Los Angeles to London. With love (and extra baggage...)

So here I am at LAX, awaiting my flight.

I'm too excited to make London my base again. I fell in love with the city last summer, and I'm sure that feeling will continue this year. It's about time I began to root myself, stop always flying away and have a base (for a time). I'm sure the fact that I know I'm coming home to warmer weather then I left is prompting this thought, but hell, I feel like being more settled. And what can settle one more then the pitter-patter of tiny feet? No, not a baby I hear you gasp...but a sausage dog? Ive wanted one for far too long now. Maybe the time is finally right? I'm sick of pretending to walk 'Frankie' down the street when no-ones around, maybe I just need to man up and walk a REAL one. Although 'Frankie' is very good with commands!

But that's a by-thought, really whats occupying my mind is two things. Number one; quite how expensive and inaccessible is froyo going to be back in the UK, and number two; quite how much money do I need to open my own froyo palace in East London?

I've got far too much stuff. I'm currently wearing five layers underneath a fur coat, and I've got Reece's Buttercups tucked into my shoes. The metal detector is going to have a whale of a time when I go through, and the Reece's are already starting to melt from the heat radiating off my highly layered body. This is going to be one very messy arrival at London Heathrow. I do this every time and never learn. Next time I'm going to need a man to help with this, or at least have enough left on my credit card to buy extra baggage allowance. I'm now starting to panic that I gave my boyfriend the right flight arrival details, as if not I'll be paying people in squashed Reece's Buttercups to help me lug it all onto the tube. Oh who am I kidding, I'll have eaten them all on the flight.

I give my tan three weeks until I'm back to applying to several layers of Garnier sun-shimmer. And I've given my social life two weeks where I can loftily say 'Oh this tan? It's just from living in Los Angeles the last three months dah-ling'. And then it will be over. And people will be coming back from Ibiza more bronzed, and I'll be fuming as I spent all my would-be Ibiza funds on drinking Slurpee's out here.

But I've had the best time, met some amazing people (although not Ryan Gosling), and happily ticked off one of my life's ambitions. I couldn't be prouder of myself for just doing it, and couldn't stress more the belief that if there's something you want to do, well you should just do it (as long as its like socially acceptable ya know). 

Oh and Dad, I'm onto Tattoo no.7. I'm sorry, but it had to be done. I now bear an angel wing behind my right ear as a dedication to my time in the City of Angels. I hope it looks good, as I can't see behind my ear, and I went to the tattoo shop on my own. Hold up - he's blatantly inked a penis behind my ear hasn't he?! I knew I shouldn't have made that joke about his beard...

Los Angeles you've been the best, but London, your going to be even better.

Emily x

March Madness

My time here has flown by, and this time next week my feet will be firmly on the ground back in London. Well not firmly, as lets face it, they never are, and even less so when I have been drinking (Bambi on ice springs to mind)...something which I hope I will be doing a lot of when I return. Not from drowning my sorrows, but from catching up with ALL my friends (*cough*cough* everyone I'm coming home!).

This last month has gone even quicker then normal, probably as it's just been one big holiday. The clean-living and daily swimming routine I had going on went straight out the window the minute I left Mama Linda's (corn-chowder recipe in hand of course), moved to Santa Monica, and picked up my boyfriend from the airport. The lack of gym, pool, and eating burgers for ten days straight will kinda do that to you. Not to mention an impromptu trip to Las Vegas and copious amounts of Bacardi 151 (the devil in drink form *shudder*).

After waving goodbye to my love (with the promise that it's salads all the way for us back in London) I was re-united with my sister and a good friend, and a day later I can honestly say I don't think The Getty Art Gallery has ever seen three quite so hungover souls. A highlight of their time here was our visit to Disneyland as the 'Three Mouseketeers'. At the age of 26 I dressed as a giant Minnie Mouse for the day, and yes, I loved it. The greatest acheivement of the week however, had to be when we got enough stamps on our froyo loyalty card to receive a free 8oz of frozen yogurt. It was a proud moment for all involved.

I've been lucky enough to be with people the last month who have been brave enough to drive on the right hand-side of the road. And the only slightly hairy moment of the whole time has to be when my friend straddled three lanes of traffic oncoming at 70mph and casually asked 'Is this legal ?'. Needless to say there was a small amount of hyperventilating coming from myself on the backseat.

March has brought along two more new snack obsessions. First, Recces Peanut Buttercups. For some bizarre reason I've always believed I disliked them, without even trying them. However, try them I did, and it was as though my mouth had just bitten into a small part of heaven and all its creamy, nutty glory. Since then I have been eating at least one Reece's a day, with the justification that I cannot get these back home. When my friend pointed out I could indeed buy them back in the UK, I shushed her and proceeded to buy a pack of four. The other new fad in my life is 7/11's Slurpee. It's like I've reverted back into a second childhood where instead of being allowed to drink one a year, I can drink a x-large 44oz one a day. And I do. The only reported side effect so far is a blue tongue.

My suitcase is already straining from all my thrift shop purchases out here, so I was highly relieved (if not embarrassed) when my sister rather incredulously informed me that ranch dressing is available in England, so there is no need for me to bulk buy out here. 'How have you never tried it?? You wrote a whole blog about it, and they sell it in Subway Emily.' Ok, so I've never been a sandwich kinda-gal, but now I know that's where the ranch is at... Subway, hello.

Since I've been out here I've found myself really influenced by the creativity, and the get-up-and-go attitude of the Los Angele's people. The American Dream is truly alive and kicking, and if someone wants to achieve something, well, hell they go out and do it. Us Brits are notorious for talking down dreams we have and putting aside projects we would love to do. When I get back home I have several exciting work projects in the pipeline, but a sideline venture which I am really excited to get started on is my own clothing brand. I've been really inspired by all the self-made brands out here, and look forward to putting my own stamp on things.

My final two days are going to be spent chomping Reece's, shooting one last fashion shoot, and stuffing as much froyo as possible without suffering from brain-freeze. Oh, and of course looking out for the elusive Mr Gosling.

LAX I'll see you soon, Ryan hopefully sooner...

Emily x

Froyo, Flu and Freckles...February in the sun.

Ruben Domingo

K.O.N.G

Ruben Domingo

Venice Canals at sunset

Ruben Domingo

Lizzeth Noreiga

So it's official. I love L.A, and I love frozen yogurt. I'm twelve days straight at the moment and bar the brain-freeze, maaan it feels good. Or rather I should say, tastes good. And I should know. I've fully sampled my local Yogurtland's WHOLE range, and when a new flavor of the month came out at the weekend (red velvet cupcake in-case your interested) even I was embarrassed at how excited I got.

So I figure as an avid lover of frozen yogurt who could be a better brand ambassador then moi? Ok, so the one time I tried this with Pepsi they didn't quite fall for it, but I was pitting myself against the likes of Britney Spears and Beyonce. Yogurtland's mascot is like a cow or something, so I figure our appeals on a similar par.

Yogurtland I hope your hearing this. I would write to them to tell them this, but hey who uses letters in this day and age. Instead I plan to work my way in through instagram... by posting heavily filtered froyo's and hash-tagging the hell out of them. I think this is the best option; my boyfriend back in the UK is pretty sick of waking up each morning to a different whats-app picture of a frozen yogurt, so I need to expand my audience.

Apart from building up my collection of Yogurtland's takeaway spoons, since my last blog post I have been lucky enough to shoot a lot of fashion with some great photographers and companies. (And Father since your last email, I apologize in advance for the smoking in the above images). One of my favorite shoots was on Venice Beach, and shot entirely on old film cameras. The fun really is in waiting to get the images back, completely unsure of how they are going to turn out. And all the films imperfections only add to its charm. (for the ease of distinguishing the film from digital I have placed them at the end of this post!)

And when I haven't been shooting Ive been flu-ing. If that is such a word. My mouse-like immune system has not taken well to being in and out of the cold Californian sea, and my glands decided to swell up sumo-wrestler style. Now I'll admit I'm a hypochondriac at the best of times, so I self-diagnosed glandular fever and started crying about having to book flights home.

I didn't book flights home however, as I found out my boyfriend had booked us tickets to Disneyland as my Valentines day present, and I'll be dammed if I don't live out my dream in March and go round for the day dressed as Minnie Mouse. So I ate an entire pack of jelly vitamin C tablets. Didn't help, but hey, they tasted like fruit pastels. Cue Mama Linda and her 'super chicken corn chowder soup'. It may have looked like the dogs dinner, but it worked. Like a dream. And coincidentally it also tasted like a dream. Creamy, chickeny and potatoey it is yet another thing to add to my growing list of favorite American foods.

The weather is still delightfully sunny, and I have grown freckles. It's only taken twenty-six years. If I could have told this to my thirteen year old self who used to try to recreate them with brown felt-tip, then I feel my teenage years may have been less angsty, and would have looked less like I had some weird large blackheads on my nose every weekend. My twenty-six year old self however has suddenly realized its only going to age me, and little too late has bought an anti-wrinkle cream and decided to start applying suncream.

I look forward to the month of March as I have some really special people coming out to see me. One of those is my baby sister who I have not seen for over a year due to her living in Australia. Like me she has wanderlust, a taste for the sun, and also like me she has written into The Ellen Show to play on our 'reunion' story. (Ellen give us tickets - and possibly a car too?!) Whilst my loved ones are out here I plan on playing the tourist and adding to my tattoo collection with some new ink.

I'm leaving Mama Linda and the beautiful Marina Del Rey to move to an apartment in Santa Monica for the next month. I'll miss Mama Linda's home cooking, but shes promised to send me on my way with a full compilation of the best Motown and her corn chicken chowder recipe.

February may be drawing to a close, but my Yogurtland campaign is only starting... cows beware.

Emily x

Above images shot on CONTAX 645 - 80mm Lens - BW - ACROS 100 Film by Gabe Sachs

Above shot on CONTAX 645 - 80mm Lens -COLOR - PORTRA 160 by Gabe Sachs

Above images shot on LEICA M6 - 50mm Summicron - BW - ACROS 100 Film by Gabe Sachs