The most expensive accessory you will ever own…

I once read that having blonde hair will be “the most expensive accessory you will ever own”. I think they were right. To have blonde hair and make it look good, regular highlights are necessary. Plus I recommend getting lowlights as well in order to add depth and prevent the platinum syndrome, where you are 100% blonde at the bottom of your hair.

It took me almost 2 years living in SF to find a new hairstylist. It was hard to find someone who could make my dirty blonde hair look naturally highlighted. Not too yellow, or too thick and catching the same hairs each time. Is that too much to ask for? When I lived in San Diego everyone was blonde, so I think the hairstylist have more practice.

Until I found someone to do my hair, I wasn’t entirely sure I could continue to live here. Bad highlights are not an option. If you are in the market for a new hair colorist, let me recommend Rita from Level 5. She is amazing!

donuts...

After this recent HOT spell, I am craving donuts. I know this sounds odd because once it gets warm it reminds you of bathing suit season.

However, when I was in college, and it was so hot that my roommates and I couldn’t sleep, we would go get hot, fresh donuts. This is when they are truly the best. I lived in an apartment by the beach that would get so hot, we would all find ourselves up and in the living room around 3:00 am. If you can’t beat it go with it.

Next time you are up and can’t sleep, find a 24 hour donut store and buy 2. Eat one that night and save one for the next morning.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM!!!!

It has been hot in the city the last few days and it has been making me crave all things summer. Lemonade, sun dresses, bright nail polish, flip flops and ice cream.

One of my all time favorites is Chocolate chip from Baskin Robins. I don’t like a lot of chocolate (weird I know) and this has the perfect amount. And one serving only has 170 calories.

When I lived in southern CA, ice cream was an actual staple in my diet. I would have it after summer camp each day. When I lived in San Diego, our freezer was always stocked with some sort of ice cream.

Now I just need to find one in the city.

Harry Potter

I just watched the new Harry Potter trailer that comes out in July. I can’t wait!

I admit I am a dork and a huge fan of both the books and the movie. I got started on the books after they were hugely successful, I followed the trend. And it was worth it, I think it is my favorite series. J.K. Rowling is impressively creative, and I am envious of her imagination.

The movies have gotten increasingly better in my opinion. I know they can’t show all the details that are in the book and I think they have gotten better about making a great movie.

If you aren’t already a fan, I highly recommend watching a movie or reading a book.

½ Birthday

Today is my boyfriends ½ birthday. Yes, I said half birthday. I grew up in a house that celebrated them and it is a tradition I plan to bring into my own family.

I think it’s a fun tradition because the 6 month marker is not always top of mind. I remember always being surprised when I was younger. What a great way to make someone’s day!

½ birthday gifts don’t have to be extravagant, just a little something. This year, I got a magazine subscription. I know he loves GQ and for an entire year it was less then $20.

What traditions do you have?

Puppy

I can’t wait to one day have a dog. While having a dog is far from practical living in a San Francisco apt, and I know I need a yard, I still wish I could have one. We currently live in a pet free building, so for now there is lots of time to research.

We are looking into Great Danes. They defiantly aren’t a small dog, so this will be our “excuse” to have a larger place with a yard one day. They seem like the perfect dog for me. They are known for being a “lazy” dog, meaning they are quite content to lay on the couch with you. Seeing as this is my favorite weekend pass time, we already seem like a great fit.

I have also been told they try to be lap dogs. I think it is adorable when a big dog doesn’t realize it is bigger then a 9 pound dog. I really enjoy sitting on my boy friends lap, even when there is plenty of seating, so he will be used to this.

The best part is Great Danes come in awesome colors. Some are spotted like a cow. I want a blue one! Yes, I said a blue dog!!!! Originally I wanted to name the new dog something related to the Smurffs, being blue and all. Now, I am leaning toward Greek Gods names Apollo and Artemis (brothers). Did I mention I would love two dogs?

Trash Cans

Our new trash can arrived this weekend. I have to say that finding one that would suit our needs and wasn’t over $100 was harder then I expected.

Growing up my parents always kept our trashcan under the sink. I just recently found out it was because my mom didn’t want to spend the money on one. If I had room in my kitchen I would follow her lead.

Since I don’t have that luxury, I wanted to find a dual trash can. We try to be good to the environment and sort our trash from our recycling. In the past, the recycling just ended up sitting on the edge of the counter (slowly driving me crazy). In this place, I knew I wanted a trash can just for it.

My issue is they are hard to find and when you do they are expensive. Are we really the only people who want a trashcan for our recycling? I know I could have bought two trashcans (double the money) but I wanted it to have clean, uncluttered lines.

We finally settled on a small trash can because it fits in our budget and our trash shoot is pretty small. We have been living with it for a few days now and I am not 100% convinced this is the best solution. Small means we take the trash out a lot.

I wish I could just design a line. I feel like as a normal consumer it would be so much more practical then most.

Umbrellas

Well it’s raining again and I have been noticing everyone’s umbrella’s recently. I commute to the financial district. I have noticed a trend, beautiful umbrellas.

Everyone in the city carries umbrellas and depending on the day, for me, depends on the umbrella. For example, looks like rain days get the small umbrella that fits in my purse. Pouring rain days get the big golf umbrella. Windy rainy days need the umbrella with the wind flap – to prevent flipping.

The new trend I have noticed is a classy, wood umbrella, which is large, has a round handle for easy carrying and comes in all sorts of fun patterns.

The question is where do I find a reasonably priced one?

Center piece...

Our dining room table arrived this weekend! It is a beautiful, dark wood table and matching chairs from JC Penny. I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the table and their great prices.

Now that we had a table, I needed a centerpiece. I personally love the look of a center piece. I think it makes a table look complete. However, I always struggle with what the center piece should be. I am not a fan of fake flowers and I do love the look of real flowers, but I can not devote the time or resources to maintain that habit. We needed an alternative.

We actually had the perfect solution. We have been collecting wine bottle corks to eventually make a cork board for the last year or so. Until we decide we have enough to make a cork board, they are going to be my center piece. We put all of the corks in a big glass vase and voila, we had a centerpiece.

While I am sure this is not the most unique idea ever, it is still a little different then the traditional flowers or candles. It finishes off the table and gives me a great storage solution for the corks.

Dishwashing Liquid Bottles

I love this idea from Martha Stewart!
http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/organizing-by-room?lnc=1a89cf380e1dd010VgnVCM1000005b09a00aRCRD&rsc=lpg_home&lpgStart=1¤tslide=3¤tChapter=1#ms-global-breadcrumbs

I love the idea of keeping an everyday item like dishwashing soap in a fun bottle. I have a hard enough time being motivated to do the dishes, if I had to go searching for the soap to clean them I would never make any progress.

I plan to keep my eye out for the right bottle.

Bookshelf

For the first time in my life, I will finally have a place for my books. Since I was little I knew I wanted to have a library one day. Given the cost of square footage in the bay area, I may have to settle for a wall. One of the things I love about living in the city is the architecture and the way there is room for built-ins.

My new apartment has room for a built-in but doesn’t have one. I plan to put an old baker’s rack instead and use that as my bookshelf.

Now comes the fun….organizing and decorating the bookshelf. I have been reading lots of blogs lately and the new trend seems to be organizing by color. While I don’t think this trend will work for me, it is visually beautiful. I have been going back and forth on mine. I can organize it by genre (cooking, children’s, fiction, law, etc.), by size, or alphabetically. I think I might do a combo of genre and alphabetically. I don’t want it to look over contrived.

Goodbye to coats hanging on the wall…

As we are slowly moving over to the new place, it hit me that our fabulous coat hanging system in our current apt won’t work in the new one.

We took a long wall with plenty of walking space and hung curtain hooks on the wall. We put our heavy winter/wool jackets there. It turned into a functional piece of wall art. We have a huge variety of coats, long, short, grey, patterned, colorful.

This idea came about because our closets are tiny (typical SF) and we have a ton of jackets. I was actually surprised how many I/we had when I started putting them on the wall. Living in cold weather means I need a variety of coats and I certainly can’t wear the same coat every day. From the perspective of my wardrobe, I don’t have nearly enough. However, given my limited closet space I have to choose new coats sparingly.

This was the perfect solution, plus you never had an excuse to not hang up your coat for the day. The new place has a wonderful entry closet that we can hang coats in. I will keep this idea in my back pocket for future city apts.

Pewter Shoes

I am on the hunt for Pewter material heels. I am in a wedding and this will match our outfits as well as the décor. However, this is not a common color and one that seems to rarely be done well.

I think the problem is I have started looking too late. As winter is ending and summer is around the corner, this color is even harder to find. I found this adorable pewter shoe by Steve Madden and it’s on sale, but my size is no where to be found. When I say no where I mean I have looked online, and called CA, NY, NJ, TX or DC. What I find most irritating is that all of these places computer says that they have my size shoe and when I call the store it seems their “inventory is wrong”. How many places can have inventory that is wrong?

I know this means it is time to move on, I don’t have enough good karma to luck out and find a cute shoe (I would wear again) and at great price. I will continue my hunt and secretly hope Steve Madden releases an updated version of the same shoe in time.

My shoe secret...

Summer Soles just came out with new designs for their insoles. I adore these things. They are my little secret for making heels so much more comfortable. You put them in and they stop your feet from moving around as much, preventing blisters.

Now they have cute designs in addition to a large variety of color options. Lets be honest, no one is really going to see the cute design, but it still makes me happy.

I don’t trek nearly as far in heals as I used to. Living in SF and walking the hills and around town eats heels. I try to save my heel wearing to nights out and in the office.

The Lounge a.k.a My New Couch

Today I am finally ordering our couch. I have been in love with it for over a year. It is the perfect couch because it extra wide so you can easily lie down. One would assume this is why Crate and Barrel calls it the Lounge.

When I watch TV I tend to lie down rather then sit. I am also known to spend a lazy Sunday napping/watch TV on the couch. This might be my absolute favorite way to spend a day. To further encourage this behavior we have decided to buy the storage ottoman. How can you pass up an ottoman that will hold blankets? We do live in SF after all and always need storage and blankets for those cold winter days.

I am going to get the Charcoal, which is considered a stock plus color. This means that I don’t pay extra for it but I have to wait longer. 8-10 weeks longer in fact. I see this as a small price to pay for a wonderful couch. Anyone who knows me knows I love greys and neutral colors. I plan to have this one for a while, so until then we will be sitting on misc. seating.

Moving Again….

I am moving again and today I get to pick up the keys to my new place. I am actually quite excited this time. I have a love/hate relationship with moving. I love getting organized and cleaning out stuff. I hate the stress of it, the physical labor and the cost. This time I am moving in with my boyfriend! We currently live with two other roomies, so this will be our first real place.

Living in SF creates some unique challenges that I have not experienced in my time in San Diego or in Simi Valley.

1. Significantly smaller (including closet space)
2. Dishwashers aren’t standard in all apartments
3. Narrow hallways and bay windows - while classic SF architecture, it does add some design challenges
4. Rent prices are significantly more expensive

This place however is wonderful. It encompasses the beauty of SF with some major improvements including: rent control, fireplace, 2 HUGE closets, dishwasher, laundry in the building, and a potential parking spot all in the adorable neighborhood of Laurel Heights. Another perk is it is closer for both my boyfriend and I so our commutes get shorter.

Now we need to order furniture (we own none of our own) and move. No small task before April 1st.

PS - Key chain by Tiffanys.com

Basketball

After living with 3 boys for a short time I have found a new appreciation for Basketball. I had no idea it was on nearly as often as it is. Nearly every night you can find something related to it: Professional, College, dunking competitions, March Madness, etc. Who new?

However I can tell you I am becoming a fan of the Warriors. I am not sure how much of it is by choice. Growing upI can honestly say that I don’t really mind Basketball compared to most sports, but I don’t think this will be my top TV choice any time soon.