What a difference a little lighting can make

Ok, granted there was a wee bit of retouching done on the Details Cover but here is your proof what good lighting can do for you.

Would you like the hard lighting coming from the top right? or the soft fuzzy light from the front?



Soft fuzzy lighting from the front please. And final editing rights over my image while I'm at it. see it all over at Perez

Too Much of a Good Thing

A couple of people have told me over the last couple of weeks that I look like I've lost weight. Although I appreciate the compliment I weigh the exact same I have for the past 5 years or so. But this morning I was feeling pretty spiffy and thought you know...things do look a little different. I say that and also should mention that this is about the time of the month that I normally want to check myself into a lap-band hospital because the rolls that appear overnight during this time threaten to suffocate me in my sleep.

What could it be? I thought on my car ride into work this morning. I barely exercise anymore. I'm lucky if I get to one yoga class a week. Maybe it's my 1/2 rule that I've been enforcing on myself [only eat half of whatever you are served or want that is bad for you or yummy- essentially everything]. It's probably the 1/2 rule I decided. I've been doing good with that lately. Especially with meals out which are horribly large these days.

And then it dons on me... IT'S THE GREEN TEA. Back in August when I had the What If situation happen I read that 3 cups of green tea lowers your chances of cancer by 30%. I decided that 3 cups of green tea I could do. I didn't give up my coffee in the AM but incorporated the green tea in throughout the day. It started out slow with one a day, then I managed to do a second in the afternoon and then a 3rd I wedged in later in the evening. I'm not a big tea person but I found a couple of them that I like. Most notably the blueberry and orange infused versions that are bottled at Trader Joe's. In the last 3 weeks or so I've been kinda crazed about it really. The tea was spilling over into my weekends [the 3 cup thing I was doing at work]. After I found the bottled stuff it was all I could do not to drink the whole liter or whatever it is at one sitting. I don't even need sweetener anymore.

So on my car ride to the office today I thought well if 3 cups did this ...what would happen with 4? I could be the size 6 I always dreamed of without going to the gym! I could be svelte for once in my life! I could have the body I always dreamed of...and this is where the too much of a good thing, is well, too much.

I drank my 4th cup of tea at 4:30 this afternoon at at 5:15 I felt like I was going to hurl all over my office. You know that feeling when you have too much coffee? yah that. I think it was too much. I had to come home and lay down for an hour and then eat the second piece of toast so that it would soak it all up.

moderation. When will I learn moderation?

Yogi Tea isn't what made me ill today, but don't you love their packaging?

I almost forgot to tell you about this:

The most super of all super sales over at Barneys.com. Most notably in their shoe department. If you have a sugar daddy or aren't terrified you'll lose your job anytime soon, may I suggest? the Prada black riding boots that are now $750 originally $1250. Or perhaps a little Louboutin to get you through $380 originally $635

Meanwhile, I still haven't bought a pair of boots for myself this year. ugh.

A Turkey Story

I have hosted a "Orphan Thanksgiving" or versions of it for nearly 10+ years. I discovered in my days post-my-divorce that there were many people in my circle[s] like me: single, not able to travel home for the holidays, and not knowing what to do with themselves. The first of these gatherings, I was reminded last week, happened at my friend Paula's house.

I'm not sure how I forgot about this particular holiday, it is hilarious and has made me laugh for days after she reminded me. I probably selectively forgot because it was such a comedy of errors at the time. There were 5 of us that year displaced. 3 women, 2 men. I was the only person who had ever cooked a turkey and knew what to do so I volunteered to be the Bird Girl that year and nearly every year since, when I have hosted.



I should describe Paula's apartment so that you can get a good image. She had a beautiful one bedroom with a great front room, and a tiny-ish kitchen complete with a swell vintage oven that at first glance looked large but you soon discover that the actual oven-portion on a vintage oven is quite small. Essentially, the space that is the normal contemporary oven is cut in half, one half for storage the other for cooking. I'm sure it made sense in the 40's or 50's, today, not so much.

We devised a plan, us three girls. We divied up the cooking, we schemed fab recipes, we shopped and we gathered that day in her front room and little kitchen [sometimes all five of us at once] and soon discovered the one thing none of us had thought about till then, that Paula only had about 3 pans. That's all a single girl needs when you don't cook much. When you're cooking Thanksgiving it's another story. We felt like we could work around it though and began our cutting, mashing and prepping. The turkey was in and taking up all but 5 square inches of the oven space. Somehow we did manage to rotate a casserole dish or two in there I think below it, on the floor of the oven. All the burners were going at once, all three of us playing twister for 4+ hours and waiting patiently for each other to finish with one pot so we could start the next part of whatever we were doing. We washed and rewashed those pots about 10 time each it seems. Meanwhile we used, and I'm not lying, every. single. cooking. instrument. and dish. she. owned. They were stacked a foot high in her also lovely but smallish sink.




The boys would come in to check on us once in a while, some what suspiciously, as they didn't think we knew what we were doing! and go back out to the front room to watch football. At some point in the afternoon it all magically came together. The turkey was Martha Stewart perfect, The stuffing amazing, The salad was 4 stars, the mashed potatoes? Brilliant, The cranberry freshly prepared [no cans!] All of it was working out PERFECTLY.

We asked one of the boys to come in and handle the turkey. Since we were perpetuating the stereotype girls in the kitchen /boys watching sports we might as well do it right. Joel joined us in the kitchen and we managed to get the bird out onto her cafe size table. And then like a slow motion Brady Bunch Episode, somewhere in the time it sat on the table, to the time when Joel started to carve, things went wrong, very wrong. The turkey ended up squirting, out from the disposable roaster onto the floor and DID A FULL BASEBALL SLIDE ACROSS THE FLOOR, COMPLETE WITH A HALF SPIN TO A STOP.



I think all of us stood there in silence for a second not knowing what to do, watching our browned little lump-of-love go down in a blaze of glory. I think all of us screamed in unison "FIVE SECOND RULE!!!!" "PICK IT UP!!!!" I'm sure I was one of the loudest since it was one of my main contributions to the day's events.

We did a little wipe-a-roonie- just to make sure and served it up anyway. We all sat around the coffee table with our plates of goodness and were silent as we ate up our days work. Finally one of us spoke, the second of the men and he said "I never thought I would ever say this, but this is better than my mom's Thanksgiving dinner" All of us agreed it was one of the tastiest meals we had ever had and we laughed about the pots and pans stacked to the ceiling and the turkey slide.

Ever since, the funniest thanksgivings have been with people that are friends and acquaintances here in Southern California. Not that there isn't fun things that happen with real family, because there are, but the wackiest, weirdest things happen when people, sometimes that you know well, or someone has brought along to share the "orphan" gathering for this one day, come together to make a psuedo-family. It just goes to show you that you can create your family wherever you happen to be, with or without your biological "peoples". Happy Turkey Day.


paper turkey via this person
Turkey leg Plushy via this person
Sock Turkey via This Person

Right Now...

• It's a beautiful fall day
• I'm prepping for my annual "orphan Thanksgiving" with displaced So. Cal friends
• I finished all my chores!
• I am excited about my new book: David Sedaris' When you are engulfed in Flames
• I haven't taken a shower yet and it's 4pm
• I am so grateful for a little break in my freelance work. So this is what a real weekend is like!
• I'm getting ready for a Sunday "Girl Day" - facial, hair conditioning treatment, mani while reading fashion mags and watching some crappy tv show all up on my big ol' bed!

I forgot I was at Banana

I'm normally a black bag sort of girl. Really, I'm a black everything sort of girl but in the past year I've gotten a little crazy and well added some color and THOUGHT about adding more. whoo nelly.

I ventured into my neighborhood Banana Republic last week after many years of being just SAD about the state of their merchandise. I can tell you it's better now. In fact, I saw this bag and really forgot I was in BR. The color and shape are so rich I had a little moment about the whole thing.

I have to point out that it's shape looks so much like this woman's work, that I wonder if they'll have a lawsuit on their hands at somepoint but meanwhile go and be fabulous for less.

Robson Handbag available in three sizes $240-$160

For The Art Damaged Person In Your Life

If you have a fussy, picky, art-damaged person in your life that you never know what to buy for the holidays, this might be your ticket. I gotta say, this person needs to probably be a hipster surfer dude because ahhh well, they're cool but not for someone say like me. A picky, wannabe fashionista, art-damaged person.

If you're not in the creative field I'll explain briefly. Pantone is a color matching system nearly everyone that deals with some sort of color whether it be on a computer or in interior design works with. They produce these very precise, very expensive books which use to have handy pull out chips [but now I'm dating myself]. Most any corporation you know of will have a style guide that has a Pantone # to reference when printing their logo [Think FedEx]. So back to this story. Seavees teamed up with Pantone to make sneakers in a handful of the original colors that debuted in the first Pantone book in 1963. You can read the scoop from the brief below.



SeaVees, Purveyors of California Casual, has announced an exclusive collaboration with Pantone, the world-renowned authority on color. True to their inspiration, each SeaVees style is named to honor an influential date in 1960's California-cool history. With the creation of the 09/63, SeaVees celebrates the founding of Pantone, and the release of the first PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM in September 1963. For the first time in their 45 year history, Pantone has allowed an external design team into their hallowed archives. SeaVees has selected seven vintage colors from the original Pantone color guide. The palette, chosen from the only authentic guide known to exist, epitomizes the cool, casual style of California in 1963. The series production has been restricted to 1,963 pairs.

If you're interested they are $140 and apparently only available by special invitation. Oops, well here is the passwords if you need them!

Login: pantone
Password: seavees0963

Totally yummy jewels - super sale

A good friend of mine is a fabulous jewelry designer. She designs mostly for a big named catalog that you would recognize if I mentioned, but I know she's had some issues about throwing that name around so I won't. And in case you like a name drop as much as I do, Sandra Bullock has worn some of her work. I wanted to tell you she's having a crazy blow out sale right now on some awesome stuff. You should totally check it out because when they're gone...they're gone.


I put one of these on a couple weeks ago and didn't want to take it off [I did in fact wear it the rest of the night]. It's kind of like the anti-engagement ring. It's this chunky, fun, hunk of love that makes you feel like a 5 carat diva even if you're not. Available in multiple sizes and can be worn stackable. $45 I say go for the big one!


azure. apatite gem cascade earrings $32 When you want just a little bit of girly with your jeans and tee.



Oh Snap silver pendant. I love the ball chain, just gives it a little edge. $22

Prices start at $9 and with most being 14-32$ and up. A little something for everyone. Sparkle on.

Smart Ads

My coworker sent me these ads today. They are for a store called Olio United in the Portland, Or area that his niece ownes. "Everything has a story - fair trade - sustainable - clothing - housewares and art that can change the world" is their motto.

Lovely, don't you think?



I love a great ad, I also love it when they break some rules getting there. It appears they are putting them up around the city in a "handbill/guerrilla marketing" campaign. The devil in me is totally excited about that part.



You can see the full campaign here which is done by Aaron James.

Grey Gardens

Have you ever seen Grey Gardens the movie? I saw it for the first time a couple of years ago after a friend raved on and on about the movie and it's eccentric personalities Big Edie and Little Edie. The mother - daughter team received some press after the Board of Health was called in to clean up their East Hampton Mansion that had fallen into disrepair and was full of cats, raccoons and other undesirable visitors. You might wonder what would generate press about something of this nature, it was because they were relatives of Jackie O's.

What began as a film about Lee Radziwil, took a quick turn to the Beales when Edie asked for Lee's help and the film crew followed. You can see the film maker here as he revisits the house 30 years later. It includes clips of the documentary that will let you glimpse the amazing film, the crazy outfits that Little Edie made famous, and some information about their ice cream habit which apparently was $150 a month.

Last reported, Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore were set to star in the movie based around the documentary, recent google searches don't turn up a release date but do indicate that possibly HBO has bought out the project. I'm not sure if that means it will go to HBO channel or they are funding the big picture release. Either way it should be amazing.

Available on Netflix A fantastic rental.

New In the Studio -Gabriela & Robert

Gabriela & Robert are hosting a family holiday brunch in early December. They have a variation of religious beliefs in the family so they decided to stick with a theme and a design that spoke more to their organic, simple type of esthethic over traditional holiday colors.



The project revolved around the bark paper that the invite was mounted on. The two of them had found it some time back and wanted to use it for this invite. Gabriela also asked for this plant, which I can't think of the name of right now. We opted to keep everything brown after playing around with some greens. She'll be incorporating that into her flowers, which will be amazing since she is a spectacular florist and her sweetheart is in the business of importing all the lovely petals we see around LA.

digitally produced.
invite, map card, and matching return label

Paella

When I was 20 I spent a spring semester abroad in London. It was such a great experience for me and I would recommend it to anyones kids that are considering it. During my semester I got to do some light traveling around Europe: Scotland with a group of friends via car, a trip to Berlin [the Berlin Wall had just come down that previous November- AMAZING] and for my Spring Break I took a trip through Spain with my roommate. I wanted to see where my dad's family came from and travel the country.

The trip itself was a comedy of errors and we ended up cutting it short by 2 days. The cheating through Spanish class? not so good for traveling! I was glued to my translation book the whole trip. On the plane ride there I figured out 2 phrases that I would need to know for sure: Where is the bathroom? and the second I can't quite remember, it was something related to eating. Obviously, the bathroom was a necessity.

The roommate and I got our Let's Go Spain book and plotted the trip. Fly to Barcelona rent a car and see the city. I might add that I had never seen a round-a-bout prior to this and was not prepared for what Barcelona had to offer. After our taxi cab ride-o-death I decided that driving was not an option but the roomie thought it was doable. She drove, I screamed a lot and held on for dear life. We got out of Barcelona alive and took the train to the eastern edge and were going to make stops along the book guide's suggestions.



I can tell you the two positive things that still stay with me about that trip [I think there were only two really] The Paella I had in one of those little towns [which I can't remember which one] and the city of Sevilla which was beautiful and amazing.

The Paella though....I love good food and I don't know whether it was that I was so incredibly hungry that day or whether it was that amazing but the Paella was to. die. for. We ventured down a small street to a cafe that, in the window had a pan probably 4 feet wide in the window with mounds of seafood and chicken and saffron rice. We walked in and mimed and pointed our way through ordering and sat down to a plate of heaven. I've never had it since.


I got this catalog in the mail today of the "foods of Spain" the normal Jamon, cheese and olive oil but then there was the page, the Paella page and I got to remembering that meal. I'm nervous to buy the kit, that it won't be the same - but of course it won't be the same! I've had 20 years to make it grander in my mind than ever. But I really want to try it. Wouldn't it be fun? Throw a giant dinner party and make my own giant vat of love!

Boutique Periodicals

You'll remember this in about 5 years from now that I mentioned this term but Boutique Periodicals are the super next thing. It's not a new concept and there are already a handful of groovy people that are serving up some killer work. Like Purple, a French magazine that I've been obsessed with for the past 10+ years is finally getting it's dues thanks to some others that have hit the market in the past couple of years.

Do you recognize this man? It's my creepy guy-crush Vincent Gallo. You know, I know talent when I see it.



Others that I've not purchased due to my budget fashionista status:
The Last Magazine which is really a book about these people, Visionaire a limited edition publication who's recent issue is also available super-duper exclusive in it's own Goyard Trunk, and V magazine the baby sister of Visionaire which is meant for peons like me who can't afford the real thing.

Maybe Santa will bring me the little V Magazine?

Dear Santa, I want to be cool too. I promise to be good and clean up my room.
-Richie

On the bright side...

I've decided I'm only posting happy, shiny things here. Not that I ever did post doom and gloom but I think especially now, don't you think? Lets all pinky-swear to happy, shiny stuff.

Harry Winston, my jewelry boyfriend, the one with the giant rocks in the window? He should be having a sale soon. I'll omit all the stuff that explains why it's going to happen or you can read it here, but it's the basics of supply and demand and some $$ ugly things that we won't talk about. But DIAMONDS should be going down in price by about 15% next year. How thoughtful of them to do that and just in time for my 40th birthday. They are just SO SWEET!

In theory I love this

I immediately bent the corner of this page today of my Anthroplogie catalog. I always love the look of their clothes but either I'm not blonde enough, or not skinny enough, something not enough...but their clothes never seem to work live and in person on me. If it did this one would be $98 - color is lovely I might add.

How many pairs of black shoes do you own?

I had to talk myself out of buying my 20th pair of black shoes this weekend.
It's an illness really. I mean they go with everything! what am I suppose to do...I'm bargin hunting and they're 20$ [orginally $70ish]. I mean plueeze... perfectly cutie little flats too. I put them back like a good girl.


How many pairs do you own? Please make me feel better.

Right now...

Right Now...I can't believe it's the middle of November already. Where did the time go?
Right Now...My tummy is doing very weird things.
Right Now...I don't have anything good or sparkily to show you except this photo
Right Now...I'm looking forward to yoga class tomorrow
Right Now...I'm dreaming of a new website for myself with e-commerce
Right Now...I want someone to get married so I can make this really fabulous invitation I have in my head.
Right Now...I'm thinking of cutting my hair off again but I'm suppose to be growing it out.
Right Now...I want to read Perez Hilton and avoid my work.
Right Now...you're probably bored of reading this dumb post.

sparkily lights via this person

Sparkily Goodness

I'm in a sparkily kind of mood lately. I think the brooch at the bottom is my fav


Kate Spade Lady Marmalade ball Charm Bracelet $255


JCrew's crystal chain necklace $55


JCrew's Giant Starburst Ring $68


Banana Republic's Crystal Floral Ring $49



Banana Republic's Pave Star Brooch$39.00

4 gold stars - JCrew Pencil denim skirt

Yah I've been wanting this for a while now and finally splurged and purchased a week ago at full price. I just realized as I'm posting this that it's on sale now. This is why I don't buy anything full price... IT WILL ALWAYS GO ON SALE!! But anyway.

Total cutie 50's pencil style, very a la Mad Men [TV show for those who don't know] hint of stretch [brilliant] makes me feel skinny. Enough said right? Go get em now...but remember no returns on sale items!


*post: The lovely boy who answered the phone adjusted my bill. Sale on!!

Today I'm proud

Lately I haven't been a proud American, I've been a Canada-doesn't-sound-so-bad-sort-of-American. I'm embarrassed to say that, but I've been embarrassed by what's unfolding here in the past few years. Today, I am so proud though. Today, I went to my polling place and stood in line for 40 min. All of us were excited and happy to be there. We finally give a sh*t. We finally feel like there is a chance to make a difference.

No matter who you're voting for I think it's clear to say that we all have hope.

Finally.

Speaking of Mascara...

A big fat No, on Covergirl's exact eyelights didn't do a thing for me. No length, brush is too chubby, didn't notice the "color enhancement" at all.



But a huge thumbs up on Loreal's Carbon Black Telescopic Mascara. Makes them super-duper long. Good Brush, little to no clumping