Mon Petit Palais

Couldn't resist--I scored this doormat and other items below this morning from my daily OKL sales. I am having so much fun with M adding special pieces to the apartment, and I love that these each have a story. I think I may actually get TOO emotionally connected as a consumer, as I'm very picky until I find something that hits all the marks, and then I "invite" that piece into my home [clearly a sacred and exclusive club], and I have to look at it every day...so yeah, it had better have been worth the purchase. Also it should be noted that I am not a hoarder and I fight an internal battle between  a) the joy of having "new stuff" that makes your home sparkle and  b) the even greater joy of finding elation in non-material things. But perhaps the most fun is thinking about new ways to share our place [and its hot tub--rawr] with friends for upcoming occasions, as isolation with one's purchases does not a happy home make. Sharing and giving = happiness; please refer to previous post.

This pillow was selected by Nathan Turner of Bravo's Million Dollar Decorators from a collection of his favorite accessories from India. The ikat pattern is inspiring. Gives me the desire-to-travel itch [the good kind].

So naturally when I do take my next voyage, I'll be using these Greek-inspired luggage tags from Jonathan Adler's eponymous label. He used to be a potter before his foray into interior design, and I've always thought he was so effective with color and pattern, in a world where pattern can be clutter to the eyes. I could probably be happy just sitting in my room watching my luggage wear these tags...ok, so that's a lie--I'll go somewhere far away, and I'll miss you, and I'll write to you with these:

He just had to go a step further and provide the matching Greek stationery. These presh pear-pattern envelopes say "You're Pearfect," so naturally I could not pass up a pun, in green, on a notecard. Sold.

When I return from this as-of-now-fictitious trip, you'll come over, and we'll share a bottle of wine from this decanter. This one is made by a sweet little brand called Kiss That Frog--they import French-themed decor pieces, and they make me feel like wine and cheese would be appropriate at ten o'clock in the morning at my workplace. I don't feel justified in calling myself a Francophile, having never been to France, but I so look forward to when I will one day visit. Until then, I will watch House Hunters International and cry that I don't have a vineyard in my backyard, or a 12th-century wood burning oven on which to bake a pizza, or a natural spring bathing pool in my hallway. One day.

[Interested in joining the One King's Lane site and browsing the sales? Click here. You're Welcome. You'd think they were paying me to write these by now, but I seriously swear that I just enjoy discounted pillows and things.]

By the way: all of the above, combined, cost a smidge over one large. In my world, that's $100. Including delivery.

HIATUS SCHMIATUS.

I am ready to write again. New title, spiffed up the layout, as new editing technologies altogether have been invented since the last time I wrote...

After my last posting--San Francisco in November 2009--I left my job in special events & nightlife and headed home for the holidays, no strings attached. I returned to LA with a lovely buzz from Christmas and New Year's in Texas, but like clockwork, reality suckerpunched me in the face the moment I walked outside at LAX. I've gotten used to it but I would never recommend that high a dosage of irate and reckless drivers, smoke, and loud noises to anyone. Regardless, I was home, and I didn't have a plan past getting in the taxi.

The way I recall it, I spent about a month or two doing some heavy interviewing and meeting with recruiters, and ended up being placed at the architecture firm where I work now. I assist a partner here with business development, and am witness to some really amazing projects. I always thought it would be fun to work at a firm like this, so I'll recognize that perhaps I've ended up exactly where I needed to be.

I'm looking back at my calendar now to remember, as it seems like such a long time ago. Over the course of 2010: I took on some consulting work for a vibrant Norwegian company, worked in a Golden Globes styling suite, enjoyed some themed bus parties, joined a gym I love, went to San Diego with some great girlfriends, took a wonderful trip to wine country and as a result joined a wine club, ran a 10k, saw a Broadway show, went to a live taping of my favorite show, saw Lady Gaga in concert, did some choreography in Virginia, went to Australia, produced a short film, saw some dear friends take their vows in marriage, took a boat to Catalina, went to Santa Cruz, went ON a cruise...so I look back with appreciation and joy at all I was able to fit in that year. Unbelievable!

Then came 2011, which so far has felt fractured and too open-ended for my taste. I find myself single, working in a new field, in a new apartment and with a renewed desire to make some sense of it. I've left it in that state until about a week ago, so I haven't felt like writing because it would've been for a lack of having any content or anything I wanted to share. It would have been a little false.

I am, however, of the strong belief that God sometimes provides us an empty canvas not to remind us of what we haven't already created, or of what we don't have (when others around us seem to have it all), but rather to see what we can do with our paint. I, for one, have taken this challenge literally by filling my life with new colors: this purse in yellow, blue pillows for my new room that remind me of vacations, and this tomato red throw blanket for a little kick. And, if you can believe it, I have scraped myself off the floor to do more than just buy things in primary colors.

I hope to bring some of my favorite city highlights to this blog, albeit not all of them completely impersonal. A little sarcasm here and a little feigned interest there will add up to a savory collection, full of texture, I just know it! Friends, as the renewed goal of my writing is to expound on the parts of this city (and other cities) that I incorporate into my own home, I will do my utmost to make it great time for the senses.

San Francisco

As I packed my bags in the wee hours of the morning, I really didn't know how much a departure I was in for. Thank god.

On an impulse, my traveling partner and I made a snap decision to fly up for the weekend, and it could not have been a better getaway, all things considered. Not one thing reminded me of my day-to-day (a millionth of the billboards and a billion times more character and stature) and it was wholly satisfying. Hot chowder, smells of holiday candles, cheese pizza, pad see-ew at a last minute Thai dive...

...lights on Union square, ice skating rink, real parks, steaming manholes, multiple methods of transportation...

It was really a gift to have the pleasure of such a fulfilling couple of days. I bought a warm sweater and a magnet for my roomate, and I brought back a better mentality, to boot.

Which is the point, over and over again: bring those beloved places and times into your life in every waking moment.
I don't want to think about whether there is any other way to do it. Always buy a magnet.

let's start simple all over again.

today i am getting done those last few things i needed to before my holiday-im sitting at one of my usual starbucks, watching everyone else do their christmas thang--writing cards, checking facebook, emailing, having what looks to be a cocoa-tasting club, people having an AA meeting...it's happy holidays in los angeles.

since getting the macbook, i have been super into being control freak organized, but it's yielding good things so far. last night i finished cleaning my closet and gutting the contents that i really do not use--i took eleven large bags to goodwill this morning and had a really weird encounter at the first of two locations. i pulled in the loading dock, after calling to make sure they were accepting donations, and they turned me away--it was really awkward and i couldn't really tell why they were sending me away? for some reason, following that, i had a minor panic attack because my car was full up to my eyeballs and i drove a few miles east and found another on santa monica blvd by the 405.

and that worked out fine, and that's what's important. i hope that some of what i brought finds its way to those who could use it. i am so sick of STUFF...

but what i am excited about is:

my roomate melissa and spending more time with her
HOME and Baton Rouge and Croatia over the coming weeks!
My new bangs
clean closet
all my christmas cards were sent out, save a few that i'm delivering in person
getting back into what i consider acceptable training shape
saving $$
seeing my dog!
my cashmere scarf
cancelling accounts and services i no longer use (yeah so WHAT if i'll be pale from no tanning and will only have one cell phone not three...simplify!)
cooking tonight
my tiny tiny christmas tree in my apartment

after i finish writing im going to sprint to cancel my ancient 323- account. after that, all that's left on my list is to transfer over new music to the iTouch for the plane ride, and laundry, and cooking dinner. and packing. only thing that kinda worries me is that i'd like to pack superminimally but it's so hard to tell--it's colder in eastern europe and im gone for weeks. but why worry! i feel blessed and happy right now.

i would like to use my blog for more themed entries moving forward.

love xo
a

Just the daily...

...affirmations.

-I will learn to cook a steak.
-I will visit Monterey, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and Carmel by the end of 2009.
-I will keep up this healthy kick. I will lose 10 lbs.
-I will start looking for music for my choreography in a few months. NOT the night before the redeye.
-I will budget. Not stupid-strict but enough to keep the savings growing.
-I already paid off all my credit cards--plan on keeping it that way.
-I will begin to learn French and will brush up on my Latin/Greek and Irish Gaelic.
-I will plan a vacation for Melissa and me.
-I will not XXXXXXXXXX anymore. Not ever. Never. No.
-I will set more drinks and dinners at new places.
-I will go to Harvelle's and back to Foxtail.
-I will take more pictures.

That's it!

Oh on a sidenote...have been brainstorming ideas for a book. I want to start writing, and am FIGHTING to not go front to back, cover to cover, from title to last sentence. I need to do more thinking but am ready to lay down a structure. I have a couple ideas I'm mulling around but I think the one with promise would be:

a collection of my observations on moving West, staying put, or just general self-promotion for this generation. Looking at my peers, it is abundantly clear to me that we are spread across the country, some of us started West, some Mid, some East...no matter the birthplace, we have the option of choosing a trajectory and in the fame-game you must move West.

Some of us are held like a dead deer in a barb wire fence (or pulled up by the conviction to start one's own "settled" family...whatever your perspective), in any-city-USA where people in their early twenties start a family and shed some selfishness. If you don't end up wrapped in shrapnel--ok happily married--somewhere, you finally arrive West and realize that if you don't KILL yourself and stomp on the shoulders of others in order to climb up and up and up to FAMOUS/SUCCESSFUL/BEAUTIFUL....you don't run into any more barb wire fences. You fall straight into the ocean.

And then you wander the rest of the world and focus your "self" inward, not propagated outward. You learn about communities and cultures that are not indulgently USA-ish. You live with less. You stop eating preservatives and although you drink more, you are the thinnest you've ever been because you actually walk. You see history from not hundreds but from thousands of years ago. You have lovers and friends and new families that you leave just as easily as you met.

You understand that success is self-realized, and can never come from other people...Then you either return to New York and start the journey West again, if you have the energy. If not, you peacefully surrender to fall into whatever fence will love you back and provide stability. You're stuck there but at least you know where you are.

So for those who stay West, who need need need to see and be seen by Important People, a platform that is different than from any other time in history exists. We viral and blog and advertise what we are willing to sell the world. We try to be thinner and more interesting than we really are. It is the responsibility of the West to be difficult, fatal even.

And I am not sure yet what the West or the world gives back. Am reflecting on that and would honestly like to develop what I can about this pattern, but I have a horrible tendency to generalize and pigeonhole. All a part of my process though.

Hm. That was a lengthy footnote.

More later...