Summer Adventures Continued- Summer Nights

One of my favorite things about summertime is warm summer evenings. Growing up in the midwest, we had a lot more than we do in California. I remember the smell of bbq chicken on the grill, a baseball game on as back ground noise and having all the windows and doors open for the cool evening breeze just as golden hour began. This summer had its fair share of gorgeous summer nights, some highlights for me:

Favorite beligian beer, cigars and live DMB on the back porch. It was the first warm night of the season and was so enjoyable.

Watching 4th of July Fireworks in Atlanta...well half of them. Sitting out on the patio with a cocktail and some good college friends. The family at the table next to us swore we would be able to see them from the restaurant....they were only half right.

S'Mores with Griki and the rest of my California family in their backyard. On the other side of the hills you definitely get more of the 'warm' summer nights. These have been the ones that hit closest to home for me usually complete with home cooked meat on the BBQ and a Giants game on. I think only the Lakehouse would surpass this.

There was a drive-in movie theater in one of the {many} small towns I lived in growing up. I remember going to see a few movies there and have always wondered what it would be like to go back to one. I was intrigued when I heard about San Francisco's Movies in the park series and living closer to the parks I thought I'd take advantage. Even though its not 'warm' by any means, its almost more fun to snuggle up in your layers with friends and a bottle of wine and enjoy a classic movie, such as Clueless ;)

Of my trip to New York a few weeks ago, one of my favorite evenings was spent at a Jewish Deli near by the Empire State Building. We had been exhausted from a day of shopping, napped for a few hours at our hotel and then headed out for some pastrami on rye around 8:30pm. It was already dark, the city was quieter as they are on Sunday evenings. We enjoyed a casual meal, then strolled over to the Empire State Building where to got tea at the near-by Starbucks and just chatted. It was beautiful and relaxing.

I Heart New York!

I spent my 2007 summer interning in New York City and absolutely fell in love. The energy, the architecture, the people, the culture...I don't know where you can get much better. I've been back a few times since and when my friend, A, asked me to join her for her Birthday trip I was happy to oblige!

We stayed at, the historic, Union League Club in Midtown and had this gorgeous view of the Empire State Building from our room!

Since we both have friends that live in the City we spent Friday night on our own. I was able to meet E and our other former roomie L for some Tapas in the West Village. After E and I spent time in Spain we continued our Tapas crawl in SF so extending to NYC was only necessary.  Tertulia was delicious, so quaint and the staff (although they were skeptical about our ability to finish our Paella) was very nice.  It is unfortunate the SF dinner culture just isn't the same.

Maintaining our west coast time schedule, Saturday we got a bit of a late start. We adventured briefly to the Union Square Farmer's market, on to the East Village for Brunch and then Soho for some shopping!  

Saturday night all of our friends joined us at Sfoglia on the UES for A's Birthday Dinner! Again, such a delicious, quaint, but non-pretentious place. Honestly, the BEST sourdough bread I've had in my life...even after living in SF for almost 6 years!

Sunday we ate the most expensive salad's of our life at Bergdorf's and then continued our Shopping adventures. I had unfortunately come down with cold, so was lacking a bit of energy. We found our way to Ralph Lauren on Madison and after a glass of champagne everything was magically better!

We took it easy that afternoon. After a quick nap we ventured to a Jewish deli near by our hotel for some much needed Matzo Ball soup and, of course, pastrami on rye. We strolled the streets of midtown for bit and enjoyed a cup of tea at the acclaimed Starbucks :) It was the perfect evening to end our fantastic weekend.

We had a few hours to burn on Monday and we decided to head back to the UES to hit the stores we missed Sunday evening (Lilly Pulitzer!) and I was able to stock up on some Black and White Cookies before heading off to the airport!

Remember that Oscar De La Renta Dress?

When I opened my closet the other day and realized I have 2 problems: Pink and Blue & White Stripes. Although, I have so many already I absolutely fell in love with this number when I saw it on MrsCocoWyse. Even better, it's currently on final sale at Lulus for $27!!!

I wore it to my lovely E's going away party this past weekend. It was so elegant and comfortable!

...made me feel like I was walking around in this Oscar dress from a few years back.

Summer Travel Adventures!

Can you believe it's August already? The 8th month of 2014! The last month of summer! My summer has been filled with several adventures so far, kicking off with a trip to Mexico in the beginning of June! I'd never been and have been anxious to cross it off my list for the past year, though could never convince any one else to go.
Although it was planned before a nuclear bomb hit my life it ended up falling perfectly after the emotional hurdles and in the week transition between jobs. My favorite part was definitely the excursion we took to the Marietas Island where we snorkeled our way into the "hidden beach".
Wanting to enjoy the sunshine and be out on the water we also took a smaller "bird watching" boat trip from our main ferry and were surprised to see Blue, Red and Yellow footed boobies. The Marietas are the only other place outside of the Galapagos's you can seen them!

The trip to Mexico also turned out to be a bit bittersweet as E made the somewhat spontaneous decision to move to New York  3 weeks after we got back!

I was also able to travel for, my second favorite Holiday, the 4th of July! One of my college girlfriends has lived there for almost 4 years and I had yet to visit. I had also never been to Atlanta so I was able to continue crossing places off my travel list. We had a fun a filled weekend of Bloody Mary's (the bill on the 4th actually came out to $17.76), Deep fried everything,  Fireworks (well half fireworks), local beer, pool parties, 21 & 22 Jump Street, Cougar bars, wedding brainstorming and, yes, a late night visit to The Waffle House.  Her fiance is probably the best ever. We were planning on going out after the pool party and I didn't bring a change of clothes so he drove my bag all the way across town. We did convince him to go out with us so it wasn't all for nothing! Gotta love the southern chivalry...I don't think I opened my own door or pulled out my own chair the entire time. Get it together San Francisco.

Sail to Sable

I bought my first Sail to Sable dress about a month ago and am officially obsessed. I took it on a trip down to Palm Springs. The classic tunic cut is so elegant, flattering and easy to dress up or down. I bought the Libby (on sale now!) which was silk and perfect for the hot desert evenings.

I bring this up 1) because they just had a beautiful feature in April's Matchbook Magazine (PS I want to get Jennifer to come decorate my house!) and 2) because they're having a sale on their resort collection. Just in time for summer vacations or late spring getaways!

 I love the 'Fabulous Fringe' sleeveless, in this fun bright yellow!

 And how cute is the 'Shady Days Tunic Dress!

Wonderful Wedding Weekend {aka Summertime Saddness}

This summer has been really the summer of weddings for me, attending 5 in total, all over the state and country! This weekend was one for my former roommate out here. We met on craigslist about 3.5 years ago as we were both frustrated with the aggressive/expensive search for a city apartment and were running out of time before our current leases expired. I didn't have the balls yet to post an actual 'wanted' ad on Craigslist, so I started reading hers. Mid-Twenties. Just broke up with Boyfriend. Has nice furniture and cat (if possible). Sounded safe right? I sent her an e-mail and we both agreed to look at the last few places we had showings at in the upcoming weekend and then would get drinks and start our search together.

I went to look at this flat that had 2 rooms available. 1 was pretty tiny, but $100 cheaper than the other one. Moving from the 'burbs to the city I was already going up in rent quite a bit and had convinced myself I could live in the tiny one. The flat was gorgeous, lots of common space and the girls were nice. When one of the girls called to say they'd love for me to move in, they informed me the smaller room had been taken. I was devastated really thinking I couldn't swing the extra $100 a month and passed. I reached out to B {craigslist lady above} and she had found a room that weekend so we weren't going to need to start from scratch. I resorted to looking at studios, within the 24 hours of hearing B took a room, searching for studios and semi-realizing that paying an extra $100 for a huge room is better than an extra $300 for a small studio I received another e-mail from B saying she had just gone to sign the lease at her new room and my name had been on there as well, but she heard I wasn't taking it! I definitely won't say it was fate, I looked at 2 more crappy apartments before sucking it up and taking the bigger room, but it was sure weird. We lived together for 2 years. That boyfriend eventually came back into her life and they got engaged a little over a year ago. It was so amazing to see her and them start from where they were in such a bad place and grow to such a great one.  She was never the "fairy-tale" type. Very laid back. Even when they got engaged she wanted to wait a few years before the wedding. Do to scheduling etc they moved it up a year to this past weekend.

ANYWAY, my point. I went to a lot of weddings this summer. A lot of beautiful, beautiful weddings. Please don't get me wrong when I say this, as I'm a 'fairy-taler', but I think a lot of people's weddings reflect this grand idea of who the 'want' to be and not who they 'are'. I didn't really realize this until I saw B's wedding this weekend. It was in a backyard, with their closest friends and family. The flowers were beautiful, the food delicious and everything felt so them. During the vows, the speeches and the dances you can feel their couple mojo and love emanating through the room and it felt amazing. Something I think everyone should feel one day. It will probably be one of my favorite weddings ever, I can only hope to have the same feel at mine.

Needless to say it was a perfect way to end my Summer (of Weddings) and it was only appropriate that the overplayed song of the weekend was "Summertime Sadness". I literally threw out my neck dancing to it so many times this weekend. Summer 2013 was a great one, a long one and (even though Christmas is right around the corner) I'm sad its over.

Summer Sailing!

This past weekend my co-chair and I hosted an afternoon of sailing with our Junior League committee. My co-chair and her husband provided the stunning boat and I made the snacks and drinks! Aside from the ferry and one fleet week party well over a decade ago, I'd never been sailing on the bay. Having grown up around water and boats, I don't know why it took me this long! With the America's Cup in town everyone seems to be catching the sailing bug.

The Skyline, through the sails as we pulled out of SFYC in Tiburon

I do actually enjoy cooking. Especially when a) dishes so easily come out like the picture (aka like they're 'supposed' to be....spoken like a true Type-A) and when I can cook for people!  When I offered to provide the delicacies for our sailing trip I turned to the internet and my fabulous, food savvy friend Emily for advice.  The boat ended up having a full kitchen, but she advised staying away from dairy for temperature control reasons and suggested an adaptation of her Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Dip with white beans instead of feta. I paired it with a tray of carrots, cucumbers, snow peas and broccoli, it was an absolute hit...literally every drop gone by the end of our voyage!

 

Along with that, I wanted a fruit dish. We already had the veggie platter, so a separate fruit plate seemed plain. I found this recipe for Peaches with Serrano Ham and Basil. This was perfect because my basil plant needed some usage! I used sweet vermouth instead of sherry vinegar and marinated overnight, I assembled about 20 the next morning in less than 30 mins! Delicious and EASY PEASY!

Last Friday, the Glitter Guide appeared in my inbox and had a mouthwatering  Goat Cheese and Fig Crostini.

This was definitely the hardest item to make. Not because of time, or prep or difficulty putting together, but because creating the perfect crostini is very hard....especially when you're making 2 other dishes at the same time. I went through 2 baguettes, burned to a crisp and finally the 3rd one came out a dark brown. Far from perfect, but it worked. The goat cheese was so easy to whip together! I added the honey to the mixture instead of drizzling on the top, this turned out to be great because I used the left overs as a dip! The fig and thyme sprigs complemented each other perfectly! These were the first to be gobbled up...primarily by the boys. and elegant recipe for

  With 2 main courses, I needed 1 'snack' type food. This was easy for me to pick: popcorn. One of my absolute favorites and so few people use it that it came as a nice surprise to our guests! I classed it up a bit with truffle oil, parmesean and fresh rosemary.

For beverages I kept it simple: the ever classic Pimm's Cup with a fresh cuke slice and a lemon!

Pimm's and Boat Shoes of course!

I'm happy to say it was everything I could have wanted! The day was gorgeous, the food was delicious and the company was perfect! Definitely one of my San Francisco-life highlights!

At the Lake...

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day Weekend! I had an amazingly perfect one!

I spent Labor Day weekend at my family's lake house. I usually go for a week or 2 around the 4th of July, but because of my European adventure I wasn't able to make it. Fiscally responsible me was thinking that I wasn't going to be able to make it at all this summer, but as the last, unofficial, weekend of summer approached my heartstrings got the best of me.

It's about 2 hours northeast of the Minneapolis in the small town of Wascott, Wisconsin. Both my Grandparents grew up 10 minutes north of Wascott in Gordon and after leaving to pursue careers and raise family, returned to live in their retirement. My Grandpa has 3 brothers and they all bought houses on the same lake. Those houses have been full of summer memories for 3 generations now and I quite honestly couldn't turn away a summer without it.

The sound of the water, the birds, the dogs and the thumping of kids feet down the wooden docks followed by a huge splash; the smell of nature mixed with a little boat gasoline; the feel of sandy grass in your toes those have been the only constants in a life full of changes (I've lived in 6 different states and 15 different houses in my 25 years). There's about a foot high step between the living room and the dining room and I can remember being so little I had to sit down to get down it by myself, without falling. There's no where else in the world I have those kinds of memories. That's a kind of comfort and relaxation that I can't get anywhere else. I would say I am truly at peace. It was quiet, but welcome refreshment in a very stressful work environment and allowed me to put a lot of things in perspective that I've been struggling with for a while now.

I can't believe I was there just a week ago. Besides the 3 mosquito bites on my legs and pictures; it feels so far away. T-9 months until next summer!

Weekend Adventures

This past weekend was super busy for me, but absolutely lovely!
Friday started with our monthly barbeque at work. Hot dogs, beer and tater tots was a great way to kick off the weekend! When it got dark they put a screen up in our soccer field and everyone snuggled together with popcorn and hot chocolate for an outdoor screening of 'The Iron Giant'. I'd never seen it, but it turned out to be really cute. You can't really go wrong with any sort of outdoor movie screening :)

 

Saturday my roommates and I took the ferry accross the bay to Sam's in Tiburon for a late brunch and delcious bloody Mary's on the water. We were a little worried we weren't going to make it with all the America's cup festivities, but nothing stopped the ferry. We even got to see some racing action on the way back to the city!

Everyone lined up are ready to go!

 All the excitement around the time trials have made me even more excited for the real thing next summer!  The marina is literally buzzing and there is no better place to meet attractive men in boat shoes!

Sunday, well you saw my to do list! I got almost everything done, made enchiladas and even had time for an avocado face mask before the Kardashian's started!

 

LBD Weekend Plans {check!}

Just booked my tickets to the lake house for the last summer hurrah!

Oooo I'm so excited!

P.S. Sorry, I haven't been ignoring you. I'm working on an awesome post, but blogger and I got in a bit of a fight.

Happy Weekend!

Hello Lovelies! I hope you all have a fabulous weekend soaking up the last few moments of summer!
I have a weekend full of making to-do lists (for some home improvements), a 4 mile run (haven't quite decided if that's happening today or tomorrow), a trip to the Gap (um, Friends and Family Sale!) and hopefully some beach time!

Holiday in Spain

It's so hard to believe that it was already a month ago that I was wandering the streets of Marrakech on the other side of the world!

Everytime we needed a reality check my friend E and I would look at eachother and say: "Um, we're in Africa." It was postively beautiful, in it's own way of course, There was a huge culture shock as it is considered a developing country, but what I couldn't get over (for Spain as well) was how rich in history these places were. The streets I was walking on were the same streets that people walked on hundreds of years ago AND the buildings and the architecture were, for the most, the same as well.
America just doesn't have that history.

Our itinerary was 17 days of craziness, but worth every moment.

4 days Marrakech -> 2 days in Barcelona -> 12 hours in Pamplona -> 2 day in San Sebastian -> 2 more days in Barcelona -> 4 days in Madrid

Pamplona and Madrid definitely top the list of favorite places, San Sebastian was beautiful but I spent 1 day sick and 1 day sunburned to a crisp so my associations are a little biased :)

Here are a few snapshots:

Tea Service on the Dejemaa al fna

Mosque on the walk back to our Riad

Colorful wall at Jardin Majorelle

Much needed Beach time in San Sebastian

Plaza del Toro in Pamplona

Meringue as big as my head from a Patisserie in San Sebastian

The Lord's Prayer in Latin at Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia

An alleyway off La Plaza Major in Madrid

And, of course, a Flamenco Show to top it all off!

Bubbles {& Bitters}

One of my absolute favorite things about my Europe trip was the drinking culture. It's so normal to have a glass of wine with lunch, another one or 2 for happy hour and casual drink a bottle while enjoying good food and conversation at dinner. There's no rush, it's just simply there to enhance the magic of everyday life.
Needless to say we drank a lot of alcohol, but we struggled to find a drink or a wine that wasn't too sweet.  After a little googling last weekend for an 'american' drink for an Opening Ceremony party I was going to I believe I've found the perfect summer drink!

The Americana

served on ice, in a Collins Glass

1/2oz of  Makers Mark

3 dashes of Bitters

chilled Champagne

Garnish with a Peach Slice

Trina Turk for Banana Republic

Trina Turk just came out with a fun, summer collection for Banana Republic. I love Trina's classic shapes, but whimsical and colorful patterns and designs. They are perfect for summer.
Here are some of my favorites!

 

 Her bright pink and orange Swirl Tunic dress is perfect for a day at the office or a Saturday morning Farmer's Market adventure!

 

This one shoulder silk cocktail dress reminds me of backyard pool parties! It also comes in Coachella Print.

I LOVE this pink, silk tie halter! Would go beautifully with a light navy cardigan. I absolutely must find these  patterned shorts! I couldn't find them on the website, but maybe that's because everyone else wanted them too?

 

She was also able to do a line of fabulous accessories. 

The turquoise clasp on her Tomato box clutch adds that elegant yet fun element I love about her stuff.

And how fun is that enamel cocktail ring!?

Summer Dresses

There's nothing simpler or easier than a summer day dress. I'm looking forward to taking a few to the other side of the pond with me as they don't take up too much room and can easily be weather adjusted with a cardigan or jacket.

One of the things I cannot stand about them is that they're, more often than not, over $50. Really? I'm going to spend $100 on a piece of jersey cotton? If it was really cute I might consider taking the bait, I mean I am a girl with a soft spot for cute clothes, but I haven't really found one that rocks my world.

I HAVE found a several really cute ones at Target that land around the $20 price range. That means I was able to get 3 for the price of 1!!

I have a closet full of coral, but I really can't get enough of this color. It pairs nicely with brown, black or navy and it's girly. I've been wearing this with my old school Gap jean jacket and gold accessories.

I got this one in turquoise.
The halter top makes it a little more fun and beachy for the summer!

This dress is my favorite. It is super comfortable to wear and has pockets! I got it in olive and navy and, oddly, I'm struggling to find a cardigan in a dark navy to go over it!?










I also bought this polo dress from J. Crew earlier this spring and I'm officially obsessed. I'm not sure how the long sleeves will hold up in the desert heat of Moroccan summers, but it's perfect for chilly San Francisco!