February's Book - Americanah

In February I finished only one book and it was a good one. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah. It gets four and a half stars on Amazon, and has been a best seller since it came out in 2014. It's the first book I read from this author and I was very impressed. She has a nice clean writing style and a lot of very insightful social and race commentary. The book is a love story and a story of immigration and return to the homeland. Adichie is Nigerian, highly educated in the U.S., and writes about African people and culture. For me it was somewhat eyeopening to read this book, and I'm almost ashamed to say that I was so ignorant about current day Africa that it changed my view of it a little. We only hear about the catastrophes, genocides, starvation, and wars, and not enough about the every day life of Africans. I will definitely read more of her books to educate myself, and expect it to be a fun and rewarding educational experience. She has also emerged as a speaker for women's rights, delivering the TED talk (which I've yet to see - but will watch soon, with my 14-year old daughter) "We should all be feminists", the title which was famously taken for the Dior t-shirt, and parts of which were used  for a Beyonce song. I will definitely be interestedly following her career to see what she does or writes next.

Happy Monday

Is Monday anyone's favorite day? It's certainly not mine. Yes it's the start of a new week and an opportunity to start over. But it's usually just so dreary and boring, and too far from Friday. Today I decided to make my Monday a little bit better. I was tired from being up half the night watching the Oscars - Can you BELIEVE that snafu with the best film award?? So embarrassing and unfortunate, and kind of exciting at the same time, although I was really disappointed that La La Land didn't win best picture. Anyway, I wanted to have a little bit fun today, so I forced myself to get out at lunch and went to the new Eataly downtown. I've been there once before, for a dinner with a friend, but this time I went alone to explore. And I have to say it was just the mood boost I needed. I made a promise to start going there every Monday :-)

This time I took so long exploring, that I took the food back and ate at my desk at work, but next time I'll eat over there. 

Some cookies for the kiddos at home, and a yummy Italian Olive oil hand lotion for the office for me. 

New favorite spot - so happy this is close to my office! 

Vacation week in Blue and Gray

I'm having fun tonight eating junk, watching the Oscars and rooting for my favorite movie La La Land (which just won its first Oscar, yay!), while looking back at this week's pictures. It was a fun winter vacation (staycation) week, with a heat wave hitting New York. Highlights were one kid getting braces, and celebrating a birthday, doing a little shopping, visiting the Children's museum of Long Island and going to a children's play, taking the kids to the playground and sitting in the sun wearing just a t-shirt, and having the time to exercise (gym x2, jog on the track x1, yoga x1). Another highlight was when one day my husband surprised me with a new coat he found at the Ralph Lauren sale (apparently it was my belated Valentine's present). It was the perfect thing to wear at this mild weather. And lazy as I am, I basically wore the same thing the whole week...until I managed to douse myself in vodka, but that's a story for another day...

I also did a little DIY hack on one of my old t-shirts to make it a bit more trendy with rips and paint splatter. The easiest thing ever: lay down a newspaper on the garage floor, lay out t-shirt flat on top of the paper, crack open an old can of white paint, and go to town Jackson Pollock style, splattering paint and having fun with it. Let dry overnight, put in the wash the next day and voila, a very trendy t-shirt is born. Oh, and for a finishing touch, use dull kitchen scissors to cut some rips here and there.

Teenager

It's hard to believe that my oldest is already a 14-year old. She's a typical teenager know-it-all, but untypical in many other ways. She is great fun to be with; you can have a great conversation with her about politics, religion, art, life, fashion, and of course make-up, which is her current passion. She has a great style and is very particular about what she wears. Much more so than I was at her age. She's not overly trendy, and only does trendy when it goes with her style esthetic, like this ripped and paint splattered t-shirt, which is a huge street trend this year. 

Still a daddy's girl! 

We discovered a new brand last weekend in the West Village, Rituals on Bleecker Street. A Dutch skin care  line with  beautiful, not too overwhelming scents. 

9th Birthday

My kids are growing up so fast! I'm constantly going between wanting them to stay babies as long as possible, and being excited to see the people they're growing up to be and have grown up to be. My middle daughter turned 9(!) yesterday.

Happy birthday to my creative, funny, artsy, beautiful, stylish girl. 

We celebrated with an amazing chocolate cake my oldest daughter (14!) made. 

The nine-year old was happy with her presents, including the newest "it" toy, pocket puppies, below. 

OOTD x 2

For some reason I haven't worn my fur vest much this winter. In fact, this past Friday and Saturday I wore it for the first time since last spring. The weather here in Long Island / New York was mild, and it was fine to go without sleeves. I had on layers: BR t-shirt, Zara denim shirt, BR cashmere cardigan, H&M jeans. Lazy as I am, I often repeat outfits on consecutive days. (Honestly, who doesn't?) I may change shoes and/or bag, as I did here...first I wore it on Friday with my Uggs and Prada bag, and then on Saturday with Hermes scarf, Kenneth Cole sneakers, and Bottega Veneta bag. 

City of Stars

I watched La La Land again tonight, and what a treat it is. Such a wonderful movie. Everything about it is so good, that I think it might now be my favorite movie ever. It is fitting then to close out my LA picture diary with these photos from the City of Stars.

City of Stars

Are you shining just for me? 

City of stars

There so much I can't see

Who knows

Is this the start of something wonderful and new? 

Or one more dream that I cannot make true? 

Happy Valentine's with Art from the Getty Center

One of our rainy day stops at Los Angeles was the Getty Center. I didn't really know anything about it, but my neighbor had told me to go and since it was raining we decided an art museum would be a good place to keep rain. And how happy I was that we went. The Getty Center was truly a treasure. I'm a museum lover anyway, and refuse to get spoiled by the amazing museums New York has to offer, but this place would dazzle anyone. The biggest collection at Getty is of the renaissance, and we did both a renaissance tour, and the Getty collection highlights tour. You get so much more out of it when you listen to someone who knows and can share some funny back stories (such as the renaissance painting picked up at an upstate New York sale for a few hundred bucks, then strapped on to a roof of a car with nothing covering it, driving four hours to the City, bringing the painting to Christies for evaluation, and eventually selling it in auction for a cool $4 million to the Getty Center).

Here are a few of the things I picked to share.

The girls giggled when I showed them this picture. I can't think why? 

Italian renaissance painting, "Being Showered by Gold" by Gentileschi

"Laughing Rembrandt" by the man himself

I'm looking for a new bed for my 6-year old, and wanted to show her this renaissance bed... 

Venus reclining on a sea monster 

The Getty Center has some amazing impressionist paintings too. Quite a few Monet and the Van Gogh Irises. But I really liked this, Edgar Degas' "Russian Dancers"