Achromatics

Such a dreamy photo by Lauren Treece (via her site, Achromatics.) I love that big yellow cat.

The shoes I'd wear to the party...

Gold ballerina flats with gold grosgrain ribbons. (The rest of the outfit is over here!)  
Happy New Year!!

PS:  The photo above was taken with an iPhone and then polarized with the free desktop application,  Polardroid! Can you tell the difference??!

Xmas in LA

I went out searching today for an open coffee shop to get my afternoon latte. I happened upon this little alley garden. A few snapshots:

The camellias are already blooming, along with the last roses of the season...Hope you had a lovely holiday...

Discovered: Fabulous Fashion Polaroid Blog

World renowned fashion photographer Antonio Barros honored me this morning by stopping by my blog and leaving a comment (from the Ukraine) on my snow post. He was kind enough to leave a link to his blog, the Singular, which he started in June...I had to click over and take a look! Wait till you see it!! The blog is comprised entirely of Polaroids that he's taken of models, celebs and fashionistas on his travels around the world. Photos like this, for example:

He explains the blog this way: "One unique polaroid picture. One single moment. An attempt to be out of the ordinary."

Here's the address: thesingular.blogspot.com.

Have a look! You'll love it!

Paris by Polaroid

I love Emilie79's dreamy Polaroid world...

I always look forward to her new posts on Flickr. Her photos are always unique yet share a common trait: the colors of vanilla and bleu.

Happy Monday, by the way! What are you doing this week?

The Palisades on a Friday...

While driving through the Pacific Palisades today, I ended up lost on a curving road high above the Pacific Coast Highway...

It's been 2 1/2 weeks since my layoff. I'm finally starting to catch my breath. I think I'll try tackling my laundry and putting away the stuff I hauled home from my old desk...Maybe I'll even wash the dishes. Funny how life's little chores get put aside amid the major upheavals...I've tried to be very cheerful about it, but the truth is my layoff from the newspaper has been one of the most traumatizing events of my life. One minute I'm up, the next I'm down and feeling lost -- much like life on this road in the Palisades.

Have a lovely weekend...(And I promise to finally get my blogroll up next week.)

Polaroid Notes

Hello everyone...Thank you for the birthday greetings! For my birthday dinner tonight, we had nachos and Helados Mexico popsicles and watched Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday.  Overall, a lovely time. One of my favorite gifts was this set of  Polaroid Notes, 20 notecards featuring -- well -- Polaroids. The red balloons are especially wonderful, I think...

The set was curated by Jenifer Altman  and printed by Chronicle Books, which produces very cool stuff. ...

Farmers Market

Hello everyone. Happy Saturday. My daughter and I had a marvelous morning at the farmers market in Pasadena. Like most of the open air markets in the Los Angeles area, the farmers come from all over Southern California to sell their produce. As usual, I bought more flowers than vegetables. I can't resist!

There was a fantastic selection of tuberoses (which remind me of my friend Sara Catania, who always had the fragrant flowers in her ocean facing apartment in Ventura.) I also bought bouquets of red tulips, red ranunculus and mulit-colored roses. (My daughter, Isabella, and I arranged them in old pottery vases while listening to Ella Fitzgerald!)

Also brought home in our basket and bags: Fresh salmon, French bread, a huge ripe tomato, leeks for soup, a mix of salad greens and beautiful blood oranges. We're going to have dinner in the back garden this evening!

Polaroid Cache

Some of my Polaroids, as found inside the one of my Emma Hope shoeboxes...

Skyward

I'm so enthralled by the architecture of trees. (Taken this weekend at the Huntington Gardens in San Marino.)

Blue

I took my Polaroid camera with me this weekend on my various outings, and this is how one of the photos turned out. Completely blue. Some weird underexposure thing I guess. (I was trying to take pictures of flowering trees.)

The color makes me think of the French film Blue, starring Juliette Binoche. I noticed that several of my blogging girlfriends have the movie listed as one of their favorites. (It's one of mine too.) What is it about that film that resonates so much with women?


From Miranda:
"I think Blue is a kind of essay on a woman's intrinsic power to rediscover hereself in the emotional chaos of total loss. It's an enduring tribute to the power of the feminine. . .plus she's lovely to look at."

World, Jewel-Box Sized

The vanilla and blue world of Emilie79*, as captured through her various Polariod cameras. From her Flickr set. Haunting. Lovely.

Late Winter Light

The weather was beautiful here today, balmy with wispy clouds. I decided to get out of my office and get some air. It was so lovely to watch the sun dip into the western sky from my spot (sitting on an old palm tree stump at Pasadena's Central Park). Here are a few of the Polaroids I took during my little outing: the clouds, the palm trees, a leafless willow and one of the turrets at the glorious Castle Green -- across the street from the park. (A very hardy old rose bush is still at it, despite the season.)