Between Christmas and New Year’s we took a quick family trip down to LA. Mostly for fun and for a change of scenery (since we weren’t planning to fly home to Hawaii or anywhere else for that matter). We also decided to take Emi to Disneyland (well California Adventures) to see Cars Land since she’s a huge fan of the Pixar movies Cars. Overall it was a wonderful trip despite the constant rain, though in California we need all the rain we can get. We stayed in a small bungalow just blocks from Abbot Kinney in Venice, and we loved that it was someone’s home and not just their vacation rental. As a bonus it came with a kids room stocked with toys for Emi to play with.

At Abbot Kinney I checked out Everlane, Cuyana, Birdies, and a bunch of stores that are mostly DTC and came home with a pair of Birdies (yes they are quite comfortable and yes, I’ll review them in the future). Oh and I had a chance to check out the nadaam cashmere store and I would say the quality of their $75 sweater is on par with “vintage” Grana cashmere, which I feel is a touch thicker than Everlane’s $100 cashmere (which is now actually $120). But I think Quince’s Luxe Baby Cashmere (actually $100) is thicker and softer than both Everlane and nadaam (though Quince doesn’t have a variety of colors). And if you’re wondering what makes me a cashmere expert, I’m not. But I did write this cashmere comparison post and have tried a lot of cashmere sweaters during my blogging years. And going back to nadaam, of course their more expensive sweaters were much thicker and felt really nice. I particularly liked this boyfriend cardigan and maybe would have bought it if I were in the market for another sweater (but I was not so I refrained).

Overall I had a great time and I’m glad we went even though I was a tad anxious about the high omicron numbers in LA. I was also quite taken aback with the number of people who don’t mask in the towns in between SF and LA. I was the most anxious in the bathrooms where people were unmasked and here I was double masked lol 😂. Oh well I can only do what I can do to protect myself and my family.

Anyways hope you guys all had a safe and festive new year celebration as well a good first week of 2022! Oh and I’m doing a No Buy January (here are my tips for a No-Buy challenge month) as well as a dry January. It seems like a lot to try to do but I hope doing both leads to a change in habits for the coming year!