Vintage Value Venture - A Plethora of Pearls

It has been a plethora of pearls at BeladoraII this week

especially with a call for "Mad Men" style vintage pearl jewelry

for a cover shoot for a major magazine this week

shot by a major photographer (yeah, you know who she is)

Not necessarily "Mad Men" but more my style

some vintage cultured pearl pieces

Vintage Cultured Pearl and Fire Opal Brooch in 14K

Cultured Pearl Bracelet in 18K

Vintage Retro Cultured Pearl Ring in 18K

Vintage Cultured Pearl Tree of Life Charm Bracelet in 14K

I think that they are a lot more fun than the classic single strand

don't you?

Winter Wonderland - LA Style

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
LA style

I love to look out my window after a winter rainstorm

and see snow on the local mountains

2010 Calendar Girls - From Paris To Palo Alto

Euro fashion blogger Maison Chaplin brought us pics from the new 2010 Calendar by French Vogue

Question: What exactly is French Vogue trying to portray?
A. High Fashion
B. Crazy Horse Naughtiness
C. Sleazy Strippers

And isn't there a pole missing from these photos?

When did French Vogue slip
editorially speaking
into Maxim hot girls territory?

If I read another post about how chic the French are...versus everyone else
I'm just going to have to link to this post

because while this Vogue produced calendar may be many things
it certainly isn't chic

Another 2010 Calendar in the fashion blogosphere this week

is this one produced by Charity Fashion Show

and Art Directed by fashion blogger Glamorous Eccentric

So maybe it isn't quite as sleek in terms of production value as the one by French Vogue

But considering that the models are all Stanford students, this calendar shows a nice representation of beauty, brains and diversity.

Well done

Around Town - Friday Afternoon With Shohreh Aghdashloo

What a week it has been with the stress levels on high and personality conflicts careening out of control. To add to a difficult week, my able assistant Liz ended up in the emergency hospital at Cedars Sinai yesterday afternoon with some sort of random muscular pain. It makes me wonder if her pain was the physical manifestation of all the under the surface anger floating through the office.



Luckily, I got to dash out of the fray yesterday afternoon and have a little fun.

The Women's International Film and Television Showcase, a foundation that supports women filmmakers, had it's annual International Visionary awards event and one of my most favorite actresses, Shohreh Aghdashloo, was getting the Humanitarian Award and she needed a little jewelry for her red carpet look.

Usually, when we loan for red carpet events we don't meet the talent, we just hand over a bundle of bling to the stylist.

But yesterday there wasn't a stylist involved....because Shohreh is gorgeous enough that she doesn't need any help getting outfitted, and so we worked directly with her very chic and smart manager, Tamara Houston.





At any rate I got to meet Shohreh who is an absolutely lovely person. Beautiful, sweet, funny, classy... she's the whole package.

And can we talk about her talent.

I assume that we've all seen her performance in The House of Sand and Fog.

More recently she won an Emmy for her performance as Sajida the wife of Saddam Hussein in HBO's House of Saddam




Now she is starring the The Stoning of Soraya M

and hands down she should be nominated for an Academy Award for her work in this film.
(Academy members are you listening?)





If you haven't seen either House of Saddam or The Stoning of Soraya M
rent them. She is amazing in both.

4th Quarter Blues Get Blind Sided

Black Friday...whatever
Cyber Monday...ho hum
Who knew that the rest of the week would be the week from hell.

I'm not sure if it was the photography issues, the technology issues
or the personality issues that frustrated me the most.
(There might have even been some snapping, on my part, at a colleague when boundaries weren't respected)

When I was a young married mom, a lifetime ago, I could never understand why my husband would come home from work and pour himself a generous Bombay martini...or two.
Now I get home and wish that I could come home and chill out with a martini of my own!

How can a day or two at the office be so stressful. Let's face it, it's not like what I do is rocket science. In addition, the stress was caused by something that is actually really awesome, but trying to meet a deadline when the systems go awry has been just enough to put me on edge. I like to under promise and over perform and it pisses me off royally when I can't do this.

In addition, the pressure of the 4th quarter is so great that the intensity level is ratcheted up. So much needs to get done and I have no patience for nonsense.

Luckily I went to see "The Blind Side" last weekend, an incredible film with an enduring message, that has helped me put all my silly office issues into perspective.
If you haven't already seen it take the time this weekend to go see it.

It is a deeply moving story (bring kleenex) and beautifully acted.

True tales like "The Blind Side" show us how the actions of just one person or family can change the life of someone who lives with adversity.

It makes me think that the dreaded 4th quarter should be a little less about the bottom line and a little more about what we can do to help other people achieve their potential.