Crystal Skulls and Celebrities

OK - let's play catch up shall we? What have I been up to?

C and I are getting ready for one of our favorite holidays - Halloween. The new grey dining room walls are a really great backdrop for our spooky, slightly aged and tattered holiday decorations.

We took a break from decorating a few weeks ago to go in to the city and meet Dan Aykroyd. The reason? To purchase some of his Crystal Head Vodka. Vodka is my distilled spirit of choice. When we found out he was going to be here to sign them we just had to go!





The vodka is quadrupple distilled through Herkimer diamonds and yes it really is sold in a skull shaped bottle. Talk about smooth! Normally I don't do vodka shooters but wanted to taste it in its pure form. Nice!

The next night we headed to the Chateau St. Michelle for the Harry Conick Jr. concert. A birthday gift from my husband. Like last year we sat as close as possible in the cheap seats (pie shaped grass sections on either side of the regular seats). We like the that section better. You can spread out more. They allow you to bring in food and low slug chairs just not alcohol.


We had a picnic of grapes, cheese, chocolate, bread and of course red wine purchased at the winery. Sorry I don't have photos. It rained on us (actually pretty hard at one point) but once Harry was on stage we had a pretty clear evening. The show was amazing and Harry was pretty darn funny!

Happy Birthday To Me

Last wednesday was my birthday. No significant number was reached but I am really close to one next year.

A huge coincidence was Chrissie Hynde performed at my office that day. What a great birthday gift! My hubby and a couple friends were able to come. My friend Rory got his guitar signed and she even played it a bit.

She has a new band called JP, Chrissie and the Fairground Boys. We got to hear four of the songs off the record. It's great. Go check it out!

Grey Gardens

Last night I watched the made for HBO movie Grey Gardens with Jessica Lang and Drew Barrymore. This film was based on the original 1975 documentary of Grey Gardens about Edith and Edie Beale. An eccentric mother daughter pair who were related to Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis. They lived in a decrepit East Hamptons home.

"[Grey Gardens] is oozing with romance, ghosts, and other things." - Little Edie

Grey Gardens is the name of the home. "It was truly a gray garden, the soft gray of the dunes, cement walls, and sea mists gave us our color scheme as well as our name." - Anna Gilman Hill (owner who purchased in 1913). Phelan and Edith Beale bought the home in the 1920's. Phelan left his wife in 1934 and Big Edie was disowned by her father. That is when the house started to deteriorate and the gardens reverted back to nature as she did not have the means to keep them up.

The Edie's lived in squallor with cats and raccoons running about the house. Broken windows and lack of heat or phone. In October 1971, the house was raided by the Suffolk County Health Department. They eventually were able to stay with help from their famous relative and another cousin.

"Oh, Mother thinks its artistic this way, like a Frank Lloyd Wright house. Don't you love the overgrown Louisiana Bayou look." - Little Edie

But, you can't help loving Little Edie as the daughter is called. Stricken with Alopetia, this causes her to go bald. Her attempt at covering her baldness is with a variety of outrageous scarfs or sweaters which she wears about her head. Always pinned with a ginormous gold pin (the original Little Edie in the photo below).

Her affection for odd ways to wear clothing is truly a sight to see. Quite often wearing skirts upside down and fastening them in various ways about her person. She says this is her protest against working for the establishment when she was a model in the mid 30's. My favorite outfit (worn by Drew in the photo below), a bathing suit over a leopard print turtleneck. Her skirt is on upside down and pinned at the side several times with shorts peaking from underneath.

Little Eddie steals the show and seems completely within her own world. She is somewhat childlike and the banter between her and her mother is quite hilarious. I would recommend watching the documentary before seeing the film. Both Jessica and Drew perfectly capture the originals and Drew especially has the mannerisms and voice down perfectly of Little Eddie.

One would think that the documentary and subsequent film would be drepressing but its actually kind of a quaint look in to two women's lives. The home was purchased in 1979 and restored and that was the only way Little Edie would sell. "All it needs is a coat of paint!" - Little Edie.

Loft of My Dreams

Today is my first day of Holiday and the hubs and I spent it doing a little shopping preparation for our trip tomorrow. While browsing in the magazine section of Borders I saw yummy Gerard Butler on the front of one of my favorite magazines, Architectural Digest. His loft in the Chelsea area of New York is TO DIE FOR!

People, this is EXACTLY how I would do a loft if I was ever lucky enough to find the right space.

Picture exposed beams, 15' ceilings, original wooden floors, palms and large plants, leather and luxurious fabrics covered cushy chairs and couches, textured walls that look like old plaster. And the theater! One of my favorite things about it is the three different chandeliers over the dining table hung at different heights and his kitchen cabinets are made from old flooring.

It took him four years and instead of using an interior designer he teamed up with production designer, Elvis Restaino to create the interiors. They definately have drama that is for certain!

If you get a chance, do check out the May 2010 issue of Architectural Digest. There are articles in there of Trey Parkers Japanese inspired home in Colorado, Sting and wife, Trudies London town house, Robert Zemeckis and his wifes villa in Tuscany. Total eye candy for the decorating enthusiast!

Bon Jovi

Last night the hubs and I went to the Bon Jovi concert here in Seattle. What can I say, he ROCKED it! He sang songs from his over 27 year career. I love it when artists do that. The crowd was really involved and singing along. The video screens were great too.

Although the band was in Honolulu earlier this month, as announced at the concert last night, Seattle is the kickoff for his "The Circle" tour. Apparently JBJ keeps a condo here in town too.

Our friend has a job working concerts at the Key Arena and Jon Bon Jovi gave tickets to the employees. Since he was working the concert we bought the tickets from him for $20. We were in the nosebleed section (my crackberry was zoomed as far as it would go for the above photo) but it was still great. No luck getting backstage after the concert though.

All of the video screens and lighting hanging from the ceiling was the heaviest the Key Arena has ever had. There were no guys in the rigging but was all run remotely. JBJ was wearing a tracking device that would allow a spotlight to follow him whereever he went on stage. There were large video screens that would be moved around to create one large screen or sevel smaller screens.

Our dog is named Bon Jovi. He is a rescue and came with the name. We never changed it but what a great namesake I think!



Back to the real world of work tomorrow.

I want to be just like Carrie Fisher but without the addiction and manic depression

Last night the hubs and I went to see Carrie Fisher who is in town doing her Wishful Drinking show. Wishful Drinking is a book she wrote and subsequently a show she created based on her life. It really felt like we were hanging out in her living room (with 200 of her closest friends) listening to her talk about things that had happened to her. She has a way of speaking about things that make you laugh and make you want to hear more. Of course, how can you not take her seriously when she is wearing a Princess Leia wig?

Before the show I ran in to a friend from college who actually used to live in North Carolina when I lived there ten years ago. It was great to see him and a couple of other college friends.

Well, off to breakfast, a ferry ride and Geocashing!

More Celebreties

One of my all time favorite authors is Clive Cussler. If you have seen the movie Sahara, it was based on his action adventure book by the same name. He has been writing for almost 40 years and I have read every one of his books. I was lucky enough to meet him at a book signing at my local Third Place Books last week. There are no words....

I work at a pretty cool company. We get to have up and coming along with established music artists in our offices all the time. A couple of weeks ago I was able to listen to the music of Chris Thomas King in person. For those of you who have seen Oh Brother Where Art Thou and Ray you will know who I am talking about. It was great! He was wonderful and modest person and his music was just great! Go check out his new CD.

Well folks, that is all for now. Lady E is still coming along slowly. With the holidays there is not a lot of time for knitting etc.

Two Celebrities One Day

My company occasionally has musicians perform at our offices. We do in store music systems and music programming for large retail establishments. If you have ever been in a Starbucks, Old Navy, Steve & Barry's or Anthropologie (to name but a few) then you have heard our work.

Anyway, Michelle Shocked performed accoustically for us today. She has been in the music biz for 20 + years and has an absolutely wonderful voice. It was a thrill to meet her.

The other big news is I saw the Yarn Harlot! I was unfortunately not organized enough to purchase a copy of her new book in order to get it signed by her and I did not meet her in person. She was wonderful to listen to for an hour and next time she is here rest assured I will be more prepared! The photo below is the best I could get of her since she was standing in front of a black curtain which sucked the light from all my photos.

She of course took her sock photo which I desperately wanted to do of her but it was all I could do just to snap a photo of her that I could actually see.


I have temporarily put aside my Lady E in favor of an easy beginner sock pattern I could knit on and not concentrate too hard on while I listened to Stephanie and chatted with my new friends at the North End Knitters. I will be back with Lady E momentarily.