I could spend hours on flickr browsing the gorgeous photography people are creating. It is amazing! Inspiring, makes me want to travel, or wander with a camera for days. It gets me thinking about the days in high school when all I wanted to do was photograph. I had a 35mm slr camera, it was a Minolta, i loved that thing! It was all manual but had a light meter… I would shoot plus-x or tri-x film and develop it at school. Things are so different now, with digital you can shoot all day and not worry about buying film or developing (messing it up possibly in the process). The contact sheets are gone, now its iPhoto or Aperture (or flickr) to see them all in a row and choose the best enlargements.

I am really wanting to do some photography… Meanwhile here are some thumbnails — click on a thumbnail and browse the images on flickr! These artists are amazing. NOTE: these images are all random, can’t vouch for the content of any of them.

this ad caught my eye.  When I first saw it, i thought these rings are gorgeous, and it stuck in my mind, maybe it was the citrine one, with it’s amber gold color, and the thought of it being a simple, classic, pretty sterling silver ring, and even thought, maybe it is affordable? WRONG. I looked at Tiffany’s and they are going for $800. It is a 9 carat emerald cut stone, but really? Maybe it is because it says Tiffany & Co on the side of the setting? Well I thought I’d shop around a bit and I was surprised at what I found. There are some deals out there. Especially if you want to go faux. You can definitely get a real emerald cut birthstone (citrine, topaz, amethyst, etc.) with a sterling silver setting for a lot less.

I grew up loving anything Marimekko. Fabric, colors, the graphic quality of their products… I especially loved my Marimekko messenger bag. It was huge, and had the foldover flap with a zipper pocket. An adjustable strap too. I had a brown one and I dragged that thing all around school! It finally wore out and I ended up trying to sew my own version out of red canvas. It wasn’t the same, close but not quite…  I think at the time, I couldn’t afford a new one, or maybe couldn’t find one, so I took to my sewing machine. Looking at the same bag on the Marimekko site brings back memories. It is 15.75″ wide with plenty of room for school books.

I love the bold shapes and colors of their timeless poppy design… it seems everything they do is well thought out. I am really thinking about getting one for my Mom for Christmas! But which bag? There are many to choose from… When googling Marimekko bags, one site had a column off to the side with “related items” and lo and behold they had the black and white “Sophia” bag from etsy shown (I’ve mentioned it below)..

just thinking back on last year and all that we’ve gone through…  We had the opportunity to go to NYC and had the BEST time. Of course having many of the expenses paid by abcnews didn’t hurt. As a kid, I always wished I could go live in New York, as a dancer, or a designer, or artist, fashion designer, photographer, magazine editor… I knew it had to be something fabulous… but I always imagined myself in the “big city” somewhere.

I grew up across the bridge from San Francisco, I lived there in college, and now live about an hour away (sans traffic). San Francisco is beautiful, I love San Francisco, and hadn’t thought much about New York and my New York dreams in a long, long time. When the opportunity to visit NYC came up, I was nervous, thrilled, everything! I had no idea I’d love it so much. Whenever NYC is shown on TV, I ask my husband “Hey when are we going back to NY?” :)

Next time we go, I’m definitely going to Tiffany’s.

Here are a few snapshots from last year.

There, I said it. So many people seem to hate the rain. I would always hear it from co-workers, friends “ohmygosh I totally hate the rain don’t you?” or “what an ugly day” and it seemed they all assume everyone hates rain or they’d look to me to say “oh yeah me too, it’s terrible” etc. And you know, for years, I’d just nod absent-mindedly. Why didn’t I ever express my opinion? Maybe I wasn’t sure I liked the rain? 

Now I know, I love it. OK there are some caveats: I don’t really enjoy driving in it… it can be scary… and I have spent many MANY an hour in my life standing in the rain waiting for the bus or streetcar, which is pretty rough. But other than being stranded in it or driving scarily in it… i LOVE It. I love watching it pour down the street, i love the droplets on the windows of the house as you look out… I love hearing it on the roof!! I secretly wish it would rain harder if it is just sprinkling. It washes things clean, it is a fresh start, it nurtures the ground. It is dramatic and stubborn and doesn’t care what anyone thinks!

Living in California we have some pretty good weather, easy enough to manage, no hurricanes or snowstorms. We get sun, fog, rain, wind and sometimes hail. When it is super hot, everyone complains, when it rains, everyone complains. When it is just a normal 70 with puffy white clouds, it is rare to hear people say it is a gorgeous day. It’s more fun to complain I suppose. 

It is what it is — that’s the thing that clicked in my a while back … no matter what the weather, you can’t change it, you can’t control it, you can spend hours complaining or being pissed off, but it just IS. It IS raining. You can find some kind of joy in it, or make it a bad day. OK it’s not raining here, I think it is in the 60s and kinda bleh out there. Is it awful? no. Did the roof blow off? no. I am thankful for today’s bleh weather, and I won’t complain, because it wont do me any good.

I can hardly believe it is the day after Thanksgiving already. I am doing a little browsing/shopping online to maybe buy a few gifts. I have seen some good stuff, and have put things into “shopping carts” but haven’t checked out yet.

Every year I try to keep it simple… I’ve got a list of people to shop for, I think I’ve got everything under control… but there are always things that pop up — like a hostess gift, or I see something for someone that isn’t really on my list but I just want to get them something :). The toughest is the kids… This year they are emailing me wish lists to choose from which will help tremendously. I’ve warned them that money is a bit tighter this year. It’s not easy for me because I really do just want to splurge on them. 

One of the toughest things of all is not buying stuff for myself when i see it. Am I nuts? I can’t be doing that! This year I made my own email wish list for my Birthday gift back in October. It is awkward to say the least… to put a list together of things I want. It feels so princess-y to do it. I feel self-conscious like “am I asking too much?” But seriously, awkward as it is, it is a good idea to let people close to you know what you like, it helps everyone to find a gift that will be “just right”. I always get so happy when I KNOW i am giving something they will like instead of HOPING they will like it. It is so fun to get them something they love.

So make a list, and get lists from your peeps!

at re-nest, they’ve got a million fantastic ideas of how to reuse everyday things. I haven’t spent much time reading over there, but came across this, in contrast to some of the maybe-not-so-great ideas at martha’s site (mentioned below)… on top of that, the reader comments add more ideas to the list. Bonus tips.

ideas included: use for water, bring coffee to work, store grains, coins, soup, bring food for lunch, use as a drink shaker… flavored oils, the list goes on because of the great reader comments. I am now inspired to de-label and re-use my tomato sauce jars. 

I have a box of mason jars in the garage that i bought to put leftover bits of paint into. The paint cans always seem to rust or gunk up and the jars are supposed to prevent that… reading the re-nest blog reminds me that there are things around us that can be used and you don’t need to go buy something every time you need a container.

 

Lots of people around me are having babies. It is wonderful to see and hold these little angels. Nowadays (i hear) that putting them in a crib with a blanket is a no- no… what to do? I remember putting my girls in those little layette gowns with the zippered bottom. A sleep sack. Or those footy-pajamas. It worked really well. You just want to make sure they are warm! We used to swaddle them up really tight too. Well on etsy again today i came across this cute-as-heck baby cocoon. Handmade, snuggly, beautiful. I’m sure as the babies get bigger they would kick and kick that thing off but wow what a great idea to knit something like this for a little angel. Adorable!

Another bag crush… I found this one on etsy today. I am crazy for anything with a black and white pattern on it. I really want to design bags, and when I see something like this I think oh wow I could make that… but yeah i’m sure I’d mess it up if I tried. Click on the photo for more info at etsy!

I love white dishes. Something so simple and clean about that. I have the most basic dinnerware and it makes me happy. I came across this bowl while browsing pier 1’s website. It really looks like it is begging for some apples or oranges, how about lemons?  Great gift idea if you’ve got someone on your list that likes white dinnerware, a unique serving/display bowl. Flowers would look great in this one too. good stuff.

i just love to hate martha stewart. I can really appreciate her ability to make everything super-perfect and bright and shiny happy good etc. It’s the same thing with real simple magazine. I’d love to have the time and patience to get everything just “so”… I barely have time to sit and read a magazine. I’m always on the computer! Well I thought i’d take a look at over at my nemesis’ site  and see what’s new over at marthastewart.com.

I’m not feelin’ the thanksgiving decorating or holiday decorating stuff. I’m not much of a chef or gardener, but I love love love interior design and organizational type stuff. Her “organizing tip of the day” page is gorgeous, and i love how she’s got a month’s worth of tips lined up, each with the clickable glamour shot. I’m not really sure any of these tips are that good. They LOOK good but are they good organizing tips?