Hi
everyone and welcome to my first blog post!!!
What
better way to start off this amazing adventure that I am about to embark on
than to talk about this amazing month?
This year, the month of June has been extremely good to me, as it has involved
my birthday, my graduation from UCLA, and my 1st wedding
anniversary!! ALL SUPER EXCITING, RIGHT?!?
Let’s
start with the nails…
Towards
the beginning of the month, as I finished my last exams, essays and
projects for the semester, I decided to treat myself to a well-deserved
mani-pedi! I headed over to my
favorite nail salon in LA, and with the help of my lovely manicurist Tina (who
is quite familiar with my fun nailart shenanigans), decided on a pretty
simple design that would be both glamorous and festive. Here’s what I ended up getting:
I chose to go with a not-so-typical French manicure, with a
pretty pink gel polish (whose name I unfortunately can’t recall, but I think
it’s by OPI) all over the nails. Instead
of white tips, we went for a loose glitter tip that Tina applied with a brush,
and finally topped off by adding some loose glitter to create a subtle ombré
effect…
Overall, I think it turned out super cute and chic, and am
really happy about the final result! I love to be creative when I get my nails done because
looking at cute nails makes me happy :)
Birthday
Moving on to the birthday! This year I celebrated my 27th (!!!). We usually celebrate birthdays and
milestones by going out to a nice restaurant… only this year, I was beyond
blessed to go out more than once!
The night before my birthday I went out to our go-to
restaurant in Beverly Hills called La Gondola with my amazing husband Benjamin,
parents, sister and her boyfriend (unfortunately my brother was MIA due to his
move to the Big Apple L).
The food was great, they had a TV
(which accommodated the men’s NBA playoffs addiction and allowed them to catch
the end of the game), and we feel like family there- so all in all it was a
fantastic evening!
The following night, the night of my actual birthday, my
husband and I went out to a really cool spot called Barton G., which is an
expansion of the original restaurant in Miami. This restaurant is so unique and quirky that I’m going to need
a whole post on it because there’s just so much to show and talk about!!
The night after my birthday, my husband and I went to
celebrate his great aunt’s birthday at one of the family’s favorite
restaurants, Café Bizou in Sherman Oaks.
After dinner, they brought out a cake and sang for his great-aunt, but they
pleasantly surprised me with a festive cake and a rendition of “Happy Birthday”
of my own!
For the last birthday meal, my husband’s beautiful grandmother,
aunt and cousin treated me to dinner at a restaurant called Emilio’s Trattoria
in Encino. It has a really nice
atmosphere, tons of caricatures of classic Hollywood stars, and ginormous
bottles of wine! So much fun!!
Graduation
On Saturday, I attended my UCLA Undergraduate graduation
ceremony. After immeasurable
amounts and countless hours of hard work and studying, I received my Bachelors of Arts
degree in Anthropology (which is basically the study of humans, and involves
aspects of biology, linguistics, archaeology and culture). It was a big accomplishment and a
milestone for me, and I was so fortunate to share it with my family and
friends.
It feels so good to finish my academic journey and move on to
the next chapter in my life, but who knows? Maybe I’ll be back for some more interesting courses in the
future, or even give graduate school a chance. Never say never.
Wedding Anniversary
This year marked our first wedding anniversary, and we wanted
to follow the traditional anniversary gifts. This year’s theme was paper. My husband surprised me with tickets (made of paper,
obviously) for the best seats in the house to the sold out Trainwreck comedy tour, organized by the minds behind the upcoming
film of the same name in an effort to raise money for charity while promoting
the movie. After six stops in seven days, the final show was at the Wiltern Theatre
here in LA. The line up was
headlined by Amy Schumer and Judd Apatow, and also featured Vanessa Bayer,
Colin Quinn, Mike Birbiglia, and Dave Attell. Before my husband surprised me, I
tried really hard to find tickets to the show (and gift it to him for the
anniversary –funny, right?) but it was already sold out. The fact that he was able to get his
hands on two of them was beyond sweet!! I, on the other hand, took more of a
crafty approach and hand-made him some “Love Coupons”, which turned out really
nice! Obviously, the supplies ended up being a bit pricey but I was super
pleased with the end results. He
thought it was the sweetest thing and loved them! Let me know if you want a
separate post on them.
For dinner, we went to Bottega Louie in Downtown LA, where
we toasted our love with some champagne and delicious food, and ended the night
with some decadent macaroons (my favorite treat). Every night with my honey is a blessing, but this one was
just perfect!
What a month, right?!? Oh my gosh, I was showered with so
much love and am so thankful for everything. I feel like the luckiest girl and hope to share many more
happy moments with you in the future.
Hope you’re all having a fabulous month! Please let me know if there is
anything specific you’d like a post on.
XOXO,
Grace
