over the weekend, i went on the annual venice home & garden tour. every year community members open up their homes to people who purchase tickets – 100% of the proceeds go to NYA’s Las Doradas Children’s Center, a child care facility that provides full-time, education-based child care to low-income working families.

the day started out gray and cloudy but as we walked around and saw some amazing houses, the sun broke through.

the tour is self-guided – they give you a map and you can walk all around the neighborhood at your own pace and enter as many or as few homes as you please.

some interesting venice beach yard art… this house unfortunately was not part of the 30 selected houses to be in the tour.

some of the houses were amazing and some were just so-so.  it was interesting to see the eclectic mix of architects, landscape designers, artists, and builders who all had different and distinct styles.

- smiley

this is a very exciting moment for me! Mr. Kate is expanding and i would like to introduce you to a new Mr. Kate blog contributor - Sarah Stevens aka Smiley. she is a a hip, long-legged and ridiculously stylish young lass. armed with her camera, smarts and good taste, she will be writing and posting on the Mr. Kate blog under all 4 of our Mr. Kate categories: Personal Style, Interior Style, Food & Health and Self & Global Awareness. Mr. Kate is becoming an online magazine of sorts, a place where you can get a daily dose of info and inspiration. i will keep publishing my own daily blog posts and act as editor for the growing Mr. Kate team of savvy, cutting-edge peeps and their informative and beautiful posts! so please meet Sarah…

“hello! i am Sarah and i’m excited to say that i am now a part of the Mr. Kate team.  i grew up in Venice Beach, moved to New York to attend NYU, and after graduating with a major in Environmental Studies; i am back in sunny Southern California.  some of my favorite things include…. my dog Kilo, music festivals, Neil Young, road trips, Stevie Wonder, documentaries, hummus, Beach House, and Austin, Texas.”

this last Friday it was the Grunion Run! i had seen it once before when i was little on Malibu beach but i’d forgotten the fishy fantasticalness of it all. it was a small turn-out, grunion wise, because often the Grunion Run can look like this. joey and i went with our friends Zoe and Jake (siblings) to Venice beach to watch the grunion perform their mating magic show.

Grunion, i believe, are in the smelt family and each spring and summer is the time when they spawn in the sand. they are fish, but they lay their eggs out of the water. very odd and intriguing to watch, hence the hoards of drunk revelers cheering on this fish porn, if you will…

how it works: the female grunion takes the wave of her choice in and up onto the shore, then she quickly gets to work digging a deep hole with her tail. she inserts herself in the hole and lays her eggs, the male grunions then clamor to wrap themselves around the female and release their milt, yup, i said milt, and let it run town the female’s body and fertilize her eggs. the female then squiggles like her life depends on it, cuz it does, out of her whole and flops around, like a fish, waiting for the next wave to bring her back out to sea…. sexy?

the upside, was the excitement of spotting a grunion and then being able to get really close to her and observe this fish out of water. but the downsides were some of the obnoxious people, including the one child in his underwear and skull cap who insisted on yanking the females out of their holes and putting them in the pet gerbil container he’d brought with him, with absolutely no respect or appreciation for what the fish were attempting to do. i am not a murderer, nor do i have any murderous tendencies, but i wanted to kill this child! the next best thing, to flinging him out into the ocean, was to tell him, “you know, that is illegal, we might have to call the police to come and arrest you.” ( Zoe thought it was hilarious that i said “might”) to which he grumbled, “i’m gonna put them back, geez.”…..oh, so your goal is meaningless torture, where are your f*ing parents!??

there was also a guy who claimed to be the grunion awareness do-gooder man, but he picked up a female and squeezed her little tummy so her eggs came out (photo above). it was sad and upsetting, but maybe i missed the memo that he was a licensed fish gyno…….that’s what she said.

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todays cloudy day adventure took us to Venice Beach. Joey, Ali and i went to lunch at Seed, a macrobiotic restaurant, where we had some amazing burgers and bowls of seasonal goodness and mini vegan red velvet cupcakes! then we walked the boardwalk and debated getting tattoos…we didn’t.

some highlights: Ali’s orange rain boots, walking on the sand in wedges, a sneak peek of the prototype of a new ring i’m working on, an abandoned freak show, crazy painted walls, a psychic dog, and a lonely felt mustache that Ali spotted on the boardwalk…it was a sign!

my duds: Velvet dress, Target lace leggings and scarf, Kmart yellow jacket, vintage Dior leg warmers, steve madden boots, urban bag, all Mr. Kate jewelry including new ring (coming soon!). Ali’s duds: Hunter rain boots, american apparel shirt, random leggings and beanie, banana republic jacket, vintage purse, Mr. Kate jewelry (bow ring, screw you in black silver, black silver cereal ring).

Joey and i are watching Out Rage now. it’s a documentary about closeted gay politicians. it’s so fascinating/sad/maddening how their secrecy makes them hate the very thing they are, and thus vote against any gay rights measure. it is definitely a flaw in our culture that we don’t celebrate people for who they really are.

photos: me and JZ