weekend fun...

My mom flew up from Southern California this weekend to visit my sister and me so we had a wonderful girls weekend. We did a little cooking, decorating, shopping and baking. The weather was nice and cool here in San Francisco so it was the perfect fall weekend!

I think my mom and sister bring be good luck because I always seem to find the perfect things when I'm shopping with them! It definitely held true this weekend when we walked outside my house and saw a great garage sale on my street, where I picked up these two little gems...

As soon as I saw these beautiful vintage gilt sconces I had to have them!

How great are they? I can't wait to see how the mirrored one reflects candle light!

The jar and two decorative mossy balls were thrown in with the sconces, very cute!

We also did a little pumpkin carving, though, it might be a little early and I'm hoping the pumpkins won't go rotten before Halloween. I might keep them inside for a couple of weeks.

While carving, we learned that the white pumpkins are probably better un-carved....we didn't realize that the shell is about 3 inches thick!

Still made for a cute pumpkin, I think it looks like a puppy, or a panda. That is my sister, very proud of her pumpkin, which I have to say is the perfect classic jack-o-lantern!

Their cuteness again.

(my sister had to flip the cake upside down on the cloth covered in powdered sugar, you can't see it as well in the picture, but the sugar when everywhere, all over her pants and my floor!)

And now for the baking! I found this recipe for a pumpkin roulade in the September issue of House Beautiful and I had been wanting to make it. I thought this would be the perfect weekend to bake, because baking is always more fun with other people!

This is the finished Pumpkin Roulade, you can just slice and eat. Very yummy, and easy to make!

I love Halloween decorations, and of course I had to be totally cheesy and put up my fake cob-webs!--there's more in the living room and hallway :)

Mother and daughter!

We had such a great weekend!

i've been mia....

I've been so bad at posting this summer....definitely not off to a good start with my blogging. Oops.

I've been staying at my parents house in Southern California since mid July, so I am essentially on "vacation". However, I am proud to say that I actually have been somewhat productive this summer. Remember when I wrote about re-decorating both of my sisters bedrooms (here and here)?? Well, right now were working on some final touches before I go back to San Francisco next week. I will definitely be posting pictures of their new-and-improved bedrooms!

Here's a short recap of what I've been doing:

-I went to the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood for their "Hollywoodland" event where my sister (a synchronized swimmer) performed. It was very classic and very Hollywood, and I am going there again tonight!!

-My lovely friend Elizabeth got married last Saturday, the wedding was beautiful. I was a bridesmaid and I also did her makeup for her special day!

-Went to Disneyland! ok, not as exciting because I grew up 20 minutes away so I've been plenty of times. It's always fun to relive your childhood though...

-Last but not least....bedroom redo's!! I've been shopping with my sisters and picking up a few things here and there for their new and improved bedrooms. The rooms were finally painted on Monday, so now I'm working on styling them pretty!

.....which leads me to some pretty bedroom inspiration photos

*sources: home sweet home for some, can't remember where others are from

back from the east coast...

I was in New Jersey last week with my family and I'm finally back so I wanted to share some pictures of the trip. We stayed in north Jersey, but we went to New York City and Delaware...

I love the NYC skyline, it's amazing how big the city is. I think SF's skyline of skyscrapers would only take up a quarter of this skyline.
We only went to the city for a day, but we met up with my aunt, uncle and cousin from NJ and went to this great Italian family style restaurant called Carmine's (if you go to NYC with a big group I suggest you go here, it's great!). Afterwards, we saw Hair. Great show! I love the theater district in NYC, the amount of theaters and people going to all different kinds of shows amazes me.

This is the house where my maternal grandfather grew up in Forest Hills Gardens in Queens, NYC. The neighborhood is absolutely beautiful. It's called a "garden city" and is very similar to the St. Francis Wood neighborhood in SF.

The boardwalk at the Jersey Shore! We went to Point Pleasant for dinner one night with my uncle and then walked along the boardwalk for a little bit. My mom said it looked almost exactly the same as it did when she was a teenager in the 60s.
This is my beautiful niece Julianna. She and my brother drove up for the day from Delaware to go to the memorial service for my grandpa in NJ (the reason we went to NJ).

My brother Neil and my Dad, father and son (I think they're starting to look alike) except for the fact that my brother is 6'6" and my dad is only 6'.

...and Julianna again with my sister Catherine.
Mmmmm. Ice milk. My favorite. I seriously don't know why they don't sell ice milk on the west coast, it's low fat but it tastes so creamy. This is my favorite ice cream parlor, btw. It's been open since 1934 on Cedar Lane in Teaneck, NJ. My grandma went there when she was little, and my mom went there too. When we used to visit my grandparents house when I was younger my sisters and I would walk there too.This is the house where my mom grew up in Teaneck, NJ. Looks exactly the same. My grandpa planted all those plants in the front yard (the backyard too, it was always such a beautiful yard). My grandpa had quite the green thumb, something I did not inherit. He had a vegetable garden in the back yard and when I was little I used to help him pick tomatoes and green beans. We also used the pick the mint and put it in our iced tea that my grandma would make.

We drove down to Delaware one day to visit my half-brother (from my dad's previous marriage), his wife and my nieces and nephews. All six of them! Above is the youngest Jacob (almost 1 years old!) with his toy phone that he says "hello" to.

Kids like to use my brother as a human horse/car/plane/whatever. I know, because my sisters and I used to do the same thing when we were little.

Jonah and Jacob. So cute!
Here are the crazies, Joshua and Jonah, 4 and a half and 6.
Joshua and Jonah with my mom. They insisted on drinking their soda in the picture, there is a long sequence of these soda drinkers that I didn't post.
Here's all of my nieces and nephews except Jacob. Oldest to youngest is Jessica, Joel, Julianna, Jonah, Joshua and Jacob.

i can't believe it's almost the 4th of july....

source: elle decor

This summer is going by so fast! I can't believe it's already July!...doesn't really look or feel like summer in SF this week though.

Right now I'm wishing it wasn't so foggy outside. What's funny though is that I was watching the news this morning and they showed a picture of downtown SF to show that the weather is so nice and clear. I guess that's what happens when you live in the Richmond district....always, always foggy.

Today I'm off to do some laundry with the boyfriend and some other errands. I'm going back east on Monday with the family, I will post some pictures of the trip when I get back the following week.

The good thing about going back east is that I KNOW it's going to be hot and humid! I can finally wear all of my summer clothes and sandals! woohoo!

bedroom re-do...

My younger sister Catherine has been wanting to paint her room and make it look a little more sophisticated since she will be 20 in July (i can't believe that btw, to me she is only 17). Right now her room has cool tan walls with a chair rail at about 7', above the chair rail the wall and ceiling are painted a light green. Her furniture is all from Ikea, which she got about 6 years ago.

She has this bed (which they no longer sell at Ikea)...

and this dresser, from the leksvik collection at Ikea, which they also do not sell anymore...

She has a few other pieces in the room, a matching leksvik nightstand and a leksvik corner armoire desk. She will be getting rid of the desk, but the rest of the furniture stays (she's in college and doesn't live at home during the school year so the desk doesn't get much use anymore).

Sooooo, with this information and the fact that I know my lovely sister so well I came up with this....

Catherine's Room Re-do by tsmith86 on Polyvore.com

I wanted her room to have a more relaxing and grown-up feeling, something that she can come home to when she's not in school that doesn't remind her so much of high school. The furniture in this vignette is obviously not the same that she has, because the polyvore "clipper" wasn't working for some reason. She will be using her current bed, dresser and nightstand. I think this just gives the overall feeling of how the room will look.

I really like what I came up with. She really didn't want another beige room and I think the gray-blue walls and crisp white bedding will look wonderful and relaxing with her current furniture. I know that she loves orange, so I threw in a pop of orange with the throw pillow.

What do you think? I would love some feedback!

update: ah, i lied. ikea does still sell the leksvik collection.