fitforafemme.com

Happy hump day, y’all! I am ever so slightly under the weather with a bit of a head cold, but otherwise life is just lovely. The sun came out again today and despite the fact that I can scarcely breathe, I decided it was midweek and FFAF needed some action. I’ve been living in this outfit, as it’s not too cold here lately, but it’s not warm by any means, either. This is a nice balance because it’s super comfortable, and a great excuse to rock some color, too. I’ll admit I’d hardly given Spring a second thought until yesterday and all the Groundhog Day activity! The internets, they do not let you forget. My head is far too stuffed to continue on in any meaningful way, so let’s make a list of shows I’m obsessed with at present:

1. LOST, because it’s bananas:

2. The Tudors really needs to hurry up and get back on the air already. Sex, violence, religion, politics, corsets. Need I say more?

3. The Pacific, which is a new miniseries coming to HBO this March, a sort of complement to Band Of Brothers, which I really, really loved and always watch whenever it’s on. I need to own it. Maybe they’ll create an amazing box set with both series after The Pacific premieres.

4. Big Love is the show I want to be addicted to, but I’m not quite there yet. It’s in the queue! M & I watched an episode or two awhile back and were pretty ambivalent about it, but have since been convinced by friends that we need to start from the beginning and give it some time. (This better not be like True Blood, y’all!)

5. Last but not least, Grey’s Anatomy. This one is all my BFF’s fault. I’ve mocked her incessantly for years about this show. I’ve spent countless Friday mornings rolling my eyes over coffee while she went on and on about Izzy this, McDreamy that and last season, we somehow got sucked in. Unbelievable. Now we have the video game. Yang, of course, is our favorite, and now I know exactly what the BFF means when she says, “You’re my person.”

I love this song by Rufus Wainwright. It’s beautiful. It takes a few listens to full bloom, so to speak. My favorite line is I have suffered shipwreck against your dark brown eyes. So gorgeous. So true.

Here at the homestead we are eagerly awaiting a lovely guest, who arrives today and stays with us for a few days. Of course, I decided it would be a good time to clean my room (my side of the room, rather) and will somebody please explain to me why I can’t get through a single square foot without discovering 84,000 abandoned projects?

Exhibit A: At last I found my seam ripper and attacked a few tentative repurposing prospects that had accumulated into a dusty pile in the corner (all but one went straight into the trash). In addition to the abandoned projects, there’s a kind of freaky domino effect that overtakes me and I’ll also decide it’s a fine time to begin a new project.

Exhibit B: For instance, the drill battery has been charging because WHERE WILL I HANG ALL OF MY FUR STOLES? (the surface of the dresser cannot be properly cleared until there is a place to put them, obviously). I remembered the awesome panel of hooks that M brought home from Target months ago and thought, if I just move my scarves from where they are hanging (the awesome silver antler hooks) to the new one (which is why the drill is charging), I can relocate my fur stoles and collars to the old one. Genius! It’s perfect! It’s ridiculous. I am ridiculous, but I suppose I get brownie points for enthusiasm and innovation.

Exhibit C: On the upside, I somehow posted and sold three pieces of furniture doing nothing but taking up room and collecting dust on Craigslist in under four hours. That’s kind of a record. Good riddance to stuff I don’t need and have no use for!

On that note, I must return to the above-mentioned tasks. It’s exciting! I’m still basking in the glow of the co-tomboy post from yesterday, though. So many new readers! So much love via tweets! Dreamy, dreamy, dreamy.

CONFESSION: Check-out at Hotel Vertigo. Super dreamy lobby. You can read more about it here, if you’d like. We are up and at ‘em on approximately 4-5 hrs. of sleep and absolutely pining for donuts and coffee. We weren’t sure how nightmarish the Love Parade malarkey would be, so we just dashed out of there right before noon and headed to our favorite Noe Valley donut shop. They have Peerless coffee there! A plus. Let’s see if you can guess what I’m thinking as I gaze fondly down upon that polished, gorgeous hunk of wood.

CONFESSION: It was so Fall on this day! Monday, to be exact. I used to loathe the grey + ivory combination, but I am for it this season, especially if you swap the predictable dash of mustard with a nice, predictable and lush rose instead. Ideally, in some sort of ridiculously lavish, ruffled suede. Mm. I guess I’m sort of a moron for not throwing on my pink posie Tulle coat on over this. Next time!

CONFESSION: We discovered that M hates shooting at night and Halloween today. I know, right? OK, so night shooting is HARD and a pain in the ass, but hating Halloween? I think I should remind her about candy corn and slutty costumes bonding with loved ones in a creepy way. In any case, I can’t let her hate Halloween until we’ve dressed up as Moroccan Tranny Patsy and Edina first. It’s our dream! I had fun on the night shoot; we explored the creepy alley across the street and I pretended to be scary and chased kittens around.

NOTE: I gave y’all a three-for-one because even though they were different pairs of jeans, they were still jeans. Never fear (esp. not you, H), I had heels on in both of the above and a brand spankin’ new pair of hella fierce Betsey Johnson tights that are dying to debut themselves.

QUERY: An extremely lovely and devoted reader recently wondered if I might do a Q & A here at FFAF, and you know what I thought? I thought I would, if you’d like. Feel free to send burning questions to fitforafemme@gmail.com and I’ll answer enthusiastically and in bulk to the best of my ability!

CONFESSION: Y’all, this weekend was one big, dreamy, fantastical doozy! The hilarious thing is that M & I were hemming and hawing and grumbling about how we had all these plans, one after the other, back-to-back and nonstop when all we really wanted to do was stay home in our p/manties, eat prosciutto out of the box with fancy cheese and watch Grey’s Anatomy. But we sucked it up and ended up having a ton of fun.

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CONFESSION: It’s been too long! Two weeks and then some too long, to be specific. You know what happened? The fog rolled in, bringing with it a traditionally chilly SF summer, sending my preexisting  nesting state into a disoriented cocoon of warmth and quiet and respite. (Translation: I wore a lot of jeans and hoodies. I spent a lot of time searching for the perfect down comforter – Calvin Klein, for the record – to stop the chattering of my teeth in bed at night and so that we snuggle each other out of free will like we used to, instead of clinging together desperately just for warmth. I fussed with all of the bottles and things at my new vanity and begged the Gods for motivation to put my curlers in. When no motivation came, I watched Season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy.) I hope y’all forgive me and that we can all just MOVE ON from this terrible, awful stagnation.

So, the vanity! Isn’t it darling? I really am in love it. It brings me tremendous joy and pride to sit on my little padded bench, with everything so easy to get to, and with it so prettily displayed, it’s a highly effective way to stop wanting to buy every last shiny new cosmetic I see out and about. (This principle is the same reason I had the beast and have the new mini-beast for my shoes and bags.) Plus, it’s very fancy. This is a little sneak peek at my side of the bedroom, but M & I are still working on it, so you’ll see more very soon.

I’ll also be sharing the kitchen and dining next, followed by the living and sun rooms. We are so, so close to being done and able to just be in our space and enjoy it without that little nudge to tinker with things until they are just so. It’s so wonderful when life is just so, and I’m closer than ever.

Fill me in on your goings-on in the comments! What have I missed!?

Confession: Sandwiched between the Berkeley Public Library on Shattuck and our parking garage for the evening’s events was this wall of art. I think it belonged to new condos hidden behind it. Twilight had just sighed goodnight for the evening and the wall looked especially enchanting and creepy, like a playful wink to Gaudi. Despite the terrible up-lighting for portraits, it was great for bringing the colors alive and for making terrible shadows! I also found some lovely flowers and embedded seashells and danced around for M. Thus, it become the background for an unplanned FFAF post.

Here we are at a celebratory newlywed dinner for our friends, and M bears the wedding gift in the elevator:

Confession: It has come to my attention that when it comes to music, I am a fast sucker for a good horn section. Triumphant horns, despondent horns, horns that shout jubilation through a downpour of misery gasping for air – give it all to me, I’ll take it. Most recently it’s manifested in Beirut’s entire discography and Carina Round’s new song, Backseat, from her newly released EP “Things You Should Know.” (The EP is kind of all over the place – I’m hearing Evanescence and Mazzy Star and she’s used to getting a great deal of PJ Harvey comparisons, as well – but she’s got quite a pretty, clear-as-a-bell voice. Plus, she’s really cute!) Anyway, it’s my favorite off the EP, with a lovely crescendo of horns toward the end. I adore it. I get into the same sort of helpless state in the last bit of Bright Eyes‘ Nothing Gets Crossed Out, which has got horns and much, much more. Songs that level you, you know? I’ve been leveled. So that’s how this post got named what it did. She sings those words like she’s just seen the last sliver of her life’s love walk off into the sunset, never to return, and she’s just sort of whimpering it into the wind, not quite sure whether or not she can stay upright. I told you. (Well, what would you sound like?) Onto cheerful things!

Scent: Italian invasion! There isn’t too much to say about Gianni Campagna’s Gelsomino. It’s wild Italian jasmine, so sultry and a little bit bossy or overbearing. Exquisite, but can be overwhelming and can knock you over with one sniff! In a good way, I think, for something this concentrated and intense, you really do have to apply it very sparingly and let it just sort of waft around you. Others get notes of cedar and clean sea air, even bergamot, but I’m not sure. It might also be for men, but I cannot imagine it.  Here’s some pretty wild jasmine to look at AND the actual bottle.

PS. My sewing machine is supposed to arrive today! Tonight! NOW! I’m going to run downstairs now and check.