Rima Suqi

Charles de Lisle made this awesome wood chair. With a chain saw. It took him a month.

It’s called the Soundlink. Works with your phone, i-whatever, laptop, etc. Amazing sound, size of a book, totally portable,  great for apartments (or the beach, etc.). Cover comes in a variety of colors. Starts at around $300. Check it out here.

An incredible, carved Carrera marble counter  (in the style of a Bottega bag) at the Northall Restaurant in London. Was so entranced by this I almost didn’t make it to the dining room (ps they have a 3-courses for £25 right now, with a glass of Laurent Perrier).

A Cosanti  bell is about as ubiquitous with a certain type of Design mafia as wearing a certain style of Ted Muehling earrings (for the record, I have both). Proceeds from sales of the bells go to Arcosanti, an “an experimental town in the high desert of Arizona, 70 miles north of metropolitan Phoenix. When complete, Arcosanti will house 5000 people, demonstrating ways to improve urban conditions and lessen our destructive impact on the earth. Its large, compact structures and large-scale solar greenhouses will occupy only 25 acres of a 4060 acre land preserve, keeping the natural countryside in close proximity to urban dwellers.”

Arcosanti was envisioned by Paolo Soleri, an architect from Italy who studied under Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin West. He started this project in 1970.

It’s hard to summarize but basically a bunch of people from around the world  live in this “experimental city” and work to build the structures, make the bells, run an onsite bakery etc.  Some volunteer, some are paid. If you want to know more, check out their site. If you are in the area, it’s worth a visit.

Here are some pictures from mine.

I made one major mistake when I climbed Kilimanjaro five years ago: I didn’t notice that my lip balm didn’t have SPF. After 8 days on the mountain, with no mirror, I came down to find a burned, peel-off-several-layers-of-skin, not-kissable mess.

Last week I was hiking in Arizona in 100+ temperatures under full sun. It was awesome (love those Romero Canyon pools, especially with a rattlesnake sighting) and this time my lips survived thanks to this product: the Advanced Lip Protector by Own.

Now, you’re probably thinking – so what? There are a lot of lip balms with SPF. True. But this is a roller ball that smells and tastes like a Jolly Rancher. Super smooth. Reminiscent of that Maybelline Kissing Potion my mom wouldn’t let me have. Pretty fabulous all around.

And it’s only $5. Buy it here.

My friend Tina’s house — with cacti growing from the roof.

My first “live in the wild” snake, spotted on a hike in Romero Canyon/Catalina State Park on the way to the pools.  My guide said it was a Black-tailed Rattlesnake: “they are not aggressive but they have a large venom yield and potent hemorrhagic toxin that can produce severe tissue damage and necrosis. Fun, huh?” It was really cool – coiled and rattling like crazy. Later we saw a Whip Snake chase a Gekko. Gekko lost.

PS No, I was not this close to the snake. It’s called zoom+ cropping.

People thought I was crazy to go to Arizona in August, but I’ve been several times. I love the scenery (the drive from Phoenix to Sedona is amazing) and resorts that are normally really not affordable become affordable. Sure, it’s hot.  And yes, it is a dry heat. You get used to it.

Thanks to Irene and a subsequently cancelled flight, I only spent one night at Enchantment. I’ve been here before, but stayed in the spa casitas. This time I stayed on the resort property.  Here’s the outside of my room, it was like a little house:

I preferred this spot to the spa casita for many reasons, but here’s the #1:

View + plunge pool. After dinner at night in the pool, with a beverage, under a ridiculously star-filled sky. There were so many shooting stars, I lost count.

I also had one of these Century Plants outside my room. They spring from Agaves, but only once (and no, it doesn’t take 100 years). I think they’re really sculptural and beautiful.

There was also an outdoor fireplace. Not something you’d want to use in August but probably heavenly in November (it does snow here).

People come to Sedona for lots of reasons – if you’re a spiritual type and believe in Vortexes, this is your place. Or you just might want to look at/hike along vistas like this all day:

The spa at Enchantment is called Mii Amo. They’ve got an outdoor pool an indoor pool (see below) a great restaurant serving healthy food you’d actually want to eat, a juice bar and a regular bar.

And in the waiting area a selection of magazines that speaks to the different interests here:

People often do not love it when you take pictures of spas so I’ll just show you the indoor pool, daytime and at night.

these are the outdoor treatment rooms:

They have a new treatment here called the Intentional Aromatherapy Massage.  Aromatherapy massage is not my favorite (Thai wins by far), but this one was different. Usually you are asked to smell 2 or 3 oils and to choose the one that smells best to you. The philosophy is that you respond to smells from plants that will heal some part of you that needs it. Here, the therapist laid out ten cards and chose me to pick the one with words that resonated the most – this could mean its how you feel right now or how you want to feel.

I chose one that she said many New Yorkers choose. Apparently people from the West Coast choose something very different but I promised her I wouldn’t divulge that -

On the back of each card is a recipe for an oil to be used during the massage. I love that mine had a plant  with the word “bourbon” in it -

Here’s the view from the massage table:

And here’s that pool again at night: