Drowning in a sea of paper...

Over the past two days I've been trying to clear out our garage. There's so much paper: old bills, newspapers, xmas cards, photographs, letters. Stacks and stacks of books and magazines...
It's stressing me out!

Maybe there's something to living a paper-free life.

What do you keep and what do you toss? And what about books? Do you keep them forever or give them away after you read them? I have a friend who leaves boxes at the backdoor of her favorite used bookstore late at night. She calls it stealth dumping!


(Photo found on the Internet, somewhere.)

Moving!

Hello everyone,

We're moving! We put the house up for sale and we found a gorgeous garden apartment, very 1960s mod. At the moment I'm trying to clear out 10 years worth of accumulated junk. I'm looking forward to a simpler life -- less stuff, smaller living expenses and more money to travel...

I promise to post photos of our new place in the coming days!

I'll miss our little rose-covered cottage, but mid-century modern seems so chic...


PS-- The winner of the vintage Japanese box is CHELSEA HAYWOOD!

Happy Weekend

Driving along Interstate 5 on the way back to Los Angeles. Already missing San Francisco! This weekend I'll be doing lots of laundry...

What about you?

Thursday Giveaway: Vintage Japanese Music Box

This little vintage box -- found in a San Francisco thrift store -- has the charm of Asia and the romance of the Viennese waltz that plays when you lift the enameled top. The tune will make you think of glittering ballrooms and floor-length dresses. And it's the perfect place to stash small treasures heavy with memory. In our souls, we all know how to waltz.

Please leave a comment here to enter. The winner will be announced Monday!

PS: If you have a chance, please let me know which zines you read (see two posts below!) I'm putting together a list!

Thank you! Have a wonderful Thursday.

Mission District Murals

San Francisco's Mission District is known for its colorful murals, a tradition fostered by the city's Mexican-American community in the 1970s. A walk along 24th Street between Valencia and York is especially wonderful, with vibrant Frida Kahlo-esque designs.

The Precita Eyes Mural Arts and Visitors Center at 2981 24th Street is the perfect place to start an impromptu tour. And you'll find more than 30 murals on Balmy Alley one block away. I wish I had brought more Polaroid film to photograph it. Next time!

(Photos above by Brooklyn-based home writer Jen Jafarzadeh L'Italien. You can find more on her lovely blog, Haystack Needle.)

Zine Scene

City Lights in SF is not only a great bookstore, it has an interesting selection of zines.

Here are a few found on the shelves...

This one was hand done on a letterpress:


It's by someone named Artnoose in Pittsburgh who has an issue with their "inner Nietzsche."
"My Inner Nietzsche berates me and says that those with power are the ones with the will to power," says Artnoose. "I hate my Inner Netzsche; I think it's a jerk."
(You can also find Ker-bloom! on Etsy.)
*

There's the Cement Press, printed on a copy machine:




And then there's Comicosmos, a "non-fiction zine reviewing ideas, topics & books":


This issue includes several Shaker recipes: baked sea scallops with cider sour cream sauce; a chilled blueberry-lavender buttermilk soup; and an apple-custard tart with rosewater meringue.
*

It would be so much fun to do a zine.... I would love to have a letterpress in the garage. Or maybe just a Xerox machine. I picked up a copy of Nylon magazine at the market this evening and noticed that they have a story on fashion zines. In short, print lives!

So here's my question: Do you read zines? Which ones?

Tea, Anyone?

Look at this cute tea house, Crown & Crumpet.





Crown & Crumpet has pink and white floors, tables covered with chintz and little crowns on the tea cups. Located in San Francisco's historic Ghirardelli Square, it's the tea room equivalent of marzipan...

Like bookstores, I keep a list of favorite tea houses:

There's the Tea Palace in Notting Hill

The Rose Garden Tea House & Cafe at the Huntington Gardens in San Marino

Paris has Mariage Freres

In Rome, there's Babingtons


Any others??!

The Rear Window

The view of the alley outside our temporary SF abode...

...I wonder who lives in the apartment with the lace curtains and the window box. I love how she has her little clay pots and basket on the fire escape. ...

Maybe she's an international banker. Or maybe she's working on the next big Internet sensation. On the weekends perhaps she listens to Edith Piaf on an old turntable, makes fantastic omelets with cheese from the farmers market and reads the Atlantic on her Kindle.

I wonder...

What do you think?

Farmers Market

Along the Embarcadero...



Oceans of oranges and veggies from Half Moon Bay.

Japantown

Fudge magazine and a small dog that looks like a wild bear, in SF's Japantown.

UPDATE: The winner of the green silk opera bag is Thalia.

Happy Monday!

Downtown San Francisco

The fog makes the contrast between gray and vibrant color even more remarkable!

Vampire Weekend

Happy Friday everyone!

The SF hotel where we're staying has this massive chandelier in the lobby (which reminds me of the cover of Vampire Weekend's first album)....below is our little dog Lola talking to herself in the mirror...


Have a wonderful weekend...It's properly foggy now in San Francisco and we're ordering take-out Chinese food. More Polaroids Monday!

City Lights

There are lots of interesting places to visit in San Francisco, yet I always end up at this bookstore...


City Lights is the cradle of the Beat Generation, and I could spend hours browsing the shelves. On Tuesday evening, Silicon Valley visionary Jaron Lanier was at the store discussing his new book, You Are Not A Gadget, a manifesto on how technology is changing our culture. The author was greeted by a standing-room-only crowd. (Of course, I had to buy his book, along with five others.)

Books are so heavy to lug home from a trip, but I can't help myself. I love Strand Bookstore in NYC, and then there's the Tattered Cover in Denver. Every time I went home to visit my parents in Albuquerque, NM, I would stop in Salt of the Earth books on Central Avenue. (Like so many independent booksellers, the store is unfortunately now closed.)

Books --and the stores where they're sold -- feed the soul. So here I am, books in tow...

What's your favorite bookstore?

Thursday Giveaway: Gorgeous Green Opera Purse

Hello my dears, this was another one of my Paris flea market finds. I had it listed in my eBay store, but I'm clearing out the Paris inventory to make way for treasures from San Francisco.

Would you like to have it? It's lovely: made of silk with a green glass bead handle. The latch looks like an green jeweled antique brooch. It's large enough for lipstick, a few euros and tickets to the opera!

Please leave a comment to enter! The winner will be announced Monday. Thank you! Meanwhile, I'm off to explore more of San Francisco...xoxo

San Francisco Polaroids

Under a balmy blue sky

It felt like summer today...

You could smell incense in the warm air as the city's large Chinese community welcomed the new year with shrines to Buddha and prayers
for good luck..

As usual, I was distracted by all the architectural details...

The buildings are so European.

But the weather and vibe is pure California...

At the moment, the huge bay windows in my hotel room are propped open and I'm listening to the city life outside: that ringing trolley bell and all those squeaky breaks, worn from climbing all those hills.

And I understand why many hearts are left here.

(Photos taken with a 1970s Polaroid OneStep Flash camera.)