Sometimes the stars align and it is possible to do everything you want to do!
The four of us ladies had planned on attending the Christmas Gift Show in downtown LA. It so happened that one of our Gr8 Friends, was doing a book signing in West Hollywood that same evening. The weekend automatically turned into a fun field trip!
We started the day at the LA Convention Center buying everything from cashmere to kitchen gadgets to fill in some of the blanks on our Christmas shopping lists (and to spoil ourselves!). Our Gift Show days are always a lot of fun, we start with coffee, walk our legs off, play with jewelry, wonder at the creativity of artists, lose each other in the aisles of merchandise and then find each other again!
Normally we have dinner and drive home. On this Friday, however, we had other plans for our LA Day! We checked into the beautiful W Hollywood.
Debbie's sweet daughter, Bela (who lives in NYC), had a bottle of our favorite champagne sent to our room.
Thank you, Bela!
Then I gave each lady a party favor. The idea of the bag started with earplugs. According to these ladies, I snore, (though Vince says I don't) so it seemed appropriate for me to provide the means by which they could each get a good night's sleep. And to make it more fun, I added some other "essentials".
The cute make-up bags came from a sidewalk sale...$1 each!!! We all love a good bargain. One of our Gr8 hints is to designate a box somewhere in your home where you can put items that are a steal so you have them when needed. (It's always fun to give a gift that didn't cost full price!)
After we freshened up, out to dinner we went. The restaurant was recommended by my daughter, Alex. She said we would love the vibe of Cecconi's in West Hollywood, oh how our kids know us so well!
The restaurant has a beautiful, vintage-y bar
and the food was delicious!
After dinner we headed over to Book Soup for the book signing of our Gr8 Friend, Brenda Perlin's book L.A. Punk Rocker. It was wonderful to see her and support her literary career.
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And how fun was it to visit a brick and mortar bookstore! There are so few left.
We ended the delightfully full day with a drink in the lobby bar of the W Hollywood and then settled in for the night.
You know you are good friends when four ladies can share one hotel room and one bathroom! While we each took turns showering there was coffee to enjoy.
We aren't all play and no work...we had breakfast at Delphine (the restaurant in the hotel) and managed to fit in a blog meeting.
It was a Gr8, productive ending to a fabulously fun weekend...and it was only Saturday morning!
Anna
Have you tried Cecconi's? It's a beautiful restaurant.
Anna
We had so much fun with you, Brenda! You are a Gr8 Friend and we appreciate you!
Claudia Kerns
This looks like great fun! The food looks amazing, especially the octopus. Yummy!!
Brenda Perlin
Great post! Thank you girls for joining me at Book Soup. It was a blast to have you lovelies there. I agree, how fun it was it to visit a brick and mortar bookstore! So true. Glad you made a nice weekend of it. You are a terrific group of gals and I love what you are doing. Sharing the love ~ always.