LA Roadrunners: 2012

I decided that this year would be the year. However, until I hit "submit" on the La Roadrunners/LA Marathon website I must admit.....there was doubt about following through with the training necessary to complete a full marathon. I had hopes the past year of registering and running LA, but to be honest....self training is difficult. I did not have the motivation to run more than 11 miles by myself. Sure, I ran a couple halfs last year, but even as a solo runner, there was some sort of immediate camaraderie that happens as a result of running in a crowd.  The individual runs never surpassed 11 miles. Anyone familiar with marathon training knows that 11 miles is not going to cut it.

With that fail under my belt, I decided that if I was going to ever run LA, I needed to do it proper. Thats where the LA Roadrunners came in. After reading up and thinking hard, I shelled out the money (very reasonable now that I am seeing the perks) and joined the group. Since training began, I had to really evaluate my past runs and realistically choose a pace group. The 10:30 race pace group was the one *i think* that will be the best fit. We do our long runs at 11:30 with the anticipation of racing at a faster pace.

Today was our second group run out in Venice. We meet bright and early at 6:40AM to walk over to the Strand. Today we ran 4miles, next week 5, then 6 then 8 and on up. The midweek is all up to us. I have been training on a treadmill lately due to the unusual heat here in SoCal. Hopefully I can change that in the next few weeks and get some nice outdoor runs before daylight savings takes our evening light away.

Will be posting weekly about the training and progress........

Now Playing: Beat Konducta in India

Loving this album by Madlib. I think I may try and score it on vinyl down at Amoeba sometime this weekend. For now though, it will be taking up residence on the heavy rotation list on my iPod. 

Mexican Wedding: Los Angeles Style

I realized after sharing photos with friends, family and Facebook, I never placed a proper photo entry here on Modern Day Bullfight. Here you go!

Close up of the escort card table.

Dress from J. Crew. Sash from Olveritas on Olvera Street. 20 bucks.
Way cooler than the ones for 80+ at J. Crew. 

Details of the sash. Had the sash embellished with family heirlooms . The alterations
shop I went to, A Stitch in Time, did an awesome job with both dress and sash!

Ceremony under the Chuppa. Max is holding the Ketubah. 

Details of the floral and styling courtesy of Moon Canyon Design Co. 

Close up of Chuppa detail. Live greens with paper florals
and hand cut flags.

Rings and invitations. 

Best wedding party ever. 

El Violoncello table

El Violoncello escort cards. All cards were hand written. Took me
forever, but so worth it! Amy,  my bestie, and also of Moon Canyon,
designed the pins using photoshopped scans sent to Zazzle to get them
printed and assembled.  

My fam. 

Dancing with our amazing friends.

My posse. I love you all. 

Enchanting dinner. Catered by Loteria! Grill. 

Our amazing parents. Thank you for everything.

Location: Marvimon House, Los Angeles

Floral and Styling: Moon Canyon Design Co.

Catering: Loteria! Grill (Virginia is AMAZING to work with)

Photos: Sara Press Photography

Dress: J. Crew

Invitations: HANDMADE! Woo! Go me and Nick!

Major Offenses on the Credit Card.......

The big offender was this dress at 188 dollars:

I had seen this baby on Anthropologie's site when I was browsing for wedding do-dads and at the time could not justify a purchase with all the expenses. Also, considering I have beef buying good without trying them on, I shut the idea out pretty quick. Imagine my surprise while in Anthro today (first time in who knows how long) and I see the little gem on the rack. Ok. I will just try it on for fun. For size. And boy did it fit. I have two other weddings coming up in the next 8 months and will most likely be wearing this for both. And cursing when my credit card bill arrives.........

Bronson

After loving the film Drive so much, we decided to check out Bronson....another film from the same director.


It was really amazing!!

Running Songs: Part Deux

With marathon training officially beginning in a couple of weeks (just joined the LA ROADRUNNERS), I have been thinking about revamping my running songs playlist. I have been searching some running blogs for inspiration and have to agree with the masses that Eminem's "Lose Yourself" would make a pretty good addition.......damn catchy beat with a good build up for those inclines!!!

Here are some of my faves from the past couple months which will indeed remain on my list.:

LUPE FIASCO-Around My Way

This song kills it. Lupe has made the playlist at least 7 times with gems from 'The Cool', "Food and Liquor" and well, a couple from "LASERS' (was a sucker for that Trey Songs jam). Around My Way has me running fast and wanting more....cant wait til 'Food and Liquor 2' comes out at the end of September!!!!!!

JJAMZ-Heartbeat

Dreamy indie-pop that is perfect for taking things down a notch.

ST. VINCENT- Cruel

Fun, funky and at times mildly awkward but has a steady under beat that is good for maintaining consistent pace.

All those and more will be on my playlist for the 80's run over Labor Day. As I type, I realized I should add some 80's jams on the list in honor of the race theme!

Any favorite jams?

Harmony Hotel-Nosara

We stayed at the Harmony Hotel in Playa Guiones. While the area is definitely a surfer hotspot, there is also peace and relaxation to go around. And some good food to boot. The hotel restaurant had some of the best dishes I have eaten in awhile. The basil based salad dressing? Amazing. Fresh fish? Check. Homemade yellow spicy pepper sauce. Awesome. Ginger infused vodka! Yes! Many of the veggies/herbs etc are grown on site in their organic garden.

The view at the end of the jungle path from the hotel

Outdoor shower in our bungalow

Open air lobby

Organic vegetable garden in the middle of the property

Costa Rica: Playa Guiones

Yesterday around 9pm we arrived home from our Costa Rican Honeymoon. It was definitely not what we expected and there will be more on that in another post....specifically in regards to the whole Eco-Toursim movement. Now back to the post at hand: The town in which we were staying in was called Nosara, but after arriving, we realized that our location was more accurately placed as Playa Guiones. In Nosara, there are several 'Playas' or beaches. The closest to us were Pelada and Garza and each one has a few shops and restaurants associated. Our Playa, Guiones, seemed to be the busiest in regards to tourism.....there were several surf schools, hotels, a couple mini-supers (one of which was organic) and some tourist type souvenir shops. However, despite the previously described presence, the town definitely had a sleepy and quiet feeling. Shops and supers were closed by dark...in this case 6pm and some places were closed by 5. At certain points during the day, I could be one of just a few folks on the beach.....a drastic (yet welcome) difference to the crowds seen here in LA. Here are some snaps from Guiones:

Beautiful glass bottled beverages are at all the mini-supers

Casa Tucan: Home of some pretty noisy karaoke. Would
you believe it?

Beautiful Playa Guiones

A final beachside resting place in Guiones

Probably THE most accurate map of the area....
even GPS crapped out on us as we neared
the coast. Places do not have addresses but
rather are found based on their proximity to popular
businesses or landmarks. 

Jungle growth over headstones

Fabulous Fourth

We were able to put some of the extra booze from the wedding to use and have some of our good friends over for the fourth! BBQ Chicken, veggies and too many desserts to name. 

The Wedding: Part 1

Well, as time would have it, the wedding came and went and is now officially taking up residency in the past. Kind of weird as how so much of the past 6 months went into planning and designing and creating and now poof......it is gone. Bins of crafting scraps and floral centerpieces in their last day of beauty are littered around the house. Normalcy is slowly returning with unanswered work emails that need tending to and five mile runs that now actually have a time and place........

The wedding weekend went off with a bang....or a pop shall I say.....

Thursday evening after a beautiful rehearsal dinner at Blair's, David and I noticed a strange noise on the highway. Wait. That strange noise was actually coming from my car. More specifically my tire. Driving got wobbly and as we pulled off the freeway onto Eagle Rock Blvd, we saw the damage to the rear tire. After unsuccessfully attempting to inflate the tire at the Chevron, we opted to take advantage of being SoCal AAA members and call for roadside assist. We could have attempted to change ourselves, but the night before the wedding just didn't seem the best time for amateur automotive repair hour.

Around 12:30 AM we were all set and ready to head back home on our sturdy donut. The excitement and stress and white wine was just too much and I began to see the all too familiar disruptions in my vision. By the time we arrived home, my migraine was building up momentum. I somehow fell asleep until 1:44 or so but at that point, due to severe nausea, had to relocate on the couch and remain completely still. There was no sleep during this period of stillness. I believe it was around 4:45AM when I finally made my last glimpse at the cable box and somehow drifted off to sleep.

At 7:20, I was up again and now trying to suss out the tire repair situation With all the trips that needed to be made hauling things back and forth from the house to Marvimon, driving on a donut was not the smartest option. I got ready and made my way to Glendale to America's Tire to get things fixed. The staff there was completely incredible as after I told them it was my wedding day, they bumped me to the front and fudged the schedule as if I had an appointment arranged from earlier. Amazing. Karma working in my favor there. I was in and out and home by 8:45 and after writing the remaining escort cards, took an hour nap.

My folks came by around 11 and we made our way to Celaya to pick up the pan dulce. I was craving salty snacks (migraine effect!) and we went to get me some fries at Jack in the Box. Fries eaten, I had some strength to load boxes of soda, beer, liquor and decor into the car. My parents and I caravan-ed over to Marvimon and began unloading before I needed to head to the salon for my hair. What a morning........

Under a Mexican Chuppa.......

More pics and stories to come soon. Everything was a dream..............................

Wedding Favors: Mexican Wedding Cookies

Paper source must love people like me. In the wedding world, those who are planning to do many of the details ourselves welcome a store like Paper Source because of the selection, colors and pre-cut goodies. Im sure the true DIY-ers would scoff at pre cut, but in the essence of time for those of us with full time jobs, the pre-cut template is a life saver.  I needed to figure out a wedding favor for our guest and immediately David and I liked the idea of Mexican Wedding Cookies. We placed an order down at Mr. Churro on Olvera Street and then needed a clever way to box them up. I picked up clear bags at Paper Source along with gold business cards. Using the lace heart stamp I had at the house, I embossed each card, wrote the names, punched the hole and tied on the string. Voila! The tags are complete. Just need to fill and tie on when the cookies arrive!

DIY Wedding Cake Stands

Ugh. Cake stands. Well, that was my initial thought...especially after pricing them on sites like Amazon. Sure 25 bucks a pop isn't too much, but when you need 5 and then factor in shipping it ends up being another $150 purchase added to an ever growing wedding budget. Plus, 25 bucks gets you a stand, but not the one that meshes best with the wedding theme. After doing some internet research, I came across a few sites that mentioned making stands yourself using found objects at the thrift strore. Bam! This seemed like the way to go. Many of the sites added the additional step of spray painting the completed project when finished to a color that matches your decor. While I went into the project with that step in mind, I quickly changed my mind after finding the amount of clear glassware (platters, candlesticks, glasses etc) in my search. The clear would be a perfect fit with the amount of color already in the works. 

Materials: 

Glassware

Epoxy

Heavy books

Goo Gone

Some of the dish finds from the 1st trip to St. Vincent De Paul. I washed them and found that I needed to use Goo Gone in order to get some of the yuck off from years of who knows what before their presence at the thrift store. 

Using a heavy book to help the epoxy set and cure.

Close up of two of my favorites

The final five which will be donned with cakes and sweets!

The project was pretty easy and just took a little over 2 hours....including cleaning and prepping the glass, applying the epoxy and letting it stand through the initial cure time of one hour.

Napkins! In every color!

After making the non-eco friendly decision to use paper napkins (hey...we are going on an eco honeymoon to Costa Rica!), I came across the website Smarty had a Party as a result of a google search. The website has every color napkin imaginable which was great as I could order turquoise and lime green
(dinner and cocktail) from the same vendor. I got hundreds of 3 ply napkins and some plastic tumblers (for when the bartender closes up shop) for less than 50 bucks. The package arrived in less than five days and had smarties candies in the box to boot! WIN!

Loteria! Escort Cards: Button Style!

With the wedding in just 22 days, you can imagine my excitement to have the escort cards arrive. "Cards?" you say? "They look more like pins." Right you are. For the wedding, David really had his mind set on having some sort of punk-rock-pin moment and the escort cards were just the place.  Each of the 12 tables will have an enlarged Loteria! card as the number. We've got La Mano, La Chulupa and La Calavera to name a few. On the escort card table (or jewelry spinner as my amazing friend Amy has set up) will be cards with guests names and their pin with table icon. The name cards have yet to be created but here is a sneak peek at the awesome pins. 

                                          la arana

                                                                         
                                                                       

                                          el tambor


                                                                     
                                                                         

                                          el valiente

Pins created at AffordableButtons.com

I will post more as the project progresses!

Cozy Chihuahua

Frito is a champ when it comes to lounging. After moving the bedroom furniture around, his new favorite is to lounge on top of the pillow, face pointed out the window. 

Flower Shopping with Moon Canyon

Today I went with Kristen of Moon Canyon Design Co. to the Los Angeles Flower District. Because I didn't have the best idea of what the floral plan would be, Kristen was able to confidently steer me the direction I wanted to go. We are going to go heavy on the lush greens with pops of color (peonies) here and there. Perhaps some fun clover as well. Here are some of my faves:

                                          Poppy Pods

                                          Fun Green Pom Poms

                                          Some sort of fern branches

                                          Peonies

I may not have the right names for all the flowers, but Kristen and Amy have the correct information in that department! I will keep posted on the progress. 

Pasadena Marathon Race Report

Today I ran the Pasadena Half Marathon. There was the good, the bad and well, nothing too ugly! With wedding hoopla and the run of the mill work stress, I admit I was kind of lax in my training the past two weeks. That factored into the bad, but more on that later. I got to the start roughly 10 minutes before they blew the horn. There was just enough time to visit a port-a-jon before the race began. Surprisingly, I was able to cross the start within 2 minutes of the front runners. The first segment of the half was incredible. We raced by Caltech, to old town, by city hall and then back out to a beautiful downhill on Colorado (to which The Pixes "Debaser" just added to that burst of speed!). The real gem was getting to run out and back on the Colorado Street bridge. Gorgeous views of the hills and greenery. From the bridge, we headed down Orange Grove through some neighborhoods to the Rose Bowl. It was about this time, round the seventh mile water station, that the warm weather AND the lull in training hit. While endurance wise, I felt ok, my knees and legs and right foot were al starting to bother. There was a general soreness that was just not going to let up. The final 6 miles were completed with an alternating walk and run. And may I add, each additional mile I began to linger just a little more at those water stations......

The Good:
Receiving water from a volunteer that was balanced on her head
The gummi bears and pretzels from the Pasadena Pacers station at mile 12
The bridge
Running Miles 1-7 in 1:10 minutes
Crossing the finish

The Bad:
Blisters
Bum Knee
Foot cramping during run (more bananas!!)
Crossing the finish line at 2:30

And PS...I am a total fan of these CX-W running tights. No back soreness as compared to the last half I ran. The tights have a pretty high and tight waistline that provide a considerable amount of support.

Coconut Water and Runners

I have been a hater when it comes to all things coconut since a very young age. My earliest memory dates back to Halloween when I bit into an Almond Joy or Mounds thinking it would taste more like a Milky Way or Snickers. Nay. The taste and texture of the coconut warranted a spit back into the wrapper. Since then, I have given it a chance....in baked goods, raw, smoothies etc but the verdict has always been the same with the exception of curries. Perhaps the flavor for me meshes more with savory items. Who knows? Either way, when it was suggested by both Amy and David that I drink coconut water after runs I immediately scoffed at the idea. Both did have a point though....coco water is fresh, full of electrolytes and considerably more natural of an item than the neon, fructose laden sports drinks that are so common these days. After picking some waters up at David's request, I decided to give one of the flavored ones a shot. I ran through DTLA today...short run....only 4.5 miles but it was warmer than usual. It was my first run post the Hollywood Half last weekend. I felt awesome, but towards the end, the heat was hitting me. I was very thirsty. When I came home, I saw the little Mango Coco water staring me down from the fridge. What the hell. I have it a shot. Surprisingly, I didn't want to spit it out. In fact, I wanted to keep drinking! The coco flavor is definitely hidden by the mango puree added to the juice. Definitely looking forward to trying some of the other fruit flavors in the future!

DIY Wedding Decor: Mini Pinatas

After being totally inspired by the JCrew / Confetti System collaboration, I decided that I needed to have mini pinata ornaments in some was shape or form at the wedding. After deciding on a color palette of Orange, Fuchsia and Green, I decided I could begins crafting some of these puppies up. I found the ornament templates at Michael's. When I got home, the first thing was to cut strips of tissue paper and fringe them. Next, I started at the bottom of each pinata and using a tiny amount of Elmer's glue, I attached each row of fringe on top of one and other. The sphere ornament was by far the most difficult to do. The diamond shaped one, while time consuming as each side needed to be done separately, was the easiest because the tissue sat the nicest do to the flat surfaces. I am going to head back to another Michaels location to see what other shapes there are to play with. The Glendale locale was a bit low on supplies.....

I will post more as they come along....we are thinking of either placing them on the centerpieces or in the Chuppa somehow.