May 2019 – Girl Who Would be KING on Life, Style and INSPIRATION.

Road Trip

I’ve been back to my Vancouver home for just over a week now and have been going through a temporary phase of running on empty. This has happened a couple times in my life where I feel the need to retreat and renew myself and just BE. Usually brought on by adapting to a situation…a shock to my system resulting from a minor injury, a loss or combination of these things. A need for readjustment. Nothing major. Just paying attention. I’m also in the process of renovating my outdoor living space. And a few other things.

So on that note I’m posting some recent pics. And I’ll be back before you know it.

Before Leaving Palm Springs it was getting too hot. We took the tram to cool off.

Finally made it to the top! Took the recently re-opened Tram with friend Tamara 8,000 ft. above sea level. It was a spectacular ride. Once there we walked around the trails for a couple of hours.

DESERT X® BRINGS THE FINEST INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS TO THE COACHELLA VALLEY TO CREATE ART, ENGAGE VIEWERS, AND FOCUS ATTENTION ON THE VALLEY’S ENVIRONMENT IN A MOST DRAMATIC and ENGAGING FASHION.

Sculptures by Karen & Tony Barone – a colourful couple we keep seeing at events around town. **http://baroneart.com/about-the-artists/ photo: d. king**

This sprawling outdoor art exhibition stretching over 50 miles is a MUST-SEE. Photo: Tamara Gauthier

HOLIDAY HOUSE, PALM SPRINGS

These are place settings taken at **Holiday House** Hotel for their *Fried Chicken Friday* family style dinner where reservations must be made weeks in advance. They thought it would be funny to seat a King next to a Goddess. Goddess was male by the way. It was a super fun evening. Photo; d. king

Before driving back to Vancouver we decided to take a detour to a resort in San Diego for two nights. Mostly to be near open water. We stayed facing Mission Bay and the beach was a five minute walk from there. It was a welcome place for the dogs to cool off.

We stayed at the Bahia Resort. This was just outside our room. The dogs were much happier here. Layla even took a dip. Photo: d. king

On the grounds of the Bahia Resort – Photo: d. king

The neighborhood leading out to the beach was quaint. Photo: d. king

Mission Beach, San Diego. Photo: d. king

The grounds of the hotel had the most gorgeous hibiscus. Photo: d. king

On the day we were leaving we went to La Jolla for lunch. We stopped at a local Mexican restaurant.

*There’s something fishy going on.* Photo: d. king

On the road in Redding, Ca. This is **Sundial Bridge**. Photo: Tamara Gauthier

I think the way Tamara took this photo is really cool. This was outside the UNO de 50 jewelry store on El Paseo in Palm Desert. I’m wearing the same locket (gift from the Le Chien fashion show) on my necklace as the door handle and you can see her reflection in the glass.

Food + Drink

Dressed Up – Asian Salad Dressing

This is a light, easy and flavorful salad dressing – perfect for Spring.

Toss with greens of your choice and chopped cabbage, Add carrot slivers, crunchy chow mein noodles, mandarin orange slices and diced chicken (optional).

Ingredients (amount shown is for two people):

3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar.
3 tablespoons soy sauce, pref. low-sodium.
1 tablespoon ginger, freshly grated.
¹⁄₂ teaspoon fresh minced garlic.
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil.
¹⁄₃ cup extra virgin olive or grape seed oil.
1 tablespoon sesame seeds, lightly toasted.
1 tablespoon scallion, chopped (green onions).

Assemble:

Mix first 5 ingredients in a bowl or food processor.
If using a bowl: SLOWLY drizzle in the sesame and olive, peanut or grapeseed oil, whisking constantly so that the dressing will emulsify.
If using a food processor, leave it running while you drizzle in the oil.
When dressing is well combined, add sesame seeds and scallions.
Serve immediately or refrigerate and use within a week.

Place ingredients in a jar and shake well. Some like to add a little sugar for added sweetness. I prefer not to although you can also add a bit of honey if you like.

ENJOY!

inspiration

Monday Mood: Written Inspiration

Joan Didion

Chance and choice converge to make us who we are, and although we may mistake chance for choice, our choices are the cobblestones, hard and uneven, that pave our destiny. They are ultimately all we can answer for and point to in the architecture of our character. Joan Didion captured this with searing lucidity in defining character as “the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life” and locating in that willingness the root of self-respect.

The dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others — who are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation, which, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett O’Hara, is something people with courage can do without.

Self-respect is something that our grandparents, whether or not they had it, knew all about. They had instilled in them, young, a certain discipline, the sense that one lives by doing things one does not particularly want to do, by putting fears and doubts to one side, by weighing immediate comforts against the possibility of larger, even intangible, comforts.

To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves – there lies the great, singular power of self-respect. – Joan Didion.

Souce: Brain Pickings.

Brain Pickings is a free Sunday digest of the week’s most interesting and inspiring articles across art, science, philosophy, creativity, books, and other strands of our search for truth, beauty, and meaning.

Full Article:

https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/05/21/joan-didion-on-self-respect/