I hope you have a wonderful Christmas!!
Here's some Christmas trees from beautiful places around the world for inspiration.
1. Christmas in Prague, 2. Rathaus and Christmas tree, 3. Christmas Tree, Trafalgar Square, 4. Christmas Tree in Wroclaw, 5. christmas tree at union square second view, 6. Light Up the Square 2012, 7. Christmas tree on the Red Square, 8. MERRY CHRISTMAS, 9. brasov main square
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Went down with a friend to Palo Alto yesterday to do a little architecture walk and check out the Stanford Campus. It had been supposed to rain all day, but we got lucky and it stayed dry all day.
We started out having breakfast at the Palo Alto Creamery, a 50s style diner.
Then we walked around downtown. Saw a Julia Morgan building, Hostess House
And the Caltrain station, done in streamline moderne style
And then some great buildings along University Avenue...
The Stanford Theater
The Varsity Theater, most recently a Borders and now sadly empty
The courtyard of the Varsity theater
An awesome succulent wall - I want to do this at home!
The post office, in a really pretty Spanish Colonial style
And a Julia Morgan house
And a Bernard Maybeck house
Lately, I'm really into both Morgan and Maybeck buildings. I don't get out of San Francisco very often, but luckily they both designed lots of places in SF and I'm slowly starting to see them and some out of the city as well.
A pretty Queen Anne mansion
A lovely courtyard on historic Ramona Street, a natioanl historic district with great Spanish Colonial buildings
Then we headed over to Stanford, where my friend went for grad school many years ago. I had never been there and it's incredibly beautiful.
The entrance to the quad
There were fountains everywhere
Memorial Chapel
The campus is enormous and we were exhausted from the walk through downtown, so we checked out the bookstore, then went to the cute Coupa Cafe for a very late lunch.
It was a beautiful day and I'm so happy that I got to see Palo Alto with my friend, who lived there for a year. He also had a great time and says he now sees all of these buildings that he knew with a new light. Can't wait for the next excursion!
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I have a small dresser and table in my office that I use to store craft supplies and display gifts and art that I have bought at various places. For a long time, I've been wanting to change them from the pale pink they were painted to a teal/turquoisey color which better matches my house and is my favorite color.
Before:
They were kind of beat of and scraped from several years of use...
(I forgot to take pics of the table!)
After:
I may need to get a new lampshade now....
Here's some of the things on the table. The bottles on the left were gifts from Barbe a few years ago and the large brown bottle and and altered powder tin were purchases from Maija.
I used Behr Carribbean Green and it's a beautiful deep teal color.
I have these curtains from Pier 1 in the room (the curtains are actually much more green than blue in person) and it all matches beautifully. Now if I could only clean up some of my craft supply clutter....
I love how both things turned out! Just a simple, quick change and the room feels so much different.
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I went with the honey to Muir Woods recently. I still can't believe I had never been there! We had actually tried to go several times during the summer, but it was always too crowded so we couldn't get in. The great thing about Muir Woods is that it's close to San Francisco, but it's almost too close as it gets incredibly crowded. At any rate, we finally made it there and had a great morning walking around.
I liked how new growth was growing from a fallen tree. Similar trees were all over the park
We went over to Pelican Inn for lunch, an adorable recreated English Inn and Tavern.
It was beautiful, so we ate on the lawn. While we were eating, I noticed something moving across the blanket from the corner of my eye and it was a baby snake! It moved too fast to get a picture, unfortunately. I was very surprised to see a snake!
The Inn has lots of historical ephemera inside
From then, it was on to Muir Beach. It was incredibly windy, so we ended up not staying long, but it was
very pretty and hopefully we can go back on a better day.
A beautiful day!
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Remembering my grandparents on this Day of the Dead... I wish I had had the opportunity to grow up with my my grandparents, but sadly three of them died before I was born and my one grandmother lived too far to see very often. At least I have photos of both of their wedding days.
1. calaveritas, 2. day of the dead decoration, 3. Day-of-the-Dead Bread, 4. Dia de los muertos decoration, 5. marigolds and sugar skulls, 6. Day of the Dead Mosaic by Juan is Dead, 7. Day of the Dead, 8. Day of the Dead Owls Wedding Cake Topper, 9. IMG_0468 Decorated Skulls
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Happy Halloween!!!!
1. Halloween Pumpkin Carving Template, Michael Jackson Thriller Pumpkin Template - The definitive Jack O Lantern!!!, 2. Halloween pumpkin carving for 2010, 3. Pumpkin carving 2012, 4. Halloween Teeth Pumpkin, 5. Pumpkin Carving 2005, 6. Pumpkin carving, 7. Pistols at Dawn pumpkin, 8. Gizmo pumpkin, 9. My Dexter Pumpkin
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I've been so busy with school, I haven't really had time to make any fall crafts or really decorate, so today I whipped out the spray paint cans and did a quick "redecorating" of some mini pumpkins that I bought for my mantel.
I love mini pumpkins!
I didn't go too crazy with the spray paint and only did five of the pumpkins
The round bronze ones look like onions to me, which is really funny
And this is with the yummy-smelling cinnamon broom I got at Trader Joe's
And now they're all lined up in a little row on the mantel!
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I can't believe it's the end of October already. This year is going by so fast! I love the holiday season. I'm particular inspired by fall colors and images. This time of year, I always wish I lived in a place with seasons.
1. Fallen Autumn Leaves, 2. Autumn squashes..., 3. Autumn Corn, 4. About Autumn, 5. Fall 2011, 6. Downstream Autumn, 7. CC3001 - autumn cupcakes toronto, 8. Autumn fruit, 9. Fall Centerpiece
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The honey and I went on a quick weekend getaway to Monterey. We both needed it because he works way too hard and I needed a break from grad school, which has been sucking up most of my time. We went on a whirlwind one night trip and managed to squeeze in just about everything there is to see!
We stayed at the very cute Horizon Inn in beautiful Carmel. I forgot to take a picture of the hotel, but it was really pretty. They delivered our breakfast in a picnic basket (bagels, fruit and OJ)
And then walked around quaint downtown Carmel
Sorry the pics kind of suck. It was very foggy and everything came out looking gray, but I swear it's the fog!
We had lunch at the Tuck Box, a little tea place.
These are what their house scones look like. They were good and didn't taste like the scones I am used to
We went to the beach and saw two dolphins playing! Okay, you can't see them in the picture, sorry. It was so foggy the fins are just little dots.
And we went to the mission, formally known as San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo Mission. It's one of the prettier missions that I have visited.
This where Father Junipero Serra is buried
And we raced through 17 mile drive. It was crazy foggy but really pretty.
The famous Monterey Cypress tree
And then went over to the famed Monterey Bay Aquarium. I was so excited to go and see the sea horses and jellyfish. I hadn't been to this aquarium for over 10 years and was really looking forward to it and it didn't disappoint!
Then we had dinner at a restaurant on the water and saw otters swimming around outside. I had never seen dolphins or otters in person before, so I was very excited. Monterey and Carmel are so beautiful, I hope we can take another trip down there soon and spend a bit more time exploring.
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