A Wonder-Full Day

The day started with a beautiful drive to downtown LA in which the skys were clear and the mountains could be seen showing gleaming with a white brilliance of fresh snow unobstructed by the usual Los Angeles smog.
The first stop on my check list was A&A Jewelery Supply to gather some displays for the EA v-tines day gift fair on Thursday. They have the best prices on packaging and other great items for a variety of jewelry making and levels of jewelry making.
A&A Jewelry Supply is located at:
319 w. 6th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90014

After finishing up there it was time to hit up the bead supply stores! Which are located off of 8th and Maple where I usually shell out the $6 to park in a lot and walk the area as the stores are in close proximity and I tend to spend over an hour in the area. The first of these I hit up on my usual supply gathering circuit is Berger Specialty Co. Inc. aka Berger Beads I check out this store for various findings and other fun vintage items that the others don't have.
Berger Specialty Co. Inc. is located at:
413 E. 8th St.
Los Angeles, CA 90014

Next I walked to Bohemian Crystal which has the best prices on Swarovski Crystals! Also another utopia of various findings as well.
Bohemian Crystal is located at:
812 S. Maple Street
Los Angeles, CA 90014

My final stop on the supply gathering circuit was Athenian Fashions Store which they have two down town but only one is their official supply store and it's on Maple just a few store fronts up from Bohemian. This store has a highly organized and vast chain selection this is where I get most of my chains from but I don't suggest getting much else as their prices are a bit on the high side but sometimes you can find those awesome deals by stalking the rows of items for a bit.
Unfortunately I don't have the address to their supply store but walk in to their jewelry store which is right across from Berger and ask them for the location of their second store, or just walk up Maple and they are just past the lingerie store.

After pilfering those shops back into my trusty steed of metal Jeepness of Fury, and I was off for some tasty vegan goodness that goes by the name of Doomies Home Cookin' however to my horror and dismay this portion of the quest was thwarted! Doomies has closed until a better location can be found which is a good thing as it was in Chinatown and didn't offer Chinese food, a bit misleading for an area that is reserved for cheap yummy asian eats loaded with sodium, MSG, and all sorts of meat. It is also a land weird herbal shops, counterfeit and (sometimes illegal)wonders! Doomies just didn't quite fit in to the mystique of Chinatown. However the man is doing catering and I highly suggest the vegan goodness in the form of tacos or fried junk food goodness that only he can make! For further updates on Doomies or info on how to get him to cater your event go to his myspace page http://www.myspace.com/doomieshomecookin

Since that was a phail I defaulted to Little Tokyo Sushi, which by 2pm most of the sushi places were closed for the afternoon so the hunt was on for the open sushi restaurant! I landed in Tenno Sushi which closed at 3pm and had 1/2 off sushi (saving money with my expensive tastes is a good thing) so I ordered a veggie roll, inari, and an eel roll. All was good and 1/2 off is a splendid thing!
Tenno Sushi is located at:
207 S. Central Ave / off of 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Alright so after a quick lunch I was running late to my next stop of the quest! Which was to pick up something most wonderful! A custom made crib bumper set for the head and foot of the crib, that I have been waiting to get and it has not happened yet >=[ I'm in nesting mode I need it already!
Anyways so this miraculously splendid item was created by the amazingly adorable genius of etsy seller HiTree! I have been dreaming of the day I could buy one of her items from seeing them pop up on the Etsy front page. This urge came even more apparent when I found out she's a local artist when I spied her booth at the Unique LA even that two friends of mine were sharing a booth at (they are awesome and I'm a flake for not blogging on them but I will get to that this month or next month)
So needless to say I've been drooling over the cutness that the HiTrees are and I began following her blog and she follows a blog that my best friend Kieutiepie started called Etsy Addicts making this a neat little full circle of Etsy community greatness! One day upon following HiTree's blog a post about her making a crib bumper of the trees really caught my attention and I had to have one for the impending baby! However to my dismay the one that was created was out of my budget so we tossed some ideas about and she was able to create a partial bumper for the head and foot of the crib that could fit my budget! I was sold instantly! So about two weeks later it's finished and illuminates with tree hugging love as we opted to save a tree on shipping and I went to the studio to pick it up! Meeting and chatting a bit with Tina was awesome! This was a huge treat and I would love to get a Los Angeles street team meet up going because of how amazing Etsyians are! Also I will take pics and blog more on the bumper once I get the crib, I may jump the gun though with getting the crib taking such a long time.
However after that fantastic experience the day was not over yet! I deserved (craved) ice cream! Which being in the downtown area hopping on the 101 and going to Scoops is the only option! Fortunately I facebooked this endeavor and was joined by two friends Ernae and Helen! So it was a social event as going to Scoops should be!
The special thing about Scoops is that they have homemade ice cream of unique and delicious flavor. On top of that 4 of them are always non diary! So I can really go to town there. I had three out of the four strawberry cheesecake, banana oreo, and chocolate vanilla.
Scoops is a must try and is located at:
712 N Heliotrope Dr
Los Angeles, CA 90029

After the joyous meeting with friends I had one more stop on the quest! Surfas! This is where one can find all sorts of things like good imported beer, cooking, baking and confectionery supplies and the packaging there of. As well as cooking courses and more fun items. I only needed packaging for the baked goodies I will be bringing to sell at the EA V-tines Gift Fair oh and a large bottle of organic vanilla cause that stuff goes fast.
Surfas is located at:
8777 W Washington Blvd
Culver City, CA 90230

As if my day was not full already with wondrous delights I had one more quest to take on Dinner! So I went to downtown Culver to hit up M Cafe and what fun! There was the Culver City farmers market that goes late into the evening! Which had lots of preped food vendors, fresh produce, and some hand made items. Which with that and dinner at M I was done for the day!
M Cafe is good food and is Macrobiotic meaning no dairy no eggs no meats besides fish! All of their food is good and budget willing I frequent this place quite often.
There are two locations see their website MCafeDeChaya.com for more info.