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Rookie Mistake Of The Week: We Told God About Our Plans (And, Per Usual, She Laughed)

The Instagram-friendly Disneyland family portrait, which came neither easily nor naturally

Last year we went to Disneyland as a family for the very first time, and we completely fell in love with the place. Having gone in with expectations of total madness and three-hour-long lines and oversugared, undernapped, hysterical children, we were happily shocked when we emerged from our two days of Disney with oversugared, undernapped, hysterical children who were nevertheless in a state of total nirvana - as were we - and immediately decided that an annual trip was in order.

So I'm not going to say that today took us entirely by surprise. Best laid plans, et cetera.

Lifestyle

Ranching (And There Were BUNNIES)

The first thing I noticed when we walked into our room at Alisal Guest Ranch was the books: there were huge bookshelves filled with them everywhere - plus a library next door with floor-to-ceiling shelves and enormous leather couches. It reminded me of the hotels my parents and I stayed at when I was a kid, and how you could always borrow a few paperbacks from the front desk. It was only the next morning, when our kids came in to wake us up, that I realized what had felt so odd about our hotel room: there was no TV; not anywhere.

We're staying at the ranch for a couple of nights on a press trip before we head to Disneyland, and I spent the drive down to Santa Barbara figuring I'd regret having told the kids what the next stop on our trip was (imagining hearing "BUT WHEN ARE WE GOING TO DISNEYLAAAAAND?" on repeat for the duration), but we got here, dropped our stuff in our room, then ran out onto the lawn to play leapfrog. And then today we rode horses and petted zebus and gathered chicken eggs from the coops and got to sit in enormous piles of bunnies and guinea pigs (!!!!! I died) and made mosaic butterflies in the arts & crafts house, and I swear to you: I have not heard the word "Disneyland" one single time.

You know what other word I haven't heard? "TV." They haven't even noticed it's not there.

Style

10 Perfect Fall Sweaters

Me and my sweater dress and my Highlands c. 2013

I was just browsing through old posts and realized that my most recent post about sweaters (and there have been oh, so many, because I love few things more than a really good sweater) went up last spring. Which doesn't seem like an ideal time to post about sweaters. (Unless, I suppose, one is planning to buy them on clearance and wear them the next fall. Which sure, I did because Zara made me do it - this dress is similar - but still.)

It's fall! Let's talk about sweaters. Mostly because I spent last night fascia blasting and catching up on Bachelor In Paradise and packing, and then I spent the bulk of today driving from San Jose to Santa Barbara, and then I spent the past three hours trying to convince two small children to go to sleep in what is apparently the most exciting hotel room that has ever existed (and yes, okay, the Alisal Ranch is indeed beautiful, but still: GO TO SLEEP) and now my brain is fried.

Lifestyle

We Are Living In The Future

Usually, when I do a double-take at something, it is a pair of shoes. Or, I don’t know, a couch (I do love me some couches). It’s not particularly common for me to do one while wandering through the home appliances section of a department store, because it’s hard to get all romantic about a fridge or a washer and dryer, you know?

But a few weeks ago Samsung contacted me, asking if I wanted to work with them on a review of their new FlexWash + FlexDry washer and dryer. And then a few days after that I was in Sears shooting a video, and may wanderings took me through the home appliances section…and that’s when it happened:

I did a double-take for the ages. At a home appliance.

Lifestyle

One Day’s Worth Of Googles

Who knew Kendrick was such a mystery man? 

The other day, in LA, I was driving around with Francesca and her cousin Valentina, and Francesca said "Google 'flexible old lady,' will you?" So I did - no questions asked - and this wonderful, wonderful image came up. The point of the Google was that Francesca had seen the image somewhere before and wanted me to see it because she said it was her vision of me as an old lady. But out of context, that's a hell of a random search.

But the thing is, the very identity of Google searches is based on the fact that they're decontextualized. So they're kind of always funny. Or at least bizarre.

Style

My Favorite Fall Trends: A Top 10 List, In No Particular Order

via

I'm officially ready for fall to commence. It's still hovering in the high 90s out here, but every day lately I wake up, open my closet, and gaze upon my lovely OTK (and thigh-high) boots, awaiting the day when I can throw them on with a big old sweater dress.

What I like about the trends I've been seeing for Fall 2017 is that they seem so wearable, even for someone like me, whose lifestyle rarely, if ever, involves going anywhere fancier than Aqui's for Sangria Swirls (hush, they're delicious). Sure, there are trends that I will not be embracing, such as uber-long nails (which do not mix especially well with diaper-changing), ruffles upon ruffles (the look is just not cute on me), or tiny bralette tops that look like actual bras (that ship has sailed, my friends), but there's so much good fashion to look forward to in the coming months.

Decor

Side Yard Makeover: From No Man’s Land To Most Useful Space Ever

...What is this "side yard" of which you speak?

Side yards are not a thing I have any experience with, and definitely are not something I have given much (if any) thought to. Like, ever.

I didn't even have a side yard at our house in NYC (or, I guess I kind of did because there was a space between our house and the house next to us, but it consisted largely of a spricket-and-poison-ivy-infested wasteland. Then I moved out to the California suburbs, and everyone here seems to have a pair of functional side yards. We have neighbors who use the long, narrow spaces that run along the edges of their houses for storage, as dog runs, to hold chicken coops, as play spaces for their kids - all kinds of things.

Style

When In Hollywood…

double helix high lobe piercing from body electric tattoo

You know what my daughter did on Friday? She tried to take down two of the Willis sisters (Scout and Tallulah, specifically). And she very nearly succeeded.

Here's what happened.

We drove down to LA for a couple of days to see my friend who just had a baby, and to touch base with a few people who I love and haven't seen in ages. I had an errand to run over on Melrose and found myself stopping into Body Electric Tattoo "just to say hi" (#famouslastwords). And then all of a sudden I was getting not just one piercing, but three (plus replacements for two existing holes) - more on that in a minute - and as I was leaving I found myself standing at the top of a verrrrrry steep, verrrrrry long set of stairs right next to Scout and Tallulah, because when you're in Hollywood and find yourself standing next to two people, there is a very good chance that they are related to Demi Moore.

ENTREES

I Have Conquered The Paella

Okay, so I had help. A lot of it. And okay, so maybe my primary contribution was to hover around my paella-knowledgeable friends taking photographs and taste-testing ingredients just to make sure nothing was poisonous, rather than actually "cooking." But still.

The first time I ate paella was in Barcelona, which seems like the right place to have your first experience, except mine was kind of traumatic. The bowl arrived and I gave it a stir, and all of a sudden the creature from the black lagoon came launching up at me out of the depths, all claws and tentacles and such. (Spoiler: it was a crawfish. But when you do not expect to see a crawfish and are surprised by one in your food, terror is a totally acceptable reaction to have. Those are scary little fuckers.) I've never tried making it myself because it looks complicated, and saffron is expensive, and it seems like the kind of dish that should be made from a recipe handed down from a relative.

Enter: my friend Erin, whose mother-in-law Linda has a family recipe, and who just so happened to be in town last weekend.


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