Eat Sweets Pastry

We took a trip to Eat Sweets Pastry, a humble bakery in Westwood Village (Los Angeles) and fell in love. The shop is run by the talented Megan Driscoll, who really helps to define what "labor of love" really means. What caught our attention was the store's design... Everything was crafted by Megan and her family (even her father flew into Los Angeles to build some of the furniture!). The shop offers beautiful pastries of all sorts, such as shortbread cookies (which are our absolute favorite) with incredible detailing, tarts, Nutella sandwich cookies, and lots of goodies with seasonal fruits that are all made to perfection!

Megan used to dabble in many things - she actually graduated with a degree in journalism, and she worked in television. But she has always had roots in baking and making edible art, being as her father owned a restaurant and she often helped him in the kitchen. Megan, although successful in television, wanted to do something else... So she went to culinary school, learned more about foods and food styling, and opened up her shop years later in Westwood. It's gradually becoming a favorite in many households in the area. Clearly, who can resist the love that's put into each pastry? What truly inspires us, although everything about her does, is that she took a huge leap into what was her 'unknown.' Now, she says the shop is the best thing that's ever happened to her.

We can't help but love the store's wallpaper. Bright, beautiful, and sweet. Not only did she and her family assemble the decor, but they also built so many of the things inside - like this chalkboard which was once a frame and even the furniture. Eat Sweets Pastry essentially looks like an extension of Anthropologie. That's not a bad thing to be.

We cannot stop thinking about these pastries. Everything is as good as they look, we promise. There is something for everyone. Some of our favorites include... the shortbread cookies (try the white chocolate pistachio ones!), nutella sandwich cookies, linzer cookie with raspberry jam, blueberry tart shortbread streussel... Nevermind, we're basically listing everything on their menu. Order everything!

Eat Sweets Pastry also takes custom orders for events and catering too! If you just need catering, you know, for yourself, they're up for that too. Drop by their store, and tell us what you think!

They're located at: 964 Gayley Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90024.

The Day with Emma Kenney

Lucky for us, we got to spend a day at Los Angeles' hotspot Duff's Cake Mix decorating a cake with Emma Kenney (well, she decorated...we ate) who stars in one of our favorite shows - Shameless. We've been fueling our patience until the new season airs, with features like this and our feature with Jake McDorman (who will also be in the new season!). So we sat down with Emma, and talked to her about the show, her adorable cat, and her downtime - when she has spare time that is!

You started on "Shameless" at so young of an age. It's pretty provocative (and hilarious!)...are you allowed to watch it yet? To be honest, it's not really a show I would watch in my spare time, so I have no interest in watching it. I also read the scripts, so I know the story lines. I also sometimes live tweet but really don't watch the scenes that are adult.

Well, you seem to get along with your co-stars so well (we worked with Emmy Rossum for a cover in 2011 and loved her!). What was the vibe like starting on the show, and how is it now? Looks like you have built a whole new family! We're all friendly, and we've all been that way since the beginning of the show's run four years ago!

So you travel for "Shameless" - Los Angeles and Chicago. What's it like going back and forth? Even when you don't live in either cities! Do you miss New Jersey? I love to travel, and filming in different places is honestly so much fun! Chicago is my favorite city, so I love going there. We just got back from our 8th trip, and I'm still in love with the city. It's kinda nice because we stay in this gorgeous hotel and we film in a lower class area, so I like being able to see everything and every kind of situation while working there. I do miss New Jersey! I love the change of the seasons there, and we don't get that much in Los Angeles. But I talk to my friends and family back home every day, so it's still okay.

What kind of movies or shows do you wish to do next, if you could have control over this decision? More comedies, horrors, etc? I'm dying to do an action movie! I think those are so cool and I'd love to do my own stunts! But personally, I consider myself a better dramatic actor, so I'd like to try comedies to get better and making people laugh, although I'd love to do dramas as well of course.

Is there any particular person (or people) you want to work with too? Who's your acting role model? There are a lot of good actors so I don't really have a role model. There really isn't one person I want to work with. Acting usually means you have to work with others and I learn from every experience!

So your family is from the east coast. How much different is home compared to LA? How did you get started in acting? Los Angeles and New Jersey are so different. In California, most people are involved in the business in some way or another, but in New Jersey, not nearly as many people are, so I like that. I like going home and not having to talk about the business all day long, and just doing and talking about normal things for a little bit. I got started in acting when I was four or five and I just started doing improv classes in New York, which I loved. I did them for years and I still do them now! I got a manager from one of the showcases, and here I am now!

Your parents are both working too - it's wonderful to see they help you with your own job as well! What do they think of your busy career? I love being busy! I'm never bored, there's always something to do when you're working and I love that! My parents know that I love what I do, and they're glad I'm having fun doing it. They always say, though, that if it ever stops being fun (which I highly doubt will happen!), that I can stop, so they're super supportive and aren't pushing me to do this at all.

So we had a blast decorating a cake at Duff's Cake Mix! You must love to bake too. What do you enjoy doing on your downtime? So fun! I love to hang out with my friends, and see movies, really anything any teenager does! I also like to write scripts, and I've started writing song lyrics as well, which I like. I'm a huge reader too. I also like to play tennis, and I'm learning the drums and acoustic guitar too.

And you have a cat named Chester (who appears on your Cake Mix cake)! Does he ever travel with you? Yes, I love my cat! I love cats so much haha. He's actually my Los Angeles cat, so he stays at our place in Los Angeles full time and when we're home, we have a cat-sitter who feeds him and stuff.

Overall, you're very grounded and we love that! How are you able to maintain such a straight head and keep life simply happy? I think it helps that I go back home and to real school when I'm not filming. I have a million friends from Jersey who aren't in the business at all, and none of my family are either. I still do normal teen stuff, and I think that helps! I just have a really nice group of people surrounding me, which is so nice.

Photographed by Roneil Chavez Hair and Makeup by Amber Bruehl Styled by Lucia Tran

Special thanks to Duff's Cake Mix for letting us eat cake!

Brands used: Gracie B., Crafts & Love, Silver Roots Jewelry, and Ruche

Psst - You can get 20% off from the Gracie B. cardigan and skirt Emma wore with code ZOOEYMAG on Gracie B.'s website!

Day in Fort Wayne

We're the Ihrie's - a spontaneous, fun having, fit-throwing, and cuddle loving family from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Thrifting, creating, baking, and DIY-ing is our sort of thing. Our ultimate dream is to renovate an old school bus or vintage camper and travel the country. We (Mom and Dad) own a rapidly growing photography business called Della Terra Photo. Photography is what we love to do, and it is so rad that we get to call that our "job". Capturing our life in images is so important to us, because we do try to go out of our way to do crazy and fun things with our children--we want them to remember that. In this post, you won't see anything spontaneous or exciting. This part is just us being "normal" - if that's ever a word that could be used to describe our family. Morning

Here's the hard part. Trying to get out of bed in the morning and only running on a few hours of sleep, because we (we being Tarah and Josh - aka Mom and Dad) have been up editing photographs all night. It's so hard to ignore the awesome sound of laughing kids--and then that inevitable scream of terror because "he/she is touching me." Usually it's because of "she."

Our morning's usually start out by Maxx (3-years-old) stealing someone's phone, or rolling over to him playing his online learning games on the computer. The kid loves technology.

Little miss Eila (2-years-old) usually starts and ends her day with a bath. Do not ask how it's possible to get that dirty--just accept that it is, in fact, possible. She loves to watch herself talk in the mirror. We don't know how this started, but it is literally the cutest thing ever.

Now comes the part where we chase Eila around for twenty minutes trying to get a diaper on her. Sometimes the floor gets the worst end of that...literally.

Art is something that we push very hard on our kids, and the awesome part is that they love it! It is amazing to watch them be so artistic and imaginative...even at such a young age, but then again, with weirdo parents like us, you kind of have to be.

Afternoon

We took a stroll downtown to grab some lunch. While on our way, we noticed a man taking a photo of the cityscape behind us and thought "there's nothing that interesting back there". We turned around and noticed a huge cloud of smoke and explosions (you can see it in the background of this image)...an old warehouse had caught on fire and the cars that was inside of it were exploding!

Pint & Slice is one our favorite spots to grab a bite to eat with the kids. Everyone knows us there - therefore, we don't have to worry about our ridiculously energetic kids running around like a pack of deranged hyenas.

This is the calmest you will ever see our kids in a public environment--and it lasted a whole thirty seconds.

To us, this is what makes up for all of those hard days and fights between our kids--seeing them love each other unconditionally. It is so incredible and heartwarming.

We're at the zoo! It is very convenient to live a few streets away from one of the best zoos in the country - we can't get enough of it!

Yuck! Goosebumps appear every time they must drink out of that god-forsaken 'lion.' Germs, germs, germs!

Night

The usual mad-dash to the grocery store before dinner which always results in someone breaking down. We try to feed our kids completely organic (and locally when we can). Oh, we forgot to mention that we are also vegetarian! Our kids have never consumed meat a day in their lives...even while in Mama's belly!

Frantically cooking enchiladas before our friends arrive for a combined family dinner! We are never on time.

Our great friend Jennifer helping us finish up our dinner setup. Eat your heart out Mexico!

Enjoying the great company of some great friends--otherwise heard as the guys talking about motorcycles and us moms yelling at the kids to sit down and eat their food.

Ah, bath time - savior of the day! Off to bed we go, and then up in the morning to do it all over again--but we would endure that kind of awesome chaos any day.

Written by regular contributor Tarah Ihrie