Bicycle Bicycle

Life is good here!  I've been having way to much fun to keep up with blogging.  For one I got this great vintage french bicycle that I have been spending lots of time with.  She is so much fun!  The weather in the city has been amazing so riding my bike has been happening lots.   I convinced another one of my friends to get a bicycle so I am awaiting her bike to arrive so we can adventure all together.  

Me, having big ideas to conquer the world. Thanks to my friend Eliza for taking my art direction for this photo, it turned out perfectly.

Tank top, skirt-HnM
Leggings-Hue

Last but not least, I made a new harness/necklace. 

Pride without Prejudice

Sunday was the 40th anniversary of Gay Pride festivities in San Francisco!  This was the first time I attended the SF version. I have previously attended the Seattle festivities but San Francisco definitely takes it up a notch.  First of all, I have never seen so many people, happy people, all in one place.  It was hard to walk anywhere cause the crowds were so intense.  We saw the backstreet boys in the parade and then performing on the main stage, people were so excited to see them, it was crazy.  They were great performers, their dancing was super tight.   My friend Sarye and I met lots of nice people and managed to have a blast. 

I am wearing-

Feather hair dangle-DIY/Pretty Pirate Designs

Sunnies-F21

Tank-Arkay Workshop/Alternative apparel)

Purse-DIY/Pretty Pirate Designs

Belt-Moksha in Seattle/imported

Skirt-(previously the bells from pants that I altered into a skirt)/Import store on Haight St.

This guy is from Cheer SF and is currently on "americas got talent".  What a nice guy too!  We saw them perform and they were amazing!

Rainbow tail doggy!!

These guys have been together 44 years, thats more than most marriage's last!

Love the feathers

Angel on stilts

Cute float representing Middle Eastern gays

The house music block, people were dancing tough, this was one of my fave areas

The garbage was pretty overwhelming, they needed way more receptacles, they were all full

Watching the parade

Looking up at you!

What a pleasant surprise to run into someone I admire.  Last night I went to a happy hour with a friend and afterwards we stepped into a local dive bar to have a drink and wallah.....Amy Sarabi!  For those who are unaware, she was on the most recent Project Runway, yes the one that Seth Aaron won.  Seth Aaron lives in my home town and I adore him.  I was rooting for him to win.  First because of the home town connection and then because of his talent.  Amy had nothing but great things to say about Seth Aaron and told me that she agreed his win was well deserved.  She joked that he would have completed a whole suit by the time she had finished a half of a pair of leggings.  The show was apparently even more stressful than it looks on T.V, she mentioned they usually only got about 10 hours to complete the garments.  Amy was a absolute doll, I was nervous about talking to her because I didn't want to act all star struck but she was just a normal gal albeit a very talented one.   She also said she loved my outfit which was such a complement coming from her!  Luckily I took some photos of my outfit before I left home. 

Here I am with Amy and her friend Sage (they attended design school together)  Sage now works in L.A designing jeans. 

The outfit

Vintage Jacket- Jones New York/ Thrifted

Vintage 60's Wool Dress-Altered/Thrifted

Vintage Neckalces-Thrifted

Vintage Silk Pajamas/Leggings-60's? thrifted

Vintage 80's Boots-Etsy

Feathered/Braided Headband-My Design, Pretty Pirate Designs

Vertigo!

One of my favorite old movies is Vertigo, (hence the black and white photos for today).  Vertigo is a great, Hitchcock movie filmed in San Francisco.  Crissy field which can be seen in a scene in the movie is where I hung out with friends on Sunday.   For the movie, they built some stairs that were temporary and can be seen when the leading lady walks down to the water and then is saved by her leading man.  In the shot you can see the Golden Gate bridge in the background.   This was my first time hanging out here for more than a drive through.  Some of my friends and I had a BBQ to which I owe all the credit to my friend Sanjay who got to the park at 8:00 am to get the best spot he could find.  I showed up much later to find a sweet spot with lots of great people, food an beverages.  Luckily, I met some great new friends and had a blast hanging out in the sun.  Photos of me by Sanjay, except close up which is a self portrait.  All scenic photos by me.

I am wearing-

Hat-Bought at the Garlic festival in Gilroy when I was overheating (scarf is from a import store)

Dress-Vintage

Belt-Vintage

Necklace-Self made (Pretty Pirate Designs)

Sunnies-HnM

This dress again

I am beginning to think that I will wear this dress (and apparently these shoes too) everyday this summer.  It's pretty much perfect.  I've been searching for more of these project dresses that I can chop up and make perfect like I did with this one.  It started out much longer and very frumpy then I turned it into FRUMP CHIC!,  at least I like to think so!  It reminds me sort of of something by Marc Jacobs.  I love the weird prints, patterns and ruffles. 

 Before noon today, we had driven all over the city.  Had breakfast in the marina (which we usually avoid) then a walk on Baker beach followed by a drive down Haight and Castro and to Dolores park where I had a picnic with some lady friends.  What a lovely day!  There were so many cute dogs out today, after being aggressively barked out this morning by a mean one (tied to a poll), it was nice to meet so many sweet/normal dogs. 

I am wearing

Feather Earrings-self made (Pretty Pirate Designs)

Necklace-Vintage

Dress-Thrifted and altered

Great cardigan-Nordstrom (gift from mom, thanks mom I wear it all the time!)

Cream sweater-Jcrew super soft wool, thrifted (lucky find for 5$)

Belt-Grandpa's old belt

80's leather sandals-thrifted in my home town (it's spring so I can finally wear them, they're perfect)

Nail polish-OPI My private jet

Adventures In Nature

This weekend was so beautiful in San francisco.  I was so lucky to get to go back to my favorite spot in San francisco, Stow Lake.  It is a magical place that sits next to Strawberry Hill.  I also watched the sunset at Ocean Beach, it was a lovely day. 

Stow lake

Ocean Beach at sunset

It was really windy at the beach. 

The light was so pretty, I wish I had been wearing something more fun.  I was in my cozy weekend clothes.

Outfit-

Wool J crew sweater-Thrifted

Elie Tahari Jeans-Thrifted

Undershirt-From clothing swap

A day in the life, found my coat and grabbed my hat.

I shared a great day with some friends on Wednesday.  The weather was absolutely perfect which has now turned back to rain.  We started out in the park across from my house and had a picnic and some nice white wine.  As we drank the beautiful nectar we chatted about life, work and men.  We ended the night with music from my favorite local band, Gaucho who plays amazing gypsy jazz.  Gaucho makes me feel like I live in a bygone era, like I am in a fancy parlor with all kinds of interesting people.  I highly suggest you check them out if you life in SF.  They play every Wednesday at Amnesia.  These pictures are as the day progressed.  I changed my outfit 3 times, ha!  I love wearing different outfits throughout the day. 

My friends Emily with her dog Quaila and Kristy (notice the ladies in the background wearing their bikni's, yes it was that warm.) 

The token self portrait!

I love my Chanel knock off's

Mid day outfit-

Scarf-Vintage from Josephine 

Jacket-Thrifted with gift certificate from SFStyle. 

Jeans-Earl Jeans

Purse-Marshals

Shoes-Steve Madden

Nighttime outfit-

Hat-Vintage and thrifted

Dress-Vintage and thrited

Velvet Jacket-Vintage, thrifted I added new (vintage)  button
Tights-Marshals

Shoes-Vintage, thrifted and re-soled

Belt-from random blouse

Necklace-DIY Pretty Pirate Designs

So this is what I've been up to

I went home for the holidays, home being Vancouver, WA.  No... not Canada, my home town in directly across the Columbia river from Portland, Or.  I had a great time catching up with friends, shopping (thrift and vintage), hanging out with family and generally just being on vacation. It was a whirlwind of things to do, places to go and people to see.  This post is very picture-tastic!!!

Lets start out with the shopping!  This store Smut was the place that my friend found her NYE fur coat (pic 2nd to last photo below).  This is the reason that I got the amazing fur cape from the last post.

Smut had a great mix of all kinds of fun vintage things.

These vintage photos were so much fun to look through.

This next store, Rad Summer was where I found my new favorite coat.

The window display at Rad Summer.

Besides shopping I did a lot of hanging out with my best friend who I have known since 8th grade.  I just turned 32 on January 3rd so thats a long time.

We went to a Blazer game, it was so much fun.

My home town had it's first snow of the year, which was so beautiful to see.  Now that I live in California it's not a regular view for me.

Here I am on New Years Eve with my ladies.  The patchwork fur coat on Jen is from Smut, see above.

My outfit is

Dress-30's

Necklace-vintage rhinestones

40's hair and makeup

Close up of the hair and makeup, I was wearing eyelashes too.

BeFri FOREVER

My best friend who I have known since 8th grade came to visit me a few weeks ago. She still lives in the town we grew up in and has kids so doesn't get to travel much.  It was so nice to have her here, she is the type of friend that you feel so at ease with and so comfortable talking about anything with.  We decided to get all gussied up and head to the local gypsy/jazz/fun bar and one of the closest to my place, Amnesia.  When we got there they had karaoke going on which I had no idea they did there.  It was super entertaining listening to local missionites sing awesome songs.  I didn't take any full outfit shots but you can see the tops of the beautiful vintage dresses we were wearing that night.  We had a blast!

On me

Brown vintage fur hat-gift from Willow

Vintage 30's/40's dress-Thrifted at community thrift, amazing find!

On Jen (styled by me)

 Mini boa collar-used at hat (thrifted in seattle)

Brocade 50's dress-from grandma H

Yes, we are wearing the same lipstick!

We also headed to the elbo room, which funny enough is the name of our favorite local dive bar where we grew up in Vancouver, WA.

Beautiful Jen and our sweet friend Aaron