Turkey Day at The Castle

Success!
I had 23 people at the house and we got everyone around the table!
Well, Oscar and his crew ran late so by the time they came we were done and they got in on seconds but we SQUEEZED in and got our turkey on.

Justin came over Wednesday afternoon and we made the mad dash to Fairway (which wasn't bad amazingly) got our 18 pound turkey and punkin pie ingredients and headed home to set up and get to cookin. We had drinks with Rod, ordered hot wangs from Pizza 123 and passed out at 10:30!

Thursday we got going at 8am and started drinkin at 10! People trickled in from 3-6 (ahem!)
Food was heated, turkey stuffed and we got everyone seated before we got our feast on.

Alistair and Bea stuffed their faces and then were glued to Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving.
Later we played two party games:
Where is the weirdest place you had sex?
What do you want for Christmas?

The answers caused lots of good giggles and scandal!
Around midnight Anne rolled in with Rebekah Maysles (you know her- her dad made Grey Gardens!) and finished off the rest of the wine. Yale made a special appearance too all the way from Canada.

At 2:30 the pah-tay wound down, the sink was full and so was I!
A good time was had by all.

Now on to Christmas!

Nicky Haslam's Book launch and other sordid events

Last Thursday I had quite the night. After an interesting studio visit at Nicholas Caito’s for Full Frontal, I met PR guru Rachel Shechtman at Bill’s Gay 90’s for martinis and fries before we popped by EBay’s pop up store (cute!).
Then I peeled off to The Pierre for Nicky Haslam’s book launch.
I was excited to attend because:
1) I have heard so much about Nicky in Vanity Fair and from Philip
2) I was uber curious to see the new Caprice

Upon entering the bustling bar area I bump into Fran Leibowitz, knock into Elsa Klench, nearly step on Mica Ertegun’s slipper and nearly spill champagne on Bob Colacello. Wheew! What a crew to see in the first minute and what a small bar area to slither through! What a great group of people. A dying breed really. Just think, not one of them has a reality TV show!

But I made it out to the other end where I find photographer Todd Eberle. Hooray! Todd is one of my favorite people and we always have a blast together (enter foreboding!)
Next up we spy Rebecca Guinness who is tragically leaving our shores next week back to Blighty. I am so glad she is here so we get a bit more one on one time together before she sets sail.

Then there is Nicky. At 70 years old he has gone full leather daddy. Black blazer, black skinny jeans; white studded belt and black riding boots with Cat of Nine Tails whipping about from each side. Daring! He signs my book and sends his love to Philip.

Todd gives Nicky a big smooch and they trade books. Todd has a copy of his new book of photography he just launched that is fab! A funny, jolly older man comes up and starts rattling on to Becca. Who was that? “Barry Humphries, an old family friend!” explains Beccs. Yay Dame Edna!

After having a very Annette de la Renta dinner (i.e. five bites of passed tuna) and quite our fair share of bubbly, Todd and I bid the party farewell. We end up at the National Arts Club for a Terrence Koh reading where he spoke in gibberish for 30 minutes. It was funny at first but I had to go to the bar for another martini after about 5 minutes. But love him for being so whacky! Then we ended up at Maries Crisis Café for a drink, AND THEN we landed at the Boom Boom where I got to spend quality time with Joey, Camilla Staerk and Brian Coates. We rounded out the night with a giggly moment in the elevator with Bridget Berlin who is back out and about on the scene. Thank God. We need more old fun Warhol babes like her to keep it real.

I’m not telling you what time I got home but I will say, Nicky would be very impressed.

Lucy and Cator's Punchy Pernod Dinner Party

People may remember several years back when Lucy and I hosted a Pernod party. A friend in the liquor industry owed me a favor and sent over ten cases of Pernod and a waiter. The night was a success! But we had about 9 cases of Pernod left to consume. It's not a hugely popular drink of choice and as much as we gave it away and offered it at parties, the Pernod was still lurking in bars, closets, under beds and in the kitchen.

Several weeks back we had a smaller dinner party and decided to take the plunge and have a full fledged Pernod dinner party to use up vast amounts of the stuff. Huzzah! We developed an amazing menu, we sent out invitations and dragged out all the bottles of Pernod we could find. And of course in typical Lucy/Cator fashion, it had to be a dueling townhouse event.

We started off with appetizers at my house.
Lucy rolled out some dumplings into shallot pancakes and I made an apple salsa (from the NYT recipes!) consisting of chopped apples, onions, ginger, parsley and soaked in Pernod. YUM!

Then we trekked to Lucy's for chicken marinated in Pernod with figs and olives, Fay's salad with Pernod dressing and french bread with Pernod lemon butter.
Treat!

It was all quite civilized until we headed back to my house for dessert. John (Lucy's new roomie who we love!) made a lemon pound cake but ditched the lemons for Pernod. Zing!

By this time several bottles of Pernod had been consumed by guests as well as beaucoup booze and wine. The dance party started then conga'd down to Rod and Philips for champagne and singing then back up here for fun with the inflatable turkey (!) and the nerf gun I bought for Justin. Nik was in town from DC (he's a buddy from Charleston who I spend every New Years with) with Sarah and it was so great to have him as a surprise guest.

Stephen and Tina swung by after their dinner party wrapped up and brought Steve's new action figure from Avatar. COOL! Fay got very excited...

After they left mayhem ensued, costumes were changed and SOMEONE rode a bike through my living room in his underwear. NOT me!

Alas, a good time was had by all!
Sadly as I was cleaning up today I opened the hall closet and found three more bottles of Pernod. Zut Alors.

DFashion Final Day

Check it out here.

Frida Kahlo's Home and Downtown DF

Not much to write here. This was my first day to really explore and amazing Tessy took me out to Frida's house where I got choked up at the beauty and seeing her bed where she painted while in so much pain.
Then we headed downtown in the rain to see the massive Plaza de Constitucion and the cathedral.
I'm so dazzled by the Distrito Federal!

DFashion Day Two

Check it out on Full Frontal Fashion.

Street Style in Mexico City

Check out my post on We Are The Market on the zany and fun fashions I found in Mehico.
Enjoy!

DFashion Day One

Check out day one of DFashion, Mexico City here!

Mexico Night One

Hola Y'all! Im back from Mexico and had quite an eye opening time. Ok I admit I admit! I never had a desire to go to Mexico. Isn't it polluted, dangerous and dirty?
I found it beautiful, lush, hospitable and FU U UN!

I am posting my daily Full Frontal Fashion hits here as well. But here is my first nights entree to Mexico City society.
Oscar, my host, invited me to an antique dealers home that was beyond lush. Champagne flowed, dinner was divine and an impromptu floral photo shoot wrapped up the incredible evening.

Ole!