Our Yuccas are blooming. So beautiful.

It's been a long week. But I've been getting some fantastic things in the mail lately (more on that next week), which always makes things better. I just had to order more of the purple-pink shot cotton, and some little bits of printed fabrics for trim on the ERMIE dresses. The last photograph is a picture of a splurge. One yard of Tana Lawn Liberty fabric. It's so silky, the quality is amazing. Now I know why it's so pricey...worth every penny...and I am happy it will be gracing some of the dresses I'm making.

Parrots

* click on photos to enlarge

So I don't know if you know this, but there are flocks of wild parrots (feral parrots?)
that fly about the Los Angeles area. They are very loud and boisterous. They are green in color, and during the day (early morning 6 a.m.- ish) fly out from where they are roosting, and come back to roost at about 6 p.m.
Pretty cool!

And if you haven't seen this documentary about similar flocks of parrots in San Francisco, you should!

Black Yard No More

We have been having some landscaping done in our yard and it's almost finished! Usually we are pretty D.I.Y. around here, and Tomory & Gian- Martin valiantly tried to do the job, but hauling gravel, paving stones, and boulders up our very steep hill in 90 degree weather proved to be a bit much.
So, the black weed-block Tomory put down (bio- degrades in about 10 yrs...made out of corn) is almost covered. We have been calling our backyard the blackyard for the past few weeks. Sounds very heavy metal, if you ask me.
And speaking of heavy metal, (Spinal Tap) we now have these big boulders in a Stonehenge/ Flintstonesque circle in our yard. I think it's pretty hilarious! They make great seating (pictured above).
Also some photos here of some radishes coming up, and beans. We still have plenty of tomatoes and zucchini!

Miranda Lee Richards & Speranza

Dinner and a show.
A rarity for the Mr. & myself- we are very much homebodies, and like to have friends come over, rather than go out. Last night though, we broke the pattern with the intervention of our friends David & Kelly, and had a beautiful meal at a little place in Silverlake called Speranza. Really good, authentic Italian food, the seating is mostly outdoors (the best kind in So. Cal).The prices are so reasonable (cheap, really) for the quality of the food you get-handmade pasta-! They have a BYOB policy, with NO corkage fee. You heard me right...NO corkage fee. The vibe is accordingly bohemian...I swear we were seated next to Gregory Corso & the gang circa 1959 last night.

After our amazing and affordable meal, we were treated to a free show at the Silverlake Lounge- Miranda Lee Richards. Her voice is so beautiful, and her band is great. She's a wonderful singer- songwriter, and she was flawless live. I look forward to enjoying more of her music in the future.

Some photographs taken last evening at our friends Kelly and David's home. I love going over there.Their house is always full of life, interesting people, and good, creative energy.

Bonnie Cashin, from American Fabrics Magazine :
"I forget which painter said (Ben Shahn?) "The striving should be for something good...not different, just good. Then it will be different."

Hollywood Bowl

I meant to post about this a little while ago- I finally went to the Hollywood Bowl ( ! )...with Tomory, David, and Carlee... the band played Miles Davis...the night was warm & balmy, we drank nice red wine. I can't believe I waited so long to go. Truly a Los Angeles institution. It was amazing!