Beauty Tips

Can you imagine a world where Audrey Hepburn is not the definition of all that is lovely...

inside and out?

Time Tested Beauty Tips

A poem by by Sam Levenson

(A favourite peom of Audrey Hepburn.)

For attractive lips,speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge you'll never walk alone...

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed and redeemed ...

Never throw out anybody.

Remember, if you ever need a helping hand,

you'll find one at the end of your arm.

As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands.

One for helping yourself, the other for helping others".

She said about herself in a 1959 interview, "you can even say that I hated myself at certain periods. I was too fat, or maybe too tall, or maybe just plain too ugly... you can say my definiteness stems from underlying feelings of insecurity and inferiority. I couldn't conquer these feelings by acting indecisive. I found the only way to get the better of them was by adopting a forceful, concentrated drive."

Domino's Gardens, Oscar de la Renta's style

Domino magazine has given us exquisite photos of a vast range of interiors. I love them all! Domino also dedicated a portion of every magazine to the outside of our homes, as well. Being a lover of gardens and gardening, I always started with that part of the magazine first every month. Below is one of my favorite gardening articles. Again, Domino showed us we can do it on a grand scale or on a smaller scale. They told us every month, "Yes you can!"

Oscar del la Renta's potager garden is magnificent.

Domino September 2008, photos by Richard Felber

This is kitchen gardening at it's finest. This layout requires some space but kick it down a few notches and it can be tucked into a very small space. Take it down a few more notches and plant different elements of the design in pots. Yes, vegetables can do very well in a potted garden. Below is the article as seen in Domino. The illustrations are done by James Noel Smith. Enjoy!

THE POTAGER GARDEN

Inspired by fashion legend Oscar de la Renta's garden, this design can turn even a suburban backyard into a potager (loosely translated as "a garden to make a pot of soup"). Gravel paths divide four rectangular beds, anchored by a central terra-cotta oil jar. Each bed is about 6' wide and 8' long, so you can reach in for weeding or harvesting without having to step much into the tilled soil (vegetables don't like compacted earth).

The Berry Patch

harvest smart Think about how and when you will be picking each crop before you plant. Strawberries ripen daily (and grow low to the ground), so it's important they be reachable from the path.
guilt-free snipping Cutting flowers, like these assorted dahlias, are traditionally grown in rows like vegetables. That way, you don't feel like you are spoiling a garden composition every time you gather some.
decorative herbs A row of flowering herbs like lavender provides fragrant ornamentation and can be harvested late in the season to dry for the house.

Highs And Lows

add some height Towering plants like these 'Russian Giant' sunflowers create a living fence. The rows of flowers will make an attractive see-through screen.
keep things tidy Even small plants like onions should be cultivated in strict, evenly spaced rows. They'll always look better. Use a 6' wooden stick marked every 6" to 12" as a supersize ruler to help space your seedlings.

Herb is the Word

useful herbs Mix up this area with mass plantings of several kinds of herbs. Some annual types such as basil and cilantro will go to seed quickly in hot weather, so include perennials like rosemary, sage and thyme.
themes and variations Formally designed beds can be symmetrical without being mirror images. Contrast the yellow 'Russian Giant' sunflowers at upper left with a row of dark-brown 'Velvet Queen' sunflowers here.

Morning Glories Meet Garlic

all-season structure Nonbotanical elements like obelisks have an appealing formality and give composition to the beds early in the season, when seedlings are small.
not just mixed greens Introduce extra color by planting varieties with unusual-hued leaves like dark 'Red Sails' or frilly 'Lolla Rossa' lettuce.

Click on "I Love Domino Style" on the right to see more links to other bloggers who love Domino magazine.

Thank you, Domino magazine for all you have already given us. Now, please figure out how to keep it coming.

Fridays with The New Yorker

With the all talk about SAVING DOMINO! I didn't get my weekly Fridays with The New Yorker posted on Friday so I bring to you a few more of my favority covers just a bit late. Enjoy!

Domino, kitchens I'd love to cook in and Polaroid!

Yes, all of those thoughts can go together. See?

I love to cook and will pretty much cook for anyone willing to sit still long enough for me to feed them. I have a tiny little kitchen but I love it. It's packed full of all my favorite cooking gadgets, great herbs that create lovely flavors, favorite dishes and my Wolfgang Puck pots and pans. What I love most is when something is cooking in there and filling the rest of my place with the delicious smell of love. That is really what the smell of wonderful food translate to me. Someone cared enough to take the time to cook. It's such a wonderful simple show of kindness. So...here are some kitchens I sure would love to cook in or live in or read Domino with a cup of coffee in!

This green kitchen looks so calm and serene. I bet nothing burns in there. It's all so zen!
I never think great food can come out of a pink kitchen but I think this little one might prove that theory wrong. I love open kitchen shelves.
I just love a pan rack and this one is fab in red!
What a great and simple way to personalize your kitchen and it can be created so inexpensively! If you're into Polaroid pictures and don't have film for your camera any more, I have some great news! A very rich European has decided to start making the film again! Oh yeah! In the meantime while we are waiting for it to reappear (yes, great things can be brought back), here is some software you can download to make Polaroids out of the pictures you already have. It's all very easy and very fun! Go here and get your Poladroid!
This kitchen reminds me of the 1950's and the magazine ads from that era.
Black and white...it works in every room!
I used to live in a house with an old stove like that. Oh, I do miss it and would have another in a heartbeat.
And what's not to say about a farm sink? Love it!
This kitchen is just...real. Open up a few cabinets for a whole new look.

There should be a rule that every kitchen will have a chandelier!

Where do I start with this one? It's all done exquisitely right. This could be my one room house

The turquoise and the chandelier put this one on the la la lovely list of daydream kitchens!

Most of these images are from Domino magazine. A few I have collected from all over so, if one of these images is yours, I apologize for not acknowledging you. Just leave me a comment and let me know and I will make a change.

Remember to visit savedomino.blogspot.com to sign the Save Domino petition and to register your thoughts and comments about the closing of Domino website. Click on the button on the right to go directly there.

Save Domino has gone blogspot!

Hi there:

There is now a blog dedicated to saving Domino magazine: savedomino.blogspot.com. Click on the button on the right and you will be directed there. You can vote, find out how to help or just leave a comment on this new site. It's great to finally have a localized place to do what we need to do. Now, go do it!

Domino's Poll

I have taken my poll down because we have a central blog we can all access now. You can find it here. So, go there! Now!

Hi there!

Thank you for all your interest in saving Domino magazine. Please feel free to register your thoughts on the poll to the right on my sidebar. If you would like to post the poll on your own blog, please feel free to use this one

If you post a the poll, please remember to send your poll results back here or to Claudia at theparisapartment.wordpress.com

Eveything we can do matters! Thank you in advance!

United we can win

I have composed this letter to Conde Nast. You can use it or create your own. I am not going to let this go down without a fight. If we, as bloggers unite, they will see there is money in numbers. I have sent this to the New York Times and will send it other news places as well.

You can e-mail Cande Naste at :http://www.condenaststore.com/SupportHome.aspx

I am working on getting a more direct e-mail address for Conde Nast.

Or send your letters to:

Corporate Communications

The Condé Nast Publications

4 Times Square

New York, NY

10036212-286-2860

Lets flood their inbox and post box with our requests!

To Whom It May Conern:
I am heartbroken that you have chosen to stop the publication of Domino magazine. I am one of many of your readers on line and in the subscription world who feel that way. We all know and feel the results of an economy that has taken a drastic downward turn. We understand the position it puts you in with your advertisers. I would like to tell you a different story., one many of your readers will agree is their story, too. It is the story of how Domino made a real difference in the lives of real people not only in the Untied States but across many continents. If you don't believe me, enter Domino's name into any search engine of any blog host and you will see what I am talking about. You will see our tributes to your lovely glossy.

What Domino has done and should continue to do is to tell and show regular people, who make up the majority of our country and the world, how to make their lives beautiful and esthetically pleasing without breaking their bank. It is pages of the attainable. It is pages of escape in a world where escapism is highly in demand. I personally have never known anyone who turned to the pages of your Vogue magazine to figure out what to wear to their next party. We can't afford that dress. We can't afford that lovely watch with all the diamonds you advertise. We read Vogue to see how the other half lives. Today, we don't really care how they live. We don't have that kind of time or daydreaming energy. We are trying to keep it all together. That being said, it doesn't mean we don't have disposable dollars to decorate our lives with. In hard economical times women will always find a way to stretch the budget to afford the latest shade of lipstick, a new pair of shoes and to decorate. We find treasures in alleys. We find treasures at flea markets and garage sales. We find treasures where ever we are. Domino showed us what we could do with them. Domino showed us what to look for when we were out on the hunt. Domino showed us that no matter how much money we had or didn't have we could still live with beauty around us. It is hard for me to believe that a magazine that showed us how to save money would fold at a time we all -really- need to know how to save money and where the best design deals are.

I know you have laid of much of your staff. I know you won't print the magazine again. What you do have is a fabulous website that could become a money making venture for you. You didn't charge enough for your magazine. What you don't understand is that we would have paid more for it. You forgot to ask or didn't believe enough in Domino it to ask us to do that. You have at least 800,000 subscribers. Don't let that source of income go. Make your website a monthly or annual subscription site and we will all show up! Your overhead would be almost nonexistent. You have the IT people in place and if you charge us $4.99 per month you have an annual operating budget of $47,904,000. You could even charge more and we will pay if you continue to deliver the quality we have come to know, love and cherish. Your advertisers would no longer have to off set the cost of publishing.

I am really struggling with what your reasoning could be to keep magazines in circulation that truly do not represent where the majority of us are or will be anytime in the near future. I realize that there is a small majority that can afford what those magazines have to offer but I will venture to guess that the longer we feel the ever tightening strangle hold of an economy out of control, even those who have the ability to attain what those magazines have to offer will not be exercising their buying power and your advertisers will pull back.

Domino is still a viable entity and can continue to provide a revenue stream for Conde Nast. Please don't forget who you created the magazine for. We are telling you we will still pay for what you have to offer if you will continue to give us what we want through your website. Please tell me what you need to see from your online community that will convince you this is a a worthy idea.

Sincerely