Robert Reader : Etsy Artist

I'm just mad for this photographer that I found last month and wrote about at AT:LA he sent us a link to his new images today so I jumped on the chance to plug him again. Robert Reader Etsy artist Isofoto.

It's something about the old washed out Poloroids and the mixing of quirky images together. Hello? the orange car, the shoes, the red chair are just stupid good [did I just use the word stupid to describe something good?]. And I have a weird thing for capturing water and pools [don't ask I have no idea why]. Check out his other work, I especially love the fact that he mattes and frames the art in his photo samples so you can see the preportions and framing ideas - Brilliant!

I did a full write up on him for Thursday's AT:LA if you are also a reader of that site and realize it's up there too. That one is full of nice grammar and hopefully good spelling for all those cranky people who care about that stuff. :) sorry you folks get the cheap seats and the 15 year old's slang.

I'm a big sucker for a holiday parade

I'm the cheesiest of cheese balls when it comes to the holidays. I love parades! This Saturday the local Belmont Shore Parade in Long Beach is happening and I'm looking forward to it. Friends and I meet up at one of our homes for cocktails and then bundle up to walk down.

It's something about the marching bands, floats and the kiddies it always makes me sentimental. I guess it reminds me of being a kid and thermos' of hot chocolate, graham crackers and Santa. All the same great fun but now we've just added a bit of a grown up kick to our beverages. Luckily one of our friends has a child still in a stroller, who knew it made such a great bar on wheels. Kidding! ... well kind of.

image via blamfoto/flickr

Gift Mania

I think I've become one of those cranky aunties. I love buying my nieces and nephews treats at the holidays and their birthdays but I just hate giving in to the plastic crap, the video games and all that stuff. I want to give them good toys that have longevity that perhaps might develop a part of their little beans that may have been resting. I think it started last year for my nephew's birthday when I just couldn't give him another toy and bought him books instead. I know mine was the gift thrown to the side when the frenzy began, but I also know he reads it regularly before bed with mom or dad and that he knows "what the moral of the story is".

So I will be cranky auntie again this xmas as well. When I got a catalog last week of gifts from Restoration Hardware it was just my speed. This weekend I picked up the boys 6-10 yrs containers of marbles. When was the last time you saw kids play marbles? They were always like little gems to me when I was little and winning them from each other was so fun. A couple of the older kids will get hypotrochoid art sets [which are so cool I want one too] There are some Slinky's to be had, as well as a set of cards to play crazy 8's, old maid and rummy. I suspect they'll again be thrown to the side but I also suspect that once the crazies of the holidays stop that they will take their Slinky's out and play with them. Hummm....I think a book or two should be had as well -they can't have too much fun!

It's kinda like...

me:
"It's kinda like going to a party and you think you're looking pretty ok, when you hear a group of women near you [who think you can't hear] talk about how fat your ass is."

her:
"Oh my gawd, I think that's one of the most horrible things I've heard in a long time."

-----
Me, explaining being thrown under the bus over at AT:LA last week to my girlfriend...

I've recovered for the most part from that incident but wowzie...what a blow to the ego. Thanks for all your encouraging words below by the way it's very sweet.

oh yah...I almost forgot

** update - I pulled the post just a few minutes ago due to some comments about my "atrocious writing style"..I don't know whether I'm just really tired or perhaps I am a really bad writer and I can't see it. Not a good mix with my PMS right now.
how's that for a start to a holiday weekend for you?

you should really check out this home tour that will be going up Wed about 10:30 at Apartment Therapy LA. My blogger friend Jen let me come over and take a zillion pics of her home which is a fantastic Cliff May modern here in Long Beach.

I feel bad that my flash skills suck and I don't have a wide enough lens to really have done her place justice. She and her hubby have a great eye [I suspect it's mostly her doing] and those homes just have the most fantastic layout. Thanks Jen!

Anna Kuperberg never disappoints

Photographer Anna Kuperberg never disappoints me. I don't know that I've ever been as obsessed about one photographer's work as I am hers [I check her blog weekly when she posts]. Her work is always alive, emotional, vibrant and just perfectly captures those moments of real life. You can see more images from this wedding at her blog site [she also has her regular site and her fine art site if you need more]. It's worth clicking over. That wedding looked spectacular-straight out of a magazine!

Since I work with a lot of photographers with my 9-5 it will be a difficult day when I have to explain why I've hired Anna over my friends that I've known for years to photograph my own wedding. She is seriously fantastic at her job.

You know how when...

You are PMSing and anyone who looks at you wrong, drives too slow or is just breathing is annoying? And you know how you try and do anything in the cruical 48hrs of peak PMS how it never works?...say like try and code a really detailed story for Apartment Therapy and it's not working? And how on those days you would like to rip your computer out of the wall and throw it off your second story balcony all the while doing the snoopy dance saying "There take that you f*ing bastard"

That's about where I am at the moment.

Could this be the answer?

Could this be the answer to my obsession to having a banquette in my kitchen? I'll have to get out the tape measure to double check. Not like I have $1200 hanging out at the moment to squelch this annoying idea of mine but a girl can dream.

No way! I totally get to have another meltdown buddy

a little side note to explain some of this incase you're new to the blog. my long time b-friend is in a medical program to become a physican asst. Currently we're 2.5 years into a 4-5 year program. Most days I'm ok with things as they are but at 38 it's not like I've got years to spare around the kid thing. I average about a meltdown every 3-4 months. He and I both know it now so we just deal with it as it comes up and I soon return to my normal state.


Me: I feel like I'm heading toward another meltdown soon.
Him: Thats ok honey I've gotten use to them.
Him: But wait, you just had a melt down a couple weeks ago!
Me: That didn't count - that was exterior forces which I can't control. [see Oct post things I can recommend]
Him: No way, you used up your meltdown for this semester. We both can't have a melt down- and advanced organic chemistry is sending me to a meltdown.
Me: No way! I totally get to have another meltdown buddy - don't even thing you're getting out of that one.

image via flickr

Jack Cards...total brilliance

I don't know how they've managed to do this but Jack Cards on line is possibly one of the most brilliant ideas ever and I'm pissed I didn't think of it myself.

Imagine being able to see just the best greeting cards in your favorite store, pick a card out for each of your upcoming birthdays [wedding or baby shower] and Jack Cards will send you the card a few days before the event, address the envelope for you and stamp it...all you have to do is write your sentiment and pop it in the mail.

My girlfriend has already bought two and said she's not sure how they afford to do it all with the small price tags they have for each piece.

You can buy per piece or register you're entire life so you never forget an event or birthday again. Mighty damn smart for the man who can never remember or the busy gal who can't get out to the store.

The dinner party

Lovely dinner party with friends this weekend. I had the opportunity to test drive some new Angela Adams trays, which I'm covering atAT:LA this week . Trays are fun and add some color to a festive event. Check in on AT Tuesday about 10:30 for the full story.

On the menu sat night:

Asparagus Risotto with baby broccoli and roasted chicken. It sound super glamorous but it actually was all short cut versions from Trader Joes.

2 packs of Asparagus Risotto [in the freezer section]
1 package of fresh asparagus [tips only]
1 package of baby broccoli [tips only]
1 shallot
1/2 of already sliced crimini mushrooms
1 pre cooked herb roasted chicken

Sauté shallot in olive oil, add fresh asparagus, mushrooms and baby broccoli tips. Soften veggies till al dente.
de-bone chicken set aside.
Follow recipe for risotto...bit of water heat until cooked [about 10 min]
Add chicken and sautéed veggies

Top with Parmesan cheese

Bake bread [TJ's par baked bread] for 10-15 min

Chow down.

It's for Meth users who like Versace - Cavalli launches at H&M

Today in NYC a product was launched. You would think that something driving people to such hysteria would be free food, free gas something IMPORTANT. But no, it's all about the king of cheese-ball leopard print or another appropiate description of "It's for meth users who like Versace."

reporting from the front lines:
"It's totally fucking insane. People are fighting, screaming. People are just grabbing anything. It's all gone already. Roberto is standing on a staircase watching it all... All these gay guys swooped in while we were grabbing at stuff, and one of them yelled at this woman, 'Bitch if you grab that, I'm going to fucking cut you."

Roberto Cavalli launches at H&M via Gawker

Sixteen Candles and the search for Jake Ryan

Today, I quiet possibly read the most brilliant, most important article ever written by the Washington Post.

In highschool, I had this photo cut out and taped to the box that held all my makeup. I got to look at it every morning and dream that my Jake Ryan would finally ditch the cheerleader and realize I was his dream girl. It never happened. I finally realize that I'm not alone. And although I haven't thought about this man in years I'm so thrilled that other women still do.

Read Real Men Can't Hold a Match to Jake Ryan of Sixteen Candles

from the Washington Post written by Hank Steuver

I forwarded this article to some girlfriends today, one of which lives in Wilkes-Barre, PA with Michael Schoeffling. I have told her that it should be her current life's work to find him...especially since she is in the process of buying a house and may need bids from construction people. I'll forward the camera phone photo as soon as possible. She also wrote "Jake Ryan is the reason I'm not married today".

My other girlfriend who I jokingly sent the same story too and highlighted the bit about women our age naming their boys Jake [her son's name is in fact, Jake] I thought she would get a laugh out of it and she completely cop'd to naming her son after him -much to her husband's horror as she said he found out a few months after he was born of this fact.

I think someone should check into this issue. I mean, this seems to me like a national epidemic...we were "lead to believe" this person exsisted in our very formative dating years. We are all mentally scarred from it. I'll completly stand up and testify for this woman's litigation.

"Thanks for bringing this [Jake Ryan's nonexistence] to my attention," e-mails Penny Britell, 35, who works as a producer at CBS News in Washington."It reminded me that my lawsuit against John Hughes, Michael Schoeffling ('Jake'), and Universal Studios (collectively, 'the parties of the second part') is still in limbo whilst the Supreme Court decides whether to hear the case, which seeks unlimited damages for the permanent emotional disability incurred as a result of seeing aforementioned film and consequently believing such perfect men existed."

thanks to Scented Glossy Magazines for the lead to the story...I am forever grateful

Not a lot to say when you're in pain

I've managed to hurt myself AGAIN this time with the very demanding job of sleeping. I guess I slept wrong on my neck or something. Have been having great difficulty turning my head...and last night had to scoop my head up with my hand off the pillow too much pain to lift my OWN HEAD.

I think they use to take people like me out into the forest and shoot them to put them out of thier misery. Lord help me when I get old[er] than I am. I'm so over this.

I'll probably be out of commish for a couple days with ice packs and vicoden if you need me.

Memories of Redwings

My guy told me late last week that he really wanted these new boots being offered by JCrew made by Redwing Boots. He wanted me to go down and pick them up for him since he had to work over the weekend.

I sort of raised an eyebrow about the boots. I mean they're HEARTY boots meant for outdoors and twigs and dirt and stuff and here we are toodling between freeways. He was very excited about them and I couldn't object too much I mean it is JCrew [they wouldn't stear me wrong]. He ended up having the day off so we went down to pick them up.

A couple of things happened. About 3 different guys came up to ask him about the boots reinforcing the "manlyness" of his purchase which he was very excited about and two, I remembered while he was trying them on that my grandfather wore very similar Redwing boots years ago. With these two things, I set my personal preferences aside [they do look nice on him] and let him have his way.

Chris never got to meet my grandfather but he was a really great man. I have often said that they would have been great friends and fishing buddies if he were still alive, and to be honest I think my grandfather had something to do with me meeting Chris, lets just say Grandpa came to me in a dream and when I asked him if he liked Chris he told me that he picked him for me. His comment to me in my dream was something like "how do you think you ended up in a flyfishing shop in the first place". I can't really argue with the dream because the set of circumstances that lead me to Chris could never be duplicated in a million years and only my grandfather would have picked that location for me to meet my sweetheart.

It donned on me remembering Grandpa's Redwings this weekend and thinking about what a great person he was with his family and work that I've managed to find a man equally as great in heart and spirit as he was. To be honest, I didn't think that was even possible. I didn't think men came built like that anymore.

Thanks Grandpa - but now he wants a flannel shirt to go along with them...How about getting him into some of your wingtips next time?

Somewhere between Joey and Tennille

Today I figured it out. With my new "bangs" I feel somewhere between Joey Ramone and Tennille from "Captain and Tennille".

I had forgot all about my little "muskrat love" fascination back in the 70's till just now. I wanted to be a combination of her and Dorthy Hamill when I was 6, I also wanted pierced ears and long fingernails but my mom said I was too young to have any of them. When I was little all I wanted to be was 16 and glamorous like them, or my older babysitter.

I couldn't help but track her down. How fantastic is this!!! Gawd I love You Tube.

This is smart thinking

A chandelier made from wine glasses. The stem wear is meant to be used and then rehung. It's available in a 16 or a 40 version [76 too but only in black] $379.00 for the 40 glass version.

I wonder how it would look though if you started using them for drinking? probably would take the romance out of it. Great space saver if you have limited space.