Blogger Brunch (or My Adventure at Bottega Louie)

This past Sunday, I had a brunch with a bunch of fellow bloggers. This was the same group of ladies who did the Blognic and the cookie exchange.

This time, we met at Bottega Louie in downtown LA. I had never been there before, but from the reviews I read online and got from my friends, I was excited.

My original plan was to take the lightrail there. The last lightrail stop is a few blocks from my house and it ends a few blocks from the restaurant. But I was still feeling a bit sore from the 5K and didn’t want to risk getting lost and having to walk around a lot.

I managed to find free parking a block away (yay for not having to pay for meters on Sundays!), and went inside to meet the girls.

As I was checking out the menu, I was trying to find something that wouldn’t be too unhealthy to eat, so I went with the mushroom and pancetta scramble.

 

While we waited for our food, I was checking out the restaurant. It’s really nice and open, and even though it was crowded, it didn’t feel packed.

 

One of the girls ordered beignets for the table. I tried a half of one, and it was really good!

 

Finally my food came, and it was good, but nothing special.

 

About half of our table ordered Eggs Benedict and loved them, so maybe I’ll try that next time.

I loved that I got to enjoy some good food and good company. And two of the other bloggers were also at the Color Run so we exchanged stories and advice on how to get clean.

Besides having a fun brunch, the point of this gathering was to plan out some fun workshops and classes that we could do as a group over the next year. We all want to advance our blogs to be the best that they can be (I have a way to go to catch up to their blogs), and we came up with some really fun ideas for 2013. If you blog in LA and want to join us, let me know.

It’s a Blognic! (or My First Blogger Event)

Yesterday, I was invited to a Blognic (or blogger picnic). The invite came from the fabulous Lynn of The Actor’s Diet, who I finally got to meet in real life.

The girls who organized the event  (Kelly, Amanda, and Sarah) were super crafty and the picnic area was super cute.

 

 

It was a potluck so I brought my mom’s super rich gluten-free brownies (I’ll share the recipe in tomorrow’s post). I made both double chocolate and peanut butter chocolate brownies. But, since I’m still waiting to have my permanent crown put on, I didn’t get to eat anything. But all the girls loved the brownies, so I’m happy.

We enjoyed the shade at Griffith Park and chatting about life and blogging.

 

And there was a girl there who was also named Jennie (which if you didn’t know, that’s my full legal first name), so she and I talked about how frustrating it is for people to think our names are Jennifer or Jenny. And how much trouble we have with government things that want our full legal names and don’t believe that it’s Jennie (even when it’s on our drivers license).

All in all, it was an awesome event and I feel so grateful to have been invited. I was definitely the newbie blogger there, and it was great to hear the advice that the other ladies had for me.

I was only able to stay for about 2 hours since it was my day off of work and I had lots of laundry and cleaning to do. I’m getting my house ready for this weekend when my dad flies down to stay with me so we can go to a concert at my work together.

I’ve got a busy busy week coming up, but I’m so excited about everything! Even going back to the dentist tomorrow to finally finish up my dental work!