finding new art // Andrea Tavarez Boeta

Living in San Diego means there's usually several art walks that happen every year. They're outdoor events that cover several streets, and hundreds of artists display and sell their art to the public over the course of two days. I've gone to my fair share while living here, and while they're generally fun, most of the art I see there just isn't my cup of tea. I always see tons of HDR-ed-to-death ocean pier shots (boring), weird metal scrap art in the shape of cats (just why?) and pretty-but-meh abstract watercolors. I know art is subjective, and what may seem boring to me may be the bee's knees to someone else, but.....yeah. I'm totally coming off as an art snob, aren't I. I'm the worst.

So yesterday at the Mission Federal ArtWalk in Little Italy, I felt like I struck gold when my friends and I came across Andrea Tavarez Boeta's booth. She's an artist from Tijuana, and the first piece I saw that drew me in was a small framed piece using blue string. I loved how minimal and delicate it was, and now I'm regretting not taking some photos of her pieces that she had on display. And then I saw her nude woman piece, and thought, "She gets me."

I don't remember where I read(or heard) this quote, but the saying goes, "Only buy art that you really, really love." And I did. And I'm so happy this gets to live in my house for me to enjoy. Even my husband likes it, yay!

Bonus: Even her business card is cooler than anything I'll ever make.

You can see more of Andrea's work on her website. And now I need to brush up on my Spanish so I can fan-girl her inbox :)

things I've enjoyed recently

1// Last weekend, a friend invited me an essential oils blends DIY, where we made some goodies to take home, like a calming face mist, roller for sore muscles, and detox bath salts. I've been curious about essential oils for a while, so this was a fun and informative introduction to it.

2// I'm in the middle of reading Jancee Dunn's How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids, and so far, it's equal parts helpful and humorous. I love that she includes lots of of actual published data and advice from real marital counselors, but she's kind of my new hero for trying out the techniques she's learning on her own marriage. For the most part, the relationship between my husband and I is pretty solid, even post-twins, but there's definitely areas where we could improve. So this book is pretty eye-opening for me right now. (Bonus: even if you don't have kids, this book is filled with gems of relationship advice and holy-shit-that-is-so-us moments. If you live with your significant other and tend to fight a lot, you should read this!)

3// Catfight was soo good!

4// Suck it, People-Who-Think-Cats-Are-Assholes.

5// HBO's Big Little Lies was a slow burn for me, but so worth it.

6// This made me laugh!

7// My marriage recently turned 14 years old! Yay us! We went out for a much-deserved date night, and right before heading out, I asked my dear friend, who was babysitting the twins, if she would take this photo of us. I love that if you look closely, you can spot both loinfruits pressed up against the screen door, making Very Loud Noises because they wanted to be outside with us too. I'm so lucky to have these three people in my life :)

day trip // desert wander

Reason #5857 I love living in California: drive two hours in any direction, and the landscape will look completely different and magical. Thanks to all the heavy rains this year, all kinds of wildflowers are in bloom in the desert for the first time in years, so a group of friends and I made plans to drive out and see it for ourselves. Lots of picture-taking, climbing rocks, trying not to get pricked by cacti, and general silliness. The perfect day.

Chunks of these cacti would be all over the ground, just waiting to stab our ankles. We dubbed them "death balls."

The weirdest/coolest trees ever!

We saw this from the road and immediately pulled over. We called it Pride Rock.

Dawn enjoys her Lion King moment.

Raina found this painted rock, and we decided to re-hide it.

Shortly after this photo was taken, Dawn came across a red snake on the move, and she proceeded to lose her shit, and ran away screaming.

Looking for cool rocks. Also, bird bones.

I love this group of women so much, and I'm glad we got to do this! It's funny; we were originally headed to the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park visitor/information center to start our hike/picture-taking, but all of these photos happened when we decided to pull over on a whim because we saw something cool from the road and wanted to check it out. Sometimes I think the best day trips happen that way. Bonus: no other tourists around to clutter up our shots! (Once we actually got to the visitors center, we saw tons of tourists all parked along the same stretch of road, taking their photos all in the same area. Amateurs.)