Slice of Pink

Holiday Gift Guide :: By the Sea Edition

Whale Chalkboard {Three Potato Four}

We Dream In Colour Sea Life Earrings {Urban Outfitters}

De Vincennes Dinner Plate, Octopus {Anthropologie}

One Special Summer {Amazon}

Mister Seahorse by Eric Carle {Amazon}

Holiday Gift Guide :: Five Lovely Books

On This Earth: Photographs from East Africa {Nick Brandt}

The Gift of Nothing {Patrick McDonnell}

The Elegance of the Hedgehog {Muriel Barbery}

Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey {Jill O'Connor}

Taschen's Paris {Angelika Taschen}

Bicycle Roundup III

The DC Tweed Ride: Bringing Dapper Back to the Bike Lane

More fabulous photos of the Tweed Ride here, here, and here!

A roundup of bicycle wedding ideas

Judge O.K.’s Some Parts of S.F. Bike Plan

Bicycle Mustache {via Swiss Miss}

Too much turkey? Time for a ride!

Camera Collection

Loving this collection of camera photos at Milk {and this collection of bicycle photos, too!}

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Just a Doggone Minute

I met a football player in the elevator of my Chicago hotel on Sunday. He was staying on the 24th floor; I was on the 23rd. It was near check-out time, so the elevator was stopping at nearly every floor for people to squeeze on, and the football player and I chatted on the ride down to the lobby. I learned that he played for the Philadelphia Eagles and that his name was Mike. He was wearing warm-ups and gigantic diamond earrings. He was on his way to a game soon.

I forgot all about my elevator chat about two seconds after I exited the elevator--I was on my way to brunch at Bloomingdales, after all--but I remembered when Will picked me up from the airport. I reported on the conversation and briefly described the player, at which time Will basically lost his mind because the person I met sounded precisely like Michael Vick.

Who? Yeah, my reaction, too.

Michael Vick, as it turns out, would be the guy who spent 23 months in prison on federal felony charges for the extensive and illegal interstate dog fighting ring he operated in rural Virginia.

Oh, yeah. That guy.

So, I googled Michael Vick and, sure enough, he was totally the guy I chatted with in the elevator for a 23-floor ride. Certainly not my most exciting celebrity sighting (especially since I had no idea who he was until, like, 12 hours after the fact), but he did have a 34-yard dash against the Bears on Sunday night (whatever that means) and I'm pretty sure he's the only celebrity felon I've had the pleasure of meeting.

On recounting the story, one of my classmates asked whether, had I known it was Vick, I would have done anything differently. I think he expected me to admit that I would have snubbed Vick for his appalling treatment of animals but, in true blogger fashion, I replied that "yes, I totally would have done something differently--I would have gotten a photo of Vick and me for Slice of Pink." Say Cheese!

Hello Chicago

I'm back from a fabulous weekend to the Windy City (not so windy, by the way, at least not on my crisp but lovely weekend trip).

I met up with some of my favorite gals for a girls-only weekend of conferencing, site-seeing, wine-drinking, and pizza-eating.

We brunched at Bloomingdales and walked the Magnificent Mile to Millennium Park in order to look at a giant, reflective bean.

Lovely friends, lovely Chicago.

VF: A Decade in Covers

Have you been voting for the Vanity Fair covers of the decade?

Not to taint your ballot, but I've voted as follows:

2000: Gwyneth Paltwow
2001: Brad Pitt

2002: Kirsten Dunst
2003: George Clooney

2004: Jackie Kennedy
2005: Nicole Kidman

2006: Geroge Clooney, again! I had no idea that I was such a Clooney kind of gal.

2007: The Africa Issue

2008: The Hollywood Issue

2009: Tina Fey (I usually toss the magazine after I read it or drop a stack off at the local coffee shop, but I still have this issue floating around. What a great cover!)

Go vote!

Five {Interesting} Things About Art History

In June, I listed some things I can teach you, including the fact that I can teach you "some interesting things about art history." Although I have talked a great deal about being drunk in college, I haven't talked much about actually attending class in college. But I did occasionally attend class, even earning myself a degree in the History of Art and Architecture.

Facts about the history of art and architecture are useful in two instances: visiting museums and sounding semi-intelligent at gallery openings when you are really there to drink the free wine.

Presenting: Five {Interesting} Things About Art History!

Are you excited or WHAT?

These are quality cocktail conversation starters, people. Get ready.

1. Pablo Picasso's full name: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. You can memorize that or simply say "did you know that Pablo Picasso had 23 words in his name?"

(Bonus fact: his first word was "lapiz," the Spanish word for "pencil.")

2. In 1911, when the Mona Lisa disappeared off a wall in the Louvre, Picasso was a key suspect. He didn't have the Mona Lisa, but he did have two stolen Louvre sculptures in his possession.

3. Salvador Dali arrived to give a lecture at London exhibition wearing a diving suit and diving helmet. Nobody could hear him. Eventually he began to asphyxiate in the suit, which had an airtight seal. The audience, thinking it was just a performance, applauded wildly until somebody finally popped open the helmet.

4. Vincent Van Gogh wrote over 800 letters in his lifetime.

5. When the sculpture, Bird in Space, was brought to the United States, the customs inspector refused to grant the duty exemption to the sculpture, insisting that it was not art (because, clearly, it looks nothing like a bird) and would therefore have to be taxed as a hunk of raw material.

Who is your favorite artist?

A.K. Damn

How marvelous are these advertisements for French beer by Natasha Lawes? {via Sweet Station}