I’m at the original Giggles n Hugs in Brentwood looking over renderings of the new super duper 7500 square foot playspace with Joey the owner!

As a designer, Rolling Greens in Culver City has been my mecca for finding landscaping products, gorgeous plants and the accoutrements for styling and merging them into my clients’ homes. As a mom blogger I was introduced to Ecostiletto at the Pregnancy Awareness event when they hosted a holistic Mommy Lounge. I have been wanting to stop by the new Rolling Greens in Hollywood to check out their new space which takes the focus from the garden to the home. I was so happy to receive the invitation to the Second Anniversary of EcoStiletto which was to be hosted at Rolling Greens Hollywood – this meant lots of very stylish eco friendly tips and products AND get to accomplish my mission.

It was a great place to have an event – formerly the site of the Town Tire company, with the entire space opening out to the parking lot so that guests could mill in and out, sampling products and services from eco aware sponsors. The cornerstone of EcoStiletto is to stylishly promote that we all leave a smaller, stiletto size carbon footprint. True to the brands, a very stylish crowd attended, braving the heat that was breaking just as we all began to arrive. All that was required of us was to bring a work ready handbag to donate to Dress for Success, the non-profit organization that provides interview suits, confidence boosts, and career development to low-income women in over 75 cities worldwide, to support their new Los Angeles headquarters”. As the temperatures cooled and the stress of the workday faded away, the crowd was quite convivial and all seemed eager to know what could be learned. It was a sensual feast, so I spent a relaxing couple of hours, taking in the amazing collection that Rolling Greens has styled in their new venture and getting more education on how to become more eco friendly and still have a stylish life.

Some interesting sponsors included

* Tom’s of Maine, which may cause me to change from my 30plus year attachment to another toothpaste due
to their fantastic company core beliefs
* Nicobella organic vegan chocolates
* Waterpik EcoFlow – My Perfect Husband has requested a massaging showerhead and I am delighted to be
able to give him what he wants AND the latest in the latest in water conservation as well!
* Clorox GreenWorks – I already love their dishwashing liquid and their wipes – they help me stay connected to my old school cleaners that mom used and still be a little bit greener
* Makeovers courtesy of Iredale Mineral Cosmetics, the skin care makeup – which has a very informative site as well explaining the chemistry of cosmetics
* Teens turning Green – a movement to educate teens about toxic hazards that affect the environment, and focus on “on daily lives, school campuses and communities – inspiring people to re-think their behaviors and practices to sustain our earth.”

…on a Benz- just sayin’.

And a handicap tag? Hmmm

Lord knows I love to style a lot of pretty things in the rooms I design. My clients have lots of cool stuff and I find them more cool stuff for their collections. I like to relate their things to their lifestyles and interests, and place these things in a way that they may actually use in these endeavors. I laughed out loud when I clicked on this link Audacious Ink sent me. Catalog Living, a blog that gives the reader “a look into the exciting lives of the people who live in your catalogs”, hilariously expresses the annoyance I have with so many tchotchkes and snapshots of “lifestyles”. We have enough to deal with in this world organizing the things we DO need and love and collect. I love reclaimed and collected objects to style a space, but PLEASE, people! There is no need for a faux vintage life preserver!

We are enjoying the playground at the Marina del Rey beach today – perfect weather, great crowd – celebrity sighting for the day- Actor Quinton Aaron from “The Blind Side”!

Before there was my Perfect Husband, before the Critter, there was just me and Louis XIV. Louis found me while I was racing through the Beverly Center on Saturday afternoon, looking for a dress to wear to a book signing I was hosting at my Atelier. It was no time for me to get a dog, I was ridiculously busy working and living la vida loca, but he picked me and that was that. I came home with no dress but a wall eyed Boston Terrier – he was the baby I never had – in fact, potty training Louis and keeping him from chewing my furniture was great training for me to be a mom of a two legged Critter. I feel bad for my old LouLou sometimes. He used to have all my attention and we would walk and run all over the neighborhood, exploring everything we could about Beverly Hills. We would start off just to get Louis’ business done and wind up spending hours wandering around, looking at flowers, shopping, looking at houses, you name it. These days it’s harder for me to get much quality time with the Lou – his kingdom has been overthrown by a tiny dictator, and, well- the squeakiest Critter gets the proverbial grease.

Today my Perfect Husband, recognizing that his not so perfect wife was about to implode without a little personal space, wisely took the two legged Critter to the park, and Louis and I went on a very long walk through the Flats, and picked out some really nice summer gardens to “sniff”. It was beautiful out today – it was just like old times!

In the name of celebrating gadgets for Father’s Day, I thought I’d try out the Whrrl widget to show y’all the fab classic cars we saw today, and a couple of videos to give you the flavor of the event and the crowd.

When my Perfect Husband and I saw this crocodile golf bag in the window of Francesco Santoro, it stopped us both in our tracks. In times where even the most extravagant of designers are holding back on the luxe, this is a breath of fresh air. It had the same effect on me as getting to the fantasy gift in the Neiman Marcus holiday catalog. The emerald green tint and the perfect hide was mesmeric!

Madame Chocolat spares no detail either in her Father’s Day theme – as a jeweler is to gold and gems, she is to chocolate! She has created a vast collection of tools and toys for boys that simply have no peer in the ‘hood.

My Perfect Husband and I believe that the weekend we traveled to Pebble Beach and Carmel in 2006 for the Concours d’Elegance was when the magical DNA mix-up that gave us our Critter occurred. Tomorrow we will stroll over to the Rodeo Drive Concours d’Elegance so my baby daddy can ogle classic and custom cars and play with one of his cameras. This has become a tradition for us, having gone for the last three years. It’s a very convivial day on Rodeo – the street is lined with nothing BUT big boy toys. I strongly suggest any single gals wondering where the guys are get your A game on – they’ll there will in the thousands!

Happy Father’s Day to all you Big Daddies! xoxoxo