Looking for Donkeys and Finding Royalty

This weekend was so busy we almost didn't get up this morning. So tired... We've been running around LA in search of engagement/wedding rings, and LA is BIG. Very. We didn't find any rings, but we did find a lot of other cool things (inspiring the biblical title).

Saturday:
We headed off to Melrose Ave., with the (silly) assumption that such a hip street will have plenty of jewelry stores with (expensive) unique artisan items. No such luck. We did re-find that delicious Indian place and stuffed our faces, Pink's hot dogs (and a loooooooong line of hungry people) and a totally hip section of the street with tons of cute clothes shops and, five new types of bimbos I've never seen before and no jewelry stores.
To console our ring craving selves, we met up with our friends and went for some brews and After These Messages opening at the Gallery Nucleus. It was fun, and felt a lot like a CalArts reunion. I was surprised how many people remembered me (and my work, and stumbled upon this here blog, and my store). Man, our industry is small. I warmly recommend it, especially if you're an 80s kid like us and miss it. My cartoon favorite? Inspector Gadget, bien sur (we watched it on Middle East TV from Lebanon, with sucky reception and bad sound. If you go, say ho to Mary who envisioned and co-curated it (and wore a Kermit shirt I wanted to steal).


While we were there, Ant got me this sweet print by Kazu (modeled kindly by Vincent and Julie). Isn't it cute? I swear, if I was a super-hero, my alias would be "The Cute Factor". I swear, everywhere I go, I just scan the horizon and anything cute just jumps out at me. Be that Japanese goodness, cheesy merchandise, kittens, small children or art prints, rest assured - I'll find it. Sheesh... I love this print very much though, so I don't care. Love at me all you want. I have the power of the cute.

Sunday:
Equipped with a bit more of a clue, we headed off to the Jewelry District in the downtown. And no, it didn't occur to us that it might be closed until we parked. Sigh... Luckily for us, the Jewelry District is right next door to Little Tokyo. Oh, goody! But our streak of dissatisfaction continued when we discovered that most of the restaurants were closed, I couldn't find any more cute paper bags and my favorite 99 cents store closed. A stroke was avoided, luckily, by the discovery that the Marukai Market didn't close, but moved down the street, which was good, because I needed my Meiji fix.

I guess I'm taking an extra spinning class this month (it's so worth it).

There's no such thing as too much Pocky (especially the new mousse ones. Oh, yum!)

Mochi from our favorite sweets shop on 1st street. It's a twelve piece box, because there's no such thing as too much mochi either (Ant ate one already).

I'm very proud of myself for being able to resist these Midori magnet boards and magnets. I'm a brave soul (but my super alias is crying).
What else we didn't find yesterday? Any plot in yet another episode of Battle Star Galactica, and the next episode doesn't look promising either. It also looks like they might have had an editing oops, because we didn't remember some scenes in the "previously on..." and a whole story line seemed to have just been dropped on us. What did we find then? A half hour of comfortable snooze time on the couch with the cat. Awesome.

Have a great week, y'all!