PTP.

I am so excited to share the news that Victor and I have started our very own stationery and crafted goods shop! Victor came up with the name Palm Tree Punk, and it goes very well with what inspired us. Our shop is inspired by the city that we live in: Los Angeles. We are inspired by the city skyline, the color of the sunrise/sunset, and the sense of freedom to be who you want to be in the city of dreams. We will be posting more products soon! 

Check out our shop at:

www.etsy.com/shop/PalmTreePunk

Keep in touch with us:

Instagram - @palmtreepunk

Twitter - @palmtreepunk

Tumblr - palmtreepunk.tumblr.com

DIVA.

Our friend Tiffany (and ex coworker) came down from San Francisco, her new home, to visit us and have a photoshoot. She wanted some fun shots for her new blog that  she is about to launch; DOITALLDIVA.COM. I love the idea of her blog, she has some serious writing skills AND the whole feel of the blog is SO HER. DOITALLDIVA is inspiring for not only women but men as well; after all, all we want is EVERYTHING right ?!

The gloomy weather worked in our favor and Victor got some great shots. I shot some behind the scenes photos and even those look amazing! 

Check them out below:

P R O P S 

MAKE SURE TO GIVE HER BLOG A VISIT!

LOCAL TOURISTS.

This past Sunday Victor and I finally used the Hollywood Museum tickets he had gifted a couple months back! He could not have given me a BETTER gift! I had a blast, it was amazing just to be in a building like the original "Max Factor Studios" with so much history. The museum is HUGE. I was not expecting all that they have to showcase. The museum's third floor changes 3 times a year, so there's always something new to see! I especially loved the different rooms they had for each hair colored movie star; the "Blondes Only", "Red Heads Only" and "Brunettes Only" rooms. The "Blondes Only" room I'm sure is the most popular. They have several Marilyn Monroe items to display, anything from her personal gowns to high heels to the death report AND her original prescription of Decadron found at the time of her death. There is just way too many things to even try to sum up the museum! I want to go back there again asap! I was so happy just looking at all the vintage fashion, handbags, personal letters, and photographs of the golden era, the true Hollywood. It's nice to see just how glamorous Hollywood really was back then and how much the art of acting has changed. Victor kept saying how he wished he lived in that era, and so do I. *sigh* 

"BLONDES ONLY ROOM" 

"RED HEADS ONLY ROOM"

 "BRUNETTES ONLY ROOM"

I was able to get some great shots of Victor in and out of the museum. He should be posting a blog about soon, I even made a short behind the scenes video of me shooting an outfit look for his blog. Check it out below and make sure to check back to his blog VICTOR-GO.COM to see which photos made the cut!

 I encourage everyone to take the time and visit the "Hollywood Museum" to learn more about 'Hollywood Royalty'.

www.thehollywoodmuseum.com

DOS.

This past Wednesday Victor and I reached our 2 years anniversary! That is so crazy. I can still remember meeting him back in October of 2010, having lunch at Johnny Rockets in Melrose, and slowly learning much more about each other. I thought about what to get him since the start of the year, and finally decided to gift him a watch. He has 2 watches that he uses, and the gold one that he's had for a while is in a not so good condition. I remembered him talking to me about wanting a GUESS watch, so naturally I was going to get him a watch from GUESS.

 The watch I bought him.

I always try and give gifts with a personal touch, either a card I personally made or a note I wrote, but for this I decided to make my own wrapping paper. I used an old shopping bag, and summed up our 2 years by way of doodles!  Take a look at it below:

We decided to open the gifts at midnight, and I was so excited to give him my gift. I will admit though, in typical Jose fashion, I knocked out by 10pm and once Victor woke me up at 12:00 am I was dazed and too tired to even grab my gift! I took a nap and minutes later I had the energy to get up and exchange gifts! I'm such a grandpa, and felt terrible for being a sleepy mess! Anyway, Victor loved my wrapping paper, and loved the watch even more! Here he is looking at my doodles, and finally trying on the watch:

When it came time for me to open my gift he directed me towards our green table. I had no idea what was waiting for me. I walked towards the table and was so happy to see a blue fishy! I have been bugging Victor telling him how much I wanted a fish and he got me one! All my life I've had pets, since I was a child, I had dogs, cats, birds, turtles, baby chicks, so naturally I wanted something small for our apartment. I wanted something to look after, something to take care of. 

I kept thinking of names, I thought of naming him Rupert, or Hershull, but ended up with something small: Fishy. This honestly was the best gift, I love my new pet, and can't wait for many more anniversaries to come! (now to plan next years gift/idea...)

I'm off to prepare dinner for the boy I love. 

LITTLE SPONTANEOUS DATE.

Friday was a fun spontaneous day for Victor and I. We both were off work by 4pm (that is rare) so we decided to make the best of it! We started off by going to eat at our fave place with the best salad bar, Sizzler, and later drove down to Little Tokyo.

 

 

The view from my car.

 

Once we arrived to Little Tokyo the first thing we did was go to this HUGE Japanese book store, I wouldn't compare it to Barnes and Noble because it's 10X better. There's Japanese magazines, even VOGUE Homme Japan, cute postcards, stickers, notebooks, and Victors favorite: stationary/crafting books. He was like a kid in a candy store, amazed at all the stationary crafting books they had, it was so fun to see his reaction.We spent a long time in that store and would have spent some more if they hadn't closed so early.

 

A super cute card that Victor and I loved, wish I was able to gift that to someone. 

Little Tokyo.

Inside a market, felt like I was out of the country.

 

 Victor admiring some street art.

This Friday was a great one. From the minute I picked up Victor from work I felt excited, I felt nervous and like it was one of the first dates we were going on. It almost felt like we had just started going out and I loved it. I explained this a bit to him but couldn't find the perfect words so I'm hoping this helps him understand how I felt. I think what made this day so great was that it wasn't planned. I always plan ahead and live my life cautiously, constantly thinking about what my next move will be so deciding to just head to Little Tokyo out of the blue made me feel relieved. I love that we just decided to go down to Little Tokyo last minute and ended up having a great time. We even stumbled upon some public karaoke and I had the courage to want to sing a duet with Victor but unfortunately the Karaoke DJ had just round up his last 3 singers. We said we would come again soon. I've been thinking about last night all day, and hope to have many more little spontaneous dates. We walked through Little Tokyo holding hands, talking and even though it was a cold night everything felt perfect. I can't wait for Wednesday to come around because we will be reaching our 2 YEARS TOGETHER. Of course I will make a blog post about it! Now I have to finish something up for that day ;) but here's a song that I am currently obsessing over:

 

Taylor Swift - "Begin Again"

EVENTFUL FRIDAY.

This Friday I spent almost all day with Victor, it was a day to celebrate our 22 months together! I try to celebrate every month by either having a dinner date, giving him a sweet small gift, or both. This month I gave him a candy apple from Disneyland that he absolutely loves, and a dozen red roses. I never give to receive, but Victor always gives me something in return. The best gifts I think are those hand made, and he made me this super cute card which read "I'm Tied Down To You".  One thing (of many) that I love about Victor is that he is VERY creative, to me everything he does is a masterpiece because he puts so much thought into any project and he invests himself 100% with any project so I know whatever he gives me has a lot of meaning behind it.

how adorable is this?!

I was looking forward to this day so much because I have completely decided to take the next big step and move in with him! I now more than ever feel like this next step is much needed, and I am ready to wake up next to him and come home to him after a long day at work. I'm excited to get our own space and decorate it and eat dinner together every night. Just typing this gets me so happy!! After exchanging gifts we took off apartment hunting. We found some cute apartments BUT fell in love with one in the heart of downtown. Just the street it was on was so beautiful, full of vibrant colors, and Spanish culture. Unfortunately the apartment did not have any studios available and only had a single apartment open, meaning for one person only.  I was bummed. The outside of the apartment building can be seen below:

Victor admiring the apartment.

too good to be true.

 After hearing the bad news we decided to take a walk around the area since we loved it, and hoped to find other cute apartments within walking distance of this one. We did find a few cute ones but not as cute as this one. I was so sad, but have to learn to be patient. This is my first time apartment hunting, and I learned that it isn't an easy task. As Victor said, "looking for an apartment is a full time job.", and I completely agree with that saying.  We might not have found the right apartment for us but I'm sure we will soon. I'm hoping to find one before December because I LOVE decorating for the holidays!

Victor photographing some street art  • below: a quick snack stop.

We continued our adventure by taking a trip to the mall, and then followed that by having dinner at Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ in Cerritos CA.

LOVE the hot and spicy bbq sauce! Nom nom nom!

For starters we ordered hot wings; a classic choice for us two.

biscuits|wings|strawberry lemonade|coke

Probably should have ordered something like Victor's plate, I wasn't able to finish all my plate! MEAT OVERLOAD!

Tired, and super full from all that food, we headed back home to relax, and watch some television.  I had a great time, and only wish I could have spent the night with him.

holding his hand while he sleeps and I drive.

  Ti'll next time...

UNVEIL.

In just 30 minutes I will finally surprise my boyfriend by sending him this blog's URL. I'm excited to see what he thinks of the idea. I've been working on this blog all week, and even though I am not fully satisfied with it, I'm proud of what I've accomplished these past few days. This blogging world is new to me, and I had trouble even getting around the blogger homepage and the layouts, but for now I am happy with it.  I hope to learn more about blogging from him, and how to make my blog look much more "cute" as I envision it in my head. I do wish to keep the crisp, clean, and simple look that I have going on right now, but that all can change with time. Here's to 22 months with the boy I love, and to many more blog posts to come.

| find us in every photobooth |