I am aliveeeee

Wow, more than a month has passed. Sorry about that. Here are some random photos to make up for my little disappearing act. All but the adorable dachsunds (French!) are snapshots from life recently. Enjoy!

Anthro Finds

If I lived here I would be in big, big trouble. Chau chau bank account ...

On The Market

Jenna Lyons - J. Crew creative director and newfound(?) lesbian - and her husband have put their amazeballs Park Slope brownstone on the market as part of their divorce proceedings. Apparently Lyons is / was / whatever having an affair with another woman and was found out over the summer. Bye bye brownstone. I die for this house - who doesn't? So if you want to drool a bit over your keyboard click here for some more pictures (or just re-read any of your past issues of Domino, Lonny et al). Anyway, there really isn't much purpose to this post except to stare at the interior of the home of a freshly separated couple (sad) so we can relive our glory days, aka her awesome wall of shoes.

Mmmmm

I'm counting down the days/hours/minutes/seconds until I hop on the plane to DC and my stomach is also joining me in this endeavor. Part why I love going home is because I can eat my face off and indulge in things that just don't exist in Buenos Aires. Part of me actually doesn't love it because I always end up plumper than when I arrived - not a good thing to do when you're about to get married (Seriously, pre-wedding diet? Sorry Charlie, I've got an Indian buffet to tackle. Woops.)

Here is a list of the places / things I want to eat when I am home (take note):
1. Rasika
2. Heritage
3. Raaga
4. Zaytinya
5. Pietanza
6. Every Pho place in Little Saigon
7. Chipotle
8. The taco truck in Clarendon that's in that supermarket parking lot
9. Whole Foods hot bar
10. The Diner in Adams Morgan (preferably for brunch)
11. Cork
12. Jaleo
13. Central
14. Moby Dick
15. Liberty Tavern
16. Patisserie Poupon
17. Cafe Divan
18. Thai Noy
19. Peking Gourmet
20. Mandu

ok this list could - and will - go on but it's getting depressing. If anyone wants to book a food date let me know. If not, I'll just go there alone and eat until I pass out. Sounds like a nice plan.

Weekend Update

Yikes! It's been a week since my last post - Sorry Charlie. I was a little blah, feeling less than inspired last week so I neglected the bloglet a little too much.

Happy Halloween! Oh how I wish I were in America, with 3 costumes (you obviously need different outfits for each night of the weekend due to all the festivities). BA has gotten on the Halloween train but it's not a full 100% yet. There were quite a few parties on Saturday but not everyone in attendance was in costume. Sorry people but it's actually uncool to go to a Halloween party and not dress up. At least in my world that's how things are done. I drank some orange punch that had fake bugs in it and got bizarre stares from most about my costume. I went as gum under a shoe - wore all hot pink and had my running sneaker on my head. One girl came up to me and was like "I love it! Gum under a shoe!" - I wanted to hug her. The rest of the bar gave me weird stares from afar because I kind of looked semi-normal except for the big Nike sneak tied to my face.

Emily and I got into a fight with two of the dumbest men on the face of the Earth, however. Em dressed up as an Occupy Wall Street protester - both pertinent and easy to do at the last minute. In Spanish they're known as the "Indignados" (from the movement that actually started in Spain but is also used to describe OWS on the news), but Emily's sign was in English. These guys looked at her and asked what she was. After her description - and my "help" of saying that she was an "Indignada" - we were greeted with blank faces and remarks like "You're making that up. That doesn't exist. No one is currently occupying Wall Street" or "You're lying." For some reason I started to give this guy a lesson in current affairs and was feeling pretty good until they said to us "You both are really pretty but damn you're ignorant." OK BUDDY. We bitched them out so fast I almost had a heart attack. It kind of felt good, but not really because I know that there are probably many other stupid jerks like them out there. Sigh.

Sunday we enjoyed the amazing weather and went for a long run up to Palermo. We even managed to sneak into a Doggy Halloween party at the Planetarium! There were so many dachshunds I almost had a seizure. So. Cute. My favorite dog though was the fat English Bulldog named Rufio who snored louder than my Dad and was the most low key, lazy animal of life. God he was ugly but I just wanted to take him home !!

I can't believe it's just a little more than 2 weeks until I'm home for Thanksgiving. Time flies! It's going to be great - Just wish Josey could come with me. I plan on doing lots of Forever21-ing and eating of chipotle hummus. And cuddling with Bella. And going to Patisserie Poupon with Deb.

The Rug(s) of my Dreams

Today I finally spent some time in Mihran, one of my favorite design stores in Buenos Aires. Strolling along Arenales street, you're often faced with the exact. same. stuff. in every single store. Modern, minimalist, eco-cuero, red/black/white combinations, white faux leather upholstered furniture ...

It makes my heart hurt. Where is the originality? Where is the innovation? I don't want to feel like I'm living in some cheap knock-off Miami bachelor pad.

Stepping into Mihran was a nice treat. Owned by a Turkish man, the shop imports incredible rugs, kilims (both antique and new), Middle Eastern textiles and some furniture. I was basically rolling around on the rugs by the time I left. Here is a photo of the rug I want for the living room. Actually, it's not the exact same rug but it's a very similar design with lots of indigo. I am nuts for indigo. I want to bathe in it.

I found another, smaller, rug that would be perfect for our TV room (aka the Brown Boudoir.  Just thought of that but hey, pretty clever. Nahhht). It's really interesting visually and has some brighter colors in it but is rooted in brownish tones. If that were to be the only thing changed in the TV room, it would be enough!

Now hoping I can convince Josey of how lovely they are ... I think they speak for themselves.

Random Inspiration

Photos culled from Elle Decor's website ... Ideas that I wish could magically become reality in the blink of an eye! I love this gray/lavender mix, and the French settee upholstered in different textiles drives me wild! I'm green with envy.

The Bath of My Dreams

Haven't been reading much of the New York Times online these days - I blame their stupid 20 article/month limit unless you're a paying subscriber. I am not against paying but it's an expense that I can try to live without, given my limited income these days. On Sundays I usually indulge myself in the Weddings & Celebrations section as well as Home & Garden. One home featured is in Uruguay, in a tiny town called Pan de Azúcar (like Sugarloaf), where two transplanted editors/translators from New York now reside. They traded translation services for this incredible bathtub. Yes. Please.

Jonathan Adler I Love You

If only I could get my paws on some whimsical and chic designs (courtesy of Jonathan Adler) here in Argentina. I've been looking online for some living room inspiration and I just love the bright, retro yet modern and happy feel that all of his rooms have. Here are some snaps from the website that I wish I could magically have appear in Basavilbaso .. I love the coffee table in the second image, but am just overall in love with that first room. I die for that rug! Those chairs! The TURTLE LAMPS. Pleaseeeeee I need.

Extreme Home Makeover

What an awful title for a blog post. Sorry. I actually banged my head really hard today on the floor at the gym and I am feeling a little woozy. Already took a little nap but am still a little "blah."

Anyway, it's not news that I've been itching to re-do the apartment. In a bad way. Enough with the small changes, like infiltrating bits from Anthropologie home to soften up the look of everything. Jose has lived here for almost 11 years and I've been in the apartment for 2. It's time for a change !!!

Unfortunately, Buenos Aires - while often regarded as a great "city of design" - doesn't have the most varied offerings when you set out to buy things for the home. Those who have the most original homes rely on people who custom-make pieces for them (which actually ends up being a cheaper option, which is nice). However, this demands a lot of creativity and sometimes I wish I could just stroll around town and be presented with tons of interesting, innovative and creative ideas!! The shops here tend to present one of two or three design aesthetics: ultra-modern and minimalist, with lots of eco-cuero and steel, "campo rústico" with lots of natural woods and Northern fabrics, or some kind of middle ground between the two that results in total ... blandness.

Now that I'm at the point where I am starting to hate every piece of furniture in the apartment (I'm sorry Josey) I've decided to just take action. Might as well - Not sure how much longer this glorious unemployment period is going to last !!! The real problem is this: because everything in the dining/living room kind of matches (they are pieces that all come from the same place) the possibility to swap in/out just a few items is rendered nearly impossible. If I want a new dining table, we'll need new chairs too. Same with the side board. Yesterday I made some serious progress in the living room - changed up the layout and made it much more functional and beautiful. We just need a new coffee table, a rug, some window treatments and that should be enough.

This is becoming a long post about nothing, without pictures! Sorry. If you want a mental image just envision this - BROWN. Brown Brown Brown. I live in the Brown House. Really. I mean, I love brown. Don't get me wrong. But not when the dining room is DARK brown, the coffee table is a BIG BROWN SQUARE, the rugs are BROWN, the tv room couch is BROWN, that rug and table are BROWN. EVEN THE WALL IS BROWN !!!!!!!!!

Spring is here, and the colors will be flooding in.

Take Note, Josey

I NEED THIS OCTOPUS BEDDING. Thank you, Design*Sponge!

Cookbooks I love

We just received a shipment of some of the gifts we got at the wedding... It's like Christmas! So much fun to open up a small number of truly thoughtful things from the people we love. Some of my favorites:


-The New Brooklyn Cookbook - I will always think of my best friend Henry when I'm in the kitchen. Some of the dishes are more complicated (as in, I can't get a lot of these ingredients here in BA), but the photos, stories and details are so entertaining to read.

-How to Cook Everything (10th Anniversary Edition) - Extremely useful, amazing, all-encompassing. I worship Mark Bittman. The end.

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Something I don't Recommend

Watching scary movies (like the one about girls going missing in Juárez, Mexico - starring the divatastic J.Lo ... OR "Changeling" with Angelina Jolie, basically about child murder) while your roommate/boyfriend/husband/whomever is out of town. Especially if it's pouring rain and windy as all get-out. I always do that! José goes out of town for work, and I stay up late watching intense dramas with violent storylines. Le sigh.

I also don't recommend leaving the house when it's rainy & windy (see above) without a proper umbrella. The crappy one you're going to buy outside the train station is going to last mere minutes (but you already knew that) and won't help your cool quotient either, as you struggle to keep it from turning inside out. Inevitably a bus will always pass by you on the sidewalk at full speed, showering you with a wall of disgusting rain/street water that is definitely teeming with disease. To make matters worse, you know how bad your hair looks when it rains. Those little wing-y wispies that stick out from behind your temples don't do much for you.