30 COUNTRIES BY 30 At some point in my early twenties, I counted all the countries I had been to, and it was over 20. Turns out you can cover a lot of countries between…
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Week 4 of doing the journaling prompts from this post from Hannah Bay’s Substack, Midnight Crumbs, with 31 journaling prompts for July. July 22: When was the last time you completely forgot your phone existed? What were you…
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READING I’m currently reading Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter. It takes place in Italy and LA and has a bunch of characters and jumps around in time. It’s been a fun read, although a slow…
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Week 3 of doing the journaling prompts from this post from Hannah Bay’s Substack, Midnight Crumbs, with 31 journaling prompts for July. See Weeks 1 & 2 here. July 15: If future you stole your calendar for a…
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Week 2 of doing the journaling prompts from this post from Hannah Bay’s Substack, Midnight Crumbs, with 31 journaling prompts for July. See Week 1 here. July 8: Be honest, what’s been getting far more…
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I was scrolling Substack on June 30 and came across this post from Hannah Bay’s Substack, Midnight Crumbs, with 31 journaling prompts for July. I’ve never really used July as a time to reflect since…
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Bar crawls will never be my thing. European church crawl? Absolutely. And for my 29th birthday this year, inspired by LA Bakery Walk, I decided to do a bakery crawl in Santa Monica on Sunday,…
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I can’t believe another year has already passed! I traveled to new countries, ran another half-marathon, ate a ton of pastries, and learned a lot. You should let Trader Joe’s pizza dough proof for 4…
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For my third half-marathon, I did a 4-month training plan using Runna and I wanted to share my experience in case anyone’s wondering if they should use it. I started my first week with Runna…
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I feel like spring always gets so busy, and April is already flying by! Check out my previous R.E.P.O.R.T.s here, I copied this format from Ella Henry’s Substack, Gut Feelings. READING I just started The House…
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Restaurants Worth Crossing the 405 For If you don’t know Los Angeles, “the westside” is kind of a loose term but I think it’s supposed to cover everything west of the I-405 freeway like Santa…
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My bestie from college, Kat, moved to Austin about six months ago while she does online grad school classes, and we had a blast, spending about 5 days exploring the city! I visited Austin for…
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MY FIRST PGA TOURNAMENT Through my job (read more about my job in media planning in this post), I got to attend the last day of the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club in…
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One of my 2026 resolutions is to blog more, so I’m going to try to write more of these mixed bag posts where I can just yap about some of the things I’ve been thinking…
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This was supposed to be a January 2026 R.E.P.O.R.T., but January felt kind of brutal, as I was working a lot of 12-hour days and on weekends and I just didn’t have time to sit…
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Wow 2026 I can’t believe it. I feel like 2025 went by in the blink of an eye. I don’t really know what this year will bring. I kind of want to chill out a…
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2025 RESOLUTIONS RESULTS: 5.5/11 Well, it’s been another year of only achieving half of my resolutions. I did stop tracking a lot of these in my Habit app, but I’ll try to be better about…
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I knew it was unlikely that I’d read over 40 books like in 2024, but I still set my goal at 36 books; however, I only ended up reading 21 books. I think it’s partially…
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2025 has been another year of trying 150+ new restaurants!! If you’re wondering how I keep track, it’s through an app called Beli! It’s a social restaurant-ranking app where you can bookmark places you want…
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My mom is artsy, and I grew up taking different art classes, going to museums on craft days, and painting ceramics at Creatively Yours at Crossroads Mall every year. We even had a room in…
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If you’re looking for an easy weekend getaway from Los Angeles, I highly recommend doing a road trip up to San Luis Obispo County! Back in college, I went to SLO in the winter with…
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Los Angeles has so many things to do, and since I’ve been traveling a little less this year, I’ve been having fun being a tourist in my own city! I’ve been to so many more…
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I went to London for the first time with my sister in 2023 (blog post here), and I did not expect to be back so soon! London is such a massive city, and there are…
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Scotland’s known for being dreary, but my friends and I got super lucky with the weather and had mostly sunny skies during our 3 days in Edinburgh in July. Scotland was never really on my…
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Last weekend, I did my first maternity photo shoot! My friend Camilla and her husband, Joe are expecting a baby boy in August, and they asked me to take their maternity photos. It’s crazy to…
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If you have a couple of extra days in Ireland to fill, I recommend spending 2 days in Belfast! When I was planning my UK trip for this summer, I thought we’d go to Dublin…
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Here’s how my friends and I spent 3 days in Dublin, the first stop of my Euro Summer! WHEN TO GO TO DUBLIN I went to Dublin during peak summer tourist season in July. This…
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While Seattle has a happening food scene, the surrounding areas I grew up in were mostly suburban and even only had the basic fast food restaurants (Chick-fil-A who?). I lived in Mercer Island and Bellevue…
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27 was truly a year of unexpected highs and lows. I’m ultimately thankful for all the doors that have been opened and shut over the past 12 months and looking forward to this next lap…
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I had seen the Flower Fields in Carlsbad on Instagram since I was in college at Chapman, but I had never made it down there. For anyone reading who isn’t familiar with Southern California, Carlsbad…
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Hi, I'm Laura Claypool, and I'm so jazzed you're here! I'm a blogger and self-taught photographer seeking adventure, artisanal ice cream, and other experiences that make me feel alive!
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