easter delight

You can tell it's Spring when the Peeps are gettin' their Spray-Tan on.

Castro Street salon window, San Francisco 2006

crabster roll

We've been having beautiful sunny days here in SF this week; guess it's Indian Summer, pt. 2. Means you have to hang out in the park every chance you get, especially since it starts getting dark around 5pm. Matt got out of work early enough on a Friday to stop by the fish market on Valencia, and surprised me with crustaceans for dinner. Lobster for me, crab for him.


His crab was ginormous!! 2 lbs. This meant plenty of leftovers. So we picnic'd in Dolores Park the next day. The fog had already rolled into the Sunset, so we knew Golden Gate would be chilly, but ever sunny Dolores gave us enough sunshine to enjoy our crabster rolls and a little afternoon nap in the park.

Got Matt his new tee at the Noe Valley Harvest Festival. I like building up his wardrobe with handmade/local artist tees at craft fairs. The goldfish is saying "Where the f%@#'s my bicycle?", which is funny on a boy who goes through withdrawls if he can't ride his bike everyday.

We remembered that the fish & bicycle joke is that, "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle", so then he was worried it was some feminist/antifeminist tee. The phrase was actually coined from a philosophical text that said "A man needs God like a fish needs a bicycle". So our goldfish is either looking for religion, or a domestic partner, or maybe he really did just lost his bike. Must have parked it at the Main Library, cos that's where all ours got stolen.

Crabster Rolls
Lobster tail & one claw meat, roughly chopped
1/2 Crab body & leg meat
Mayo, one large dollop
1 Scallion, thinly sliced
1 tsp. Celery salt

Mix together in large bowl, adjusting mayo & seasoning to taste. Stuff as much as you possibly can into large whole wheat deli rolls, sliced open vertically. Enjoy in sunny park.

four barrels of delicious

Biking home from PARKing day, we stopped at a coffee shop I had noticed heading down Valencia that night. Turned out to be quiet the find. The interior has this science-lab furniture meets hunting-lodge look. Simple, earthy, manly. Dark wood. Spacious with not a lot of furniture. Giant coffee roaster taking up half the total floor space in the back. (Always a good sign in a coffee shop.)

Really simple, straight up menu - and delicious little nibblies to go with. The chocolate glazed donut sprinkled with pistachios I loved, and the almond croissant was completely killer. Matty & I fought over every last crumb.

We sat on stools at a long bench in the window - perfect for people watching. The lighting fixtures in the windows are these giant rope chandeliers - very DIY nautical-macabre. Spotting them across the street on my bike is what made me notice the shop. You know you're in for something because the lighting fixtures are so cool you have to go in and check the place out.

The very amazingest part - my decaf latte didn't keep me up and jittery all night in the least bit. So lovely to enjoy such a stylish hot coffee break on a foggy bike ride home.


Cute review here.

PARK(ing) day

Friday was PARK(ing) Day 2008, where groups take over a street parking spot, put money in the meter and set up a little temporary public park. Part eco-activism, part good times outdoors with friends. Genius.

I like the nice wooden benches they constructed outside of Ritual Coffee Roasters, complete with owl decoy decorations perched atop posts. They've always got a bike-hipster crowd hanging outside this place, so it kind of figures.

Further down the street was a great set up. Nice to see a little party on the side of busy Valencia, right? {Note fog rolling in in background. Doesn't stop us from enjoing PARK(ing).}

There were about five spaces combined here - two little lounge spots, a band rocking out, a sewing table and a psychiatric help booth (a la Lucy in Peanuts). The guy on the couch in the second spot was working on his laptop. Nice.

I liked watching the girl sewing on the left watching the band play on the right. We popped into Herbivore across the street - the chilly fog was making me crave their Creamy Marinara Gnocci sooo bad. The band played through dinner and we headed home on our bikes.

stitching supplies

Peppermills make good pattern weights.

Where I go to stock up:

1. Discount Fabrics (11th @ Harrison in Soma) - This location has the largest fabric selection with really great prices, plus a full selection of notions & thread and pillow stuffing by the bag-full. (Haight @ Masonic in the Haight) - This location has a small selection of patterns, great bag-making notions and a hit-or-miss fabric selection. (There are two more locations in the Sunset and in Berkeley.)

2. Stone Mountain & Daughter (Shattuck Ave @ Dwight Way, Berkeley) - The most beautiful fabric selection (Amy Butler, check! Denyse Schmidt, check! Imported prints from Japan, check!), plus Japanese craft supplies (Sashiko threads, bias tape makers) and yarn, buttons, trims, sewing classes... truly, truly addictive.

3. Fabrix (Clement @ 2nd in the Richmond) - Some real fabric jems can be found for a steal, don't miss the pleasures of pawing through the giant bin of buttons. There is a selection of patches, laces & trims, as well as dress forms.

4. Satin Moon (Clement @ Arguello in the Richmond) - Really beautiful selection, fantastic for home decor and Asian silks, not so great for budget shopping. Go and drool (just not on the silk!) & get inspired if you can't afford to buy.

5. Britex (Geary @ Stockton in Union Square) - Yes, it is just what a fabric store which is just down the block from Prada should be - gorgeous, gorgeous & pricey, pricey. Hop up to the third floor and find the greatest trims and buttons and doo-dads selection ever, the sale-remnants are on the fourth floor.

6. Mendel's (Haight @ Clayton in the Haight) - The owner made me cry when I interviewed for a job there, but I won't hold that against their oilcloth & funky printed fabric selection (rubber duckies, day of the dead, etc.)

7. Name Maker (online) - Printed ribbons and woven labels to adorn your finished goods, making you a bonafide designer, or at least looking like one. Dude, Martha loves them too.

being a san francisco yarn ho

Crochet "potted plant coasters" made from a rainbow of cotton yarns.

Here are the places that keep me stashed. (When of course I'm not knitting my momma's Starcroft yarn.)

1. Imagiknit (18th @ Sanchez in the Castro) - Cozy as Grandma's attic and packed floor to ceiling with yarns of every fiber & color, Imagiknit has a great book selection and their needle prices can't be beat. The comfy couch keeps the boy happy while I browse (manly reading material required). Say hello! to Marcie for me, she always has the most adorable vintage-chic outfit on.

2. Noe Knit (24th @ Noe in Noe Valley) - Beautiful and creative window displays (knitted sushi, a whole knitted coffee & donuts cafe setting) get you inspired before you even get in the door. Noe Knit has a fantastic selection in both classes, yarns & needles, and a sweet staff - plus the decor makes me think, "if I had a yarn shop, I'd want it to look like this."

3. Artfibers (Sutter @ Montgomery in Downtown/Financial District) - Tucked away up a staircase is this in-house-label-only yarn shop, making a trip to Artfibers feel like discovering a secret stash. Sit in one of the big leather chairs at the back and try their "yarn tasting" - needles, hooks and a little ball of each of their yarns waits for you to sample them. Then make sure to treat yourself to a couple skeins.

4. Atelier (Divisadero @ California in Lower Pac Heights) - Only got to press my nose against the glass and peek in the other day, but I hear lovely things about the yarn & classes here.

5. Urban Knitting Studio (Fell @ Gough in Hayes Valley) - The crisp, minimalist, chic interior certainly lives up to its name, and there is a variety of fibers too choose from, plus needles. Last time I was in the owner chatted with me about her WIP knitted cupcake from One Skein while she rung me up - nice to see what LYS peeps have on-needle.

evening walks

Sometimes we wander around one of the nearby neighborhoods after work, peeking into shop windows and smelling the myriad of of ethnic restaurant scents... and delight in little sights like a sky blue house under a sky blue sky.

craft in the city

Vintage buttons, limited quantities at Bluebird.

Some favorite unique craft stores in the San Francisco area that I like to frequent:

1. Juniper Tree (San Pablo Ave, Berkeley) - If you want to make lotions, soaps, lib balms, or stock up on essential & fragrance oils, Juniper Tree is the place. With all the ingredients, bottles, containers, scents and do-dads to concoct your own beauty products, they also have a super friendly and knowledgeable staff. Browse the adjacent shop to get inspired by the perfectly merchandised vignettes and pick out lovely gifts of soap, lotions and little knick-knacks. Dropping in feels like a real treat for the senses.

2. Flax (Market @ Valencia in Lower Market) - Mmmm giant paper room. So beautiful. Also fantastic for stationary (blank or letterpressed cuteness), sealing "wax" that works in your gule gun, fabric paints for silkscreening, and tiny stickum letters.

3. Pearl (Market btwn 5th & 6th in Downtown) - Excellent for two hard to locate items: Gocco screens & lightbulbs and generic acrylic yarn (for those starter scarves and quick gifts).

4. General Bead (Minna @ 7th in Soma) - Pick up a little clipboard at the front & jot down all the goodies you'd like from the large selection of crystals, beads, findings, clasps and cord decorating the walls. A kindly General Beader will bring your treasures to the counter for you while you enjoy the bead-encrusted hippie-colorful decor. Don't miss the hidden treasures upstairs!

5. Beyond Beads (Howard btwn 8th & 9th in Soma) - Pick up a tray and plop chunky strands of beads or bags of findings on it, then carry your stash to the counter to be counted out. Beyond Beads also has a selection of tools and freshwater pearls as well.

6. The Bead Store (Castro @ 17th in the Castro) - Tiny and intimate, The Bead Store is wonderfully filled with exotic, worldly beads.

7. Forbeadin' (Church @ 24th in Noe Valley) - Semi-precious gemstones, jewelry-making tools, gold findings, lampworked glass beads, czech glass and vintage glass beads, all make Forbeadin' a unique shop. Bonus points for the exceptionally whitty/corny name.

i pretend i live in paris in the mornings

On sunny mornings I walk over to Duboce Park Café to write in my notebook while having breakfast nibbles. Café au lait or hot chai accompany a buttery croissant, which I dip into the foam, making little melt-in-your-mouth bits of hot, gooey croissant with still-flakey edges. Sooo delicious. I get the feeling that this is not the most polite way to enjoy one’s morning pastry, but that makes it all the more illicitly enjoyable, n’est pas?

bay to breakers - the best day in SF

 For all of you unfamiliar with this most amazing of SF events: Bay to Breakers is a cross-city marathon held annually at the end of May, which starts downtown (near the Bay) and finishes at the end of Golden Gate Park (near the ocean – thus the name). There are plenty of marathon types who run, but for everyone else it is a costumed parade of drunken debauchery & keg-floats that meanders across the city starting around 8am and ending around noonish with various dance parties in GGP. Besides the elaborate homemade floats (usually equipped with DJ’s and drink stations, if not full-on kegs), there are also Centipede Runners – 10 people tied together running the race as a pack. It truly is the most insane and amazing thing.

We went with current-event themed Olympic costumes this year – I was the Torch and Matt was my Torch Security Guard. Here we are with a fine group of pilots (always a popular costume choice).

 Winner of most impressive float: Inflatable bouncy house. I don’t know how they pulled that thing with people inside, but it was amazing to watch it blow up in the middle of the street and then slowly wobble down the road.

Last year's float winner: Trojan Horse.  Where the citizens of SF construct these things pre-Bay to Breakers, I have no idea.  It's impressive.  This year's popular costumes included several Olympic hula-hoop/ping-pong/random sport teams, and many Juno girls with jugs of Sunny D with their track suited BF's.  Basically, anything involving old-school striped running socks is a good idea.


And at the end of the day, it’s nice to help the SFDW help with the clean-up. (You can tell it’s a good event when the city garbage guys let everyone hop on for a photo op while they’re trying to clean up the beer bottle-littered streets.)

the hottest day (and a dress to go with it)

Oh my goodness. It was 96 degrees today in San Francisco!
This is a city that year-round averages between 47 to 71 degrees. It should be like 67 on any given day in May. If I didn't have all the new Apron Wrap Dresses at Bluebird and up for sale on the website (hurray!), I'd be wearing one right now. They just scream for a hot, sunny day with a popsicle in one hand and a novel & beach blanket in the other. Don't you think?

bartered strawberry tart

A lovely girl came in the shop the other day, looking for help getting measurements for a bridesmaids dress. The dress was being made back in Michigan, where the wedding was being held, but the shop needed her measurements now to get the dress started. I said if she found out from the shop what measurements they needed I could probably help her out, which she was excited about since the tailor's had quoted her $50 to get measurements done. Asked what I'd charge, I said a cup of coffee sounded good, because it really doesn't take that long to measure someone, and I like bartering anyway. She came back a week or so later, just needing bust-waist-hips measurements, which took about a minute and a half to do. Having just had a cup of tea, I said I could go for a pastry, and she brought me that gorgeous looking strawberry tart as payment. Those are little gold-leaf bits for embellishment, and it tasted like honeyed sunshine. I can't imagine a happier exchange.

spring!

It is GORGEOUS outside today, so I am lying in Duboce park on my giant african scarf reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and watching the doggies run around in delight and a little girl in a pink dress blowing bubbles. With toes wiggling in the bare grass, it's hard to believe there is still snow on the ground in Maine. I feel breifly guilty, but go back to sunning. Got to live it up before the summer fog rolls in.

the eco dream-house

Biking back from the Farmer's Market Saturday mornings always brings random SF adventures. Today we passed by this house that we've biked by before and admired the quirky, eco architeture of, and it had an open house sign outside. So we stopped and said hi to the realitor in the doorway, who was nice enough to let us inside to check out the place. He even watched our bikes for us.

Among a million clever and sustainable design details was this amazing mural in the master suite (the lamps are for reading in bed). The roofdeck had living plant walls and there was a windmill in the yard that produces power for the house (there is second larger unit in the building that the owner lives in). The banister for the stairs was filled with circles cut from different sizes of metal pipes, and the entire upstairs was a kitchen-dining-living area, that screamed "host chic cocktail-dinner parties in me!" The shower in the master suite was covered in round pebbles so it felt like you were bathing in a mountain stream. There were bamboo plants outside the clouded first floor windows, providing privacy from the street and the coolest shadows on the glass from the inside (you could watch the bamboo stalks sway in the breeze). Check out more pictures at 1303 Alabama.

chinese new year parade

On dinner break from Urban, Matty meets me downtown on his way home and we discover the best location for Chinese New Year's parade viewing...  third floor windows of Macy's.

corona heights view

sidewalk messages

There were a few stenciled graffiti's around campus at Bennington and I always loved having these special markers in the landscape around you, little things to notice on your oft-repeated daily walks. Having little quotes to meditate on while you walk to the grocery store in San Francisco ain't so bad either.