Friday, February 26, 2010

How do you solve a problem like Maria

Looking through the fashion week collections, most of them were meh for me, here were my highlights:

Christian Siriano, of course:


Diane Von Furstenburg:


Maybe a super Killer wedding dress, perhaps?

Blumarine:


who doesn't want a pair of sequin pants?

Dolce and Gabbana:


gotta love a sweater onesie...


Versace:


it even has a little window for your muffin top!

Vivienne Westwood:


I know I was mad at her, but how can I be mad at someone who makes a dress that looks like a disco ball?

Marc Jacobs:
I usually like Marc Jacobs but...


Sister Maria much?


I hope everyone has a great weekend. I'm hosting my supper club tomorrow night (coconut shrimp, mango chutney dip and smoked salmon wrapped asparagus) and I think I might go cut off my hair. Its almost to the bottom of my back at this point and I'm tired of it just sitting on my head. I need layers, choppy bangs and a little more rock and roll in my life.

What are your plans?

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Wouldn't it be nice

Has anyone else been following the HGTV Dream Home sweepstakes? Each year they design and build a home somewhere in the country and reveal it on New Years Day, this year its in San Pedro, New Mexico in between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. While I have always wanted to visit New Mexico (I hear Taos and Santa Fe are gorgeous) I haven't ever really had the desire to live there; but, I would surely make the exception in this case.

The kitchen:


The fridge is covered in the same cherry finish as the cabinetry to make it all look neat and clean.

The Great Room:


The sitting room off of the entryway:

I love the tile around the fire place and the teal/grey velvet wing chairs. So pretty. It looks so inviting.

The dining room:


I really like how simple and clean everything is, it's modern and put together well.

The media room:
The walls were done in a cork to make the room feel more warm and not take away from what you're watching. I love the chaises and the three tier coffee table.

One of the guest rooms:

Great wall color!

The Master suite:

The house also includes an office, laudry room, kids bedroom with jack/jill bathroom, and a casita (guest house) for guests to stay in if they want more privacy; go check it out here to see more of the details! They announce the winner in 17 days...wouldn't it be lovely...

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Lessons on the road


(for all of you knee deep in snow, this is Feb. in California btw)


What I learned while on our tri-state road trip...

1) People travel with their dogs, I mean everyone and I seriously mean everywhere. I saw them at the Hoover Dam, The Grand Canyon, Vegas and everywhere in between. There are some world traveling pooches out there people.



2) The Hoover Dam is not interesting. I can't for the life of me figure out the appeal. It's the fifth busiest National Park Service area in the country, and I'm honestly thinking that its because no one has spread the word that its not cool. Besides being the one way to travel to the Grand Canyon, across Nevada into Arizona 13,000-16,000 cars cross the dam every day and that leaves one with some very knarly traffic my friends, seriously, when you just want to get out of the car? Man oh man.


3) Vegas is a fun place to go for a day or two, but its more fun if you're a frat boy. Las Vegas is busting at the seems with recreational activities for frat brothers to partake in. It's like Six Flags for douche bags. I liked Las Vegas, I had a great time looking around, I particularly liked the fountains at the Bellagio, that was my favorite but it reminded me a bit of Joan Rivers, if she were a city. She's old and haggard but she keeps putting on more make up and getting another face lift to look youthful and fun, but underneath it all you know she's really ugly and worn out.







4) Cirque Du Soleil is awesome, if you can afford it. It's no secret you'll have a lot more fun in Las Vegas if you are a millionaire. There is lots to spend your money on. But if you don't have a million bucks to blow on your trip, there is always Tix4tonight. They have kiosks all over vegas with tickets for shows that haven't sold out for that evening. We walked up asked for what Cirque shows they had left, she named off the 3 that were available and sure enough, after our pick, we had 7th row tickets to see LOVE at 9:30 that night and at a discount nonetheless. It was an INCREDIBLE show. Lots of fun and highly recommended.






5) The Grand Canyon is breath taking, but mainly at sunrise and sunset, all the in between time it pretty much looks the same wherever you go. That's when I would recommend a hike, that is if your bf is willing to go on one.


6) The drive to the Grand Canyon is NOT just a quick trip in the car from Vegas (I don't care what anyone says), and there is NOTHING to look at in between (it's worth it though). This is where NPR podcasts come in, I'm telling you, This American Life is a life saver, otherwise I would have lost my mind.

7) Road trips with the right company can be an awful lot of fun. Especially with someone you love.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Loving the imperfect person perfectly


I have this problem, I have these disastrously high expectations for people, expectations and standards no one has ever met, not even close, not that I should be surprised by this; but it's a big problem. I hold people in the highest regard when it comes to the choices they will make, who they are as people, how they will follow through on these decisions and when they fail, as we all do, when I realize that they are human just like everyone else I am heartbroken. I lost a lot of friends this way. I have a hard time swallowing peoples imperfections and failings and how disappointing people can be sometimes. And I generally hold these expectations highest for the people I am closest to.

As I've grown up though, I have begun to accept the fact that no one is going to be able to fulfill my expectations, this came to me when I realized that I was pushing people away hypocritically; that I too am not perfect and I will never be so (bummer), realizing its completely unfair to be shocked when people stumble and fall. When I began to stumble and fall myself over and over (there were some rough years, especially when it came to boyfriends) I started to take on a whole new outlook. Some call it negativity, I call it realism. I embraced the total opposite of my past sentiments and almost expected people to fail, therefore when they actually did I was not nearly as surprised, shocked or upset by their failings.

I began to not expect much out of people, that way I was either not surprised at all when they totally sucked or I was totally and pleasantly surprised when they ended up being more than I expected of them (which frankly wouldn't have been hard with how low of a standard I gave people sometimes). But this can lead to very little quality when it comes to the human life forms you find yourself spending time with and you end up being disappointed anyway. I've now started to embrace not expecting anything, good or bad from anyone and just seeing where it all goes.

So one can imagine I was surprised when I read this in Committed in reference to the marital outlook of the Hmong women, "A Bride whose expectations for happiness are kept necessarily low to begin with is more protected, perhaps, from the risk of devastating disappointments down the road."

IS this the answer? Have I just been embracing the attitudes of the Hmong all this time and not even knowing it?!

Of all the people we would like to think are wonderful, beautiful, perfect people, we would like to hope that the one we choose to spend our lives with, share our most intimate of selves with would be somewhat close to perfect right? I mean its one thing to hold relatively low expectations when it comes to an acquaintance but our life partners?! Really?

So whats healthy and what isnt? We don't want to have such low expectations for the person we love, that might be insulting (to both us and them!) and with low expectations might come repeated failings that may not necessarily be healthy to continually overlook. But we also shouldn't expect perfection because that will surely lead to unbelievable disappointments when we realize we merely married a human being, a perfectly imperfect person.

So do the Hmong have it right? Should we set our expectations for our lives with someone low, so as not to be disappointed in the end? Or should we want more than that for ourselves, potentially setting ourselves up for failure? I know we like to think we deserve so much more than imperfections, we've been told our whole lives to hold the bar high, very high because we are princesses, but is this the right attitude?

Photo by CKSum via flickr

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Give me the cake or I WILL KILL YOU



I gave up dessert for Lent and I AM DYING a slow death and it's only day 2. What the F was I thinking?!!!

I'm not even Catholic for Gods sakes! I'm sorry Jesus but I might not make it the whole way, I'm not much to admire when it comes to eating and self control. This is bananas.

Wait what happened? What was that?! I can't see!


She really just has no regard for anyone who has to sit behind her at an event does she?

I'd be all sorts of mad if I got to go to the grammys and all I could see was this:

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Back in the Saddle again


It never gets any less shocking when you hear about someones untimely death. So tragic.

We're off to Vegas and the Grand Canyon tomorrow, should be grand.

Have a good weekend.