9/21/11 9/21/11

fall fashion

taking cues from proenza schouler and isabel marant, my beast is dominating the fashion category in this household.

she's been rockin' the south by southwest look like nobody's business; putting her owner's paltry attempts at A/W 2011 trends to shame.

once again: match to priscilla.

how are you embracing fashionable fall m'loves?

9/2/11 9/2/11

weekend happy

farewell my endless, carefree as a whisper, summer. i will miss you much.

i will miss the smell of your backyard barbecue. the silent, but potent neighborhood bell which beckoned the sunburnt, beach-cruiser riding puppies home each day from the sand.

how sad i'll be to bid adieu to my summer scents. one for day, a breezy, light, swing in a seaside hammock kind of fragrance; sweet and soft, not too strong, yuzu mixed with the pacific ocean. the other for night, a strong, night-blooming jasmine blended with a stronger honeysuckle, make this a true southern california scent; melissa flagg's oils conjure memories of late night, top-down drives, through the hot santa ana's.... trisha yearwood on the radio, young boys on the brain.

goodbye mr. panama hat. it's back to wooly bowler standby's for fall.

come tuesday that orange blossom love which has floated throughout the house for the last 3 months will morph into a spicier, less petal-like waft. i know i'll long for my dark, warm mornings where the gentle aroma of white flowers waltzing against a cobalt, blue sea guide me into my day.

so long to summer's fresh, off the vine tomatoes and california avocados. i'm wet duck lucky to have such delicious local candy at my fingertips.

an afternoon nap, just my beast and i, under the serenading whirl of ceiling fan. we keep cool, talk girl, and steal away from the silly outside summer antics. this ritual i may have to keep year-long.

so m'loves, did you have a nice summer too? what will you miss?

a weekend happy to you.

see you on the other side of sunday!

8/29/11 8/29/11

scenes from a sunday

in the words of martha & the vandella's, it was a heat wave!

hh, the beast and i took to the streets to keep cool and soak in the seaside life.

i love many things about my street: the big trees, the wide blocks, the whites pickets, but even after 12 years of residency, i still gallop giddy over the front door, ocean view.

we took our favorite loop with the beast: a jaunt down to pacific coast highway to see what newport's fanciest were up to.

we never quite make it passed our A market without a stop for "provisions".

nourishment.

hydration.

bottom-feeder.

we capped off a sunday dinner down at the sand.

louie the crab.

a hot august night indeed.

and just like that it was gone: today we woke to a thick, fog bank so heavy our neighbor's front door has disappeared.

share with me the snapshots of your weekend m'loves? you know how much i adore hearing from you.

8/26/11 8/26/11

weather-a-stir

while our kin on the east are bracing for that nasty girl, irene, temperatures here in the west, are smoldering chaud.

the heat feels thick and heavy; like an invisible, clear fog has seeped in to bake us. skirts are short and skin is bare. hair is worn high to avoid sweaty necks and shoulders, stiff from an all night losing game of finding the cool in a un-air conditioned california king. last night a cold, wet washcloth provided a most heavenly pillow for me ...for the beast too.

yesterday my movements, my speech, my thoughts-they all carried a slight, sleepy slur. this heat wave washes in a gauzy net of slow-motion, almost tipsy-like air, of which i find myself breathing and walking around in.

this weekend i'm going to saturate in the sticky hot of the last of summer. i plan to roll my warm, languid friday, saturday and sunday nights out, like a kaleidoscopic rainbow of faces and places of the people i love most; a pot of gold at every port.

linger, linger, linger.

that will be my word of my weekend.

finding my slower back beat, i'll relish in summer's final, simple pleasures that too often go amiss in my interval driven world: the sound and sight of my backyard bees liquoring up on bushels of lavender, jasmine oil baths so heady with summer scent i'm perfume free all day, breakfast coffee in the yard: early enough so the moon's still out, but warm enough to be robe free. i will set my alarm a bit earlier so i can hang longer with the my garden friends.

losing my psycho, good girl, quick-to-wipe-away-the-first-sign-of-mess, disordered self, perhaps i'll let a dribble of our soon-to-be gone, gummi-bear sweet, local nectarine juice remain on my chin for a self-deprecating chuckle or two, before i whisk it away with a napkin. or maybe i'll finally eat those strawberries right off their stems, right out of the basket, after buying them from stand #14, like i've been wanting to all season.

how will you be soaking up these last bits of summer m'loves?

sending all my good vibes the east coast. miss irene sounds like quite the diva; which is ironic because we irene's {my middle name} mean peace.

oh, yeah....speaking of divas....priscilla would like to say "goodbye."

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/28177088 w=480, h=480]

8/18/11 8/18/11

and scene...

last week’s adventures in groveling actress-land involved a last-minute {aren’t they all} audition for a fancy-nancy german car.

the role called for a woman in her thirties: ✓

casual style: ✓

ethnic: {pfft, whatever?} ✓

5’6”-5'9”: ✓

and a cute personality:…..it’s called acting.

with a face full of makeup, i lurched up the 405 freeway, my beast riding in the backseat, her smiling head out the window for the entire commute.

the waiting room consisted of 17 fellow 5’7”-5'9", lindsay price look-a-likes; all frantically mastering high-eyebrows, the ~~duckface~~ model pout, and furiously arranging and re-arranging shaggy, layered, over-razored bangs, in the desperate hope that a 1/16^th of inch follicle placement to the right or left, will make or break a 20 second interview.

print auditions are my favorite. they’re lightening quick. you're in and out.

a couple of photographs face on, turn to the left, turn to the right, and you’re finished. what i imagine being arrested is like....without the cavity search....unless you're auditioning for certain film schools.

this audition was a bit different. the casting agent wanted to film me talking “in a natural, normal manner.” so in order to get a “natural, normal” dialogue he asked me a "natural, normal" question:

"katie, tell me what sort of stuff are you doing with your summer? hanging with your friends? going to the beach?, movies?"

um, wut?

did i misread the number on the door? was this an audition for icarly?

how old does this guy think i am?

“what was I doing with my summer??????” suddenly I was back at villa park high, telling my 11th grade english class my june, july and august adventures.

“ummmmmm…….i’m like, totally going to the beach alot, and um, hanging out with my friends, and ummm, seeing movies and stuff, working on my keg stand at kristin's house, my setting for varsity volleyball, and just being chill, ya know. but, like don't worry, i'm totally doing my required reading and all, so it’s like way cool, and stuff.”

{heel-ball change, finger snap, smack palm……heel-ball change, finger-snap, smack palm}

or something like that...

judging by the nodding of head as i gave my summer dissertation you'd think that i'd not only landed the spot, but that they were throwing in a brand new convertible too.

time will tell. as i said before it's called ahhhhhct-TING.

today's call is for grocery shopping mom. ethnic, of course.

i brushed up on my character by buying ralph's out of their pink & white frosted animal cookies.

i like to be prepared.

thursday happy to you m'loves.

8/15/11 8/15/11

scenes from a weekend

how do you do m'loves?

it was a weekend happy indeed. oh my goodness, i hope yours was too.

here's a glimpse of how mine went down:

i added a new rung to my wrist affair.

saturday night i had the honor of attending my lovely friend, jill grogg's, lululemon, ambassorship party. yoga, pilates, spin, boccaccini appetizers-you name it. the girl does it all! with incredible kindness, grace and beauty....it's amazing we're friends. in fact, i may have to drop her. there's just too much wonder woman going on in that tall-drink-a-water for me. and she really is that nice. i'm hoping, behind closed doors, she's a weirdo hoarder or wears the same socks for weeks.....but she always looks and smells fresh as april to me.

pfft.

on sunday morning david hockney returned to southern california. palm trees in jewel-toned green against a sky of bahamian blue, hunkiest and i brunched outdoors to soak it all in.

tea for him, coffee for me, and omelets of asparagus, artichokes, mushrooms & gruyère {mmm hmmm}.

post brunch binge, we walked off our glut with some shopping at one of our favorite stores.

new shoes for katie and hunkiest bought a shirt which brings out the golden in his eyes.

i must say, out of all the sunsets, shorelines and mountaintops in the world, this view beats them all for me.

okay, enough about me. tell me about YOU! how was your weekend? don't you KNOW how much i love hearing from you?

monday happy m'loves.

8/5/11 8/5/11

weekend happy and a message from the beast

priscilla was feeling a bit neglected from goodniteirene of late, and has a few things she'd like to say:

[vimeo http://vimeo.com/27314400 w =600 h=400]

there.

her voice has been heard.

satisfied, for now, she has retreated into her pocket of priestess where she plans her next business of monkey.

victories: priscilla= 367, mommy= 0.

signing off for the weekend m'loves.

the beast and i plan to shower hunkiest with kisses and .......errands.

what's in your filofax of fun?

see you on the other side of sunday.

love,

katie and priscilla

7/6/11 7/6/11

do you smell that?

i did not follow the caylee anthony trial.

from the little i had heard of the case it seemed pretty open and shut. but who am i to deem innocence and guilt?

haven't we all faced false accusations?

i have.

it's a hands triple-tied behind your back, cat hair in your eye, trapped in a door-less, vent-less dark room kind of feeling.

all you have is your teeth and your voice.

in these circumstances i choose my voice. an inside voice. sometimes one that only i can hear.

but it speaks the truth and it prefers singing lullabies of peaceful resolution and understanding, rather than spitting spite.

baring teeth, taking bites...those are someone else's strappy sandals.

i can't even kill the cricket under the nightstand.

and. i. HATE. crickets.

but back to yesterday's verdict, i'm a bit perplexed.

from the snippets i saw casey anthony confuses me.

when i lose my car keys i meltdown to epic proportions: alarms are sound, tears are publicly shed, sirens sound, streets are closed.

when casey anthony lost her precious baby caylee......she went dancing.

i am not a mother. the closest i've come to that kind of love are my beloved beasts.

just thinking of my girl lost, taken or harmed by someone and i suddenly understand the word bloodthirsty.

if such event actually were to horrifically occur the above, lullaby, serenading pacifist would not only grow teeth, she'd grow neck ripping fangs, eye gouging claws and all bets would be off.

....someone comes after my child and yes, you may have to lock me up.

something stinks in florida.

6/30/11 6/30/11

weekend happy

see ya on the other side of sunday m'loves.

until then, the beast and i will be soaking in miss july's sunny delights.

6/29/11 6/29/11

and the world will live as one...

i see london, i see france,

i see moonbeams disco dance.

some hear sea and waves.

but for me, my friends, the seashells, spin tales and sagas on par with atwood and irving.

on any day a magazine moose becomes my afternoon confident.

how is he the only one so far who understands?

we later go for a bike ride in the andes.

each morning my lushy, warm backyard awakens like a wave unfurls:

piece by piece its heartbeat rouses and grows stronger; the beast and i make our rounds to our pals, the flowers, bugs and trees, offering them coffee and croissants.

my tub, my fortress in the forest of fairies, conceals me from the dragons and ogres wanted me to drink the local witch's ~~kool-aid~~ brew.

hidden and safe, i stop up leaks of doubt and floods of fear. my hoover dam is a conscience clear and an open heart.

beast by my side, petals lapping in rosy unison round the basin, candles flickering in time to the peaceful ballet of the nighttime nymphs who prepare the house for sleep.

fairy tales do come true.