PLÁCIDO DOMINGO STARRED IN DON CARLO

... a stunning LA Opera performance,
which was the perfect way to celebrate dear Carol's birthday.
It's always wonderful to hear the pre-concert lecture and this one delivered by brilliant conductor James Conlon was no exception!



A lovely time in the Founder's Room during intermission.

BRAVO!

Here's the thing, everyone loves Carol Soucek King so Curtis McElhinney, master videographer (curtisvision.com) and I conspired to do some celebrating of Carol the day of the Salon.  My assignment was to get the cake...

It was quite complicated keeping this a secret until Yoshi could present it to Carol...

Curtis came through with the perfect tiara and scepter. Happy birthday dear Carol.

Carol & I went to Kylin Gallery in Beverly Hills for their new gallery's grand opening......

....with a ribbon cutting by Beverly Hills mayor...
Julian A. Gold, M.D.

...celebrating the work of artist Yoshio Ikezaki...

Here we are with Yoshikawa, artist extraordinaire, creator of amazing sculptural waterfalls. yoshistone.com


Special thanks to amazing Lynne Tucker at Pro Travel who made my weekend at the Peninsula extra special.



My initials on the pillow cracked me up!


Waiting for a westside buddy to share brunch...

It was also the perfect time to celebrate dear Clara's birthday at the Belvedere. 
Now this was a really creative birthday candle presentation.
A hollow chocolate egg that looked like a Faberge egg!

On Sunday it was tea time in The Living Room with precious Patricia!

I'm always so proud to give a shout out to beautiful Lissi Kaplan's exquisite hand painted china with it's special pattern just for the Peninsula!

Speaking of eggs...how about this ostrich one!!!!  Marsha Ramos, my template for effecting the planet for good, brought this beauty over for me to decorate for a fundraiser for Burbank's Family Service Agency's annual  'Imagine a City' Auction & Gala.

Sweet Amy, master of this sort of thing got corralled into doing the egg for me.

Bravo!!!

Nikka went to the event and got a zillion raffle tickets so she could get me this.  Of course, doesn't everyone need Minions?

Time for a special Brush painting class in the studio for sweet Leea and her adorable friends!

They even brought this amazing lunch!

Carol knows absolutely every architect in L.A. so I knew she would be the perfect person to invite to a Founders update on the Music Center's Plaza renovation. Sure enough, here she is pressing the flesh with old friend Bob Hale, the architect for the project.  Bob is Creative Director at Rios Clementi Hale Studios.  Check out their stunning work at RCHStudios.com

It will be wonderful!



I was so happy to attend the event honoring Dr. Larry Dorr & 'Operation Walk'  at The California Club.

....lots of yummy tidbits!

...and food too!

On to Julienne's, my happy place, for a delightful lunch with Nancy Baxter from the L.A. Opera.

And my favorite time of all?  Any Brush painting class, this one's at The Huntington Botanical Gardens.  Teaching brings me such joy!

My wish is that you always walk in your joy!

Bye for now!

LET'S TALK ABOUT FOOD

 Actually, lets talk about the joy we have when we share a meal with a dear friend.  Perhaps 'it’s not about the food at all' to quote Sandie Girl.  It’s easy to feel under pressure, rushed and harried which is why even an hour with a friend can put you in such a good place, re-energized, re-charged and ready to carry on.
Coming back from New York, our all too brief respite,  I was delighted to have an amazing adventure on the calendar.  Celebrating dear Amy’s birthday at the Music Center!  Actually this was a pre-birthday celebration but one I wanted to have as Placido Domingo was starring in Nabucco and how could we miss a chance to hear him in person!
But first, a champagne toast and dinner in the Founder’s Room.
It was great fun having Nancy Baxter from the L.A. Opera stop by….Let’s hear it for my Betty Boop shirt!
It’s was delightful to find a birthday cake for lovely Amy during intermission and always a treat to see lovely Elaine Adams with hubby Peter, Artiste Extraordinaire!
The very next evening dear Carol Soucek King and I went to the most amazing lecture at the Japanese Foundation on the Miracle Mile.  First, as this is primarily about food, we had a quick (very quick) burger across the street at The Counter and I can’t believe I ate the whole yummy, gooey mess.  Great fun and always great catching up with Carol.
Yoshio Ikezaki, a longtime friend of Carol’s,  spoke on the importance of Ch’i and demonstrated & discussed brushes and paper.  His work is currently on exhibit in the Japanese Pavilion at LACMA and at the Kylin Gallery.
Thank you dear Carol for including me in this inspiring evening.
Next stop Hamilton with Laurie Pie but first…dinner and wonderful conversation at Katsuya in Hollywood, Master Sushi Chef Katsuya Uechi ’s amazingly stunning restaurant designed by Philippe Starck.
Ordering the tasting menu can get you in a lot of trouble as there’s way too much food that's all way too good!

The conversation never stops  with Laurie Pie as we manage to cover every topic, connect on every level and then wonder how we could have run out of time!Sufficently stuffed we headed off, across the street to the Pantages for ‘Hamilton’.
The Huntington Class is pure joy as you can see by all our happy faces!
After class Nikka and I always stop at Din Tai Fung at Americana.  We get there early before the mob scene….When I say we order EVERYTHING it’s not an exaggeration as we’re starving at that point.  It’s a great time to review and talk about class, business and maybe monkey business.

I thought we’d get a head start on putting up the Christmas tree in the studio so I hired Connor and his muscles for the day.  All areas were cleaned and sorted and now I have three walk-in closets in the studio. Who knew!!!  Pappa John’s pizza was called for.Those of you who know our soft spoken, polite Connor will be shocked to learn he’s quite the Super Bike Racer! Nikka was so inspired she went rock climbing with friends the very next day!

I had really only been away for five days but it did seem like forever so I wanted to see everyone I could calendar in and catch up.  First was beautiful Mary at Bloomies.  Mary is doing incredible work raising millions of dollars for Catholic Charities and helping the poor and disenfranchised around the globe.  Yea Mary!!!

Then brilliant and equally beautiful Maggie at Bar Verde…I am forever indebted to you Maggie for your loving attention to matters at home while I was away!
Which brought me to Sunday and an invitation from our dear Lisa Bowman for the 34th Annual Dinner Meeting of the 'Samuel Johnson Society of the West’ at The Huntington Botanical Gardens.  What a conglomeration of brainiacs! I brought some photos and a copy of Lisa’s book ‘The Shattered Peacock’ to sign for Alyssa, Marine’s adorable daughter and another book for Cory….Sweet Lynne Sim’s daughter.
Thank you my dear friend for including me in such a tasty and brainy event!
Lot’s to catch up with brilliant Farnaz.  I’ll be giving you more details on her extraordinary invention which we spent quite a bit of time discussing.Just wondering, anyone notice I’ve worn this outfit in almost every photo….It’s been my uniform for the month and saves me time and thinking!
It was finally actually Amy’s real birthday date so off we went to the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel where Chef Josh has put me down as a VIP….Ha! This is just one of Chef Josh’s amazing dishes he created for us.


Happiest of Birthdays dear Amy!More food, more loving conversation with Precious Patricia at the SLS Hotel on La Cienega and Chef Jose Andrés, one of my heroes, amazing restaurant ‘The Bazaar.  I do believe this is the most inventive, best food in L.A.! I posted a video on Instagram but it doesn’t do the many presentations justice.  Everything was unforgettable including the most perfect poached egg ever!  How could something so simple be so sublime?

We sat in a lovely, cozy, private area with our own fireplace and ‘The Book of the Akita’ on the bookshelf!
O.K., the chocolate croissant was to bring me back to Paris and the yogurt had to be tried to see if even this could be transformed.  Yes!  As for the gold and silver items….Real eggshells, tops removed, painted and filled with creamy yumminess!
Sweet Cashmere, our neighbor!
All I’m going to say is we broke our all time best and set a new record of six plus hours of utterly delightful conversation interrupted only by delicious morsels of magnificent food. Thank you Precious Patricia for the sublime treat!
Could anything better to close out this blog than a remembrance of Monday teatime with our dear Miss Judith.  Here she shows me the sweet spot on the Bird of Paradise for the pollen gathers!May you always find that sweet spot and gather pollen wherever you may go!