Wear your jeans next wednesday to show your support for women who are victims of sexual violence. DENIM DAY is the day before my first on-call shift as a volunteer advocate for Mt Sinai Hospital’s SAVI program, and from my training as a rape crisis counselor I have come to know just how many injustices women who are survivors face.

Please join me in wearing jeans to raise awareness about sexual violence.

Because there is no excuse and never an invitation to rape.

http://denimdaynyc.org/ 

I just finished some work for Lana Masor’s nutrition counseling and private yoga studio in NYC. This included new WordPress theme modification, creation of graphics, SEO optimization, and more. Content-wise Lana and I came up with some new service packages that would appeal to the businesses target audience (yoga beginners, brides-to-be, mommies-to-be and corporations), as well as e-newsletter design announcing the new packages and New Year discounts. Next up is designing some Google AdSense display ads to promo the business! This project has been a great experience, Lana was a true professional and just wonderful to work with. Thanks Lana!

See the website – www.justfortodaynyc.com

This blog entry is especially for my friends from far and near who have met or heard me talk about my awesome brother John and my (now official!) sister-in-law Stephanie. They got married this past weekend, and being two insanely stylish suckers I knew that there was going to be eye candy for fashion & design. It looked absolutely beautiful and all their own style. Congratulations John, Steph and the coolest of nephews ever, mister Alvin J. WE LOVE YOU ALL!!

Check out these photos:

Oh hell yeah.

Porsche 993
Photo credit: Alex Clifford-Turner

We’ve just had a wonderful weekend away (one of many, luckily) at our friend Peter‘s house in Litchfield. It was the best weekend for seeing the leaves change, all pink and orange and loads of them covering the ground. Good for the toddler to romp around in!

Cleo-patsy also got up close and personal with horses, turkeys, cows and Peter’s resident cat Cinnamon. Mostly it was posing for the camera but we did in fact visit some farms and buy some apple and pumpkin – can’t claim to have picked it ourselves though. There are great stores and farm stands all around the area to pick up local cheese, milk, eggs, corn, whatever is in season. The Dutch Epicure Shop Bakery has especially good pretzels.

Posing on tractors, common activity with toddlers I’m sure

We used a beautiful red Porsche 993 to drive up there, it’s only 2 hours from New York City. The car is from the member’s club The Classic Car Club in Manhattan, we joined earlier this year and are pretty impressed with them. Peter’s amazing hospitality is only available to friends and family – unfortunately for you – but there’s what looks to be a great hotel in nearby Litchfield Hills, the Winvian. It’s a bit posh. Could do with a pool…

— In Other News —

We adopted a boston terrier pup, Lulu! After years of whining to ACT that I wanted a dog, he finally caved. She’s a little love bug who has been great so far, despite a bit of a problem with separation anxiety.  If you’re reading this and you know a trick or two with dogs like ours, please get in touch! Skype training session?

Let me just start out by saying that I really do my best to go easy on the baby boasting. I keep the Facebook photos and baby-related comments to a minimum. But Cleo just seems to gather admirers wherever we go. If all babies had the power of distraction that Cleo has, nothing would ever get done!

So now that Cleo and I are in the fashion biz – Cleo has worked as a model (Baby CZ, Parents magazine), and I’ve just started a project with the gorgeous fashion designer Kathlin Argiro – Cleo has become accustomed to the whole photo shoot environment – she just sits there and takes it all in. She charms the crew (even the ones that don’t like babies!), naps happily in the stroller, puts the models on edge (soon Cleo will have your jobs! Ha!). Seriously, I truly think she really likes being a part of that world. Maybe a little too much… cough – - DIVA alert!

So I got to thinking. If you know fashion, then you know of Choupette – the iconic kitty belonging to Karl Lagerfield. If you don’t, the Twitter bio sums up the dear cat:

I’m a famous beauty who refuses to eat on the floor & my maids pamper my every need. I am Choupette Lagerfeld and I am a spoiled pussy. #Chanel  #KarlLagerfeld

Choupette is a phenomenon, with over 18,000 followers on Twitter, a Net-a-porter campaign, and a Grazia cover. For a cat! So I wondered, could my little fashionista cut it as a bonafide fashion icon? We put Cleopatra to the Choupette test!

(Adapted from 14 Reasons Why Karl Lagerfield’s Cat Has It So Much Better Than You – as seen in Buzzfeed.com)

1. She has maids.

Photo Credit: Karl Lagerfield

Chopette: Two “personal maids,” Lagerfeld has said, “for both night and day.”

Cleopatra and the Chanel

Cleopatra: Has it Made. “Appears not to know the difference between night and day.” says ACT, Cleo’s father. Even this Chanel handbag wasn’t off limits to her tiny greasy, grabby toddler hands.

WINNER = CHOUPETTE

——–

2. She gets to do whatever she wants.

Image Source: Grazia Daily

Choupette: “She has lunch and dinner with me on the table, with her own food. She doesn’t touch my food.,” Lagerfeld confessed. “She doesn’t want to eat on the floor.” (To be fair, I wouldn’t want his food, either). Source: i-donline.com

Cleopatra enjoying some gelato in Viterbo, Italy this summer.

3. She is effortlessly technologically savvy.

Choupette using an iPad

Choupette: Here she is playing with an iPad, which is probably from her personal stash of tech goodies. Source: cdn.fashionista.com

Cleopatra and her iPad

Cleopatra: Gets Siri (how many of us can claim that?).

WINNER = CLEOPATRA

——–

4. Her memoirs are being written for her in real time.

Image Source: Buzzfeed.com

Choupette: Nine months into Choupette’s life, her personal maids — Francoise and Marjorie — had taken down 600 pages of diary notes on her every mood, meal, and behavior. And if there’s one truth about being a cat it’s that mood is never consistent so this is pretty hardcore note-taking.  Source: i-donline.com

Cleopatra: Cleo narrates her life in real-time. The problem is, nobody understands a word of what she says.

WINNER = CHOUPETTE

——–

5. She’s got tonnes of followers on Twitter.

Choupette on Twitter @choupettesdiary

Choupette: Has 18,000+ followers on Twitter

Cleopatra and a few of her admirers…

Cleopatra: Doesn’t need Facebook to get someone to follow her. “That’s true, she has random people stop us in the street to admire her. It’s bizarre just who does this, like a mid-twenties corporate guy on Park Ave who stopped to tell me that she was ‘a good looking kid’. Who would’ve thought?!” – Cleopatra’s mom.

WINNER = CLEOPATRA

——–

6. When she’s messy or mean, it’s charming.

Choupette nibbles on a blanket

Choupette: Lagerfeld told i-D: “She loves to destroy paper, that is what she loves to do the most and also driving her beloved maids (Francoise and Marjorie) crazy.” Source: i-donline.com

Our tub is still stained from this little finger-painting party.

Cleopatra: She makes a mean mess. Not as mean as her BFF Von Munster who did a baby poo that cost his parents $100 in airline rebooking fees. Ha!

WINNER  = CHOUPETTE

——–

7. Her appearance lends itself to poetic descriptions.

Choupette with her Hermann Hesse book (how highbrow)

Choupette: Lagerfeld “She’s snow white with touches of caramel around the eyes, ears and on her endless boa-like feather tail.” When was the last time anyone said something so lovely about your tail? Source: img2-2.timeinc.net

Cleopatra in the epic dress worn for Baby CZ.

Cleopatra: Her names lends itself to ruling a country (or two). Her fashion is on track to be a future Queen/Princess/Duchess.

WINNER = CLEOPATRA

——–

8. She is referred to in only the most dignified of fashions.

That’s Princess Choupette to you commoners…

Choupette: “Her name is Choupette, Princess Choupette or Miss Choupette,” Lagerfeld says. And yet she never fails to lose that humble expression that can only be saying, “…me?” – Source: i-donline.com

Cleopatra aka Patsy

Cleopatra: Goes by the names Cleopoopoo, Patsy, Poopoo, Plopadopolous. If wearing cat fur becomes fashion, Cleopatra will be dignified about it.

WINNER = CLEOPATRA

——–

9. Her habitat is 8,000 times more chic than everyone else.

Choupette’s chic habitat

Choupette: At the Lagerfield residence, the sinks are square.

Cleopatra’s bedroom.

Cleopatra: is now 14 months old and we still haven’t finished decorating her bedroom. Parental FAIL.

WINNER = CHOUPETTE

——–

10. She has been inundated with modelling offers.

Choupette: Grazia says Choupette “has been inundated with offers to be the ‘face’ of everything from cat food to movies, video clips. Karl and I discuss every offer although I am not sure why as he says no to all of them….”

Cleo modeling for Baby CZ

Cleopatra: Already leading the pack  in the NYC baby model scene.

So what do you think? Whose memoirs will make it to the discount bin first?

We have just arrived home after a trip to Italy to see our great friends Kate and Alex be married. ACT was celebrant (complete with Elvis-style white tie), I was bridesmaid, and Cleopatra was ring-bearer. It was a beautiful weekend, from our welcome dinner on Thursday through to farewell brunch on Sunday.

Welcome dinner of farro salad, asparagus tart, tuna salad, toast, various cured meats, and of course, some bufala mozzarella.

Lady and the tramp eat Pasta carbonara (made the real way, with raw egg!) in Perugia

Patsy and her papa in Perugia…

The beautiful Borgo della Marmotta. I want to be there again.

The bride’s amazing shoes

The faultless farewell brunch.

Book it through Mr & Mrs Smith

We’ve just started Season 5 of Breaking Bad and the excellent music discoveries off the show keep coming. Previously we’ve heard and loved Darondo ‘Didn’t I’ and Timber Timbre ‘Magic Arrow’, this time it’s Whitey. Just one of the reasons this series is a must-watch. Read an interview with the series’ music supervisor Thomas Golubić over at MTV Hive.

It’s clear I’m not the only one – I must pin about 5 or so things a day, and by my numbers compared to others (repins, likes) is minimal. Some people are pinning 100 times a day, and have 1k+ likes on an item. The process of ‘pinning’ totally justifies time spent randomly searching the web for hidden gems. It’s starting to become the first place I go to for search results, ahead of Google). My style is dictated by the results – what kind of colors I wear this summer, through to what I cook for dinner, and how I furnish my home. This is massive – a huge influence in my life. I wonder, just how many of us are under the Pinterest spell?

Poster courtesy of the amazing Flyer Goodness blog

Welcome to my lovely looking new website! It seems to have become an annual tradition now, to give this place a design overhaul and fresh new look. The best part is that I get to check in on how WordPress as a platform has advanced – and in the past year it’s come along leaps and bounds. I still haven’t quite got my head around using shortcode plugins, but I’ll get there. The best bit is there seems to be a WYSIWYG plugin or widget for just about everything now, meaning less time spent raw coding and more doing the fun visual design!