It's been so busy around here. And as much as I sometimes feel like I'm barely keeping up with it all, I know I thrive when things are spinning a little. I like having different projects in various stages, different facets of me stimulated. The variety is good for me; I like it. This week has been full of auditions of all sorts. I got to play a recovering addict, a mid-western mom, a former stripper, a former TV star, a fiancee to a convicted murderer, a trick-or-treating costume-wearer, and a karaoke singer. Interspersed with all those meetings, I got to play Lena's mom, a teacher to a bunch of awesome young actors, a wife, a hiker, a Pilates-doer, a meditator, a friend, a daughter, a writer, a recipe-tester, a dinner party hostess, a concert-goer*, a cleaning lady, a household manager, an accountant, and a potter. (David and I just enrolled in a pottery class to fill our spare time.)

Oh, and I made a quilt!

My dear friend Liz just had her first baby, a sweet bundle of a little girl named Spencer that I got to visit yesterday. Happy Birthday, Spencer!

This crib-size quilt was made from Alicia's awesome and easy-to-follow pattern (find it here), which I've made several times before. I used some vintage sheets mixed with some new fabrics that have a vintage-y flavor. And instead of machine quilting, I tied it with embroidery floss. There's something so sweet to me about doing it this way. It finishes a little more homey and slouchy and snugglish. Perfect for a new baby, no? And beginners take heed: this pattern is so forgiving--if you're not perfectly squared up everyplace it still comes out looking sweet. Ideal for a non-expert quilter like myself:)

True story: I actually am working on a commercial later today and won't know which role I'm playing until I show up. Ah, showbiz.

xoxo
jolie

*I was lucky enough to see Sara Bareilles in concert this past week and she was amazing. She sang this cover for her encore and I swooned..........<3

it's soooooooooooo hot

Ugh, you guys. We have air conditioning but it's no match for late-August in Hollywood. I've been forced to evacuate my office/hot box since my computer monitor throws off so much additional heat it's unbearable. Plus, there are sheer white blinds on two sides of my desk that the sun bleeds through even when they're pulled tightly shut. So as if the monitor's assault isn't enough, I have to make squinty faces. That can't be good. So now I'm sitting downstairs with my laptop on my lap but not directly on it because I'd have scorched thighs. No, I have it sitting upon a down pillow. So, there's that.  Yeesh. I guess I could put it to the side of me on the couch but that makes me feel like an old-timey girl wearing a skirt on a horse. God forbid I should sit in a chair at the dining room table.

Why is it particularly evil when you're hot in your own home?

Once, when I lived in NYC we had a particularly acute several-days-in-the-100s heatwave and it got so bad that I lured my A/C-less friend Paul over to my apartment to help me install a hand-me-down window unit. We wedged it precariously under the open window, crudely filled the gaping sides with tin foil and old headshots (natch) and then settled in front of its face, drinking diet cokes.  It was a meager drop in the bucket and really did nothing for the room/apartment, only offering relief if you sat with its whisper-light blow directly on your head. That prompted us to have a stroke of genius and go to the movies. Because there we could enjoy not just head, but full-body air conditioning. After enjoying a subway ride featuring steaming urine, we stood at the end of a punishing line in the beating-down midtown sun. Apparently every single other body in Manhattan had the same bright idea. As we fantasized about the icy drinks we would consume, a pimply theater employee came out in a scratchy black polo and yelled to the entire line that he was sorry but the A/C was broken and I kid you not: every single person groaned and started walking away in unison. I've never seen a crowd disperse so quickly. It was like a backwards flash mob. Literally no one was there for the actual movie. Paul and I still talk about it. I don't remember what we did after that for relief. Maybe we passed out with heatstroke someplace? Neither one of us recalls. Maybe we got Tasti D-Lite. Remember that disgusting treat?

Another super hot time I remember was my first summer in LA. I lived in an old house that was freezing in the winter and sweltering in the summer--and during one awful breeze-less heatwave my roommate and I begged our landlord for permission to cut the bars on the windows in one spot to fit an A/C unit.  She was reluctant and also indisposed that day so she sent over one of her colleagues to suss out our heat problem and consider our request. He stood in our feverish house in a full suit and tie, looking around the room as if he could see the heat and said, "It's really not that hot in here." I looked over at him just as a single bead of sweat slid down the side of his red face. "C'mon, Rod," I said. "I know you're lying." We got our way and the next day had a friend cut the bars and install a unit. The end result? See above. It must have been the same model that I had in NYC. One possible moral of both these stories?  A/C window units suck.

I think I'll just lay on the floor like Lena. She always has the right idea.


xoxo
jolie

shannon

I don't think I've ever gone this long without posting. I'm sorry, my dear readers. I've been going through some stuff, I suppose, and haven't been quite ready to wear my heart on my sleeve. At the same time, what's churning inside of me is so present that it's been difficult to write about anything else. So I've been a bit at a stalemate with myself.

In the meantime, allow me to tell you an unrelated but sweet love story:

I've been a Married Lady for a long time now but before that I had a couple long-term relationships that really meant a lot to my heart. When I was twenty-one, singing and dancing in New York City, a guy hit on me at an audition for The Fantasticks. He wasn't really my type but he was playful and funny and extraordinarily persistent. The audition was a callback that ran long and when we left the building it was dark and had started to rain. He coerced/charmed me into sharing my umbrella and I begrudgingly gave him my number after he made me laugh for the whole seven-block walk to the subway.

He called me and made me laugh some more and sent me roses and completely won me over. I fell for him and we stayed together for over two years. What I remember most is being best friends. Together we navigated those unique early-twenties growing pains--becoming separate from our parents, making decisions on our own, figuring out the kind of adults we wanted to be. I also remember how much fun we had. There was a certain sweet time together where we'd literally fall asleep laughing and wake up laughing.

Our demise was partly due to timing issues. There were times when he was all in while I was ambivalent and other times when I cried my eyes out, feeling so in love with him while he was the aloof one. We were also so young. I remember a certain (ridiculous) fight we had where he yelled at me for spending money on a psychic nutritionist. "How can you do that when you know how hard I'm working to pay my rent?! You should be helping me out!" I was furious. "IT'S MY MONEY!!!" I shouted back, even though I knew he was right.

There weren't any epic problems, we'd just started to grow apart. It felt like our time together had run its course. I was pondering a move to LA and felt like that would be the best time to end things. I was terrified because he was my best friend who I loved so much, but in an effort to listen to my heart, I gathered up all the courage of my whole life. When I finally broached the subject during a walk one sticky summer night, he had a panic attack on someone's stoop. It killed me so much to see him hurting that I recanted and said I was sorry, we'd make it work, and we started to make plans to move to LA together.

I relocated first while he finished the run of a show in Connecticut, and during my six weeks alone, I blossomed in my new LA life. I felt free and full of possibilities and excitement. If I would've listened, I'd have realized that I wasn't missing him. But I didn't. The plans were already made.

When it was time, I flew back east so we could drive his car out west together. On our cross-country trip we were listening to these metaphysical books-on-tape and the author said, "If you are completely committed to your own spiritual growth, you should ask yourself what you are most afraid to do and do exactly that." The words burned into me and shook me awake. Oh my God, I have to break up with him, I realized. I knew it was over. Yet here we were, driving through a two-day-long corn field on the way to our new life together in Los Angeles. It wasn't an option in that moment so I squelched it down (yet again) and we moved in together. We lasted another 6 weeks and when the break up finally went down for real it was bad. The trickle had become a raging river and we were both torn apart by it. I broke his heart even worse by not following my own sooner.

The aftermath was even messier. We continued to live together while he looked for a new place. He slept on the couch while I took the bed and we could hear each other crying from our separate rooms. He smoked Marlboro after Marlboro on the front porch (partly for comfort, partly because he knew I hated it). And when he finally did find a new place, I helped him move as we cried and fought the whole time. It was the saddest thing ever.

Over the five years that followed we bumped into each other only twice, once awkwardly at an ATM and another time in the lobby during a play's intermission. That time I was with my new husband and he was with a date. Uncomfortable introductions ensued. And then another five years passed with radio silence.

Then something remarkable happened. One day I was hiking and passed him on the trail. Before having the thought to stop myself I called out his name and he looked at me and smiled. We walked together for the next two hours, catching up and laughing and crying and apologizing and finally experiencing the graceful completion that we were unable to have a decade before.

He's now one of my closest friends and it's the biggest blessing to have him in my life in this new way. Our relationship is such a reminder to me of healing and being open to life bringing its unexpected magic. Life is messy and I'm beginning to think: why shouldn't it be? I'm reading this book right now that says we get into trouble when we think we are the ones "doing" our lives. The physical part of us craves control but the spiritual part wants us to be out of control so there's room for the Great Mystery to work its magic through and around us. That way it can also bring us things (in a million years we'd never ask for) that lead precisely to our greatest good or happiness or learning or expansion--it's all for good, right? I'm choosing to believe that.

It's such a blessing, too, that we now get to enjoy the things about each other that always worked the best. The other day over lunch we talked about our breakup and actually laughed. "Remember that time I threw that stack of mail at you and it went flying all over the room?" He said, "And then we both started crying and I slid tragically down the wall in despair?" I had forgotten until he mentioned it but I immediately flashed to that moment. "We were so dramatic," I said. And then he said, "You never know how life is gonna go. If you told me fifteen years ago we'd be sitting having this conversation I'd have said you were a crazy person."

And then we belly-laughed.

8th grade yearbook

In my mom's recent move, a storage unit time capsule was upended and a few of my moldy yearbooks tumbled out. It was awesome looking at them after all these years. My favorite was 8th grade. The hair! The clothes! In the late 80s we girls were SO not dressed how 14-year-olds dress now. Aside from the crunchy bangs and bright eyeliner, we were conservative and kid-like in mostly baggy T-shirts and sneakers (with giant scrunched socks, natch). We were such babies but thought of ourselves as serious grown-ups. I mean next year was the big time: High School. After reading it cover-to-cover, it seems we were all most concerned with:

Not being phoned

Others losing their sweetness and/or beauty

Everyone's Summer becoming an awful tragedy

I grabbed some of my favorite entries for your reading pleasure. The names have been changed to protect the guilty. All spelling and punctuation remains unabridged. Enjoy!!:

Jolie,
Have a great summer lady. I hope your hair gets real blonde. Braces suck. Well tell your dad I said hi. You better call me. We should do something over the summer. See you at the beach. My little blonde.
Charlie
P.S. Hang in there.

Jolie,
I have not had many classes with you but I think you are really nice. I'll see you at the Beach. What a ripper. Call me.
Tim

Jewels,
You are a good friend and I thak you for that I hope I see you next I'll Just Look for a groupe of guys Stay Sweet
Love,
Bobby

Jolie,
It's been a fun year knowing you, and being friends. See you at TP next year. Keep up the PASE (positive attitude super effort) and stay beautiful.
Love you lots,
Susan
P.S. Call me!!

Jolie,
Have a good summer you are very nice. Keep up the smiles even though you got braces. Don't worry you will forget about them in a week.
Love,
Erin

Jolinski,
Have a dugee-Fresh. Don't worry about the braces. They look cool! Invite me over to your house and I will terrorize it. (Kidding.)
Dave

Jolie,
Glad I got to know you (wish we would have gone out) but still like you a lot. Stay sweet.
Fred

Jolie,
I'm sorry too that we didn't say too much this year. but you've been great anyway Thanx for everything. Keep in touch (CALL ME),
Meg

Jollie <------HA HA
I luv your leadership dedication. I hope you continue to be just as successful at everything!
Luv Ya,
Sally

Jolie,
Mrs. Kane sucks, Finally out of this shit whole. It's been fun most of the time like at the beach and parties. I'll see you.
Sean

Jolie,

It's been great having you in Science. You've always been really nice and sweet. Stay that way. When some people said you were a snob I told them they were wrong. Good luck in the future.

John

As you can see by the buck teeth, this photo was taken before the aforementioned braces were administered.

Have a great Summer!
Stay Sweet!
Call me!
Jolie

pier stroll

DP and I spent this past weekend in San Luis Obispo at the SLO International Film Festival where Blind, the short film I shot last year was screening. Aside from traveling with my fellow filmmakers (the most lovely people) and seeing the movie on a big giant screen (thrilling!), a highlight of the trip was strolling on the Avila Beach Pier*...

*Not pictured is the post-walk ice cream cone binge.

Happy Tuesday:)
xxoo
jolie

mexican chicken soup

Dear Readers, 

Sorry I've been such a stranger! There are seriously a lot of projects going on around here that have my attention. Writing projects, photo projects, video projects(!), half-finished crafty projects, newly begun crochet projects, projects waiting-in-the-wings...all these in the midst of summer trip gear-ups, family visits (DP's lovely mom arrives today from Connecticut!), recipe tests, auditions and dog walks.

Just yesterday, in the midst of multitasking, I stopped scribbling on post-its long enough to spend a few summery hours with Kathleeny. That is: if your idea of summer involves eating a bowl of spicy soup and crocheting tiny strings of cotton pima into placemats. I just wrote that and laughed out loud. I can think of several people for whom an afternoon doing both (or even one) of those things would be Hell on Earth. We, however, were in heaven.

We had the best conversation about our lack of exposure to spicy/adventurous food, both having grown up in the Midwest. In my house, we mostly ate in--(tuna noodle casserole, anyone?) but my dad was a salesman for a restaurant supply company so we used to accompany him to a handful of restaurants that doubled as his clients. With that exposure you think I'd have been an intrepid eater, right? Nope. I would only eat spaghetti or hamburgers, even at the one extremely exotic Mexican place we frequented. (It was so exotic that they had a cheeseburger on the menu.)

Kathleen said she couldn't recollect ever seeing salt and pepper in her house. She told me the best story about how, as a kid growing up in frigid Michigan winters, she would eat Barbecue flavored potato chips at outdoor football games because she thought they would warm her up. You know, because they're spicy. How awesome is that?

Well, I suppose we've come a long way. I'm sure moving to California (and becoming an instant vegan) halfway through my childhood forced me out of my comfort zone. It's probably also why I can't get enough Mexican food now--I really could eat it nearly every meal--those tomato/cilantro/avocado/chile flavors rock my world.

Here is a soup recipe I wrote that neither myself nor Kathleen grew up with: it contains salt and pepper, it's not a cheeseburger and it's more spicy than BBQ Lays. It's pretty ballsy to give you a recipe for soup when it's literally 90 degrees outside, but I'm risky like that. Sometimes, no matter the time of year, you just feel like some soup, don't you? This is one of my fave fave favorites that evolved over time--a standard chicken soup but with a tomatoey, limey, spicy twist. That lime juice brings it all together--it's SO tasty! Also? Super easy.

Mexican Chicken Soup
serves at least 6

2 bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 carrots, finely chopped
4 celery stalks, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 large (or more to taste) jalapenos, seeded and minced
2 bay leaves
salt
pepper
1 1/2 quarts chicken stock (6-7 cups)
1 15oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes (mine unexpectedly had green chiles in them--so either those or plain)
4T finely chopped cilantro
juice of 1 large lime, more for serving
1 ripe avocado, diced and sprinkled with a squeeze of lime and sea salt

Preheat oven to 350. Drizzle the chicken with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast on a baking sheet for 30-45 minutes or until cooked through. Set aside to cool.

Bring a soup pot (or dutch oven) to medium heat. Add 2T olive oil and saute the onion, carrots, celery, garlic, jalapeno and bay leaves for several minutes (with a good pinch of kosher salt and ground black pepper) until the vegetables are soft and onions translucent. Add the tomatoes and chicken stock, heat to just before a boil and simmer, partially covered, about 12-15 minutes. Add more salt if need be. It'll need be.

When the chicken is cool enough to touch, pull the meat apart with your fingers into bite-size shreds. Depending on how big your breasts are (the chicken's breasts, actually) you may not want to add all the meat. I added about 1 1/2 chicken breast's worth. Add it to the soup. Add the cilantro and lime juice too. Cook for another minute and then serve with a scoop of avocado on top and extra lime wedges on the side.



Happy 4th of July, Everyone! Hope you have a spicy Holiday weekend:)
xoxo
jolie

my weekend (in numbers and photos)...

Girls' nights: 1
Minutes at Girls' night discussing waxing, laser treatments and/or bloating: 20
Minutes at Girls' night laughing: 120
Heirloom tomatoes eaten on Friday: 2

Dishes prepared by me for Saturday night's dinner party extravaganza: 6

Sticks of butter hidden in dessert: 2.75

Dog hair vacuumed pre-party: 3 bushels (how do you measure quantities of dog hair?)

Frantic last minute trips to replace grill's empty propane tank: 1

Number of carmelized fennel, olive and gruyere pizzas grilled: 3

Number of carmelized fennel, olive and gruyere pizzas burnt to a crisp on the bottom but eaten just the same: 1

Total calories consumed: 10,000,000

Photos taken of entire event: 2

Number of photos of those that were ugly and/or blurry: 2 (see below)

Heirloom tomatoes eaten on Saturday: 2

Hours of robe-wearing, coffee-drinking and paper-reading on Sunday morning: 4

Awesome Movies seen: 1

Yoga classes attended: 1

Heirloom tomatoes eaten on Sunday: 1

Peony stop-n-smell admiration moments: 25

Dog hugs administered: 257

Tennis ball tosses thrown: 5,468,213

Dog walks taken: 5

Loads of laundry done: 0

Heirloom tomatoes left in house: 0

Here's to a great week!

xoox

jolie

lucy's the bomb

Our awesome friends Tim and Paula took their sweet pooch Lucy to Malibu over the weekend for a beach stroll.  She strayed away from them long enough to hook up with the Spelling-McDermott family during a paparazzi encounter.  It delights me to no end that she totally photo bombed these shots.

I asked Paula if Lucy was affected by her brush with fame.  She said Lucy asked if she could "change her food to something more suitable to a celebrity".  And she pronounced change SHAWNGE.  Looks like they've got a diva on their hands.

xoxo
jolie

baby leo's garland

I cannot get enough of this stinkin' garland.  The one I made six weeks ago is still hanging in my dining room despite the party being over for at least six weeks.  So when Veronica started asking me some questions about said garland to decorate her beautiful new baby Leo's christening celebration, I jumped at the chance to make some more.

Isn't it so happy?

Involved is an intense amount of cutting cutting cutting until your hand is cramped into a claw shape but I had company at my feet...

They hung it outside and it looked so pretty flowing in the breezy backyard.  

It was the most touching day with friends and family and singing and tacos in the shade.  What could be better?

xoxo

jolie

P.S.  you can find the pattern here.

carb coma

This past weekend I had the privilege of modeling for my lovely friend and amazing photog Rebecca for her Homeostasis Project.  It's a series of snaps where people are sleeping in unlikely places/positions.  We had so much fun shooting!

Happy Monday:)
xoxo
jolie

psssssssst....

The other night, while our (nerdo) men played video games, Kathleeny and I had a girls' night out. We went to a super-hip Hollywood sushi spot, really for the sushi over the scene and (as usual) we're pretty sure everyone thinks we're a lesbian couple when we go out for a nice dinner together.

We sat at a table next to this GIANT ear photo on the wall and it was imminent that this picture be taken within the first 60 seconds of being seated, despite the looks we got from adjacent tables.


Happy Friday!! Here are some fun things for you to click on...............


I want one of these to make envelopes pretty! Aren't they cool?

For Gloria: the best hair product EVER, and this yummiest multi-purpose balm that you can slather just about anywhere for this especially dry winter.

Peanut butter biscotti--need I say more?

These would be kick ass for a superbowl snack! BTW, go Packers!

I'm almost finished with this book and I need a new one. Any suggestions?

The most fun time suck? This website I just found. I [heart] it!


Have a great weekend:)
xo
jolie



P.S.  In the 24 hours that followed this post, I saw these two celebs at Whole Foods, ran into (and hugged) a person I don't know very well from auditions, saw this gal at said swanky sushi spot and almost asked this actress if I knew her from somewhere. Lord.