gusgus « Covet Living

So, we had one dee-lightful weekend in San Diego. Wanna see?

First of all… can we all thank Gus aka Sir Licks-a-Lot for waking me up at 4:30am on Saturday morning with a ball in his mouth?? It’s like the little bastard knows it’s dog beach day. So, he surfed at sunrise whilst I sipped a piping hot soy latte. Heaven.

…heaven *until* Gus the giant red bowling ball nearly knocked over an 187-year old man at the dog park, who then retaliated by walloping Gus on the head as hard as he could with a Chuck It… after which, Yours Truly had to leave the scene before I clotheslined the old man. I love old people and all, but don’t &#%$ with my dog.

Oh yeah, and then Karrie and her hubs rolled on into town. We hijacked the pool at the Marriott Marquis for a dip and some hang time with some good ‘ol Midwest folk who were in town visiting. Y’all know Midwest folk are the best kind, right??

Karrie and Gus did a little pre-game spooning while I got ready for dinner… what’s that? Yeah. Those are underwear in his mouth.

We made a quick pit stop at the Princess Pub before dinner. And this happened.

Then we posted up at Prep Kitchen in Little Italy for dinner, which never disappoints. Ever. Amazing farm-to-table comfort food. Do yourselves a favor and start with the Cutting Board.

Do yourselves another favor and order the Short Ribs with Potato Puree, Carrots, Pearl Onions, Crimini & Horseradish Gremolata. HOLY Testicle Tuesday.

Last, make sure the person next to you gets the Tagliatelle Bolognese so you can eat off their plate. This was my favorite dish on the table… homemade pasta, *perfectly* el dente, and the bolognese was to die for. I know it’s hard to see under the hill of parm that I insisted they pile on top, but just trust me.

The night culminated in Karrie taking a picture of me on the commode, then showing it to some random dude outside the bathroom… Uh huh. Later on, I may or may not have fallen asleep in my Uber on the way home… because that, my friends, is what 2 glasses of vino and a full belly will do to you at the ripe age of 33.

Sunday Sunday SUNDAY we hit the streets of Solana Beach and Encinitas for some retail therapy. If you love home decor, you MUST hit the strip on Cedros.

Not to miss: Bixby & Ball – a beachy, breezy little haven with wall-to-wall John Robshaw pillows, gorgeous (and totally reasonable) jewelry and heaven-scented candles that always leaves us in a giddy daze every time we go in there. You’ll want to move in.

(Do you wanna come live at my house, little buddy?)

Also not to miss: Solo (right across the street). Among gobs of other treasures, we spied some vintage glasses we may adopt for our Thanksgiving dinner table.

We hopped up to Encinitas afterward to the Endless Summer Pop Up Party…

Favorite finds?? Um, just about everything at the Hostess Haven booth…

Including rainbow-colored vintage tumblers…

Mismatched, vintage gold flatware…

Pretty tribal napkins…

Dear Darling Calligraphy… so gorge.

Also… cutest food truck I’ve ever seen. Er, food trailer. Karrie had a toasted coconut + mexican chocolate ice cream from here that was so, so so good.

And then we found the Amigo Booth Photo Booth… whoops.

What a mess. Hope you guys had a great weekend!!!

xoxo,

Steph & Karrie

I was just flipping back through my iPhoto; ye know how when you hook your phone up to your computer, it dumps everything in there, and then you forget about it? I just took a trip back through mine and found a few gems to share with you guys…

Did y’all know Ali Larter has a blog? She’s a domestic goddess of sorts. I screen shot the above from her site because (le sigh) it reminds me of Fall – which I am currently yearning for. And it gave me some Thanksgiving dinner table inspiration for this year, and made me wanna haul off to a few antique stores + Anthro and pull something all deep jewel-and-earth-toned-with-tarnished-silver together.

Can I be weird for a sec? I’ve hosted Thanksgiving the past 2 years in my – er, what was our – sweet little house in Columbus. There are a slew of reasons I miss that house, and hosting a gaggle of family and friends for holidays was one of em. But having a blank canvas of my own place to decorate as I please was another. Moving along…

At least the things I love most made it out here with me, into this itty bitty 10 x 10 joint (?) #silverlining

One thing I love about Cali? The Corepower Yoga down the street, and the Hot Power Fusion class every weekday at 7:30am. It’s 105+ degrees, 1 hour long, and I sweat my ever-living BALLS off. But it’s been incredible for my beat-to-h*ll-from-college-volleyball joints. It’s the only class I take.

Any calories I burn in yoga, I replace with Twizzlers. This is what my desk looks like. Every day. Oosie.

Rapid subject change: never have I ever seen a floral wedding dress, and I wish I remember where I saw this… and I might love the bouquet more than anything else in this picture, but I give her props for branching out from the white strapless uniform.

How fun is this malachite screen I saw at an antique shop in San Francisco over Labor Day?

I posted up at a little French restaurant when I first got there – and it was a chilly, breezy Fall-ish day, and I had this. Salmon-à-la-something-something, but it was heaven.

Cafe de la Presse was good for Sunday brunch – all bustly and charming, with a wall of newspapers and magazines to grab from.

Stumbled on some new John Robshaw bedding at a little boutique in San Fran… I’ll be checking the local John Robshaw Mothership – Bixby & Ball (Solana Beach) for that soon. So pretty.

We made wine tasting rezzies at this place – Del Dotto… which I was super pumped about, because I thought I was going to be transported to the French countryside for 2 hours whilst I sipped Pinot Noirs. But careful if you’re in Sonoma/Napa – this shot is of the Del Dotto location in ST. HELENA, not in Napa. So, we ended up wine tasting in a cave. Which was also lovely. But not as lovely as the pretend France I was hoping for.

They did have some gorgeous Fortuny light fixtures though, so I’ll forgive them for the bait & switch.

Roses I bought at the market while fiddle-faddling a few Sundays back.

Had to add this to my “Nostalgia” playlist on Spotify. Because the late 80’s / early 90’s are the soundtrack to my adolescence. That playlist also has Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s on it, which makes me think of my Grandparents, which makes my heart ache – and smile – so much I can hardly stand it.

Went sailing with this big hooker in San Diego a few weeks back. I’m REAL lucky I have her as a friend. She is one of the sweetest, most hilarious, most real people you will ever meet. If anybody needs a good b*tch slap in the face, or for someone to show up when you need them, Karrie’s your girl.

She sent me this care package last week. Sniff sniff.

This is what she looked like as a kid. Just kidding. But not really.

My new Ted Baker cami I can’t stop wearing… It goes with EVERYTHING – I wore it with jeans and heels to dinner the other night. With that ballet pink pencil skirt to work last week. It’s a gem. I strolled into the Ted Baker store at Fashion Valley after seeing this chick’s get-up.

That pic before shows how amazing my black roots look with my blonde hair. The jig is up. I’m wondering if it’s not time to just go au naturel… à la Julia Hengel. But, my face doesn’t quite look like that, so I dunno… it might be about as smart as the time I wanted cut my hair into a Meg Ryan-esque pixie cut after I saw You’ve Got Mail, and forgot for a second that I have an afro.

Kristin and I saw this a few weeks ago at Bedrosians. If you’ve spent a sniff of time on Pinterest, or ever wanted to renovate a kitchen or bathroom, then you’ve either seen or heard about Carrara Marble. It’s the pretty white marble with grey veining popular the world over, and it’s in every French bistro and all-white kitchen from here to Kingdom Come. It’s classic and it’s stunning – but it’s also supes expensive. The pic above is a gigantic porcelain panel engineered to look like Carrara… porcelain = much more forgiving/resilient than marble, and also much less expensive. This isn’t the right application for a countertop because the edge profile would be jacked, but if you wanted to – say – panel your shower walls in Carrara marble, this would save you some serious moo.

Kristin – aka my boss lady – aka the Tile Yoda – just put this Skyline Polished 1-1/4″x6″ mosaic from Marble Systems in one of our clients’ kitchens as the backsplash, and it’s stunning.

I also helped her install a few things in a client’s home the other day and snapped this ditty. Isn’t it pretty?

Beach shacks in Malibu I passed on a 7-mile trek down the beach (where I also passed Courtney Cox and Gabby Reece – neither are ugly in person).

Michael Kors score from TJ Maxx.

Helmut Lang mini sweater-skirt I tried on at Bloomies, which I would totally wear the Michael Kors kicks with.

Look at my sweet, jolly Poppa, Stevie B, playing with Gus (his favorite thing) while he was in town to help me pack up my C-bus house earlier this year. This pic makes me so happy. I miss home… can you tell?

Hilarious texts – 2 of many – that I got almost immediately after the news broke that Ryan Gosling had knocked up Eva Mendes.

Subtle stunner of a rug on the right – or rugs, I should say – at the Kravet Showroom in San Diego.

Some REAL wise words…

The best white shirt I’ve ever owned (Vince from Nordstrom Rack) – I love it best paired with an itty bitty mini. PS. Again with the roots. Fer *$#&’s sake.

I made Karrie’s BBQ meatballs last week, but instead of the cheesy-corn-quinoa, just made cauliflower rice (you grate a head of cauliflower with the grater, then sauté it in a pan… I baked mine, though, with some butter, cilantro and cumin. It was heaven.)