Check out my new blog HAPPINESS IN HOLLYWOOD!

Last January, I began this little blog through this blog I found my voice and a whole lot of inspiration. The last few months in particular, I was enthusiastic to creatively expand on my blog and give it a face lift (or blog lift if you will. no?). My boyfriend and I read a brilliant book titled, The Happiness Project, and this became a major source of inspiration for writing HAPPINESS IN HOLLYWOOD. Living in a major city can feel quite chaotic and fast at times. Times that by ten when you are twenty-something, career driven, coffee drinker like myself. My new blog will re-focus my energy on tasks that I love doing, and in return I will have a place where I can display the things I adore most and share them with my readers. This means I will spend more time baking treats, dressing up, keeping resolutions and having fun in the hustle and bustle that is Hollywood. Please add my blog HAPPINESS IN HOLLYWOOD, and thank you so much for reading!

AFTER MIDNIGHT/// saturday style

This past weekend, Jason & I locked ourselves in our apartment due to the rain. It was delightful! We watched holiday movies, drank lots of tea & honey, listened to Christmas tunes on the radio and decorated our little apartment with just enough holiday decorations. I thought I would share with you a few snapshots of our festive living room. As a side note, Jason made the “happy xmas” sign on his own. Who knew he was so crafty!?

AFTER MIDNIGHT – TGIF/// back in los angeles

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Break time is officially over.  It was spent delivering materials to my talent agent & grabbing coffee at Intelligentsia, where an Italian couple swooned over my nude pumps and asked to take a picture of them. Now I am back at my work desk sipping on the rest of my coffee and scheduling the arrival of Mr. Ashton Kutcher.  I am on a new diet. I call it the “post thanksgiving feelin’ guilty diet” or the “Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen” diet, whichever you prefer. For the next month I will be living mostly off iced coffee, vitamins & salad (& grilled cheese. Don’t judge me.)  This past week has been mighty hectic to say the least. I traveled to Arizona for the Thanksgiving holiday. As soon as I arrived in town, I spent the following twenty four hours in the kitchen, leaving only to use the restroom (kidding…sort of). My boyfriend and I made our entire Thanksgiving dinner from scratch (menu cards included). While all of our guests drooled over the meal, I hardly had the time to breath the entire night. I wanted to show my thanks by preparing a grand meal for everyone. However, next year I will show my thanks by spending less time slaving away in the kitchen and more time chatting with the people I adore so much. Because it was such a mad, crazy field day, my mother is already planning to throw away traditions and make stuffed peppers or lasagna for Thanksgiving next year. Now doesn’t that sound like an awful idea? Anyway, the rest of my trip was grand. Jason and I took full advantage of Tucson’s zen environment. We spent every morning outside on the patio drinking coffee, reading the newspaper and soaking in the dessert sunshine and marvelous views of the Catalina Mountains. Tucson is a gem with its landscapes, open space, kind people, local eats and ample parking. We spent the rest of our time bopping around town. We ate at our favorite local eateries like Time Market & Wilko, visited the Gaslight Theatre to see our incredibly talented friends perform, went to the movie theatre to catch Skyfall (which I promised my family I would wait & see with them) & we even made time for birthday celebrations with best friends. Oh & I cannot forgot about our annual traditions like watching the Detroit Lions lose their football game, watching Planes, Trains and Automobiles for the millionth time (and still laughing hysterically) and putting up the kitschy ornaments on the Christmas tree. I know this is a very bloggy thing to do, but I decided to compile a list of the top ten things I am mighty thankful for this year.

one. my family.
two. my boyfriend, who I am madly in love with.
three. my friends, old & new.
four. my talent agents.
five. living only four blocks from the ocean.
six. my newly decorated modern living room.
seven. my full time job in the film industry.
eight. coffee & croissants on sunday mornings.
nine. vibrant lipstick & flashy shoes.
ten. my work ethic & genuine spirit.

I hope everybody had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday. Now it is time to celebrate my favorite holiday of all! Jason already thought I was having a heart attack last week when I noticed a billboard of 25 Days of Christmas on ABC Family. I am weird. I already know.

AFTER MIDNIGHT/// a morning at the museum

Lunch break.  I am lounging around my apartment noshing on sushi & watching Thanksgiving Live on Food Network.  Living less than two miles from work definitely has its perks.  After accomplishing many tasks at work this sunny morning, I scoped out the daily blogs to find myself featured on Design Love Fest.  This was such a wonderful event.  I crafted my heart out & met so many lovely individuals.

This past weekend, after grabbing cappuccinos & croissants (per my usual tradition), Jason & I zoomed over to The Los Angeles County Museum of Arts to see many exhibits that I have been anticipating for quite awhile.  On the top of my list was the Stanley Kubrick exhibit.  Those of you who know me well are aware of my Kubrick obsession.  I have seen all thirteen of his films endless times, took a course entirely about him & his work & believe he is the cat’s pajamas.  Because he is.  Kubrick was a brilliant filmmaker & an intense perfectionist.  This is easily noticeable within his films which contain incredible aesthetics & complex themes.  Because I was super nice & cheery to one of the men working at the exhibit, he allowed my boyfriend to touch the keys of The Shining typewriter(gasp. see above!)  Other exhibits I was thrilled to see were “Robert Mapplethorpe: XYZ” (photographer who dated Patti Smith) & “Drawing Surrealism” (I love me some Salvador Dali).

The rest of my day turned quite melancholy.  We drove to the grand opening of Georgetown Cupcakes in Beverly Hills to find a line stretching two whole blocks.  We left the scene without cupcakes, and I stomped my feet like a little girl.  After this, we headed to Santa Monica Place  to watch the annual tree lighting to find out that Mrs. Clause would spend hours delaying the lighting with holiday trivia games.  We left early without seeing any lights.  Once we finally made our way home (in the pouring rain mind you), I felt saddened.  Some days I feel like I put so much effort in and yield no results.  Los Angeles has an unfortunate way of doing that to you.  This is why I think I now understand why people from Los Angeles have a reputation of being pretentious & snooty.  Living in Los Angeles is a mad struggle & anything but a cakewalk.  It is hardly motivating to sit in hours of traffic on the freeway, compete with far more people for the same low paying jobs & pay far more money for every little thing.  When I first moved to Los Angeles, I was a glittery & bright eyed gal floating from balloons & following my dreams west.  I was slightly unaware of the city’s harsh realities.  Please, don’t get me wrong.  I am smitten with Los Angeles and its entertainment-healthy-ocean air environment.  But I also feel like living in Los Angeles is a test in itself.  If you can make it out here, you can make it anywhere.

AFTER MIDNIGHT/// mimosas & motivation

It’s that time of the year.  I have yanked the space heater out of the abyss of dusty storage & have propped it up on my work desk.  As of late (& as I have mentioned in earlier posts), I have been perusing my passions & hobbies rather than career goals in an attempt to brush off the “bitter bug.”  In return, I had such a fabulous & grand week, but I have also made some important realizations about myself along the way.  Even though I spent the majority of my week crafting, going to yoga & baking up treats, I found myself wanting to work.  I sent out loads of resumes & letters, & I also landed an acting audition which takes place this afternoon at The Millennium Dance Complex.  The reason why I was so productive was not solely because I am a worker at heart, but it was also because I felt no pressure behind getting things accomplished.  I wanted to be productive, but did not need to be productive.  This past weekend felt much the same.  I woke up late (9am for me), whipped up some blueberry waffles and mimosas from scratch and lounged around the house reading the paper, listening to John Coltrane & watching The Style Network.  I know that I sound incredibly lazy.  However, between stuffing myself silly & laying on the couch,  I managed to pick up Christmas decor & birthday gifts, finished all of my laundry, cleaned up the entire apartment (& it is probably the cleanest it has been all year) & we finally got our bathtub & garbage disposal fixed (I spent Saturday washing my hair in the kitchen sink which was not so glamorous).  What I learned from these past week adventures is that sometimes sanity and happiness requires you to step back from the struggle of perusing work, and instead focus on living and enjoying ordinary life as is.  Once you scrape away the struggle and begin to take life less seriously, you will actually manage to get far more done & with far more ease.  Your passions will feel less like work and feel more like fun.  Many times we become far too consumed in the end goal and the end picture that we forget to enjoying the process and its growth.  & many times this picture in our mind turns out radically different than what we even expected.  Enjoy the present moment.  Life is far too short not to.

AFTER MIDNIGHT – TGIF/// arts, crafts & sweets. oh my!

What a morning.  I have never been so flustered over things which I should not be so flustered about.  While having a fit in my car like a three year old,  Audrey Hepburn’s voice chanted through my mind. “Pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together.”  Thank you Audrey for your words of inspiration this morning.  While I could easily drink a cocktail right now, lipstick must suffice.  I’m at work people!   Last night I trudged through the puddles on the promenade and made it just in the nick of time for the Holi(DIY) event at Anthropologie.  Hosted by the lovely, brilliant blogger Bri Emery of Design Love Fest, the event was super adorable & I loved every minute of it.  I made some new Santa Monica friends, and I got to create pom-pom ornaments for my Christmas tree.   I got slightly impatient with my craft per usual, but I had decadent doughnuts & hot cocoa to keep me preoccupied, cheery & satisfied.  After the event was over & I walked home in the rain, I instantly put some Miles Davis on the record player & whipped up some comfort food.  Rain, comfort food & jazz music go together like peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.  The only missing ingredient was a fire place, which will unfortunately be a missing ingredient until I go home for Thanksgiving in two weeks.  I really cannot wait any longer!  Tonight I am ordering Thai takeout and then quickly gallivanting off to the theatre to see the film “Lincoln.”  The film can either be riveting (because Daniel Day Lewis is a ridiculously brilliant actor) or it can be major snooze fest (because it is a  2.5 hour historical drama).  This weekend I will finally make my way over to The Los Angeles County Museum of Arts to catch a bunch of exhibits which I have been highly anticipating.   I will also begin the process of purchasing fancy Christmas decorations.  Oh & I will obviously make time for my Sunday morning tradition of croissants & coffee with my boyfriend in Brentwood.  It’s such a treat (no pun or pun intended. whichever you prefer).  If you live in the area & are a morning person, please come join us!  Last weekend, while eating my buttery croissant and after hearing a slightly obnoxious, yet recognizable laugh, I realized I was sitting three seats away from Seth Rogen.  Only in Los Angeles.  Have a grand weekend everyone.  I wish I would write more posts throughout the week, but come on kids, my life ain’t that exciting!  :)

AFTER MIDNIGHT /// voting & exploring

What a mad house.  After waiting in line for one hour and after listening to a bunch of inefficient poll workers scream and bicker at one other, I voted and more importantly received my “I Voted” sticker.  I am now back at the office, where Actress & Director Lake Bell & I are celebrating (for voting, naturally).  This week I have had little to no motivation to work towards any career goals.  & strangely enough, refocusing my attention on projects that I love to do, rather than on projects I feel that I need to do has been quite refreshing and beneficial to my overall happiness (read The Happiness Project for an instant happy boost).  The last few months I have been racing around like an all star & draining all of my energy on my acting career.  I was truly testing my resiliency with lots of gummy vitamins and espresso.  I successfully landed an agent two months ago (which was a major hurdle), but to be completely honest, things have been slower than I anticipated.  Instead of acting like a ball of sunshine and trying to see the positivity, I unfortunately caught a bit of “the bitter bug” if you will.  So, with the holidays arriving & with the year coming to a close, I have  instead begun focusing my efforts on little road trips, thanksgiving recipes, holiday crafts & cleaning/decorating my apartment.  Because, really who wants a another bitter actor shuffling angrily around Los Angeles?  That will certainly not be me, I promise you.  While I appreciate the art of acting dearly, I also have a true gut-in-the-belly love for fashion, cooking and traveling.  Fashion is my favorite form of self expression & cooking & baking is therapeutic to my soul.  I also enjoy getting crafty from time to time, but it sometimes requires far too much patience than I can handle.  However, I am attending an event at Anthropologie this week, where I will do holiday arts & crafts with one of my favorite bloggers!  I am mighty excited.  Last weekend (after a night of ridiculously scrumptious Greek food in Malibu), Jason & I drove down the coast to explore Orange County.  Years ago, I celebrated Thanksgiving in Newport Beach.  While some call it “a cookie cutter town” or “the Beverly Hills of Orange County”, I absolutely adore it and its small, fancy, beachy feel.  I couldn’t wait to show Jason the city & take him to my favorite cafe there, Alta Coffee.  I purchased a vanilla chai latte with almond milk, which was out of this world!  Jason & I also took a ferry to Balboa Island (so romantic, but not really), where we hit up a wonderful candy shop for salt water taffy.  I heart willy wonka esq candy shops.   I am really not much of a candy lover (primarily due to the fact that most of it is gentically modified which scares me).  But hand me a sea salt dark chocolate bar or some salt water taffy (watermelon preferably), and I will be a happy, happy girl.  Anyway, as I said previously, my week has been filled with hobbies, rather than work goals, and I am really okay with that (for now).  Worrying about signing up for yoga tonight, rather than worrying about who I should send yet another resume to is just what the doctor ordered.  Have a great rest of your week everyone, and remember to vote tonight!

AFTER MIDNIGHT/// TGIF – tis the season

I am sitting here in my red silk top and red lipstick, anxiously anticipating the arrival of Cameron Diaz.  It is November everyone!  & what that means is that it is basically Christmas.  Yes, I know,  my Christmas spirit begins a little bit early in the season.  Once it hits November, I can easily begin listening to Christmas tunes nonstop on the record player or radio, watch all of the Christmas classics (A Christmas Story & Home Alone are a must ) and I can begin putting up fancy, holiday decorations for my apartment.  I think my desire to dive into the holiday spirit so early in the season stems from my mother’s type A personality.  She starts requesting my Christmas list around late august to early September, so that she can finish up her shopping by Halloween.  & no, I am not joking one bit.  But, really my obsession with the holiday is most likely due to the fact that it is by far the best holiday on the planet.  While I tend to use up a whole lot of my Christmas energy before it even hits December, I am glad I have Thanksgiving recipes to keep me somewhat preoccupied.   But enough about Christmas!  I hope that everyone’s Halloween was grand.  Mine I can say was fairly low key, which is just the way I like it.  I prepared my annual pumpkin float recipe (which was a must).  Jason & I did go to one Halloween party, which was at a fancy pants hotel on the beach fit with a band, an open bar and lots of yummy food stands.  Since Jason & I waited till last minute to pick out our Halloween costumes, it resulted in French girl meets British paper boy.  We called it our European love story.  But really it was just our “oh, no, we waited too long, what do we do now” story.  Most girls just swooned over Jason, because they thought he dressed up intentionally as Ryan Gosling in The Notebook.  & I know I am going to sound  like I am totally bragging for saying this, but he does look a little bit like Ryan Gosling. & no!  I am not the first person who has told him this.  People tell him this every so often.  On Halloween day, naturally I wore my skull blouse & kitschy pumpkin pin with glowing eyes.  I think I have received a good twenty pins from relatives in my day.  But come to think of it, what is better than a kitschy pin on a holiday?  Don’t answer that.  At night, Jason & I gallivanted off to a showing at the theatre of Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie.  It was quite endearing, but it had me crying for the majority of it.  It made me think about my dog Gabby, who I miss far too much.  She passed away almost three years ago, and I still have not come to accept it.  After the film, we went out for drinks, where I affirmed my dislike for syrupy cocktails.  No more, no more.  Just hand me a mimosa or red wine & let’s move on.  That was my Halloween week.  I hope everyone has a lovely, safe November weekend.  I will be driving down the coast to explore Orange County & hopefully I can fit in a museum as well.  Ciao!

AFTER MIDNIGHT/// london fog

The thick fog stretching over the coast last night made Santa Monica feel eerie and akin to London. This haunting quality was beautiful and actually quite appropriate with Halloween just a day away. Who knew that the everyday 70 degree & sunny weather could become vastly overrated and quite a drag. This strange, yet lovely weather forced me immediately into my warm, cozy slippers. I cleaned the kitchen, finished a novel, whipped up some delicious Greek pitas & wrapped up the night with a glass of red wine & NBC’s The Voice. Speaking of Greek pitas, it is Greek week to me in the Stephanie & Jason household. After reading a fascinating article in the New York Times last week, “The Island Where People Forget to Die“, we decided to implement the island’s eating habits, and focus on health & productivity (at least up until Thanksgiving when I will naturally indulge in every sweet & savory dish possible). In Ikaria, the Island where people live respectively longer life spans, the diet includes significant amounts of coffee, tea, wine, fish, olive oil, olives and vegetables. While they are still fairly productive people, they live a simpler lifestyle which results in stressing less & napping more. This is certainly hard to do in Los Angeles, also known as stress capital of the universe! However, I bought the majority of my groceries at the Farmer’s Market this weekend (where I saw fashion icon Rachel Zoe and just about fainted), & am consistently working out (I have yoga scheduled for tonight) and I am trying to be more productive (on my lunch break I scheduled an appointment to give blood and donated a bunch of clothes to a homeless shelter). The week thus far has been calm and smooth, and I think a trip up the coast to Santa Barbara or down the coast to Orange County is in the works for the weekend. I will post pictures soon of all our Halloween festivities. Have a lovely rest of your week everybody. Cheers!

AFTER MIDNIGHT – TGIF/// adventures with the family

Wine & cheese on my lunch break?  Don’t mind if I do.  After a week of bopping around Los Angeles with my mom & aunt, wine felt absolutely necessary this afternoon. It was a standard family visit of course: adventures, laughing, bickering and crying. Why do family visits always have to be so incredibly emotional? Anyway, this past week was filled with apple picking in Yucaipa (which resulted in baking two absolutely scrumptious apple pies – homemade crust & all), lotsa shopping (my mom & aunt bought me some fabulous vintage jewelry & a lovely hounds-tooth skirt), scoping out yummy restaurants (Portos Bakery in the Valley is ridiculously cheap and tasty!), viewing The Tonight Show with J Leno (which was super enjoyable minus the whole cattle herd, waiting in line for two hours thing), an audition in Venice Beach (which went extremely well), and the list goes on and on and on. Oh, & as a side note, I was asked to stand up in my friend Kristina’s wedding next October. It is supposedly at this fancy shmancy country club on the border of Wisconsin & Illinois. I could not be more thrilled and honored to attend and stand up in it. If time permits (who am I kidding – time will permit!), Jason & I will be renting a car and heading to downtown Chicago, my favorite city in the United States. If the whole “acting” thing does not pan out (common actor friends, you all think about it too), Chicago will be the first place I run to. Tonight I have a Halloween Party to go to, which is at a glamorous hotel on the beach. I’m super excited. But because this past week has been so go go go, the rest of the weekend will probably consist of lounging on the couch in my penguin pajamas, indulging in left over apple pie and watching Halloween movies on the tube. I mean, what is better than that?