Some Scenes From The Weekend...

The weekend was all kinds of goodness...

The girlies and I double dated with my friend Janet and her sweet son H on Friday for the (amazing) opening of the Ernesto Neto exhibit. We crushed rose petals under our feet, "cuddled on the tightrope", and danced in the rain to a Brazilian band with, wait for it...Ernesto himself. It was by far one of the most fun, most magical nights in recent memory and most definitely my best art experience of all time.

But wait, there's more. Sam joined up with me + the girlies (we were sans Bryan most of the weekend, as he was travelling), and we hit the genius Diorama-O-Rama, which consisted of loads of artful creations, tamales, a rockin' DJ, dear friends, some DIY action. Just awesome all around.

Sunday consisted of a nice mother's day brunch out in our backyard with Bryan's mom, my mom and a few friends and then (because every weekend needs a little drama apparently) a quick trip to the ER to check out some sort of wicked bug bite on Millie's arm (it turned out to be just an infected mosquito bite, thankfully). But really, the rest of the weekend was so lovely that the ER adventure didn't even dampen our spirits.

Hope your weekend was equally fab and that all you fellow mamas out there had a a lovely Sunday!

Three (Incredibly Lovely) Things...

First and foremost (and really this merits a post of its own, but I'm still trying to tackle that whole balance thing) is The Equals Project.

The brainchild of the beautiful, talented and immensely soulful Elisabeth Thurston Fraser and Miya Hirabayashi, the project comprises a website, a print publication (coming in 2013) and a philanthropic call to action all celebrating the varied and interesting things women of different backgrounds, in different circumstances, and living different lifestyles think about, do, make, and discuss.

It is truly stunning friends. I am so proud of these ladies!

images via Tales of Endearment

And while we're on the topic of lovely women, next up is the awesome designer Heidi Middleton (of Sass & Bide) on Tales of Endearment. The 40-year old mom of two girls (India Grace, 6 and Elke Bay, 5) has survived cancer and, in Natalie Joos' words is:

"The picture of happiness and peace. She’s poised, soft-spoken, a little bit shy, curious, sexy, and in the best shape of her life."

And then there's the matter of her home, and her taste, and her wardrobe (and her blog)...Insane. I'm smitten; I'm not gonna lie.

images via vogue.com

Ok last but not least, I was tooling around on vogue.com this morning and was so excited to see some Dallas action on the home page in the form of designer Jeremy Laing's trip to Dallas for his trunk show at V.O.D.

I love Laing's online "diary" of his time in Dallas...but I especially love how he managed to capture the true essence of our (smart, interesting, artful) city... Thanks Jeremy.

Loving...

Shabd's spring 2012 lookbook...I've espoused my love of Shabd in a loving list before, but the look book is just such immense goodness all around, it deserved a second mention.

Serena and Lily's rattan hanging chair -- pretty much my dream Mother's Day gift...just sayin'.

KW's stack of ultra chic books and those blocks topped with dripping molten metals. Holy awesome...

Tissu's stellar color block totes, which are reminiscent of the Celine bag that I can't get out of my mind (and I also can't afford). This one on the other hand...

Justine Smith's coin sculptures. Brilliant.

Oh and Lulie Wallace's flower paintings...

Artful origami mobiles made completely by hand by a French architect living in Berlin after she couldn't find one she loved for her new son's room. Stunning, yes?

Some Scenes From The Weekend...

My weekend consisted of copious amounts of entertaining...some casual cookout action with our friends Julie and Tim, dinner with lovely cousin Erin and fiancé Ben and my aunt Sharon, oh and co-hosting a party at our house for Audrey's school which involved 100 (!) guests and, wait for it... a drag queen. (I can only imagine the google ads that are going to pop up as a result of me having included the words, "drag queen" in this post, but I couldn't exclude it. It had to be told.) We also went roller skating. Good times I tell ya.

It should be noted that the above just serves as further evidence that balance isn't exactly my forte of late. Apparently I like to compensate for months of entertaining slackerdom with one weekend long blow-out. But hey, you do what you can.

Hope you had a fantastic weekend friends!

Paula Greif...

images via Remodelista

I'm not quite sure what to do about the issue of Paula Greif, but I am completely obsessed... Her work alone is enough to spawn a full-on girl crush, but then there's this via Remodelista:

"Brooklyn-based Renaissance woman Paula Greif set herself a creative goal: to make everything in her kitchen by hand. Greif views her working life as a horizontal line—she started as a graphic designer for magazines; later, she directed music videos and commercials; more recently, she's turned her attention to ceramics. Greif's house in Brooklyn is a project on that continuum; filled with her own hand-hooked rugs and distinctive pottery. Her inspiration? Alexander Calder (specifically, the book Calder at Home), who "extended his creativity to every corner of his existence." After reading about Calder, Greif began to make things for her own home; rug hooking led her to pottery, and ultimately, a desire to remake everything in her kitchen by hand."

Oh and then this from her site:

I'm at a loss.

Thanks a lot Michelle ;-)

On Finding Balance...

Some shots of a seriously cool house from our March/April issue...

I've just passed the three month mark at the new gig, and I finally feel settled...well relatively speaking. To be sure, I'm still flying by the seat of my pants, a lot, but I don't have that deer in the headlights, total and complete idiot feeling I did in the beginning (or at least I have it way less often).

Friends...starting a new job after over a decade at your old one is a humbling enterprise. I went from knowing what I was doing 99% of the time to asking an embarrassing amount of questions of my (infinitely patient) co-workers. Humble pie. But I expected to feel green for a while, that I was unmoored wasn't the surprise.

What was is how much the new job affected all the other aspects of my life. I thought non-stop (and to some degree I still do) about how to do my job well, how to manage the work, how to get things right. It made me distracted, and most distressing, it made me, well (for lack of a more eloquent term)... suck at pretty much everything else. Social life? Vanished. Entertaining? I don't do it. Volunteering at school? Abysmal. Calling friends and family? Never. Personal e-mail? Forget about it. (On that note, sorry if I owe you an e-mail...I'll get to it, I promise.)

Between keeping Bryan and the girlies #1 and navigating the new job, I was totally and completely accounted for and then some.

So now that I'm getting my footing a bit, putting in place some systems, creating a bit of a rhythm if you will, I'm ever so gingerly trying to find balance.  I'm trying to figure out how to be a good mom/wife/daughter/sister/friend/career woman/good citizen/creatively balanced person again.

I'll let you know how it goes ;-)

Loving...

{David Netto's house via Habitually Chic & Robert Ryman via Sarah Schmerler}

Lisa's excellent interview with David Netto on A Bloomsbury Life... but this part especially:

"I'm big on respect for yourself. Putting a tie on most days at home to write does make me take life more seriously. I don't view that as an inconvenience. I'm inspired by the abstract painter Robert Ryman who gets up every day, puts on a suit, rides the subway to his studio and gets to work painting white squares."

CV's cobalt blue duffel and that striped clutch above... Both officially on my (ongoing) CV wish list. Is it possible to own too many Clare Vivier bags? I think not ;-)

The insane awesomeness that is Lee Borthwick's Mirror Tapestry...

And Yves Klein Blue inspired nail polish from Rescue Beauty Lounge. (Both spotted via Moodboard.)

Aurélie Bidermann’s butterflies on The Coveteur...

This brass owl pencil cup from Minty (which I can't help thinking would be a nice companion for my kangaroo, yes?)...