Rise and shine on Saturday to catch some deals at a big estate sale at 527 N. Las Palmas. Treasures include fine jewelry (gold, platinum, diamonds, antiques and watches), a Wallace Bros Stradivari Sterling 98 piece flatware set, a huge collection of jade, scrolls and other Chinese decorative items, crystal and vases, Persian rugs, antiques, art and more. Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 10 to 3 on Sunday.
Later, for more shopping with a fashion flair, check out the raw earth wild sky holiday sales event, which runs Friday (today) from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 3 pm. at 937 S. Mullen Ave. Local designers Samantha Robinson and Karen Kananen will show their latest designs, and will also be joined by representatives from Alegria Bazaar (scarves and accessories), Black Orchid Denim (jeans, etc.), Badass Skincare (organic skin/body care products), Danehus (Danish homewares and gifts), Plume and Pulp (greeting cards) and TV show wardrobe featuring items from popular shows such as “How I Met Your Mother, ” “The Great Outdoors” and more.
Next on Saturday morning, you can join the folks at Hancock Homes Realty, 501 N. Larchmont Blvd., for a neighborhood safety meeting from 10 a.m. to noon. Guest speakers will include SSA Security Group and a variety of other local vendors and speakers, discussing safety, disaster preparedness, self defense, and earthquake preparedness. The event is free, but please RSVP to [email protected] or (323) 462-2748, and please bring a small dish to share with your neighbors. Coffee and bagels will be provided.
If you have young kids, another great way to spend the late morning on Saturday, starting at 11 a.m., would be the story time and book signing event with Matzah Ball Books author Anne-Marie Asner, the author of Hannukah with Noshy Boy and Friends, at the Miracle Mile Toy Hall, 5464 Wilshire Blvd. Matzah Ball Books were created to foster love for and pride in Yiddish and all things Jewish in the next generation of kinders. The event is free, but please RSVP at the link above.
Also for readers, the Friends’ of John C. Fremont Library, 6121 Melrose Ave., will be holding its monthly book sale on both Friday, December 1 (12-4 p.m.) and Saturday, December 2 (12-5 p.m.). As always, most books are priced from $.10 to $1.00, with cookbooks for $.50 and signed fiction for $2. Many items are also in very gently used, if not nearly new, condition, so would make great, highly affordable gifts for the readers on your list.
Later, for some hands-on creative fun, the Craft and Folk Art Museum will hold a Circular Knitting on a Loom Workshop with Tanya Aguiñiga, starting at 1 p.m. on Saturday. Participants will create their own circular looms and make large-scale tubular structures and vessels. Each participant will knit one structural piece during the workshop and take their loom home at the end. Cost is $90 ($80 for CAFAM members), and includes all materials.  Advanced registration required is required at [email protected].
Also in the art vein, at 2 p.m. on Saturday at the Petersen Museum, inventor, illustrator, performer, author and artist Pippa Garner will discuss her life and works. Over her 50-year career, Garner “has taken a gimlet eye to American consumer culture, especially the automobile,” with drawing being “a central medium for her practice.” “With little more than pencil, paper, and the occasional eraser,” says the Petersen, Garner “engineers playful models for living, thinking and being in a world full of dashboards, driveways and traffic jams.” The talk is free with museum admission, and light refreshments will be served.
Finally on Saturday, for even more art, head over to the Keller-Williams Larchmont real estate office at 118 N. Larchmont, for the 7th Annual Pop-Up Art Gallery event, from 6 to 9 p.m. Every year KWL opens its doors to the surrounding Larchmont/Hancock Park/Miracle Mile community and its clientele, transforming their offices for a festive evening of art, music, mingling, and good food and drinks from neighborhood restaurants and vendors. Works will be offered for sale by the artists directly, with 50% of each sale donated to Larchmont Charter School. This year, there will also be a special raffle for selected works.
Sunday this weekend would be a great day to take in another longtime pre-holiday tradition in Los Angeles, the LA Auto Show, which runs from December 1-10 at the LA Convention Center. This year, there will be more than 1,000 vehicles on display, as well as the opportunity to test drive many of the newest models.
Later on Sunday, it’s time for yet another big annual holiday-themed event: the West Adams Heritage Association’s Holiday Tour. This year’s installment is called On the Avenues, and features historic homes in the West Adams Avenues neighborhood.  The main event is a holiday-themed progressive dinner, with each course served in a different historic home. Unfortunately, the dinner tickets are already sold out, but there is also a self-guided Holiday Walking Tour, without food but featuring the same homes, on Sunday, Dec. 3, from noon to 3 p.m. The tour houses, all decked out for the holidays, include a unique Arthur Heinemann-designed Arts and Crafts home, a large Georgian Revival designed by Charles Shattuck, and a lovely Spanish Revival filled with charming, eclectic artwork. Tickets are $30 and available at the link above.Â
And finally, on Sunday, something that has nothing at all to do with the holiday season, a screening of the Oscar-winning Western, “Unforgiven,” at 7:30 p.m. at the American Cinematheque’s Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. In the 1992 Oscar-winning film, the iconic Clint Eastwood directs himself, as a former hired gun dragged back into his old life when he learns about a reward for killing some sadistic cowboys – only to run up against brutally self-righteous sheriff Gene Hackman. The movie’s dark, hard edge could be exactly the anti-holiday tonic that some people might be craving along about now.
Have a great weekend!
