By Lucy Evangelista-McCullough.

After an exciting day at Smashbox studios last week, I've been taking it easy.

This week I caught up with a few Belfast ladies in LA. Charlotte Hughes and her friend Sarah popped down to LA after travelling around America for 3 weeks. I took them to a couple of tourist spots and then to Rodeo Drive, a real must in LA.

We could only afford to go window shopping but it kept us amused for a few hours. We were drooling over Chanel coats and lot of extravagant jewellery.

Looking for something more affordable we went to Abercrombie, to stock up on winter hoodies, on 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica, which is more popular than ever with the newly refurbished Santa Monica Place Mall.

It has a new Bloomingdales custom designed for Santa Monica Place and a locally inspired Nordstorm. We also found a Tiffany's, True Religion, Ed Hardy and even a lovely All Saints, which is really popular. Even if you are not in the mood to shop its worth having a look at all the visual arts that add to the fresh texture of Santa Monica Place.

We went to the celebrity hangout restaurant "XIV" on Sunset Blvd which is run by the celebrated San Francisco Chef Michael Mina and promoted by SBE Entertainment. XIV is his fourteenth restaurant and the first in Los Angeles. The name of the restaurant also relates to the Sun King (Louis XIV) whose style helped to inspire world famous French designer Philippe Starck as the designer of XIV and Katsuya, SBE Entertainments sushi restaurant which is a favourite of Kim Kardashian and friends.

It was great to sit with the girls and enjoy the lovely atmosphere on the terrace bar before heading off to have a little boggie at the nearby Hyde Lounge which is very popular with celebs like Lauren Conrad, Paris Hilton and Zac Effron.

So from one Belfast girl to another, I meet up with Karen Hemsworth for a 5am start to walk up Runyon Canyon in Hollywood. Runyon Canyon is a 130 acre park with a number of demanding trails, taking the walker up to a number of magnificent viewpoints from where you can see the Hollywood Sign, Griffith Observatory and from downtown LA to the Pacific Ocean 12 miles away. From the top you get to see some of the amazing houses in the area.

Runyon Canyon is popular with many personal trainers, taking clients for tough sessions on the hills and yoga overlooking LA, and casual dog walkers. After some huffing and puffing, I made it to the top and was not disappointed when i saw the beautiful view, it is truly stunning and with the sun rise made it even more spectacular.

Having spent the week relaxing by the pool, I have now finished my youtube channel, so if you want to see out what i've got up to, check out www.youtube.com/evangelistalucy