Traveling: Milan (part 1)

After Riyadh we headed to Milan for iSaloni, a humongous furniture fair.  We bunked up at the Hotel Principe di Savoia.  Many of the rooms had recently been redone and I was a fan of the purple with a few bold accents color scheme that was chosen.

We spent most of our time at the furniture fair (I'll discuss in the next post), but we did get in a quick trip to il Duomo.  The last time I went to Milan (almost 6 years ago), the front was entirely covered by scaffolding and a scrim, so it was pretty awesome to see it in all it's restored glory.

Then we headed up to the roof (by far the coolest part of the whole cathedral)  Check out this gem of a carving.  I have no idea what's going on here, but it is amusing.

The intricacies, scale and amount of detail are staggering.  It's so amazing to think of how much manpower, energy and resources were put into these projects.

And here's a shot of the galleria, it's such a lovely space, but it's a shame that there isn't a single thing that I can afford in there.

Here are some of the bikes just hanging around the city ready to take part in a bike share program.  You sign up, pay a few euro and you get to check out bikes all around the city.  Such a great idea, and I wish I'd had a chance to take advantage.  And check out the adorable baskets!

Up next will be some of my favorite booths from the furniture fair.  I think I was more impressed by the installations than the furniture.

My First Time: Riyadh

Not many pictures in this post, pictures of people aren't allowed for religious reasons, pictures of government buildings aren't allowed for security reasons and I can't show pictures of our projects for privacy reasons.  But here are some thoughts.

This was definitely an eye-opener.  I had a pretty sheltered existence while I was there, mainly being shuttled between my accommodations and our various meetings, I certainly wasn't able to venture out on my own (women can't drive).  I truly hate driving, so I'm OK with that (as long as I can afford someone to drive me where I want, when I want).  But I only had to wear the abaya (traditional robe and veil) out in public and rarely had to put on my veil and it really wasn't a huge deal.

It's supposed to go to the tops of your shoes, but I got the longest size available and it was a couple of inches too short. Eh, I guess I'm tall for Saudi Arabia.

The men totally wear traditional clothes as well.  The long white dress shirt looking things with the printed scarves held to their heads by black cords.  I don't think they're required to wear this outfit like women are required to wear the abaya, but I'm glad that they keep tradition.  It's so weird to be in a place where everyone is dressed almost exactly the same way.  But don't let that fool you into thinking women aren't playing the fashion game.  They do, but it's only for other ladies to see at "ladies only" places.  And after visiting a ladies club of sorts I can see a few advantages.  Being in a place with just women is kind of nice, I've never had many female friends and I can see how more sisterly relationships can be formed.  Family is very important in the culture, which is mostly a good thing.  And people are the same as they are everywhere else, they're people.

Saudi Arabia is an American ally, so there are a lot of people trying to attack them, but they run anti-terrorist PSA's and have blockades and checkpoints where necessary and the violence has been lessened drastically.  They also run anti-domestic violence PSA's which was somewhat disheartening (but we do those too).

There is (like in many places) a drastic difference between the wealthy and the poor.  Workers being brought in from other countries were just laying around outside the airport waiting to be picked up and taken to the jobs they were promised.

Everything is crazy expensive.  Two smoothies and a coffee came to about $60!  Oh, but they do make excellent smoothies.  Alcohol is prohibited so they rock the juices!

And after 5 days of Riyadh it was off to Milan.

I shot this about 2 minutes after take-off.  Riyadh really is just a city and then desert.  I think that road goes to Jeddah, which is the city closest to Mecca.

Flyin' in style.

A Day in Paris

I just got back from a 2 week business trip that took me to Paris, Riyadh and Milan (where I was stuck due to the volcanic ash cloud) and it was pretty great despite the large amounts of work and meetings that had to be done. After my very first flight in business class, we landed in Paris and had a mere 24 hours there.  I packed in as much as possible and it was a great introduction to Paris.  First off, we stayed at the Ritz!  Just walking up to the reception desk and seeing the gentle curve of the pendant that lit the area let me know that I was in France.

My room!

My bathroom!

It had swan faucets and a profusion of pink.  There was a small balcony with french doors and more molding than I thought could fit in a hotel room.  We had a meeting and stopped for a spot of tea, but then it was off for a couple hour walk around the city with my boss.

One of the desserts had gold leaf on it.

We saw the Eiffel Tower (duh!), some crazy museum with a gold cap and a moat around it.

It's obligatory, but that's OK.

I enjoyed the shaped hedges without leaves and this building with a vertical garden as walls.

We went to the Saint Germain area and saw European life at it's best.  Street cafes, vendors cute little shop windows (sadly Lauduree was closed by the time I found it) and a general sense of public life.

We ate at a less crowded place down the way, but the vibe of the St. Germain was great.

We found a cute little joint and had some supper, it wasn't amazing, but the atmosphere was great and so was the rose.  Then there was the lovely view of a purple sky from my balcony that night.

The next morning I went for a run, with my iPhone handy, I had tunes, took some pictures and just enjoyed every second of it.

The Seine in the morning.

Sweaty and super happy!

Then it was a quick breakfast in my room of eggs benedict with shaved black truffle on top and some lovely berries with mint before heading off to Riyadh.

Not bad for a day, huh?!

Momentary Mustache!

T had a mustache for a hot minute...

So, I thought I'd share.

A Day at the Poodle Ranch!

Stripes, Sprinkle and I headed up to Casa de Poodle to help her out with some wedding crafts and wish her a Happy Birthday!  We picked up mini cupcakes at Dots in Pasadena on the way to the mountains.

My favorite was hands-down the chocobutter.  Chocolate cake, peanut butter frosting and a mini peanut butter cup on top.  Perfection!

After some crafting, we met up with Mr. Poodle and his family down at the ranch.  We were chauffeured around on the back of an ancient camo Jeep driven by a somewhat daring Mr. Poodle.  We were all pretty excited that we stayed in the back of the Jeep and the flat tire was only a momentary setback.

I won't show you Poodle's amazing wedding chapel, because that would be totally mean to steal her thunder, but I will show you a couple of great things on the ranch.

Junkyard!

Retired caboose!

Oh, and inhabitants of the Bee variety!

Wishing her the best wedding this weekend and wishing I could be there!

The Boys Turn 3!

My cousin and his wife are parents of the cutest twin boys on the planet... want proof, behold.

These two celebrated their third birthday party at their local community center.  There were mats, things to bounce on, parachute time, cake and pizza.

A totally great way to celebrate full on toddler-hood.

And a great opportunity for me to practice photographing constantly moving targets.  I had a great day chasing around kids and did my best to photograph every child there, but I narrowed it down to these few to show you.

See... adorable!

Vegas TTD 3

Surprise, Mouse shot Quiche and I at the hotel when we got back from Red Rock.  We got a little inspired by Stripes' menswear inspired post and thought it'd be fun to make the tall girl with short hair (me) wear a blazer.  Mouse, Cola and I crafted my headband and bout that morning in our hotel room.

We sort of ran out of light at Red Rock and the actual red rocks are only in the first 2 miles of the 13 mile scenic drive, so we headed to our hotel and made do.

We got congratulated by a real wedding couple which was great, but we also got quite a few odd stares, not so great.

All in all it was pretty fun.  In case you're wondering where my cheap outfit came from, you're probably not, but maybe.  Blazer: express, Ruffly vest and pencil skirt: H&M, Shoes: Target (super exciting, right...eh).  I strung the pearls myself and I really kinda loved my tulle bow on a ribbon headband.

It was definitely an experience to remember, and here's to the day when two brides walking through a casino isn't that out of place.