A Day in LA - Part Two: Renegade Craft Fair

Ah yes, here we are, part two! We made it to the craft fair with more than enough time to walk around and get a feel for what we might want to purchase. I must admit, Lisa (Let's Move to the West Coast) had a little more wiggle room on what she could buy, but it wasn't so bad just looking around and enjoying what I saw. It's been quite a learning process (mentally rewarding, surprisingly enough) to go places and not buy everything I want immediately. It gives me a chance to process, to pick and choose and to really love what I do purchase. 

Tangent, I'm good at those.

Back to the story...

We walk around for a little bit, we talk to some shops and I get incredibly sidetracked by one shop in particular called The Red Swing. I was first distracted from my walk by a print hanging up like the one in the last picture above. Screw cautiously, I thought, well yes, I try to tell my friends that often. Love shamelessly, well I think that's something my friends try to tell me often. Simple, perfect. 

So I looked around more. I loved the set up of the little tent shop so I browsed. Susie finished her conversation with another browser so I asked if I could take a picture of her set up. She graciously accepted and then asked what I do. If I was a photographer (I still don't consider myself that) or what. I told her about the blog and she was excited to check this little place out. Basically she was rad. So we chatted for a second, I took a couple of pictures (the ones of the school desk and then the scale) and then continued on.

After walking for a bit my shoulders became a bit hot and I wasn't exactly full from lunch, happy, but not full (oh that delicious Pier Burger). We had seen food carts when we walked in so we went back in search of something cold and sweet. I went to the coffee cart and Lisa waited in line for a popsicle. 

The coffee... sooooooooooo good. I didn't ask for decaf (I had very few hours of sleep before this adventure day) and I was a little worried what the outcome of me with coffee caffeine might be, but I said yolo* to myself and ran straight into the unknown. 

Good news: no panic attack and best of all, no horrible coffee aftertaste in my mouth. WHAT?! I have since kept myself from getting iced coffee drinks from Starbucks since because I know that gross taste will just bum me out.

From what I could tell, Lisa really enjoyed her pop though she was battle ants during the eating of it so the change of a food grade was lost.

After our time in the shade with a party of ants we continued on to see what we hadn't seen before. So much awesome artwork and some delicious tea. I almost bought some tea, but my pocketbook was limited and I was really thinking about some prints still. So after the tea we hit up the photobooth (uh duhhhh). While waiting in line I saw two girls with awesome style and while I should have asked them if I could get a picture, I just snapped one while standing there. Creeper status. One day I'll get the lady balls to just ask people. One day.

(Oh yes, just in case you are wondering, our little chalk sign said "Click.")

I've taken pictures in a Magnolia Photo Booth before at Renegade before and I remembered how well they turned out so I was quite excited for these. And let me tell you, they lived up to previous success.

Photoboothing led us back to the beginning of our tent walk to purchase the final pieces. I went and purchased from a lovely illustrator named Nan Lawson (link below) and then of COURSE I went back to The Red Swing and purchased the lovely print that stopped me in my tracks before. 

All in all, our L.A. Adventure Day was great. Fantastic. Wonderful... other descriptive words that mean radical basically. Lisa and I chatted a lot and I'm so stoked to have a new friend. I mean, she'll go on photo adventures with me! Brilliant!  

Did anyone else go to Renegade this year? Did you happen to be at the L.A. one and know what the coffee cart was called because I want it back. 

xoxo

Shops that made me swoon: The Red Swing (letterpress), T-We (tea), Strawberryluna (prints and posters), Fomato Cards (incredibly off the wall greeting cards), Let's Be Friends (paper and stitched things), Bird of Virtue (jewelry), Unicorn Crafts (cute little things), Maiden Voyage (clothing and prints), Two Tone Press (letterpress printing), Nan Lawson (illustrations), Front Porch Pops (popsicles)

A Day in L.A. - Part One: Santa Monica Pier

Last Sunday Mrs Lisa and I got in the car and took a nice little drive up to Los Angeles. Our main goal was to hit Renegade Craft Fair but I've been meaning to get myself to Santa Monica Pier for ages now so we stopped there first for pictures, burgers and a little self loathing at Muscle Beach. Just kidding, we didn't really go to see Muscle Beach, that just happened to be there... and guys were definitely doing push up on parallel bars. It's cool bro, my maybe once a week exercise routine doesn't feel inadequate at all...

But I digress..

So I drive, we chat, I miss exits due to chatting and eventually we make our way there. I already know that it's a place I will visit again. We stroll down the two lane sidewalk knowing there's an ocean to our left somewhere... but there's so much sand that it's hard to see. This is nothing like Encinitas beaches that take maybe two minutes to cross from parking lot to water. 

We arrive at the pier and decide it's time for food. Burgers are the craving of the day.

We see one burger place but keep walking to find a bathroom first, I mean, nature calls, and happen upon an even better looking burger place. 

I'll just say now, for the record, I'm so glad natured called. It gave us excellent burgers after.

The place: Pier Burger. I thought it might be a tourist trap but while in line I looked at yelp and was surprised to see excellent ratings. We grabbed a table somehow and then got our food. 

It was soooo good. I'm going to say it, please don't stop following me here, it was WAY better than In n Out. Like, I can't even describe how much better. In fact I went to In n Out a couple of days ago just to make sure and the facts help up, Pier Burger is the best. 

Clearly the downfall of the whole thing is that it's in Santa Monica and I obviously live no where near there. 

Definitely an adventure spot for the future.

Food in tummy we walked a little more, saw a cute little malt shop by an indoor carousel and some fabulously painted buildings. We walked back down the two lane walkway passing interesting creatures left and right (and by creatures I mean humans) and took another long look at Muscle Beach. Seriously people? Is it a rule that guys have to have their shirts off here? We swore with our burger and fry filled bellies that we would work out more as we left the sweaty beings behind.

All in all our stay at Santa Monica Pier was not long. But I definitely took some amazing pictures and well, it's been said like 3 times already, had some awesome food and so it was time to move on. Next stop: Renegade Craft Fair... 

xoxo