Yes, i’ve been a bit quiet the last few days ~ and the last week or so i’ve been flickering in and out of posting spurts ~ but as i’m sure you know by now, the foodie stuff has been eating into my mental and posting energy, and learning about legal quickly and making business decisions - and pretty much catching up on what everyone else seems to have learned in mba/jd programs, has been a bit exhausting! But today ended up being a perfect complete break from that. In this socal heatwave, we stuck to the beach, cruising further up the coast through Malibu up to Point Dume, where we found ourselves with about 100 others to celebrate the big birthday of the incredible Rose Apodaca at the houses of Fred and Betty Hayman (of Giorgio Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive legend) which are at the point of Point Dume, and the two houses overlook one of the most spectacular views in all of LA. On such a gorgeous day ~ we were able to get my favorite joy ride up PCH, run around with friends old and new - sharing in a wonderful (and impressively large) pan of paella - sitting out on blankets on the grassy lawn - wandering down to the beach to run around in the surprisingly warm waters - finding starfish/crabs/anemones and other critters - and really it always just came back to that view - staring out so far along the coastline and out at the horizon…

Anyhow, the break, the location, and catching up with people i was long overdue to see - was apparently JUST what i needed to snap out of the stressed funk i was finding myself in, and on the drive back i think i’m finally getting a better sense of where we’re going with NOTCOT, and ultimately, learning to think about that “business” stuff a bit better! SO, just for a fun 5:30am (sunrise is GORGEOUS today!) post ~ here’s a peek at the views and scene that were Saturday.

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Hey everyone, sorry i got quiet ~ legal messes aren’t quite my specialty. And how odd that doing a roundup of the popular stuff from the last week is filled with Crying Men portraits, girls getting things “dumped” on them, crazy futuristic architecture, ikea’s pop up apt in a box, and i LOVE those spacey looking images of bubbles and real images of space! It’s been an odd week, but almost through it ~ so apologies for slowing down here… but i have lots of fun stuff to post coming up, just a few more things to take care of! So please feel free to click through any of these pics to find out more, and check out .org and NotCouture for more inspiration… also feel free to take a sneak peek at my unlaunched new project where i’m drowning my sorrows at the moment.

With all this traveling the last month, it’s been far too long since i’ve done a roundup, so here’s an intense little brick of 100 of the top NOTCOT.org posts in the last 2 weeks! Also 100 of the tops of TasteSpotting and NotCouture on the next page as well! So check them out to see what’s new, what you might have missed, and as always - you can always submit your own finds to share by clicking the “add next pic” icons in the top left corners! Click the tiny pics to find out more!

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*Phew* ~ i’ve been running around since May 15th, and finally got back home, and as fun as the trip which ended up taking me through 9 states… it sure feels nice to be back. Been a long day driving up from charlottesville to DC then flying back to LA, unpacking, feeding myself, and trying to make sense of the slew of emails… yay for virgin america though, it is far to fun to watch loads of current tv, cartoon network, and Ocean’s 12 on the way back - hope you don’t mind if i call it a night and try to get back on track tomorrow… it’s going to be a busy week with events popping up to fill this whole week already!

This is a quick pic out the window as we started descending into LA ~ the mountains looked awesome at sunset.

So, the rumors are true. NOTCOT has gone where no tech addict chooses to go… there is NO CELL RECEPTION and NO INTERNET. *gasp*. After much mocking about how i “probably can’t remember the last time i’ve been off the grid” (and no, i can’t remember)… today we semi-spontaneously checked out early from NYC, grabbed a rental car (4WD black 2007 rav4), and cruised up to Peacham, Vermont… to a log cabin dan’s parents built back in the 70s, and no one has really lived there since (brief visits, but little more than that) - can you see it peeking out from between all the trees?

It’s adorable, the surroundings breath-taking - who wouldn’t be in love with that lush greenery and fast moving fish filled creek all around after the urban concrete/smells/sounds of NYC? The cabin is going to take a bit of work though, and after so much tech-tethered work, i guess a little manual labor and communing with nature can’t be all bad. So if i get a bit quiet this week, you’ll know where i disappeared to, and if i’m quiet longer than that… well, send a search party?

As for how i’m posting this? Well we’ve got to get the water running again, sort out some new furniture/matresses/etc, and hook up a phoneline (and yes, high speed dsl is on its way)… so, thanks to the kindness of friends, i’m getting a warm bed and my internet fix for the day. Few more sneak peeks on the next page - probably loads more to come as i wander and take more pics the next few days!

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I couldn’t help sharing… so i’ve spent the whole day in my room in a sea of press kits on my bed… trying to sort through all my notes and photos, trying to catch up… then i wandered into the bathroom, and the view out the window took my breath away. Silly ipod ad matching the sunset is a bit annoying though… but how gorgeous out is it? Click the pic for the full sized image… unphotoshopped, because i was too lazy (and saving photoshopping energy for the rest of the posts!)

p.s. just added a few more as it got more dramatic on the next page…

p.p.s just added some dark shots! One here (click to view larger) and one more on the next page… SO nice out!

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Click the images to find out more! HAPPY MOTHER’s DAY to all the moms out there! And for all the kids- don’t forget to call mom.

Tonight i went themed on our roundup for the week ~ top row, unusual frozen goods were trendy on TasteSpotting, from margarita popsicles and frozen eggs to Raw Banana Mango Malted Ice Cream with Agave Caramel… in the middle row, from NOTCOT.org had quite a nice selection of Architecture showing up this week… and finally, from NotCouture here is an assortment of bags, trunks, and ‘waterproof backpack reviews’!

Top 25 from each site last week on the next page…

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Click the images to find out more! Wow, busy week/weekend across the NOTCOT sites… and the Daring Bakers have struck again, this month they have taken on the adorable “cheesecake pops” and over 25 posts have come up so far… some quite creative even! Inspiring and delicious? See the popular posts across the sites on the next page!

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Click the images to find out more! Hey everyone, sorry i got quiet this weekend. To be completely honest with you, i’m just having a bit of a hard time with things right now, and its been a rough last few weeks particularly, and overall the last few months have really been catching up with me it seems… trying to officially take a vacation this week… but unlike most sites that go on vacation, shopping/hunting/browsing/sharing/posting inspiring things IS what makes me happy, so posts will probably pick up after i get some brunch today, whereas emails (especially the bitchy ones) will probably have even slower responses than normal, meetings/conference calls probably won’t be happening (other than the really fun pre-planned ones)… essentially anything that “feels” like “work” i’m not available for this week! Check back May 1st if you’re looking for that stuff, where hopefully i’ll get myself relaxed and ready to do the whole “business” thing again. And for those who clearly can’t seem to understand this - i just need a break, so feel free to resume the painful/not fun stuff May 1st.

OK - personal rant done. Just wanted to get that out there for the people who don’t seem to understand the current situation, but seem to see public posting as making something “real”. Moving along… roundup time! The popular postings of the last week across NOTCOT.org, TasteSpotting, and NotCouture…

Oh, and yes the sites went down for a bit this weekend ~ they were physically moving our servers and unfortunately there were a few problems, but all should be back up and ok now. Not stressful at all, right?

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I’m having one of those Mondays that already feels like a thursday… the week can’t end fast enough, yet its just begun. Also, its the week where i kick myself for not being in Milan for design week, not that i should have been there this year, seeing as i’m slightly over swamped with obligations at the moment anyhow. Good news for you, is part of that is due to a pile of really cool stuff i’m dying to post (the fun part of my life, um… “work”)… BUT for a random fun post before i get sit down in this crazy summery heatwave weather, i just wanted to say thanks to Veuve Clicquot for making today just a tiny bit more fun with their surprise delivery of a bottle of bubbly to help Milan coverage go a bit smoother this week. Yay for snail mail… a few more silly pics after the jump (although i do like how the pirate bronto in the apple is now in the glass up there)… back to regularly scheduled rants of designer inspiration and amusements!

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What more could we need to kick off a Monday in the making besides waldo hidden in the real world waiting for google maps, designer foosball, books transformed into sculpture, dragon bras, fun dresses and coats, martinis, cupcakes, carbonara, and more? Well here’s a selection of things that grabbed me from the last week, and after the jump take a look at the 25 most popular posts from across the NOTCOT Network. Happy Monday! (and as always, click the images to find out more!)

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How very surreal tonight has been. After much hmmming and hawwwwing… i ended up at one of those LA massive clubs (Vanguard)… and it didn’t really LOOK like clubbing in LA… it was a super techy/web 2.0 crowd having their incestuous circles and drama… supposedly for networking/matchmaking of every sort… yet you could barely talk to someone without screaming… it was cool to run into lots of random people and hide out at a dive bar after… there were some screens set up for sponsors to show off their companies… but they were impossible to get near and then understand what was going on… but that’s ok, because there was massive twittering of who was where and waving to who and doing what constantly… and Perry Ferrell (of Jane’s Addiction fame) was djing (see flickr VIDEO here)… and i get home and my mind/body is so confused… it was a night out in hollywood, yet it doesn’t at ALL feel like a night out in hollywood. This was the scene that was the TechCrunch + PopSugar “cocktail party”…

So much tech. But i did get a few fun crazy colored pictures of the bizarre scene from the upstairs window by the room where engage was matchmaking… no, seriously. Stickers read - single, taken, matchmaker… and people were actually meeting potentials! Ok so super techy sidetrack over ~ ready to go back to more designy themed events! Few more pics after the jump!

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Click the images to find out more! And as always - TasteSpotting and NotCouture roundups after the jump! Here are the most popular 25 posts over at NOTCOT.org this week! I’m still up in norcal, but theoretically heading back down to LA in a few hours… see some of the deliciousness on tastespotting and notcouture below - the bacon bra is particularly horrifying/fascinating.

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Click the images to find out more! Roundup Time! I just found out tomorrow was a bank holiday… apparently its Caesar Chavez Day? So i guess its a long weekend! (Not that life on the internet really takes weekends.) Anyhow, its been a fun week across the network, with everything from - skulls hidden in black and white line drawings, a hilarious record of a hipster teaching you “how to speak hip”, a viral game in the making where you tilt your laptop to drive a motorcycle, a man with the patience to drill insane holes into egg shells, elephants carrying spy cams, backless bras that atatch like a baby carrier, egg filled nest cupcakes, and so much more… see the full roundups after the jump!

…and for TasteSpotting news, the Daring Bakers have just struck again with their latest March Challenge: Dorie’s Perfect Party Cake, and the best are popping up as we speak… fascinating to see how all these different people have interpreted the same recipe.

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Click the images to find out more! ~ and being a roundup of roundups, get your quick fix of this weeks fashion and food after the jump as well! (Courtesy of NotCouture and TasteSpotting) Fun to see that a lot of the most popular posts on .org this week seem to be some of the .com posts… and those terribly creeeeeeeeepy Pixeloo renders of Mario and Homer if they were real humans with their cartoon anatomy… freaky stuff! I am scared to see what they take on next…

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