Rainy Days & Mondays Always Get Me Down… Well It’s Both

Long weekend full of work despite it being week’s end. I’m exhausted! Even still, I am happy to be on set of Law & Order SVU in my third installment as
Court room sketch artist. I actually did my best court room drawing on Friday and wish I could share it, but can’t! (til after the episode airs)
I really like working on this show. Everyone is really nice and zany AND in September, they had me audition for a principal role! (it was between me and another lady and she got it, but sheesh, so awesome to be in that room!) Anyway, great peeps.

I’m incredibly overwhelmed by how much great work is out there right now, be it television, books, films, plays, gallery shows…

There are SO MANY movies I desperately want to see, but that gets so freaking expensive. In no particular order, they are:

Drive
Martha Marcy May Marlene
Melancholia
The Artist
The Skin I Live In
Ides of March
We Need to Talk About Kevin (missed a chance to see it and Tilda Swinton talk last week because of a play i performed ::::; )
Hugo
….like 60 others.

I got free tickets to The Artist in December. Woohoo!

Speaking of theater, my theater company’s Los Angeles chapter, 68 Cent Crew Theater Company, just opened a show this weekend… link!

If you’re in LA, go check it out. Theyre one of the top theaters in LA and are full of some really talented people. James Franco is going to guest direct soon!

Have a great day!

Xo d

BIG ASS SALE

SERIOUSLY, EVERYTHING MUST GO.  DESIGNS PAST AND PRESENT:

in the words of the Mamas & the Papas, :

I used to live in new york city
Every thing there was dark and dirty
Outside my window was a steeple
With a clock that always said 12:30

Young girls are coming to the canyon
And in the morning I can see them walking
I can no longer keep my blinds drawn
And I can’t keep myself from talking.

At first so strange to feel so friendly
To say good morning and really mean it
To feel these changes happening in me
But not to notice till I feel it.

Cloudy waters cast no reflection
Images of beauty lie there stagnant
Vibrations bounce in no direction
And lie there shattered into fragments.

Young girls are coming to the canyon
And in the morning I can see them walking
I can no longer keep my blinds drawn
And I can’t keep myself from talking.

An Exit Statement…

I am taking a much needed break from fashion design…I’m giving California a try…   Please take advantage of all the sale has to offer and thanks for your support these last six years.  I’ve reached 1000 sales, which I never would have imagined when I first started.  Etsy has given me strength, beauty, love, support, true friends & a wonderful lifestyle where I can support myself sewing!!  Being able to share what I make has been a tremendous dream come true. I am someone who used to watch fashion tv and read countless magazines dreaming of cooler clothes than what was available in my small Pennsylvania town.  I used to sew and paint and sculpt and put together costumes… I would make my own clothes at 14 and courageously wear them to my conservative Catholic school on “dress-down days”.  One time, I wore a purple jersey drape top I made; and a snarky popular boy asked if I had made it.  Excitedly, I said yes, only to hear him say, “Well thank God, I would hope you would never pay money for that.”  Fourteen years later, I am a two-time almost contestant on Project Runway.  I got to meet Tim Gunn & Zanna Roberts twice, as well as Christian Sirriano.  I’ve been lucky enough to have gotten mention in Lucky Magazine, Bust Magazine, Style.com, the Martha Stewart Show, the Huffington Post, Daily Candy, The Awl, and others.

I’ve had fashion shows to rave reviews, I’ve sold at numerous boutiques, shows, fairs, etc.  I’ve taught sewing classes at Etsy and NYU.  I shared studio space with prolific designers and artists.  I sewed for The Row & Ohne Titel, as well as gotten to see shows firsthand, such as Rachel Roy.   Magic has happened. I can’t even recount all I have done or all that has happened.   I’ve never worked harder in my life and I have the grey hairs to prove it.  Life has been very satisfying being my own boss.  It’s also been remarkably challenging.  I am taking a leave of absence and leaving knowing I worked my absolute hardest and put my business first 90% of the time.  Life is what you make of it.  You can truly do anything you put your mind to.  Do what you love.  You only live one life.  Thank you for making these last six years magical.

xo Desira

Stylizing Your Life…

Valley of the Dolls Bathroom, Harlem

My sister found this awesome iPhone app that makes any iPhone photo into a slew of different retro-esque photos. There are a several filters that make that regular ole photo of her dog into a 1975 polaroid of her dog.  I’m now addicted.  I freaking love old photos and films and film stills and so Instagram is my homeboy.

Weird Dolls I Found in the Supermarket

Above Ground Subway, Brooklyn

Boy Makes Snowman

It does a pretty good job, eh? Instagram

—-> http://instagr.am/

A Few Adornments…

A

Matisse - The Lute

Two New Sophie Belts Made from Vintage Materials in the Etsy Shop

Desira Pesta / Sophie Wide Belt in Red Stripe / $24

Desira Pesta / Sophie Wide Belt in Red Stripe / $24

---completely unrelated photo ----

Lucien Freud

NEW! DesiraPesta Vanilla Cream Sophie Belt

Everybody Starts Somewhere…

Some famous faces first commercials:

Tom Selleck’s First Commercial.  I really think it’s a cute narrative.  Teri Garr is in there too.

OOHH SEXYY

There was a lot of trying before The Office:

Oh God. (Also what the hell is with the spurting water fountain in both McD’s commercials?)

Beautiful Strangers

Klimt's Mada Primavesi

Robertina Spanish Platforms on Etsy

1970′s spanish clogs, $95, at Ersatz Vintage

Ersatz Vintage

I finally did it! that is…started an Etsy Shop for vintage separate from my handmade shop!

the secret shop I started in 2007 and called “Ersatz” with no real idea what to do with it is now strictly VINTAGEEEE

Here’s my Logo:

Ersatz's New Logo (featuring a drawing I did years ago)

and banner:

I named her Pepper

Featured, yeah!

My hickory leather & floral floppy hat was featured on this awesome blog yesterday and am happy to be amongst other great Etsyians and designers.  Many thanks to those at MayDae for the their recognition.  ;)

Desira Pesta's Hickory & Floral Floppy Hat

Hickory & Floral Floppy Hat

The interior is lined with beautiful designer surplus floral silk in purple:

Interior of Hat

 

Thank you!!!

Junk Mail

I don’t know about you, but I get waaaay too much snail mail from all over the spectrum of N/A to me or what I buy.

I don’t know how they do it, but they find you and solicit your butt off.  In the last two years, I have gotten car insurance, car consolidation loan, car trading, and car leasing information from a dozen companies.  I haven’t owned a car since 2005.

http://jalopnik.com/5189896/2010-hyundai-genesis-coupe-first-drive

They also managed to somehow pinpoint that my supposed car is a “Hyundai”, as several companies have offered me better insurance deals on my Korean make, and some have even offered up better car choices for me.  Upon receiving my first group of papers for car-related stuff, I freaked out and called the Social Security Office.  I was convinced that someone had stolen my identity and bought a car… I was wrong. They are just that creepy.

books

Another slew of letters I have gotten lately have been from The New York Review of Books.  I read.. A LOT, but how did they find me?  I always buy secondhand books on amazon.com, but how the hell would …

I am guessing that some or most of my mail is related to one giant conglomerate of snail mail dispersers… like the Hain Celestial Group of snail mail.  (If you don’t know them, look them up, they own everything natural food. )

Last night, I decided to move my many spices into simple jars.  What better tool to make out of a piece of snail mail, than a funnel!?

Spice Funnel

I don’t even know what they expect us to do with this paper.  The unspoken up until now, is how freaking wasteful this is, this trend of blind solicitation.  I estimate that in a single year, I get 312 pieces of UNWANTED & UNWARRANTED snail mail (that’s a lowball of just 6 pieces per week).  I’m just one person. Multiply this possible letter amount by the people in the U.S…

312 x 307,006,550

(pieces of mail x Google’s public data estimate of residents of the U.S. in 2009)

= 95,786,043,600

F*CK. that’s 95 BILLION PIECES OF MAIL PER YEAR BEING DISPERSED.

Now, I just made those numbers up based on how much I get and the population count also includes children, who don’t get mail, but I am sure that business owners, families of five, and other especially alluring peoples get more junkmail than me. In any case, even if you cut that number into thirds, it’s horrific.

Let’s keep letters for love & penpals.  Email is a beautiful thing.

forest

SALE SALE SALE.

desira pesta Newyears sale