City, Sights & Links

​Sooo I was going to save the rest of the pics from Pacific Heights and decided against it. May as well keep 'em all together. SO, to continue from yesterday... after you eat something amazing on Fillmore St, if your kids are anything like mine- they'll be ready to run around like craaazzy. Good. Perfect excuse for a short walk to Alta Plaza Park. Feel free to wear your cute shoes around PacHeights because this park is nearly sand-free, and one of the cleanest parks around the city. You can swing your child and look at their lovely face with gorgeous mansions in the background... 

OR, you can push your kiddo on the swing and face this view. It's a win-win here, folks.​

Another tip for you: even if it's a sunny day, bring extra warmth. As soon as that sun starts going down- it's San Francisco, and it's at the top of a hill- you're going to be chilly. Poor M wasn't dressed warmly enough but she wasn't about to stop playing to be cuddled in a warm blanket, so she just happily shivered through it. ​

They weren't about to look up for pictures, of course.

When you're finished at the park, try get a neighborhood walk through PacHeights before heading home!! It's seriously the cherry on top of a sweet day. If you time it right, you can watch the sunset go down over the bay and it's insanely gorgeous. ​

I took 200 pictures through this little adventure, so believe me- I'm using restraint by only posting about 50 for ya. ;)​

Okay!! Link time!​

Link Love:​

Have you guys heard of Soldsie? ​If you have a small business, it creates a simple process of selling your products directly through Facebook. I don't sell anything, but I'm a big fan of promoting resources that help to build small businesses (and you can always BUY through facebook too... check it out!)! 

I have some weddings to attend in May (whaaat? already?) and I'm LOVING the Gatsby-inspired look HERE.​ 

My iPhone case broke (again!!), and now I'm eyeing this one, this one, and (my favorite) this one... sooo much cuteness here.​

I've been a "Saltwater Sandals or bust"​ superfan forever, but these are seriously contending right now. They are crazy cute for summer sunshine.

Now let me be honest: I don't see myself making my own sidewalk chalk... BUT I love how beautiful it looks here (such pretty pictures!) and that if I do want to learn, there's a nice little tutorial for reference. ​

This goes with nothing in my home at all, but I kind of wish it did because it's so darn cute and the price is really good... ​

This makes me want to start sending more cards in the mail. I mean, what if I opened my mailbox and received that rather than bills and catalogs? Inevitable smiles.​

Also inviting inevitable smiles would be cords that are beautiful like these. I've spring cleaned most of my home, but my office corner of the house is in dire need of about 8 hours straight tlc. If that actually happens, THEN I'll think about beautifying cords. 

Ahhh, I love the chill vibe of the weekend. Hope you're enjoying yours just as much!

Kate

SF Love: Pacific Heights

We're so into exploring the city and eating good food... we were walking around Fillmore in Pacific Heights yesterday, and basically I want to try every.single.restaurant. The massive selection of good food with pretty design in San Francisco makes "eating in" the hardest thing ever. Who wouldn't want to just put their homemade sandwiches away when they're passing places like Bun Mee and tacobar? (and that yellow chair on a 70 degree day is just far too tempting.. so are the sweets from Sift).

My personal favorite spot in ​Pacific Heights is ​Woodhouse Fish Co. Fisherman's wharf can take their pricey fancy seafood, and I'll take Woodhouse Fish any day. Their crab and lobster rolls are stuffed full of meat and so, so good. Oysters for $1 on Tuesdays... There's also a location on Market St.

So there you have a tiny glimpse of Pacific Heights... and when I say tiny, I mean tiny. It also has the incredible views and some fantastic parks, but there's plenty of time for highlighting those another day. When I miss two days on here, it feels like I have a million things to say and so little time to say it all. Wait, what's this about missing two days of stylesmaller in a row? Yes, it happened... but I wouldn't say 2013 resolutions aren't panning out. ;) This week just happened. It was a tough week for our beautiful, fair country, and a bit chaotic in our own home. Somehow these terrible teeth are coming are causing some serious temperament issues in my otherwise perfect little Maggie. It also caused one night of never actually entering my personal REM cycle... I mean, at 4am she finally nodded off... yes, you read that correctly. From a spoiled mother whose children both slept through the night by two months old, walking around dazed doesn't bode well for the lovely people in my path. I took an old-fashioned college-type nap yesterday to remedy things, ate a popsicle, and I felt like a new person. 

​Anyway, more life and LINKS later today or tomorrow. xoxoxo and HAPPY WEEKEND!!

Dear Weekend

Dear Weekend, oh blissful, beautiful weekend...

I miss you already. I'm still full from the Korean feast we ate Saturday, and still appreciating friends, laughs, and the date downtown walking around with my favorite person in the world. Today I'll spend building block castles and imagining we're pirates and being sleepy and grateful...

and drinking extra coffee.

Oh, and I might wear my pj's all day. While we do endless chores so that the rest of the week we can spend outside enjoying 70+ degrees.... that forecast makes me SO HAPPY.

XO,

Kate

ps. this ceiling at the top of  Westfield is so crazy beautiful. 

Bits of Life

(​Because sometimes I need a shower in the morning and the crib is the safest place to watch curious George)

​Happy Weekend! 

Kate

Bits of Life

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It's Friday, it's Friday, it's Friday! ​

​It's also 70 degrees and sunny, which adds an extra bit of pleasantness. I've also finally broken through the throat-on-fire theme that's been plaguing me for a full week, so really there's a lot going for me right now. 

​My mother-in-law is in town, so we've also had the fun perks like hitting up Starbucks this morning, exploring the city, and lunching at Marengo (one of my favorite spots for casual food in the city! Just look at that slider below, mmm. and p.s. why doesn't every restaurant have purse hooks under tables?), and having a warm shower that lasted longer than five minutes on a weekday. You know, the big things like that. :)

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Sophie did her fair share of ballet this week. She's always loved it, but she's been twirling around and performing like crazy this week. Maggie wants to copy everything Sophie does, so there have been a couple little collisions during "performances," but to be honest, she seems to have a natural knack for gracefulness and dance (do all parents say that stuff? Maybe, but I'm pretty sure it's true here, ha!) We have no clue where this gracefulness comes because neither my husband nor I are particularly gifted in that department, but we're glad for her. We even finally upgraded her ballet uniform from Target to an official version, and from whatever striped or sparkle tights she chose that week to true pink ones. She'll probably still go for the bold striped tights, but hey, we feel like we've finally invested a tiny bit into her ballet obsession, so we'll see how that goes. She can now use her old stuff for when she just feels like dressing as a ballerina around the house or neighborhood.

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​Meanwhile, Maggie has been investing her time in the arts of exploration and mischief. She will climb anything, crawl through anything, and lately... move everything from one corner of the house to the other. Today was the first time she really took a long walk without a stroller ("long" is relative... it was only a couple blocks), and she did a phenomenal job. I said "stop Maggie," and she would stop. I'd say "this way" and she'd come. She's was checking herself out in store reflections as she walked too... and she was laughing. That Maggie is always laughing.  

​I'll have your links later today! They're good ones... don't miss 'em. 

Happy Weekend,​

Kate

City Living: Taking a Ferry to Sausalito

It's Friday. Yes. A legitimate Friday with a weekend to follow! Last weekend, my husband worked, so it feels like this has been the most continuous, long week ever.

Monday, we decided we needed an adventure. A friend was in town and invited us to go on a ferry ride to Sausalito and I had thoughts of Kate Beckinsale in Serendipity circa 2000, taking in the perfect city as she flawlessly looked into the distance, so we agreed to go. "We" is two little tag-teaming troublemakers directly prior to lunchtime, until approx. after naps. It was chaos of epic proportions, let me tell you. Sometimes I think I'm more capable than I actually am.

Our sit-and-stand stroller was a dream for about four months. Things began going south after that... a broken basket below, foamy pushing surface falling off, and our final straw... a wheel that falls off when we lift for any reason. As you can imagine, we lift our stroller up and down excessively, so... yes, it's a little embarrassing when I have a runaway wheel. On this particular day, our trusty Maclaren single-stroller went to work in the car with my husband, so I had no choice. To the north bay with a testy stroller we went. The wheel fell off more times than I can quite remember, and if I didn't have a conscience for my fellow humans, I would have abandoned that beast on the side of the road. I'm being quite literal.

I took a lot of pictures that look like the entire experience was straight-up bliss. It was definitely fun, but my lack of prep and "make-do" mentality way more stressful than I would have thought! If you are going to be taking a ferry in San Francisco to Sausalito alone with two kids, please heed this advice so you can most thoroughly enjoy the beautiful experience:

• Take the lightest weight stroller ever. There are stairs on the ferry that you'll have to maneuver once each way.
• If it's windy, mentally plan on sitting inside. It looks waaaayyy better outside, but the kids were literally blowing away from me. No bueno.
• Remember to feed your children prior to leaving the house.
• Dress in layers because you'll freeze on the ferry, then likely get really warm in Sausalito.

All that said, it has the potential of being an easy jaunt if you're well prepared. Sausalito is such a charming little town, with little cafes, delis, tourist shops, candy shops, and most importantly: an ice cream shop. Everything comes with a side of an amazing view... it's undeniably gorgeous. When we go (generally by car), we always feel as if we've been teleported to a whole new world of vacation mode, even though it's literally less than 15 minutes from the city.

Here are a few pictures from the ferry. :)

Happy Weekend!

Love,

Kate

PS. If you can recommend any amazing city strollers that have those stand-on features for bigger kids, please let me know! We are in the market for a new stroller, for obvious reasons. xoxox