Tips for healthy eating


Eat a variety of food
- Eating a variety of food will help you to get the energy, protein, vitamins, minerals, and fiber you need for good health.

Choose a diet low in fat, saturated fat and cholesterol
- Diets that are low in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol may reduce your risk of heart attack and certain types of cancer. Fat contains more than twice the calories of an equal amount of carbohydrates or protein, so a diet low in fat can help you maintain a healthy weight.

Choose a diet with plenty of vegetables, fruits, and grains
- These foods provide the essential vitamins, minerals, fibe and complex carbohydrates. Since these are naturally low in fat, they can help lower your intake of fat.

Use sugars only in moderation
- A diet that is low in sodium can help reduce your risk of high blood pressure.

If you drink alcoholic beverages, do so in moderation
- Alcoholic beverages add calories, but provide little nutrition.

Anaheim, wine, hiking trails, bears, etc.

I was 97% sure I read somewhere that the Anaheim Founders Park -- which features the Victorian Wolke-Stoffle House, the Mother Colony House, and a huge fig tree -- celebrated its groundbreaking recently. But now I can't find that article for the life of me. Very annoying. However, I do have two verifiable bits of news from that park:
1) A trail through the park is now marked as the "O.K. Trail" in honor of of the delightful Opal Kissinger. Opal ran the History Room at Anaheim Public Library for many years, and has continued to be an active part of the historical community since her retirement. She's had a hand in a lot of good things in recent years, but her portrayals of historical figures like Helena Modjeska have been especially well-received.

2) The vines behind the Wolke-Stoffle (a.k.a. Red Cross) House are growing the same kind of grapes cultivated by the German vintners who founded Anaheim. Don Dobmeier of the Orange County Historical Society and Orange County Historical Commission has been tending them carefully. (He's in the photo at the top of today's post.) Now, with the help of the fledgling Anaheim Brewery, for the first time in a LONG time, there will be genuine Anaheim wine. Read more about it on the Anaheim Brewery's blog.

.Karin Klein of the L.A. Times has a new book out, entitled, 50 Hikes In Orange County. I haven't read it yet, (it only came out this week), but I know she researched the history of our local back country. As someone who enjoys going out and exploring historic sites on foot, I'm looking forward to seeing what she has to say.
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Karin also has an article about the late bear population in Orange County in today's Times.

Summer Catch Up!

Joshua Tree Music Festival

London and Matthew fly into Tucson, we hop in the car, and head to the California desert for a 3 day music festival in the town of Joshua Tree, CA located just outside of Joshua Tree National Park. We camped, we danced, we clapped, we sang, we met exciting people, heard amazing music and saw beautiful artwork. The whole festival was wonderful! It had really good energy, from the musicians, to the people, the vendors, the art work, the environment...good vibes all around :) There will be another one in the fall that I hope to attend.

Los Angeles

After the music festival London, Matthew and I drove out to Los Angeles. Unfortunately Matt had to fly back home to Syracuse, NY the next day, but London and I spent the next week in the city doing a bunch of photo shoots. The fist part of the week we stayed with a friend, another model, Samantha Grace. We were all excited we could walk to a Vietnamese restaurant from her place, "PhoSho". Jes, Matt and I really love us some Pho and were real excited about the name of this place. The Pho was bland and quite disappointing, but watching Matt & Jes try to flavor up their Pho with spice was very entertaining. They had so much hot sauce that tears were streaming down their face and they sniffling like crazy to avoid runny noses. High class dinner entertainment right there. It was hilarious! (In case you are wondering what Pho is...it is a delicious yummy rice noodle soup made of pure happiness. You should find a Vietnamese place near you and try some right now!)

The rest of the week was also full of pure entertainment! We got invited to a play "Absinthe Opium & Magic: 1920s Shanghai" put on by the theater group, the Grand Guignolers. Through the play we were taken on a luxury cruise to the most decadent city in the 1920s with Chinese geishas, brawling gangsters, opium dens, blood and magic. Most of the people in the audience were all dressed up in cocktail dresses and suits from the 20's. It was a lot of fun!

I also had some of the most fun & interesting shoots with London this trip...

We shot on the Queen Mary, a very old ship docked in Long Beach harbor that has been converted to a floating hotel. The photographer had an English accent and looked like a scruffy pirate. He was a lot of fun! He put us in vintage dresses and lingerie and shot us in one of the biggest suites on the ship. Everything was very old with lots of wood paneling and brass fixtures. The suite had two bedrooms, two bathrooms and lots of portholes I enjoyed hanging my head out of. Very high class back in the day. I felt like Rose from Titanic! But there was also this creepy ghost like feel, like I was actually on the Titanic or on the set of the next Shining movie. It was a super neat place, I could feel all the history surrounding me. While we were shooting London would look over at me every once in awhile, bend her finger a few times while saying "Redrum! Redrum!"

Working with Cinema Photography is always a pleasure. The photographer and wife team are fun to shoot the day away with. Super nice people and they always have a bunch of ideas to shoot they get real excited about. The studio is also part of the great experience. It is one of the nicest I've worked in and I would recommend it for anyone needing a shoot location in Long Beach. Smash Studio rents real cheap, starting at $20/hr, and you can also rent lights, backdrops and props, which they have plenty of to choose from. It is also always clean and well organized, which unfortunately, seems to be a rarity in this industry. The best part is the full bathroom and giant movie-star-like dressing room!

One of my favorite days was working all day with Wet n' Messy shooting pictures and video clips for messy fetish. London and I got dressed up, did our hair and makeup and then got all messy destroying all the beauty work just done. Then we would shower, blow dry the hair and start the process all over again...and again...and again. The 10hr day consisted of 6+ messy photo/video sets! There was also a nice lunch break and some fun hang out time too. It was a really great time! I'm real happy to say that at work, I got in a pie fit, had cake batter poured over my head, took a mud bath, got shot in the face with a whip cream splat gun and got to paint London's and my body with colorful paint. What else can I say...this job is crazy, but so much fun and I love it!

The top shoot of the week however, goes to Muki's Kitchen. The most interesting shoot and probably the most odd fetish I've experienced. It is a fantasy of cannibalism. Not real cannibalism...you don't actually eat women, it's just a fantasy. Hmmm...fantasizing about eating people....not sure how I feel about that, but what the heck , I said, let's shoot and see what it's all about. The main thing that pulled me into this shoot was a blog London had previously written called Beware of Butt Carrot. A fan posted a comment on her blog about wanting to see her with a carrot in her butt. Another blog reader thought this was hilarious and wrote a whole fictitious scenario about how could anyone want to see anything else but a carrot in London's butt. She made a blog entry out of it and a few months later, Muki's Kitchen was contacting her about shooting when she came to LA. I went on the trip with her to LA, so I got to be a part of this crazy shoot as well! I was dressed up like a pilgrim while I captured London, undressed her, laid her on a platter with her hands and legs tied, basted her with honey and garnished her with peppers at her side, an apple in her mouth, and oh yes...a carrot in her butt! (it wasn't actually in there though, we cut it and gently set it in her cheeks to make it look like it was up there). I then slid the London platter into a giant sized oven and let her cook! I must say it was the most ridiculous thing I had ever seen. I purely enjoyed being on my side of that shoot =)

A more common and familiar fetish to me is bondage. London and I got to shoot with Donsir for some shibari bondage and suspension. I really love shibari. The rope feels nice and becomes a part of me as it is wrapped around my body and tugged in tight. It feels as if the rope is a giant hug, holding me, filling me with a feeling of being safe and secure, protected. It's like a second skin. Being suspended in the beautiful rope adds more exhilaration and relaxation to the experience. It's really neat to experience both of those feelings at the same time. While suspended I feel as if in a body hammock, suspended in the air in my own open cocoon. I feel graceful up there and feel beautiful stretching out, posing for the camera. released, it feels as if I shed the second skin. As the rope comes off, my skin takes a fresh breath of air and tingles a bit in a refreshing way. Its an awesome feeling. Donsir is a great rigger and photographer. In addition to taking wonderful photographs, he took great care of us; great suspension work, made sure our limbs and body were always in good condition and that we felt good and were well hydrated. Trust and safety are very important when using rope and suspension ;)

Metal Matters


I was going to post this week about  the price of gold reaching $1300...again
but on the topic of metal this great post from Privilege is much more interesting 
A Master Craftsman's Secrets to Buying, Maintaining and Fixing Your Silver


Father Serra, Capistrano, OCPAC, Seal Beach, etc

On this day in 1776, after an aborted first attempt a year earlier, Father Junipero Serra received permission to establish Mission San Juan Capistrano. The statue of Serra shown above is over the entrance of to Mission San Buenaventura, in Ventura, California. Is it just me, or does this look like the work of the WPA?
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On this day in 1986, the Orange County Performing Arts Center formally opened with a peformance by the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
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Seal Beach will celebrate it's 95th birthday in October with a series of special events. Check out their Founders Day website for more information.
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The thread in the comments section of my Monday post is still going strong. Click over and read/contribute if you haven't already.

Hot Town Summer In The City

Yeah, it really was hot yesterday. Palm Springs or Las Vegas style hot. After one of the coolest summers on record we finally got the big heat. Officially it reached 113 degrees although this photo from the LA Times shows 121 degrees.
Obviously there were a couple of options for staying cool
And no this wasn't my option
(picture snagged from google, I only wish that this was me frolicking on the beach)
The other option was to dress in summer clothes and stay inside an air conditioned office,
which I happily did.
Here's the photo that I tried to post yesterday but my computer was having no part of it. (Ah... little does my hijacked virus ridden hard drive know, but it is being replaced by a newer, faster, and more powerful hard drive this coming weekend, my new trophy computer if you will)
But I digress.
Here is the estate jewelry that I wanted to show you.

I love this necklace because it is reversible, so in the photo I was wearing it on the reverse side with white enamel instead of the dressier sapphires.  This is a great piece because it can be worn with both casual and dressier styles. And, did I mention that it is Garrard.
And, a gold wire bracelet, a vintage classic from Gucci. 
I'm pretty sure that I had the exact same style bracelet made out of elephant hair when I was 11 years old and the epitome of all things cool, or so I thought. I like it better in 18K.
The weather has changed already. There are clouds from the ocean this morning and our dry burning heat is over.  We are expecting only 90 degrees today.


Keep cool out there

Estate Jewelry Look Of The Day or What To Wear When It Is 110 Degrees In The Shade

Yes, summer has arrived and it is way over 100 degrees. In fact I heard that it was 110 degrees in Malibu of all places earlier today!
Excellent for me, who loves the heat.  Not so excellent for a friend whose air conditioning has been off for 2 hours.  Luckily the air conditioner at the office is at the usual sub arctic temperatures and I'm dressed in my summer casual clothes.

Well...I was going to show you the Garrard dangle necklace and the Gucci gold wire bracelet that I was wearing...but blogger and/or my computer are giving me attitude.  Apparently no photo uploads from this computer.
No, I'm not annoyed...not really not at all.

"They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot."

I need your help. I'm trying to list some of the best Orange County historical sites that are now parking lots. The Mission Yard and Reservoir site (at El Camino Real and El Horno St.) in San Juan Capistrano is a good example. Used as a watering hole, a reservoir, and a staging site for construction for well over two centuries, it's now a paved parking lot for the library.
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Another example is the parking lot at 5th St. and Sycamore in Santa Ana (shown above). At this site, in 1869, town founder William H. Spurgeon climbed a Sycamore tree so he could see above the tall mustard and get an overview of the land he'd just purchased. A younger sycamore tree has been planted in one corner of the parking lot.
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So,... What significant historic sites in your community (or others you know about) have been turned, completely or partially, into parking lots? Please leave your thoughts by clicking the "comments" link at the bottom of this post.
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Once I have a longer list of sites, I have a fun idea for what to do with them all. Details will follow after I flesh out the list a bit. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.
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(Update: Even if you don't have anything to add to the list, be sure to read some of the discussion in the "Comments" section. What a great thread! Thanks, everyone! Keep those ideas coming!)

Rachida Dati or Another Reason To Love The French

Just trying to keep up with the shenanigans at the Elysee Palace is exhausting.
Thankfully, we now have the new tell all book about femme fatale first lady Carla Bruni.
According to "Carla and the Ambitious" by Michael Darman and Yves Derai, Rachida Dati, former Justice Minister, was also competing for President Sarkozy's attentions.
Miss Dati was fired from President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government last year because of her inability to do her job properly, and her frivolous nature.

She frequently appeared on the cover of magazines in designer dresses and stirred up speculation about the mystery father of her baby daughter to the extent that some still think it might be Mr Sarkozy himself.
Miss Dati was a love rival of Mr Sarkozy’s third wife, Carla Bruni, for many months as both battled for a place in the Elysee Palace bed chamber.
And now, according to this article in the Daily Mail
Glamorous French politician Rachida Dati has been forced to issue a public apology after confusing oral sex with inflation.
The 44-year-old former justice minister and MEP is frequently nicknamed ‘Rachida Barbie’ because of her poor understanding of complicated political issues.
But nobody expected her extraordinary mistake on the national Europe 1 radio station on Sunday.
Seriously, how do you apologize for something like this
say, 'ooops, my bad'?
Can you imagine Janet Napolitano, Kathleen Sibelius or Hilda Solis making a Freudian slip like this?
I think not.

Music - Axis of Awesome

Sunday morning, while I decide whether to go to the gym or go to the office before settling down with a book by the pool, I leave you these four chords to contemplate.




Around Town - Saturday Night Glow In Santa Monica

Well the fog off of the ocean has disappeared and summer it seems has finally arrived in Los Angeles with clear blue skies, hot sunny days and warm evenings.
Last night was the perfect temperature for Glow and a walk on the Santa Monica beach.
What is glow, you ask?
Glow is an all-night cultural experience featuring original commissions by artists that re-imagine Santa Monica Beach as a playground for thoughtful and participatory temporary artworks.
Glow is a production of the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Foundation. 
Having not seen Glow before I was expecting something like this
Well the crowds on the beach scenario was about right, but sadly the the temporary art wasn't exactly this interesting.
Instead, I saw this
Which was a film of a pitbull training class, filmed from the dog's eye view, projected on a wall.  So unimpressive that I didn't even bother to take a photograph.
I admit that I was way too unsophisticated to appreciate the artistic relevance of this and the other art installations that I saw at Glow. 
But there was a huge crowd on the pier and on the boardwalk with everything from young hipsters to street people mixing it up.  And other than the crowds of people that make me bristle, I was happy to enjoy a warm evening stroll and a stop at the bar at the Casa Del Mar for a margarita and a plate of sashimi (channelling the warm nights from my trip to Cabo San Lucas a month ago)
and from the quiet of my table an amazing view of the pier and the rather hypnotizing light show on the ferris wheel.
Note:  Even though Glow was a late night event from 7:00pm-3:00am, Santa Monica restaurants were on their usual time schedule with the kitchens closing at 10:00pm. I would have thought that they would have stayed open until at least 10:30pm (yes Fig and Fraiche, I'm talking about you)  to accommodate the people who had been at Glow.

Lara Stone In Vogue - The Naughty and The Nice

The lovely Lara Stone seems to be everywhere these days and she is most definitely the current darling of Vogue. Christina at Fashion's Most Wanted posted this oh la la image of Lara by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott for the cover of French Vogue for the 90th anniversary issue. This sexy strong image doesn't actually scream fashion to me, but what do I know, I'm not French.
I'm guessing that you might not go for the full on 'Eyes Wide Shut' (a la Dash) style topless, lace masked look, but the cameo choker is doable, non?
Just buy a wide black velvet ribbon and add this.
 


American Vogue leaving the naughty to the French, because they do it so well, instead gave us the nice, with Lara as the girl next door in an editorial also photographed by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.
Well coiffed and cashmere covered, we get the good girl ingenue complete with a diamond cross from Tiffany & Co. Perhaps the full on 1950's style Nina Ricci sweater and skirt are too much coverage for you, consider instead the diamond cross because it is a classic.
Of course you could go to Tiffany's and buy it for $8750 with the in store experience and the little blue box. Or you could skip the hassle of going to the store because Beladora has the same diamond cross for you for $3500 less than the Tiffany store price.

et voila

What's Up With Blogger?

And why can't I upload my images?

discovery of the year

Like an average girl, I'm also fond of clothes, shoes, bags, and watches. I discover something really wonderful. It is so amazing that I get to find some pieces I like all in one site. Absolutely Amazing! Which to my surprise it is not just a fashion site where you get tips on your day to day wardrobe, you can even make your own style note. I like the idea that they allow people to post their own collection or even sell it on their site. Nice! I can make my own style note. whee! Awesome!

I grab a style note and I like this a lot! Not because it  is yellow but because it is CUTE. =)

Prada Spring 2011 - Sending Out The Stripes

Photo from The Sartorialist

Is there anyone besides me who is totally confused by this collection.
I like color and I like stripes but this Prada Spring 2011 collection is just all over the place.
Would you buy these clothes?

The Social Network



One of these days I'll get around to posting my true facebook stories such as

Facebook and Dating - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
How My Stepson Invented Facebook But Didn't Become a Billionaire
and
Friending the Totally Wrong Person...For A Year

yes, one of these days

Oh and btw, you can become a fan of Beladora on facebook

Fueling Your Private Jet With Pure Hypocrisy



I've always admired Bono and his many years of work to help Africa
so it disappoints me to read this
Bono’s charity, ONE, is the poster child for feel-good limousine liberal activism.  In 2008, they took in $14 million in donations, and disbursed a mere $184,000 (or 1%) to charities.  A whopping $8 million (or 57%) of those donations went to executive and employee salaries.  Meanwhile, ONE spends a bunch of cash sending expensive schwag to New York newsrooms to make them help convince the government to cough up $6 billion of taxpayer cash to fight AIDS and tuberculosis in Africa.

Somehow this doesn't surprise me after reading this Bono and his wife Ali, who created Edun to help develop industry in Africa, moved their manufacturing to China.

And of course
Bono and U2 lobbied the Irish government to send more taxpayer money to feed starving children in Africa. Then U2 moved their publishing business from Ireland to Holland to reduce their taxes.

Somehow this nicely shot photo of Bono and Ali for Louis Vuitton just isn't effective for me 
I still like the song though, especially this version with Mary J. Blige

Have A Great Fall

Stuntmen Gary Salisbury and John Casino dramatize the beginning of fall in this photo from Knott's Berry Farm taken in the 1970s.
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The Wagon Camp opened in Knott's Ghost Town in 1949. It served as a venue for live performances of Western and folk music until 1974, when the stage was altered for the new Wild West Stunt Show. A version of the show is still popular today.
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In 1980, Universal Studios Hollywood opened the Wild Wild Wild West Stunt Show -- which may or may not have actually been three times as wild as the Knott's version.
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(And yes, today is the first day of Fall.)

Around Town - Francis Fukuyama and the Freeman Spogli Institute

It has been another busy week with lots of stuff going on at Beladora HQ.
Fortunately this week, I had the opportunity to step out of the internet and into the academic with a reception for political scientist, political philosopher, global security specialist, professor, author and all around super smart guy Francis Fukuyama, who is now the Nomellini senior fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Relations at Stanford.

The event was held at a private residence in Brentwood and hosted by FSI founders and LA private equity tycoons, Brad Freeman and his business partner (and former US Ambassador to Italy), Ron Spogli.
How a little jewelry girl like me got invited to a well heeled event is a convoluted story, but let's just say that I was very happy to attend because I am a huge fan of Francis Fukuyama.

Fukuyama is now focusing on the subject of development and approaching the issues involved from an interdisciplinary approach.  In his brief talk, he emphasized that governments and international institutions  can't just deal with  developing nations on economic or political terms.  Both must be in place to be effective for the long term.  If massive amounts of capital are loaned to or invested in a developing country without solid institutions and the rule of law, vast kleptocracy, corruption and cronyism will be the (cough Afghanistan cough) result.

All of this seems obvious doesn't it.
I'd like to see the big brains at the FSI shift their focus from the global to the local, because the State of California is shifting from a 1st World nation to 2nd World status.
With our local banana republic, also known as the City of Bell, we've got our own kleptocracy, corruption and cronyism right here at home.
I could go on and on about all the things that ail our State
but for your sake I won't.