a&a | artistic lifestyle blog

pros and cons of living in a studio apartment

2013-05-17T01:06:00.000-06:00

so far I've loved our little studio apartment. I remember telling my mom that I had a secret dream to live in a studio apartment in a downtown of a city, and who would have thought my wish would have come true? only the occasional outburst of "I hate this place, I'm done!!" has escaped my lips, but recently we've been thinking and dreaming about living in a 2 bedroom

alexa Z design: how to have pure happiness on your wall

2013-05-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

I would really like to cheer up your Monday by introducing you to someone. I don't know how many of you know Lex. She has a wonderful blog about her life with pictures that make me grin from ear to ear, and I just love hearing her hilarious, sometimes extremely embarrassing but always real stories. I've had the opportunity to meet & second shoot a wedding with her, and I can tell you that she

++here are some words

2013-05-01T21:09:00.000-06:00

+ my style is changing. give it fashion, hair, design. anything. and that's ok. + I have an odd love for graffiti. + not having schoolwork to do makes me feel weird. like I don't know what to do with my life anymore now that the semester is over. I've been in school for 3 straight semesters with little to no break in between them. It's so weird! + I may or may not be working 4 jobs this

an infographic: how to plant succulents

2013-04-24T10:49:00.001-06:00

say hello to this infographic: & may the plants be ever in your favor.

Newport [part 2]

2013-04-10T02:44:00.002-06:00

on this day, we spent all of our time getting lost in Laguna. we found a semi-secluded beach and played in the tide pools. then spent the sunset on Newport.

Newport Beach [part 1]

2013-04-07T16:07:00.001-06:00

nicholas and I took a weekend and drove down to Newport Beach. I've been naughty (in the words of my mother) and haven't posted anything about it. So here we are, part 1 of the Newport Beach mini-cation. On this day, we spent the majority of the day on Balboa Island...

AE skinny skinny: this has to be a joke?

2013-03-20T15:24:00.000-06:00

apparently at the AE store they have new spray on jeans? here's the link to the video. they're naked. this has to be a joke. ***UPDATE*** turns out it WAS a joke. a big April Fools joke. read more about it on their blog.

winner announced!

2013-03-18T10:19:00.001-06:00

thanks to my handy dandy excel sheet & accounting for extra entries, we have a winner! congratulations lady! email me your contact information and i will send it onto Shabby Apple. thanks to everyone who participated!

giveaway! [closed] / what we've been up to

2013-03-08T10:38:00.000-07:00

{picture from our Newport Beach trip a few weeks ago} obviously, we've been doing a lot around these parts. but that's for another time. today we're leaving on a jet plane for San Antonio tonight to spend a week in a beach house near Corpus Christi! so while we're out on an adventure, I want to give you a spring break giveaway just in time for newly shaven legs & st. george tans. Shabby

want to hear my mad ukulele skills?

2013-02-13T13:49:00.003-07:00

So, I don't usually do stuff like this. But we did because I like her a lot. Nick and I played our uke and sang a song on Katherine's blog this weekend as part of a Fourteen Days of Love series. so, check out her blog and hear us make fools of ourselves!

bucket list: donate blood

2013-01-28T17:52:00.002-07:00

I did it!! I did it, I did it, I really really did it! almost 2 hours, bags of cookies & a barf bag later (don't worry, I didn't use it! they were just worried about me.) I donated my first bag of blood! booyah!

life musings of the befuddled crazy lady.

2013-01-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

let me start by introducing myself to you: HI, i'm stephanie. if i could make an award for myself for the first week of classes it would be: "Most Awkward Person Ever Award of Most Excellence" or "Today's makeup is brought to you by the letter 'I' as in 'I was half asleep when I did this" or "Most Picked on by Previous Professors in New Classes Just Because they Know Your Name." i spent a

and so we celebrate

2013-01-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

so, we pretty much think you guys are the bestest most awesomest readers ever. i for one so grateful that i have such a great community to write with & be a part of. & for that, we want to celebrate you guys. on this little blog of ours we are starting a new tradition! take a picture of you celebrating something with your friends, with your hubs, on your own, with your dog, with your

main street winter date

2013-01-01T20:57:00.002-07:00

last week, nick and I went on a winter/Christmas date. We bundled up, made ourselves mugs of hot cocoa and walked across the street to Main Street. We window shopped and visited friends, but the most fun was stopping at Centro Pizzeria. We've had our fair share of wood fired pizzas, and it's safe to say that this is our favorite joint so far. we ordered the pizza arugula (fontina

HEY 2013!

2013-01-01T02:14:00.000-07:00

WE ARE EXCITED! happy new years everybody! p.s. we're so old we all had a hard time staying up until midnight at the party. like, what the what?

plans for the new year

2012-12-28T13:01:00.001-07:00

The past month has been ka-razay, if I may say so myself. So many things have happened, such as me quitting my day job and working as a graphic designer. Say what? Typical freelance crazy pants. I plan on doing lots of shopping while we're still up north this week, and throwing a wicked awesome New Years Eve party with my home girl Chelsea to kick off a year that's going to ROCK. I've been

Christmas Eve & decor

2012-12-24T16:23:00.002-07:00

we like our tiny house & tripod Christmas tree. it's officially Christmas Eve and we don't quite know what to do with ourselves except listen to lots of music & eat an outstandingly ridiculous amount of cookies & sweets. koda keeps whining because she can smell the rawhide wreath we have atop the presents. but not until Christmas, little one!

Christmas pictures

2012-12-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

Merry Christmas everyone! We love you guys & hope you have the most fantastic holiday season you've ever had ever.

say hello to my favorites

2012-11-30T14:49:00.002-07:00

(photos used with permission from Josh Rose Photography.) meet Josh Rose. he's a photographer. his travel photos are some of the best I've ever seen. & he's a film guy. i've had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Josh many times. he's SO GREAT (and by great i mean hilarious with a hint of sarcasm, just the way i like my humor & my photographers.) i asked for the prints above for

that one time we had a whole turkey to ourselves

2012-11-27T20:24:00.000-07:00

thanksgiving this year was such a success! we had little appetizers just like grownups do & cooked a turkey from start to finish. we didn't even burn anything! (except nick had to do all the raw-turkey-touching.. i was gagging just looking at it.) we still don't have a table so we just set up our buffet on our desk & ate indian style on the floor. nick made southern corn cake and it was goooood

from us to you:

2012-11-22T14:05:00.001-07:00

have a wonderful, wonderful Thanksgiving! we will be having Thanksgiving all by ourselves this year, just the two of us & our dog. (which equals more pie for me! muah ha ha) crossing our fingers we don't burn the turkey.. or ourselves. if you should happen to have any extra pie laying around please send it my way. :)

2 years ago

2012-11-21T23:13:00.003-07:00

2 years ago Nick and I were preparing for him to meet my family on Thanksgiving. For black friday we went ring shopping & that was that. It's so crazy to look back on old pictures and how much we didn't know about our futures at the time. crazy ridiculous headband and all. (at least we're still as obsessed with food as we used to be, thank heavens!)

cardses

2012-11-17T16:45:00.002-07:00

for a club activity we designed Christmas cards. We were only supposed to do one, but I suppose I got carried away. me and my 30 rock addiction.

PSA

2012-11-17T15:45:00.000-07:00

catchy, cute, slightly morbid. enjoy.

drink up, holidays.

2012-11-16T16:51:00.000-07:00

i got my cheapo gene from my mama, and when she figured out how to make an almost-like-starbucks rendition of "caramel apple spice," i just about died. nick and I had this a lot when we were dating (almost engaged) so it's kinda-sorta special to us. & it's perfect, PERFECT, i say for a cold night in. all you need is: apple cider (we use Western Family brand) Starbucks' cinnamon dolce (bought