Category Archives: Random

what i’m reading now

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In the tradition of Kitchen Confidential and Waiter Rant, a rollicking, eye-opening, fantastically indiscreet memoir of a life spent (and misspent) in the hotel industry. Jacob Tomsky never intended to go into the hotel business. As a new college graduate, armed only with a philosophy degree and a singular lack of career direction, he became a valet parker for a large luxury hotel in New Orleans. Yet, rising fast through the ranks, he ended up working in “hospitality” for more than a decade, doing everything from supervising the housekeeping department to manning the front desk at an upscale Manhattan hotel. He’s checked you in, checked you out, separated your white panties from the white bed sheets, parked your car, tasted your room-service meals, cleaned your toilet, denied you a late checkout, given you a wake-up call, eaten M&Ms out of your minibar, laughed at your jokes, and taken your money. In Heads in Beds he pulls back the curtain to expose the crazy and compelling reality of a multi-billion-dollar industry we think we know.

In the tradition of Kitchen Confidential and Waiter Rant, a rollicking, eye-opening, fantastically indiscreet memoir of a life spent (and misspent) in the hotel industry.
Jacob Tomsky never intended to go into the hotel business. As a new college graduate, armed only with a philosophy degree and a singular lack of career direction, he became a valet parker for a large luxury hotel in New Orleans. Yet, rising fast through the ranks, he ended up working in “hospitality” for more than a decade, doing everything from supervising the housekeeping department to manning the front desk at an upscale Manhattan hotel. He’s checked you in, checked you out, separated your white panties from the white bed sheets, parked your car, tasted your room-service meals, cleaned your toilet, denied you a late checkout, given you a wake-up call, eaten M&Ms out of your minibar, laughed at your jokes, and taken your money. In Heads in Beds he pulls back the curtain to expose the crazy and compelling reality of a multi-billion-dollar industry we think we know.

I love to read, especially when a book totally sucks me in and keeps me up way too late, with burning eyes, because I just can’t put the book down. That doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it makes me feel alive! The last time I felt that kind of magic from a book was when I read Jenna Jameson’s autobiography How to Make Love Like a Porn Star. It was fascinating. Heads in Beds isn’t quite as gripping but it’s close. I love travel and hotels and this book has opened my eyes to so much. Everyone should read this for a better understanding and appreciation for hotels and the people who work in them. Jacob Tomasky has a very humorous and down-to-earth writing style that makes for an easy read and keeps you laughing! What are you reading?

be my airhead

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airheadsflowers

The awesome people at Airheads (yes, the cool, colorful, taffy-like candy) are hosting a Craft Your Valentine Challenge. It was really fun to be given something so versatile as this candy to work with. The possibilities are endless! I decided to make a bouquet of one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted flowers for my special someone. Each flower represents a unique quality that I love about him. They are cute, fun, and you can eat them right off the stick! I had so much fun with this project!

makingflowers

To form the flowers I cut the Airheads in half lengthwise then into one inch pieces. I started by making the center of the flower first, by rolling or twisting a one inch piece. Then I abstractly formed the other pieces around the center piece, creating unique flowers every time!

alt. design summit 2013 {day 2}

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swan

On day 2, I spent most of the morning sitting in on a round table discussion involving a new project hosting web videos! I made a submission video yesterday and am keeping my fingers crossed! I will keep you posted! In the afternoon, The Land of Nod took over one of the lounges and threw a tea party with a swan theme. How fun is this photo op?

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These black swan floral arrangements rocked my world, and the black and white napkins…just stop it! Too cute!

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At Alt., it is all about the business cards. The card wall is filling up! There were 650 attendees this year.

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OK, Fridays lunch and keynote speaker Stephan Sagmeister blew me away. You can imagine the rooms surprise when his naked photo appeared on the large screens next to him a few minutes into his talk. He is a world-famous graphic designer, has given TED talks and wrote a film called…The Happy Film. He was hilarious, captivating and super inspiring!

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How adorable is this candy table by Kara? Just incase you needed an afternoon pick me up! The style and attention to detail at Alt. is spot on. It’s like a fantasy land.

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Jessica Alba was there talking about her brand The Honest Co. It was cool to be in the same room with her again! I just adore her and she is so sweet. I met her last year at The Lucky FABB event.

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This was a giant cork board map of the US and everyone tacked their cards to the area they were from! Look, there I am!

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Ahh…the beautiful Grand America Hotel at night, and no, that deer family isn’t real!

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Myself and the lovely Tamera Beardsley at the Friday night mini suite parties. The entire 3rd floor of the hotel gets taken over by sponsors who create themed mini parties in the suites. It is so much fun! This year Better Homes & Garden hosted the Color Pop Dessert Bash, Blurb hosted a Reunion Class of 2013 party, Flipboard’s theme was Rolling Out the Red Carpet, Go Mighty + Red Envelope had a Crush on You Party, Hayneedle hosted a Great Gatsby Lawn Party, Method + The Girls with Glasses hosted an It’s a Mod Mod World dance party, Vecco + Brita Olsen had a Tinsel & Timber party and Weathermob had a Weather With Style party. It was an amazing evening of food, fun and lots of giveaways!

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This was the photo booth at The Hayneedle party where we ran into Lia Griffith of ellinée.

So, who wants to come with me to Alt. 2014??!

alt. design summit 2013 {day 1}

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book

I just spent time in Salt Lake City, Utah at the Alt. Design Conference, which is a magical couple of days full of bloggers, networking, classes, parties, dinners and a lot of business cards, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it. Heck, even if I didn’t have a blog I would want to be there! It all started last Wednesday night with a kick off dinner. There were several restaurants around town hosting small groups of bloggers. This year I chose a cozy little old school spot, Lamb’s Grill. They are known for their rice pudding (which I loved) and a friend commented that her grandparents had dinner there on their wedding night, too cute. The evening was sponsored by Blurb, an awesome company that prints books, magazines, ebooks and much, much more. They gave me the opportunity to create a book from my blog (above) and it was incredible to see my photos come to life in print. I was so impressed with the quality compared to other photo books I have made. I can’t wait to get creative and maybe make a cookbook or Lipstick & Leopard Print the magazine? The possibilities are endless!

grandamericaday

Every year Alt. SLC is held at The beautiful Grand America Hotel in downtown Salt Lake City. I was thrilled to be able to stay there this year. The rooms were gorgeous and this was our view! Wade makes this a ski vacation during the day and then comes out to party with me at night. It’s perfect!

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Alt. began on Thursday morning and I just couldn’t help myself…first stop, the HP booth. You know how I love a silly photo op!

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For my first class of the day, I chose The Reality of an Everyday Video Series with Sarah Carey from Martha Stewert. I thought this would be interesting because I have a lot of recipes on my blog but have never thought about doing a cooking video…until now. Sarah Carey was hilarious and I left the class feeling totally inspired. Later in the day, I was approached by a woman who was interested in having me host a web show. Crazy! More to come on that soon!

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On Thursday and Friday, Alt. hosts a formal lunch in the Grand Ballroom and the food is delicious considering they are feeding 650 people at the same time. The keynote speaker on Thursday was best-selling author Chris Anderson, who spoke about the power of invention. I really enjoyed his presentation, especially when he showed us what a 3-D printer can do! You can make just about anything with one of those. Now I want one!

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Thursday evening was the Clue themed party complete with taxidermy animals as you entered the event. I searched high and low for the right outfit and ended up as Professor Plum and felt fabulous! Wade looked pretty darn handsome in his suit and Professor Plum tie too!

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Wow! Look at those teeth!

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I found another Professor Plum with the same fluffy jacket!!! The lovely Lia Griffith of ellinée. It was fantastic and everyone at the party thought we had planned it!

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These ladies looked perfectly themed together. I especially loved Miss Scarlett and her matching hair! We have Lindsey of lindsey bee as Colonel Mustard, Patti of Patti Murphy Designs as Miss Peacock, Allessia of Little Lessy as Professor Plum and Laura of the lbeau room as Miss Scarlett.

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Look! It’s me and with one of my favorite LA food bloggers Kristin of The Cuisinerd.

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I just loved meeting Amber of damask love, she was so adorable and full of energy. I was also thrilled to see Rachel from Handmade Charlotte again. We met last year at Alt. Summit 2012 and she was one of my faves!

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Meet Tamera Beardsley. We bumped into each other on the elevator the first night and it was a girl crush at first sight! I am a sucker for bold jewelry and tulle and she had it all. We couldn’t get enough of each other and had Wade take our pic almost immediately! Wait until you see us the next night!

More of Alt. Summit to come this week…stay tuned!

red carpet ready

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Amy Poehler at the 2013 SAG Awards. Photo courtesy of RCFA.

Amy Poehler at the 2013 SAG Awards. Photo courtesy of RCFA.

Did anyone watch the SAG Awards last night? I was planning on it, but we got stuck in the airport in Salt Lake City due to a snow storm, as we were trying to leave after a whirlwind couple of days at The Alt. Design Summit (which I will write more about this week). It was the first snowfall of our entire trip and I was really excited until it delayed our flight for 6 hours! Since we didn’t make it home until 2am I had to catch the highlights of the SAG Awards online. When I moved to California in 1999, I did a ton of “extra” work on TV shows and movies and actually got my SAG card for my minor role in the movie The Salton Sea. I played “tweaker #2″. Yes, my big onscreen debut was a drug addict. The movie starred Val Kilmer, who I met. It was all very exciting at the time! However, after getting my SAG card, the work became harder to come by. Even though I couldn’t afford to continue pursuing this career, SAG will always have a special place in my heart!

My excitement for the snow prior to being stuck at the airport!

My excitement for the snow prior to being stuck at the airport!

I was thrilled when I found out that Celebrity Makeup Artist Robert Moulton was doing Amy Poehler’s face for the SAG Awards AND uses Kerstin Florian products, which you all know I love. You can see my previous posts about them here and here. Robert Moulton has worked with some of Hollywood’s leading ladies, creating stunning red carpet looks for Elizabeth Banks, Leighton Meester, Olivia Munn, Kristen Wiig and Jamie Lynn-Sigler (to name a few). For Sunday night’s award show, Moulton prepped, primed and glamified actress Amy Poehler to create a healthy and fresh-faced glow for her walk down the red carpet. I had access to an exclusive interview with Robert, in which, he shares his top skin care tips for lasting makeup using products by Lancer Skincare and Kerstin Florian! Here’s the interview:

Q. Hollywood’s A-listers always ‘glow’ on the red carpet, but it can’t all be good genes. What skin regimen do you advise your clients do beforehand to get their skin in shape leading up to a major awards show? Do you give them any sort of “rescue kit/hero products” to use at home?
A. I suggest products that help with de-puffing, smoothing and hydrating the eye area to create a ‘bright-eyed’ appearance. Before any red carpet event I always recommend Kerstin Florian Correcting Eye Rescue – the soothing eye pads visibly plump for a more luminous, well-rested and youthful look. Right before stepping onto the red carpet I also give my clients a concealer to keep in their bags for touch-ups, so makeup stays blended and malleable.

Q. What is the basic (or most common) skin issue your clients face during red carpet season? And what products do you use to address this?
A. My clients always want to maintain that ‘fresh’ feeling of just having their makeup done, and the best way to achieve this is to ensure their skin is properly hydrated. I lightly spritz Kerstin Florian Rehydrating Neroli Water all over the face before applying make up and throughout the evening to set the look and keep it red carpet bullet proof!

Q. What additional skin care and/or prep products do you recommend to create a smooth canvas and ensure long-lasting makeup (prevent caking and layering in wrinkles/folds)?
A. The eye area for me is the most important part of the face, and this includes not only prepping the under eye area but also the lids and brow bone. I love Lancer Skincare Eye Bright Illuminator, which not only hydrates, but also brightens. After using this, I notice how smooth eye color lays on the lids and prevents shadow color from creasing.

Q. A big trend right now is the ‘dewy’, glowing look. What is the best way to achieve this without making skin appear oily/shiny?
A. The best way to give skin that perfect glow is to mix your liquid foundation with a nourishing serum. I like to add a few drops of Kerstin Florian Hyaluronic Serum, which attracts water to the skin to maintain softness and suppleness.

Q. What are your favorite Lancer Skincare and Kerstin Florian products to use on your own skin, and why?
A. As a celebrity makeup artist, I often travel back and forth from the east and west coasts and am always under various lighting both indoors and out, so it’s important to keep my skin moisturized. Lancer Skincare Eye Bright Illuminator keeps my eyes hydrated and awake, while Kerstin Florian Correcting Multi-Vitamin Day Crème with SPF 30 hydrates the rest of my face with vitamins and the added benefit of SPF. I like to think of these two products as my security blankets!