why we moved to los angeles. i mean "west hollywood". i guess there is a difference, though no one here seems to know what it is. lord, the gays and their neighborhoods. there. that is the longest headline i have ever had on a post.

ok,
i'll try to explain this the way we told the dogs.

'cause you're sensitive to change,
like they are.

why?  what did you think i meant?

hey.  our dogs are freakin' SMART.

take it back.

no, i mean it.

see, you're taking the news about our moving EXACTLY THE WAY GRR DID:

grr does NOT like change.  at all.

avec is not much better:

listen,
it's nothing against san francisco.

it was just time.  for change.  if you're going to embrace change, you gotta grab it with both arms, dig deep, swing wide, quote cliches as you hold your breath and jump.

so, we moved to los angeles two weeks ago.  which means while i type this i am halfway through a pile of boxes, digging out treasures we had in storage from two houses ago, stretching out into a new space painted a color called "stormy skies" (oddly derivative of the past few years), watching grr and avec sniff their way around a bamboo garden.

i'll post pics of that stuff soon.   wait, here's "stormy skies":

(yeah.  ok.  i have no idea what i was posing like that for.)

but once the thing with supply and demand happened, and tim completed some major projects for gap inc., and we looked around the city where we had buried ourselves for four years, i realized i would be traveling like mad with a new career, and los angeles just seemed . . . right.

it's how we ended up near the big chicken head.

we're around the corner from this place.
they have pink lemonade.
you can eat outside year round.

yeah, yeah, it's west hollywood.
it's the gay ghetto.  again.
we can't escape it.  our people are good at the neighborhood concept.

location location location, and amenities.  and all so nicely done.

so we bought some appliances.  look, shiny:

i'm not exactly SURE what they DO,
but i liked how SHINY they were.

i think one makes gold out of flax.

and i have decided to actually buy real bookcases, and upholster all the very good vintage finds that we have always meant to re-upholster, but then avec ate them, so we waited.  hence, lots of fabric swatches:

so i'm going to hop around a bit chronologically,
but you have the big picture now.

come see us.

we have guest rooms here in the city of angels.

gordon ramsay at the london, evelyn lee and landis smithers, too . . .

i was in l.a.

evie was in l.a.

we went to a party, and ended up at the restaurant in the london hotel,
gordon ramsay's new place,
and let's say,
J'ADORE!!!

unrealistically out of place sushi.

three friends getting to know each other,
evie, me, and evie's high school room-mate marisa:

nothing beats a candle-lit los angeles night.

the london hotel, west hollywood, our home away from home . . .

with all the travel i've been doing down to los angeles recently
(and now that you guys know why)
i have to recommend the london hotel.

it's like stepping into a technicolor black and white movie.

a swirling twenties madcap romance and a noir angelina jolie thriller.

it's parquetry and gold leather and chrome and suede walls and white roses and mint green.

it's rooftop pools and tim in dark glasses and gordon ramsay sushi
and the NICEST valet parking in all of los angeles.

it's escape.
 

even in the middle of all of our change.

how do you clear your head? i don't really know -

change like this takes more than short term answers.
change like this takes more than short visits with the ones you love.






it takes time.
and vistas don't hurt:


and by vistas,
i mean vistas across the table.
seeing your true life watching you,
knowing you made the right choice.
by being yourself.

how do you clear your head? SHOP -

i know. predictable. but pretty for a posting.
we killed time while waiting for our pup appointment each day by taking in l.a. retail.
like the bleeding edge of fred segal:



the giant stone monkeys of maxfield's. i won't even mention the collection of vintage men's travel kelly bags inside. oh, sorry. slipped out:


the furniture of DIVA. from perfect perverted sofa:


to soapstone slabbed sinks:


to maps of paris (foreshadowing? peut etre . . .):


to lamps made of geishas and guns:


(actually. they are both VERY evelyn lamps.)


sorry. really love the monkeys:


to lookbooks that you can't take home. because the store "copied" them:

how do you clear your head, when your head is full -

get away for a weekend.

hop on virgin atlantic, all purple and chic :


land, and try not to read TOO much into the signs:


(i truly am not the devil, people. my powers are largely ceremonial.)
as tim waits for our transport, i dream of the room:


until we are settled in the suite at the mondrian, all pale and draped:


glittering and views:


and settled in a place to revive,
after a monumental decision.

we cheated. (detox at the four seasons, los angeles!) -

so, we didn't exactly come straight home from china.


we kinda stopped in L.A. for a few days of jet-lag-detox.

suprisingly, we pushed ourselves by laying around the pool,






eating out,





and shopping.



fresh. i know. but it sure took the jet-lag away.