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!!

Hope

Image from RueMag 

The month before Sophie came into our lives, the market tanked. People were going broke, banks were broke, discouragement, and despair was the norm, and there was not much confidence. I was obviously uncomfortable at night (pregnancy has the habit of doing that to a person), and would wake and lie in bed, thinking about the world. Thinking to myself "how can I possibly bring a new baby into this world, so full of uncertainty and turmoil?"

There are days- like a few months ago- like yesterday- that those thoughts come back to my mind. I say "how am I to parent in a world like this? How could we have decided to bring two such loved little girls into this crazy, uncertain, volatile place?" 

I want to shield them. I want to guard them. I want to protect them with every morsel of my being. Protect from harm, protect from hurt, protect even from the slightest adversity. I say things like that I'll homeschool and keep them from going anywhere without me.

Then I take a deep breath and really consider...  

What if the people who have felt such hatred and anger that they decided to bomb someone had their life touched early... perhaps in school? Perhaps instead of being bullied or treated poorly, or led to believe violent acts are just, what if they were shown kindness and love and friendship? And what if that bitterness- that has the potential to start so young- never, ever was given roots to develop to this point, simply because someone showed them they are loved? And what if it was your child or mine that showed a lonely and broken child how to forgive and be kind... show them that they are loved and created by God and cherished? Showed them that harming others is wrong? 

Sheltering our children from the world and all its sadness and brokenness sounds so appealing sometimes... but when we hide ourselves and our children, we also hide the potential to bring joy, bring kindness, and bring love to one another. We are imperfect people, living in an imperfect world, but with God's help, we must try to change the brokenness with hope... hope, not despair. 

So we'll pray for the broken-hearted in Boston. We'll pray and have hope.

Spring Accessories

Today on The Little Style File, I shared more of my favorite accessories of spring! See their page for all the details HERE  (and see the other cute options from last week on The Chirping Moms HERE). 

I obviously am a big fan of brights. ;) 

1. Dotty Backpack. || 2. Converse HighTops. || 3. Sparkle Hair Ties. || 4. Sock Set. || 5. Fringe Scarf. || 6. Friendship Bracelet. || 7. Bright Shoelaces. || 8. Barrette Four-Pack. || 9. Summer Hat. 

Generally, I leave out the boys because I don't have any of my own, but today, I got a few cute picks for them too:! Here ya go:

1. Blue & Red Adidas. || 2. Neon Watch. || 3. Headphones. || 4. Sunglasses. || 5. Bow tie. || 6. Hat. || 7. Socks. || 8. Red HighTops. || 9. Gingham Tie.

Love,

Kate

Make it: Cardboard Train

During Maggie's nap time the other day, Sophie and I made a train. 

Trains are a reeeeally big deal in our house. Everything that can be pulled is a train, and the girls can play for hours with them. We had a stack of boxes to be recycled, including the prettiest ones from Honest, and some days I don't make Sophie take an afternoon nap so that we can use that time to play board games, or do more involved crafting. This falls under the "involved crafting" category... took about 45 minutes, but if I did it by myself, it would probably take only about 20. ;) Here's how:

Clockwise from top left:

1. Cut four circles for each train car. Ours had about a 6 inch diameter. Poke holes in their centers.
2. Find boxes that are the size you'd like your train cars to be. Take the dull side of four pencils or colored pencils and poke a hole on each of the four spots you'd like your wheels to go. Insert a wheel on each pencil.
3. Inside the box, tape the pencils for each side to one another, so when the wheels turn, they turn together from one side to the other.
4. Tie a string from the wheels on the sides to the other. Be sure it's tight. It makes the side wheels turn together as well. Then poke holes in the front and back of the car to tie a knotted string for connecting and pulling!

There you have it. A little train. Ours obviously was filled with baby dolls in about two minutes flat, and pulled around all day!  

Happy Monday to you.  

xoxo, 

Kate

(psss, use THIS LINK for a free trial of Honest diapers or household products. They just got the CUTEST new patterns!)

 

Bits of Life & Links

I skinned my knee at the park the other day. It was the most legit skinned knee I've had since my childhood, I'm pretty sure. It was so sunny that I decided to try the monkey bars with Sophie, and they just don't make those things tall enough. So much for trying to be 4 years old again... and whatdayaknow... those things HURT.

Speaking of pain, yesterday I took a run for the first time in six months... not kidding on that. I was on the cross-country team in high school, and that's always helped me easily get running a good 4 or 4.5 miles when I started back after some time, but apparently there's an expiration date on that "picking up where I left off because I used to train to do this" thing. Also, I'm no stranger to giant hills, but yesterday I thought I might die before making it to the top. The good thing about the hills is that SF is full of gorgeous views whenever you finally make it up those terrible/wonderful hills. I felt as accomplished as if I had run a marathon, even though it was 2.5 miles. Anyway, we'll see if that run leads to a life of being in shape, or if I don't get back out for another six months... you never know! 

This week was warm and beautiful: we painted, played outside, had good moments, had challenging moments, and ate really, really good grill food (there was the most perfect steak ever accompanying that food picture above- thanks Brian)!  

Now for a little: 

Link Love

I love links. Hope you do too! 

First of all, my cousin Erin Taylor, is doing a walk for water. They're raising support to build wells for clean drinking water for the people of Uganda. HERE is her fundraising page... there's only about $100 left for her to raise, so even like $5 would be a big help. 

The cuteness of all these striped party ideas is a little ridiculous. People are amazing with all their simple but perfect ideas. 

Loving this tee. 

This post about dressing a boy is my favorite. If I had a little boy, I'd take some of her tips for sure!  

My new favorite app tracks my steps.. apparently 10k steps per day is what an "active" person walks? I'm only between like 7k and 9k, and that's on a sunny week. This is what motivated my run yesterday, actually.  

Photo from Studio DIY  

Have you guys ever gotten fresh flowers on the top of a present? I have and LOVE it. I pinned this one (pictured above) so that I'd remember to do that next time I need to bring a gift somewhere. 

Personally, I'd love to win a pair of See Kai Run shoes. Here's a giveaway.

These dotty leggings went on sale and are tempting me big-time.  Especially because there are always extra 30% off sale coupons... hmm.

The most gorgeous prints went on sale too, and this one is my favorite. 

LAST, don't forget to enter our giveaway! So simple to enter!! Ends tomorrow!! 

Happy Weekend!  

Kate