Monday, July 4, 2011

Happy Fireworks Day!

Your Mama, at the beach in the bosom of family and friends, plans to drink gin and tonics from noon until midnight, eat a pile of strawberries and too much cake, and fit our long-bodied bitches Linda and Beverly with ear plugs so the booming fireworks don't cause them to have a damn heart attack.

That means we will not discuss celebrity real estate today. Sorry puppies.

Be sure to sign up for Real Estalker updates on the Twitter (@YourMamaTweets) and/or Facebook.

image: Christmas Stock Images

Sunday, July 3, 2011

NIKITA WILLY SUPERSTAR 17 BIRTHDAY MAKEUP BY ALDO AKIRA MAKEUP ARTIST

Hello Makeup Lover!

..it's My Makeup & Hairdo for NIKITA WILLY SUPERSTAR 17 Birthday Party in
Rolling Stone Cafe Indonesia..

Now THAT is an arts group meeting!


We met at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art for the landmark Monet show, had lunch at Rozzelle Court, got to see our buddies, rode on a shuttle, walked our little legs off...


And yes, this one IS on two different colors of paper in my journal.  Who cares??  I did the ink drawing on the spot...that's Joseph on the right side of the painting--and added colored pencil, watercolor, and bits of collage later.  That's Monet himself, shortly before his death in 1926...the year he finished the giant, luminous triptych.  (He worked on it for 11 years; one panel is owned by the Nelson, one by the St. Louis Art Museum, and one by Cleveland Museum of Art, but they're together again for this show!



Lunch at the ancient Rozzelle Court at the gallery was delightful as always...who can resist sketching there. surrounded by sun and antiquity?

Afterward, we has dessert--back at Rozzelle, of course!--and then I sketched Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's giant--and once controversial--shuttlecocks.

This gives you some idea of the scale...that's a VERY tall water tower beside it, KC Art Institute buildings across the street, and skyscrapers on Main Street beyond the trees.

Finally, worn out, I sat and sketched Tom's Cubicle...hey, don't ask ME why Calder named it that!

  This is definitely what I call an arts group meeting...no agenda, no business, just a great time with friends!

ATC's from Australia



We received an envelope full of the most beautiful artist trading cards from Anna Pietrolungo and her students on Essendon North Primary School, Australia. The envelope came just in time, because my 6th graders will leave our school this week.

Thanks a lot Anna, for these beautiful cards. My students were very excited and will get one of these cards on their last day of school.

Friday, July 1, 2011

July 2011: Organizing

July 2011: Organizing by apple-pine
July 2011: Organizing, a photo by apple-pine on Flickr.

I find it very interesting to look at your work at large and for that Flickr has some great tools! For example: I am reorganizing all my images and see that I am drawing some unexpected things much more than I thought :)

And I used to carry much less in my bad... Here is a link to my "Process and Tools" folder :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23173190@N07/sets/72157606244662915/

Friday Mish-Mash: Are the Seinfelds Moving on Over to the East Side?

Few modern day celebs are more identified with New York City's Upper West Side than comedian Jerry Seinfeld. On his long-running, financially fruitful and eponymous 1990s sit-com Seinfeld, his "character" Jerry Seinfeld lived in a fairly ordinary one-bedroom apartment on the Upper West Side.

In real life, Mister Seinfeld also lives in on the Upper West Side, albeit in a far larger apartment in one of the neighborhood's most desirable and delicious apartment buildings. Mister Seinfeld, his wife Jessica and their three youngins currently occupy a high-floor duplex apartment at the hulking, tri-towered Beresford building on the corner of Central Park West and West 81st Street. The Seinfeld's pad formerly belonged to virtuoso violinist Isaac Stern. He also owns a townhouse-type property around the corner from his apartment where he houses (part of) his fleet of Porsches.

Other high-profile residents residents of the mighty Beresford include editrix extraordinaire Helen Gurley Brown who lives in a fab 4-floor penthouse in one of the towers, the dee-voon Diana Ross, mustachioed investigative journalist John Stossel and volatile tennis champ John McEnroe who also lives in a 4-floor tower penthouse. Sublime actress Glenn Close sold her two-terrace pad at the Beresford in August 2010 for $10,200,000.

The Seinfelds–despite their Upper West Side quintessence–appear to have come down with the Itchy Real Estate Foot Syndrome that has created a need for them to peep large and lavish townhomes on the–scandal!–Upper East Side. That's right, kids, it looks like the Seinfelds just might want to jump ship move on over to the Upper East Side.
The comedian and the cook book writer reportedly had a look see at music industry titan Lyor Cohen's spectacular townhouse on East 94th Street, listed last year for $28,000,000 and now priced at $26,000,000.

Listing information states the 25-foot wide house (floor plan above) has a fully restored Cass Gilbert-designed limestone façade, private single-car garage with direct entry, 6 fireplaces and an elevator that services all six floors plus the basement.

There are, by our count, 5 bedroom suites each with private facilities plus a sixth suite–labeled as 'gym' on the floor plan–with private bath and sauna. Three additional powder poopers are conveniently located throughout the lower levels; one off the circular gallery on the ground floor, another off the stair landing on the parlor level and a final one hidden in a bank of closets in the third floor family room.

We'd like to take special note of the ground level eat-in kitchen that opens to a rear garden and includes a walk-in pantry. A dumb waiter opposite the pantry lifts din-din to a butler's pantry one floor above that adjoins the oval formal dining room. That, children, is how it's done right proper by a smart architect.

The sixth floor, given over entirely to the master suite, is generously scaled but features a layout that will surely offend some folks' fine sensibilities and sense of decorum. A semi-public hall–the stair and elevator landing–links the various areas. At one end a door opens into a hall flanked by a pair of large walk-in closets leads to a large bedroom with fireplace. At the other end a small study with built-in cabinetry opens to a private terrace perfect for a pre-coital doobie or a post-coital cigarette. In between the two rooms the bathroom is split into two parts: On one side of the hall a pooper and sink and other the other a long counter with two sinks and a party-sized walk-in shower space. That means, puppies, a pre-shower pee requires a naked dart across the hall to the terlit and another naked dart back to the shower. Not everyone who can afford a 20-plus million dollar townhouse will care to dart around their bedroom like that.
The New York property gossips also snitched this week that the couple toured a six-floor townhouse with elegant limestone façade on East 73rd Street currently listed with a $23,000,000 price tag. The fully renovated five bedroom and 5 full and 2 half bathroom house (floor plan above) has 5 fireplaces, elevator, a full-height basement level outfitted with laundry room and gym, a small garden off the ground floor kitchen for barbecues, a terrace off a fifth floor bedroom and a planted roof terrace. The house is equipped with state-of-the art everything including a water purification system and central stereo system.

We know which one we'd choose. What about the children? Which one make a better house for Mister Seinfeld's family of five?

When not in New York City, the Seinfelds own a 12-acre ocean front estate on fancy-pants Further Lane in East Hampton, NY that he bought from Billy Joel in 2000 for about $32,000,000. The Seinfeld estate includes a sprawling shingled mansion with broad ocean-side terraces, a lap-length swimming pool with adjacent cabana, a private path the water's edge, a football field-sized front lawn and, instead of a de rigueur tennis court, the Seinfelds famously installed a baseball diamond at the front of the property near the entrance gates. A detached residence near the baseball diamond–presumably for staff and/or guests–has it's own swimming pool.

floor plans: Sotheby's International Realty

Friday Mish-Mash: Sean Combs Lists Jersey Mansion

Music and entertainment mogul Sean Combs–or P. Fiddle or Daddy Diddle or Puffy Poppa or whatever damn name he calls himself nowdays–heaved his big ol' mansion in supah-swank Alpine, NJ on the market with an asking price of $13,500,000.

Mister Daddy Puff purchased the 3.25 acre estate in the celebrity friendly 'hood in July 2004 for, according to prop records, $6,000,000. Listing information for the approximately 17,000 square foot red brick center hall Colonial shows it contains 26 rooms total with 7 bedrooms and 9.5 bathrooms.

Celebrity-style amenities include a swimming pool with waterfall, spa, tennis court, fitness room, movie theater, garaging for at least 6 cars, and an indoor squash court.

New Jersey gets a bad rap–can you say Real Housewives of New Jersey and Jersey Shore?–but the tiny enclave of Alpine consistently ranks among the top most expensive zip codes in the country. Some of the other past and present residents of Alpine include The Jonas Brothers, comedians Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock, and lady rapper/plastic surgery aficionado 'Lil Kim.

aerial photo: Bing