A Year in Review

I can't believe 2010 has come and gone!  It seems like this year has FLOWN by.  I guess time flies when you are having fun:)

January

* Rang in the New Year in Palm Springs

* Starting pre-production for The Ocean Black

* Allie & Brock moved to LA

* We finally received all our stuff!!!

February

*MIL came to visit

*Work Gala Dinner at the BH Hilton Hotel

 March

*Shot The Ocean Black

*My sisters came to visit

April 

*Visited Santa Barbara for the first time for a Radiohead concert

*MAG's brother came to visit for Spring Break/Easter

 May

*MAG hospitalized for Kidney Stone

*Almost missed his sisters wedding

*Flew back to GA for a week

*Celebrated Memorial Day by the beach

June

*Celebrated weddings & birthdays

*Girls night for Eclipse

*International Work Event in BH

July

*My 26th Birthday party

*Celebrated 4th of July at Manhattan Beach

*Long Weekend in San Diego

August

*Weekends spent at the beach

* My cousins wedding in Manhattan Beach at the Shade Hotel

*College FB started

September

*Corey's Birthday in Santa Barbara

*Labor Day weekend in Balboa Island

*Celebrated 2 years of marital bliss at La Dolce Vita in BH

October

*Road trip to Arizona to visit my mom and grandpa

*Halloween at the BH Hilton

November

*MAG's 29th Birthday!
*Santa Barbara visit with the in-laws

*Back to Alpharetta for Thanksgiving

December

*My Promotion!!!

*Completion of The Ocean Black Script

*Santa Monica Pub Crawl

*Christmas in LA with friends

2010 was a great year.  I think both MAG and I felt more established this year and ready to conquer LA.  I couldn't be more excited for 2011.  There are already some amazing things in the pipeline: Melissa's bachelorette party & wedding, Hawaii, Finding funding for The Ocean Black, Birthdays, Anniversary celebrations, and more!  

I hope you and your family have a wonderful and safe NYE!  

Christmas Recap

Good Afternoon Y'all!  I hope you are enjoying your in between week.  If you are working I hope it is going well.  I have to go into the office for a few hours today which I am not looking forward to, but it is only a few hours so I can't complain.  By doing this it will help me be more prepared for when the new year starts, which is going to be insane!  Onward to Christmas Eve...

Since it was just MAG and I this year our day was pretty low key.  We spent the day running last minute errands, wrapping presents, and watching Christmas movies {Christmas Vacation, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York}.  For dinner two of MAG's friends from film school came over and we went out for Chinese food at Chin Chin in Brentwood.  If you are ever in LA and looking for amazing Chinese food go there.  It is so yummy!  We spent the evening laughing, drinking Saki, and indulging in delish food.  When dinner was over we headed home, snuggled on the couch and watched a Christmas Story.  Watching ACS was a tradition in both of our families growing up so we have incorporated it into our book of traditions.

I woke up early on Christmas morning and made breakfast for MAG and I {eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, mimosas}.  After breakfast we Skyped with MAG's parents for a little bit and opened gifts.  As always they spoiled up rotten!  We both got new iphones!  I have wanted one forever.  They also got me the most beautiful ring from our Santa Barbara trip.  Then it was on to Skyping with my family.  My parents must have bought out JCrew this year.  MAG got more plaid shirts than anyone should have in their closet.  I got two, a sweater, and some Nike workout shorts that I am OBSESSED with.  I love them!  After we did our family duties MAG and I opened our gifts to one another.  I had the best time shopping for him.  He never indulges in himself, so it was nice that I got to do it for him.  He received more plaid,  two Alfred Hitchcock posters for our family room, Inception Blue Ray DVD, Kanye West CD, and a new pair of Nike Sneakers.  He spoiled me as well!  Silver Toms, workout pants, the shake weight {yep!}, Black JCrew cords and tops.  Needless to say I was quite happy this Christmas:)

Merry Christmas!

I wanted to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas from LA!  I hope Santa brings you everything you want.  After my change in plans this week, MAG and I have decided that we are going to stay home and celebrate together.  We are lucky to have one another and to me that is the best Christmas present a girl could ask for.  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Photo Credit

Pity Party Over!

Sorry for the pity party yesterday readers!  I was upset that our Christmas plans fell through, but am over it now-well kind of.  I spent much of yesterday looking at flights home and they were still expensive.  Sorry family, we love you and would love to spend the holidays with you, but $1000 is a lot to spend on two tickets home for 4 days.  Yesterday when I came home I was in tears.  It was a long day at work, I sat in a chair for 3 hours getting my highlights touched up and I was just spent.  When I walked through the door MAG was there with a big smile on his face, gave me a hug and made dinner.  We spent the rest of the evening looking for last minute deals to San Francisco.  Since we have no reason to stay in LA we thought SF would be the next best thing.  The totally weird thing is that my mom texted me this morning and told me that we should do something different, like go to San Fran!  How strange is that?  The plans are still up in the air, but it is nice to know I will be celebrating Christmas with my most favorite person in the world and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Change in Plans

Today I am having a pity party for myself, yes 4 days before Christmas.  Here is why...4 or 5 months ago along with our best friends out here decided we were going to stay in LA for Christmas.  We spent last Christmas together and had an awesome time.  Planning the holidays this year had become a little bit harder because of work schedules, job changes and projects being finished, but the four of us were still excited to celebrate together until this morning...

C&D (our friends) got a call from their aunt last night.  She was upset that they weren't going to be around for the holidays this year and then offered to fly them home on her dime!  I can only imagine the mixture of emotions they were feeling.  And to be 100% it would have been extremely hard for me to say no to that offer too.  Tomorrow night they are leaving on the red-eye.

I have such mixed emotions about this.  I am sad that they won't be here. I am sad that it will be Marco and I spending the holidays alone.  I am sad that we did have the opportunity to go home but we decided to stay.  MAG is being so upbeat about this and is doing such a great job at cheering me up.  We are thinking about going on a mini-vacation.  It is always nice to get away for a few days.  We also have an amazing NYE Party to attend-it is Mad Men themed!  Love it!

Christmas Parties

I am so excited about this weekend!  It is full of Christmas Parties.  Tonight MAG and I are going to do our Friday night ritual, make dinner, drink wine and watch a movie or if I am lucky RH of Beverly Hills! {Yes, he will sometimes watch it with me. Don't tell him I told you :)}

Tomorrow is my company Family Holiday Party!  They go all out.  Last year they converted one of our parking lots into a HOLIDAY EXTRAVAGANZA!  There were different carnival games, Santa's Village, arts and crafts, food trucks and the oh so important holiday raffle for employees!  It will pretty much be the same as last year except they are adding an ice skating rink, Koji /In & Out food truck and a psych!  At the raffle last year they gave out 200+ prizes.  I won a $250 gift card at our store.  I made that thing last for a long time {got to love employee discounts!}  They also gave away a MacBook Pro, TVs, ipods, gift cards, and the Grand Prize was a 3 day trip to Cabo-all expenses paid!  This year there are rumors of multiple ipads! That is what MAG wants me to win:)

A picture from last year!

Saturday night we are celebrating our friends birthday's at the Santa Monica Pub Crawl.  There will be about 30 of us taking the Wilshire route, dressed like idiots and full of Merry Cheer.  It has been such a long time since everyone has hung out, it will be nice to see everyone before everyone leaves for the holidays.

Sunday=recovery day in front of our TV on the couch.

What are you doing this weekend?  Anything fun?

Which dress will she choose?

This morning I was surfing good old FB and saw JCrew posted this link.  They asked 25 designers to sketch a dress for Kate Middleton.  What an awesome idea from WWD!  I loved looking at each dress and the details (or lack of) that each designer added.

My Personal Favorites 

  Doo-Ri Chung

J.Mendel 

Monique Lhuillier 

Valentino

All Photo Credits

Inside the Actor's Studio Part II

Towards the end of Inside the Actor's Studio, James Lipton asks 10 questions.  As you can imagine some of the answers are quite comical.  Here are the questions with my answers.  What are yours?

1. What is your favorite word? beautiful
2. What is your least favorite word? pu**y
3. What turns you on? power
4. What turns you off? ignorance 
5. What sound or noise do you love? the pop when opening a bottle of champagne
6. What sound or noise do you hate? squeaky breaks
7. What is your favorite curse word? f***
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? teaching high school
9. What profession would you not like to do? anything to do with finance
10. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?  Come on in and enjoy the party!

When the boss is away...

This week my boss is in Hong Kong for business and has left me with very little to do.  I am not complaining in the least.  When he is in town work is crazy and lots of hours, so this is a nice break.  I have been told by him and fellow employees to enjoy the free time.

Since I have so much free time I have started looking into MAG 30th Birthday celebration plans. To celebrate we wanted to do something big, so we are going to Hawaii!  His actually bday is in November, but we are going to celebrate early, late spring or early summer.  I can't wait to be sipping a cocktail with my hubby looking at this...

Photo Credit

I have never been to Hawaii before.  Here is what we know so far...Kauai or Oahu, renting a condo, staying for a full week.  Any tips or suggestions?

Inside the Actor's Studio Part I

Do you ever watch Inside the Actor's Studio?  If not, set your TiVo's & DVRs today.  This show gives us regular people a glimpse inside the world of being an actor.  James Lipton is the host.  He is perfect, absolutely perfect.  He has just the right amount of charisma, sympathy, whit and sarcasm to reel you in.  


Last week their guest was the so hot, James Franco!  I knew this would be an interesting interview.  My personal opinion is that within the past few years James has come into his own as an actor.  He is picking interesting roles that show the many personalities an actor can portray.  MAG and I are big fans of his and we both hope that one day MAG will have the opportunity to work with him.  {Yes, we dream big, but why not?  It is more fun that way.}

Franco will be staring in the upcoming film, Your Highness.  MAG and I can't wait to see this for two reasons.  1.) David Gordon Green is the director.  He graduated from NCSA {MAG's alma mater} a few years before him.  He also did Pineapple Express and George Washington {which is in the Criterion collection!} 2.) Danny McBride.  This dude is so funny.  You might know him as Kenny Powers from Eastbound and Down.  He is also an NCSA alumni.  Check out the preview to Your Highness here. {Disclaimer: This is a red band trailer so it is for mature audiences only.}