Category Archives: History

The Night Before

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Blogging is an interesting endeavor.  Sometimes composing a post is as simple as pie (store bought), other days it’s not that easy. Today, I must admit, falls into the latter category. To say the least, it’s been a tumultuous 7 days here in the east. As you know, I arrived in NY just a day or two before Hurricane Sandy struck. We are all aware of the devastation the storm left in it’s wake. Although power has been restored to lower Manhattan and a good portion of mass transit, including many subway lines are in service again, a week later  there are still hundreds of thousands without power, water, gasoline, a safe place to lay their heads at night and even warm clothes. To add insult to injury in a most literal sense, the forecast predicts another storm moving  towards the east coast on Wednesday. My thoughts and prayers are with all those still struggling in the aftermath of Sandy and I’m sure that all of you, my wonderful compassionate readers, feel the same.

A friend sent me an email a few days ago in reference to my post about New Yorkers being incredibly resilient.

She included this photo with the caption “I guess this is what you meant about New Yorkers”

I loved the photo and thought, YES! This is exactly what I meant, and shared the photo on Facebook as well as Twitter. The response, as you would imagine, was overwhelmingly positive, but there were actually a few people who got darn right snarky about it. According to them, this photo was taken in New Jersey, not NYC.  Apparently, there are always going to be a few people who just miss the point, which I find a little sad. I thought the photo was about people being kind, resourceful and helping others,  not about a postal code.

And another thing…

Tomorrow, as we ALL KNOW is Election Day in the United States. I, for one, cannot wait for this, equally ugly storm, to be over. I don’t care to engage in political discourse on my blog, or even in real life to be honest-it’s just the way I was raised. I also like to think of “Slim Paley” as being a pleasant escape from the negativity we are bombarded with daily, so I’d just like to say this;  Whatever the outcome, by Wednesday morning 50% of this country is going to be very disappointed, many even devastated, which is also truly sad. So let’s all try to be compassionate and GRACIOUS on Wednesday. After all, it’s not arms and legs, it’s politics.

Back to “normal” posts in a day or two, I promise!

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Top photo of flower via HughStewartGallery.com

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Dispatch From NY #3

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The update on Manhattan today is still very much ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. From 39th St. down to the tip of the island remains completely without power while life above 39th St. carries on pretty much business as usual.  North of 39th the streets tonight are throbbing with trick or treaters and overbooked restaurants however my son reports the scenario downtown is quite a different picture. Very dark and abnormally quiet, for the most part it appears people are staying calm, cool and collected and behaving incredibly well given the circumstances. Neighbors are being neighborly and basically New Yorkers are doing what they do best-being NEW YORKERS. Still, there have been some reports of robbers dressing as utility repair people  to get into buildings so people should be extremely careful of anyone trying to gain access without proper identification. Fingers crossed that the mild weather stays until the power is turned back on. Busses are back in service and even some subway lines have re-opened but it will still be quite some time until the isle of Manhattan becomes one again.

Slim Paley photo

Snapped on the streets of NY today

Oh oh…it’s my hands again!

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Storm of the Century and all, I can’t let one of my favourite holidays go by without wishing everyone a VERY Happy Halloween!

and if you have little trick or treaters ENJOY EVERY STICKY MOMENT!!!

Those are my most poignant memories of my boys when they were wee lads.

my wee Mummy

Links;

Haute Halloween 2011

Frankenstein Was a No Show 2010

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Indian Summer

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All photos Slim Paley

.Well, the beautiful Indian Summer we’ve been enjoying here in Santa Barbara has finally packed it’s bags and gone to Australia.  Darkness is settling in earlier each day and suddenly I’m addressing the Winter Hit List; chimneys need cleaning, furnaces, heating ducts and rain gutters inspected, flannel sheets aired and fluffed-Oh, it’s all very Martha!

So yes, it’s time for change, and that includes the look of my blog.

I’ve been having some issues with my original template lately, including it’s completely arbitrary decision to shrink the size of all my photos. Hellooo, WordPress-I liked my photos nice & big, thank you very much.  That’s why I chose that template. Now that it’s secretly attending Jenny Craig meetings behind my back  I’m going to retaliate by dating other template designs. Please bear with me these next few weeks. The dating process, as we all know, can be fraught with awkward moments.

But thats a whole other post, isn’t it?!

Let’s get back to “Indian Summer” which reminds me that I never posted about my first time visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico in August.

I naturally expected to appreciate the unique architecture the region is so famous for

loved the gorgeous thick, straw filled adobe walls.

I was warned the shopping would be great, which of course was true

Shiprock

Our favourite shop was “Nathalie” a mix of vintage and new clothing, jewelry, textiles, a little bit of everything wonderful.

The amazing Nathalie (elle est Francaise!)

and her charming husband. (and her sister is the editor of Cote Sud magazine-love)
We visited the Millicent Rogers Museum which I wished was a store…

Sorry, no flash in the museum

We walked across the Rio Grande.

Ya we did! It was very “One Eyed Jacks”

(One of my favourite movies)

Don’t look down

We watched a real iron monger doing his business the old fashioned way

Not an easy profession. I couldn’t stay in the room for more than 30 seconds the smoke was so acrid.

(Ps. not to toot my own horn, but doesn’t this kinda have a Norman Rockwell look to it?!)

Our friends, who have a home in Santa Fe, invited us to come in August for “Indian Market”, a yearly gathering of talented Native artists and craftspeople from all over the country and Canada.

The downtown area is filled with hundreds of booths of fabulous hand-made textiles, paintings, silver, jewelry and of course, plenty of turquoise-in every colour.

And no, you haven’t really seen turquoise until you’ve visited New Mexico.

The gorgeous, pure silver belt below was made entirely by hand

Each plate, crafted painstakingly layer by layer, tells the story of one village, the depth and level of detail just stunning. The belt took almost an entire year to craft and is worn here by the daughter of Tchin, the artist who made it.

As I said,  not your average craft fair, People!!

One of the highlights of “Indian Market” for me was definitely attending the Traditional Native Clothing contest.

We were there bright and early to secure front row seats.

As the contestants range from age 1 or 2, up to adults, it promised to be a fun show

And didn’t disappoint !

I won!

Some contestants were just born to it

 others weren’t quite so sure

Look at that face!

This young man, I believe a previous winner over the years, was just fantastic.

Even the audience was colourful! This is Tziporah Salamon from NY. Her ensemble was so much fun the contest commentator asked her to come up and talk a little about her style.  You must read more about Tziporah here!

Oh, you know I did.

The Barktorialist was also in town :)

Even the leather man was right out of central casting.

Its easy to see why our friends love New Mexico so much

xox

For more information about Indian Market click HERE

PS. Let me know how you like this new format, but remember it’s my first foray. You might notice I also have a new “Travel” tab at the top. Don’t read it yet, it’s not finished.

PPS. To leave a comment click on the comment bubble in the top right corner of the post!

Lastly, I didn’t include Tziporah’s own website; Here

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Until Rio…

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Well?

That was fun, wasn’t it?!

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So happy everything went so well in London tonight!

Cheers to all the athletes, all the competing countries

and let’s not forget  those who worked diligently to keep everyone safe and things running smoothly-God knows it must be an Olympian task.

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Congratulations to the U.S. for securing the most medals!

As for the closing ceremonies, I must say the blinged out taxi cabs did tickle my fancy

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Spice Girls seem to be holding up quite well.

It was nice to see Annie Lennox again, though didn’t love the dress and George Michael can still sing live- it’s been awhile!

Hey- just me, or did the Eric Idle bit go on a bit L O N G ??

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A perfect 70 degree evening in London- how lucky is that?!

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I love that they matched the stadium to Alexander McQueen’s iconic Britannia clutch  :)

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While we’re on bag chat,

 coveting this cute Charlotte Olympia perspex charmer

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especially love the clasp!

available on Net A Porter.com

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Slim Paley Photo

A salute to Britannia in the Penhaligon windows in Paris

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I was a little disappointed with the “Fashion” segment of the show weren’t you?

It was a bit of a nothing really and poor Ryan Seacrest didn’t know who any of the models were besides Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell

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Couldn’t someone have texted him for goodness sake?!

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Still, a fine time appeared to be had by all, including Kate and her brother-in-law

Where the heck was hubby??

Me too!

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We’ll just have to order the newest tome from Taschen for our London fix.

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It’s groovy baby, yah.

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By Kyle Bean & Victoria Ling

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Make yourselves a nice hot Horlicks and

Sleep tight Loves.

xox

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Cheerio to the Olympics

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Jamaica’s Usain Bolt

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Our family is really going to miss watching the Olympics together.

How about you??

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We viewed the opening night ceremonies under the stars in Greece.

Slim Paley photo

It was all good… after we found the English speaking channel.

Hard to follow intense hospital bed choreography without some sort of explanation.

Just sayin.

Caught the second week, though somewhat spottily, late nights in our hotel room at Le Bristol in Paris, albeit with a decidedly British perspective, courtesy of BBC 3.

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As  fans of Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe from the last summer Olympics, we enjoyed watching him as a commentator on the British coverage this year.

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Ian Thorpe and some other hunky British swimmer commentator.

Oh wait,

I might be wandering off track…

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At this point, I must cop to being a bit of a cheater when it came time to pick a team to root for.

As a newly minted American citizen

it was very easy to step up and root for all the charismatic Yanks

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Michael Phelps paving his very own yellow brick road.

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A little music for your viewing pleasure…

Click below


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Phelps

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Decathlon gold medal winner Ashton Eaton

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6′ 4″ Destinee Hooker

and the U.S. Women’s volleyball team had me on the edge of my seat (OK, my bed) and almost convinced I should start working out more.

But then I grabbed another chocolate croissant and got real.

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Are these women unbelievable??

Kerri & Misty

All I remember from playing high school volleyball are the blood blisters I’d get on the inside of my wrists if the ball so much as touched me.

Good thing it rarely happened.

Oh…the traumatic memories of never getting picked…

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Don’t even know what he did, but damn, those are some guns.

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And what’s not to love about a face like this?!

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Gabby Douglas

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Lolo Jones

fought through unfair press to finish 4th.

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However when the Brits were dong well, my old U.K. heritage kicked in with, well, Olympic speed.

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The Union Jack is in my blood, after all :)

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British Women’s Rowers rejoice.

I think of all the miserable, cold and rainy mornings they get up so early to practice for this moment

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It makes me want to mix up a Pimms and  go out for a good curry to celebrate.

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As for Oh Canada, another place I like to call home

I found myself quietly jumping up and down whenever we they got close to any medaling

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Rosie MacLennan wins Canada’s first (and only??) Gold medal for women’s trampoline.

Sadly, it was rather a poor showing for the Maple Leafers

but

they will be kicking derrieres and taking names in the next Winter Olympics people, so watch out eh?

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And then,

there were those athletes who it didn’t matter where they were from, you just wanted them to win

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Oscar Pistorius from South Africa

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One of my favourite moments

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The Jamaican sweep of the men’s 200m led by Usain Bolt

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David Rudisha of Africa breaks the World record for the men’s 800m

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Go Oscar

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Synchronised swimmers

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What was your favourite moment of the 2012 Olympics?!

Have they inspired you to get up and jangle the molecules a little more?

I’m thinking of rubbing some chalk onto my legs and ordering a fresh wheatgrass juice at “Blenders in the Grass” tomorrow

 to have people mistake me for an athlete.

It could happen.

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OK, maybe not.

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Will you watching the closing ceremonies Saturday?

We’ll be watching in the comfort of our home once again.

omg is my husband happy to have his own remote back in his hand.

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See you there!

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oh, and you can thank Anouchka and her comment for this late addition photo;

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Hugo Parisi

:)

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