It’s Manic Baby Shopping Time over here. Baby Countdown is 36 weeks today! I’m “Full-Term” which means the bambina can come anytime now…EEEK!!! We are NOT ready! First off, I have to finish Au Pairs 4: CRAZY HOT, which I’m hoping to deliver the week before I really deliver. As well as a horror short story for a collection put out by Scholastic next year. (Mine is about a girl and a hot ghost–oh yeah, a crazy hot ghost!) I’m really into the new Au Pairs title, as you can see..
On Saturday Mike and I ran over to the Juvenile Shop in Sherman Oaks, which is the only store in Los Angeles that sells the David Netto Collection. The David Netto Baby Furniture Collection has been an obsession for the last several months. I had originally opted to buy the new “CUB” line, which was lower-priced and more affordable, and very cute, but when I heard the CUB isn’t going to be available until DECEMBER, and the baby is coming in NOVEMBER, we decided we should buy the real Netto stuff instead of the “bridge-line” Netto.
My dear friend Karen (co-Fashionista author) knows my obsession with this as we have been emailing back and forth the advantages and disadvantages of Netto Collection vs. CUB for many many months now. But you know what? The Netto stuff wasn’t that great. It was a bit of a disappointment, as we had planned to order the Netto Loft line, but we didn’t like the stain on the wood–it looked pretty cheap (and at $1200 it shouldn’t be!). The best was the Netto Case collection, which is the most high-end. But $1600 for a crib just seemed a bit…too self-indulgent. Also, the furniture looked very heavy. If you are interested in more high-end nursery stuff, (and my, high-end can go all the way to $2000 to $3000 for a crib!) there’s http://www.modernnursery.com which stocks a lot of that stuff. I like the Ducduc Modern crib and the Ooba crib too.
We decided to go with the Oeuf line – crib ($850), changing table ($212), dresser ($895) and bookshelf ($580). In walnut. It was about $1000 more than the full CUB line, but looked a lot more substantial and very chic. Also more “baby-ish” in Mike’s words–as in much cuter somehow. And we got the MOD DOTS in pink crib set ($295) from Dwell. As well as a Dwell baby bib ($35) and a “Flat Bear” ($45) made out of Australian sheepskin and dyed black – so that it looked like it was made of mink. So fab!
Then on to babystyle, where we picked up our Bugaboo. Yes. Shut up. We got a Bugaboo. One of the signs of the Apocalypse apparently. Sure, you could go with a McLaren or a Peg Perego. But we who are trendy label-lovers are Bugaboo people. You have to know who you are in life, and shop accordingly. I mean, I’m 9 months pregnant and I’m rocking a cashmere tunic top, cropped leggings, and Chloe platforms. I don’t think it’s the best look for prego peeps, since the big-ass bump kind of ruins the long, lean line. (In fact, I suspect I look a little Edina-ish. Mike and I looked at my reflection in this outfit and we both burst out laughing. It doesn’t quite work.) But I love that I can still participate in fashion… We got the Bugaboo Cameleon ($879) in Sand for both the base and the fleece.
The Sand I think is the most “architectural” looking, since Mike is a major beige kind of guy. I wanted to get the Pink and the Gray, but the combo didn’t look that good actually. I was also thinking that if we have Kid Number Two, and it’s a boy, we wouldn’t want to be stuck with a pink Bugaboo. A friend of mine, who is also pregnant and also got the Bugaboo (in green and black) said I should get the pink because by the time Kid Number Two comes around, there will be some NEW Bugaboo (“The Alligator!”) that I’m going to want. But in the end, we decided the stroller actually looked better with all one-color. Then I also got the Sunshade ($24), the Sun Canopy ($39), the Parasol ($40), the Carrying Case ($120) and the Footmuff ($130). The stroller is a gift from Mom, (Mom you owe me $879) and the Footmuff is a gift from my brother (Chit, you owe me $130). So really, we didn’t spend that much.
We also picked up the Primo Viaggio Car Seat from Peg Perego ($250) in Toffee to match our sand-colored Bugaboo. A gift from Mike’s mom. (Mike’s mom already gave us the $250).
This is why it is great to be an older parent – you can afford all the fun stuff! Along with having family who love to give gifts! If I was 25 and pregnant, there is no way we would be able to buy all this. We’d have to scrimp and count our pennies and how lame is that?
For the baby’s room we chose a fabulous wallpaper from Innovations – the Gelato in Mango, which is actually a really light pink. The wallpaper is all natural fiber (most wallpapers are made of vinyl apparently) so it’s good for babies’ rooms. And my dear friend Kim DeMarco gave us a framed original print from her work on Cat’s Meow (my first novel that she illustrated) that shows Cat as a little girl for the baby’s room. It’s so beautiful and awesome and it’s going in the place of honor. We’re putting the Eames rocker in the room too. I remember reading about a MOMA curator, who bought his twins Eames walnut stools ($749 each) for their birthday, and a friend said to him, “Oh did they turn eighteen?” His answer, “Actually, they turned six.” Love that!
Oh, and we also got the Ooba Nest Bassinet in walnut ($500) for our room since the baby will sleep with us for the first couple of months.
Then we ran over to the Fred Segal sale, which was ending, and Mike got two Yves Saint Laurent trousers ($500 each), Edun jeans ($200), Yanuk jeans ($180) and Yves Saint Laurent shirt ($500) but everything was 75 percent off so it was only $400 for everything. I got a Pucci bag ($925) and Chloe shorts ($600) and a Rozae Nichols leather jacket ($1000) and got Mike two other shirts Commes des Garcons ($450) and Martin Margiela ($400) – again, at 75 percent off, so it was less than the original cost of the Pucci bag. Craziness!
We got all dolled up for dinner and Mike pointed out that everything he had on was from either from 1) The Outlet 2) Century 21 or 3) The Fred Segal Sale. Which cracked me up. We love our labels but we love our bargains more. And seriously, he looked really good. I don’t know why people continue to shop full-price at Banana Republic, when you can buy Saint-Laurent at the outlet for the same amount of money. It looks soooo much better. In fact, almost all of our clothes come from big designer sales. We have spent full-price on some items (Mike’s $500 Prada dress shirts from Barneys- which we send to this couture cleaner all the way in Brentwood–come to mind) but that’s it. And those full-price shirts are like, treasured, man. Treated like gold.
God, I love to shop. Then today I went to Barneys to buy my friend a birthday present, and of course I had to pick up stuff from my fall shopping list. I got the Louboutin booties ($950) in black calf leather (sooo zexy!), and Louboutin patent-leather Mary Jane platforms ($710) in black, two Vince cashmere tunics (the V-neck in black and the cowl neck in beige) $250 each, and several Vince long-sleeved t-shirts to wear under them. Picked up a couple more cropped leggings ($20 from the Gap) and I’m done. That’s all I needed to update the look, as they say. I was going to stop by Hermes to check on either the black Kelley or black Birkin but I was too exhausted from running from Saks to Barneys to Neimans that I just went home. The Vince sweaters look pretty good, even with the bump, so I’m psyched. I still want a Stella McCartney oversized sweater as well, but again, was too tired to drag myself over to Beverly Boulevard to her boutique, so I’ll save that for next time.
The other day Mike bemoaned the fact that I don’t cook anymore. I’m a pretty decent cook, and in New York, I cooked a lot, but with my insane book deadlines (I wrote four books this year), we had an agreement that I wouldn’t have to feel guilty about not doing anything domestic. I don’t even go grocery shopping anymore. There is just no time. I asked him if he would expect me to cook and clean if I was just a stay-at-home-wife who didn’t work and he said, “Of course!” So THANK THE LORD I actually contribute to the household income. Because all I am expected to do is write the books and shop. Not a bad life if you can get it, girls!
xoxo
Mel