My father loved Frank Sinatra.  Although he didn't go around calling people "baby" or "doll".   Thank goodness.  My teenage self would have been horrified. 

Last week for my birthday, some dear friends took me to the Occidental for dinner.  What a lucky duck am I in the friends department - and that's before I even touch upon their most excellent taste in restaurants.  The Occidental was my father's favorite restaurant in DC, and now that it's in Stephen Starr's capable hands, it's gotten even better.  No doubt Dad would quip that he was an early adopter - having been a regular before it became the hot ticket in town that it is today.   And he would really love me being there with such fabulous friends on my birthday.   READ MORE

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This time of year, my head is full of images of falling leaves and forest walks, little creatures scampering about stockpiling root vegetables and nuts for winter.  Perhaps it's an autonomic response, fall's rhythms bringing back memories from one of my favorite childhood books, "Old Man Rabbit's Dinner Party".  Kirkus Reviews describes the 1949 book as "a story of generosity, with Old Man Rabbit sharing what he has with his less fortunate friends."  It neglects to point out that Old Man Rabbit got his piles of "purple turnips, orange carrots, red apples, yellow corn and brown potatoes" by plundering Farmer Brown's field.   I can sympathize just a little bit with Farmer Brown; I haven't eaten a tomato from my own garden since July.  There's always next year.

We've had quite a week in the studio.  Thank you for your support of my small business and for all your kind words.  You have no idea how much this means to me, and I am still working my way through responding to each of you.  People see the glamorous side of what I do - gliding down the escalator in my fabby new leopard fur, but there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes that's just plain old fashioned toil and travail.  Farmer Brown would understand, and may even be sympathetic, I suspect.  READ MORE

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And why not let them eat cake?  Or should that read, let them be cake?

Well my darlings, it's that time of year again.  Another birthday is peering over the horizon, and while I am inclined to overlook the precise number of candles (assuming I could even remember the exact count), I am certainly not inclined to overlook an excuse for a party!  And it's a double celebration, because the Love Note just turned SIX.  She's veritably in all day kindergarten.

And what a party we're having!  I have never in all these years had the opportunity to burst out of a cake wearing silver and pink fringe, sequins and a tiara, but never say never?!  Especially if I get to wear that double dose of blue eyeshadow.  READ MORE 

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