In January, I started a fundraising campaign to support an incredible local non-profit organization, At the Crossroads, that supports homeless youth. The awesome thing about their annual I Think I Can Campaign is that they challenge folks to pursue their personal goals and dreams much in the same way that they encourage homeless youth to pursue their own goals and dreams.
Continue reading "I Think I Can // Line Dancing for Homeless Youth" »
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Happy Friday friends! Please make sure to check in on Monday. I'm unveiling the new Golden Year Blog design, and I can't wait to share it with you all.
This week some of my favorite moments were:
+ Learning how to Waltz, two-step and a new line dance at the Sundance Saloon! SO fun!
+ Eating a delicious lunch of swordfish at Boulevard
+ The Giants are 2-0 in the WORLD SERIES!!!
+ I loved hearing George Smoot and Saul Perlmutter speak at the City Arts and Lectures series.
+ I loved the first real rain of the season here in SF. It was magical. It finally feels like fall
Here are my most recent photos of the day for October:
We are headed to Las Vegas tonight to meet my mom and dad for the weekend to celebrate my birthday. I can't wait to see them, and I'm really looking forward to just the four of us spending time together.
Happy Weekend everyone!
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Last weekend I attended the first annual Unique SF show with my friend Rudy.
I was amazed by how much awesomeness they had on display. It's like they put it out all the types of things that I love because they knew I was coming.
like. . . on purpose. I found some great gifts for folks (and a few gifts for myself):
these are my fave. Unfortunately, I didn't get the vendor's card or any pics of their booth! shameful.
Can you see a pattern forming here?
Green + big tear shape + gold (in any combo)= my favorite earring combo ever.
Book mark this event for next year. Trust me! You won't regret it.
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Do ya'll know my good friend and Birthday Twin Tiffany?
We got to spend most of the weekend together, and as usual, had a blast.
On saturday I headed over to Teahouse to hang out for a while before we headed to a really cool event at West Elm (my favorite!!!) curated by sfgirlbythebay:
West Elm Emeryville + Etsy: We heart handmade art
I loved all the beautiful items by Good Measure. Perfect for gifts:
I loved Elizabeth Rosas Jewelry. I wanted Everything:
When I took this picture, I didn't even realize this was one of Etsy seller STUDIOPATRO's awesome prints:
and check out these beautiful cross stitched necklaces from Gamma Folk:
And then of course, I had my eye on some of the West Elm gems:
and, I had to get a few Maggie shots. She was being the cutest:
That evening we went to a collaborative art exhibition called the "Round Table [Collaboration] Postal-Collage Project No.1" that Tiffany contributed to:
There were several teams that participated in the art project, and each team had five or so members.
Each team member started their own piece and then it traveled by mail to each team member who each added their own touch to each piece until it came back to the original artist to be completed.
Here are the pieces in Tiffany's group:
Fanny and I loved this piece from another group:
We finished the evening with a beautiful dinner from my new favorite place (I mean-it was Tiffany's new favorite, so of course it would be mine too!), Bowl'd:
Great Food. Great Fun. Great Art. What could make a Saturday better?
Hope you're still smiling from the weekend-
Mere
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About a month ago, our friends Bridget and Will left San Francisco to move to the East Coast.
On their last night in town we accompanied them on a fancy dinner at Saison, a restaurant just a few blocks from our house. I'm pretty picky (read=don't stray much from my simple pizza/nacho diet), so I have to admit I was a little nervous.
I'm trying to open up my horizons (I mean you have to when you live in such a foodie city), so I promised myself (and my friend Lisa) that I would at least try everything.
If you are looking for a place to celebrate a special event, or you're a foodie visiting SF, this is your place. Here are our friends Bridget and will on their last night in town:
You can tell I look excited (and kinda nervous! ha).
This place plays awesomeeee music by the way. When we walked in they were playing Michael Jackson.
Here's the menu:
There were several surprise dishes that weren't on the menu.
Here's the food in no particular order.
Sorry I don't remember all of the names of everything. I'm not very good at food documentation. I didn't get pictures of everyyyything because I ate some of the things before remembering to take a picture. :)
an oyster:
There were like 5 desserts. srsly
Then they let us come inside the kitchen! Very cool. Look at Viet. He just jumped right in and started asking questions.
and crackin jokes. :) ha.
It was a magical night.
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Yesterday my friend Mary and I took a glorious walk in the Presidio. I've never actually walked any of the paths in the Presidio, so I was pretty blown away. It was so nice to spend a few uninterrupted hours to talk with Mary and to be out in the fresh air surrounded by so much beauty.
This is a natural lake : mountain lake
I never get tired of seeing the bridge. It takes me back to what it felt like the first time I came to San Fran. They city seemed so magical then. It still does of course in some ways, but it's easy to get up, go to work, come home, repeat and to forget that I'm living in a place of such beauty. It was nice to have a reminder.
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I'm grateful to my good friend Stacy for passing along this awesome opportunity from the magical publisher Chronicle Books. Through their 2nd annual Happy Haul-idays Giveway, they are going to support one lucky non-profit organization with a "haul" of $500 worth of free books, along with$500 worth of free books for one lucky blogger
andddddd. . .
wait for it. . .
$500 worth of free books for one lucky blog reader who comments on the winning blogger's post!
That's why you need to comment on this post so you'll have a chance to win $500 worth of books with me! If I win, I'll choose one lucky commenter to receive $500 worth of books.
Does this seem too good to be true to you too?
Check out Chronicle Book's mission: "Inspired by the enduring magic and importance of books, our objective is to create and distribute exceptional publishing that's instantly recognizable for its spirit, creativity, and value. This objective also informs our business relationships and endeavors, be they with customers, authors, vendors, or colleagues."
Incredible, right?
To enter to win, each blogger must identify which non-profit they would want to receive the haul of books along with the list of books they would like to receive. I would nominate:
I would love for Chronicle Books to support Raising A Reader (RAR) with this great giveaway. Their mission is to engage parents in a routine of daily “book cuddling” with their children from birth to age five to foster healthy brain development, parent-child bonding, and early literacy skills critical for school success. RAR seeks to ensure that all children will begin kindergarten with a love for books and ready to learn to read. RAR provides weekly bags of books to children's homes on weekly basis. They also provide parent training and information on how to effectively share books to promote family literacy habits, language and literacy skills, and a love of learning.
An early love of reading has shaped my entire life. Each book I read growing up has helped to shape who I am. I believe that RAR is performing such an essential service by helping to bring the magic and appreciation of books straight into children's homes, and I would love for them to have the chance to benefit from $500 worth of Chronicle Books!
--
Check out my list of books and then comment below for a chance to win!
xoxo
Mere
I. First up--Fooood books.
Got Milk? The Cookie Book by Peggy Cullen
more than 50 cookie recipes? Yes please.
Tartine by Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson
I've been coveting this book for a while.
I love Macarons by Hisaka Ogita
The Domain Chandon Cookbook by Jeff Morgan
The Commonsense Kitchen by Tom Hudgens
The Big Book of Breakfast: Serious Comfort Food for Any Time of the day by Maryana Vollstedt
II. Knitta Pleaseee
Baby Knits Kit by Sara Lucas
with a 2nd nephew on the way, I've got some cute little knitting to do!
Hats, Mittens, & Scarves Deck by Andrea Tung
A Life in Stitches by Rachael Herron
III. Craftiness
Paper + Craft by Minhee and Truman Cho
I love paper crafts. I want to make allll of these things.
Amy Butler's Style Stitches by Amy Butler
Handmade Weddings by Sabrina Moyle, Eunice Moyle and Shana Faust
6 months and counting in two weeks. nuff said.
The Liberty Book of Home Sewing by Liberty
Craft Inc. by Meg Mateo Llasco
Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing
IV. Whimsy. My friend Fanny first told me about these books, and of course, my heart melted. I have wanted to get them ever since.
Griffin and Sabine: An Extraordinary Correspondence by Nick Bantock
Sabine's Notebook: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Continues by Nick Bantock
The Golden Mean: In Which the Extraordinary Correspondence of Griffin & Sabine Concludes by Nick Bantock
V. !!!
Ultimate Book of Jokes by Scott McNeely
I. Love. Jokes.
Apartment Therapy Presents: Real Homes, Real People, Hundreds of Design Solutions by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan with Jill Slater and Janel Laban
Fortune Telling Book For Brides by K. C. Jones
VII. For Kai (nephew) and Jori (nephew on the way)
One Love adapted by Cedella Marley based on the song by Bob Marley
A Dog is A Dog by Stephen Shaskan
Petite Collage Mobile by Lorena Siminovich
Moma My Museum
Julius! I Love Color! by Paul Frank Industries
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If you're going to be in San Francisco tomorrow evening and you don't have plans, you should totally head down to the Dogpatch to join The Bold Italic in an awesome event to highlight the microhood.
"micro · hood - n. A piece of a neighborhood, perhaps only a block or two large, so glorious that it deserves its own name; i.e.: Dogpatch is a shining example of a microhood." -http://thebolditalic.com/events.
Check out the details and RSVP here.
I work very close to the Dogpatch/maybe technically in the Dogpatch? and it rocks.
We often make weekly visits to the best Ice Cream in the hood: Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous.
Me and my coworkers will definitely be in attendance to this awesome event, and you should come too! I'm looking forward to supporting one of my favorite microhoods in SF.
Hope to see you there--
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Viet and I went out for Date night on Friday. We had dinner at a favorite spot in the Mission: Luna Park.
Dinner was delightful as to be expected. There was a particularly odd couple seated next to us. The girl seemed to be falling asleep at the table and highly intoxicated (around 8:30pm). Her date was yelling at her loudly. Things such as: "I love you! Look at ME! I love you!" and then "GO. TO. THE. BATHROOM." over and over again. It was quite a scene. They finally left before they had ordered.
Anyways, we still had a lovely evening.
First we ordered cocktails:
Then I had a Delicious corn chowder. It was so good, and I ate it so quickly, that I don't have any pictures of it!
Viet had the Muscles:
and they came with fries! bonus!
We both had the same main course--the beef brisket:
the brisket was very tasty even though I didn't realize it would come with shaved horseradish (I hate horseradish), but I was able to brush most of it off.
and for dessert:
This was the only disappointing part of the meal for me. I love apple crisp, but this one was a bit to dense and had too much cardamom.
Still, overall it was a delightful meal and date :)
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I heart SF because there are so many awesome places to visit that are within driving distance. Here's a few sneak-peek snapshots from our very busy but awesome weekend.
Saturday in Reno staying at a friend's house for a party:
Sunday in Sonoma for a beautiful wedding (more to come):
and Monday up in the Redwoods Zip-lining (more to come):
We had such a fun-filled weekend. How did you spend your holiday?
Next up: Zip-lining in all its glory.
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