The Best of SF is Hawaiian Hangover Cake at Bluestem Brasserie

What better way to get over a Hawaiian vacation hangover than by eating a Hawaiian Hangover Cake? NONE, I say! I’ve read about this supposed Hawaiian Hangover Cake at Bluestem Brasserie on a number of different SF blogs since I’ve moved here. You want to go straight to my heart – toss coconut, marshmallow and chocolate together in one dessert (or anything, for that matter). This particular little slice of love features chocolate cake with coconut-rum pudding filling, and then topped with brown sugar and coconut syrup, a fluffy coconut marshmallow meringue and toasted, crunchy bits of coconut.

Totally worth the trip and all the hype, by the way. And all in all, Bluestem is a pretty decent restaurant. You can read my entire review on Yelp.

Currently Feeling: Head in the clouds, feet on the ground. At least trying to keep my feet down.
Currently Anticipating: Dinner tonight with Kristen before she heads back to Seattle – I’m thinking the jalapeño bacon deviled eggs at Prospect are calling my name.
Currently Loving: The location of my new office – so fun to be walking distance to the Ferry Building and Embarcadero.

What it is like to be a girl living in San Francisco vTwo

1. You have at least one theme party a month you have to plan spectacular costumes for and they’re never a theme you already have a costume for (“French Funk” and “Librarians vs. Barbarians,” what?!)
2. You don’t blink an eye when a half naked man rollerblades past you downtown, a car decorated like an Easter Bunny drives by, or someone on Muni is eating a bucket of fried chicken.
3. You carry an umbrella when it’s sprinkling little baby raindrops, three a minute, and play umbrella sword fighting with everyone downtown carrying their umbrellas in baby raindrop warfare
4. Your rent is more than God charges to lease the penthouse in Heaven
5. You no longer spend five minutes every lunch hour standing in front of the “Compostables” “Recyclables” and “Waste” bins, trying to figure out what bin the damn greasy crumpled paper napkin belongs in. I mean, a napkin is compostable, recyclable and TRASH technically, am I riight?!

Find What is is like to be a girl living in San Francisco vOne here.

Currently Feeling: Like my weekend with my BFF Kristen went way too fast – so much fun girl time. Love her!
Currently Anticipating: A busy week of dinners with visitors, a kickball game, a birthday party and a theme party.
Currently Obsessed With: Trader Joe’s Fluer de Sel Caramel Sauce…. don’t buy it unless you want to be the fatty trying to get the last drop out of the bottom of the jar with two fingers and your tongue. AWKWARD mental image.

 

Sunbathing Beauty Pics and Deets

Hello blog lovelies – I’m alive. Somehow I let nearly two months slip by since I’ve updated. Whoopsie! So many exciting things happening on my end, I decided to ride the wave a little bit to keep stress levels down. So now it’s time for me to circle back around to my small, (very loved) blog community. I have a couple specific updates I want to share with you soon, but first – my vacations!

If you remember, I had two vacations planned to celebrate my 30th birthday this year (lucky gal, I tell yah)! Here’s a few pics and deets:

Hawaii

I convinced my fam damily to book a trip with me in January to one of my favorite places – Maui! The best advice I can give you for planning a trip to Maui – rent a condo in downtown Kihei from VRBO.com and hit up the Costco right outside the airport to stock your condo with healthy, inexpensive meals. My mom was a rock star and made guacamole, ceviche, crab salads, breakfast scrambles, shish kabobs on the barbecue – the whole shebang. It helped us save money for other more exciting ventures (like stand-up paddle boarding!) and kept the healthy eating in check.

My sis and I explored tons of Maui beaches for snorkeling and sunbathing, the family hit up happy hours (our fav was at Mulligan’s on the Blue), we went to the Old Laihaina Luau (supposedly best on island – it rocked) and my personal favorite, we hiked down to the Olivine Pools (as described in the the Maui Blue Book, a must-purchase for anyone traveling to Maui).

The Olivine Pools were a relatively 20-minute rookie hike down a somewhat rocky cliff to pools naturally created by lava formations at the edge of the ocean in Northeast Maui. The waves crash up against the pools while you sit in them – a bit crazy and scary cause the ocean is pretty fierce, but the edges of the rock formations keep you safe! The pools have Olivine crusted in them, making them a bit sparkly, the water is shallow and warm, and there’s only a few people down there. It was stunning!

This was my mom, dad and lil’ sistor’s first time to the Aloha State, so it felt special to share with them one of my “happy places”!

Dirty 30 Caribbean Cruise

You guys – if you want to laugh your bunsies off and have one of the more epic vacations of your life, book an all-girls vacation and pack lots of theme nights! I have a really special group of 10 high school girl friends (including myself cause duh I’m totes BFFs with myself), and we all decided to coordinate a cruise together since we all turned 30 this year. It was the first time we’d all been together like this, without significant others, since high school! It ended up being one of the best weeks of my life, and I have so many special memories with the girls I’ve known for 15 years! I feel like I reconnected with each of them in special ways, and I couldn’t feel more grateful.

Obvs because I’m a “Theme Party Whore,” my favorite part of the trip was all our theme nights! A group of nine girls already catches attention, our custom Dirty 30 2012 hats began our cruise boat celebrity-dom, and our theme nights sealed the deal. By the end of the trip, everyone knew the Dirty 30 nine! We packed for a neon night, all white party, nautical attire, and a fancy pants dress up dinner. This was the first time most of us had been on a cruise. We went on Carnival Cruise’s “Destiny” boat in the Caribbean with a stop in Grand Cayman (just like America) and Jamaica (awesome, wish I had more time).

All in all, I wasn’t a huge fan of the cruise format. If you like to explore when you travel, then cruising is not for you! It felt too much like herding cattle without any time to really explore when you docked. Plus we were crammed onto a boat with a milz amount of people, and half of us got the legitimate Neuro Virus afterward (or had reverse seasickness for three days)! My advice if you do really want to do a cruise – stick with a well-reviewed, fancier company. I wouldn’t really recommend Carnival. Although our cruise was only $275, the food was salty and the pools were mediocre (I won’t even get into the other clientele on the boat).

Next time (since we decided we’re doing this every time we hit a big ZERO birthday), we’re going to just rent a house and stay together on land! This will be *one* good reason to turn 40. Egads, that number feels frightening.

And that, my friends, are my trips for the year (until Greece in September 2012!)

Currently Feeling: Back pain – gah! Will it never escape me. I need to get my buns back into the yoga studio regularly.
Currently Anticipating: My BFF Kristen landing in SF this weekend! Another girls weekend with her – we’re going to hit up Chef Hubert Keller’s (from Top Chef Masters) restaurant, Fluer de Lys and finally watch The Hunger Games! (Have you seen it? What did’ja think?)
Currently Loving: My sis is getting into the outfit posts, like I’ve been telling her to do! She’s cute and talented – check out her blog: Everything with Bows, Ribbon & Lace.

 

Bon voyage

I’m currently in Miami, blog lovelies! I know I just got back from Hawaii and haven’t even written about that trip, yet I’m off again.

I’m really lucky to have two vacations early in 2012… both are to celebrate my 30th birthday, and just happened to be planned months ago to occur around the same time. (It feels a bit gluttonous, not gonna lie).

This trip I’m about to embark on is with eight of my high girl besties (nine of us total). We planned a Caribbean cruise together to celebrate all of us turning 30 this year.

I’m so excited to reconnect with all of them – it’s literally been since high school since we’ve all been together like this, in one place, without significant others. How fun! We also have theme nights packed for the cruise. (As you probably know, I refer to myself as a “Theme Party Whore” because I love them so much!) We’ll be doing an all-white party, neon night, nautical night and fancy dress night.

Right now I’m in South Beach, Miami – poolside – waiting for the other girls to arrive tonight. Tomorrow evening we’ll board the boat that will take us to Jamaica and St. Thomas! I’ve never been on a cruise boat, so this is all a very exciting adventure. Bon voyage!

Currently Feeling: Like a sunbathing queen – reading in the sun is my happy place.
Currently Anticipating: Seeing my best friends when they get in, and enjoying a dinner out in South Beach tonight.
Currently Loathing: That’s there’s a lot of smokers in Miami (smoking at my pool, no less!) Gross.

On Love

I’ve been building this post on love in my head since the New Year, so I thought it appropriate to share it with you on Valentine’s Day – a day we’re all thinking about love. I always try to shape each year around goals, bucket lists and intentions (my three mantras in life). This year, I’ve selected and shared my goals and bucket list items with you, but I haven’t shared my intention. I put a lot of shower time, driving time, lying in bed time and general quiet time thoughts into what I wanted to shape my 2012 intention around, and that word for me is LOVE.

I haven’t talked about love and dating on my blog in awhile even though it used to be a large part of sharing my life online through writing. Part of it is me trying to keep that part of my life more personal, and another part of it is a lack of energy or focus on love in my life for a long time. But if I want love to permeate my life this year, it needs to come out. Come out from the dark corners and shadows and live in the forefront and in the light.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about love and what it means to me because I want my year to all-encompass love, not just romantically. I want to love strangers more and plan to do this through trying to smile at everyone I see in passing that I might not know. I want to love my friends and family from afar, and have thought about ways I can do this through handwritten letters instead of texts, phone calls instead of emails and random acts of kindess to surprise them. I want to love my body more – think positively about what I love about my body, fuel it with the love of healthy food and working out and treat it like it’s something I love and want around forever.

And yes, I want to find love again and someone to share this feeling with mutually in happiness and equality, perhaps for eternity.

I’ve only truly been in love once in my life. The twitterpated, glowing, dreamy in love that every girl hopes and wishes to have for the rest of her life (or at least at some point). It happened once, and it was fabulous. And it was painful. But out of it grew a great friendship and also who I am today: a strong, independent woman, but one who might also be a bit afraid to get hurt again and a bit picky because she knows what that love felt like in her past.

I’ve been thinking about that past love a bit more these days – the heart is a lonely hunter. I want to feel that love again.

Throughout my 20s, I’ve buried most of my thoughts about and desires for love. I’ve focused on only dating casually and getting to know myself. I’ve put love on the back burner to focus on friendships, health and the big one: my career. Love has been a past hobby I’d lost interest in, an argument I’ve forgotten about, a friend I’ve let pass out of my life… a phone call I haven’t wanted to return.

In my 30s, I want to let love back in. 2012 is the year I’m reenergizing, rekindling, forgiving and returning LOVE‘s phone call.

I plan on sharing with you my Project Love details here throughout 2012 (and beyond) … the ways I’m letting love back in, how I’m showing love, and most importantly how I’m finding it.

Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years.

Currently Feeling: Really excited to start a new professional project with a FUN event-based startup in SF. Details soon!
Currently Anticipating: A new weekly “health day” with some girl friends – walks and healthy dinners.
Currently Reading: The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker

Back to basics in SF with some of my girls

Our sexy wind-blown look with one of the San Francisco hearts in Union Square.
P.S. I'm wearing my fav new leopard-print flats from Lucky Brand.

This weekend I had some old coworkers come stay in San Francisco to visit me and embark on an ultimate splurge girls weekend. For me, it was just what the doctor ordered!

I’ve known Heidi and Kerry since 2008 when bonded while working together in a particularly unpleasant situation. The positive is – we’ve all prevailed and most importantly, remained friends. For each job I’ve had, I’ve been so grateful for the experiences, but also for the people who have touched my life and remained in it as new career opportunities have come my way.

To say that I was flattered and excited that Heidi and Kerry booked a weekend for the three of us to spend time together in San Francisco is an understatement. And of course, we had the very best time. We ate at many amazing restaurants, including Bluestem Brasserie, Franchino, my favorite “inside SF” breakfast spot with a private back garden patio (you’ll have to visit me to find out) and my second dim sum at Great Eastern in Chinatown. We enjoyed the Chinese New Year celebration in San Francisco, and did a lot of shopping in some of San Francisco’s beautiful boutiques on Sacramento and Fillmore Streets. I’ve found some consignment shop gems and came home with Joe’s Jeans for only $50 and brand new black platform pumps from Banana Republic for $22! The trip reminded me (yet again) about how great this city is, and each time I have visitors, it’s so fun to see the city through their eyes. I felt energized and happy after reconnecting with smart, caring women.

Top clockwise: Gorgeous $2,400 Christian Louboutin's we found while shopping;
The Chinese New Year in Chinatown; Fro-yo at Fraiche on Fillmore Street; Dinner
(and Lemoncino custard ice cream) at Franchino in North Beach.

I’m having a bit of a stressful month, and this weekend was just what I needed to take my mind of loop of anxious thoughts. When I feel stressed, it works for me to “get back to basics” – the basic things that keep me happy and stress free! Some of these in no particular order are: reading, working out, laughing, good meals, girl time and wine. Thank you, Kerry and Heidi, for helping me get back to my basics and visiting me in this fabulous new city of mine. I’m so grateful to have you both in my life!

How do you “get back to basics” when you’re stressed?

Currently Feeling: Loving a low-key Monday after a busy weekend. I might be the only person that actually really enjoys Mondays because they tend to be my quietest day of the week.
Currently Anticipating: The Bachelor tonight – the show that continues to be trashy yet oh-so-addicting and my favorite week day reality TV treat.
Currently Obsessed With: Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. GAH! I need an intervention after catching up on the show via Amazon On Demand. Mauricio – so hot. And I love, love the witty British beauty, Lisa!

Stella Sundays is the ultimate alarm clock

I’m back from Hawaii, and true to form, my fluff ball won’t leave my side. Every morning, I wake up to her purring on my chest. It’s the ultimate wake up call! I love it so much, actually, that it feels lonely when I’m on vacation without her, and I get so excited to see her when I come home.

I read a quote somewhere recently that said something along the lines of, “Your heart hasn’t really loved or felt love until you’ve owned a pet,” which to some extent is true. Whether a dog, cat or something else, the unconditional love from your pet is unakin to anything else…I couldn’t imagine coming home to an empty apartment without her.

I just totes wrote the definition for Crazy Cat Lady. Look it up in the dictionary, there’s my pic!

Currently Feeling: Glad to be back home – not sure I’m ready to fly six hours and be gone for a week again so soon. :/
Currently Anticipating: Some bad food and beer at my Super Bowl viewing spot of choice with my girls.
Currently Loving: A quiet apartment to myself and a good book on a Sunday.

Aloha aloha part deux

I’m off to Maui in the morning, my blog lovelies! My mom, dad and sister are meeting me there (they’re flying from Seattle). We’ll be celebrating my 30th birthday and my dad’s 55th birthday, together as a family in the Hawaiian sun!

This trip is extra special to me because my family has never been to Hawaii, so I get to share one of my very favorite places with them. If you remember, I went to Maui for the first time last February and LOVED it. Also, this will be only our second time vacationing as a family. (We went to Mexico in 2008).

I’m most looking forward to drinking some Pineapple wine on our lanai overlooking the ocean, having some family game nights and many hot tub dips, eating spam musubi (YUM), reading on the beach, snorkeling with turtles, and hiking or other fun excursions to get my sweat on!

I’ll be back next Friday to share some pics and stories with you. Aloha! xoxo

Currently Feeling: Soaring on an impending week-long vacation high.
Currently Anticipating: Unplugging from work for a week. While I still like to stay connected to my friends online while on vacation, taking a mental break from being online for work 24-7 is much needed a couple times a year.
Currently Hoping: There’s some good “still in theaters” movies on my flight tomorrow morning!

Sneak peek

I’m getting close to finishing my Bohemian Swank Bedroom Makeover Project! This last weekend I *finally* received the wallpaper I ordered from UrbanOutfitters.com* after waiting weeks for it to arrive. I couldn’t be happier with it! I was super nervous about how the wallpaper was going to turn out because it’s “removable,” which in my mind had potential to look cheap. However, I really centered my entire vision for the room around this wallpaper and a painting I bought in Bali, so I was counting on this vibrant teal and gold accent wall being an integral part of my bedroom design.

This removable wallpaper, or renter’s wallpaper, is made by Tempaper who calls their product “self-adhesive, repositionable, temporary wallpaper.” It’s basically similar to a vinyl wall decal, if you’ve ever purchased one of those. It took me about three hours to focus on not rushing, lining up the pattern and cutting each piece correctly, and shaping it around the window and wall edges, but it turned out like a dream! Renter’s wallpaper is an easy way to add a pop of color without the mess of paint or committing to something you’re not sure is going to look okay (like a bright-colored wall). If you’re thinking of using temporary wallpaper in your home, here are a few links for you:

• Tempaper’s entire line of removable wallpaper (I’d recommend buying directly from them instead of UO). The pattern in my room is Honey Jade Marrakesh
• Sherwin Williams’ “Easy Change” wallpaper line
• Removable wall paper on Oh Happy Day (another San Francisco blog)

So that’s a sneak peek into my new Bohemian Swank bedroom. I’m still awaiting a few pieces, and need to install my chandelier, so I’ll share pics of the entire room when it’s all done!

*I had the worst experience ever ordering from UO and dealing with their customer service. While they have some of the best decorating items, I totally wouldn’t recommend them. 

Currently Feeling: Ready for all the exciting impending changes on my horizon – possibly a new job change coming my way… I’ve been frantically interviewing, (hence the silence on the blog last week) and am really excited. Hopefully I’ll have some good news to share with you soon.
Currently Anticipating: Leaving bright and early Thursday morning to meet my mom, dad and sis in Maui to celebrate my 30th and my dad’s 55th birthday!
Currently Loving: 600 thread count sheets – such a dream! I haven’t wanted to leave my bed lately.

Turns out January birthdays are better in California

My birthday *week* is officially coming to a close, and boy was it uber fabulous.

I was super worried about turning 30 away from all my (long-time) friends and family. Would I feel lonely? Would I have anyone to celebrate BIG with? It felt odd to be hitting such a milestone away from those who have spent my entire, or majority of my entire, life with me.

But my blog lovelies, I don’t know what I was so worried about. I felt the love. I felt it from afar, I felt it in San Francisco. I just simply.felt.loved. I guess that’s why birthdays have always been my favorite.

I had many, small celebrations this week with those close to me, which just felt better than the usual big hooplah I throw for myself each year, which ends up being stressful and a big blur. This year, I celebrated with one of my Seattle BFFs who flew in for a quick mid-week trip. She made reservations for us at an Indonesian restaurant I had on my SF Bucket List (smart cookie, she is) and we closed the restaurant down and drank two bottles of red wine with another friend of ours. She brought me the sweetest handmade card I’ve ever received from three of my girl friends who created a list of 30 things they loved about me. I die!

Thursday I did a small group dinner with my Seattle and San Francisco friends. We went to a cool restaurant called State Bird Provisions, which uses the dim sum concept for farm-to-table food (wish I would have thought of that). It was so fun! One of my girl friends made me a cool monogrammed etched glass from a wine bottle. It’s one of the best presents I’ve ever received! I love homemade gifts.

We ended Thursday with countdown-to-30 birthday shots at midnight (*gulp* I needed someone to hold my hand through that transition!) at Cha Cha Cha in the Mission.

By Friday, the snail mail love had rolled in. I received more presents and cards in the mail than I could have ever expected. It made me smile over and over again. (If you sent me something – thank you, deeply, from the bottom of my heart.) If you have a friend’s birthday coming up, mail them a card or small present! Snail mail gifts on your birthday are by far the best thing ever.

And finally, I topped off my birthday week with a fun, small girls night in Napa Valley with two of my San Francisco girl friends. Not only is it mid 60s in California for my January birthday, but it’s also Napa Valley Restaurant Month! So, we drove up for the night of my birthday and stayed at a cute little B&B called Lavender (with birthday balloons, a fireplace and a big jacuzzi tub in our room that we might or might not had a bathing suit, wine and bubble bath celebration in) and had dinner at an amazing restaurant called Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen. My birthday cake was a giant marshmallow concoction (natch) called a “Campfire Pie.”

THAT is the definition of an uber fabulous birthday *week*, in my opinion.

And now… I have the rest of my birthday *month* celebrations to look forward to. I am leaving this decade with a bang, I tell you! In less than two weeks, I’ll be in Maui with my mom, dad and sister (the only thing I wanted for my 30th birthday) and in two weeks after that, I’ll be celebrating our 30th year with nine of my high school girl friends on a cruise of the Caribbean.

Is it possible for one person to overdose on birthday celebrations?

I think not!

Currently Feeling: Glad to have slowed down after a crazy week and enjoying a quiet rest of the weekend to myself!
Currently Anticipating: Another hike at Fort Funston tomorrow – a new Sunday routine.
Currently Loving: My new tradition! I’ll share it with you this week.