All That Glitters

This New Year's Eve, I'm sporting my grey Aerotek sweatpants and Denver Bronco's thermal , both made pour les hommes. Yup, thats right, I have chosen to sit this year out; mostly for financial reasons. So while I wait for my baked potato to cook in the oven, I thought I would showcase a sparkly outfit that I did wear this holiday season. Inspired by menswear, and passionate about ruffles and sparkles, I changed this simple button up shirt, to something a little more festive!

Basic black button up with white buttons

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Sparkly new crystal buttons

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Unique new festive holiday shirt! 

This is me rockin my new shirt at a company holiday party!

Location: Olive, a cool martini bar on Larkin & O'Farrell 

And here I am sporting my sparkles at dinner with a friend!

Location: Zushi Puzzle on Lombard St. (best sushi in the Marina!)

Happy 2011 Everyone... I'm excited 

Dreaming of a White Christmas

There are very few Christmas' that I have experienced without snow. Growing up in NY one could count on it to be frigid cold, and usually with snow and icicles by Christmastime. The two years I was not in NY, I celebrated the holiday in Denver, CO and it snowed the whole day long. This year I live in San Francisco, and thanks to a career in retail I am yet again unable to join my family back East. Californians swear that snow is not possible in SF, so this December I have chosen to embrace the rain as the closest form of snow I will get. The pictures that follow are from two different nights. The first; a night out with D to sip wine and soak in the holiday spirit in our new city. The second set are from today, a rainy Christmas Day in the city.

Christmas Tree in Ghirardelli Square

D has a wine membership at Celler 360 in the Square

Tasting the Zinfandel that D bought me for Christmas!

Union Square

Not exactly Rockefeller Center, but close!

A bird's eye view from the Cheesecake Factory on top of Macys!

Festive Trolley Car!

Reindeer about to take flight along the Wharf

The Pier 39 Christmas Tree! It smelled SO good!

City view of Pier 39 Tree!

But, of course, there is no place like home...

One year ago, I was sitting alone in my apartment on Christmas Day with nothing to do, and I started this Blog. It's a year later, and I find myself again sitting alone in my apartment. I am proud of what I have accomplished and experienced this past year. I take the good with the bad, and am always learning and growing. I have faith that 2011 is going to be exceptional. This time next year I will be writing to you from Niskayuna NY before I sit down to dinner with my most amazing family. 

Merry Christmas 2010 Everyone!

Dinner is Served

To entertain, among other meanings, is defined as the hospitable provision of the needs and wants of guests. This past Wednesday it was my pleasure to provide a lovely meal, and environment for which to enjoy it, as a means to celebrate a dear friends birthday. It has always been a dream of mine to host a beautiful dinner party and this week I got to start the foundation upon which I will learn and perfect the skills and techniques necessary to do well at playing host. While I take no responsibility as to the preparation of the meal, I did very much enjoy making my vision a reality. "I love it when a plan comes together," was my mantra for the evening, and my studio apartment never seemed bigger! Overall the night and experience was a great success and I look forward to many more gatherings in the future.

Feeling Crafty

In my parents never ending attempt to clean up our home in Upstate New York, they tend to come across some very interesting, lets call them "artifacts," from my past. My father would probably prefer to trash 90% of their findings, but my mothers method of cleaning is more to move the mess from one place to the next: in this case from NY to CA (I love ya Mom!) Recently I received the collection of six watercolor prints of classic sights in London, that I purchased my senior year of High School for around £5. Instead of adding to the clutter of my own closets, I decided to make something of my rediscovered treasure. To fill the empty space on the wall of my kitchen nook, I chose to get crafty. I purchased some two-tone frames from Walmart and fancy paper from a local shoppe, Paper Source. The physical construction was simple, just basic cut and tape. I fought my natural urges and went with asymmetrical placement on my wall... we will see how long it lasts! All in all it was a fun way to dress up and show off one of my life's many "artifacts."

Simple Process!

There was really no rhyme or reason to my picture placement.

The view from my couch into the kitchen nook!