The Trip To Telluride - Part One

I have decided that you're really not on vacation unless you leave your computer at home, which is what I decided to do on my weekend jaunt to Dallas and Telluride.  All hell may have broken out abroad but I had absolutely no idea about it.
I was strictly on vacation.
It started early Saturday morning with meeting up with the group of my fellow travellers at the Van Nuys Airport.  I rarely take vacations but having been offered the option of travelling by general aviation rather than commercial, I couldn't say no to this trip.  It's an unbelievable luxury to be able to drive your car right onto the tarmac, unload your bags and then have your car valet parked for you....not to mention avoiding the crowds and the TSA.
So we were off on a quick 2 plus hour flight to Love Field in Dallas for an early afternoon wedding.

Here is the view of the airport with the skyline of Dallas in the distance.
The wedding ceremony was held at the pretty chapel at SMU and the reception was held at a nearby country club.

Out of respect for the bride and groom I didn't take photographs at the actual wedding but I wanted to show you this photo of the flowers at the reception.

The wedding party sat at a V shaped table set with towering glass vases overflowing with white flowers and spot lit for dramatic effect. It was stunning.

The reception went on as receptions do, dinner, speeches, dancing, drinking...
and after a few hours we got the universal signal that it was time to take our leave,
which of course was when the DJ put on "Play That Funky Music White Boy".
Is there some special DJ code that this particular song always has to be played at the most white bread of weddings?

The next morning, after a brunch at the home of the bride's parents, we were off to the airport for the 2 hour flight to Colorado.
Here is the little Cessna Citation that we flew in.

The flight was uneventful, except for the severe turbulence that we hit as we descended over the mountains on our approach to Montrose. For the record, severe turbulence is when you are lifted completely out of your seat and you hit your head on the top of the plane. Thank God it only lasted only couple of minutes.  While I had complete confidence in the competence of the pilots, and while I was fortunate to have been holding a goldendoodle puppy in my lap which kept me calm,  I'd rather not have that particular experience with severe turbulence again.

Once we landed, we piled into our huge SUV and drove up into the mountains. 
It had just snowed the previous night and the storm had passed over
so everything was white and bright.

Here's a view of the mountains from the car. We had the most incredible weather, cold but clear.

Finally, after an hour or so we arrived at our 4 story townhouse in Telluride MountainVillage. 
The house had an amazing view, but being situated at above 10,000 feet altitude was an issue.
I'll post photos of the house tomorrow.

A Week of Wardrobe Challenges and Beladora In Black And White

We've had so many great posts from blogs such as Passage de Perles, Make Do Style and  A Femme d'un Certain Age challenging us to dress with style with a limited wardrobe and now ELLE has featured the Fabiola Beracasa 30 Day wardrobe challenge on ELLE.com
Have the babes at ELLE have been checking out the blogosphere?
I wonder.

Meanwhile I have a wardrobe challenge of my own coming up this weekend as I have a wedding to attend in Dallas on Saturday then Sunday and Monday will be spent in Telluride. So travel clothes, dress-up clothes and ski clothes will all be needed for a 3 day trip.   
It would be easy to pack if I had closet full of clothes from Goresuch, which is one of my favorite online stores. But I don't, so I have no idea at this point what I'm going to wear.

Meanwhile, while perusing the site I found this ELLE TV video


Beladora looks good in black and white!

Billionaires Behaving Badly or Opulence Abounds Barry Diller Style

I've been enjoying Gawker today, so I thought I'd share with you the Monday mirth

While Barry Diller has denied raises and bonuses to his IAC staff for the third year in a row
he hasn't cut back on his own spending, at least not on decorating his office,
which apparently needed a new carpet...a $1,000,000 silk rug.

Well, we know that he's not shy about spending
Diller's luxe tastes are no secret, of course. He got dinged in the press earlier this year when it was revealed he spent $4,600 per day in IAC funds on personal travel during 2009. (It isn't cheap to hop from place to place aboard a $45 million Bombardier BD-700.) And he spent more than $200 million on the world's largest sailing vessel, the 300-foot-long Eos, which features a crew of nine as well as and two chefs. From 2000-2010, he was the second best-paid executive at a public company, right behind Oracle chief Larry Ellison.

Of course nothing can be too good for the CEO of a publicly owned company.

Note: the Diller private jet

and the Diller Yacht

Obviously, these belong to the man not the corporation.
Still it's hard not to imagine what the IAC employees feel about all of this.

I suppose that the institutional shareholders of IAC stock think that of this is all OK.

And speaking of Billionaires Behaving Badly...don't even get me started on Berlusconi...