http://www.loveisfan.com/

I’ve always loved this cartoon strip by created by Kim Grove and Stefano Casali

if you’re a fan and want to see more
www.loveisfan.com

Thanks to my friend Jessie and her voracious reading skills, I’m able to share with you this super cute and amazing love story….

This is an incredibly romantic love story.

“Beth and I have been like two bookends, with almost 70 years of empty space between us,” Mr. Fellows said. “There’s a lot to catch up on, but we better do it quickly. We can always relax a little more toward the end.”
And this is why I love the NY Times Weddings section. Because out of every 25 or so stories about the MBA son of a Senator and a Mortgage Broker marrying the MBA daughter of a Professor of Political Science and a Lawyer, there is a story that is about love instead of graduate degrees. And this–this is truly inspiring.

Joel Page for The New York Times

Click here to read more of my friend Jessie’s blog – Los Angeles: Strange and Unsober Journey

I was trying to find my keys today and I had so much “stuff” laying out that I couldn’t find them for 15 minutes. Guess where they where?! Underneath a pile of JUNK MAIL!!!

Take a look at these interesting facts about the “stuff” we have in our lives…excerpted from No Wire Hangars

FACTS
Each year, 100 million trees are used to produce junk mail.

Each year, about 100 million households receive 16.6 billion catalogs.

According to a study conducted by a Boston marketing firm, the average American burns 55 minutes a day looking for things they know they own but cannot find.

Americans toss out more than 100 million cell phones every year.

We wear 20% of the clothes we own 80% of the time. The rest hangs there, just in case.

Ikea did a survey of customers in which 31% reported that they were more satisfied after clearing out their closets then they were after sex.

About 3.5 billion wire hangers get dumped into U.S. landfills every year, according to the Hanger Network. Thats about 60,000 cars.

The National Soap and Detergent Association believes getting rid of clutter would eliminate 40 percent of the housework in the average home.

In the United States right now, landfills are filling up and closing at the rate of approximately 2 a day.

My friends at Mimoco (the makers of my favorite Mimobot flash drives – the ONLY flash drives I use) are asking you to recycle your old and BORING flash drives that are just sitting around attracting dust. You probably have one of these lying around somewhere and wish it were something you used more often. Now you can RECYCLE it and receive discounts codes that are valid for a purchase of a new Mimobot! Watch below for a “how-to” video -

Mimoco is also asking you to continue to celebrate Earth Day (even though it was on April 23) by entering the GURP for Mother Earth (GURP4ME) contest that promotes recycling via Mimoco’s Mimobot GreenBot USB flash drive Recycling Program, or GURP for short. The GURP4ME contest challenges participants to submit a short, 60 second video that answers a simple question: “Show Mimoco how GURP recycles your flash drives.”

For every entry received, Mimoco will contribute to save 1,000 square feet of rain forest through the Arbor Day Foundation’s Rain Forest Rescue program. Mimoco and media partner judges at Cool Hunting, NOTCOT, and Inhabitat will choose up to 100 entrants to receive limited edition organic cotton Mimobot GURP shirts.

The GRAND PRIZE winner will receive two 8GB Mimobot flash drives of their choice! An Audience Choice winner, chosen by the Mimoco community, will win an 8GB drive of their choice, and 4 runner ups will each receive 4GB Mimobot drives!

There are so many prizes and so many winners – you have to enter!! Check out my Mr. TTT Rainbow Mimobot – I carry him everywhere.

Friday night consisted of eating and eating and eating at Susan Feniger’s new restaurant called STREET.
I made a reservation two weeks in advance on opentable and thank goodness I did, because by the time we arrived, the restaurant was bursting at the seams with a line almost out the door at 8:30pm. For those who didn’t plan ahead, the wait was a minimum of 45 minutes.

We ordered drinks at the bar while our table was being set – a Godfather and a Singapore Sling. WOW – they were POTENT. Ten minutes later, we got sat outside in the patio right in front of a giant window that peered into the kitchen. It was like performance art!

window to susan feniger's soul...

appetizer - kaya toast

globe trot

globe trotter - course 1

globe trotter - course 2

globe trotter - course 3

globe trotter - course 4

globe trotter - course 5

dessert - egyptian cake

Please click on the Thrillist.com link for the menu (dessert is not included).

Here are a few pictures of the outside patio area and the inside of the restaurant.

outside patio area

looking inside the retaurant from the patio

And last but not least, a blurry and dark picture of me about to call a tow truck to tow me and my very full belly out of the restaurant!!

so full after all that delicious food!

I highly recommend visiting Street – it’s an culinary adventure!

I want to share the posting of my friend Jessie about our “God Adventure” on March 22…I scraped her blog posting because she is such a wordsmith that it would be a shame to try and rewrite such genius-ness. However, please visit her blog for the illustrations to this posting as they are PRICELESS.

Sunday, March 22, 2009
Your trip to heaven is departing in 25 minutes from the corner of Hollywood & Highland…
These images are from a week-old adventure through LA, but they’re too perfect not to share. As Renee and I traipsed through Hollywood last Saturday, God seemed to follow us everywhere.

God actually started chatting me up the evening before as I drove to Home in Silverlake.

Then on Saturday, we were lured toward Hollywood & Highland, tourist Sin Central, where anti-war protesters were finishing a march along closed-down Hollywood Boulevard…
Beside the cops…

And the cops on horses…

God was there…

He had a sign. And he had buddies working to spread the gospel…

Including Jesus–the most righteous of all the costumed characters standing outside the Mann Chinese…

And some young zealots offering God money on the streets and some solid advice on getting to heaven.

Our conversation went something like this paraphrased nonsense…

Renee and I: So, what is this for? Does this fake money get us into heaven?
Young Zealot: Have you ever lied, sinned, or stolen?
Me: Yeah–have you?
YZ: Yes, but I’ve repented. You have to forsake it and humble yourself before God. If you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you can get into heaven.
Renee and I: So, are we like, cool to get into heaven then cause we just took these god bills?
YZ: You can repent here or you can go home and do it.
Me: Is this going to be a problem if I’m Jewish?
YZ: If you’re Jewish, Jesus is your messiah.
Me: So…I’m, like, already saved then? Cool.

This is right around the time that our young friend called over ‘Pastor Steve’ to see if there were any bibles left.

Our righteous buddy kindly gave me the holy book, offered his email address and then…gave me back my pen because he “didn’t want to steal.” Oh, good Lord.

Even the Virgin store was selling religion. Here’s Renee with some ‘Lookin Good for Jesus’ skincare products. Virgin selling Jesus products?! Get it?! Puntastic, eh…

Saved, lotioned up and ready for Jesus. All in a day’s holy work.

As I was listening to Pandora just now, I noticed an advertisement to the left of the screen:

Intrigued by the offbeat red color and its compact size, I clicked on the ad (which I rarely ever do)…

I am now officially obsessed with this gadget and want one in pink, naturally. It’s so clever.

“The world’s smallest and first personal microwave. Use it whenever and wherever you need microwave technology. Take it with you–it’s portable. The iWavecube takes up less than one cubic foot of space and weighs about 12 pounds. The iWavecube looks so good, its design is patented.”

Measures 10.5″W x 10″D x 12″H
Heating cavity is .3 cubic feet (8″W x 8″D x 6″H)
600 watts

A portable microwave….whoever came up with this idea should win an award for the most ingenius invention EVER.

On the site, it says coming in 2009:
+The world’s smallest toaster and convection oven combo. It’s the same size as the iWavecube.
+A personal refrigerator the same size as the iWavecube. Stack ‘em or put them side by side.
+A personal refrigerator twice the size and capacity as the iFridgecube.
+The iFridgecube2 + the iWavecube + the iToastcube = the perfect gift for newlyweds or graduates from college.

I love that they already have a portable refrigerator and convection oven in the works!!

It has long been thought by many jaded Angelenos that this city would never be able to have a proper fashion week with respected designers and enough energy like the NYC shows. After the skin.graft fashion show on Saturday night at the LA Theater, my confidence has been restored!

I wasn’t sure what to expect before I headed downtown to the show…I had heard from a friend who attended the night the Gen Art show the night before that it was very chaotic and disorganized. I also received a text from a friend inside the show to come “early” so I was prepared for the worst possible scenario – a giant crowd like at Smashbox and a pile up of cars in the valet. When I arrived, none of these scenarios played out – thankfully.
We were let into the venue without much delay and wandered around the beautiful theater.
A fashion show was going on downstairs and since it was an open floor plan, one could see the show from a far or from the top of the stairs. There was such a diverse crowd of people! Trannies with wild outfits and mile high stilletos, goth kids, valley girls, Hollywood types, and even god forbid…normal people. It felt more like a giant party than a serious fashion show and that was the best part of all. There were no attitudes, no pretentiousness…just plan old love of fashion and support of LA Fashion Week. So refreshing.

The 10pm skin.graft show started around 10:15ish and a troupe of dancers came out on the catwalk and did some interpretative dances to set the tone of the show.
The designs were wearable and aspirational…my favorite piece of the show was this beautiful white outfit – a bit reminiscent of cross between Chanel x Givenchy…

Hooray for the designers of skin.graft – congratulations on a wonderful show! AND, we must not forget the fabulous ladies at PUREconsulting for their fine efforts at managing all PR and show needs!
Before we left, I had to take a picture of my beloved Paris Hilton look alike – who attends every LA Fashion Week wearing sunglasses…

It’s not often that DailyCandy throws a party so when one is invited, it’s imperative to attend!

There were plenty of delicious appetizers from the SLS hotel…the definite crowd pleaser was the guacomole pillow and the egg and mini hash brown duo:
Crystal Meers, LA Editor of DailyCandy and T.C. Conroy, life coach were both in attendance

Overall, it was a great party filled with loads of Pinky-infused drinks, fun friends, and the best tasting gift bag ever – i heart those Milk and Krunchies rice crispy treats with assorted fillings and toppings!

m

WHEN: March 28th at 8:30pm YOUR local time
WHERE: your home, your school, your office, your community, etc
WHY: The main point of Earth Hour is to unite people, companies and governments around the world through the symbolic flip of a switch. Earth Hour in itself will not lower our carbon footprint, rather it sends a signal to those in a place of power that we as individuals and communities demand action. The decision on which lights to turn off can be made individually, but usually consists of overhead lights in rooms (whether it is your house or a business), outdoor lighting that does not impact safety, computers, decorative lights, neon signs for advertising, televisions, desk lamps, etc
HOW: TURN OFF ALL NON-ESSENTIAL LIGHTING AT 8:30pm local time on March 28. Sign up to make a difference at: www.EarthHourUS.org

Happy President’s Day!

First, I would like to thank every one who entered the Helena dress contest, especially Sarah and Kara!

Second, there is an issue I want to address in relation to the contest and some inappropriate comments being posted on the blog and on the Youtube site. It began at 5:24pm PST on 2/14, the last day of the contest with a seemingly non-threatening email from a person I did not believe to be involved with the contest. Please see below to read the entire email:

From: Johnathon Crain [mailto:johnathoncrain@gmail.com]
Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2009 5:24 PM
To: Renee
Subject: Helena Contest!

Dear Renee,
First off, I’d like to say you’re amazing. <3 Anyways, I came across your wonderful contest for the dress from the Helena video by My Chemical Romance. I then watched your guidelines carefully and then watched both of the contestant’s videos. I noticed that Kara did not follow each necessary guideline that you had made as requirements in your first video. In her video, she did not include the following: where she lives, what goes on in her typical day, and why she loves the Helena dress. In my opinion, the part about where she lives isn’t that important. However, what goes on in her typical day should have been a major part of her video and she did not have this anywhere. She also did not include why she actually loves this dress. She did say what she would do with the dress (wear it to prom) but did not say what she loves about it which shows her lack of interest really. She also just spent a good majority of the video sitting in her room talking about herself. Which shows the lack of effort and time that she spent putting together her video. After being disgusted by all of this, I moved on to Sarah’s video. She followed each guideline perfectly and her video flowed together as one big whole project. She included what goes on in her typical day marvelously. She then went on to show each person she cares about and even had both her mom and dad on video explaining why she should win. Her accomplishments with “Band-Together” sound like an amazing thing to do. The story about her grandmother is heart touching and she should definitely get brownie points for that one (: ! I also believe that the way the contest is being judged is entirely unfair. Kara had uploaded her video multiple days before Sarah had meaning she had extra days to rack up those views. I believe it would have been a lot better if you had them email you the videos so YOU could take them and upload them on your own youtube account at the SAME time and then say something like the contest ends in a week. That way, they both had the same equal opportunity to get more views. I also noticed that youtube views don’t always necessarily update regularly. Sometimes they take many hours to update, meaning one girl could actually have more views than another and you wouldn’t even know it. But overall, I do believe you should take this wonderful note in consideration because I spent a long time thinking about all this. You should definitely look over both videos and base your decision on more of the video content rather than views. As for my opinion, I believe Sarah used creativity and followed each requirement and overall had a much better video. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Love,
Johnathon also known as ilovekinkychinky <3
I was caught off guard by this person’s email about how I was running the contest and politely replied:

Dearest Johnathon,

Best,
Renee

Guess what kind of response I received from this person, claiming to be so enthralled with the contest?

So your saying that she won because she made a horrible video and got more views which you can cheat on getting and the views don’t even load correctly. thats some bs right there renee. Seriously.. wow.. There were requirements, and Kara should have followed them. They should both get a dress or nobody. because you were not clear about it and its causing great disputes.

I did not respond to this person because it was obvious that he was a person who wanted to cause problems and wasn’t respecting my decision to run the contest MY WAY.

However, I did reach out to both Kara and Sarah about the contest to inform both of them about this naysayer causing a rift between them by posting malicious comments. I connected the two finalists to allow them both to read about this individual. Both Kara and Sarah had hurt feelings from comments left by individuals and lashed back at each other because of it.

I sent the following email to both finalists yesterday, February 15th:

Kara + Sarah -

Xoxo
Renee

What came out of this was unexpected but definitely one of the main reasons why I wanted to conduct this contest: friendship, comraderie, and confidence.

Kara wrote me this email a bit later:
Hi again Renee,

Thank you, again! This dress is really a dream come true for me, and my whole family is so excited. Kara

and now, the winner is… KARA and SARAH!
BOTH are winners of their very own custom “Helena” dress!!

***On a side note, please understand that due to the inappropriate nature of the random comments left by Mr. Johnathon Cain, I have removed ALL videos from Youtube. This means that the videos in the previous postings will not work, and I apologize in advance. The personal safety of my fans is top priority. Thank you for your understanding!***