i'm back! (how many times am i going to keep saying this??)

i have kicked my jewelry making into high gear!

what do you guys think?

constructive criticism is encouraged/appreciated!

this is one of my personal favs
now just time for some more professional photos
all of these pieces are available for sale (duh!)

check out my store :)


xoxo mel

bon voyage!

make your own note here

look at this stuff, isn't it neat

wouldn't you think my collection's complete

wouldn't you think i'm a girl


a girl who has everything

or maybe just a girl with toooo much free time on her hands :)

my newest creation

check out my latest creation

what do you think?
i already have a wonderful customer that is willing to buy it!!

more designs soon to come!

day dreaming

champagne taste
(purse blog)

on a boone's farm budget

show me the money

ok well you give me your money and i'll give you some jewelry. how about that ?

(moonstones & peruvian opals)

since i have SO much free time, i figured it was time to start a hobby.

(this can come in ANY color)

if you haven't figured it out already, my new hobby is making jewelry.

(fresh water pearls)
like what you see?

(smokey & rose quartz)
you can buy it at my etsy shop.

(my line is called lemel)

obviously right now it's still in the beta phase (i know these pics are complete crap), but i will have more designs before you know it!

lemme know what you think? i'm an open book and need some feedback people!

explore

ummmmmm where am i going next???

i bet you can't guess :)
kayak explore is my new favorite feature

count dracula

is it just me, or is this vampire thing getting a little out of control?

i mean i do love my true blood, but an aladdin vampire...not so much.

did i mention true blood premies this sunday, june 13... monday for all those (me) hulu watchers

all this vampire talk is making me crave some cereal

i'm baaaaaack

After a few months (ok, maybe 6) I've decided to start posting again. I took a minor break from the blogging when I started my new job back in the fall. However, after many requests, or laziness from copying and pasting the same thing into every g chat conversation, I've decided to jump back on the blogging band wagon.

Here is how I started my Monday morning. The dress code at my office is very socal casual, if you will. Basically you wear whatever you want. Last week someone was walking around bare foot all day, no joke. I always try to dress "cute" for work, but don't let your imagination run wild here, you will never see me in heels. As you can imagine, not all of my Texas outfits fit into my new socal dress code, but I'm trying to make it work here. I haven't purchased my converses quite yet, but that's only because I'm still deciding on a color.

In an effort to make my jcrew cotton dress look a little more edgy and "cool," I decided to wear my new favorite flats (that I purchased in Texas by the way).
I've been getting mixed reactions on these puppies, but you know me, I don't give a shit, and more importantly, when would the Olsen twins steer me wrong. I'm a big fan of their line Elizabeth and James. I like them, and if you don't, keep your comments to yourself, or more simply gfy. Last night I was walking around Santa Monica and a young man stopped me and told me how much he liked my shoes. That made me especially happy since I was walking alongside a certain roommate (sister) of mine that does not particularly care for them.

I was feeling good (=fashionable) when I zipped these puppies up this morning (Yes, they have zippers on the back). I'm making my green tea and minding my own business, when a chatty co-worker of mine walks by starts the usual Monday morning weekend small talk. He begins to walk away and then does a double take and says "Oh my gosh what did you do to your ankles? Are you ok?" I, of course, am like my ankles wtf is this loon talking about, and then I look down and realize I'm wearing my olsen shoes. Oh joy. He thinks my fashionable gladiator sandals are ankle braces.

I mean, really?

Did I mention this was the co-worker who threw up in our workout class last week? Oh no I didn't because he swore me to secrecy. I guess the joke is on him :)

Get off your Buns this Thanksgiving!

Who's with me??? Come on everyone from Houston... you all know you want to run a 10k/5k tomorrow, Thanksgiving morning. What a great way to start a day of feasting! My parents use to make us run the Turkey Trot every year, and we hated it! I vaguely remember one year prentedning I had a severe fever so I got to sleep in my dad's car while everyone else ran. Yes, that was back in the day where it was socially acceptable for parents to leave their children in the cars. Now, not so much....


It's not too late to sign up! Register in person at Luke's Locker in the River Oaks Shopping Center. Oh, and if you do not live in Houston, no worries....Turkey Trots go on in cities across the nation. Go to www.active.com to see where your local trot takes place. :)






A small crew and I will be sporting some holiday cheer while we participate in the 10k. It's always more fun in costume....

See ya there!

Happy Friday :)

THIS is pure amaziness and makes me question why I still don't live there?

What is it with LA and Food Trucks?

The biggest fad I have noticed since living here (besides Fedoras) is Food Trucks. People are obsessed with them, and almost every reputable establishment has one. Imagine a Fletcher’s Truck on South Congress for every First Friday and after every football game. Maybe these Californians are onto something…..

Not only do the trucks ride around all of Los Angeles during the peak lunch time, they can also be ordered for catering, and park on major streets for festivals. Jennifer’s office apparently hasn’t been affected by this ‘credit crunch’ and they cater lunch every day for their 200+ employees. The food is usually pretty standard, meaning I never hear what she has for lunch. However, on a rare occasion they really like to splurge and a few weeks ago they ordered the In ‘n Out Truck. I swear she was talking about this truck for 10 days and could not wait for the day to finally come. Jennifer was not the only one in her office excited by this either, Californians cannot get enough of these food trucks! Some have lines that are at least twenty people deep.

When I first moved out here, I remember a friend telling me the food trucks are so good. I immediately furrowed my brow and reminisced back to sophomore year when the damn taco truck would ride up to the construction site across from the Texan and play its little taco music. Little did I know food trucks in LA are gourmet (but I should have been able to guess that).

the grilled cheese truck & the masses

This past weekend in Venice was First Friday, which is similar to Austin’s First Thursday. The food trucks were tweeting all day about where they were going to be parked, and Jennifer had an email chain rolling around 2pm on which truck she was going to go to. I still was not too keen on the idea of eating at one of these ‘restaurants’ on wheels, but whatever when in Rome, right? We waited in line for I kid you not 45 minutes at the grilled cheese truck. JP ordered the Big Kahuna of grilled cheeses. It was filled with cheese (duh), macaroni & cheese, and pulled pork-- she wasn’t playing around. I went for a more basic tomato caprese grilled cheese. People were custom ordering their grilled cheese like they were at McDonalds. There was a wide variety of breads, cheeses, add-ins, desert grilled cheeses, pickles, tators tots, and the list goes on…. After our long wait and toughing through the line, we were expecting the best grilled cheese sandwiches in the world. Well, they sucked. The cheese in JP’s was not even melted. My first food truck experience was a total bust. Next time I am not basing my truck decision on the one with the longest line since that test clearly failed.

Here were some other trucks parked along the street that were not as crowded and probably much better.
Border Grill knew what was up...margs and tacos

Dogtown DOGS...how did I not eat at a truck w/ such a cute name?

korean bbq anyone?

I wish this truck was there!

Sprinkles Cupcake Truck...where were you on 11/7/09 at 8pm?

Does anyone remember when I had the genius idea of making a food truck in Austin that specialized in late night? Does Mel Mel’s Munchies ring a bell? Since LA thinks food trucks are cool that means the rest of the world will too. Maybe I should move home and start up Mel Mel’s Munchies…. Anyone interested in investing??

A Tardy Halloween Post

I apologize again for my tardiness. Happy (week and a bit after) Halloween! The past two Halloweens have been a total bust for me, so this year I really had to step it up. Last year I was in Australia waiting tables at the infamous Bondi Tucker, and I think the year before I had an exam…needless to say they both were boring.

I always put the pressure on myself to come up with a great costume. I think costumes out of a bag are completely unoriginal and lame. My best costume to date was in 2005 when KP, the twins and I were The Facebook. Yes, THE is suppose to be in front of Facebook because 2005 was when you still had to type in www.thefacebook.com. I believe it was right after Halloween that year that the picture feature became available. (Thank you Mark Zuckerberg for not having that available my freshman year!) This was by far the best costume to date. I thought of the idea the day of and it ended up taking us about 7 hours to complete the look.

This year when I was scouring the world wide web for costume inspiration, a friend directed me to American Apparel’s website where they were holding a costume contest. Well, we all know I love a good competition, so I went ahead and entered my Facebook costume. My costume came out with a score of 2.53 out of 4. Not too bad if you ask me, right? It was viewed 6463 times and overall ranked 277/1313. I was proud. Thanks to all of you who voted (and yes I know I am a HUGE dork for entering this)!

Another favorite costume was from 2006 when a group of us dressed as our guy friends. This costume was another success. BTW if you haven’t noticed I judge my success on the creativity scale. Clearly neither of these costumes fit into the sexy Halloween costume category. Maybe it was a little weird that ten cute girls dressed up as nine guys and a golden retriever... but whatever, we all had fun.

This year I decided to be a cast member from my favorite tv show True Blood. I was Sookie (pronounced Ssssoooooookie). It was very fitting actually since last year I was a waitress on Halloween and this year I just dressed up as one. I have to thank Sheriff Jenny and my cousin Stef for helping me with the fake blood and scar. My costume was very well received and great because I was comfortable. I wore Toms and used my apron as my purse. A little tip for people who use the glue on scars next year, take it off after a few cocktails because it isn’t pretty in the am.

The brainstorming has begun for Halloween 2010.

:) Mel

the iphone case that will change the world

It is week 2 of my “real world” job and time to start blogging. Today has been really slow, so needless to say I have been scouring the world wide web. My find of the day: “THE BEAMER.”



Not only is this product genius, but I think it is also going to spearhead the release of air mattress living 2.0. If you haven’t noticed already, all of the pictures on my blog that are not from the internet come from my iphone. I am not sure why Steve Jobs (named CEO of the century, another fact I read today on cnn.com today) did not think of this himself. I suggest everyone commit to purchasing The Beamer. The Beamer is only $32 and comes with FREE SHIPPING, which we all know is a rarity in this economic climate.


This website is really cool because they have quirky products, hint the name of the site, and once enough people commit to buying the products, they create them. You can even submit suggestions and they will develop your product. My mind is already racing with products I want them to create! Hello world, my next big ideas are going to finally be made into a reality! (ok I might be getting a little ahead of myself here, but you get my point.)

I commited to the lime green. :)

Here is a sampling of some other great quirky products.

Watt time is it?


Shot block: A household staple





Last but not least, the ouch pouch. Very fashionable

15 Minutes of Fame Here I Come!

Please excuse me for the lack of recent posts. My theory here is quality over quantity. I can’t waste my blog reader’s time with nonsense. Hopefully this post will keep you reading air mattress living and maybe make you laugh, too. :)

When Jennifer first started her new job in LA I was bored and lonely. I maybe heard on the radio there was an open casting call to be on ABC’s Wipeout. I maybe was considering trying out….but then a hang over inhibited me from going to the 9am Saturday casting call. However, during one of my day trips to Starbucks, I found myself applying to be a cast member instead of applying for jobs. The application process was fairly simple. You just had to answer some basic questions and then submit photos of yourself. I of course scoured my 1,543 pictures on facebook and found some real classics that I knew Wipeout would love. Needless to say, after submitting the application, the show had no crossed my mind.

Yesterday I started my new job, my new real job. I have a cubicle, a work email address, and am actually going to order business cards. This is the real deal. Out of the blue, on day 2 at the office, I get a random missed called from a number in Burbank, CA. On my lunch break I check my voicemail, and someone from Wipeout wants to axe, I mean ask, me a few questions. My jaw literally drops. Three and half months after I submitted an online application they call, oh and on the second day of my new job. This has to be a joke.

I call them back to see what is going on. It turns out they had a series of questions to ask me before I could proceed to the next level.

· Do you have health insurance? (red flag #1)

· Do you have any knee, should or back injuries? (hmmm)

· Have you had any major surgeries in the last ten years? (ok so maybe this isn’t such a good idea)

· Oh, and can you swim? (oh, never mind totally legit!)

I passed this rigorous test with flying colors, and they want to have me audition for the show on Friday. Of course I said I would be there. I mean the chance to be on national tv and to win $50,000!! Ummmm, hello. I have no shame and field day was always my favorite day in lower school. Surely I can win this game. However, reality set in, and it probably isn’t the best idea to leave work early on my first week to try out for reality tv. This was my chance for those 15 minutes. Oh well.....

Watch Out Hollywood, Here I Come!

I am sure most of you did not know that as a child I was an aspiring actress. You are probably wondering right now how you did not already know this. Well, I was very humble, and…..my career was very short lived. After going home this weekend and visiting Houston, I thought I might bring my old head shots back to LA and try out this whole ‘acting’ thing again.

I think this headshot will still work, don’t you? I might just comment on the back that I no longer own my GAP suspenders and had braces. I think if I stuck with my talent Hilary Duff would have had some serious competition.

If you are wondering where you would have seen me during my thriving days, well it was not very main stream. I was in an ad for a company called Venture (they no longer exist but were essentially another Target) holding a thing of Gak with my fake family. That was my biggest role (well, and maybe my only role). Now I am much more knowledgeable and am living in the city where dreams come true. Next stop Hollywood baby!

Blogosphere meet KP, KP meet Blogosphere. Happy Thursday

By the way, who took this pictures? Please tell me you did not use your self timer.

If this doesn't make you laugh, I'm not sure what will.
love you KP! xoxo mel mel

The Diary of a Shop Attendant: Chapter 2

This past weekend an elderly lady came into the store and successfully slid a sly one past us, well actually not me, my co-worker. The woman was all frazzled because she drove 25 miles to get to the store in time and realized she was three days past her return date. My co-worker bought her frazzled, traffic, driving, old lady story and let her exchange the bag for a different one. Apparently the one she wanted to return has been ‘sitting’ on her shelf and just isn’t right for her. At this point I am avoiding the return situation since no one has taught me how to do returns this really isn’t my problem.

Well, on Monday, a shipment of bags comes in and the manager is putting them out on the floor and rearranging the displays. While I am helping a customer my boss whispers in my ear to go in the back when I have a second and see what I find in the inside pocket of a purse she has just set back there. I am of course nervous and assume whatever I find will be alive. That is not the case. I quickly walk to the back because impatient me can’t wait to see what is there and look what I find:

If you are still staring and not sure what that is….. there are THREE sanitary napkins inside the purse. SICK. NASTY. That happens to be the exact purse the frantic old lady returned over the weekend. There are so many things wrong with this picture it is not even funny. First of all, frantic old lady is a liar because clearly she used the purse. Why does such an old lady have maxi pads (sick, the word of the post)? How did my co-worker that accepted the return not find them? Keep in mind next to the maxi pads is the price tag that my co-worker PUT INSIDE THE BAG.

A few lessons to take home from this lovely tale: 1. Empty all pockets of a purse when you decide to return it after you have already worn it, and 2. Check inside all the pockets before you buy it. No one wants a “gift with purchase.”

Until next time.

xoxo mel