Goodbye 2007!

It was a good year. Is it possible to top it? Looking back....

- Filled our house with friends & family we love.
- Paid off my student loans.
- Played Beck's Timebomb so loudly & often my ears hurt.
- Turned the big 3-0.
- Saw my brother play Carnegie Hall.
- Made red velvet cupcakes for the first time.
- Acquired my first Prada party dress (for the Golden Globes!)
- Celebrated the Angels clinching the series with the team.
- Spent a week working for E! News. Check it out
- Played the best game of "I Never" (at Friday's party!)
- Competed in a "drag" race & beat a drag queen! Watch the race.
- Met wonderful bloggers & friends & learned so much from all of you.

I'm sure there were bad memories too, but my mind tends to forget the bad stuff. Oh, here's a recent one.

- Saw a coyote nearly eat my cat Audrey, but we scared it away. Thank goodness.

Can't wait for 2008!
The image up top is from Shag's "LA By Night" show. It's titled "The Assassin"

Vampire Weekend

My older brother Jerry introduced me to all sorts of different music in the 80's. I especially loved when he played Ska.

Vampire Weekend has the same Jamaican influences & sounds like a mix of English Beat, Paul Simon & a sprinkle of The Beatles.

IMHO the band has an unfortunate name, but I love every song I've heard by them.

Go to their website to have a listen. Their album comes out in a month.

www.vampireweekend.com

I Left My Tastebuds in NY

So few days in NY, so many restaurants!
Thank you to Ann at Redacted Recipes. She's a New Yorker and expert foodie. She's spot on!
She directed me to Eleven Madison Park - You don't find many restaurants like this in LA. It's like L' Orangerie and Patina - restaurants that are now history in El Lay. Here was my first course...

The beet salad. Aren't the cubes cute? They were just as delicious.

Our dinners - beef with lobster top left, chicken top right with foam (couldn't help but think of Marcel on Top Chef) and the bottom rectangular brick is my suckling pig.
The little dollop to the left is plum I believe? It was sweet & cut the flavor of the pig perfectly.

The desserts were my favorite. (the beets were a close second.) The top right is a pineapple souffle with green tea ice cream... a pear dessert is in front of me, and a chocolate treat to the top left. Order the pineapple dessert!

Below is a photo of Bar 89 in SoHo. We stumbled across it when our feet were tired & we needed a pick me up. Their martinis come in the largest glasses! They have bathrooms that are see-through until you lock the door. Imagine when people forget to lock!

We also tried...
Lure: We flew in late our first night, jetlagged and without reservations. We asked our concierge (at 60 Thompson) for a nearby recommendation and he steered us to Lure. It is across from the Mercer Hotel & the food was good. The most memorable part was stepping down into the restaurant and you're in a ship.
Balthazar: Still my fave restaurant in the world. So French, elegant yet casual. Love it! We had lunch - the pineapple upside down cake was more like a tart & was simply the best I've ever tasted.
We took pics at a few other places.. I'll post those soon!

Everyone Loves a Party

Robert & I are hosting a little shindig on Friday. Totally last-minute, which leaves me with no pressure. It's a nice treat amidst working & trying to celebrate the holidays all at once.

I love the film Moulin Rouge. One of my favorite scenes is when Kylie Minogue pops in as the green fairy and they sing about Freedom... beauty...truth...and love!

That is going to be the theme for our party. I can't wait to see who drops by. I'm still trying to figure out how to decorate & what to cook up as appetizers...

Back from NY!

What a whirlwind. So much to write about! I just flew in last night, so I'll start slowly.
Let's start with Bergdorf Goodman's holiday windows. That store is such a source of beautiful visual inspiration. It's kind of like Barney's, but with so much more. Why don't we have it in LA?
I snapped these photos quickly in the rain, & a quick google search revealed why I was so drawn to them. Inspired by Tony Duquette!

Click here for more on Bergdorf Goodman's site.
I snapped a few shots of Kelly Wearstler's wares. It's in a tiny cubby-sized space on the 7th floor.

The gold trinkets start around $250 and go up quickly from there.

More to come! :)

Party Time, Excellent

Not just a quotable from Wayne's World, but the text of a chic invitation I just spied at Orange Beautiful's etsy shop. I crave the Party Time Excellent cards for Robert's birthday... sure, it's not til next November, but in all fairness, he deserves a party.

You can buy em & other great holiday cards here: www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=8440661

They list it as
*LIMITED EDITION :: scha-wing!*

Autumn de Wilde

My husband - as usual - told me about photographer Autumn de Wilde. She lives in Silver Lake and photographs indie artists including one of my absolute faves - Jenny Lewis.

If I had the means, I'd buy the one below with Jenny & the little girl. So girly, I can already imagine it in my upstairs hallway leading to the bedrooms.

I love this ice cream one with the Watson Twins.

How cute are her little shorts? I'm rocking out to one of their songs - Breakin Up - it's so dancey I didn't realize it's a anthem about being dumped. It's so good, it kind of makes being dumped sound like fun! Click here to watch a live performance on MTVu.

Ooh. Ah! Feels good to be free! Ooh. Ah! Feels good to be free!

I wish this song was around when I got dumped & only had Alanis Morrisette to turn to. Perhaps I wouldn't have been so bitter?

Wishful Thinking

A great art show called Wishful Thinking is running at Project Gallery in Culver City. Original artworks at great prices - $100 to around $200.


Above is titled "When It Snows in Brooklyn" - $125 by Dan-Ah Kim.

Also by Dan-Ah Kim - "Inside Out" for $125.

This lovely bird already found a new home by Susie Ghahremani.

Above is by Melissa Contreras. "Moonbeams in a Jar" for $200.

Leanne Biank created this cute "Boston Terrier 1" above for $200.

"Lonely Christmas" above sold by Arthur Tien. Not so lonely anymore.

Cole Gerst made the "Wooden Deer" $100. Robert is ordering it right after I post this. We get deer in our backyard once in a while.



"Oh Christmas Tree" above is so Tim Burtonish and by Keith Noordzy. Just $100. All of the sales benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Handy if you haven't donated to charity this year!

W&R Snapshots

I had so much fun at W&R's party! So much fun catching up & meeting friendly people that I didn't get nearly enough photos to do the party justice.

Here's a sample though. The mantle in their showroom decked out with peacocks, bright blue foo lions and one of April Brimer's photos overhead. She was there and April is very nice & cute as a button.

The second photo is a close up of one of the tables. Those precious little birds were everywhere! Aren't they adorable? I couldn't resist holding the fluffy one in my hand.

I love the bedside table with the bow pulls. There's a matching dresser that's so 50's fabulous.

Eye-Candy Party

Ron Woodson & Jaime Rummerfield are having their holiday party tonight at their showroom. (They designed mi casa). In the top photo, that's their insanely talented Project Manager Patrick Ediger, Jaime's the middle, and Ron is on the right. What to wear? They are so stylish.

I can't wait to see how they've made over the showroom for the party. It's like a little house featuring fabulous little vignettes everywhere. They go all out during the holidays & are featuring works by April Brimer.

Here's April's blog: Her title is Strange Magic. Can you believe it?!

http://www.aprilbrimer.com/blog.html

It starts at 6, but I'm going to dinner first... If you go, come say hi to me!

Shadow Box Ornaments

I just bought the top ornaments (vintage repros from Kurt S. Adler) to go with my other authentic vintage shadow box ornaments. You can see the little white flower in the blue prism-like case. He's one of many my friend.

I'm obsessed with these ornaments. I think it began as a child. I always admired miniatures & loved to gaze at the detail on a tiny nativity ornament that hung on our family tree.

Now I'm eyeing these below on ebay... Click on the pic below to try and outbid me.

Just you try.

Benjamin's Bombastic Designs

First of all, I love his name. Benjamin Noriega-Ortiz. Then there are his designs, just as rich and fun as saying his name. These photos were taken from his website at http://www.bnodesign.com/.

How genius are the pink flamingos in the first photo? I love that it doesn't feel so precious as expensive sculptures that look eager to tip over.

The second pair of photos is from the Mondrian in Scottsdale, Arizona. I love the Dorothy Draper-inspired look.

The third pair is giving me serious inspiration for my master bedroom and bath. I'd like to overhaul mine sometime soon.

The last photo looks like it's floating underwater. I think it might be a rendering rather than a photo though.

You've Got Mail

I'm very excited to mail my holiday cards today. I love how they turned out!

The outside has a great peppermint print and when you open it the colors look great with our photo. The stickers came with them. Aren't they darling too?

I bought them online using Kodak Photo Gallery. It's from Martha Stewart's line. You have to fold each one, but it was worth the work.

Affordable Pretty Prints

These simple and so pretty prints are between $10 and $20 by Shelli who owns Studio Mela.
She has an etsy shop here.

Also check her flickr account with great photos of what's she's working on at http://www.flickr.com/photos/studiomela/

Trellis-Inspired Paper

Do you love Kelly Wearstler's iconic Imperial Trellis fabric and wallpaper as much as I do? Now I can wrap gifts with paper kinda like it... yet more delicate and sweet than bold.
Retta Le Ritz just sent it my way. It's hand-illustrated and would look chic tied in white satin ribbon. The rolls sell for $7.80.
Check out lots and lots more at www.rettaleritz.com