Saying Goodbye to Summer

    As I start this post, please know that I mean summer as lightly as possible... Today is November 13th, and it was 81 degrees in Los Angeles.  I hate to complain about the weather, but I am very much jonesing for some layering weather.
    This year I really tried to make the most of my summer... I just wanted to recap some of the highlights!

First trip of the summer was to Santa Barbara!!!

The Beach!

Bikes bikes bikes

    Andrea and I have been best friends for 15 years this fall and we decided to celebrate with a wine tour in the San Ynez valley. It was amazing.  I can't say enough about how much I needed this break after a VERY long season of my show this year.

    Wine Tasting in Barnsdall Park!

Delicious wine with beautiful architecture in the background!

Complimented by one of my favorite couples!

Epic sunset and view of LA

    Once a month in the summer, there are wine tastings at Barnsdall Park, on the lawn of the Hollyhock House, which was built by Frank Lloyd Wright, one of my favorite architects. The setting is epic, the wine is amazing, and I never get to go!!! Its always on a Friday night, and I am always working. This year, I actually made it to one, and it was spectacular. Surprisingly, it was one of the more family friendly events I had been to in a long time. Lots of cute chubby little toddlers waddling around to DJ's while their parents lounged on blankets and sipped wine. It was so nice. 

Wilco and Neil Young (!!) at the Hollywood Bowl

Wilco getting ready to start!

The gang before the show!

Epic seats and sounds for Neil Young

    Its no secret that I love the Hollywood Bowl. I post about it every year. This time the lineup wasn't as amazing as I would have liked, but I did see two pretty outstanding shows. Wilco and Neil Young were both everything I had hoped they would be. Neil Young played forever, and just jammed out. You can tell he still has a solid love of performing. It was incredible. 

San Francisco, well it was just outstanding... but I think I talked enough in the last post.

Beautiful sunset while we walked.

Tea Tasting!

Chinatown

   Thank you summer/hiatus of 2012 for being so much fun and quite an adventure. I expect next year to be just as good...once the vampires go back to ground.

xo

CRAFT WEEKEND!!!!!

    Most of you in Los Angeles are aware that we are having an insane heat wave. Unbearable really. While you all were hitting the beach on friday and today, a couple friends and I were in my stuffy lil apartment crafting! Loralie from Ellenor Postmarked came over and we worked on the office closet doors and the backs of the Ikea shelves... I think you will all be impressed!

    Loralie went to the hardware store and got these particle boards just a little bit smaller than my Ikea shelves. We then rolled it out on to the boards and measured them with a little allowance on the sides to fold over. We then sprayed the boards with Super 77, a aerosol spray adhesive to attach the fabric. 

    

    The corners were folded over and then glued down with tacky glue. Which apparently I suck at. About this time my other friend Rose showed up to help and in the time I glued down one they cut and super 77ed the other two boards. I swear that glue requires hulk skills.

 While the glue was drying, we moved over to the larger task at hand... the office doors. 

    Now, In my mind, this was definitely going to be the easier part of the day. I was sadly mistaken. We  had planned to just roughly cut fabric close to the size of the squares, spray adhere them, and then exacto knife the edges to make the lines clean. So easy right? 

  We paper taped the borders and got all ready to go! I did two squares and as you can see, this photo is Rose, just about to do the first cut. This is when things went a little haywire. I didnt even think about the fact that we were using a really awesome fabric that had some of the properties of linen. The most important one being that it is many many tiny threads that can pull and snag very easily. Which is exactly what happened. It pulled off the corner, it frayed....

    This photo is about three minutes after I TORE the fabric square off the wall, threw it on the ground, stomped off the step stool and said angrily: "I'M HAVING A BEER!!!!" Such a patient girl, as always.

    Luckily for me, I was with two VERY patient and level headed girls that quickly put another plan into action.

    

    The plan was that we were just going to have to measure and cut each one very precisely and individually. Which meant both of my girls were going to give up a full afternoon (turned out working noon till 530, and then another two hours for Loralie and I on Sunday) to help. Awesome friends I have, awesome.

    As you can see here, soon it was assembly line central! Rose and I drilling the fabric covered boards to the back of the shelves, and Loralie cutting perfectly perfect sized fabric squares!

    It was so hot I talked Rose into having a beer with me...seriously bad ass with her beer and the drill. Art Department girls rock. 

    In the end, both projects turned out so amazingly stellar! I couldn't be happier with them. The Ikea shelves are now considerably more stable and insanly more chic. They even cover the cables so no more unsightly little wires peeking through! 

    I really really adore the office doors. I think it gives the illusion of having so much more depth. The girls were so exact with matching the patterns; if you look closely almost all of the lines match up! 

    I cant say enough how much of a fun process this has been. The living room is just about finished! Heres Loralie holding up the new light fixture that is going to be installed soon!

   These are the planned fabrics for the throw pillows! They are great tie-ins to all the other colors and patterns going on in the room! 

   Last, but certainly not least, I wanted to include a picture of my beautiful curtains made by my lovely and talented friend Laura Flett. If you remember, the original curtains were full panels of the chartreuse peacock feathers on the bottom. Loralie brought this great design to me about how to break up the pattern to keep if from being overwhelming. Laura Flett put the whole plan into action; and here they are: lovely, luxurious, elegant but very me drapes.

I love my apartment.

xo

New Sofa!

    Heres the latest edition to the great living room re-deux! Loralie sent me up a full color mock up of my room! Isn't it great? She used the Pantone Template we made a few weeks ago, and look how beautiful it is!!! Thats my living room!!

    So Loralie and I went in search of the perfect sofa. After going a few places, I fell in love with the Ikea Karlstad. I know, I know. Its Ikea. Honestly, it was my favorite of all the sofas we saw. The legs were a strange blond wood color that we both felt made it look cheap... but was easily remedied with a little spray paint! Ikea had same day delivery for only $59!! Sadly, they charged and sent me for the love seat and not for the sofa I wanted....enter Ikea's AMAZING customer service. They were so great and the next saturday they showed up at my house with the sofa, picked up the love seat, and didn't charge me for the difference because it was their error. WHAT?!! So lovely.

    It did come in A LOT of pieces in true Ikea style, and I now have a new respect for velcro. Thank god my friend Rose came and helped me assemble that bad boy. I have to say... I love it. I really do. Its incredibly comfortable, and in my opinon a steal for the price and value. And look how great it looks!!

    I am super excited for the curtains, pillows, and new light fixture (!!!!) we ordered!!!!  More to come, promise!

xo

Patterns Patterns Patterns

    Loralie from Ellenore Postmarked came by today to look at the progress of the apartment and to discuss what was next on our list of projects.  Its actually been a few days since I have been in my apartment during the day, so it was a nice reminder how warm and lovely the space is. I was looking at pictures of the apartment from just a few months ago... the change is awesome! 

before

before

after

after

    Its a whole new space. I love the pale pink color. Its strangely neutral for being pink and the light reflects so warmly off it. The rug is awesome too. I don't know if you can see it in the photos but the chevrons are all different widths and spacing. It has a somewhat chaotic feel to it that I love. I think it throws off the girliness a bit. I also really enjoyed how Loralie seemed to really be in love with the room as well. I know I know, she designed it, but she seemed genuinely tickled as to how it was coming along.  

We still have a few more projects for the room. First is the panels on the murphy closet. Loralie and I really like the idea of filling them with a pattern so they aren't so stark white. That fabric will also be used to cover a backing for the Ikea shelves so they feel less dorm room. Earlier in the week she dropped off some fabric samples. This is the one I fell in love with:

    Its actually more of a mustard yellow in real life. I feel like it will play off the pink really well. I also like that it goes with all my already very geometric feeling patterns.

    We also chose some fabric to make a few throw pillows as well. I love how it ties all the colors in the room together.  

    Next weekend we are going to go look for economical pet friendly sofas, aka what does Ikea have that is comfy and looks well made. In order to prepare for this adventure, I downloaded the pantone app onto my phone and snapped a few pics for swatches and color matching. The app is pretty incredible. You take a pic with your iPhone (sorry bb and android...not yet suckas!) and it color matches it for you. If the color doesn't seem exact, they also have all of their fandecks in the app and you can access them as well! I made a quick color palette and emailed it to Loralie and myself so we will have it handy on the day.

    Pretty cool right? The top is the Moroccan rug,  next the chevron rug, followed by the nailhead chairs, the walls and finally the awesome ottoman. I freaking love this app. for reals.  I hope you all have a nice easter. I am about to hop a plain the Arizona... travel safe and enjoy the weekend!

xo

My Favorite Golden Globes Dress

This year! I felt the fashion at the Golden Globes was pretty uninspiring. Not much to be excited about... especially Lea Michelle's figure skating costume. Gross!

That being said, Charlize Theron looked like a goddess. I really felt she was the only one who attended who truly looked amazing. Let's be honest, it's pretty hard to make her look anything but epic. This look just really enhanced all of her beauty.

Wearing a pale pink chiffon Dior Couture gown that had a deep plunging V, and a tiered and gathered ruffle panel to offset the length of the train and body really played off her height and long Amazonian legs. The color accented her skin perfectly.

The accessories are perfect: neither drawing too much attention to themselves, nor fading into the background. My favorite of which was the vintage 1920s Cartier headband. Simply. Stunning.

A True LA Experience

Last night, Julia and I decided to go get our nails done. We were close to Julia's house in the Valley, so she recommended s place she like where they served wine. Wine and Nails? Yes please.  So off we went to...

click me for info!

This is the back entrance... The one that Julia and I used. I was telling her a story as I opened the door and was quickly shooshed by a film crew. Thats right.  We walked right into a reality TV shoot.  RIGHT INTO THE FRAME of this show.

I think Julia wanted to leave, but I really wanted to get my nails done.  They made us sign releases, and we listened to the most ignorant, stereotyping, annoying conversation while we got our manicures.  I had made a huge mistake.  I have seriously lost brain cells due to this event. They made us sit on either side of the "wives"  so we are def going to be on camera during this episode. I was joking that I was going to put it on my IMDB account under "Uncredited annoyed patron."

This is of course after they left, and I am toasting Julia to the quiet and intelligence that came back in the joint. The manicure itself is really cute, hand mixed combo of coral with red glitter. Thats right. I like the glitter. 

***Upon inspection of their website, it appears that The Painted Nail is the mecca for reality TV. All sorts of "wives" get filmed there. They even have their OWN reality show about to premiere. So gross. Would I go back? Maybe...I really like my polish. Only if I can be OFF CAMERA.

xo

My New Hood

    For the past few years I have lived in West Hollywood. This is dead smack in the center of LA proper. Is really cute and safe and known for being the Gay district. I love it there. My show is based out of there. I walked all over to Melrose and biked with Aidan quite a bit, but there were two rather large problems.
    The first is that the apartments are TINY for what you are paying. Obscenely really. I would spend all weekend out just so I wouldn't have to be in my small closet of a one bedroom. And I have three pets. You can only imagine the clean up.
    The second, and I wont go into this to extensively was the evil queen who lived below me. And I do mean evil. He would text me when I was at work and tell me my television was too loud, or that Aidan was barking when I knew for sure he was with the dog walker. Finally, I realized it was time to go.

  

Now I live in Thai Town, which is basically East Hollywood. It not quite as safe, but the apartment is almost twice as big for less money a month. Its has old Hollywood character with archways and built in cubbies.  Aidan loves that he has room to play fetch and the kitties solarize in front of the large glorious windows all day. My sister came to visit and told me the best part about this apartment was that you didn't have to sit sideways on the toilet. I hadn't realized how much smaller my other apartment really was.

Another fabulous part of my new building is the roof. This is my awesome friend and neighbor from upstairs Andrea. The roof is amazing and I promise to post more photos of the amazing views of downtown and the observatory. Andrea and I come up here and share a bottle of wine and just bask in the craziness that is Los Angeles. We are just a block from Hollywood Blvd, but from up here it is quiet and feels quite removed from the city.

I have made it a habit ever since I first became single to buy myself flowers every week. There is the cutest little flower shop just a few blocks away called the secret garden. Its on a really industrial block but its a tiny oasis. I like to get hot pink dahlias. They are so crazy vibrant and make me smile every time i look at them.




    There is so much to do and see in this new part of town...I want to tell you all about it. First I will take better pics so you can check it out too!

xo