March 2011
1 post
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http://www.ellieinLA.com →
Hi all,
Sorry I haven’t updated myprincipality recently. I had a health thing come up. But all is good now! I’ll continue posting fun, inspirational, and pretty things here at myprincipality. In the meantime, check out my new site www.ellieinla.com.
February 2011
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January 2011
3 posts
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It's a Marshmellow World
While I awoke to California sunshine (again), my tres chic grandmother in Connecticut woke up to this…
Ten more inches of snow.
This wonderfully stupid song goes out to her and all of you scraping off your windshields.
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“And the day came when the risk it took to remain tightly closed in a bud was...”
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photography: Iris Jan
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December 2010
1 post
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November 2010
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myprincipality gift guide
Not to brag, but I was once a luxury gift consultant for an A+ List celebrity. I was awesome at picking out cool, expensive nicknacks—an important life skill to have. But then, the stock market crashed and people suddenly got a conscience when it came to spending. Waa. Waa.
But don’t worry. If you are rich, the tack is back. It’s headquarters? Needless Mark Up (Neiman...
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Mind the Gap: Stillness
Before you speak, ask yourself: Is it kind, is it true, is it necessary, does it improve upon the silence?
- Sai Baba of Shirdi
[Photograph by Ineke Kamps.]
An excerpt from director Anne Bogart’s November blog post Permanence:
I wondered if this is a typical American attitude – distrust of empty space and unfilled time? And yet how can anything new be engendered if space and time is...
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Pepsi Max: Legend, heartbreaker, friend with real... →
Click the title above to watch the commercial claire coffee and I bullied some awesome friends into shooting with us. We’re submitting it to the “crash the super bowl” contest. fingers crossed.
*Click “Skip” in upper right hand corner of site to jump straight to our commercial.
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My Shoe Cents
[Air Talia Pump ($198) with Nike Air Technology]
There are lots of women who live for shoes. They collect them. They cherish them. It’s a Cinderella fetish I do not share. Shoes annoy me. They never fit right. They nearly always hurt. I spent my childhood barefoot—in the grass, at the dance studio, around the pool. My nickname growing up was Twinkle Toes. I was always happiest...
October 2010
6 posts
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Brooklyn Dad Makes Child Feel Small &... →
A Brookyln Dad sends his iphone to space with the record button on. It’s nutballs. Check it out. Backyard science has gotten so much cooler since the days of burning ants with magnifying glass.
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On chilly, rainy days like today, I miss my years in the Pioneer Valley. Thanks to a hot chocolate machine and an endless supply of white bagels in the dorm dining room, we were always cozy in our carb induced comas.
Since 1877, the Smith College President has declared Mountain Day, an impromptu, unscheduled holiday that celebrates Fall in New England. At dawn, the college bell in the Quad...
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Deadline Hollywood
Congratulations, hubby. This totally makes up for the insane last name you gave me. Here’s the article on Deadline Hollywood.
Friends ask if I’m Adam’s inspiration. Since he tends to write loony tunes women, I can confidently say: why yes I am. Here’s my post from awhile back that refers to another pilot he wrote: That Should Be in a Sitcom.
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September 2010
9 posts
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Time Suck Thursday
1. Here are a bunch of vintage ads that make ya miss the good old days.
2. While I’ve never actually ordered anything from a catalog, it’s my favorite thing to curl up with before bedtime (husband-second, dog-third). I’ve often wondered why I seem to have gotten stupider in my domestic bliss, but after reading the captions at Catalog Living, I think I know why. I guess...
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A Sign?!
Things got weird while we were cleaning out my hubby’s childhood closet and we found this in his comic book collection. At first, I thought it was a sign that we were meant to be together. Then, I thought it might be a sign that he didn’t love me. But now, I think it might be a sign that he’s gay. Why’d he buy a comic called “Girls’ Love Stories”?
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My Great-Grandmother's Dresses
Did she get ready in a slapdash rush…did her husband help with the metal snaps that ran along her side…did she spritz perfume on her neck and wrists or prefer to walk into a cloud of scent…how long did she hold out hope for a daughter before resigning herself to the tender cruelty of raising four sons?
And did she have an inkling that, someday, her...
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wise words from a world duathlete →
i dare you not to be inspired by this essay.
Jewelry by fashletics.
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Camelflage: A jockstrap for your hoo-hoo
2010 has been a tough year for the ladies. The bachelorette watering hole Tijuana is a war zone, Sex and the City II was a bust, and Heidi Montag’s plastic surgeon drove off a cliff.
But before you get your panties in a bunch, check this out. Camelflage. God’s gift to women for 2010.
Yoga instructors across the nation are rejoicing.
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Please Write *50% off
I have a paper goods fetish. I love post cards, note cards, journals, holiday cards, and greeting cards for every occasion. I would rather stand in a museum gift shop and admire the art reprinted on a post card than stare at the real thing on the wall.
I like writing inside the cards despite my grotesque penmanship. And I am pretty good at putting a stamp on the envelope (how I miss the glue...
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Don't Let the Bed Bugs Bite.
In early June, before bed bugs became the sensational news story of summer 2010, I received a call from an elderly family member in need of help. We’ll call her Lucy. She is blind.
Dawn Vampires.
Lucy had been waking up at dawn with excruciating itching. She had suffered from eczema in the past and chalked it up to another extreme case of dry skin. But I had the itching suspicion it...
August 2010
7 posts
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Cottage Rules to Live By
Grumps’ Cottage Rules, originally posted in my Michigan Summers blog in February 2008:
My grandfather is a benevolent curmudgeon. He loves order, Switzerland, Mercedes, and opera. He prefers his animals stuffed and his television (CNBC) on mute. And if a telemarketer calls at dinner time, he answers with:
Oh God, I thought you were the doctor. The baby’s dying.
The ...
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The Comedy Miners of the New Media Frontier
Here’s a taste of my latest article for CultureMap, Houston’s online magazine. Houston’s Internet Comedy Trio Lampoons TMZ & Lost: Meet Team Tiger Awesome (you’ll laugh).
How did this Los Angeles based comedy team form? They met by way of Texas.
Let’s flashback to 1992. Nick Mundy, age 11, and Clint Gage, age 10, live on the same block in Spring. They aren’t...
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WatchTeamTigerAwesome presents Lil’ TMZ Playset!
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Feeling Shippy?
Please excuse my awesome tan. We just got back from a SeaDream II voyage. The vacation team included: me, hubby, his parents, my parents, and my younger siblings. There were only a hundred other guests/strangers on the boat, a third of whom I never saw. But then again, I spent most of my time at the “Top of the Deck” Bar.
The SeaDream Cruise is all-inclusive. Between my...
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My sis-in-law could kick my ass: Her INTERVIEW... →
Also, Sarah Wilson’s bad ass FASHLETICS jewelry line, including the large kettlebell necklace.
July 2010
7 posts
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Crib Notes on Venice
Basilica Di San Marco: The blingy gold ceilings inside the Basilica would make Jennifer Lopez blush. Beat the lines and the beating down sun by arriving early. We arrived at 9:15 am, sipped espressos in to-go cups, and enjoyed the morning breeze. It opens at 9:45 am. Loggia dei Cavalli: Four bronze horses stolen from Constantinople. The reproductions overlook the square. The originals are...
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my interview with jordan horowitz, producer of The... →
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WatchTrailer for the Comedy Event of 2010. Written by: my handsome Adam Sztykiel and Todd Phillips.
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June 2010
21 posts
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Let's Call the Whole Thing Off...
A kick-ass, hilarious, brutally honest, and disturbing essay by Sandra Tsing Loh published last summer in The Atlantic. Read the entire essay, unless you have ADD, in which case at least read the excerpts below.
Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off :
Why do we still insist on marriage? Sure, it made sense to agrarian families before 1900, when to farm the land, one needed two spouses,...
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Watch There’s nothing like a college friend’s wedding to make everyone realize how (not) far we’ve come in the maturity department. And when my sick husband was left home, stupidity triumphed. Many apologies to the shell shocked groom for my obnoxious, filthy mouth. I’m a real housewife in training. (Bravo, are you listening?)
I shot this video using the teeny tiny flip...
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My Principality Hits Vermont
If Traverse City, MI and Northampton, MA had a baby, it’d be Burlington, VT. Think: organic, community, lip rings, tattoos, boutiques, breweries, and boats. Here are the hot spots for shopaholic foodies like me.
SHOPPING Bennington Potters. a home decor dream. 127 college street. Trinket, an accessories and jewelry boutique. 32 1/2 church street. Old Gold, eclectic hip clothing...
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Literary Nerd Alert
I miss school. I miss the validation of the grading system. I miss knowing that if I put every ounce of my concentration into a paper or project, I will emerge from the library squinty mole-eyed and victorious.
There is a new reason for nerds to rejoice before they cough up the cash to apply to grad school: OPEN YALE COURSES. For Free!
I’m taking “The American Novel since...