Author: The Mesa Maven

The Frame Game

The Frame Game

Posted by | Nov 10, 2016 | ,

Naive. Unrealistic. Gullible. When people discover I Heart Costa Mesa is an online magazine dedicated to celebrating our city and only focusing on the good – they think we are blinded to all the difficulties and injustices in the world. But the truth is, we are painfully aware of it all – the brutal as well as the beautiful. It’s just that our team has made a very deliberate, conscious decision to feed the stories that highlight the everyday good, the positive, the productive. Because we want this project to embody what so many of you already know… that the secret to leading a happy life is all in how you frame it. And when it comes to productivity, positivity and frames, nobody walks that talk better than the hardworking couple-preneurs – Medi and Kristen Bendanna – over at Best Framing.

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On The Fli

On The Fli

Posted by | Oct 19, 2016 | ,

Happiness on the Mesa comes in many forms. Sometimes, it’s a beautifully-prepared meal. Other times, getting a good sweat going. Maybe your happy place is a community-led collaboration – or just the feeling of coming home to your favorite neighborhood. Yes, finding your bliss in the everyday is the secret to joie de vivre – where delight can come from something as simple as a charmingly-wrapped box. And if “brown paper packages tied up with string” are no longer one of your favorite things, consider stepping up your wrapping and shipping game with today’s featured business, Boxfli.

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The Club Level

The Club Level

Posted by | Oct 5, 2016 | ,

Here at I Heart Costa Mesa, we are all about authentic connections; the kind you make when you’re in your most open, community-oriented, heartfelt frame of mind. We love listening, week after week, to the everyday stories that make our town tick. And we’re especially thrilled when those local conversations lead to deeper understanding and new perspectives of this spectacular city of ours. Today’s feature is the perfect example of how easily stereotypes can be swept clean when we connect at the in-person level. That’s because we’re featuring the Mesa Verde Country Club – the local, private, country club of Costa Mesa for over fifty years.

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Biker Babes

Biker Babes

Posted by | Sep 15, 2016 | , ,

A great way to better know your city is to “get lost” within it – find new routes home from work, drive through random neighborhoods and generally learn to take a tourist-eyed view of your very own town. With this sense of newness and discovery, even the most ordinary, Costa Mesa days can reveal extraordinary finds. This exercise is adventure is fun enough to do by car, but the experience is tenfold while tooling around on two wheels. There’s just something about cycling through our city that makes the whole experience “more than.” More real. More sensory. More neighborly. More active. More enjoyable. But if you’re feeling a little shy about getting in that saddle – maybe because you haven’t ridden in a while, feel too overweight for the endeavor, or never learned to ride at all – today’s featured Costa Mesans are here to tell you: anyone can (and should) cycle.

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Running With The Pack

Running With The Pack

Posted by | Aug 21, 2016 | ,

Just when you think you’ve seen it all – lapped up every last drop of cool, creative and quirky our city can dish out – Costa Mesa rounds the corner of the unexpected with new surprises and delights. Today’s feature is one you have to see to believe – but if you spend Saturdays at Fairview Park, perhaps you already have. We’re talking about that cheerful-but-curious collection of canines harnessed to scooters, pulling people; more officially known as the grassroots recreational group, Urban Mushing. It’s a band of merry dog-sledders that meets weekly to give their high-energy breeds a chance to run, pull, focus and socialize – all with happy, healthy results. They’re an eclectic collection of pet owners who don’t let a little thing like our lack of snow stop them from bringing fulfillment to the lives of dogs bred to pull.

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As The Garden Grows

As The Garden Grows

Posted by | Aug 11, 2016 | ,

Getting out to lavish love on our city, each week, has unearthed many unexpected delights. New people, new places, new perspectives – Costa Mesa truly sows seeds of wonder around every turn. And today’s feature is a perfect example of one such accidental, yet serendipitous surprise. A few months ago, we were driving through adorable Eastside when we saw a sight that stirred us to a screeching halt. There, before us, was a rustic-yet-retro, charming-yet-contemporary, coordinated-yet-casual residential landscape being installed at the feet of a cute, little cottage. Besmitten with all-things-Costa-Mesa as we are, we just had to meet the genius behind this gawk-worthy garden.

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Go For The Fence

Go For The Fence

Posted by | Aug 3, 2016 | ,

Looking for something fun and unexpected to do in Costa Mesa? You’ve come to the right city. Not only is Costa Mesa full of fabulous, weekend outings-du-jour for every age and interest – but the breadth and depth of our offerings ensure you’ll never live the same weekend twice. Take today’s local feature, for example: the Behind The Picket Fence Antiques Show. It’s an up-cycled, shabby-chic extravaganza – highlighting what’s old is what’s new – four times a year in the parking lot of the Piecemakers Country Store.

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SoBeCa Brewmeisters

SoBeCa Brewmeisters

Posted by | Jul 21, 2016 | ,

Costa Mesa is a study in contrast. Artistic, yet unpretentious. Independent, yet connected. Cozy, yet cosmopolitan. And just when you think you’ve got us pegged as the family-friendly city with that small-town feel – we open up a big ol’ can of Culture and all bets are off. Because while we may be home to some of the cutest, little, ocean-kissed neighborhoods ever to grace a mesa, we’re also rockin’ world-class theater, live music, award-winning restaurants, action-sports industry, SCP, OC Fair and soon the OCMA – to literally name just a few. We’re so packed with culture, our city limits are fit to burst. But until recently, there was one missing ingredient in our cultural cocktail, a key point of omission often used to separate the cultural wheat from the chaff: Costa Mesa’s distinct lack of a brewery.

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Hero Home Makers

Hero Home Makers

Posted by | Jul 11, 2016 | ,

Here at I Heart Costa Mesa, we believe the hallmark of a city’s sense of community is more simple and far less measurable: the degree to which its residents show up, participate and care… with full humanity and neighborliness in tact. Not only in the big, splashy ways, (although those can be fun,) but also in the small, quiet acts of kindness that ask nothing in return. And if caring in actionable ways is the path to “true community,” Costa Mesans like Beth Phillips, and her philanthropic foundation, Furnishing Hope, are paving the way.

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Rolling In Dough

Rolling In Dough

Posted by | Jun 25, 2016 | ,

One of the 5,378,253 things we love best about Costa Mesa has got to be the culture. Despite our city’s smallish size (somewhere between 15 and 16 square miles, depending on who you ask) we pack one heck of a cultural wallop. Costa Mesa is brimming with industry, creativity, education, action sports, mom-and-pops, big names, history, diversity, craftsmanship, generosity, performing arts and food, glorious food!

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The Mini-Mart With Heart

The Mini-Mart With Heart

Posted by | May 12, 2016 | , ,

Hearting Costa Mesa is hungry, thirsty work. (You know the feeling, right?) You’re out shining smiles up and down 17th Street – just beaming bliss all over paradise, per usual – when suddenly, hanger strikes. The smile turns snarly as your heart-shaped glasses slowly slide off your face. You’re so depleted you can barely even cartwheel with Costa Mesa pride (let alone double-pike-triple-layout-tuck.) It’s a sad state of affairs, indeed. Well, fear not, faithful Costa Mesan. You haven’t lost your love of city; you just need to get your snack on.

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The Work Of Faith

The Work Of Faith

Posted by | Apr 28, 2016 | ,

We’re not the only ones asking questions in Costa Mesa. So often, before an interview begins, we get positively peppered about the I Heart Costa Mesa project: How did we find the courage to start? What does it mean to us? Why do we do it? Why Costa Mesa? And while we have lots to say on the subject – you can ask us yourself when we meet you – one point we’re sure to emphasize is our belief that Costa Mesa is a subtle-but-smoldering hotbed of independence, creativity and fruitfulness.

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La Historia: The Diego Sepúlveda Adobe

La Historia: The Diego Sepúlveda Adobe

Posted by | Apr 15, 2016 | ,

This land we now call Costa Mesa has lived many former lives. In the wayback days before streets and settlements, entirely different societies and cultures made their home on the mesa.

The earliest recorded example is the Tongva tribal village of Lukup, whose rounded huts – called ki – were believed to have covered what is now the Fairview Park bluffs and surrounding areas.

More recently, in the ranchos days of the early 1800s, that same part of Costa Mesa became an estancia (“ranch estate”) and the land was used for grazing cattle. It was likely during this period in history, around 1820 or so, that the building now known as The Diego Sepúlveda Adobe was built.

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A Future So Bright…

A Future So Bright…

Posted by | Mar 23, 2016 | ,

So it’s no surprise that in the early 90’s – when the growing incidence of gang violence threatened the future of Costa Mesa’s youth – a group of local parents and city leaders took it head on, and the Save Our Youth Center was born. For over twenty years, through the steadfast dedication of volunteers, donors and community members, SOY has continued to make an immeasurable difference in the lives of young Costa Mesans.

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Like Taking Milk From An Almond

Like Taking Milk From An Almond

Posted by | Mar 11, 2016 | ,

We thought we’d seen all Costa Mesa has to offer, we really did. But then we found ourselves sitting at a long, shiny counter watching co-owners – Roxanne Golkar and Bradley Reitler – quite literally milk almonds. (You don’t see that everyday.) The painstaking process involves raw ingredients, a blender, and an udder-like sack – called a ‘nut-milk bag’ – used to hand-squeeze the contents and release the pure, creamy end-product.

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Wake Up And Smell The Wilson

Wake Up And Smell The Wilson

Posted by | Feb 26, 2016 | ,

Wilson Coffee has all the depth-of-flavor you want from a nice, organic brew – with none of the acidity, bitterness or burnt-notes we’ve (unfortunately) come to expect. Adding sugar or milk almost feels like a sacrilege; the rich bouquet invites you to drink it black.

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The Face Of Flawless

The Face Of Flawless

Posted by | Jan 31, 2016 | ,

If you scroll through the Flawless Faces social media feeds, two elements of their work immediately grab you: perfect skin and THOSE EYES. “Every artist has their thing,” said Lindgren. “For me, it’s eyes.

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Don’t Shoot The Animals

Don’t Shoot The Animals

Posted by | Jan 28, 2016 | , , ,

The Foxes And Wolves portfolio is the very picture of balance; the work is playful-yet-earnest, thoughtful-yet-natural, comfortable-yet-elevated. It’s no surprise they’ve landed projects with notables like Nike, Athleta, Quiksilver, Taco Bell and Virgin Mobile.

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