My pumpkin I carved the day before Halloween. A cute girly one, not quite as good as Martha’s, but close. It didn’t last too long.

My photo collection of roses is gratuitous, but I’m posting this nonetheless. In a martini glass on our table at Spaghettini in Seal Beach last month. I must also mention that the band there performed an awesome jazz version of “Blame it on the Alcohol” at a very quick, jazzy pace. Highly entertaining.

So many things, good and frustratingly not good, have been going on in my life, I seem to have neglected my blog writing a bit. There was Mother’s Day and opening a Webkinz account to talk to my little cousin; there was my graduation and buying a car (a gray 2007 Nissan Sentra); there was filing my DBA for Million Million Monkeys, printing business cards, and designing promotional items; and then there’s freelance work, for which I am very grateful. I am also beginning research on a book after so many people have told me I should go ahead and give it a shot, so I am. Lots of new and interesting and good things going on.

But there was a day last week when I was boiling over with frustration and I couldn’t focus on my freelance work at all. Thus, I decided to take a mental health day. I got lunch at Starbucks and walked up to Brand Park in Glendale (about a mile’s walk from the bus stop). It was a nice day out, sunny and warm. I went on the swings, as no one else was there in the middle of the day. Read a little bit from my library book. Then I went and sat in the Japanese Friendship Garden, where there is a little pond with guppies, koi, and turtles. I watched the turtles as they all (well, six out of eight of them) climbed up onto a rock to sun themselves. A couple times one would fall back into the water, but it would try again. Each just took its time getting on and struggled a bit, but eventually made it. It was fairly inspiring. One even swam up to me and stared at me before swimming back. I wanted to get a picture, but I forgot my personal cell phone (which has a pretty good camera), as well as my sunscreen (which is a whole other story), so I took this photo with my Blackberry. It’s so pixelated, it almost looks like I used a paintstroke Photoshop filter on it. In any case, you get the idea.

So this is a close-up on a mural in Union Station by the Red Line: Terry Schoonhaven’s “Traveler”. The woman is supposed to be Carol Lombard a la her train ride-themed movie Twentieth Century. I thought her expression was really the most interesting thing about the mural.

I think ampersands are super cool. I mean, do you know of any other typeface symbol, which has a whole blog dedicated to it? I think not. What it is is that they’re just so fancy. Unfortunately, that makes them a little hard to handwrite quickly.

The ampersand is derived from the Latin word et, meaning and. You can see how the more classic ampersands resemble a script Et. Wikipedia has some pretty good visuals to demonstate the evolution of the ampersand. Ampersand have also always reminded me of the treble clef in music, which is another one of the most beautifully designed symbols out there.

Below are some of the ampersands from my font collection that I like. Surprisingly, some are even from the fonts that just come with the OS.

For more on Malibu Tile, see the last Photobook Friday.

Fountain at the Adamson House. Apparently there is one tile flipped the wrong way a la the Navajo Spirit String. Can you find it? I never could.

Fountain at Union Station downtown. A little worse for wear, but still pretty.

Malibu Potteries was a popular producer of ceramic tile in the 1920s and 30s. They created a unique style of tile, which is highly sought after today whether they be expensive originals or mere copies.

I first discovered Malibu Tile at the Adamson House in Malibu. The Adamsons founded Malibu Potteries, as well as Adohr Farms (Mrs. Adamson’s first name was Rhoda; Rhoda backwards is Adohr). The tile was hand-painted and the foundry employed many women– something that was out of the ordinary for the time. The Adamson House, of which you can take docent-led tours of, is filled with very elaborate, very colorful tile. The planter above is one of many in the garden.

About a month ago, I took a tour of Union Station, LA’s central train station, through the LA Conservancy, of which I am a member. I immediately recognized the tile, and sure enough, the docent pointed out that Malibu Potteries did indeed do the tile. The color palette here was a bit different than at the Adamson House– it’s very art deco, more muted tones. The photo at right is a close-up of the colonnade near the restaurant (closed now, but used to be the Harvey Restaurant as in The Harvey Girls movie starring Judy Garland).

More photos next week!

Because I couldn’t resist. Especially after seeing this Flickr Pool in ode to the Aretha hat. My favorite is the photo of Tupac. Now that’s gangsta.

Earlier this month, I was in my bedroom working on my laptop. When I get to really working on something, hours go by, and I don’t even notice. I hadn’t turned on any lights, despite the sun setting. It’s when I realized that everything outside was pink. I love sunsets in L.A. I don’t care if it’s the smog or not, they’re nice to look at. The sunset started out pink, then turned into an orange-red, before dimming to dark purple. The rooftops, the treetops were all cast in silhouette. I had to get a picture of it, from out my window. The photo doesn’t quite live up to how the sunset looked in person, but it’ll suffice.

Alright, some more photos from the Huntington. Can you really blame me for having so many, though? This place is endlessly beautiful.

The photo of the column above is from the Temple of Love, found in the Rose Garden. Looking a little worse for wear, but all the better. Gives it some character, some authenticity (the statues are all actually 17th and 18th century). The Temple of Love statue itself, on the other hand, could definitely use some renovation. The poor thing is chipped all over the place.

The statue at right is from the Camellia Garden. The way the sunlight falls over their faces is perfect. The limestone (is it really limestone?) looks so pure and white. Oh, love is blind indeed. I really adore it.