love letter to the universe

Incredible illustration by Maria Björnbom-Öberg.

The snow makes life feel kind of slow. We have essentially been snowed in for the last three weekends. We’ve been watching America’s Next Top Model & Invader Zim, having post-midnight smize-offs (holler TyTy) & laughing until we couldn’t breathe, cleaning the house & cuddling with the dogs. Good stuff. But I am looking forward to Spring!

I’m halfway through the Clean Program–21 days of a limited diet. It’s not as limited as I thought it would be, though! (I’m allowed to eat fish, rotisserie chicken, spinach, fruits & veggies, raw cacao [HELLO], garlic, cashews, coconut & all my other favourite things!) Unfortunately, no tomato, which is kind of heart-breaking–I really love tomato now (after years of eating around it). I almost talked Mike into doing it, but not quite. He lay on the bed & read about the things to exclude: “Dairy & eggs, milk, cheese, ice-cream, pork, beef, sausage, hot dogs… Those are all my favourite things!” Anyway, definitely not as difficult as I initially thought it might be; it just requires a little organisation. You can’t just run down the road & grab a sandwich on a whim, but that’s okay. Good things take time, & all that. Thank god for FreshDirect.  & in case you were wondering, I don’t miss burgers, pizza, or anything of that ilk IN THE SLIGHTEST.  It has been such a good experience, a major reminder that what I eat actually matters & makes a difference to my life.  Even once this cleanse is over, I am definitely going to keep to the plan as much as possible.

I just ordered some really cool matte postcards which say “From the desk of Gala Darling” on the back, so I can reply to people’s letters & write thank you notes! Excited! (I ordered from overnightprints.com, I almost always do, & if you want to use them, check retailmenot.com for discount coupons!) I hope they arrive soooooon.  SOON!  IMPATIENT!!!

Yesterday included working out (almost died), juice & salad at One Lucky Duck, & a trip to Sephora. It is so frigging cold & it’s meant to snow about a bazillion more times before February, so I decided the only real answer was to buy shocking pink lipstick. I ended up with Make Up Forever Rouge Artist Intense in #36 (trust me, IT IS BRIGHT!!!). It shouldn’t be called “#36″, it should be called “!!!!!! with a side of &%$#@!”. (I should name lipsticks for a living, clearly.) It made me feel a bit uncomfortable for the first five minutes I had it on, & then I embraced it & now I’m 100% in love with it. I am going to be all about the bright pink lip from now on. It is sassy as fuck.

So, I was on the cover of the weekend magazine (Canvas) in New Zealand’s biggest newspaper (New Zealand Herald)! This is a picture of my friend Nadine holding it up! Honestly, that was more exciting to me than being in the New York Times. “New York doll Gala Darling”? I can live with that.

Things they never teach you: when you are meeting a journalist for an interview, dress up, because they WILL mention it in the article! (It happens every time!)

I am currently getting amped up for the first Radical Self Love Workshop (it’s on Tuesday!).  I have been meaning to do one for the longest time, but one great thing about eating (almost) raw is the amount of creative energy you have.  & I’m not just talking about ideas; I’m talking about the ability to push through & actually achieve something.  I credit this workshop to baby spinach!!!  It’s going to be amazing, & I am really excited about it.  (I would like to do one in person next.)

This is one of my favourite ever photos of Nubby & I. Hahahaha!!!  We are like different people in that shot.  LOOK AT THAT GUY!  Amazing.  I don’t know who he is, he interviewed us on the street in the Meatpacking District one night.  I have been looking through all our old photos & blog posts from when we visited Vegas, Disneyland, etc., you see.  We leave for Paris in 21 days (!!!) & it is going to be the greatest trip ever! Nubbles actually gets into town a couple of days beforehand, & leaves a few days after, so we have time in NYC together too. Can’t wait! I think my phone will probably not work in Paris, so as much as I would like to be all tweety-tweety, “Oh, we’re just at Laduree, NBD”, I don’t think I will be able to. I’m choosing to see it as a good thing though, almost like enforced present-momentness. You know?!

I am so psyched for February! I have such amazing things to share with you!  I hope your February is bootylicious, bombastic & breathtaking!

Hi!

Here is a massive photo round-up of things I’ve been doing lately.

This is so so so so funny to me!

At Prada. This hat was on sale. BUT WHY does it exist?!
I felt like Thing 1 in it.

At Coachella.

W Hollywood.

I was in the New York Times.

With Emily of Wildfox Couture!  She is amazing!

AWWW I love him so much.  WHAT A HANDSOME BEGGAR.

Loving on Hank Williams!

I love my old journal so much, it makes me laugh, god I was nuts.

of the names i sorted through yesterday, my favourites are:
01. Alice Spittle
02. Mavis Curry
03. Glenda Sparks
04. Richard Suckling
05. Umaphorn Hope
06. Bindu Benjamin
07. Lee Cricket
08. Dolly Rudolph
09. Hermanus Goes
10. Teena Grundy
11. Kamonporn Chawaphonsap
12. Pauline Huff

“make it up to me in scotch, kiddo.”

Things which are happening in my life: I am still going to the gym twice a week (& thinking of increasing it 3 times a week, but it is tricky because I always have appointments & have to shuffle shit around. We’ll see). The other night I went to a party for TLC (the channel, not the group, sob, RIP Left Eye) which was held in a rooftop garden on the top of the Rockefeller “Center”. (Have to resist not typing “centre”.) There were people there from American Chopper, Say Yes To The Dress, Cake Boss, etc., & lots of good food. Then I went to the Patricia Field party, also in a rooftop garden. Have been doing lots of friendship evaluation & putting my foot down re: the value of my time & effort. (Read: I don’t work for free. Ever.)

Other: I really love having bangs, I want to keep my hair like this for a really long time. I worked on Love & Sequins #9 ALL last week & finally released it & I am so happy! Everyone seems to be loving it which is so wonderful, there is no better feeling. I bought a Filofax the other day & I am freaking obsessed with it, it is my new organisational masterpiece & I am going to do a big post about it on galadarling.com soon because I can’t keep my excitement to myself!

More other: We’re adopting a dog! As I am typing this right now, The Dish is picking her up from where we found her (Little Monsters in the E.Vil) & taking her home. She was spayed this morning. I am so excited to get home & see my new little family!

I’m posting this from my Virgin America flight back to NYC from Las Vegas. I was there from Tuesday seeing my Australian bestie & shopping the Memorial Day sales. God, we had such a good time, & I decided to make it an ACTUAL holiday for myself by not posting anything or being online much. It was totally what I needed, when is the last time I didn’t post for a week? Like, never? We went to see SATC2 (so, so, so bad), had dinner at Mesa Grill, did mega-spa time, went to multiple malls & bought lots of make-up. Haha.

Hotel view.

Bathroom!

The woman at the front desk upgraded me to a huge suite because she said I was “nice”. Aww! So we got a huge room with closet space for days & two bathrooms. Sick.

At the Palazzo. Pretty!

I bought shoes…

Hahah.

Jess MADE US buy these enormous drinks as soon as we arrived! We walked around the Forum Shops drinking them, like major assholes, & when we went into Giuseppe Zanotti to look at shoes, we realised we were shopping with… Seal & Heidi Klum. They were playing his CD. He was singing along. She was wearing a caftan & trying on crystal-covered sandals. Pretty amaze.

“Lol!”

<3

Going out outfit.

Unfortunately, the new shoes KILLED my heels so I had to apply emergency BandAids on the floor. Classy.

I like kick ass whiskey too!

Showgirls.

Vegas is the best.  I always have an absolutely amazing time there — it is so over-the-top & ridiculous.  It is one of my all-time favourite places.  If you’ve never been, you really should!  It was soooooo good to go with Jess — we haven’t seen one another in about a year or so, even though we talk almost every day!  She is one of my favourite people & great to travel with.

Okay.  I am going to watch Grease & maybe have a snooze.

LOVE!

I haven’t written here in such a long time! (This is how I always used to start out my LiveJournal posts too.) That’s just how it goes though, innit? Too busy living to write it all down.

This morning I spent hours on Skype to Helen in New Zealand, it was the best. I laughed until tears rolled down my face. “She looks like a calf that needs to be licked.”

I keep looking at the Coachella line-up & grinning. I’m flying out the Thursday after next, & I will be running around interviewing people, taking photos & pretty much having the best time ever? Sounds gooood to me. God, summer is the BEST. I swear this was the longest winter I have ever experienced & it sucked so much. I don’t want to have to sit through another NYC winter ever again. Next year I am going to spend it in California or something. Anyway, I have never been to Coachella & don’t really know what to expect. 180,000 people? That’s half the population of the city I grew up in. Over 100°F during the day (38°C) & upper 50s (12-15°C) at night. I love this from their FAQ:

Will there be payphones inside the venue?
Sorry, No. This is 2010. Get a cell phone.

So funny. Anyway basically I am really excited about being thrown into a new, unfamiliar environment… I thrive on that stuff, I love to work it all out & then make myself work within it. There’s something about being somewhere completely different that provides me a challenge I can’t get in a city I’m comfortable in. Which I guess is part of why I like to travel so much. I don’t know what Coachella looks like, how big it is, what the energy is like, ANYTHING. & that’s how I like it. Now my new obsession is making a Coachella mixtape for galadarling.com. & when I say obsession, I mean obsession. This is how my brain works.

Oh my god.

My editor said, “Bring cute outfits!” I basically need 3 days of cuteness. I am sure I can do that. I have been in clothing crisis mode for a couple of weeks, mostly because my closet was stuffed to overflowing & I couldn’t find anything. Today I spring cleaned the whole she-bang, donated bags (like… 3 or 4) of clothing to the church next door & filled a suitcase with stuff to go into storage. As I did this I discovered my wardrobe is approximately 30% faux fur & about 40% sequins. It’s a wonder I don’t more closely resemble a drag queen. SO ANYWAY, I cleaned out my closet, like Eminem, & now all my dresses are in colour order (white, yellow, pink, blue, purple, black — I am deadly serious) & my life makes sense once more.

After I did my spring cleaning, I sat on my couch in the sun & started re-reading Lolita. It really is the best book ever written. The annotated version makes me feel like my skull is going to split open from sheer pleasure. If you haven’t read it, you cannot possibly fathom how much brilliance you are missing out on.

I really love sitting in my office. The Dish & I rescued this enormous leather couch from the street which spans an entire wall, is against a window & has my bookshelf at one end. There is a peppermint-striped orchid on the windowsill behind my head & it has a view of the fire escape & the sky. It is perfect for reading on (as above). Having it in my office makes a huge difference, the space feels much more functional now. I have been curling up on it with my laptop & writing, or flicking through magazines & tearing out pages, or just sitting there drinking coffee cuddling with the dog. Being cozy & comfortable is very important to me.

Obsessions: Lining my eyes with white & putting pale pink in the inner corners. Flowerbomb perfume. Doc Marten boots with my name, hearts & studs on them. Peacock print. Neon pink fingernails. Eating miniature Reese’s easter eggs. Lighting candles every night. Mixtapes. Old Radiohead albums (I forgot how good Amnesiac & Kid A are). Afternoon naps. Almost-silent love declarations. Doing 100 push-ups (WHAT HAVE I BECOME… MY SWEETEST FRIEND etc.). Imagining outfits. Wearing high heels again now that it is not all rain/snow & odds of breaking my neck have dropped. Looking at old pictures & being amazed.

I came back from Austin not so long ago. We (when I say “we”, I mostly mean me & Molly) had a gay old time. SXSW is like spring break for nerds, at least during Interactive. It’s all barbecue & free liquor & people clawing at one another energetically. I managed to escape the madness, mostly. Spent time at Barton Springs with Angeliska & her man with the glittering eyes & their two sweet dogs, reading tarot cards at a picnic bench with candles burning as the sun started to set. Went to a fantastically decadent tea party with Amelia (her dress was purple in some light & yellow in others, & she said she had had “doll injections” in her face), Angel (who wore heart-covered cowboy boots & sparkles around her eyes), Molly (layered in silks & flowers & frippery) & Tina (in a 1960s dress with billy-goats all over it), where we drank Bellinis & blew chocolate-scented bubbles. (I wore multiple sets of false eyelashes & an enormous petticoat & magical talismans.) Went vintage shopping with Molly & Barbie & Dustin, drove around the city in a limousine blasting Lil Wayne & The Supersuckers & played miniature golf (or at least pretended to). Visited Daily Juice every morning for an oversized Chocolate Prana (raw almond butter, organic raw agave nectar, raw maca root, organic cacao butter, organic coconut oil, vanilla, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, fresh coconut juice). Drooled over hot rods with irridescent paint-jobs & sat outside at cafes on South Congress with my laptop. Yes, I enjoyed myself… But it’s good to be home, too.

By the way, feel like a blast from the past? Okay then.

Oh how life changes. I swear I am almost unrecognisable in that picture.

xoxo always!

Gala.

Right now… Honeysuckle & Bulgarian rose perfume, pink sequinned Betsey Johnson dresses, dreams & hopes for the new year, the bright colours of India, black ink pens & small Moleskine notebooks, French classes & writing groups, chocolate iced coffee, black wrapping paper & silver stick-on letters, stringing clear fairy lights all over the house, peppermint striped phalaenopsis orchids, writing love letters to my friends, Godiva chocolates in the pocket of my faux fur coat, post office boxes & oversized cups of coffee.

Christmas was wonderful; thank you for asking. I hope yours was too. The Dish bought me dresses & a watch, all from Betsey Johnson. I bought him motorcycle parts & some Pendleton shirts. We ate turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, string bean casserole, cranberry sauce & amazing gravy — pretty much identical to our Thanksgiving feast. Delish.  Today I helped a friend go shopping at Alexander McQueen; afterwards we sat in a diner, sipping milkshakes & discussing our plans for world domination in 2010.

2009: the year that was.

Walking around Hollywood; Jazzi, Nubby & I with James St. James; Jake in Austin; technicolour swimming pools with Chloe; fabulous apartments; Christopher & Adam in Los Angeles; sunset rooftops with Nubby; Las Vegas with Barbie; après-runway weirdness; Hank Williams; Tompkins Square Park with Lydia; laughing with Chloe; The Dish & Tim Burton & Johnny Depp moments; fashion darling; with Rachel & Molly; Christmas dolly.

Compulsory review:

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
Gained the right to live in America. !!!!!!!!!! So good.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s Resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
My resolutions were more like mottos. They were:
more magic all the time
dream big
live the fairytale
take action
light the way
be a visionary
raw power
stay gold
& I think I did pretty much all of them other than the raw power bit. Which I am coming back to, again. When I am distracted or busy with other things, usually my positive eating & exercise habits are the first things to go. Now that I am more settled, it’s all coming back.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Nooooooope.

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Noooooooooooope.  But I will say that I feel like the world lost some real, true magic when Michael Jackson died.

5. What countries did you visit?
Just New Zealand, the United States & Canada. But I went to a few places. Los Angeles (multiple times), San Francisco, Austin, New York (multiple times), Toronto, Auckland (multiple times), Wellington (multiple times), Las Vegas, New Jersey & Connecticut.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
A tropical vacation. PLEASE. Bring it on. I’m all over it.

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
My brain doesn’t really work like that. I remember my first date with The Dish very vividly: he showed up at midnight on his motorcycle & we stayed up talking until sunrise. I remember running around Los Angeles with Jazzi & getting into trouble in Austin with Molly & Jake. It was a good year, ladies & gentlemen.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I’m happy with my professional progress. & I’m really blissed out about meeting a man who makes me so happy. Especially because I wasn’t looking for it, which makes it even more wonderful.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Not so much failure, but the start of the year had its share of dumb boy drama.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
I got a cold while I was in New Zealand. A few days on the magical potion & I was 100% again!

11. What was the best thing someone bought you?
I bought myself a MacBook Pro for Christmas :D

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Lots of people. The Dish. Jess. Helen. Jennie. Chloe. Jazzi. Molly. Etc.!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
No one really.

14. Where did most of your money go?
Plane tickets, as always!

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Um, everything! I am always excited about SOMETHING!

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Last.fm says my top songs of the year were:
1 Atmosphere – Hockey Hair
2 Drake – Sooner Than Later
3 The Hold Steady – First Night
4 Atmosphere – Party For the Fight to Write
5 Soul Position – Keep It Hot For Daddy
6 Brother Ali – Pedigree
7 David Dallas – Indulge Me
8 Atmosphere – C’mon
9 Rob Roy – Rollercoaster baby
9 Atmosphere – Feel Good Hit of the Summer 2
9 P.O.S. – Drumroll (We’re All Thirsty)
12 The Hold Steady – Magazines
12 Drake – Bria’s Interlude (f/Omarion)
12 Atmosphere – They Always Know
12 Living Legends – Watch Out!

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? The former.
b) fatter or skinner? The latter.
c) richer or poorer? The former. Word.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Making out!

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Procrastinating…

20. How do you plan to spend Christmas?
I spent it with my little family in New York. Me, The Dish & Hank Williams in the East Village. Wouldn’t have had it any other way.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Yes. Very much so. It was less a fall than a wonderful, ongoing, swirling, twirling, stumbling tumble.

22. How many one night stands?
None! :D

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Flight of the Conchords. Entourage. Greek. Ugh & I just started watching Say Yes To The Dress which I am kind of obsessed with, gross!

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No. I actually have less “hate” than this time last year. Bonus! I would like to think that the older I get, the more loving I become.

25. What was the best book you read?
God, I don’t remember. Maybe Women by Buk.?

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
When P.O.S. put out Never Better my brain pretty much exploded. Best album of the YEAR mos’ def’.

27. What did you want and get?
About 98% of what I wanted.

28. What did you want and not get?
About 2% of what I wanted… But it wouldn’t have been good for me to get it anyway. Thanks universe!

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
I don’t remember, I don’t watch a lot of movies.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I was 26 (OLD) & I spent it with my family in New Zealand.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Better time management.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Ladies who lunch on LSD.

33. What kept you sane?
Personal tenacity & belief in magic.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Oh get out.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Prop 8. So many of the videos made me cry.

36. Who do you miss?
All my friends in different cities, WHYYYYY do we have to be scattered across the earth like this?! (Answer: great travelling opportunities & so that we really appreciate the time we have together. Okay good, glad we solved that.)

37. Who was the best new person you met?
I met a lot of great people. I can’t even get into it. But it was a great year.

38. What was the best thing you ate?
I ate some really good nosh in Austin, & The Dish introduced me to a lot of amazing restaurants in NYC. His Thanksgiving turkey was pretty goddamn good, though.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009?
Life is really beautiful & wonderful. (Not so much a lesson as a summary.)

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
I don’t need other people’s words!

It is super dark moon time & everyone is sleepy. Quiet houses. Listening to music that is more crackles than melodies. Black fingerless gloves & cherry red fingernails. Heavy eyelids. Next week will be like a firecracker but until then things are grey, slow, shhhhh.

Since we last spoke…

I went to look at this apartment yesterday. The real estate agent knew who I was & we talked about Grace Coddington & BryanBoy. The place is great but weird. That space behind the bookshelf is too low to stand up in. So it would be good for slumber parties or worms but that is probably about it. It’s a big room, maybe it could just be a cave for after-parties &/or midgets.  (Though I would probably change it into an enormous closet.)

I want this in purple & silver & black. Angora cardigans & high-waisted skirts. Dream journals & jambalaya! I keep making lists of things to change or do better. Drink more water, read more books, eat less meat, only make promises I can keep, be on time, schedule my day properly. Et cetera. I just got my Gold badge for SXSW. I love Austin & can’t wait to go back. Coming up: visit from Neil (Toronto). Party for Tim Burton. (HA!) Visit from Sam (London). RedBull B-Boy championships. See Stef (P.O.S.) play. & then it’s Thanksgiving?! I have never had Thanksgiving & we are planning a cutefest.

Picture time.

Those photos were by Lydia Hudgens.

Rooftop baby.

Chloe took those.

From: Sarah
To: Gala

Was wondering if you’d be able to share some thoughts for my Sunday Life column. I’m writing it this week on being whimsical, and how to do whimsy. You’ve made a life of it. Maybe you could just let me know why you do whimsy. How the moment grabs you to do it. Is it a plunge? A curiosity? Does it make you happy? Creative? A precursor to creativity? Who do you regard as whimsical?

From: Gala
To: Sarah

I think whimsy is the only sane response to a world obsessed with mundane things. Celebrities, gas prices, “the recession”… Thinking about any of these things makes me feel like a dried-up husk. My motto for 2009 has been “more magic all the time” & I have let it take me wherever it wanted. It has led me from New Zealand to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, New York, Toronto & Las Vegas, it threw me into a truly wonderful relationship & brought me a lot of happiness.

Whimsy to me is about spontaneity. If it’s premeditated, it doesn’t really count. Whimsy could be making up a song about your boyfriend, throwing a dance party at a moment’s notice, or just wearing two contrasting things. It’s about surprise & delight. Some people think whimsy is about being docile & delicate & a little dim, but I like my whimsy with a bit of bite.

Who do I think is whimsical? Two women that come to mind are Erin Fetherston, legendary fashion designer, & Leith Clark, editrix of Lula magazine. Girls with their own point of view & individuality, but who also work hard & make beautiful, tangible things. People who improve the world just by being in it.

That’s all for now. It’s half-past three on a Friday & I haven’t even scratched the surface of the work that needs to be done this week.

xo,