Kaoru Marie

Day 24: January 24, 2013 Most of my coworkers don't drive to work because we have to pay for parking, the cheapest is $6/day (actually, people who drive everyday get the monthly deal, which is $80-90/month). We're actually pretty lucky because if our office was on the other side of the freeway, and in the DTLA core, then parking can easily reach $200/month. Since most of us don't drive to work our lunch options are limited to what we can reasonably walk to. In the off chance that someone does drive in, our lunch options expand mightily! One of our favorite lunch spots is Papa Cristos , a fantastic Greek place (seriously, look at their Yelp Page ) that has been around for decades (if you're a fan of The Shield , then you'll appreciate (or be terrified?) that it is located directly in Byz-Lat territory). I never fail to order the gyro sandwich, but am always tempted by the dessert counter. This time, however, temptation got the best of me and I added two "ho...

Day 21: January 21, 2013 Nothing spectacular for Day 21. Just Bailey playing with a shopping bag. Cats can be so smart, yet so simple. Day 22: January 22, 2013 Last week I took a photo of Bailey's mouse toy and Schnookie, of IPB Living , noted its fairly pristine condition. This time I took a photo of one of his most played-with cat toys. Bailey has beat the crap out of this toy. We have bought several different feather teaser cat toys from Petco and the Feline Flyer is by far the best one available in-store. The feathers are really stiff and flutter through the air very nicely. I wonder if the cat thinks it looks like a bird... The major downside to all teaser toys is the feather part is attached to the string by a ball and chain type connection and it ALWAYS breaks. I have bought at least 5 teaser toys from Petco in the past 6 months and they have all broken in the same manner, except for one where the rod actually broke. When I feel like mustering up another $7...

I'm getting used to this photo a day thing! Surprisingly it hasn't felt like a chore, which is something I was very worried about. I enjoy seeking out things to photograph and I absolutely cannot wait till I get a new phone that has a decent camera so I can document all these wonderful things around me; I'm too much of a weenie to pull out my dslr in a big crowd. I also don't want to lug it around in my purse every day. I also always feel like I'm in such a hurry to get somewhere that I don't feel like I can just stop for a minute and compose a nice photo. Ok, I admit it: I'm just full of lame excuses... Day 17: January 17, 2013 I did not know what to photograph this day and I really did not want to resort to taking another photograph of my super amazing cat. So instead I took a photo of his toy mouse. A friend of mine told me about these mice and I found a local pet store selling them for $1 a pop. I bought one and, of course, the little bugger got ...

Days 14-16. Guess what?? No cat photos in this post!!!! (Instead I made a photoset on Flickr of just cat photos.....) Day 14: January 14, 2013 This photo a day thing isn't too bad! Even my husband is encouraging me to stick with it and offered to make himself a drink so I could take a photograph of it. Although, now that I think about it, it is more likely that he used my photo project as an excuse to drink.........he. used. me. Here's a photo of his 50/50 martini. However, you'll notice that I focused on something else: Yep, those are Battlestar Galactica coasters. I have no doubt that BSG fans are creaming their pants right now, but non-BSG fans (like myself) are thinking "blech, those are unsightly coasters!" (and you'd be damn right!) Day 15: January 15, 2013 Normally our apartment stays pretty warm throughout the year and we have never in the 4+ years of living here have used our wall heater. But lately it has been a bit chilly in LA and the ...

Days 10-13....these were some chilly days in LA! Laugh all you want non-SoCal people, but it was cold here and I did not want to go outside. Day 10: January 10, 2013 Mad Housewife ....she seemed like a good idea at the time. So, I started a food blog {finally} and will eventually review this el cheapo wine. Spoiler Alert: I do not recommend it. Day 11: January 11, 2013 Another cat photo...what can I say. I love taking photos of my sweet, psychotic Bailey: Day 12: January 12, 2013 This is a T-Rex tea infuser!!! :) I bought this little trinket as a stocking stuffer for my husband. I found it at Sur La Table and thought he would get a kick out of it. It's fun to use and have sitting in your mug, but it is a pain in the behind to clean! The holes are a bit big so some of the smaller tea leaves float into your tea, but since they usually settle to the bottom it isn't that big of an issue. Day 13: January 13, 2013 Bailey's feeding station: A ...

Day 7: January 7, 2013 I had grand plans to take an outdoor photo for Day 7, but unfortunately that didn't happen. Instead, I took this photo: Look at all that Bob's Red Mill !!!!! WHAT?!?!?! I stopped by Ralphs (aka, Kroger, the big chain grocery store in my area) and only walked down the baking aisle to get to the back of the store. I just happened to glance to my left and I think my jaw dropped when I saw bags upon bags upon bags of different Bob's Red Mill baking products! WHEN DID THIS GET HERE!?!? I was in Ralphs on Christmas Even to get baking flour and I DO NOT remember seeing this. In the past I have only been able to find Unsweeted Shredded Coconut and possibly one or two other items. I usually have to go to Fresh & Easy to buy Gluten-Free Baking Flour (because it's way cheaper than at Whole Foods) and then hop on over to Whole Foods to get the crazy stuff like Flaxseed Meal (I still don't know why I bought this) and Xantham Gum. I can't r...

6 continuous days of photos. I'm almost at a week. If I take a photo tomorrow, then I'll consider it a streak. First up is January 5, 2013 and, yes, it is a cat photo. I love trying to get  close-up photos of my cat, especially when his eyes are super big. Only his eyes are in focus because I had to shoot wide open (and at 1600 ISO) in order to get an appropriate shutter speed and exposure and I set the focus on his eyes. My external flash can't arrive soon enough... Today's photo, January 6, 2013 , is of a zipper pouch I made a couple months ago. One day I had an urge to actually make something as opposed to just reading about everyone else's wonderful sewing projects in my Google Reader. I decided to make a zipper pouch since it looked somewhat easy and I had enough scraps to make one. I used Ayumi's zipper pouch tutorial and scraps of Tula Pink's Prince Charming collection . By the way, Ayumi has the most amazing tutorials on her blog, Pink Peng...

I've always wanted to take one photo a day no matter how crappy or irrelevant that photo might be. Not exactly sure why I want to. Maybe to be consistent with something. Or to see how my photographs (or editing skillz) develop. Just to make sure I take more pictures so I can document (read: remember) what the heck I did over the course of a year. Or, let's be honest, to see my lovely kitten grow! He's actually already grown so much since we got him in June 2012 and I'll have to write a post in the future about him because he's so awesome! Anyway, I figured January 1, 2013 would be a good day to start this project. I probably won't get around to actually posting a photo per day, but my goal (resolution?) is to post all 365 photos in 2013 on this blog. Here are days 1-4: January 1, 2013 My first attempt at baking kale chips. Did. Not. Like. I'm going to start a separate food blog, because the world NEEDS more food blogs, and will write about my adven...