For those who have been with BussBuss for awhile, you likely already know that The Hubs and I have been homeless, or rather, “home-free,” since the end of summer. For those of you who are new (welcome – won’t you come in?), we packed our lives into a 10×20 storage unit north of San Francisco at the end of August and have been traveling the world since. We’ve roamed through olive groves in Greece, soaked up sun and style in Spain, procured pain au chocolat in Paris, gone into near diabetic shock while roaming (and nibbling on – okay, gorging on) the streets of Rome, ice skated in Central Park, swooned over Savannah, gotten scared into never having children at Disney World, driven across the U.S. twice, gone mad for Marfa and, the biggest surprise of all, have fallen in love with the desert. Head over teetering Loubies, mad for the desert.

In fact, at a time originally planned for exploring lands south of the equator, we slowly got lured in by the desert’s charms and have ended up in the mid-century mod mecca that is Palm Springs. Now we find ourselves hunting for our own little slice of the real estate pie, looking for a fixer-upper we can sink our hungry hands into. Something that needs a little TLC. Somewhere we can put our design interests (and dare I say skills — or at least years of House Hunters watching and design blog reading ) to use. Not to live in per se, but to rent out as a vacation rental — and then enjoy when we want to, as well. A huge part of the appeal? You can actually find homes with pools and palm trees and pools and, oh, did I mention pools, for less than the price of a parking space in New York or San Francisco. And did I mention it’s 80 degrees and sunny in February (sweltering flipside: it’s 120 in August)? In fact, I successfully burned one leg while laying under an umbrella today in cutoff shorts (it’s a good thing I have an odd sense of humor; otherwise I’d insist on wearing pants until that little situation amended itself).

For those of you interested in coming along on the adventure (and detours), we’ll be posting updates and inspirations in our new Behind the Buss section. Beyond travel, we’ll be sharing style snippets and snapshots, our obsessions and purchases, things we can’t live without and things on our wishlists, things that make us smile and laugh. For those of you who solely want your fix of fashion, style and fabulous shopping (and who can blame you?), simply keep enjoying The DailyBuss and Blog as is. We look forward to show and tell!

xx,

Kelly

p.s. For those of you in the snow, doesn’t a cold-weather picnic sound so romantic and lovely? This insanely clever DIY picnic pack will get you ready for memory-making — and hot chocolating.

[Photos via our temporary home away from homelessness HomeAway and Design*Sponge]

Behind the Buss Fun, Travel

Say you could take a year off and go anywhere in the world and do anything you wanted. Where would you go? What would you do? After five months of doing just that (very happily and gratefully, lucky, lucky, lucky), The Hubs and I have been a little stuck for ideas (tiny violin). It’s like having writer’s block, but instead it’s traveler’s block. An utter lack of imagination combined with way too many choices, perhaps. So, I was thrilled to stumble upon this post on my fave blog, A Cup of Jo, about travel fantasies. The pedal-powered rollercoaster has me inspired to book tix ASAP to Japan, and the Giraffe Manor, well, there are no words.

So tell me, where would you go? What would you do? The world is your oyster…

The Blog Travel

I love environments I can’t quite process. Where it’s so quirky my brain can’t wrap its head around it all. That is the 29 Palms Inn. Just outside of Joshua Tree National Park, it makes the perfect home-base when you feel like exploring what has become my favorite national park (more on that later). 29 Palms, California is home to the largest Marine base in the country and every Marine does a month of desert training here before going off to Iraq. The desert, not unpredictably, attracts more than its fair share of artists, hippies and those looking for fun in the sun and nature, so the mix is quite eclectic.

The adobes and bungalows aren’t luxury (though more than a handful of celebrities have holed up here over the years since its opening in 1928), but it’s so appealing that we’ve made it home for three days, which is like a month in lizard years (okay, I made that up). Oh, and the restaurant is good too. Thank goodness, because outside of a McDonald’s and a Domino’s pizza, it’s the only option — did I mention 29 Palms is in the middle of nowhere (literally an oasis in the Mojave desert)? That’s the real luxury.

The Blog style on the road, Travel

The Road Not Taken is never more appropriate, tempting or interesting than when on a road trip. This is a lesson we’ve learned in full this time around. While most of us usually plan a trip around destinations we’ve heard of (Austin! LA!) and choose roads that will get us to them the fastest (hello, I-10), I could not recommend doing the opposite more. It’s the space between the destinations that’s the most fascinating.

Over the past few months, we’ve journeyed to Paris, the countryside of Spain, under-the-radar islands in Greece, the streets of Rome and beyond, and the absolute favorite part of the entire adventure so far? This current U.S. road trip across the southwest.

And we loved many of the aforementioned places (loved!), so that’s saying a lot. The surprises you don’t expect along the way are what make it so fun and memorable.

While it can seem challenging to find accommodations beyond a Best Western along the way, it can be done. Thank you to my iPhone, Google, TripAdvisor and way too many years of Internet research for enabling me to find them (oh yeah, and to you too Al Gore for inventing the Internet).

One place not to miss when you find yourself in Gila, New Mexico? Where? Exactly. The Casitas de Gila.

Five casitas on the edge of the Gila National Forest, four miles down a dirt road, on top of a hill, oh-so close to the stars (like stars I’ve never seen in my entire life).

Your own little casita comes with a darling kiva fireplace, an outdoor chimnea and picnic table and a shared hot tub between the casitas that, if you’re like us, you’ll have all to yourselves because you’re the only ones crazy enough to use it at night during 20-degree weather. The stargazing – and subsequent frozen toes — are worth it.

Sunset magazine named Casitas de Gila one of the top 10 romantic cottages (for Valentine’s Day getaways) and they were right. I only wish we could have stayed longer. Hope you take the time to enjoy the space between, my dears.

I’ll leave you with a little Robert Frost (so perfect for kicking off the New Year, don’t you think?) and a question…

The Road Not Taken

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Have you ever chosen the road not taken? Was it worth it?

{photos by BussBuss}

The Blog Travel

Last summer, I fell in serious like when we stumbled upon Marfa, Texas on a road trip from San Francisco to San Antonio. With a population of about 2000, the surprises and contradictions were what made it so enticing: a Prada “shop” (re: art installation) just outside of town where only ranches exist, Maiya’s – a restaurant that seems like it was plucked straight out of New York (and makes the best Mexican martinis I’ve ever had the pleasure of imbibing), art galleries that would be at home in Brooklyn, the Food Shark, an Airstream trailer known for serving up Marfalafel at lunchtime to hungry hipsters and ranchers. It’s so hard to believe it all exists virtually in the middle of nowhere.

Fantasizing about what it might be like to live here, The Hubs found this modern prefab house, emphasis on fab. Built by ma, an Austin-based design firm, I love the concept of modern design at an affordable price.

I’d love to live in a space like this. How about you?

The Blog Home, Travel

While I’ve suspected it before, it’s becoming more and more official as The Hubs and I make our way across the country, through the southwestern and western landscape: I am in love with the desert. The toasty weather, the indoor/outdoor living, the cocktail culture and, most of all, the architecture. I dream of having a mid-century manse someday, like the fab one in Mad Men Season 2 when Don ditches the East Coast for the West. The style? It’s called Desert Modernism (info here and here) and Palm Springs has the largest concentration of Desert Modern abodes.

We’ll be swinging through Palm Springs soon enough and I’m excited to go on one of the architecture tours, or just cruise around on our own. Even better, I’m hoping to make one of these mid-century masterpieces by Neutra, Wexler, etc. my home for a few days and will be looking on my latest obsession, HomeAway, to make this fantasy a reality. You must check it out if you’re planning a trip anywhere (especially a family or group trip, as it’s normally cheaper and so much better than a hotel), or simply need daydreaming inspiration (you can search fabulous homes around the world). 

If that doesn’t work out, Kelly Wearstler’s gorgeous hotel, the Viceroy Palm Springs, is my backup. Wowlala. 

What’s your dream house fantasy?

The Blog Home, Kelly Wearstler, Travel

Ever since I was little, I’ve wanted to go to Africa. Or, more specifically, on an African safari. Probably because that’s where my older sister wanted to go, forever reading those gorgeous yellow National Geographic magazines with the lions and zebras and half-naked people on the covers (oh my!), and I pretty much just always wanted to do whatever it was she was doing.

As The Hubs and I are trying to plot our next adventure, I’m pondering if the time is now to finally make the dream of an African safari a reality.

Have you been? Do you dream of going, too? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I dream of Africa…where do you dream of going?

p.s. I also dream of having my hair washed like this (daily) – le sigh.

photo: Out of Africa

The Blog Travel

After flying from San Francisco to Amsterdam to Norway to Amsterdam to Chicago, BussBuss is le pooh-ped. Jetlagged. Or, shall we say, jethagged.
And while we could go on about beauty solutions to make us look perkier, we’d rather just sleep.
All.
Day.
Long.
How to block out that gorgeous Chicago summer sun?
With a firecracker of an eye mask by Hambone and Jennicakes, of course.
We’re sad we missed them at last weekend’s Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco, but thank the Internet gods and sfgirlbybay for leading us to them.
Take a peek!

haute sponsors:

Fashion, The DailyBuss $25 + under, Accessories, Beauty, Gifts for Her, Indie, Travel

Maybe it’s his birthday. Or your anniversary.
Or maybe you just want to say ‘Happy Friday. I love you.’
May we suggest getting your favorite travel partner a pair of handmade, custom antique map cufflinks by designer Anne Holman?
Commemorate your honeymoon, your hometown, where your little ones were born, or where you fell in love.
Choose almost any city around the world and he’ll always have a special memory with him.
While you’re at it, snag a custom map pendant for yourself.
That way, no mattter where in the world he is and you are, you’ll always be in sync.
Available at Anne Holman’s Etsy shop and our fave design and gift shop, Rare Device.

haute sponsors:

Fashion, The DailyBuss $100-$200, $25-$50, $50-$100, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Indie, Jewelry, Travel

Got a grad in your life that you want to gift, gorgeous?
Hook her up with a playfully chic Lauren Merkin business card case or laptop sleeve.
Since it’s important to dress the part of the job you want and not necessarily the job you have, you’ll be setting her up for success — or, at the very least, making her the envy of all of her friends.
Which, let’s face it, is sometimes just as rewarding.
Take a peek!

haute sponsors:

Fashion, The DailyBuss $100-$200, $200+, $25-$50, Accessories, Bags, Gifts for Her, Indie, Travel