Vignettes

How can I, a confirmed francophile, have lived in San Diego this long without having visited Vignettes???? Incroyable!

So here it is in the Ocean Beach neighborhood.

Chandeliers.

French music playing. A tribute to Chanel.

Some crazy cool stuff.

This chalk poem totally got me.

http://www.vignettesantiques.comTres francais. Tres amusant. Merci, Vignettes!

Rosy Cheeks

Antacids, pain relievers, antibiotics, chemotherapy, radiation...yikes..the list goes on and on. Sometimes in life you might find yourself having to take advantage of the miracles of modern medicine. And a big cheer of gratitude to all the super smart scientists who work hard to develop all sorts of things to keep us alive and well. Merci MILLE fois!
But after all this, why? WHY???? put more chemicals on your skin if you don't have to? Why?

I am so happy that I discovered Weleda. Such a super cool company. Check them out here:http://www.weleda.com

My favorite Weleda product is the Wild Rose Smoothing Night Cream. I feel so virtuous when I slap it on my face at night. It smells wonderful. I feel like I'm sleeping in a bed of roses. Hmm...maybe I am. This rose popped up in my garden today...in JANUARY! Oh So Cal...

Elegance and Grace

We live in a wonderful era. So many interesting things going on. But sometimes I long for the sartorial elegance of times past. I'm currently watching DOWNTON ABBEY Part II. Do you LOVE IT?!! And... I'm re-reading THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton, one of my favorite novels of all time. Poor Lily Bart.

So of course I'm swooning over this Patrick Demarchelier photo shoot styled by the BRILLIANT Grace Coddington in the November 2011 issue of Vogue.

The next time I go to the beach I'm going to dress like this.

The Nature Conservancy

I have had the great good fortune in life to have grown up in the oh so BEAUTIFUL state of MONTANA. Even though I have spent most of my adult life living by oceans, both Atlantic and Pacific, I still consider myself un vrai fleur de montagne.

This is Morell Falls near Seeley Lake, Montana. We used to hike here when I was a kid. This past year I finally took my own two California kids on the same hike! So Fun. So Gorgeous. Then we stopped for huckleberry milkshakes on the way back to town... just like we used to back in the day.
So this year for Christmas I gave my mom and my siblings a unique gift: I adopted several acres of land in the NORTHERN ROCKIES in their names. I did the adoption through The Nature Conservancy. This organization does amazing cool things to protect our EARTH. Check it out at http://www.nature.org/
Where is your favorite nature spot? 

A Day At The Races

On Saturday mornings I wake up to watch the Food Network while I make breakfast. But this weekend, while I was channel surfing, I noticed an old film, a ballerina spinning around and around. Well of course, I HAD TO WATCH. It was The Marx Brothers' "A Day At The Races." Hmmmm... Normally I don't have a lot of patience for Marx Brothers movies...a little too silly. But this one! So glad I stuck around (sorry Laura Calder) because it just kept getting better and better. In addition to the spinning ballerina it had Chico doing his cool piano thing and Harpo turning a piano into a harp - genius - and Groucho dancing a happy little jig and some astoundingly adorable children and THIS: Whitey's Lindy Hoppers performing one of the MOST JOYOUS DANCE NUMBERS I'VE EVER SEEN!!! And, yes, I dig the clothes. What a great way to start the New Year.

Hugo ~ J'Adore

My family has a few Christmas Day traditions. We eat home-made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, we open gifts, we hang around in our pj's for most of the day, we eat MORE cinnamon rolls and then we go to a movie. It is pretty difficult to find a movie that everyone wants to see. There have been some years where we spent a lot of time apologizing for our choice of film to those family members who did not like it. Or being bummed out about someone else's choice. This year's family Christmas Day Movie ~ HUGO!!!! HUGO!!! My first 3D movie ever and I LOVED IT. EVERYBODY LOVED IT! Yay! What a nice gift from Martin Scorcese.
If you are like me, a Francophile and a cinephile and a 1930's fashionophile then this is the film for you. The Sandy Powell costumes are genius..all those cool shoes and socks...sigh...
The film is so yummy. It's the film version of a big French pastry.
Have you seen it? Did you like it?

(See if you can spot a few little cameos by Martin Scorcese as a photographer and Johnny Depp as a street artist.)

Merry Christmas Cakes to All!

T'was the day before Christmas and all through the store,
Not much was happening. A plain shopping bore.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear but...
Some AWESOME Polka Dot Christmas Cakes!!!!
At Vons! That dorky, uncool, regular old grocery store.
I love how sometimes the most amazing things pop up in the least likely places....

Big Hug to the anonymous grocery store baker!