Downtown LA.

Home in Downtown LA is a simple and super stylish apartment.
The owner has taken DIY had to many features that make this place special.

The view from the balcony across the city is beautiful and when the sun goes down it gets lit up to a whole new version of stunning.

I immediately drop everything to set up a welcome sign on the light up sign writing lamp. I want to surprise the boys when they arrive.
Once that task is complete I investigate the massive ‘Last Supper’ artwork to see how it was made.
The post-it note lamp is a quirky and effective light and somehow it all works together to create a charming & calming escape from the city below.

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Nine days.

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Here Celine is being given her house by the Sorting Hat.
Naturally the hat decided that she has her own house. 🙂

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Journey to Celine.

I know Celine Dion is a person not a place…but for me and three others she is a destination.

We have converged in LA from France & New Zealand to attend her concert at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

We were booked to attend the Aug 05 concert at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas (my first ever visit to Vegas) then horror of horrors she cancelled.
We were able to rebook (thank God!!!) so now we are seeing her on the 12th.

In anticipation of seeing her we took 2D Celine to see a few tourist sights on the way.

She’s been loving it!

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Santa Monica Pier.

We walked the pier on our second night in Los Angeles.
The lights were brilliant in the night sky, reflecting their sparkle and shimmer on the waves of the ocean.
Red, white and blue. Stars and Stripes.

I may have just casually bumped into singer Stan Walker!

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The countdown begins.

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La La Land.

It is warm. That is the first and right now the ‘most’ exciting thing. After leaving Wellington (from 5 degrees to a high of 11) walking out of the airport terminal to see clear brilliant blue skies and to the feel the warmth of the air and the breeze, that is as much of a welcome as I could ever need.
I immediately want to move here.

We stay at a hip apartment in Downtown LA. A cute neighbourhood with cafés and bars. The locals dress like they are Snoop Doggy dog or in one of his videos or they dress tres casual while they walk their dogs.
I see leggings worn as pants before I have even set foot in the neighbourhood.
Big dogs seem to be the dog on trend in this town. We saw Irish wolfhounds, Weimeranas, German shepherds, Doberman & Rottweilers. So many large breeds, so much dog wee and poop. The heat must enhance the odours. It was an assault to the nostrils each time we got out of the car.

Vintage stores are on our block along with a juice joint. It’s heaven.

Our apartment is fantastic! Clean & tidy with a balcony and fantastic little edgy design touches all throughout. More on that later.
Meanwhile enjoy the views:

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Practice post.

Ok so my iPhone had to go to phone hospital. It had a horrid black spot showing in all of my photos that seemed to be growing….and it was loosing charge, turning itself off at random times and then when I plugged it in it was showing 33% power. Random! So off to phone hospital it went.

All was not lost… They gave me a loan phone! Yay. But she didn’t have my music, my apps, my photos, our history, or enough space for all of that. Heck it didn’t even have twitter.
My husband downloaded as much as he could and we put the apps on but it just wasn’t the same.
Now joy of joys my phone has been returned – better than ever and we are getting to know each other all over again.
The big problem is that I have managed to lock myself out of my blog. Clever right?!
This is a test post to see if I can get back in on this device.
Fingers crossed.

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The ICE Challenge

As y’all know I’m already doing DRY JULY in a bid to raise much needed funds for my cousin Reece to undergo expensive cancer treatment.

Now a new fundraising challenge has been laid at my feet. The ICE challenge. From a quick ‘google’ search I have found out that this challenge – originally called the ‘cold water challenge’ was inspired by the mid winter polar plunge (where on a freezing cold day in the middle of winter thousands of absolute loonies gather on a beach and run into the sea and dunk themselves to raise money for charity). The cold water challenge is a variation of this and was originally masterminded by firefighters in the US to raise funds for their station. (or so my google search said)

How it works is you get soaked with cold water (one way or another – the firemen were spraying each other with their hoses) and then you get the fun of nominating someone else to do the same, plus you donate to a specified charity cause and if you don’t complete the challenge in the allotted time, you have to donate a larger amount of money. Win/Win. In New Zealand right now it has evolved to involve a number of buckets of water with ice in them and some weird cases drink a lot of alcohol (not cool). I have a phobia of water (a topic for another time), and for me being cold is worse than being at the dentist. So I knew beyond a doubt that I was NEVER going to do the ICE challenge. I pitied the fool who ever through to nominate me. Then I got nominated (by my husband!!! – what was he thinking??!! The man must have a death wish) and – when I thought about it…I decided it was another great way to raise funds for my cousin. (plus like I say to my styling clients – never say never!)

So cousin…this is how much I love you and your family. I will do something I loathe and something I fear, in the hope that it might raise money to help you.

Ice Challenge

Also – just so you all know –  The water was cold. Very cold. It took me about 20 minutes to get in the bath fully.  The glass has sparkling water in it because of DRYJULY and … to add insult to injury I had to do the challenge twice! Because in the first one, I didn’t stay under the water long enough to get a clear shot of the challenge being completed. Being the consummate professional…I demanded a re-shoot! LOL

The scene of my ICE challenge!

The setting of my ICE Challenge!

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Our first frost.

I hope I never get tired of the wonders & the beauty that Mother Nature creates.
Today we woke to our first frost in the new home. It was a stunner.

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Now the sun is out and the frost is melting away. It’s going to be a beautiful day. Actually scratch that. It already is.

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Birthday Festival kicks off.

Today my girlfriend and I were meeting for lunch. We were headed to one of Wellingtons many reputed cafés. A favourite haunt of mine was our intended. My girlfriend rang me in the morning and said: “i’m picking you up in my car for lunch and whisking you away on a picnic for the start of Birthday Festival.”
Wow! Much more thrilling than a cafe. (My birthday is in December. But it is a round number birthday so it is kind-of a big deal so the festival needs to start early).

It was one of those ‘Wellington-on-a-good-day’ days. Blue sky. Zero wind. Rare and deserving of appreciation.
We drive to Oriental Parade. Sat in the sun and are and laughed. She lent me her new Kathmandu puffer jacket that looks like a sleeping bag with style (I had forgotten my coat) (I know I know – what was I thinking?!) and we sat on a picnic blanket sipping lemonade and nibbling sandwiches.
The perfect winters day picnic.

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