a California bedroom

A few weeks ago, I posted this photo on Instagram: 

And it was crazy - I got more direct messages, Facebook chats and texts from friends than I had in a LONG time on a blog post, gushing over and asking about my bedroom here in Cali. I realized that I had never showed my pretty little room here, and so here you have it - a California bedroom by yours truly!

I started this post from the comfort of my childhood bed, and let me tell you, there are few things I love more than that bed. My sister and I got to redecorate our bedrooms when we turned 14, and I've always adored my sunny yellow walls and bright espadrille-striped bedding. 

That said, I feel like as an adult I've redecorated my bedroom every couple years or so, for various reasons. My first grown-up room at the age of 22 was replaced by king-size, "couple-appropriate" Pottery Barn for cohabiting, then replaced again with girly, bohemian Anthropologie in the Chateau de Liz (RIP). As soon as I decided to relocate to California, I decided it was time for another change - and, being v. basic in all things, launched myself straight into the oh-so-Instagrammable all-white bedding world. 

For context, here's how I spent the time after my mom left and before my things arrived in California, and the near-finished product, a few days later: 

A few of my friends have all-white bedding - notably Kelsie, whose room I have ALWAYS envied - and I had found myself browsing Anthropologie's gorgeous offerings on more than one occasion. Given my penchant for lots of colorful decor, there was something so serene about the thought of an all-white bed...almost like waking up in a cloud every day. I pulled the trigger on Anthro's Bertilia duvet and standard shams, their gorgeous Georgina euro shams, and a Moroccan wedding dream of a lumbar pillow. Because the bedding mixed white and cream, I, too, mixed the two tones - it adds a really pretty depth to the bed and is a bit less stark than it could be otherwise in a white bedroom. 

Let's be real though - it wouldn't be me without a bit of color, and I was talked into the two throw pillows by my mom and the bedding consultant at the Palo Alto Anthropologie. (Because, naturally, the Palo Alto Anthropologie has a dedicated BEDDING consultant, right?!) I was doubtful at first, and leaned toward the idea of a totally monochromatic bed, but the second I saw the way the watercolor flowers matched my mural, I was sold. 

As for that mural...it is, without a doubt, my favorite thing I have ever had in a bedroom, bar none. It is actually wallpaper from, you guessed it, Anthropologie...but the story of how I fell in love with it makes me happy and SO I am going to tell you all. 

Anyone who has read this blog for a period longer than this move knows that my favorite restaurant in the Twin Cities is Spoon and Stable, the brainchild of culinary wunderkind Gavin Kaysen. His second restaurant, Bellecour, opened in March - right around when I actually committed to moving - and features this stunner in their "Garden Room:" 

Look familiar? I thought it was just the most gorgeous thing I had seen in a long time, and had actual heart flutters when I saw it pop up in Anthropologie's new products less than a week after Bellecour opened. I HAD to have it. Only problem? Renters of apartments tend not to be allowed to wallpaper, and, even had we been, our walls here are slightly textured. 

Naturally, my MacGyver of a father had a solution - 1/8" thick 3x9 plywood, reinforced from behind, whitewashed and turned, effectively, into mobile art installation panels. We spent one of my last afternoons in Minnesota together doing projects, and it was the coziest, most lovely way to spend a Saturday...it put me in mind of school days building boats for the 3rd grade regatta, or putting together science fair experiments. So much gratitude to him for being the kind of papa bear who will drop everything and try anything to make his child's dreams come true, even when said child is fast approaching 30 and, really, didn't need a 9x9 wallpaper installation. 

To this day, I get comments from everyone who sees the panels in their place of glory - our leasing agent lives across the hall, and had seen them through my window and asked about them, even! - and I'm utterly smitten with them. They make such a statement in a very standard, white, square box of a room, and are the perfect foil to my chill, neutral, girly bed. 

The view from said bed is, of course, of a gallery wall, because it is me and my magpie tendencies with art will never fade or die. I'm enchanted with my new pieces, framed (as always) by the experts at Posters on Board.

The central piece is a purchase from Shakespeare and Company in Paris, featuring Alice in Wonderland quotes. My actual fave, though, is the Golden Gate Bridge sketch I legit stole out of Emily's portfolio (with her permission!) over Easter. Seeing all my carefully selected art, from warm-fuzzy quotes to gifts from loved ones to travel souvenirs and thoughtful, intentional purchases, is such a great anchor point for me. I'll always love it. 

Other dresser-top features: a new jewelry box and necklace tree to make up for my absurd lack of good storage here, my budding collection of Waterford pieces, culled with love from my Grandma Lo's treasured keepsakes, and a new capiz lamp and, of course, Mark Succerberg holding court. It's really just very pretty and feminine and me, which is always my goal and always makes me smile. 

My curtains are Anthropologie (duh) and hide very necessary blackout curtains...and let me tell you, hanging them was an ORDEAL with all capital letters necessary. See evidence: 

Yeah, I did that. I actually broke down and called my parents in tears (very mature over here, yes) and bawled for a solid five minutes about what a mistake it had been moving here and how much I hated everything. My reactions are generally scaled appropriately to the situation, clearly. Anyway, the curtains are gorgeous and the glass tie-backs are so elegant, and I can't wait to get the matching finials. I'm also pleased that my cork pinboard yardstick thing reassembled as well as it did after the hot glue completely melted off on the cross-country road trip out here...I love displaying the notes and cards from my sweetest, most beloved friends there. 

On a not-so-glamorous note, look at that bitty closet! It's my first-ever not-walk-in closet and, friends, I was NERVOUS. After getting rid of pretty much half my wardrobe (details to come, soon!), everything fits, and it's been a great exercise in consumption reduction and keeping what I love. My favorite feature over here, though? The framed vintage puzzle pieces from Chicago's FourSided, featuring my beloved home state and new home. 

And there you have it! A thousand words on an 11x10 bedroom because I am NOTHING if not excessive, given the opportunity for verbosity. Come visit me sometime and admire it in person, hmm?! 

101 in 1001: a catch-up

Guys, holy crap, I'm a lame delinquent loser who apparently never writes anymore and definitely never has any fun. (One of those statements is true.) I've been slowly but steadily checking off my 101 in 1001 list over the course of the last several months, and it's been a grab bag of incredibly fun, amusing, and just plain productive experiences to have! 

Up first: #84, See a comedy or improv show! 

Dave, Laura and I are all obsessed with Iliza Shlesinger, who won "Last Comic Standing" in 2008 and has produced several Netflix specials since then. We marathoned through all three of them within the first couple months we lived together, and some of her jokes have become so integrated into our day-to-day interactions with each other that I find myself checking in with outsiders, asking "Wait - have you seen Iliza?" Inevitably, the answer is no, which makes me think I must have really un-funny friends (or, more likely, friends who DON'T just watch Netflix comedy specials for fun on a random Tuesday...). 

Dave found out she was coming to San Francisco in December, and once we discovered that those tickets were sold out, I immediately jumped on her shows in San Jose at the end of September. We grabbed dinner in downtown San Jose before the show, took a quick tequila shot, and headed over. 

Friends, it was such a win of an evening. I honest-to-goodness laughed so hard I actually cried at a few of the sketches, which are incredibly relatable and universal. Her skewering of Millennial female stereotypes, the all-encompassing physicality of her performances, and her voices and - best of all - random noises ...it all set the stage for an evening of complete giddiness. I can't wait for her book to come out (next week, already pre-ordered, nbd) and for her next Netflix special.

Also on the list: #42, Subscribe to a podcast. I've written in the past about my love for Minnesota girl Nora McInerny Purmort, who lost her husband to a brain tumor and has turned tragedy into empowering triumph with her Still Kickin' foundation, Hot Young Widows Club outreach group, and gorgeous memoir, "It's Okay To Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too)." She's taken her empire-building one step further in her American Public Media podcast "Terrible, Thanks For Asking," which delves into how the human spirit experiences, works through and survives tragedy. I, for one, am totally riveted. 

The honesty behind the podcasts,and the way they don't gloss over and shy away from the negatives, is really refreshing in this world where everyone is always "so busy!" "so happy!" "so grateful!" "so #blessed!" - I derive a lot of value from the gorgeous storytelling and the reminder that there are people in the world who are fighting terrible battles with grit and humor and frustration and anger every day. Check it out if you need a reality check - and let me know if you do!

An item I've had on my housekeeping list for way too long: #47, Join the bone marrow registry. This one couldn't have been easier to check off - I did a quick survey and provided some information on Bethematch.org, and a kit was mailed to my apartment. After a simple, painless cheek swab, I popped the kit in the mail and called it a day. 

This is legitimately one of the easiest ways to do some good in the world that I have ever found. It takes all of twenty seconds to do the actual swabbing, it's free, and there's no guarantee that you'll be called upon to be an actual donor. Even so, though, putting the possibility out there is a great thing to do - get your kit today!!

On the admittedly shallow end of the scale, I derived SO MUCH SATISFACTION from calling "#63: Figure out how to fold fitted sheets" complete. Fitted sheets have long been the bane of my anal-retentive, perfectionist existence - I can't stand floppy, imprecise piles of sheets in my closet, and with space at an all-time premium in my non-walk-in here in Cali, I prioritized this. How'd I do it? I watched this video no less than ten times, cursing and sweating a little bit as I battled with my own sheets, and then - suddenly, miraculously - it clicked. Look at that sweet folded pile, below! Proud of me, and you should be too. 

And wrapping up this round-up, #56: Try to grow an herb garden. When my mom was in town helping me move, we blacked out a little bit in the Palo Alto Anthropologie and Co's gorgeous Terrain outdoor department, and before I knew it, I had dropped like $75 on plants and herbs and gardening kits. OOPS #basicfail. 

We potted cilantro, basil and mint, and parked them on my sunny little windowsill to see what happened. Call me a bad blogger, but below are the only two photos I took after the (messy) potting process: 

So how'd it go? Well, my cilantro flourished, and I used it twice on Taco Nights with the roomies! My basil came in profusely, but was kind of undersized and a little bit bitter...I threw it in pesto to use it all up. As for the mint? Total fail. I never saw even one seed sprout. What a disappointment - I guess all my fantasies of mojitos and juleps were meant to come to naught. Oh well! 

With the holidays approaching, I'm planning on checking off a few more fun items and seeing what I can get done...check out the rest of my 101 in 1001 here! 

fall weekend vibes

Hopping weekend over here! Good food and drinks, adventures and aspirational outings...one for the record books in many ways. 

Started the weekend strong on Friday with a fantastic happy hour with Hannah and Abby at Pazzaluna in St. Paul...get the Sophia Loren, a pear-and-amaretto martini that, like its namesake, is a true classic. 

I spent Saturday morning on a frigid solo walk around Lake Harriet...my intended companion, Anna, was unable to make it as she and her husband Kevin welcomed their sweet baby boy to the world that morning instead! I think that beats a lake walk any day, personally. :)

Jodester, Jonathan and I rendezvoused mid-afternoon to start the 2016 Midwest Homes Luxury Condo/Apartment Tour (what a mouthful!). Offering nine different sites this year, we checked out the Portland Tower condos and Edition Residences on Saturday afternoon. Both were finished beautifully and boasted fantastic views of the new Vikings stadium...although with price tags well out of my price range, it felt a bit masochistic to fall in love with views and finishes. 

Fortunately, we had Spoon and Stable in our future to dull the pain! 

It's my favorite place in the Twin Cities, I swear. We grabbed our usual corner booth in the bar and quickly ordered three of their new fall cocktails...a highball for Jonathan, a Jack Rose for mama, and a Sidecar for me.

Perfect homage to fall flavors. (Pro tip: while S&S's dining room books out three months in advance, dedicated fans can always get a seat in the bar if you show up by around 5pm. The place is genuinely FULL by about 5:30, though!)

The cocktails, as always, lived up to our high expectations. Jonathan also followed up with the daily, a riff on a Manhattan that gave the St. Paul Grill's a run for its money. 

(We may have ordered most of the bar menu: crispy potatoes, french fries with Bearnaise powder, creamed spinach and cheese curds, Brussels sprouts with apple butter and hazelnut crumbles, pork belly tacos, duck meatloaf sliders, and a butternut squash soup that nearly brought tears to my eyes. SO GOOD.)

All followed up with a decadent apple brown butter cake with apple-and-buttermilk custard and candied apple slices. Diane Yang, the house pastry chef, can do no wrong in my eyes. 

From Spoon and Stable, we hopped in a particularly hilarious Uber to head to the Target Center! The event? The "Kellogg's Tour Of Champions Gymnastics Exhibition." The crowd? Me, my mom and Jonathan, and thousands of little girls who do gymnastics and their parents. It was completely adorable - so many of them had cute signs or were wearing their gymnastics gear. I totally remember little Lizzie circa 1996 being similarly obsessed with the 96 team...and, despite the fact that I could barely do a handspring, thinking Olympic gold was in my future. 

The event itself was totally not what I was expecting...I was hoping for the actual Olympic routines, and instead it was a campy, choreographed and very overproduced romp through sound-and-lights "flashy" gymnastics. Our nosebleed seats didn't help much, either...still, in spite of all of that, the sheer athleticism and spectacle of what these people can do with their bodies blew me away. All in all, a fun, if random, night out! 

Sunday found us finishing up the Luxury Condo Tour, with stops in Minnetonka and Uptown. While the Walkway stole my heart with its amazing rooftop pool deck and suspended-over-the-sidewalk glass hot tub...

...the true winner for the day was The Lakes, a truly luxe, brand-new apartment complex adjacent to the Calhoun Beach Club. The kicker? The very most basic model started at $2800 a month, with penthouse units going for eight times that. That said, with finishings like those above, it's totally worth it. 

Not to mention the view from the roof of Lake Calhoun...which, on a day like yesterday, was stunning enough to make me want to sign away my life for continual access. As much as  I may moan about them, I truly do love both of my Twin Cities so much! 

Happy Monday, campers! Here's to cinnamon coffee and leaving work early for board meetings, hooray! 

Confessions of a Gallery Wall Addict

I've had a gallery wall in every apartment I've lived in, and I've converted my family and roommate into gallery wall-havers as well. I think it's safe to say I'm a little bit addicted. See, the problem is that I have too much art. I've been lucky to receive gorgeous original pieces from my sister, to inherit my mom's hand-me-downs (and she has excellent taste), and to stumble on purchases all over the world. Displaying them all jumbled together is my favorite...but I think a gallery wall is really an art, and doing one well is a science. 

My first apartment's gallery wall was a mishmash of frames from my college dorm room, and I sadly don't think I ever actually took a photo of that bedroom...it predates the blog by years! When Jon and I lived together, though, I had a schmoopy black-and-white collection above our bed. This is before I started using my foolproof gallery wall perfection method, so things were a bit haphazard...and in hindsight, I would've spaced everything out a bit more and probably added more, too. Why the heck not?! 

Then came the Chateau de Liz, and once I finally got around to actually putting everything up five months after I moved in, I fell in love. I spent so much time methodically hanging and arranging, using my genius, tried-and-true kraft paper cutout method, to get everything perfect. For more details and step-by-step photos, head here...it's one of my proudest accomplishments and I haven't done a gallery wall without it since.  

I also had a gallery of wood-mounted pieces above my kitchen table at the Chateau, which have been split up and scattered around my bedroom and living space in the new place. I love how the wood-mounting colors played so nicely together...not going to lie, will probably recreate this if I live alone again anytime in the single-girl future. 

Now, in the House of Hal and Lizzie, I have not one but TWO hardcore, huge gallery walls...life is an abundance of riches, friends! Hal has the most absurd collection of Notre Dame paraphernalia, so we have the Notre Dame-iest gallery wall ever in our front entryway. We were initially going to try to freehand it and just start hammering nails in...thank goodness we didn't. I'm so proud of how precise and geometric it looks after using the kraft paper method! 

And this is my bedroom gallery! Look familiar? It's already got a few new pieces since the Chateau de Liz; like I said, it absorbed a few of the kitchen gallery wall pieces. I also have a BUNCH of art from my Paris and Scandinavia trips at our framer, which will be getting added in the next few weeks...stay tuned! 

Why all the gallery wall chatter? I went down to Lakeville last night and hung one there with my parents! They're working their way through the house room by room and completely renovating, and it's been so much fun to watch. My mom and I were shooting the breeze a few weeks back while I was playing on Pinterest, and I threw out the idea of replacing this truly hideous, outdated 90s mother-and-child painting in our second-floor foyer with a gallery wall. Jodester and Papa Bear buy at least one piece of art on every trip they take, and as a result, our house is a treasure trove of gorgeous prints, lithographs, watercolors, and paintings. Combining a bunch of them in one place, though? Maximum impact, and such a great conversation starter. Here's the finished (for now) product: 

I love it. Especially the fact that there's room to add more to it. It's at the top of our stairs, right between the doors to the master bedroom and my bedroom, and it's one of the first things a person would see when entering the house and looking up. In my mind, we'll eventually add art going over the master bedroom French doors and down the wall on the other side to create something like this, via Pinterest (duh, I'm basic!): 

Cool, huh? Now to plan the next big European adventure! 

Seriously, though, I'm a bit unhealthily obsessed. God save me the day gallery walls go out of style, because I'm doomed to become tragically uncool. 

Summer Snapshots: Life Lately

Bits and pieces of life that don't really fit anywhere else or merit their own post: 

puppy snuggles at Hannah's during the "Bachelorette" premiere WAY forever ago

I finished moving and looked like I had done several rounds in a steel cage death match. My boss did point out that the bruises formed a semi-smiley face pattern. Small victories? 

Lake Harriet date nights with the Jodester...circling the lake and savoring Bread and Pickle wraps afterward. 

Admiring the lupine blooms along the Lake Harriet trail

The most appropriate and adorable thank-you gift from friends...anything remotely Francophile or macaron-related automatically has my heart, bien sûr. 

The Notre Dame-iest gallery wall that every gallery-walled outside the 46556 is now the focal point of the House of Hal and Lizzie's entryway. 

Pre-Orpheum dinner at lovely Third Bird across Loring Park...

...highlight of which was the cheddar bacon popcorn and this delectable grilled peach and burrata salad, about which I may still be fantasizing. 

"Bridges of Madison County" as Jodester's replacement date when Papa Bear left us to go fish epically in Canada...total win. Jason Robert Brown wrote the music and it is, like the rest of his work, almost always transcendently lovely. 

Slowly freezing and watching the Twins get slaughtered by the Phillies on an unseasonably cold late-June day during a work outing. 

The current state of my bedroom gallery wall, also featuring a plethora of artwork from last year's Paris trip and this year's Scandinavia trip piled on the dresser which needs to get framed and added! 

Spotted the Osmobile, the Minnesota Orchestra's cutest and cleverest moving advertisement, on my way home from work a few weeks ago and almost crashed my car to get a picture of it. No shame in my Osmobsession. 

The most precious and tiniest ducklings on Lake Harriet before the Minnesota Orchestra's Concert in the Park...squeeeee!!

Like I said, going through a major Founding Fathers phase right now and laughed fairly hard at this. 

Kels, Katie, Erin and I did an Escape Room the weekend of the Fourth and we ALMOST got out. Lost in the last 17 seconds. I blame the fact that I spent the first twenty minutes trapped in handcuffs for my major lack of valuable contributions apart from getting a safe cracked. Also, a score is 20 years, for those who are unsure. 

I'm now shamelessly one of those girls who is going to drag all her girlfriends to yoga with her, and then make them drink iced coffee and talk about how zen it was to watch the sun come up during sun salutations. OMG BASIC BITCH LEVEL UP ACHIEVED. 

Fourth of July on Lake Marion, before face-shattering!

Little Bro destroying some wake like he would later destroy my incisors! (I'm joking. All is well, it was not Jonathan's fault, and it's still such an epic war story.)

The best Manhattan in the Twin Cities is at the St. Paul Grill. It is called "The Manhattan Experience," it will set you back $16, and it is worth every penny. Jodester and I went before Adele and it was the bourbon-soaked cherry on top of a perfect evening. 

Poking around the prettiest alleyway in the North Loop after #ripbookclub brunch on Sunday...

...then accidentally day-drinking all day with one Nate Trembley, who is a: a terrible influence and b: a genius who told me about mixing Dangerous Man's Chocolate Milk Stout and Peanut Butter Porter for a beer experience that they literally refer to as "The Peanut Butter Cup." Holy omg decadence. 

I may have gotten my ass kicked twice in five minutes flat at Candyland, but I sank all of Nate's battleships, including the Lego that he stuck on his board to sub in for his missing aircraft carrier. 

Will you accept this rosé? Watching "The Bachelorette" with Hannah. Obsessing over Luke, skeptical on Jordan, and so, so devastated that James Taylor got eliminated. I'll date/marry him, then he can share a name with a famous singer and I'll be the second coming of Liz Taylor WHEEEEE!