Finally this week, the heat returned to NY - yay! Today is a little chilly, but I'm starting to get that feeling in my gut; the same one that appeared when school was almost out for summer. OK I admit it - the same one I get when I hear DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - Summertime ;-) I know come September I'll be praying for snow, but I'm just going to sit here a little longer and enjoy the tease that is Springtime in the City.

It is 701 years today since one of the greatest Scottish warriors was crowned King of Scotland. I grew up in Dumfriesshire, famous for amongst other things, the cave where after suffering defeat, Robert the Bruce went into hiding in 1313. He spent three months living a solitary existence at a time when The Wars of Independence were at their bleakest for the Scots, While evading capture by Edward Longshanks the first of England. Whilst in the cave and at the depths of despair, King Robert happened to watch a spider attempting to build a web - the spider would spin then fall, get up and spin again and again relentlessly until it eventually made the web. This gave Robert heart and is reputed to be the birth of the saying - If at first you don't succeed try, try and try again. King Robert then went forth from the cave on Cove estate, raised an army and won the Historic Battle of Bannockburn in 1314 - even though he was outnumbered ten to one. He established his claim to the throne and thus the beginning of freedom for Scotland. This photo is of the beautiful Loch Linnhe. There's something amazing about the sunsets in Scotland, and they're even better while drinking a cocktail such as the Scottish Sunset! Mix 4oz OJ, 1/2 Orange liqueur, 1 oz coconut rum, 1 oz grenadine, 1 oz scotch, add slices of lime and orange, and enjoy.

I watched “300” on IMAX two weeks ago, with my good friend Dino, a real Spartan no less! Tonight, I watched it again. There’s something about Spartans and Highlanders , I relate - we are one. Warriors. I immediately recognized the lead actor as being Scottish. There was something about the way he said “down’ and ‘done”( and if your Scottish, you'll know what I mean) - it reminded me of my elder brother, Ross, who has lived in Paisley, Scotland for the past 14 years. As soon as I got home from watching the movie, I googled the lead, and found out that sure enough, he is Paisley-bred. I feel complete. Somehow being able to recognize your own, makes you feel “one” with it all. Some of the greatest movie quotes of all time are now part of the history of this film, - “Spartans, tonight, we dine in hell!”, - “Give them nothing! But take from them everything!”, “Then we will fight in the shade.”, and my personal favorite “Madness? This is Sparta!” You can use this everyday – if you can’t be on time – “I’M LATE? - >:-O THIS IS SPARTA!”, or “I FORGOT YOUR BIRTHDAY? – “>:-O THIS IS SPARTA”, I promise.. it will work. Oh and to all who are interested, I have three brothers who all bare a striking resemblance to Gerard Butler ;-)

And you thought today was just another day? Today in history : 1513 - Don Juan Ponce de Leon, a former governor of Puerto Rico, discovered Florida. He claimed the land for Spain; 1657 - France and England formed an alliance against Spain; 1794 - Josiah G. Pierson patented a rivet machine; 1808 - Napoleon's brother Joseph took the throne of Spain; 1836 - The coin press was invented by Franklin Beale; 1840-The first successful photo of the Moon was taken; 1857 - Elisha Otis installed the first modern passenger elevator in a public building. It was at the corner of Broome Street and Broadway in New York City; 1858 - Eleazer A. Gardner patented the cable streetcar; 1861 - London's first tramcars began operations; 1868-The University of California was founded in Oakland, CA; 1881 - The Boers and Britain signed a peace accord ending the first Boer war; 1889 - U.S. President Harrison opened Oklahoma for white colonization, 1901 - Dame Nellie Melba, revealed the secret of her now famous toast; 1903 - The Wright brothers obtained an airplane patent; 1909 - British Lt. Shackleton found the magnetic South Pole; 1912 - The Dixie Cup was invented; 1918 - Lithuania proclaimed independence; 1919 - Benito Mussolini founded his Fascist political movement in Milan, Italy; 1951 - U.S. paratroopers descended from flying boxcars in a surprise attack in Korea; 1957 - The U.S. Army sold the last of its homing pigeons; 1965 - America's first two-person space flight took off from Cape Kennedy with astronauts Virgil I. Grissom and John W. Young aboard. The craft was the Gemini 3; 1972 - Evel Knievel broke 93 bones after successfully jumping 35 cars; 1983 - U.S. President Reagan first proposed development of technology to intercept enemy missiles. The proposal became known as the Strategic Defense Initiative and "Star Wars; 1989 - A 1,000-foot diameter asteroid missed Earth by 500,000 miles; 1989 - Two electrochemists, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischman, announced that they had created nuclear fusion in a test tube at room temperature. Wow, no ordinary day (according to www.on-this-day.com)

Sometimes I feel so happy about my life that I squeal. Not even just inside, actually out loud. Frightening! I think it’s so important to find happiness in the small things. Things that happen everyday. Like when I see the woodpecker on the tree, or the possum at night. I even got excited about having two raccoons fighting in my garden earlier this week. In the middle of Brooklyn no less! Children are the easiest examples in the pursuit of everyday happiness. The way my 1 yr old daughter’s nose wrinkles when she grins. My 2yr old boy’s “joker” smile, ear to ear. My eldest daughters loud hearty laugh – I glow inside. The way the first extra dark Swiss chocolate truffle just melts, when it touches my tongue, and the fact that despite my addiction to the above I still have a body shaped like a fender. Then there’s the fact that after 3 years of marriage and two babies in two years - my husband still can’t keep his hands off me, not that I’d ever want to stop him. That’s another thing – the feeling of unbridled passion and a love so deep you feel it in every move he makes; every single time I catch a glimpse of him. Just now I am completely absorbed in my boutique. Planning color schemes, furniture, and searching for the perfect things to sell, is just so exciting. All in all, the kind of happiness I have right now gives me that sick feeling in my gut, that drives me on, and no matter what I’m dealt, I can handle it. I believe if everyone looks at the small things and takes pleasure in them, life can be sweeter. Pass it on.

New Year – new questions… Not the “who am I - why am I here” variety, oh no - much more serious than that! More like “what is my signature perfume, and why can’t I find a style of dressing that is me”? Or here’s one – what drink am I? Am I a light beer or a martini?; and why can’t I make up my mind and stick to it long enough to be that me? Tonight I am a light beer, jeans tucked into over the knee boots, black T kind of girl.. But this girl is wearing Chanel No. 5. Doesn’t add up does it? I want to be the chic sassy lady a la Kidman or Monroe for that matter, who slept in this scent… but alas it just isn’t me. So do I go back to Armani, and keep the boots? Do I drink a margarita with that look? I mean really, none of this matters to anyone but me, right? And yet to me it feels like if I can’t even work out what my “look”, drink or scent is, then how do I find myself?… So that takes me back to the who am I question, I thought I wasn’t asking myself. I thought by the time I was heading toward the big 30, I would be a sorted individual. I believed I would have found the look, the drink, the real deal – the real me. I was wrong. I bought Dita’s book today, but only because the “Team” shirts aren’t out yet.

Last nights fortune cookie read "I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning to sail my ship." As the year draws to a close, I am not viewing its passing as a year lost, but rather a year gained - in knowledge, love and life. I wish you all a Happy New Year, and hope you get the best of the best in the year to come.

We put our Christmas tree up this week. I love winter, the smell of pine trees, crisp sparkling snow. I also adore wolves, bears, the wilderness, the Aurora Borealis… I knew even before I went, that I would LOVE Alaska. We honeymooned there in 2004. Mere words cannot do justice to its raw, untamed beauty. On a boat trip into the Kenai Fjords we saw orca and humpback whales, otters and porpoises frolicking amongst the ice and inky blue depths. As we sailed up close to a glacier, a chunk of ice sheered away and crashed into the water; the resulting wave slapped into the boat, causing us to rock violently back and forth. Very exciting! Very scary! One day we flew in a light aircraft into the wilds, past the majestic Mount McKinley, snow topped even in August. We landed on a lake, and rowed in a tiny boat towards shore, where we watched black bears fishing for salmon, and encountered a friendly (or hungry!) brown bear, who swam right past us. It was amazing. As is this little known fact: Alaska law says that you can't look at a moose from an airplane. That’s pretty a-moose-ing isn’t it. Moving on.. Just in time for Christmas, I offer you “The Swimming Bear”, mounted in white, size 14x11 for $100. This is a limited edition of just 20 prints. If you are interested please email me for further details. All proceeds go to the Children of Hope Foundation, a non-profit organization located on Long Island. With the help of donations they provide dignified burials for abandoned babies at the Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury. The Children of Hope Foundation advocates the Safe Haven Law, which was first passed in New York in 2000. According to the Safe Haven Law, a birth mother is allowed to relinquish custody of her child in a safe manner, and not be criminally liable for abandonment. A Safe Haven is a designated public place, such as a hospital, firehouse, EMS station or police precinct where a baby can be left, in a safe condition, so that it may be permanently cared for.

“Just give in to the ocean, the only way to tame your fear, is to feel her rocky motion” Maybe it’s because I grew up a stone’s throw from the rolling seas of Scotland that I’ve always loved the ocean. It’s got a hold on me that’s totally unshakable. It comforts my mind and soothes my soul. When I need to clear my thoughts, the only place to be is staring out at the murky indigo water, lapping back and forth. When I fight with loved ones, and salty tears abound, there is solace there. When I go jogging beside it in the morning, I inhale its energy and somehow I can run faster, breathe more deeply. When I lived in Los Angeles I would sit on the empty winter beach in Santa Monica, staring out at the Pacific, looking for answers to questions that would otherwise go unanswered. I would see shapes turn into shadows, turn into nothing, but maybe something. Being Scottish I am enthralled by folklore. When reading Seal-Folk and Ocean Paddlers - Sliochd nan Ròn by John MacAulay, I was suddenly transported to another time, huddled next to a fire, listening to his tales of the magical seal people of the Orkney and Shetland Isles in the far north of Scotland. The tale is that seals could assume human form, but could not return to the sea without their sealskin belts. It is believed that the male Selkies are responsible for storms and also for the sinking of ships, which is their way of avenging the hunting of seals. I just spoke to my mother in Scotland. She held the phone to the wind, which was, she said, an icy gust coming in from the Firth. Suddenly I felt as though I was there, beside the water, with the wind whipping through my hair, whilst I drew strength from the eternal motion of the lashing waves.

In light of recent events, here is the glorious Monica Bellucci, and some thoughts. Maybe in sharing these, I will put to rest some demons of my own. Some facts. I am a mother of 3. I am not Demi Moore. I do not have a personal trainer in my basement 24/7. Nor do I have a nutritionist on standby. I do have good common sense. Like knowing that if I exercise and eat less I will maintain a good, healthy weight. But like most women, every day I fight a war with the mirror. In the past I have suffered from very unhealthy eating patterns. Disorders. Cliché as it is, women and girls all round the world, right now, are “dying to be thin”. Literally. The sad news of yet another model dying last week, should be, but will not be, a wake up call to women everywhere. And yes, the age-old cry of the absolutely fabulous, “you can never be too rich or too thin” is a lie. In the past couple of months 2 models have died because they were simply too thin. Thinking one can exist on diet soda and lettuce, is not really thinking at all. What happened to the hourglass figure? Where have all the Marilyns gone? The same girl consuming 0 calories a day is the same girl wearing the pin up girl t-shirts, and cinching their waists with big belts, trying desperately to create curves. Why not just have curves? Women are women after all, not men. What is wrong with being 5’ 7” and a size 8? This I ask myself everyday, and yet still, I wonder what it’s like to be the size 2s I see on the rack. Do those girls have a better life than me? I seriously doubt it. Are they happier than me? Probably not. After all, I get to eat a few slices of pizza now and again, and not spend the next hour in the bathroom, wasting time amongst other things. I get to experience the scientifically proven mood enhancing chocolate, and the “good for your heart” red wine… without working out like a mad woman in order to get rid of those extra, unwanted calories. After all these years of being miserable on a diet, trying to be something, in all likelihood, I won’t ever be, I can now try to be content with who and what I am. Which, according to my husband is just about perfect.

With Thanksgiving less than a week away, I thought I should offer up a festive cooking tip. Domestic goddess, Nigella Lawson, knows the best way to roast the big bird is breast down. Suits you sir. And, as it turns out, suits the bird too. I am yet to get a dry turkey breast. And, for your enjoyment, here is the yummy mummy at her finest.

In school I studied Toulouse-Lautrec, and long before seeing the girls in his Moulin Rouge works, I yearned to be on stage. To work in theatre darling! I wanted to be the high kicker, with feathers in my hair and on my tail! There’s just something about a fishnet-clad thigh that makes a girl think that she too, can be that girl. Hands on hips, smile a mile wide, center stage – yes, that will be me. My newest adventure, here in the big smoke is, drum roll - I want to be a Rockette. I have set my goal. I have my plan, my dreams, that’s all anyone needs. When I was a little girl I would watch old films with my Grandmother; the musical “42nd Street” was a favorite. For those who have never seen the original 1930s film, you simply must. Here’s the deal: Unknown chorus girl steps in, to play lead in musical, and shines. I remember just before she takes the stage the director utters, "You're going out there a kid, but you've got to come back a star!" As I head towards my 29th year I realize that I walk around in an adult's body, feeling 5 years old most of the time. I act out things that adults do, but that’s all it ever feels like, an act, sometimes not even a good one. But, I learn, I become wiser. That’s all being an adult is, being wiser, not about gaining years, more about gaining knowledge. So there it is. I don’t want to be a star; I want to experience being a star. And maybe I’ll grow wiser in the process. And until the time comes for me to take high kicking center stage, I continue to rehearse this thing called life. And I can always look like a star until then, with the new line from OPI!. Maybe a feather in my hair on New Year's Eve. Fishnets for day - not a problem. So tap class here I come!

"Come and meet those dancing feet on the avenue I'm taking you to...Forty-Second Street."