Molto grazie to my friend Timothy Morezenti at Bulgari for including me in the launch of the Matthew Williamson Capsule Collection. I really adore to see a new design that embodies what I, as a designer love – the process. Whenever I look at something like the offering of Williamson and Bulgari I see the entire design process in my mind and how they came to this multifacted (pardon the pun) collection of exquisite handbags. The entire group follows a hexagonal shape, a kaleidoscopic pattern with peacock feathers, diamonds, and colored gems. I love that every detail is so finished in every bag from the guaffrage leather to the faceted gem shaped clasps.
The luncheon itself was truly delightful – I met some absolutely fabulous new fashionista friends and savored each course of wonderful Italian fare, each a small work of art. Our very lovely celebrity sighting was Perrey Reeves, aka Mrs. Ari, sans angry expression and attitude of her character on Entourage. It was a very glamorous afternoon.
Special thanks to Donato for photos with * in the description.
While living in New Orleans, I adopted the custom of leaving my Christmas tree up until the Twelfth Night after Christmas, which is also the first night of Carnival. This date has also become my benchmark for clearing out the old year and bringing in the new. I took so many photos of wonderful sights in the last month that I have to share with you before midnight, in keeping with the tradition of starting the party fresh.
Behold more slices of life that I was fortunate to experience in 2010, as I wish you a fantastic new year!
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Although I have a monster photo montage to show you of our final month of 2010, I MUST tell you about the afternoon I spent at Paramount Studios with a bunch of mombloggers and the cast of Community. Although I had practically just gotten off the plane from my two week visit to my hometown, I decided this set visit was a must, considering that the hilarious show was about to complete its second season, and it would give me the time to catch up with some of my momblogger friends.
During the next hour or so we were to watch a bit of taping and meet the cast – two at a time were able to sit by the director and watch the action up close. The rest of us were standing in the back of the sound stage in the dark, staying out of the way of the crew, happily tweeting and facebooking and blogging on our pda’s. We looked like a digital coven, our faces glowing from the light of our mini screens. What I realized at that moment is that mombloggers have a very unique connection. It’s hard to explain to someone who isn’t one of us that it’s a GREAT thing to have a bunch of us standing in the corner on our phones, letting everyone know where we are, what we’re doing, and that there will be photos and video later. So THIS is social media!
After this we went back to the classroom set, sat down and then Ken Jeong burst into the room, followed by John Oliver, Joel McHale, and Alison Brie. Brie was elected spokesperson for telling us about the claymation Christmas episode, and then it got crazy. Suzette, aka Mammarazzi, tells Jeong that she imagines him naked, and then reminds McHale that they met at Comicon and waves a picture of the two of them as he looks really stymied. Jeong reminds us that he’s a doctor enough times that I swear I’ll find him a wife, just in case his wild success as an actor and that he is hilarious isn’t enough. There was a lot more of the laughing and then we were ushered into a private dining room for an intimate lunch with the awesome Yvette Nicole Brown. I sat right next to her and we all got to visit with her just like girlfriends. She is sweet, she is fierce, she can read her own contracts, and she can catch a fly, y’all. The damn thing was buzzing around, annoying us, and she captured him like a ninja! She spoke of responsibility of public people to young people, and why she thinks her character on the show isn’t very Christianlike. Later, as we talked some more about some of her more personal opinions, she said, “I killed the fly – we’re family now!”. And that was sort of the theme for the whole day – getting real. It was truly a memorable day of Community!
The folks at Disney really know how to get us going. They created a wonderful event to introduce us mom types to the offerings of Disney and DisneyFamily.com for the holiday season by taking over The Victorian in Santa Monica – the place was so Christmassy I have been humming Christmas music ever since! The Critter had a wonderful time playing the games, decorating cookies and ornaments, and creating a really amazing painting! I got to visit with some of my sweet momblogger friends and relax into the holidays…
The phone call went like this – “Darling we would love for you to come to this fashion event for Diane von Furstenberg Resort 2011 Collection at Bloomies in Santa Monica Place. Fabulous food. Be fabulous, Bring friends.” I’ve been a DVF fan since my mom wore her classic wrap dresses in the 70s, and, well, add fabulous food – I’m there!
It was a really fun event, hosted by the beautiful An baby sister Catherine and her BFF Hilary Reddy. This particular DVF collection is available ONLY at the Santa Monica Bloomingdales, so we all were thrilled to be the first to try out what will inevitable be glamorous staples for holiday travel and spring. Plentiful accessories are still the trend for the new year, and I couldn’t resist!
I got absorbed in unpacking and sorting through souvenirs from our trip this morning and had the revelatory moment one has when one realizes their three year old has been waaaaay too quiet. This was found to be very true, as causing my floors and furniture to sparkle like Emerald City takes some concentration. I didn’t even get upset it looked so pretty. The Critter just said “Sorry mom, clean up this mess”, and then hid in his room as I commenced to vacuum for about two hours.
Be forewarned: no houseguest of mine is getting out of here without being glittered for years to come after this.
…for my wonderful Mississippi friends for sharing their amazing Thanksgiving table with us. I am very fortunate to be here in my hometown with my fabulous husband, my little Critter, and his lovely Grandmother on this beautiful November Day. We have reminisced, laughed and feasted on the greatest Southern turkey day I could have hoped for!
I will be back next week with a huge post with photos from our recent exploits! Oh, and if you are a stalker or burglar thinking of going to our place in Beverly Hills, beware – I have a Marine AND a publicist staying with Louis XIV. Not only will you get kicked to the curb, it will be in the paper and on the evening news.
While enjoying the recent trunk show at the Avalon that she produced, I commented to Tammi Jones that being mom and a blogger created an event schedule that I have to manage carefully, so as not to miss one gathering after to the other just like I used to do during WestWeek. It seems that fall always has me running around crazy from one really fun event to the next, but now sometimes I get to bring along my Critter and my Perfect Husband!
The Critter did not attend to Miss Jones’s event, which in part benefitted Step Up Women’s Network It was a serene afternoon respite, cocktails by the pool, and a chance to scrutinize some wonderful custom shoes, handbags, and accessories, as well as meet some fashion design students that are learning to design and produce handbags. It was a very cool vibe and a stark contrast to the cacophony of the Apple Harvest Faire at Beverly Hills High, where I watched said Critter and my Perfect Husband ride the super slide at least seven times, and where I rode the choo choo train with the child at least three times.
Added to all this frivolity were the Critter’s preschool trip to Mr. Bones’ Pumpkin Patch, his costume day with the class, and the best trick or treating a three year old and his gal pal Daniella could have hoped for. There was so much candy and cuteness, I really can barely stand it. My eyes are watering just thinking about how adorable they were!
I mentioned earlier how hysterical I get with the Halloween costuming. This year the ante was up, as I was the guest of House of An at the first Halloween Bash at AnQi. Joining me were Debra and David, Tammi, Laura and hubby Vernor, and Barrie darling (my date, with the blessing of the Perfect Husband) – we were blown away with the sexy party! In conjunction with Aston Martin, AnQi transformed itself into a fashionable masquerade club, complete with incredible dancers and acrobats on catwalks, light show, DJ Angeline, a chocolate coffin, and chocolate castle, and nonstop tasting of AnQi fare. We all left with the most exquisite chocolates – it was a Halloween bash to rival all others!
This week we are partied out for a while. The sensory overload is getting to us – so much to see, taste, hear, touch, smell, and experience. Add that to my perpetual obsession with Halloween, and well, there was very little sleep for the last two weeks.
The three hours that the Critter is in preschool every morning isn’t enough time to do all the things I thought I would do with this luxurious free time, but it’s been so nice to be able to take a quick walk through my neighborhood to take in the flavor. We have been having a lot of fun figuring out what it’s like for our baby to be a school boy. There is no shortage of cuteness and devilry these days. Free will at three is very mighty!
Beware, I am about to turn in to the Halloween version of Kristen Wiig’s “Surprise Party†character. If I still lived in New Orleans, I would spend as much time obsessing about costumes and partying for Halloween as I would for Mardi Gras – I just love it -pretty soon my whole house will look like this.
The Critter and I were SO excited to go to Disney Studios last week, which, with no traffic, is about a half hour drive from the ‘hood. We headed up to celebrate the launch of two new web series by Disney Online, Muppets Kitchen and Hasty Tasty Cooking. Fellow native Mississippian Cat Cora and Muppets Chef Angelo and Pepe the King Prawn were live, cooking up some healthy treats and dispensing advice about making healthy food for the family and keeping it interesting. Pepe tweeted throughout the demo of making popcorn trail mix and sent all the ladies a rose. It was a really fun event and the Critter played away with the other mom bloggers’ children, all the moms got to visit, and we ate lots of delicious healthy treats.
We also really enjoyed walking through the Disney lot and seeing parts of where dreams are built from scratch. The Critter went crazy for the collections on display of vintage Mickey Mouse while I scrutinized costumes from some of the later films and TV shows. As a little girl I always looked forward to Sunday nights when the Disney movie aired and I knew it was when when Tinkerbell zipped and dipped around Cinderella’s castle – I fully expected her to zip right over our heads.
