~A moment with a Mad Creator~

Hello my lovelies! I have so much to tell you, but not much time to do it, so I will have to just tell you one thing at a time.

This past weekend I accompanied my mother to the Once Upon a Time Bookstore in Montrose (super cute little area outside LA) to see her favorite illustrator Gris Grimly! His artwork is all in the spirit of Halloween, as it's mostly gruesome characters based on the work of Edgar Allen Poe, Washington Irving and classic old monster movies!

We have met Mr. Grimly several times before, as my mother owns most of the books he has illustrated, some of which he also penned himself too, and we've pretty much gotten all of them signed over the years. However, this encounter was our first of which included this Mad Creator speaking about his work, answering questions and even drawing a few of our favorite characters!

It was really cool, and so is this truly talented artist. My favorite part of the afternoon was when he was asked to describe why he illustrates, why he draws, and he summed it up so nicely. He just said, 'I think I have to, it's my passion, it keeps me going.' I felt inspired to continue doing what I have to do, and what I am passionate about.

Check out Gris Grimly's website and his blog, and if you are so inclined, he is showing his work this Halloween weekend at the Magic Castle in Hollywood. Details are on his website. This is one Mad Creator definitely worth checking out!

{stunning silhouette}

I like the current popularity of silhouettes. I know people have always been framing silhouettes of family and friends, but I have noticed lately (particularly in home decor magazines, and etsy; things I check more frequently than the news and the weather) that silhouettes are back in style, big time. So not being one to shy away from the bandwagon, I hopped right on!

I went ahead and worked some silhouetting magic of my own and framed a silhouette of me and one of the boy and hung them on the living room wall (you can kind of see them in the photo from the previous post.) For something so stylish it's an incredibly simple process. And now I can feel part of the "in-crowd" of home decorators. It's very good.

Now when I was a small child at school, we made silhouettes of ourselves to give to our parents by sitting in front of the lit overhead projector, while a parent volunteer traced our shadow onto a sheet of paper. Looking back, I feel like that was a bit overly complicated, but then again, we didn't each have iphoto and photoshop and all that good stuff to make it so simple. Here is how I made these delightful works of art this time around:

1. Take a picture in profile
2. Upload to your computer and resize photo to desired size (I made mine about 7 X 9)
3. Print photo
4. Cut out profile
5. Trace onto black paper
6. Mount onto red paper (or whatever color you like)
7. Frame, hang and be merry!

Maps...they don't love you like I love you...

Finally I have gotten our living room wall completely decorated...well there's still room for more, but I am happy with the way it looks at the moment. We decided to embrace the fact that we have traveled the world to be together and we went for a map/travel theme of sorts. I framed some maps we found, clustered around a painting of two people meeting at a train station. (It reminds me of a poem we had read at our wedding.) Then I included some of my nicer photos of places we've traveled here in Cali and voila! The room was complete! What do you think?

Christmas A' Coming!

A few nights ago, the boy and I hunkered down for an evening home viewing of Christmas in Connecticut, starring Barbara Stanwyck. It was very cute and entertaining and it left us both with the desire to watch yet another festive classic, It's a Wonderful Life!

I absolutely love that movie, as does the boy. It still makes me cry, even though I have probably seen it about a hundred times.

So it was something of a holiday movie marathon and got me really excited about the upcoming season. Can't wait to start wrapping presents and sending Christmas cards!

{sweet tooth}

A while back, I stumbled upon a bottle of wine in Ralph's that had a label too cute to pass up! In accordance to the whole cupcake craze (which I support wholeheartedly) there is now a Cupcake Chardonnay on the market from the fashionably named Cupcake Vineyards.

In my opinion, it's better than your average dessert! And went so well with the chicken picata masterpiece I cooked for the boy the other day. If you are a fan of the vino (and over 21 of course) I highly recommend you try this whimsical bottle!

You give me a boot!

With the recently cooler weather, I feel like I just want to snuggle up in cozy sweaters and comfy fluffy socks. It also tends to bring out my strong desire to don some new fashionable boots. I am not sure why this desire seems to overtake me each year like clockwork, but so it goes. Another fall season, another hankering for new boots! This year, this is the pair that caught my eye~


Cute huh? Happy Sunday!

Breakfast for Dinner

I feel so lucky cause the boy was kind enough to make me a special meal for dinner. He said I could have anything I wanted and I wanted breakfast!

The boy made me eggs, vegetarian bacon and sausage and finished it off with a nice toasted bagel. It was so good, I could have managed seconds! And it even included a nice Viognier (a beverage I definitely wouldn't have gotten at breakfast.) It was mm..mmm...good!

Anna Sui for Target

A few weeks ago, I was walking through Target (otherwise known as my "happy place") when I noticed a slew of adorable, slightly strange, unconventional and totally cute dresses which immediately grabbed my attention. I stopped and reached new levels of shopping bliss with the realization that these dresses, skirts and blouses were the handiwork of one of my favorite designers: Anna Sui.

I was enthralled by the sophisticated cuts, the bright autumnal colors and the baby-doll whimsy in these pieces that so notably sets Anna apart from other designers. And the fact that all this can be found at Target further spurred my excitement. Finally an Anna Sui ensemble I can afford! I was beyond elated.

Among the collection, I found the perfect dress for Thanksgiving. Cute. Kinda Retro. Bright colors. Makes me look thin. It fit all the necessary requirements. Plus, the name on the tag made it even more fabulous! Now just a quick look at the price and I'd be all set to hit the register...

And that's when I felt the painful stab of Target's betrayal. Sixty bucks for a dress in Target? Kinda steep in my opinion. I am so disappointed at the fact that, being a starving artist, a sixty dollar dress is currently out of my price range, even if it is Anna Sui. The perfect Anna Sui Thanksgiving outfit is going to have to wait for a few more paychecks...and hopefully a lottery win. But in the meantime, even if I can't buy, I can look, right? Sooo pretty!

Engagement Session

Wanna be inspired? Wanna see some gorgeous photos? Wanna see two people so adorably in love with each other it's almost too sweet to look at without getting a cavity? Check out my brother and his fiance's engagement session taken by the brilliant Mary Frances Photography. It's truly beautiful and charming work. Mary is definitely a photographer on the rise! Just click here to take a gander.

Broccoli is always jealous of cauliflower...

Hey blog readers,

Sometimes being gracious and pleasant is hard.

Sometimes I feel overworked and under appreciated.

Sometimes I wish people would recognize hard work and extra consideration when they see it.

Sometimes I eat more than I should.

Sometimes I can't help but worry about my appearance.

Sometimes I feel jealous when people take my advice and do a better job of executing it than I can.

Sometimes I wish I was wealthy.

Sometimes I get discouraged.

Sometimes I feel lost.

But anytime I feel any of these ways I know the boy is there for me and I ALWAYS feel very blessed and very loved!

{black swan}

Still reeling from last night's performance by Thom Yorke at the Orpheum Theater in downtown LA. Sooooo good! And I was sleepy and cranky enough to spoil any performance, yet Thom's music combined with his weird and charming dance moves proved to be just what I needed to pull me from my exhausted funk. Flea on bass didn't hurt either (how a man his age can head-bang like that is truly baffling while being strangely life affirming.) It was good stuff!

who doesn't like Coco

I do want to see this film~

Movie Geek

I don't usually rent videos. The boy is generally the one in charge of any movie rentals, or netflix films we acquire and I try not to give much input. You see, he has very high standards for cinema and I tend to be a little more forgiving towards the more mundane, stupid movies. That's not to say I consider 13 Going on 30 a classic or something, but I see that movies such as that have their own time and place. Sometimes I want nothing more than to sit back, relax and watch a silly and completely improbable Rom-Com starring two ridiculously attractive people, neither of whom have anything better to worry about than the only truly interesting issue in their lives: Romance or a lack thereof.

However, just the other day I accompanied the boy to Hollywood Video where I took the reins and insisted I partake in rental choices. I did not have a successful renting experience and hence shall return to taking a passive role in the quest for broadening our movie viewing experience.

I failed firstly by renting Gigantic. Described as a comedy and starring some of my favorite actors (Zooey Deschanel, Paul Dano, and John Goodman) this film lacked any kind of interesting plot, characters or purpose. How it managed to even make it to Hollywood Video shall remain one of the dark mysteries of the film industry.

And speaking of dark mysteries, my strike two movie rental was Dark Streets. I am not sure what prompted me to pick this one; I guess it's my love for the movie musical and my relentless quest to find a gem in the current film landscape. This was not that gem. This was not even a nice looking bit of granite. This was utter crap; lame story, poorly acted, executed, sung and danced (if dance can even be what it's called, not sure that I can use that term for the disgraceful wiggling that sullied the screen.)

My third film choice was my only saving grace. Having never seen it, I rented The Red Shoes and absolutely loved it! Can't believe I hadn't seen this film till now. It will definitely need to be added to the boy and mine's dvd collection. Clearly a much higher quality of cinema than my other rentals, and thank goodness for that, or I'd really have to admit that the boy is right and I am incapable of making movie rental choices!

{Finally Fall}

So there is the faintest chill in the air and I don't feel the overpowering need to blast the AC every time I get in my car, which means that the autumnal season has finally descended upon Los Angeles! Or at least it's as autumnal as it gets here in LALA Land, which still keeps the thermometer above 66 degrees. But even still, I feel festive and want to drape myself in cozy sweaters and skirts and tights and cute boots all in shades of orange, brown and taupe. I have put the fall wreath on the door, thus making said season change official. Happy Fall!