serious faces and gallery walls.

in a continued whirlwind of amazingness, houston magazine is running a small feature on your favorite internet sensation (uh, i mean me in this instance) in their upcoming march issue, which allegedly hits the stands next week. ALLEGEDLY.

the online version went out yesterday, and even though i was/am about to die of a severe allergy situation, it really put a smile on my face. turns out laughter is the best medicine, but fame is the cure, homies! it could also be the massive allergy shot i got in the behinders, but i'm fo rill having a super couple of days (and kind of an amazing 2013). thanks a mill for all the support from alla y'all of late; you've really got no idea how much that means. my website is set to launch very soon, ready or not (it's totally not ready), so stay tuned. in the meantime, my very smart brother figured out that you can skip directly to the bit on me HERE.

kelly wearstler.

if all goes as planned, i'll be meeting this cool cat in space city today:

in the past, i've only creeped from a safe distance so it should be interesting. fingers crossed i don't OD on champagne cocktails and slash or make a fool of m'self.

martyn lawrence-bullard in the flesh.

as i mentioned previously, marty b came to town on tuesday to spill some secrets about his million-dollar design projects (and clients), and it. was. faaaaabulous. the house was packed at alkusari stone's showroom and MLB didn't wait long before bustin' out words like decadent, delicious, diva, daaaahhhling and VIBE (i learned a long time ago that if you're in LA and have to talk about design, you just say VIBE a lot and people are like oooohh yeeeessss, everything you're saying is crystal clear: indonesian vibe. spanish vibe. in-and-out burger vibe. you get it.). martyn had great stories about buying solid gold tapestries and meetings with cher while she takes a bath and buying a condo with elton john so joan collins couldn't have it, to name a few. also the osbornes have 26 dogs but zero rugs because none of the dogs are potty trained? in between the juicy bits, he had wonderful tales from the world of interior design and the entire audience was truly in a trance. it was fun and a nice break from my home away from home, aka the office, plus i got to meet a great designer during the book signing.

posing + pocket square combo = camera gold.

please note that martyn lawrence-bullard has some of the finest penmanship i've ever seen. if he decides that he's sick of all that international travel and hanging out with celebrities and making mad bags of cash, he has a solid future in calligraphy, which i TOTALLY mentioned to him whilst he was signing my book, and he was pretty much like, please go away, crazy lady.

rubbing elbows: celerie, newell, charlotte, suzanne.

so i still don't exactly know why or how, but houston had a pretty flossome november, design-wise. first of all, celerie kemble was in town on her book tour, signing autographs and just generally being adorable, so robyn and i went to that and got to meet her. sadly, i am unable to locate the photo of celerie + kdubs, but trust when i say that i looked super fierce. JUST KIDDING. but one of her handlers DID tell me that i had 'killer platinum' and i only had to ask him twice what he meant, and he was talking about my hair. celerie's adorable dress is by dallas native lela rose, if you need one, btw. it bears mentioning that robyn and i (plus everyone at my office, at my INSISTENCE) want very much to be as like cel-K as possible, so we have all taken vegatable names. i'm leeks luebe and robyn is cabbage patterson. do you have a vegetable name? you can't use aubergine, because that's obviously the prettiest-sounding vegetable that ever was.

by the way, celerie kemble thinks architectural digest is for assholes. just kidding! she totally took it back.

then the very next day, the decorative center houston hosted house beautiful's design institute, and i got to meet NEWELL TURNER, editor of house beautiful. the discussion also featured suzanne kasler and charlotte moss, and i thought it was pretty special. charlotte moss is a starchy gal and said that she not only loves chintz (so does newelly), she comes from the school of more is more, which made me want to stand up and do the arsenio because I TOTALLY GET IT, CHARLOTTE, i do. i love shit everywhere also, girl! clutter my liiiiiiiife.

we got to the lee jofa/suzanne kasler book signing early, but planned to hang out there because IT'S LEE JOFA and what's not to love, but in walks suzyK, and the next thing i know, she's giving robyn, jennifer and moi a tour of her new fabric collection for lee jofa, which had just been released. SPOILER ALERT: it is awesome.

FOR YOUR PLEASURE ALONE, i am posting all of these photos, even though in some of them i look normal and then in others i look like i may or may not have slept in my car. PS, thanks for the giant triple EFF ma-maw boobs to both of my grandmothers. i may as well just start buying all of my clothes at effing chico's, and from now on, if anyone asks what my personal style is, it's MATRON CHIC.

i was totally resisting the urge to hug him THE ENTIRE TIME.

charchar.

suzeballs

oh, did you think that was it? IT IS NOT, because the week of awesome continued on the very next evening when i managed to invite myself along get invited to the grand opening of restoration hardware's new monster flagship store in highland village. but i am kinda blogged out so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

personal projects: luxe magazine.

so when i'm not waxing poetic about dog sweaters or youtube videos of dances i want to learn, i go to my job, which is at a very fancy interior design firm here in space city. if i've never mentioned the actual firm before (i haven't) you should know right now that my foul mouth and absurd ideas reflected on this blog have NOTHING to do with that very classy establishment (although i have been known to be a bad influence on my boss, who, prior to meeting me, was quite a lady). anyhow, should you need more details on where i work, we are in this month's national issue of luxe magazine (R.A.D.). pick one up if you are enjoying a free cocktail and some cheese in your local airport's president's club. i posted a photo of this home before, but here she is in all her splendor. photos by our super-talented photographer (and client!) julie soefer.

I'M BACK I'M BACK I'M BACK!!

heavens to betsy, bitches. july really stunk and so did august, but i'm here to tell you that just when you are starting to think things won't improve, THEY DO. so many dankes to those of you who cared... all three of you. just jokes! it was really like four of you. FIVE, if you count the badasses over at ceylon et cie, who totally gave me a shout-out on michelle nussbaumer's blog after i wrote about my trip to visit their amazing shop in dallas. you may recall seeing ms. nussbaumer in last month's house beautiful, showing off her tricked-out custom truck (the NUSS-BOMB? that is what i'd call it anyway).

anyway, this makes me feel really cool. i was too busy being down in the dumpholes to notice this occurred way back in july, so lesson learned: internet slumps and general feeling sorry for myself need only last for a few days at the most, so i'm back. look forward to stories about steve the dog and lots of posts about things i'd buy or not buy at anthropologie/target/jcrew. maybe i will put some ideas for a new haircut on here. maybe i will post a scandalous tell-all about people who suck a bag of dicks! maybe i will show you some things i've pinned on my pinterest and, if my luck holds out, i will be able to post some super rad photos of design and-slash-or craft projects that have been happening. you just never know.

mondrian soho.

so i will post more photos of the nyc project at some point, after we're done professionally photographing and then done whoring it out for awards and possible magazine attention, but until then, here are some new york things. please forgive my lack of organization on the mondrian photos... i am trying very hard to hit up the ol' b-log more often, and that may or may not mean i spend less time finessing these posts.

1. we stayed at the brand, spankin' new mondrian hotel in soho. it's new and super fly and had giant bottles of tequila in the rooms, which is probably why we rode the elevators with people like eva longoria's ex-piece tony parker (totally the shortest basketball player ever but much cuter in person than in those horrific eyebrow-featuring photos you see in us weekly) and 15-YEAR OLD (yes i am shouting) current it-model daphne groeneveld. she has the blondest eyebrows on the planet and like most adolescent females, travels with her mom. we also ran into noel fielding, which caused carolyn and her sister to FREAK OUT and make me feel like a nerd for not knowing who he is.

2. when not devouring the room service, we ate at imperial no. 9, the restaurant conveniently located inside the mondrian. if it sounds familiar, it's because you just saw it in your us weekly or in this month's elle decor. even though city correspondent stefon would describe it as a new york hot spot, we ate there because we are a teensy bit extremely lazy when we travel for work because of the schedule. this is also a super opportunity to mention that due to mad concrete jungle busy-ness, we were either at the jobsite or at the hotel, so i am real sorry i didn't get an opportunity to text, see, have coffee with or even think about any of my nyc peeps, including my brother-in-law and some college pals. lo siento folks; i'm a doucher. anyway. hot sam from top chef is at the helm of IN9, and we were able to play it cool when he walked by, although paul, our jonathan rhys meyers look-alike waiter was not so lucky.