this trip I learned that Rami LOVES geftilte fish! Is it bad that I nearly refused to share a bed with him later that night? :)

More cousin time...

Silverman ladies all dressed up after temple on Monday. How gorgeous is my mom!? (I'm wearing my favorite grey Anthropologie dress - not online but should be still available in stores - and a rust colored lace blazer from STEINMART of all places. Never say I am not the world's best shopper!)

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was going through old family photos my grandma had brought over from her house in Florida. I took a few home and plan to frame them. Visible proof that I was a weird little kid! 

All in all, a fabulous time. I miss my family on the East Coast already but I was just told that we'll be heading out there for Thanksgiving week... so NYC, I guess I'll see ya again real soon!

What's In My Bag: New York/Rosh Hashanah Edition

Well pals, as of last night I am coming at you from the other side of the country! I flew into JFK last night and will be spending the next five days scampering around New York with the fam and Ram (he arrives tonight)!

It's been almost six months since our last trip here and I'm so excited to be back! I'm looking forward to enjoying some of that cooler NYC fall weather, doing a little shopping, hitting up my favorite place in the universe, hopefully squeezing in a Broadway show, and spending time with my family :)

As usual, I thought I'd show you some of what I've brought along with me in my suitcase...

My mom surprised me with this pretty pink dress as one of my birthday presents after I blogged about it - she's the best!
I can't stop wearing the new red Clinique Chubby Stick Lip balm that I picked up over the weekend.
I loved the high-end version of the necklace so much, I freaked out when I found a decent knockoff on eBay.
Old Navy has been killing it lately - I am loving their heart prints! I got this shirt AND this dress :)
Ram bought me this little heart Catbird ring for my birthday. I love it so, so much - I wear it every day.
My favorite leopard calf hair pumps go with everything. These J.Crew heels are similar.

I'll wear this new red DVF tunic over some black leggings while traipsing around the city one day.

Like seeing what's in my bag? Check out what I packed on other recent trips!
San Francisco - Dallas - Chicago

Monday and Tuesday I'll be celebrating the Jewish holidays (what up Rosh Hashanah!) so pardon my absence -- I'll be sure to fill you in on our trip next week!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

xoxo

The Best Roomie

This week marks a month since the big move! Many of you have asked how things have been going with my new roomie so I thought I'd give a little update...

I'm happy to report that Ram and I are loving living together!

I'm actually a little surprised with what an easy transition this has been. Prior to moving in together, we spent about 3-4 nights a week together, usually at my place, and usually saw each other on the other days too, so we were used to spending a lot of time together. But you never really know all there is to know about someone until you actually live with them and share a space with them 24/7. 

I'm not going to lie, we were both a little nervous. Would he be messy? Would I be an anal retentive neat freak? Would we fight over the remote? I'm happy to report none of those things have happened - instead, I'll share a little list of things we have learned about living together...

Clorox wipes are our new best friend.

They're the perfect compromise, too. I like everything to be perfectly clean and sparkling, and Rami is fine with that, as long as it doesn't require a ton of effort on his part. Voila, clorox wipes! We wipe everything down - the dining room table after we eat, the coffee table after we watch TV and put our feet up, the kitchen counters when we cook, the bathroom to pick up little bits of dust. So easy, so helpful!

NOT sharing closets was the best idea ever.

Um, I have a LOT of stuff. Clothes, shoes, purses, accessories, jewelry - there is no way we could have happily shared closet space without me taking over completely and Rami not having enough room. We decided his stuff would go in the guest bedroom closets and though he wasn't crazy about the idea in the beginning, he actually likes having his own space too - he can listen to music and podcasts when he's getting ready in the other room and I can change my shirt 15 times before leaving for work without it driving him nuts.

We are happy to do things for each other. Even chores!

Today I came home to the sweetest thing - Rami had done a joint load of our laundry and folded all my clothes for me on the bed. It was SO helpful! He also demonstrated impressive vacuum abilities - I barely know how to work a vaccum, let alone expertly glide it over our floors. I was so impressed when he whipped out that skill. He continues to be appreciate when I cook us dinner at night - moving in with someone who knows her way around a kitchen was a definite highlight for him. He has also thanked me profusely for keeping our place clean and organized, which makes me feel great when he acknowledges my desire to make our place as comfortable and clean as it possibly can be.

We've both got our quirks. And that's okay.

Rami assumes that once my alarm goes off, I'm awake. That's not the case at all - I press the snooze button at least twice before actually getting up. He learned this the hard way, after sweetly greeting me with "GOOD MORNING SWEETIE!" at the top of his lungs, causing me to shriek angrily and have a mini heart attack. Sweet as it is, he doesn't do that anymore :) And I am working on not being a crazy person when it comes to the DVR - I used to freak out and insist we start deleting shows if we used more than 30% of space, but Ram has demanded I cut that out... so I'm learning that it's okay to have more than five shows recorded at one time :) 

The best part about living together? It sounds really cheesy, but getting to fall asleep and wake up next to each other every single day is really, really nice. He's my best friend - what could be better than his face being the first and last thing I see every day?

Yep. Totally cheesy. I'll continue the streak by posting this picture of us from a wedding we went to over the weekend. It's RIDICULOUSLY cute if I do say so myself - maybe my favorite picture we've ever taken!?

And I won't lie - if the best part of living together is being together all the time, then the OTHER best part is redecorating :) I am loving transforming this new space. I know I owe you all pictures, they are coming soon, I promise!

LOVE This Store: Paper Source!

Last week, after making dozens of chocolate dipped pretzels to give out as favors at my birthday dinner, I was in need of some little plastic bags to put them in. There's no Party City or Target close to my office, so I was worried for a minute - and then I remembered Paper Source!

They just opened Paper Source right by the Grove in Los Angeles, about 10-15 minutes away from my office, and I can already tell it's going to be a problem - I love everything they sell! I ran in at lunchtime and picked up the bags I needed - along with some hot pink glitter ribbon and yes, a couple other things... look how cute these cards are!

Despite their name, Paper Source does NOT just sell paper - they have an amazing selection of cards, stationery, gifts, wrapping paper and boxes, ribbons, calendars, you name it. 

Here are some of my favorites:

Clockwise from top left:

A pretty little package of baker's twine - $9.95
Glitter ribbon! Comes in a million colors, too! - $3.95
I actually have 2 of these picture frames! They're in our master bath - $34.95

A French bulldog memo pad!? I'm FAINTING. $6.95

"Cheese to my macaroni" pillow - this is actually adorable. $16.95
BOOM! Thank you cards - 10 for $12.50

Polka dotted gift boxes - no wrapping paper required! $5-$12

Adorable tiny journals in awesome patterns and colors - $13.95
Awesome travel-themed wrapping paper - $3.95

Did I lie?! No I did not. Their stuff is the cutest! Looks like my lunch breaks are about to get reeeeeeeaaaallllllllllllll expensive!

Note: this is not a compensated post. I just adore their stuff!

Ace of Cake...Mix!

I realize that I promised three days ago to fill you in on one of my other amazing birthday activities but neglected to do so in a timely manner. OOPS. Life got in the way - AKA, seeing Book of Mormon and preparing to bridesmaid it up at another wedding and getting my hurrr did. 

But now we can talk about it! And by it, I mean CAKEMIX.

Please raise your hand if you are a lover of the Food Network and thereby obsessively watched Ace of Cakes, starring one Mr. Jewish chef Duff Goldman, when it was on several years ago. I am raising my hand! Which is why when he opened up Cakemix, I knew I had to go. Decorate a cake made by Duff and his band of merry bakers? YES PLEASE. So when my mother surprised me on my birthday with the news that we were going there I was so excited!

We walked into the shop and were greeted by a friendly server who handed us a form to fill out to select a cake or a cupcake set, fondant or buttercream, and of course, flavor of our dessert. We went for a lemon poppyseed cake with vanilla frosting. I immediately started drooling over the jars of sprinkles and candies displayed on the counter:

Look at the amazing icing colors. So pretty!

We were given aprons to protect our dresses...

And gloves to protect our hands. Martha Jewart was pumped.  

Here is the cake when we got it! An empty canvas.

We got started by mixing some food coloring into our fondant - obviously I wanted pink, and my mom talked me into a pink/white "tie-dye" combo. Then we put it in a little machine that flattened it out all the way so we could spread it over our cake.

Here it is looking like a little pink dress for the cake!

Once the fondant was on and all smoothed out, it was time to start decorating! I wanted to go nuts with rainbow sprinkles and hearts and a J stencil but Martha Jewart insisted we create a classy cake. So we started with some basic polka dots...

And added some more in a different color...

And then topped it with some beautiful stenciled flowers and a LITTLE bit of rainbow sprinkles. And then, voila!

Look how beautiful that little cake is! We were so proud!

The most fun afternoon ever, right? And rest assured, the cake was delicious. We tasted it for the first time after coming back from Palm Springs and it was fantastic. I already have plans to go back with a few friends in a couple of weeks, and totally see this as being a great spot to take a visiting out-of-towner.

Team Duff forever! I can't wait to go back!

The Full Birthday Recap!

I'm back! And fully recovered from all the birthday festivities. This is my first post as a 27 year old!

I had a WONDERFUL birthday. I couldn't have asked for anything more! 

On Thursday night, I threw myself a little shindig at Cube Cafe in West Hollywood - more than a dozen of my girlfriends came to celebrate with me and we had a great time! They totally spoiled me with amazing presents (including leopard scarves, "J" stationery, jewelry, makeup, candles, Jonathan Adler goodies, Suri's Burn Book and more) and I couldn't resist bringing little party favors of my own - chocolate covered pretzels all wrapped up in pretty little packages...

Look how beautiful my friends are!

The next day was my actual birthday. I took the day off work so I could have a four-day weekend (AMAZING) and slept in late - and when I woke up, Ram made me breakfast in bed!

The boy has been holding out on me and pretending he didn't know his way around a kitchen - meanwhile, it was the most delicious omelette I've ever had! Guess we all know who's on breakfast duty from now on :)

From there, I lounged around, read some blogs, and got dressed in my new heart print dress - and then  my mom came and picked me up for a special day! Our first stop - The Palm for a delicious lobster lunch!

After lunch, she surprised me with the coolest thing - have yall heard of CakeMix? I will do a full post on it tomorrow but in the meantime, here's a little sneak peek of what we created that afternoon!

That night, I got all dressed up in my new Anthropologie dress and headed out to dinner with Rami at my favorite restaurant - Animal! We celebrated over major deliciousness, including tandoori octopus, bone marrow toast, pork belly sliders, and more. Mmmmm.

Rami also surprised me with my birthday gift - this gorgeous Catbird ring. It's tiny and delicate and rose gold - I am in love with it. The perfect gift! 

After our delicious dinner :)

We finished the night by doing one of our favorite things - seeing a movie! We got tickets to see For A Good Time, Call - an independent film starring one of my favorite actresses, Ari Graynor. Alexandra and Allison met us for the movie too which was nice - I loved it! 

But the celebrations weren't over when August 31st ended - on Saturday morning we woke up bright and early and headed out to Palm Springs for the weekend! We spent the next two and a half days getting some sun, lounging in the pool, doing a little gambling, eating some delicious food - I even got a massage! Plus, we hit up the outlet mall and took advantage of the amazing sales - I got a gorgeous new Diane von Furstenberg dress and a new pair of Kate Spade wedges. Win win!

All in all, a fabulous birthday and a great weekend. Thank you to everyone who called, texted, emailed, Facebooked, Tweeted, and Gchatted me -  I am so lucky to have such wonderful friends and family who helped make my birthday so special!

27 is looking good so far!