That Was Fun: America's Cup

By this point, you've probably noticed that we love the America's Cup. 

Yes. We can't get enough. Maybe boats aren't your thing and all your friends live in San Francisco and post pictures everywhere of America's Cup, over and over, and you're like "is this over?" Nope. It's not. And when it is, we'll be so bummed because it's so good to watch. 

Side note: I love having a blog at times like these. It's my little journal and letter to my daughters to show them the things they got to experience when they were too little to remember. If you're anything like me, you have far too many pictures taken to ever print... but I'm so pleased can show them this, and they can see that they really were around for things like this historical sailing summer in the city. 

Back to it: we went with my grandparents to get the view of these boats. I think I've mentioned that my grandpa used to sail and race to amazing places. He's been trying to teach us what we're watching when we watch the boats, but it's seriously a new language. As much as I'd love to glean a ton of knowledge and pick up the language of the sailors, it's most fun to simply hear stories. We love to listen to them speak with animation and thrill about the days on the boats, and explain the races to us because they know exactly what is happening. :)

The final races begin Saturday. Excited to see team ORACLE! :) 

San Francisco: Ferry Building

The Ferry Building Farmer's Market: It's this gorgeous, magical place, situated directly beside the bay, with fresh food, flowers, cheeses, coffees, oysters... It's no wonder it gets thoroughly packed on the weekends. 

It's easy to be lazy and prefer to stay in and lounge around, especially on holiday weekends. I'm always far more pleased when we make the decision to get out and explore and enjoy the beautiful places and things right at our fingertips. 

The extra nice thing about the Ferry Building? They've built a lovely playground directly across the street, so that when the kids are through smelling the flowers and tasting every fruit and cheese sample, they can run, climb and swing their little hearts out beside city skyscrapers.

Everyone goes home happy. ;) 

Loving and Linking

Photo via Parents

Ooh, these gorgeous lollipops take less than 10 minutes to make!

 The old bay bridge is officially closed for business, and the new one is coming... interesting facts about our sparkly new bridge. 

Also... Real World in SF? {Also, the good news: last RW ever!!} 

Delicious-looking recipe. I'm not sure I have the drive to make them, but they look seriously amazing. 

Yes, very quotable. 

I'm always looking for ways to make healthy and simple meals, and these cookbooks are gorgeous! 

I'm REALLY loving this look these days, so now I'm eyeing these and hoping they go on sale... {actually everything from there for for fall}

The Joe Fresh for JCP line was so crazy cute. Most of the good stuff is sold out, but I'm loving this dress and it's only $10 now! 

This beautiful book by a beautiful blogger looks so inspiring. 

A way to help end hunger... also a good reminder to be thankful. 

Shameless plug to go take a look at my post on the Honest blog this week... ;) 

ALSO: are you following on Bloglovin'? Makes things easy! 

Make it: Finger Puppets

These little finger puppets are so easy, it's almost silly to have a tutorial- which is totally my kind of DIY post. 

These came about because Maggie was having a birthday, she loves puppets, and well- who knew? Finger puppets can cost a pretty penny. I had all this felt from making bows {for Maggie's birthday a year ago!}, and it was time to put it to good use. So I did: 

Really, all you need to be pushed to do is create a whole stack of colored finger covers. It's soo easy, and once you have those, you can be as creative or NOT creative as you want! The hippo took about one minute flat to cut the face shape, hot glue to the finger cover, and use permanent marker to draw the face- simple. The sun took me a little while to cut... all those ridges, of course, but Sophie couldn't stop telling me how much she loved it best. Basically just freehand, or do a google search of some of the extra nice ones on Etsy {these and these were my favorites! So fancy!}, and try to replicate them with your own scissors. I used white paint on the dots + black marker for the eyes, but you can also use white-out if you have that in the house. 

Basically, get those scissors and hot glue gun busy, and have fun! This is too simple NOT to try for your preschoolers, and they'll have hours of fun with them!  

(ps. felt rectangles are only like 33 cents each, and make probably 8 puppets)

Style Me Pretty Living

Photo by Pictilio 

One 90 degree day last year, Brian and I had a date.

We drove to Half Moon Bay with a perfect picnic, and the prettiest picnic spread, on an almost entirely private beach surrounded by cliffs, accompanied by some of the finest photographers around.

It's a day dreams are made of, and I'd re-live it in a heartbeat.

Now, here's the fun part: those photos live to see another day today, on StyleMePretty Living. Go on over and look at all the pictures {there are a lot}! ;) 

Thank you for being photography geniuses, Pictilio, and for letting us be a part of such a fun shoot! xoxo

Photo by Pictilio

Photo by Pictilio

The Anatomy of a Great Week

Somehow a balanced life can be tricky to accomplish: we often plan too much or plan too little... are you with me? When you feel like the exact balance was struck by the end of a weekend, it's a REALLY good feeling. 

It's Monday. Let's make it a good one. 

xo