just sayin'

it's the little things in life that make one happy...

it's the little things in life that make one happy...

like witnessing a barefoot woman inside starbucks carefully painting the soles of her shoes red. equal parts horrifying (eww- bare feet & her shoes on a table, in a place where people eat) and heartwarming (she probably had an important meeting or interview, and she wanted to look her best) but either way, it made me deliriously happy to witness on an otherwise uneventful monday morning.

hope your day was special too. ;-)

chloe no moey (new york city real estate window shopping)

before our memorial day bbq, we spent a bit of time on the internets fantasizing about a NYC pied-a-terre (seems we have a lot of facebook friends staying in the city this weekend, and posting pics of their adventures out and about, making us a bit wistful for a NYC visit).  while we were window shopping for NYC real estate, we came across this listing for a 1 bdr garden apartment in the east village, and instantly recognized this imperial trellisized entry hall:

do you recognize the apartment too?

yup, chloe sevigny's apartment, originally featured in the late house & garden magazine circa 2007. (all HG pix stolen without permission from my friend fallon's awesome blog, "a lovely being")

pretty, but basement apartments scare me a lil bit. we don't have such things here in LA, so i imagine flooding, dankness, and maybe, city critters (ie big fat rats- not that we don't have 'em here in LA!)

low ceilings but the floors and beams give you much carriage house charm.
could be really cute, actually.

what a difference cropping makes, eh?

oy, those low ceilings again, but without the beam-y charm. plus side?
working fireplace in teh bedroom = awesomeness. the decor in here is a shonda though.
looks like a shut-in grandma lives here, not a young actress.
we'll cut chloe some slack though, as we guess she probably dint live here full-time.

propped n' cropped for HG. much better, though that budget bedspread is making me sad. 

only in new york could a space 6 feet wide be described as a dining room! 

i'd probably set up a desk in here to take advantage of the pretty garden view 

while working. plus an open desk could double as a space to eat a deux if necessary. 

i eat at my own home office desk a un all the freaking time anyway...

the kitchen is quite charming and fits nicely with the rusticated carriage house vibe. major bonus points for not having to upgrade.

this is billed as an "office" (can't call it a bedroom in NYC unless it has a window, i think). at 10 x 7, i might find another use for it (closet?) or rip it out all together to create a small dining area off the kitchen, and use the 6 foot wide space billed as a "dining room" either as a home office as mentioned, or just throw some overstuffed chairs in there and make is a chic little sunroom.

*THE* selling point of the apartment, a rare and beautiful NYC garden. 

just a lovely. lovely space, though we can't quite figure out the CGI lens the real estate people 

used to make it appear 10 bazillion times larger than on the below floor plan. 

seriously- it looks a big as central park here!

chloe, enjoying her teeny garden avec paper roses (i'd imagine that moving in that sofa and table took up all the space available, hence chloe's pose!)

teh floorpan- lots of potential here, especially if the coop would allow some reconfiguring. 

ok, here's the nitty-gritty: kinda cute right? weird layout, but hey- that's city livin' for you. we LOVE the garden, and so would ted and richard (all the outdoor space a blackthumb like moiself could want or need), so with a little work this could be a totes charming carriage housey city retreat.  drawbacks? carriage houseyness limits our decorating options (i don't think we are carriage house people. maybe townhouse people).  plus those low ceilings scare me a bit- we aren't tall, but maybe our imaginary NYC husbear is. ;-)  but the big drawback is the price, of course... for 1.7 mil, i want a 3 bedrooms, a view and a pool! still, manhattan real estate has its own reality distortion field so this could be the bargain to end all bargains for all we know, but once you add in $2300 dollars a month coop fee, we sorta doubt that (according to teh attached calculator with 20% down, monthly mortgage/fees would $9091.00, hardly one bedroom bargain pricing).

so whaddy'all think? visit the realtor site for all the deets and chime in- i'd especially love to hear from my NYC friends, as y'all live inside the manhattan real estate distortion force field and might provide some valuable insight! ;-)

wake up in new york

the above view may look gritty to you, but it fills me with excitement, because it means the drive from JFK is almost over, and soon i'll be in one of my favorite spots on earth, the exotic and magical island of manhattan... which is were i'll be when i wake up tomorrow morning, courtesy of the fashionable folks at brizo, who are flying a group of interior designers, tastemakers, and social media mavens to NYC to participate in the fabulous frenzy known as fashion week. if you've never been to fashion week in new york, you are missing out as it's just as fun and exciting as it looks in the media, so when brizo asked me to participate, of course, i was all over it like mario buatta is all over chintz on a chair!

fashion for the home, by brizo

we'll blog and tweet about our whirlwind visit (wish i could stay longer to shop and socialize, but alas, work is too busy here in LA to be gone for more than a few days) so if you aren't following me on the twitters, or the FB, now would be a good time to start!

so tomorrow, while ted and richard wake up to the petsitter (sniff, sniff), m21 will wake up in new york!



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you talkin' to me?

high-sterical!

enjoy this beautiful weekend! Tweet

apocalypse m21

don't worry- nothing bad or remotely apocalyptic has happened, just thought this image we snapped this weekend while ted and i were on our hike, looked a lot like the imagery from apocalypse now:

all of a sudden a police helicopter appeared out of nowhere, buzzing runyon canyon, and at times it seemed so close that i could have grabbed on to the runners and gone for a ride. don't know how in the heck the picture turned out so moody either- it was near sunset but still plenty bright out- nothing like the picture implies.

see why m21 was reminded of apocalypse now?

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thanks, jane...

growing up in southern california you learn instinctively at a young age never to gawk at celebrities or ask anyone for an autograph or a picture- after all, they could be your schoolfriend's mom, and your car pool driver, so why bother? celebrities are just like you and me (only sometimes richer), so don't bother them...

miss russell in the eighties

that said, there is only one time in my life have i have ever asked a celebrity for an autograph, and that was miss jane russell...  it was the late eighties and a friend and i spotted her at a restaurant in san francisco. we rudely interrupted her lunch, and asked her to sign our menus, which she graciously did, and then thanked *us* for asking her! "how in the hell do you young kids even know who i am?", she joking asked as we chatted for a few minutes, and gushed over her iconic role in "gentlemen prefer blondes".

RIP jane- you were an underrated musical comedienne, and a lovely woman to take time out of your day to chat with two young starstruck gay boys. you will always be remembered fondly!


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savage beauty at the met

we've had the amazing slideshow for the upcoming "savage beauty" alexander mcqueen exhibition open in our browser for several days now, and we keep returning to look at these beautiful images. looks like we'll be visiting NYC this summer!

alexander mcqueen: savage beauty, may 4th -july 31st, at the costume institute in the metropolitan museum of art.

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so damn cranky (an open letter to the public relations industry)

maybe it's because we're busy, maybe it's just our time of the month ;-), but today, we got all fed up and in your face about it:

please, PR people, just because you can send a mass email by just pushing the send button, doesn't mean you should.  i *love* pitches about design-related products, but have some respect, and make sure you are pitching to the right outlet, and remember, there is a person behind every blog or site, and we all have names...

ps- we deliberately changed the name of the PR person in question for the screen capture of this email.
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humming along

i'm happily hooked:



from the website:

Phoebe is a Channel Island Allen (S.s. sedentarius) hummingbird in Orange County, California. She has been laying 4 to 5 clutches each year for several years and [her nest has been broadcast] since 2007.

what a good mommy. can't wait 'til they hatch.

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weekend fun

what did you do for fun this weekend? m21 had a lapdance!

if there is a straight guy reading this blog (and chances of that are slim), try not to be too jealous, k? me? i was just hoping they were well paid.

just kidding 'bout the lap dance. the picture was the photo op in the 'dessert and burleseque' room (what a combo, right?) of the "nivea for men mansion", part of the run up to the golden globes madness that is gripping LA this weekend. jill, of material girls, invited us to tag along with her, and her good friend, brooke, for a night of free drinks, free food, free 'nivea for men' products... and a tiger. yes, we said tiger- another of the photo ops was with a playful six month old tiger cub!  (before you say it- yes, we know- we were also very conflicted about the tiger being used as a prop, but trust, that (big) little kitten was having a blast. he had a little dog brought along as a playmate too- cuteness overload.  if we ever find how to access the picture with him, we'll share it).

this is kind of tiger cub they pimped out- a golden tabby.  so ginormously cute.

lapdances and tigers- only in LA, right? (actually, we take that back- it was one blackjack table away from "only in las vegas", but still kinda fun in that vegas-y kind of way).

last, the invitation promised us james franco, but we only saw one girl from "the hills" or "the city" or some other show we are far too old to watch or care about; our single other celebrity sighting was 80's fave, taylor dayne, now a respectably coiffed woman of a certain age (getting to pet the tiger cub more than made up for the loss of james franco, btw).

we'll close this post with taylor's insanely catchy 80's hit (been humming it all morning, much against our will. ok, not so much against our will- we LOVED this song back in the day-  if we had known she was going to be there, we would have brought our extended remix cassingle for her to sign!)






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holiday spirit

if this lil number from glee's upcoming christmas episode (this tuesday!) doesn't put you in the mood for the holidays, then you are for sure getting a lump of coal in your stocking.

middle aged dream

so i ordered the super-skinny jeans (and loved all the feedback, pro and con- thank you!)  please know though i'm keeping it teenaged on the bottom, imma always keep it adult appropriate up top.

i might get your heart racing

in my skin-tight jeans

be your middle aged dream tonight

let you put your hands on me

in my skin-tight jeans

be your middle aged dream tonight

*thanks to the empress of fashion blog for making the katy perry-maison21 connection.  may you think of my age inappropriate jeans whenever you hear her song.

and have a super skinny thanksgiving, k?

on the legs of a dilemma

yeah, yeah, yeah- we know the expression is supposed to be on "on the horns of a dilemma" but in this case, it's the legs...

standard straight leg 501's.  these look seriously dated to me

see, m21 needs new jeans, and therein is the heart of the dilemma- all of our current jeans have legs so wide they feel like palazzo pants, so we want some really skinny jeans.  not quite jeggings, but skinny, and we have to wonder at what point does a gentleman of a certain age, with a few extra pounds up top (but skinny chicken legs), look ridiculous trying to keep up with fashion fads?  we also have to wonder at what age do we look even stupider if we give up?

we've all seen those people who dress waaaaay age inappropriately, and think "what a douche" or "who are they trying to kid?", (hell, i live in los angeles- i see 7 kinds of age inappropriate dressing before breakfast, with frankenstein plastic surgery to match), but on the flipside, we've all seen older folks who look like they are in a time-warp, decades out of sync with reality.  which is worse?

these are "skinny" and should be a good compromise, but all of my current "go to" jeans have legs about this width, and they're the ones i'm complaining feel like palazzo pants!

i know i'll get a lot of "dress as young as you feel" comments, and that's all good, but seriously, should we dress as young as we feel? 'cuz most days i feel pretty young, but if i were to throw on some candy-colored raybans as i left the house, as i did in my teens & early 20's (you know the first time around), i'd look like both a douche, and a freak who has dressed the same for 20 plus years.

this subject came up recently when i had dinner with some kids all around the age of 30, and they felt 40 to be the cut off point "to keep dressing young", and i felt like telling them to piss off 'cuz they didn't know anything about anything yet, but i also thought they had a point- i'd tell a a friend who was 60 not to do it, because they'd look silly, so perhaps those inexperienced youngin's were on to something...

and these are in my shopping cart right now, but even though they are on sale, i just can't bring myself to hit "proceed to checkout" for fear of looking like an old fool. they may be cheap, but what price dignity? ;-)  and if i buy them, i will wear them.

so what to do when the only thing that looks right to your fashion eye might not be the right choice to look best on you for your age?

or should i just give up entirely, and wear nothing but brightly colored caftans? at some point, i think it's my destiny as a geriatric decorator, anyway...  ;-)

 m21's future?

what would you do?  discuss.

*all jeans from levi's.com; allan carr in a caftan was saved to my hard drive eons ago as a cautionary tale, so i have no clue where i found it!