Fancy Magazines

Recently, I've been noticing how many fancy magazines I'm seeing, named a singular word.

A few years ago, I fell in love with Lemon magazine (1) created by Kevin Grady and Colin Metcalf who in addition to Lemon, have illustrious advertising + design careers. After reading a new issue of Lemon, I would cry myself to sleep every night hoping for more, but they would eventually stop and my fancy magazine lust would waver. 

In the last couple months, I've noticed some interesting magazines that seem to follow in Lemon's footsteps. Bullett (2), like Lemon, has themed volumes and I recently read their sin article and it was quite lovely.

I found Wilder (3) today, which is a mag for people enthralled by the natural world. Where do I sign up? I hope it's as good as they set it up to be.

Gather (4) seems like a bit of a knockoff of Kinfolk (5) at least in design sensibilities. Gather takes a more cookbook approach and Kinfolk is all about the gathering. Kinfolk reminds me of how wonderful my world would look if I had a photographer following me at all times taking monotone vintage shots of life. Oh yeah, and in the shots I'm totally cool and photogenic, which if you've ever seen a picture of me you'll know I look like a the real life version of Beaker, the Muppet.

Gardening Adventure

And really when I say gardening adventure, I really mean gardening on my back porch and my houseplants. I'll take what I can get when it comes to gardening space in SF, and since there is a 10 year wait list for the community garden in my neighborhood, my back porch is pure gold. Here's a little board of my dream supplies for this garden adventure. Naturally, since much of the actual gardening is inside my house I can totally rock those green heels.

1. a $490 pocket knife necklace is essential for gardening
2. from the home depot collection
3. amy merrick just a gem of the world
4. camera strap so you can garden and snap, garden and snap
5. wonderful
6. fancy gardening shoes
7. pruning saw
8. you never know when you'll need a survival guide
9. pruners

Beauty is Embarrassing

Wayne White's work is pretty stellar and now there is a documentary about him. I can't wait to see it. Too bad none of the screenings so far are in SF.


I love love love his word paintings. It's amazing how funny they are but how seriously the words are painted on there.

Patterntown, USA

I found a lovely selection of wrapping paper on love mae. Print on print!

1. confetti + charcoal stripes 
2. flower garden + dream weaver
3. charcoal stripes + polka
4. red roses  + polka
5. Pocahontas + confetti
6. polka + tiny flowers
7. flower garden + polka
8. charcoal stripes + red roses
9. dream weaver  + pocohontas

Stitched Landscape 02

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Stitched Landscape 01

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Fern Friends

Ferns are little bitches. They need lots of attention and don't recover easily if you forget about them for too long, but they are my favorite. Maiden hair ferns (which just narrows it down to about 200 subspecies) are at the top of my favorites list, and I always need a few if not a thousand in my home at all times. I have killed a few in the past by abandoning them for a day too long without water, but it's bound to happen with these temperamental beasts. But it's always worth it to play their needy games because no matter where you are ferns can make you feel like you are in a magical forest among the gnomes and elves.

1. rabbit foot fern ball
2. fern in the clouds
3. fern ball
4. northern ferns
5. cut ferns
6. ferns mingling with other folks
7. fern drawerings
8. west elm loves little ferns too
9. an instagram shot of one of my Boston ferns
10. a fern representation on my webby

Adventures in Shopping on The Interwebs

I only have two pairs of jeans that I wear/fit-into, so I thought getting a new pair or two would be a good idea seeing as I have 28 dresses but wear jeans almost every day. So a few weeks ago, I found two pairs on Zara's website: one pair of super skinny grey jeans and to offset those, a comfy pair of mom jeans. The day after I bought them, I got a call saying the grey jeans were no longer available but the other pair was on its way. As some sort of "we'll make it up to you" they gave me a 10 step process to get free express shipping on my next order. It seemed totally presumptuous and a bit ridiculous to go through 9 more steps than I normally go through for my order to get to me 3 days sooner. But now we're getting off track.

5-10 standard shipping days later, my new jeans showed up. I always get stupidly excited about new clothes, so I tried them on as soon as I could. The first thing I noticed as I started to put them on was this black lining on the inside, which I thought was a bit weird. But I quickly rationalized that the jeans were designed with a built-in hip-t, but as I got them all the way on (which took some doing) the jeans half way down my bum. Things just weren't adding up. These were the weirdest mom jeans of all time.

Exhibit A:

Then finally, like an idiot, it all finally came together. These weren't the comfy, waist-line-right-below- your-boobs mom jeans I had envisioned; these were mum jeans, you know, jeans for pregnant ladies. That hip-t action wasn't to cover your backside when you bend over but in fact a nest for your baby lump. Then then another realization hit me. I just tried on pregnant lady jeans and they barely fit. Way to go fatty. 

Lesson learned: Mum + Mom jeans should be avoided until you are about to be one or you actually are one.

Weekend Adventure Club

My friends and I created this thing we call WAC which is short for Weekend Adventure Club. Mostly we go on hikes or go to farms around the bay area and pick stuff. This past weekend the WAC activity was dining at the ever so fancy Cliff House for lunch and then hiking from Sutro Baths all the way along the Coast Trail and following it all the way into the marina. It was a lovely adventure. I love how out of the city you can feel while still being in it. 

We end up doing a lot of harvesting trips on WAC trips. We've been apple/cucumber picking, strawberry picking, pumpkin picking and we're about to go peach picking soon. Here's a little peach picking outfit + supply kit I dreamed up for the trip:

1: Madewell perfect razorback tank . simple + prepared for a little sun
2: Happy socks for a happy harvest
3: Kodak pony 135 . a flea market find I can stop using
4: Tom robbins . for sitting under tree after the harvest
5: Instagramtown, usa (torweeks)
6: Denim for when we're heading back to SF
7: Desert botas for lovely peach pickin' feet
8: For carrying all the supplies + a peach or two
9: Any excuse for a cream soda!
10: A peach or two
11: Nailz did
12: Summer time skirt fun
13: Always have to have a little gem
14: I went crazy in Istanbul buying every peshtemal in sight so I bring them everywhere now
15: In the field, you must have your notes
16: Write stuff down

The First 70

July is upon us which means dooms day for many California state parks. It makes me so sad to see these closures but I am happy to see some folks were equally saddened. Jarratt Moody, Lauren Valentino and Cory Brow set out to see the 70 state parks slated to close before it was too late. They created a documentary call The First 70 about the situation. Here's a bit of background from the site if you are unfamiliar:

"Last May California announced plans to close one quarter of their 278 parks, a devastating move that is intended to save the state a mere $22 million per year. The closure list includes thousands of acres of park land, recreation areas, wildlife reserves, and 50% of the state's historic parks. By July 2012 Californians will be bereft of 70 magnificent natural parks. The media has done little to disclose the ongoing closures or emphasize their impact."

The first 70 looks like a gorgeous piece and I can't wait to watch it.

Here's the trailer:



If you're in SF you can watch The First 70 on PBS on Tuesday, July 17 @ 10:30 p.m.

Comcast, either 22(SD) or 722(HD) or 200 in some areas.

I wish they made prints of some of the epic shots they have featured in the trailer. I'd love to turn my hallway into a forest of forest photos.

Mint Monday

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Macrame Started My Life

Right before my mom went into labor with me she was creating a macramé piece. Either I wanted out to stop her from the knotting extravaganza or I just desperately wanted to help her out. So I suppose you could say macramé and I are kindred spirits, but it wasn't always that way. I used to hate macramé plant hangers mostly because I associate them with terrible 70s wooden beads and brown. Lots and lots of brown. So. Much. Brown.

Then one glorious day a while back on Refinery29 I saw this DIY article, and it made me realize what a fool I've been. Idiot sandwiches! Macramé cord comes in other colors besides brown. Just because I've always seen brown, light brown and more brownish doesn't mean there weren't lovely color options.

So I went nutty and bought lots of fun, happy colors from none other than the macrame superstore dot com. Then I created way too many happy macramé plant hangers for my plant friends. To make sure I understood the process, I watched this lovely YouTube video. I quickly realized making these plant holders is ridiculously easy so much so that the first one I made I thought certainly I screwed it up because I made it so quickly. A few knots and bam, a nice little banana hammock for my plant friends.

Here's a few photos of the process:

I love them so much and hope my little maiden hair ferns do too. I hope the top maiden loves it so much that it can forgive me for almost killing it a few weeks back during that weird SF heat wave.

These must be the colors I visualized in the womb; it only took me twenty-eight years to find out the cord doesn't always come in brown. Better late than never for my plant friends. Viva la 1970.