Merry Christmas From Mark to Marc

The Mark Hopkins is a short bus ride on the No. 1 to my favorite shopping street - Fillmore.

The corner of Sacramento and Fillmore has always been a furniture store but was converted last year to a Marc by Marc Jacobs store. The display is exactly the same as the L.A. store with the swan-sleigh photo booth so I had my (free) photo taken and they gave me two prints to take home.


While waiting for my prints, I got the new Marc Jacobs makulit* bag ($19). Which came in handy when I went to the market to get some Serrano Ham and Manchego Cheese to bring to dinner with friends at SOMA that evening.

Merry Christmas Everyone!


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*Cecile Van Straten christened this graphic "makulit" which is a Tagalog (Filipino) word loosely translated to mean as "pushy" or "incessant".

A Room With A View

Finally! After all those years staying at the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental San Francisco, we get a room with a view. After all those years staying at the "butt" part of the hotel - we've got a view! And a larger bathroom. It's a Christmas Miracle!

Below: Check out Grace Cathedral where Courtney Cox and David Arquette got married. (Well, not today.) Believe it or not they have a Peet's Coffee in the basement by the gift shop where Neil gets his coffee every morning. I guess the congregation needs to stay awake through those sermons!

Below: The island in the background is Alcatraz.

Jean-Francois (the GM) was so kind to send some fruit and chocolates. BTW, not to sound ungrateful, the chocolates were awful and went straight to the trash (well, most of it).


This hotel was built in 1926 on the site of Mark Hopkins' mansion. I believe MH was a railroad magnate. The original mansion itself was destoyed in the famous 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

The bedroom and sitting area. Not too crazy about the window treatments:


The bathroom:


The amenities. They placed the shower cap, q-tips, shoe cloth and cotton in a neat little box. The sewing kit was on the desk drawer, go figure.


The laundry bag was a surprise. Not cheap plastic but something like Tyvek with a heavy rope drawcord and a flagtag! FANCY!


The lobby all decked out for the holidays:


Well, the old girl is showing some wear and tear here and there but it's still the Mark Hopkins and it's still Fabulous!

Stuff I Designed

The buckles and print I designed for Rock and Republic are now available at eLuxury and the R&R website.





All those years watching HSN & QVC finallly paid off. How else would I have learned about goldtone and guilloche, eh?




If you look closely at this print, some of the spots spell out the word "rock". GENIUS!!!


You could prolly still order these in time for New Year's Rockin' Eve!!!

Gunther Oooh La La!

I discovered this on YouTube and I'm hooked!

It's a retro 70's Eurotrashy dance pop happy sophomoric sexy funny sleazy conglomatoria!

Here's one just in time for Christmas:



www.gunthernet.com

The Cowboy Christmas Card

A select few of you may have already received my special edition christmas card in one of four festive colors (collect them all!). If you haven't received it yet - Spoiler!

(If it's January 2008 and you haven't received a Christmas card from me, uhmmm...........ooops!)

Well, what possessed me to come up with such a western inspired "Holiday card"?

A. An affair with a strapping cowboy? (It could happen!)
B. My Little Pony?
C. Stepping on horse manure?

No, no and maybe.

Earlier this year I acquired this li'l item from Miss BARBRA STREISAND'S estate:


(Yes! From Barbra herself! It's authenticated and everything!)

What is it exactly? It's actually a Jean Paul Gaultier sheer blouse (size 2 - aha! now I see why she got rid of it!). It's made out of netting with lace inserts depicting a cowboy on a horse with a gun and the word "BANG!". This is how the French interpret the American West. I personally would've gone with "strip mall with pick-up truck parked in front" vignette.

It appears to be pristine with some stray hairs from either Miss Streisand's pubes or her dog, Samantha. I intend to harvest these hairs someday and clone Barbra's armpit (or the dog's butt - who knows?)

So there you have it! A li'l bit of Barbra - and me! - delivered right into your mailbox.

Have a good, safe holiday!

A Chocolate Story

About a year ago, when I was working for a "premium" denim company (which shall remain nameless), I arrived at my workstation one morning in December to find a package of chocolates on my desk. A gift from a vendor, much like the one pictured above. More precisely, it was Costco's Kirkland brand of chocolates. Hey, I'm not a chocolate snob. If it has 1% chocolate, I'll eat it! Which is exactly what I did. Not only that, I cavalierly shared it with people around me. Mangia! Mangia! It's the Holidays!

After a few minutes of feeling good and making others feel good, and about half a box of chocolates later, someone approaches me and informs me that all gifts from vendors were to be forwarded to the CEO. WTF?!?!! Apparently, it was company policy to forward all gifts from vendors to the CEO with all sorts of fines and penalties including but not limited to public humiliation, maiming, torture and - gasp! - dismissal! (OK, so I exaggerate)

In a panic, I contact HR to inform them about the faux pas, reminding them that it was "half-eaten". The verdict? SEND IT DOWN ANYWAY. Once again - WTF?!?!!!

So, I took one last bite and sent it down. Come to think of it, I really should have sent down an empty box! I never saw my box of chocolates again. I can only imagine the box being re-gifted to some poor unsuspecting soul who discovers a box filled with empty paper doilies!!!

Anyway, my friends and yours truly have been making up for the indignity and injustice ever since.

I discovered this one in the Philippines which I am just crazy about. They are bite size sorta like bite size Kit Kats - BUT BETTER!


The one below, I discovered at the local grocery. I'm already familiar with the Ferrero Rochers (which is responsible for at least 6 inches of fat around my waist!). These are exactly like Rochers but made with dark dark dark chocolate. Deee-lish! I tried to sample it in the car on my way home, as you can see, again - no self control!!! The only thing is they sprinkled the outside of the chocolate with dark chocolate granules that fall allover the place which makes it a little bit messy to eat, but oh....so...worth...it!!!


Bon Appetit!