Is Benjy Vogue-worthy?

Benjy and I finally got our eager little paws on Dogs In Vogue, a superb collection of photographs and illustrations published over the decades in Vogue magazine, and featuring pooches of all kinds. Dogs, dogs, dogs everywhere! Dogs in the arms of their famous owners, like Moujik with Yves Saint-Laurent, and dogs as characters in fashion spreads.

And what about Benjy of the black almond eyes, the floppy velvet ears and the slender body, Benjy the dachshund jetting between chic Paris and trendy Los Angeles? Is he Vogue-worthy?

Reading list

A couple of days ago, I was delighted to meet the beautiful and bookish Joanna from Lark; we discovered a shared passion for literature and it made me realize I hadn't posted a reading list in quite some time. So here are the volumes I perused since arriving in Los Angeles...
On the plane, I read my dear Iris Murdoch's comic novel Under the Net - very Buster Keaton-ish... The Balanchine Variations is a wonderfully stimulating slim volume about the master's most important pieces... I found the Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing a bit disappointing, though the first chapter is excellent and funny... I am fascinated by Greek art (ah, Praxiteles!), but didn't know much about it or about ancient Greek history, so I enjoyed The Oxford History of Greece and the Hellenistic World... I've saved the best for last: Alison Light's Mrs Woolf and her Servants is an extraordinary study not only of Virginia Woolf's complicated relationships with her cooks and maids, but also a fascinating history of servants in England from the late 19th century to the 1940's - a must-read, really.

And if you're not up for all that, there's always Teen Vogue! It's smart and stylish without the snottiness of regular Vogue. You're allowed to love it even if you've been a post-teen for a long time; my sister, however, would sigh "Oh grow up!"
On my copy of the mag is a lipbalm I bought at the Santa Monica Farmers' market. Bill's Bees brings us super fresh honey as well as all-natural honey and wax lipbalm, isn't that great?

Role Model

Yesterday I grabbed my New Yorker from the mailbox, stepped into my kitchen and unpacked my groceries, including a bottle of Ginger Ale; all of a sudden, childhood memories and emotions came back to me.

When my family was living in Iraq, we all adored Deborah. To my parents she was a dear friend, while to my sister and me she was the best aunt ever, always around for our birthday parties and willing to watch video tapes with us - oh how many times did she sit through The Sound of Music, or my then favorite, Flashdance? The picture with my sister and me (wearing a Bar Harbor, Maine sweatshirt!) was taken during our trip to Jordan with my mum. Just the girls.

To me, she was also a role model. She was an independent working woman, a young American diplomat who was also very beautiful and fun. Oddly, three things came to embody what I aspired to through her: that she had a place of her own, the Ginger Ale in her fridge and her subscription to The New Yorker. That's what I must go for when I grow up, I'd muse.
And yesterday, with my Ginger Ale and my New Yorker, in my little West Coast studio, I thought of her. She is now an American ambassador in a key Gulf state and has two daughters I am enamored with; she's my role model always.

Calling all bloggers! I want to buy a large poster to decorate my new place. Art, photography, I'm open to everything. I'm considering this one. Any suggestions?

Recycle: A home for your magazines

I was going to buy plastic boxes to store my magazine collections when I literally stumbled upon wood crates outside a Monoprix, and decided to use these instead. You can get them at outdoor markets or supermarkets - if you can't see any, just ask, as they are usually happy to get rid of them. I am debating whether or not to paint them in bright colors...
The large ones accommodate two stacks of Vogues!

And if you don't keep your magazines, instead of throwing them away, why not drop them off at a local hospital, retirement home or other place where people get really lonely and bored...? Today I'll be leaving stacks of French Elle at the Hôpital Saint-Antoine.
TV Trivia: does anyone know for which hugely popular American TV series some episodes where shot at the Hôpital Saint-Antoine?

London shopping

My London booty includes this simple organic cotton Twiggy tote, designed for Marks & Spencer by fashion illustrator David Downton .
I also bought Iris Murdoch's "The Sea, The Sea" - I was enthralled by the pages I read on the Eurostar, my first foray into her work. Ok, I admit, one of the reasons I chose the book was also this beautiful Vintage Classics edition. I've already mentioned on this blog how much I love Penguin's old covers ("Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005", an anthology of the paperbacks' designs, is a coveted tome) but when it comes to contemporary editions of masterpieces of the past I'll pick Vintage Classics any time...
My bag was much weighed down by the Brit VOGUE. This glossy (a lot heavier than Murdoch's 500-page novel...) features some terrific writing (such a tribute to the late stylist Marit Allen, and pieces about love by 4 writers including Tamasin Day-Lewis), as well as an elegant step-by-step tie-dye project.


Finally, an item from England I haven't bought yet because it's a prototype... I just love Artycho's exquisite and whimsical work (made by this French lady in the English countryside), so imagine how honored and excited I was when I found out that my (admittedly pressing) requests inspired her to create a hat!Merci Artycho! I can't wait to buy and wear this lovely creation!

Recycle your magazines and books!

I just received a locket from Hoolala, the wonderfully creative Etsy shop whose Memento Mori cufflinks I featured on this blog last month; the locket came in a lovely and fun envelope (picture) that was made with a page from a discarded book. Isn't that a fabulous way to recycle books that are too outdated or in too bad a condition to be kept as reading material? (I hope I'm not going to get too much hate-mail from biblio-fundamentalists... I love and respect books too!).
For Christmas and birthdays, instead of buying wrapping paper, I always wrap my presents in magazine pages; they're glossy, colorful and can be chosen to match the gift or the person it's meant for...