It’s been a while since I’ve knit a hat, so after a quick search on Ravelry for a pattern that looked like it would be fun to make, I went with the Chance of Flurries Hat pattern. It’s very similar to another pattern I purchased a while ago (A Most Bespeckcled Hat by Alexandra Tinsley), but soon after I’d purchased it I realized that I didn’t have circular needles in the size that the pattern called for, so this free Lion Brand pattern worked with the supplies and tools I already had. (I plan to knit the other one soon as well, and am excited to compare the two. It’ll be a pattern show down!)

I know what you must be thinking — summer is approaching! Why are you knitting a beanie at this time of year? Well, dollies, 1.) it’s cold here year-round, and 2.) you can never have enough beanies, especially beanies with pom-poms on top.

I’m happy with the way this beanie came out, the pattern is super cute, but unfortunately after I blocked it and tried it on I realized it doesn’t fit my head comfortably. The top is a little too tight. Luckily I have an adorable (and hip!) little cousin who this should fit perfectly, and I’ll be sending it to her this week.  I’m hoping that the Bespeckled pattern will fit a little better so it can keep me warm at all of the Film Nights in the Park I plan to attend.

A happy San Francisco Summer, from me to you. ;)

I stumbled upon this video on Logo Design Love and had to share. I’ve never seen a brand identity presented in video form. Pretty brilliant.

Photo credit: awesomepeoplereading.tumblr.com

As Google announced back in March, Google Reader will cease to exist as of July 1st, 2013. Feedly keeps getting suggested as a good Google Reader alternative, but reading through the viewing options and preferences on their site is making me twitch a little. Most importantly, I don’t like that Feedly isn’t web-based (I’m too lazy to download something on 3 computers), so Bloglovin is looking like the best alternative for me.

Having said that, I wonder if I’ll be able to consume the large amount of content on all of the sites I subscribe to (89 to be exact) as quickly with Bloglovin. My guess is that I won’t, but I will try!

Here are some of my favorite blog feeds in my Reader at the moment:

Freunde von Freunden
Category: Interior Design
Favorite Post: Nir Stern – Interface Designer and Architect, Apartment, Noe Valley, San Francisco

As they explain on their website, “FvF is an international interview magazine that portrays people of diverse creative and cultural backgrounds in their homes and within their daily working environments.” I found this website when I was getting ready to move into my studio apartment back in April. I was looking for interior decor inspiration and found this site to be rich with beautiful photography and really interesting living and work spaces.

DesignLoveFest
Category: Graphic Design and Style
Favorite Post: Benefit Cosmetics/Dream Job 2: The Detective

I stumbled upon DesignLoveFest about a year ago through one of the many other style blogs I read and this one quickly became a “must read” for me. Bri Emery is not only a talented graphic designer, but her style posts are really terrific. She doesn’t do the typical outfit posts that you see on a lot of fashion blogs. She is great at utilizing fashion (that is often vintage) and creating wonderful concept-driven posts. My favorite is linked above and is a part of a series she did for Benefit Cosmetics where she explores different “dream jobs”. The video is a lot of fun, and her site is incredibly inspiring.

Kitty’s Drawings (and Sewn Creations)
Category: Sewing and Vintage Fashion
Favorite Post: Butterick 6740 – Best Shirt Ever!

My good friend and fellow lover of vintage sewing, Kendra, alerted me to this really fun blog about sewing with vintage patterns. Lately it’s been motivating me to get back into sewing – I miss it!

Umami Mart
Category: Food
Favorite Post: Postcard from Hoi An: Cao Lầu on a Lonely Night

I can’t remember when I started reading Umami Mart’s blog. It was probably some time either before or after my trip to Japan last year. I was most likely scouring the web for travel blogs that talked about Japan because I was looking forward to going/missed it. Umami Mart is a food and culture blog with a large emphasis on Japanese culture, and they also have a shop in Downtown Oakland, which I have actually never been to, but walked by once!

How Do I Put This Gently?
Category: Just for Fun
Favorite Post: Too many good posts to pick one.

I don’t think there’s a whole lot to explain here. Also, I’m not sure if browsing through animated gifs counts as reading, but I highly recommend it. It may or may not improve your quality of life at any moment.

What are some of your daily reads?

Also, if you follow my blog already on Google Reader, don’t forget to import your subscriptions to Bloglovin (if you think Bloglovin may be your jam)! It’s really easy to do. (Instructions here.) And, if you’d like to follow me, click here! Easy peasy. Happy reading!

I’m not sure if it’s obvious or not, but one of my goals over the next year (or three) is to slowly (but surely!) make a blanket for all of my favorite people in life. It might be a quilt, or a crocheted piece or MAYBE a knitted blanket (I have to REALLY like you to spend that much time on a blanket)… but this is my goal. Blankets are comforting and time consuming, but they’re a fun challenge.

This blanket was made for my good friend Brianna (you can read about some of my adventures with Bri here and here). We’ve been buddies since high school and she is basically the Ron Swanson to my Leslie Knope. We are pretty opposite, but at the same time have SO MUCH in common. It’s a great friendship. Having said that, I wanted to make her a rad blanket that would compliment the decor in her house and be a fun enough keep my interest whilst crocheting it for hours (upon hours, upon hours). Also, Bri’s mom is an avid sewer and quilter, so I had a lot to live up to as far as decorative blankets go in that house! (Bri’s mom – your quilts can never be topped!)

Ok, I’ll stop sucking up now. I found the pattern for this blanket in this book. The square crochets up pretty quickly, which was great. It helped that I was using 5 different colors for this blanket, so my eyes never got bored looking at the same color. This is important! When I get bored during a project, I lose motivation to finish it and then it’ll sit around for a few months. No bueno!

This blanket took about 2 months. I would have finished it sooner if I didn’t feel so intimidated/lazy about sewing the squares together. Eventually, the work got done (with RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars on in the background, of course).

I’m really happy with the outcome of this blanket. The colors are very vintage, but the pattern feels updated. This is another blanket that I thought about keeping (much like this one).

Are you working on a blanket project? Have you made blankets (knit, crochet, quilted) in the past? What was your biggest challenge? My next blanket is going to be a quilt… so keep your eyes peeled for that post in about… oh, 2 to 3 months. (wink)

Sorry for my radio silence the last two months. I was doing so well with blogging in February and I totally dropped the ball… and for very good reasons!

1.) March was my birthday month, so I was a very busy gal… you know, celebrating life and whatnot. And making my friends (I wish my SoCal friends could have teleported to celebrate as well!) watch my favorite movies from childhood at my themed slumber party, “Welcome to 1993.” We watched Free Willy (well, it was on in the background whilst Jello shots were being consumed), The Babysitter’s Club, Moonwalker, and Jurassic Park. I also made goodie bags, which was probably my favorite part of my birthday slumber party.

2.) I moved! My beloved roommate and I parted ways after 3.5 fun years of sharing living quarters (and 2 years prior to that back in college). Needless to say, I miss my roomie, but I am loving living alone, and my new neighborhood. While I don’t have any blog-ready interior photos quite yet, I will share one of the chairs I have my eye on from EQ3 in Oakland. I LOVE EQ3!

So now that I am comfortably settled into my new age (29) and my new place, I will be updating more regularly. Or, one would hope. I hope everyone is having a lovely spring, wherever you may be.

Kirkham & Funston, where our Inner Sunset journey begins

This past Christmas I decided to splurge a little on myself and bought a DSLR camera. (Which means that my posts will be a lot more photo heavy from now on!) I did some research and asked around to get recommendations for a body and lens that would best suit a beginner. My friends unanimously recommended a 50mm lens, and for the camera body, I decided to go with a Canon 30D.

My sisters are photographers, so I was lucky to have them around during the holidays to answer all of my questions (I had a lot, and still have a lot). My sister let me borrow this book, which was a fantastic introduction to the world of understanding aperture, ISO and exposure.

A good friend of mine also jumped into DSLR photography last year, so we spent a day together about a month ago exploring her neighborhood (the Inner Sunset) and taking some photos.

Kate leads the way on our trek up Mt. Sutro

The view from about halfway up Mt. Sutro

It was a very cloudy day, which (for me especially) was quite a challenge. As dark as it seemed to be outside, a lot of my photos were overexposed. But luckily a few came out ok too.

Golden Gate Bridge in the distance

I hope that my photos only get better from here. One thing I know about myself is that I’m not the biggest fan of hiking, but taking my camera outside on that day in the Inner Sunset and (gasp) hiking up Mt. Sutro didn’t feel like exercise at all. It felt like work, for sure, (I totally tripped over a tree branch at one point) but I think the photo-taking distracted from the idea that we were hiking. Basically, I think this is a great new way to trick myself into getting out of the house and getting some Vitamin D and endorphins.

I typically don’t post “life coach-y” things on my blog (at least I don’t think I do…), but lately I’ve become a fan of Marie Forleo’s YouTube Channel and blog. She’s a savvy (and charming) businesswoman who answers her readers’ questions and often has guests on her program to help give advice.

One of those guests (who is probably my favorite to date) is Dr. Cathy Collaut. 1.) Her advice is totally on point and reminds me a little of a book I read that explains the idea of the “upper limit problem” (although she doesn’t explicitly address this in this video), 2.) while her advice may start to sound a little new age-y from time to time, she uses science to back up her arguments, which I appreciate, and 3.) her outfit is super cute.

So, give it a watch, enjoy, and I hope it inspires you to negotiate with your subconcious. Right now, my subconcious wants to go back to sleep, but hopefully this Earl Grey will convince it otherwise… any minute now…

2012 felt like the year of the blankets for me. I made four total! (Including this one.) This particular blanket is one of my favorites I’ve made to date. I found the pattern for this beauty over on Etsy. The pattern makes a crib-sized blanket, but since this was for my adult-sized friend, I doubled the pattern length-wise. I don’t remember exactly how long my chain was, but it worked out!

When ordering yarn for blanket projects, I almost always go with Vanna’s Choice because 1.) the yarn is really soft, 2.) the line has a large color selection, and 3.) it’s affordable (about $3/skein). This project called for about 12 skeins of yarn total.

My friend’s sense of style is very specific and always ahead of current trends, so I wanted to use colors and a pattern that would look chic FOREVER – I knew I wanted to use black and white. I thought a pop of color would be fun, so I gave her the choice of lime green or bright yellow, and I’m so happy she went with yellow. I think this blanket would look great with any pop of color (mint would look really great as well).

I’m not gonna lie… when I finished this blanket (which took about 3 months — I ended up having to give it to her as a Christmas gift!), I secretly wanted to keep it. This probably means I need to make one for myself soon. One can never have too many handmade blankets, amirite?

Photo by Beautiful Day Photography

A few months ago, my good friend Katrina asked me to design the program for her wedding. I had so much fun designing a customized map for another friend’s wedding back in June, so I jumped at the chance to contribute to Josh and Katrina’s special day.

Josh and Katrina tied the knot at Wayfarer’s Chapel in Rancho Palos Verdes, designed by Lloyd Wright (Frank Lloyd Wright’s son). Considering the minimalist architecture of Wayfarer’s Chapel, and how it allows for the surrounding nature to take the starring role when you’re inside, I wanted the program’s design to function similarly. Finding an elegant, simple way to present the information was my challenge. Katrina provided me with a lot of inspiring designs that she liked, so that helped solidify my understanding of what they were looking for.

To my delight, Katrina and Josh chose my favorite of the design options I presented to them, and after a few rounds of edits, I’m really happy with the way it turned out!

Congrats, Josh and Katrina!

One of my goals for 2013 (which I will post more about soon!) is to watch at least one movie that was made before 1980 every week. I’m pleasantly surprised to have discovered that watching one a week has lead to, well, watching more than one movie a week. I recently cancelled my Netflix subscription so I could instead either borrow movies or rediscover ones I already own, and most importantly, to support my local independent video store Video Wave, which I have already visited more times this month than all of last year. I love that place!

Today I wanted to shed a little blog light on kind of a kooky film that I actually watched when I was at home for the holidays via Roku (I think it was streaming for free on Amazon with my sister’s Amazon Prime membership) — The Long, Long Trailer (1953). My mom loves everything Lucille Ball, so she talked me into watching this silly comedy about Tacy and Nicky (ahem, Lucy and Ricky, essentially), who decide that instead of buying a traditional home it would be more cost effective to purchase an oh-so-chic trailer. Hilarity ensues.

My takeaway from this film: 1.) I forgot how much I love Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz’s dynamic. They have undeniable comedic chemistry and the movie is really funny. 2.) I WANT ALL OF TACY’S OUTFITS! Credit goes to costume designer Helen Rose who was also responsible for costuming memorable films such as On the Town (1949), Annie Get Your Gun (1950), and Silk Stockings (1957) (amongst many, many more) and won two Oscars for her costume work.

I threw this last photo in for fun. Isn’t Lucille Ball just an absolute beauty?

Photo Sources: thelucyartblog.tumblr.com | acertaincinema.pemomo.com | Google Images