Sprinkles Cupcakes

We celebrated my daughters birthday today so we decided to try out the very popular Sprinkles Cupcakes in Beverly Hills. One of the biggest reasons for this choice was the fact that they offer a Vegan cupcake and my Mother-In-Law does not eat dairy of any kind. So far as I can tell this is the only fancy dance cupcake place in Los Angels that has a vegan offering. If you know of another, by all means, please let me know in the Comments.

We had thought about trying them earlier in the month for my son's birthday, but there was a line down the block and we just couldn't imagine a cupcake being that good. 

We were wrong, they really are that good. 

For starters, the cupcake itself is wonderfully moist and well, cupcake-y. And the frosting left us wowed. Sweet? Yes, but not over powering. I tried the vanilla on vanilla and Damon got the dark chocolate frosting on a chocolate cupcake. We loved both and we were pretty surprised at the Mother-In-Law's Vegan red velet as well.

"V" is for Vegan

But aside from the cupcakes themselves there was the service. Being that this is Beverly Hills I was expecting snottiness but got good old fashioned "Can I help you"-ness instead. They have this down to a science really, from order taking, cashing you out and handing over a lovely packaged and bagged goods.

Nana's homemade red velvet bunt cake for the birthday girl along side our lovingly packed cupcakes.

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They even inquired if this was for a special occasion and sent us home with "Happy" stickers. Oh and the finale touch was offering to package the Vegan cupcakes separately from the non-vegan cupcakes. Service and sensitivity, ok wow.

Party trays and color coordinated ribbon. Plus you can have your cakes spell out things like Happy Birthday or the birthday girl/boy's name. There were wedding and shower offerings as well.

I'm usually the type that thinks if there's a line out the door, it's overrated (Pinkberry comes to mind), but in this case I think the hype is fairly well deserved.  I'm thinking of the soon-to-be-in-our-laps Holiday Season and I think I'll be coming back to Sprinkles to check our their "seasonal" offerings.

Cheers!
J.

JW Marriott Downtown LA Live

We went downtown to check out the Marriott - LA Live area. 

 

Unfortunately we didn't know that an event was scheduled and that the entire LA Live area was cordoned off. We got a few shots though that showed how streets can be closed and events can be positioned within LA Live. 

 

Then we went into the Marriott and found a fairly large lobby with a couple of different drinking and eating options. 

The Mixing Room

 At the time we were there the only thing open was the Illy Espressemante Coffee Bar. 

 I like Illy coffee so I was happy, but the very nice looking desert shown here failed to impress. Between Damon, myself and our non-sweet eating children, we didn't finish it. 

 I dug the lighting in this hallway that led to, of all things, the restrooms.

The Grove - Movies In The Park

UPDATE:

August 23, 2012: Ocean's 11

Will be the last "Movies in the Park" for the 2012 Summer!!


Below is a pic from 2010 season:

The last Movies In The Park was tonight at The Grove. They showed Pixar's "Up".

I'm not ready for Summer to turn to Fall as it seems Summer has just started here in So Cal. The weather is finally hot enough and my Summer Squash finally sprouting actual squash.

The good news is that, when August is over the crowds go home. Now I can finally start covering some of the places I've been holding off on because of the tourists. I have a whole list of places to go that I keep saying "No, not yet, it's too crowed, wait till Summer's over."

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Cheers!

J.

Griffith Park - Southern Railroad Train Rides and Pony Rides

Do you have a Thomas the Tank Engine or Woody fan on your hands? Then head on over and check out the Southern Railroad trains rides and pony rides at Griffith Park. 

The current track and sets were built in the 60's (ok it shows a little but the kids hardly seem to notice) and you can find it at the southern end of the Griffith Park just off of Los Feliz Blvd. 

Don't be put off by all the construction you see as you enter the park. There's plenty of parking with three lots; one as you enter, which primarily serves the picnic area (a birthday party zone every weekend), the second one is right in front of the train depot and the over-flow lot is just further on. 

If you have someone with you that has difficulty walking, drop them by the depot before parking in the overflow lot, which is on dirt and has uneven, dirt walking paths.

The train ride itself is perfect for young riders (around 7-8 minutes) and will set you back $2.50 per person children and adults alike (seniors $2 flat). On weekends they run two trains at a time so if you notice a line don't get nervous your wait will be short.

The Colonel Griffith train

Don't these old sets look like they're right out of one of the Thomas DVD's?

Or Toy Story 3, which ever your tot will enjoy more.

"Hey look kids, it's Woody! Yee-Haw!!"

Speaking of Woody, after a round or two on the trains you can mosey on over to the pony rides. They offer tethered rides for very small children, slow rides on untethered ponies and the fast track for big kids. A note of caution here: Know thy child! You can spare yourself a meltdown by starting your child off on a slower horse first and moving up to the "big" guys if all goes well. 

"Look, I'm riding Bulls-Eye Mama."

Here you can see my four year old son on a larger pony but on the slow track. Just over his shoulder are the ponies that they allow to gallop with the bigger kids. Yee-Haaawww indeed.

There are two other train rides in Griffith Park; one at Travel Town and now the Live Steam Engine rides. I'll cover these at some point later on in the year.

Cheers!

J.

The Sketchbook Project - I just signed up!

I'm super excited to be taking part in this years The Sketchbook Project. 

How the project works: 

For $25 you get your own Moleskin sketchbook to fill out per an assigned theme (you can also pick for yourself from a list) and then you send the book back (by Jan 15th) and it will go on tour. This year the tour goes to Seattle, San Francisco, Austin, Chicago, Atlanta, Brooklyn and Portland (ME) and will be filmed, with the Brooklyn exhibit being broadcast live on the internet. 

For an additional fee ($20) your sketchbook will be digitized and a full version of it will be available on project's  website.

The theme I choose was "Boys and Girls" and once completed, I will post a link to the digitized version here for you all to check out.

It has been a lot of years since Phyllis Fannin's art class at Lakewood High School, but I'm excited about giving those old art muscles a new workout.

I also want to give a shout out to the blog Paper Tasebuds for turning me onto this.

Have a great weekend everybody.
Cheers!
J.

Ocean Ave - Santa Monica

We took a walk up Ocean Ave in Santa Monica over looking the Pacific ocean. This is a nice relaxing walk without getting down into the nitty gritty of the Pier or the beach itself. 

The view up PCH towards Malibu

The famous Santa Monica Steps.

There are a few hotels on Ocean Ave but the one I like personally is The Georgian Hotel. You can dine on the veranda overlooking the ocean at their The Veranda restaurant.

One of the things that makes this walk relaxing, is that no matter how crowed the parking lot at the beach is, Ocean Ave is usually rather quiet.



Plenty of sand space to go around.

Barneys New York Warehouse Sale

After 14 years in the Barker hanger at the Santa Monica Airport, the Barneys New York Warehouse Sale was held at the LA Convention Center this time around. We made it to the last day of the sale, which ran through Sunday. There was more merchandise left over than I thought there would be. The crowds were small in the late morning and the line to check out took us about 15 minutes to make it through. 

My husband was thrilled to find several Armani sport jackets while I found the shoes were pretty picked over by this point. We only found out about the sale because of a banner posted on the convention center exterior facing the freeway, so I signed up for the email mailing list to receive advanced warning next time. One advantage of going the last day though...extra mark downs of up to 75% in some cases.

Oh the things you see in LA...

One of the things I love about LA, is that you never know when you're gonna look out your window and see an event like this one being put together. Sadly we only have my iphone camera to get shots with. I so wish I had a zoom. I'm currently right in between Disney and Warner Bros, so who knows who's going to be there....

Santa Monica Farmers' Market

We paid a visit to the Santa Monica Farmers' Market on Arizona, just off of the 3rd Street Promenade. It was a bit crowded at the market and on 3rd St so I decided just to cover the market for now and wait to cover the 3rd St Promenade later in the year when I can get some better shots.

I Have to admit I was a bit disappointed. Perhaps I'm spoiled by the Hollywood Farmers' Market on Ivar, which is part Farmers' Market, part outdoor eatery, part outdoor mall.

But my husband explained to me that, during the week, this is the market that you are likely to bump into a some of this cities elite chefs, picking out what they will be serving to you later that night.






















I've never been to a street Farmers' Market in
Los Angeles that isn't well attended, so while it may be tempting to bring your stroller so you have a place to put your purchases, a baby backpack is really the way to go. You keep you kid above the fray and less likely to bumped about or have something dumped on them.