Dior | From Paris to the World

A fantastic exhibition of fashion and design processes from Christian Dior and other designers while they were working under the label is currently in Dallas. It was amazing and inspirational and my only two complaints was that there wasn’t more to see (I could have done at least two more rooms!) and that the lighting was so dim—although understandably so.

Above: When we walked into this room it nearly took my breath away. The design of the DISPLAY was completely unexpected. Wow.

Other designers featured were: John Galliano, Raf Simmons, Maria Graza Chiuri (who is the current head designer of the label), Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, and Gianfranco Ferré.
Above: Adam wonders how one would walk in this. I wonder too.

Above:
“From his studio which he called the ‘office of dreams’ Christian Dior drew hundreds of sketches, which were transformed into toiles (mock-ups) in plain cotton muslin, and then shown to Dior and core team—Marguerite Carré, Raymond Zehnacker, and Mitzah Bricard—on perfectly proportioned models. Madma Carré, head of the ateliers (workshops), would ask the designer, “Have I expressed you correctly?”

Once approved, the toile became a pattern for a prototype.

Below: “From hats to shoes to makeup and perfume, Chrisitan Dior offered women a “total look.” Dior wanted “a woman to leave the boutique dressed from head to toe, even carrying a present for her husband in her hand.” A selection of lipsticks provided matching lip color for every dress....The same spirit extended to Dior’s packaging and display.” (As well it should have.)

By the way, Dior’s signature colors were reds and pinks.

His label didn’t change much over the years.

Above is one of his sketches.

 Below: I would totally wear this.

As a side note: Did you ever have a chance to see the movie Dior and I on Netflix? In 2012 Raf Simmons was appointed creative director at Dior and had to create his first collection in only 8 weeks, the film follows the process. Worth a watch. I recognized one of the dresses on display at the DMA from the film! (Not shown in this post though.)

In all, I was pleased we didn’t let this one pass us by. Unfortunately I always forget how invigorating and helpful opportunities like this are for me as a creative person. As one designer put it, “As artists, we are always putting things out...that means we have to fill ourselves up too.” Or something like that. I really need to do better.

Grand Cayman: Hidden Gem

Don't let the Taxi drivers lie to you when you get off the cruise ship. If you say you want to go to the Seven Mile Beach they'll take you to some bar that charges $2 to get to the shore and tell you wherever you go it will cost that much. But the Seven Mile Beach is PUBLIC.
I called their bluff and walked AROUND the bar and onto the beach with NO PROBLEM, to find a place where we could rent chairs and an umbrella. Somewhere NOT crowded with loud tourists.
We SCORED even bigger than I'd imagined!

We hustled up the beach and after a sweaty walk found the CUTEST place, right in front of a boutique hotel called the Beach Suites. Squeeeeeee! (Click here for the Beach Suites beautiful website. I am starting to daydream about staying there.) The chairs and umbrella's belonged to a restaurant/cafe in connection with the hotel called Tillies and weren't for rent BUT if we ordered $25 in food (per couple), we could sit there. YESSSS!!!

We would have spent more than that on chairs and an umbrella, and I'm ALWAYS up for eating,

 so of course we plopped down and got to ordering. 

IT. WAS. DELICIOUS. Click here for their website. We both had piña coladas and a blackened grouper sandwich with lime aioli, slaw, pickled banana peppers and onion on ciabatta. The waitress was friendly and excellent too.

 

It was such a lovely day. (A little stormy so the water wasn't clear, so again snorkeling was a bust, but at least it wasn't too hot.) We swam and sat and ate and I played catch with Adam for a long time—which I very much enjoyed. 

And it wasn't crowded because NO ONE from the cruise ship knew about the place. We totally lucked out. So shhhhhhh, don't tell anyone. This is our secret, between you and me. 

It was beautiful and perfect and as I type this I am yearning to go back for a longer stay at the hotel. Truly. (I mean, when you look at the website, you'll see why. But close your eyes when you look at the booking prices or you'll cry. Click here if you missed the link above.)

 

 Grand Cayman, I hope there is a next time! Tillies, we miss you!

Matisse is Having Issues

I repotted him and it's been a couple of months since. But surprisingly, Matisse is in a sate of arrested development. All I can do is keep waiting to see if he continues dying again or starts new growth. But I'm getting impatient...it's the growth season after all! I was hoping to see him get HUGE this year.

Vertical Horizon

Marla and Lex, two of our friends, LOVE the band Vertical Horizon. Who is this musical group? Oh, you know them. Trust me. We went with Marla, Lex, Lee and Jamison to a concert in April and got FRONT ROW! (To be fair, it was a small venue.)
Matt is SO talented and is a genuinely NICE guy. We had a great time singing along...even if not all of us knew the words, I think we faked it pretty good.

Click below for the customary bad video that nobody really wants to see, with heads cut off as a bonus. Password (case and space sensitive): fake it 

verticalhorizonwfriends from Anna Zenk on Vimeo.

Only regret: STANDING IN THE FRONT ROW WITHOUT EARPLUGS! WHAT?!?
Dudes, we're getting too old to be THAT close to the speakers without protection. I didn't get my hearing back until the evening of the next day.

Anna's Belated Birthday Post

My birthday was both odd and good. It landed on Mother's day, which happened to be a Sunday too.

Now, I have NOTHING against Mother's day. I have a mother whom I love to celebrate and  friends who are moms whom I honor and look up to. BUT...it’s odd to be wished a "happy Mother's Day" several times and enjoy a Mother's Day brunch at church when #1 I'm not a mother and #2 it's actually my birthday. So guess what I did that I don't usually do? I skipped church. I feel a bit bad. But, there it is.

I went foraging for birthday flowers. Then Adam got me some additional blossoms. (Note, DON'T shop for birthday flowers ON your birthday IF your birthday happens to be on MOTHER'S Day. Of course the pickin's were slim. DO go shopping AFTER mother's day. I found tulips for 99 cents.) This is one of the two arrangements I created. I haven't done one in so long—it felt good.

My mom was visiting HER mom in Idaho, and didn't forget me either! They sent a Marco Polo and sang to me. What a surprise and how sweet! (Yes, I did something for my mother too.)

Adam planned the day for us to celebrate. After he got back from church we went window shopping at the Shops at Clearfork where we had terrible macarons and great gelato. He also made dinner reservations in Fort Worth. And when we arrived home, he plunked two "wish" items from my Amazon list in front of me. A weighted blanket (so awesome) and this little bluetooth lady below. Isn't she beautiful?! Sigh. I so ENJOY a well designed item. Why look at Ugly when Beautiful is available? Thank you Marshall.

Adam had angel food cake, strawberries, and a candle ready to go and sang to me. He made a really weird day into a pleasant one.

Thank you to everyone who remembered me...it meant a lot this year.

Camp Cook

At the last minute, and I mean the VERY last minute, our stake (made up of 8 different congregations) had to pull out of the venue they'd reserved for girl's camp this year. ALL plans had to change—can you even imagine? 

This change put us in charge of all the meals for 150+ girls and leaders. I was asked by my friend Nick (AKA "chef") to be a part of a VERY small kitchen staff in a VERY small kitchen, room enough for 4, maybe 5 if the fifth stayed at the sink and washed dishes (Ahem, Adam.)

Serving in any capacity at girl's camp is crazy busy and HARD. But the best place to work 18 hours a day until complete exhaustion and slap-happiness (I kid you not) is in the camp kitchen with this crew. Sandra, Rebecca, Nick, and I got along REALLY WELL...and Adam too.  I can't imagine how awful it would have been if our personalities clashed. (I had just met Rebecca...she's super cool. Nick invited me to work in the kitchen because he figured we'd like each other. Good call Chef.)

Those girls ate well. Nick and Rebecca had planned an easy, yet delicious menu for them. NO chicken nuggets this year! Bleck.
Smoked pulled pork? Yes.
Soft tacos? Yes.
Waffles with strawberries? Yes.
Salad bar every day? Yes.
Separate meals for those with allergies? Yes.
Etc.

The plus side is that we had our own hidden stash of treats in the kitchen. Ice cream? Yes. Popsicles? Yes. Dr. Pepper? Yes. Sometimes we'd find a half-an-hour free, so we'd pull out our camp chairs and sit right in the middle of the kitchen, eat an ice cream and talk. I loved that.

We all hesitate to say we'd do it again. Especially Chef Nick. He did all the prep work ahead of time. It was TOO much. But then we also agreed we MIGHT do it again if two things were to change (and if we could be together again and Nick not do the prep.)

1. We need our own sleeping arrangements.
We ladies were put on the other side of a pocket door from some of the girls. When you have to get up at 4:30am to start prepping breakfast at 5:00, giggly girls arguing in the next room over who's going to have the most babies with "him" until 1:00 am in the morning isn't ideal.

2. The campers take care of their own desserts.
It was TORTURE to clean up after dinner,  AND THEN have to wait around to handle dessert. We couldn't leave the kitchen until around 10:30. Next time they can do their own s'mores.

I am grateful for caffeine. I am grateful for painkillers. My knees ACHED the first night and I hardly slept. On the day we left, the nerves in my neck/shoulders were totally pinched and both my thumbs kept going numb. It took 4 days to physically recover from camp.
Good times. Glad it's over. But I miss the comradery of a kitchen family.

4th July Pinewood Derby

Our ward decided to combine a 4th of July breakfast with a no-rules pinewood derby this year.

Can you guess what we decided to make?

A Money Wagon! This time instead of hiding the weight inside the car, I thought it would be fun to make it an obvious part of the design. I think it's funny. It raced well too.
During one heat, a "dad" held our car back while letting the other two cars go. Then he released ours and guess who won? Boom baby! It's all about the money honey.
Below: A few of the other cars: Green Slime, Cheese, and Black Night. I thought the flag was a nice touch for the holiday.

We always have fun racing at the no-rules derby. I like to see how people cheat on the build of their car. And you know what else? There's NEVER any crying. We randomly race (drawing names out of a bowl—we do about three rounds) and then open it up to challenges. When you can pick who you race...you can win EVERY time. The kids have THAT one figured out.

(For some reason, people have had a hard time wrapping their head around the no-rule, just for fun, concept. Some STILL don't attend because they don't like "competition" and all the bad feelings that ensue but we've had none of that the past three years.)

Below: Adam is MC again. Told you he's good at it.

This year some of the adults have FINALLY got the "no rules" part figured out and started putting weight on their cars. So, I think we came in at a solid third. Might have to work on aerodynamics next time. We've ignored that part thus far. Or we could figure out how to power it. Hmmm.

Later that night we went out for our usual Thursday night wings at Wingstop and then to a friend's house for swimming in the dark with glow sticks. Happy Independence Day America.

Friends with Boats

Last week Lee took us out on his newly acquired boat! I have to say, it hasn't felt a lot like summer to me, but a ride around the lake, fishing, and some float time with these dudes finally brought on the sunny time feels.

Found some lyrics by Keith Walker that put it right, "Crankin' up the good times, Soakin' up the sunshine...Life is good 'cuz we got friends with [a boat!]"

We're excited for these besties of ours! Good times ahead for them!

Now we're wondering what WE can bring to the friendship table....well, gas money for sure. LOL.

But you know what I mean. :)