designer love...

I think I am in love with these interiors by SF interior designer Palmer Weiss.

Here are some of my favorites....

Fantastic mix of timeless and modern pieces in this living room, love the ghost table!

Love this simple yet beautiful stair hall with the unexpected pop of the zebra runner. Definitely adds some much needed fun in a very typical SF Victorian.

Where is this wallpaper from?? I swear I've seen it in a showroom.

Love the saturated emerald green sofa...

What a fun girls room! Sophisticated, but not the typical "child's' room"!

While she doesn't seem to use much wall color, there is definitely no lack of color in these rooms.

This might possibly be my dream dining room, casual but still elegant with an eclectic mix of antique and modern pieces. (I have been known to change my mind quite often though...)

I've recently noticed that I have a thing for oversized lanterns in dining rooms.

Gorgeous armoire!

busy busy busy...

There has been a lack of posting again....

I've been really busy at work lately because we have a few events and deadlines coming up so I've been neglecting the blog. I did, however, do a couple fun things last week!

On Wednesday I went to the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show Gala Preview Party with my co-workers. So so sooooo much fun! Loved it. It was basically a preview cocktail party for the Fall Antiques Show which opened to the public the next day. I had no idea that it was supposedly the kick-off party for the wealthy social scene in SF. Lots of Chanel, Prada, Louis Vuitton, I was hoping no one noticed my Target shoes ;)

Interesting fact about the Fall Antiques Show according to 7x7 Magazine... "Every year, this party has the largest single-night caviar consumption in the continental United States".

Damn, I should have eaten some caviar, it was free! But I think I was too intimidated by the the crowds of women with giant diamonds on their fingers hounding the caviar tables--not to mention, I had chipped fingernail polish, heaven forbid! (I have taken plenty of mental notes if I attend next year).

Anyways, it was awesome. And the people watching was even better.

On Saturday I went back to the Antiques Show with my good friend to see a lecture given by legendary San Francisco designer Suzanne Tucker of Tucker & Marks. It was such a good lecture. She was very laid back and seems like a very personable person for the amount of success she has had. Not stuffy at all!

While her work is VERY, and I mean VERY, high end, she has a very classic and timeless aesthetic. She has a wonderful eye for mixing antiques and contemporary pieces. You can't tell from the pictures, but during the lecture she explained a lot of her projects and her work really embodies the lifestyle and personalities of her clients.

Enough with the chit chat, here are some of my favorites....

Tucker & Marks

new lamp and an anniversary...

I promised I would show you a picture of my new lamp...

I love it so much! I will eventually put it in my bedroom when I paint it, but for now it's out in the living room. Doesn't really match the room decor, but it's okay with its black shade for Halloween.

And yes, that is a black cat tealight holder. I love Halloween decorations.

I actually meant to share this with you a while ago, but never got around to taking a picture. I bought those nesting tables from Ikea for $50! The set of three was on sale for 3 days in September and I had to have them. They're a little too big for this nook (I think it looks a little busy) but for now this is their place. This area tends to be my catch-all for miscellaneous decor that I move from other places in the house so it's kind of a mish-mash, but whatever. Notice the obvious "dorm style" lamp....what can I say, I think I can still use being "a recent college grad" as an excuse (even though I haven't lived in a dorm for 2 years)! Actually, the new lamp in the previous pictures is my first "adult" buy because it's not a Target lamp, dorm left-over, or hand-me-down.

If you were wondering what this nook looked like before, here it is above in all its boring glory. Even though it's a bit more cluttered now, I think it really makes this space look and feel warmer, not to mention feel like an actual space.

On to other things...

Today was a beautiful day here in San Francisco...

Perfect day for a picnic in Golden Gate Park...

My boyfriend and I actually planned this over a week ago, so we were lucky that the weather was so nice, because we had a monsoon on Monday :)

The occasion for our picnic was our 5 year anniversary, which was actually last Friday the 16th. His parents were in town last weekend so we held off our little celebration. Obviously from the pictures you can see that we had tacos! I love Mexican food, makes me happy. I made the easiest taco meat for it too. Crockpot is my savior. Tri-tip steak with a jar of spicy salsa in the crockpot, cook on low for 10-12 hours, shred the meat when it's done and you have the perfect tender and juicy taco meat. I cooked it while I slept and woke up to the smell of cooked meat, yum? (but I knew it would taste so good later so I didn't mind!).

For a light and healthy dessert we ate some fresh pomegranate. Mmmm.

Last but not least, the person I celebrated 5 years with! Isn't he a cutie?

And just for fun, below is a picture of us at our senior prom in 2005....

fall love...

My favorite three months are coming up and October can't get here soon enough. Have I ever mentioned that I love fall? Well I LOVE fall! It makes me happy, not to mention my favorite holidays are in October, November and December...

Starting with Halloween. I love it. When I was little Halloween was my favorite holiday and I used to say "happy halloween" to everyone all year long. Seriously. I've watched home movies of myself when I'm like 3 and whenever my dad would tell me to say "bye bye" I would say "happy halloween" instead....didn't matter if it was the middle June.

My addiction to Halloween extended to naming stuffed animals too. When I was in pre-school I won a coloring contest at Long's Drugs (yes, I was an artsy child), my prize was a stuffed animal, it was a dog and I named him "Spooky" in honor of my favorite holiday.

Soon after Halloween is my birthday, November 17th, and I know this sounds really weird, but for some reason I love the way November 17th looks when it's written. I just think the month of November has the prettiest name....but I might be biased because it is my birthday month. I also share that birthday with Rachel McAdams who I think is absolutely adorable, so that's definitely a plus!

...and finally my last two favorite holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving for obvious reasons, including food and family, and Christmas because I love our special family traditions that we do on Christmas eve. I know a lot of people probably do this first tradition, but I'm going to tell you anyways....every year both of my sisters and I get a personalized ornament. We each have our own box of ornaments starting from the year we were born. I love opening the box every year and putting them up on the tree because certain ornaments bring back special memories of each Christmas. I also love the fact that our Christmas tree is a complete mish-mash of different ornaments, the only problem is that with every year we've had to get a bigger tree because of the increase in ornaments....I think we're going on 10'. The other special tradition that we do is have the elves come on Christmas eve. Yes, you read that right, elves come to our house every Christmas. My mom started this tradition when we were very little, what happens is on Christmas eve my parents would tell us that Santa's elves came and left gifts on our beds. All three of us would run upstairs to find 3 gifts that were wrapped exactly the same. Each gift had a personalized ornament attached to it for each of us, and each present had a new set a pajamas in it, usually all three of us would get matching matching pajamas. After we open the presents we always change into our new pajamas and put our new ornaments on the tree. The best part of this tradition is that we still do it!, and yes I am 22 years old. What can I say? I like to relive my childhood.

Can I also just say that every single year I like to start October off right by watching Hocus Pocus? Is that weird, because I don't think I will ever let this personal tradition stop...

Just because it's September 1st and October is only 30 days away, here are some pictures of Halloween decor in San Francisco...I believe my roommate took these for my project freshman year in college, yes my project.

sneak preview and some little changes in my home...

In the last post I promised that I would post pictures of my sisters re-done bedrooms.....well, I didn't have enough time to finish taking pictures before I went back up to San Francisco so for now I just have a little sneak preview!

(my sister is going to take some more pictures of the room before she moves back up to school this weekend across the bay...soooo, next week I will reveal both rooms)

anyways, here are a few preview shots...

The two shots above are from Catherine's room, the top is her nightstand and the bottom is her dresser. She also has an awesome bookshelf that we picked up when I went shopping with here at a home consignment store...pictures to come.

Julia's room is probably the most dramatic change....her room used to be green! Now it's a much cooler and calm gray, way more grown up for the 17-year-old that she is. How awesome is that lamp? I found it on craigslist for $30! It's huge, but I love it! I think it adds some much needed drama on top of her dresser. Next week I will show you the drapes on the other side of her room....sooo pretty!

What else have I been up to? Well, I came back up to San Francisco a little over a week ago and finally got around to cleaning my entire house. I also did some minor redecorating because I get bored easily and like to switch things up every few months. After re-doing both my sisters bedrooms I decided that I wanted to re-decorate my bedroom in SF as well. Right now the walls are a baby yellow that I am totally sick of and I'm going to paint them a nice gray (I'm kind of in a gray phase, if you haven't noticed). I also want to give my bedroom a much more contemporary, and most importantly less girly, look. I am so over shabby chic right now! I also want to get rid of the clutter of accessories...which was the first task that I tackled over the weekend...

I'm going to get rid of this dresser, so this is just a temporary set-up, but I like it. Less stuff and less fussy so it will be easy to move stuff when I paint.

Remember this table? It used to be in my bedroom, but I decided to put it in the living room for now while I re-do my bedroom. I might leave it in the living room or eventually sell it because I don't want it in my bedroom. I really like having a table and a lamp in this corner of my living room. Before it was just dead space, now the living room looks finished and the lamp adds a nice glow at night.

...and there you have it. I hope you have enjoyed all the little projects I've been working on. I will definitely try to blog more often....I've been such a bad blogger this summer!

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!

goal for tomorrow...

Clean and rearrange room....will post pictures of before and after tomorrow or Tuesday.

I've already rearranged my room three times in less than two years of living here...is that bad? When it comes to bedrooms I can't ever make up my mind. I get too many ideas and then all of a sudden I will randomly decide that I have to change it all! Ha.

...and the fog is back

What a tease, 3 days of wonderful heat and beautiful views...

and now this....

The fog is back! What happened to the bridge? (by the way, it only took about 5 minutes for this fog to roll in, how typical for San Francisco)

And this picture? I just love the white, maybe because that's all I see out my window now. How great is that round pendant light? Anyways, more pictures of this elegant Stockholm apartment at the style files.