Roaming around the Bay

This is the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, I think it is the most beautiful museum,as far as where it is located.
The Thinker, by Rodin, greets you as you walk to the front of the museum
A Dale Chihuly piece, I believe temporary,since there is a show going on at the De Young museum
A little peek inside, love the colors of the walls in this museum
Is this not the most gorgeous view from a museum you will ever see?
A visit to the newest American Cathedral, called Christ the Light, in Oakland California
Another view of the front
Image of Jesus, taken from a painting in Chartres France. Metal pierced,so the light reveals the image
Detail of image

A view to the top
One of the prayer rooms off to the side
Off to Dona Tomas for some dinner
Margarita anyone? I love the oil cloth on the tables at this restuarant
Caitlin is waiting for her yummy feast
Finally!!
Dave's chile rellenos


Saturday we went to the Legion of Honor, for Caitlin to do a write up for her art history class. You don't have to twist my arm ever to go to this museum, since it is my favorite,and on a sunny day like Saturday, you can't beat the view. We had a little coffee and tea after Caitlin finished, then we headed back across the Bay to Oakland,where we wanted to check out the new Catholic Cathedral, called Christ the Light. Some people didn't like the architecture of it,but I think if they read about what went into it and why it was designed the way it was,they would change their minds. We went in at about 5:00pm or so,and they were about to close for the evening, but they let us roam and take a few pictures. The feel of it on the inside was very serene. I personally like it a lot, and the fact that it also houses a free medical clinic on its grounds is wonderful. Back to the architecture though. The building was based on a 21st century vision of the Ark of the Covenant,and the curvature of the walls are overlapping of two circles to form the shape of a fish. The materials used: water, wood,and stone that defined the architecture of Moses,Soloman and eventually Jesus. Shielding it in glass on the outside is the modern twist. We plan on going back to take a proper tour of it,and find out more on the symbols etc.
After the peeking of the cathedral, we headed over to our favorite Mexican joint for some dinner. Dona Tomas never disappoints, and I blogged about them before on Caitlin's birthday, so I won't go on and on about it again. A wonderful ending to a roaming around the Bay kinda day!

Remember this?

I finally have gotten around to starting this project.
Aren't these neat?!



Happy Friday to everyone. I don't know where this week went, but I did manage to get started on the illustration that Caitlin did, that I wanted to turn into an embroidery project. It will eventually be a long pillow with a fun trim around the edges, I'm thinking little black pom poms.
The other pictures are of the two packages of embroidery patterns I snagged at the vintage fair last Sunday. Aren't the little drawings for the the tea towel patterns adorable?! I love the silhouette patterns also,and I can't wait to come up with a project for those. The vendor told me that they were probably printed in the 1920's,latest 30's.
This weekend should be fantastic here in Bay Area,and we plan to make the most of it. Saturday, we will be going to the museum for Caitlin's art history class. I'll snap a few photos of it,since it is my most favorite museum in San Francisco. I would however, love to go to the new Steinhart Aquarium in the Golden Gate Park,but I'm sure it will be too much of a zoo, since it just opened. We will probably go when it has been open for a while, and at an odd time, to avoid the crowds.
Hope everyone out there has a fabulous weekend, I know I plan to!

Sunday in the city,and getting locked out of the house...

We went into the city on Sunday to have brunch with Nicole and Pierre,and afterwords we went to a vintage fair. Nicole and Caitlin tried on hats...
Nicole sifted through endless bobbles....
Caitlin tried on some vintage glasses. The fair was a lot of fun,with many wonderful vendors. I ended up buying some 1920's embroidery patterns, that I will show you at a later date.When we shopped ourselves out, we headed home, only to confront a ton of traffic on the Bay bridge.
So.....we drove to the ferry building...
Oh, sure the bridge looks so serene from here,but oh the traffic!!!
Love this shot of Caitlin with her new hat.
This is a very cool bakery that I love,called Miette
As you can see things are closed up for the night.
Taylor's was open, so we had dinner here. This is the San Francisco version of the one I blogged about from Napa.
And these adorable shoes, came today after a very horrible start to a Monday.

Weekend was calm and fun.Saturday we did see a movie, "Burn after Reading." We didn't care for it too much, mainly the violence in it. Then as you can see Sunday was fun.
Monday is a whole different story! I took Caitlin to school, went to the YMCA for my water fitness class,and feeling very refreshed for the day, with many things planned for the morning, I headed home. I open the garage door and realize that I had not picked up my house keys. I was driving our other car today, and left the house keys in my purse in the kitchen. I also decided not to take my cell phone with me either!!All I had was my wallet. After trying to break into my house like a thief,I went to borrow a phone to call David at work, to get Caitlin's cell,since I was hopping that she brought her set with her. After calling her five times, she finally picks up. YES...She has the key!!! I drive all the way back to the school. Mind you I look like a freak with my hair all wet and ugly from the pool,and stupid miss matched sweats! I race into the parking lot like a mad woman, and there isn't a single spot near where I need to be! I ended up parking in a handicapped spot,and prayed I wouldn't get a ticket. I also hopped that nobody was looking at me while I hustled over to meet Caitlin.
Finally I get home and by the time I get showered it is 1:00 pm!! This was a true Monday for sure. I did however get those adorable shoes when I returned home for the day. Phew....I hope tomorrow is a better day!

Yay, It's Friday

Hooray it's Friday, hooray I finished the table runner. Boo, I'm not happy with it. You would think I would know by now not to pull on the tension of the fabric that I'm embroidering,but I guess not. I really had hopped that I wasn't pulling that tight,and that some of the puckers would iron out. Well, I guess not!! I ironed and ironed and the darn thing isn't looking great. It made me so mad, that it kind of ruined my day actually. I now need to fold it up, learn from my mistake and then maybe use it next summer. I keep going back to how much time it took though, and the two calluses that I have on my finger tips,and then I get mad all over again!
Ok, breath and move on.........
On to my next project with the illustration that Caitlin made. Something a bit more simple and not as much filling in.
Hope everyone had fantastic plans for the weekend. I think we may go to a movie and I know we will be going to the City on Sunday.

A Saturday trip back to Napa Valley

Chateau Montelena
The story of how California wine was revolutionized,just like the title says.

Bought some nice fabric in St. Helena
Found a wonderful new Chocolate shop.

A few weekends ago we tried to visit this winery,but showed up too late. They are open very early,and they close earlier than the other wineries. This time, we went straight there and enjoyed a wine tasting, and the grounds. It was a very pretty fall weekend; and you could smell the grapes in the air as you walked up to the chateau.
This particular winery is famous for being one of the wineries that revolutionized wine in California. The other is Stags Leap,which I love. I heard mixed reviews of the movie that just came out about the 1976 Paris tasting, called "Bottle Shock," but I can't help wanting to see it. I might just read the book pictured above instead. The tasting was nice, and I really enjoyed the Zinfandel the best. I do have a bit of difficulties drinking California reds because of the sulfites that are added, they make my face turn bright red and hot. The French wines don't have sulfites, and any reddening of my face with those, is probably having had too much of it.
After that, we stopped in St. Helena. This is a very charming little town,with loads of shops and restaurants. We blew through there last time,and I saw a couple of places I wanted to go the next time we were in the area. One of them is called "Vintage Home," the other is "Woodhouse" chocolates. I bought some nice linen fabric that I can't wait to use, and tasted some very tasty chocolate. I wish I could have taken a picture of the inside of the chocolate shop, since it looked like a shop that would have been in Paris. They even had the tapestry, that I blogged about a while back, hanging on the wall. It really reminded me of my favorite chocolate shop in Paris called La Maison du Chocolate. I think I might visit their web site and see if I can have some shipped to my home.
Wine, chocolate,and beautiful fabric, what more could you ask for! Hope everyone else had a great weekend.

In remembrance

Photo taken by Jerry Salamone


Today is a day of remembrance for all the souls that lost their lives in the September 11th attacks. That day, the world stood still as the events unfolded. I remember not knowing what to do with myself ,and just being so sad. Doing the normal day to day things seemed so unimportant, knowing that on the east coast this terrible day was never ending for them. I hope that everyone does take the time today to remember the lives that were lost, and for the people who continue to suffer to this day.
I choose to remember the twin towers like the picture above.
I love Cindy's post on remembering 9/11, so if you get a chance go read it.

Happy Monday, and hey, it's my 100th post!

If you like the French country look, then you will LOVE this book.

I have reached a mini blog milestone, it is my 100th post. Time flies when you are having fun in blog land. It has been a lot of fun, and I look forward to the next 100 plus.
I received the book, that is above, in the mail the other day, and was pleasantly surprised with it. I have ordered a few sewing/craft books in the recent months, and they were not what I thought they would be, but this one is a gem. If you like the French country look, and you like to sew, then this is the book for you. I happen to love the combination of red with white and natural linen. I can't wait to make some of the items in the book. The great thing is, that the full sized patterns are neatly in a fixed envelope in the book, yay, no running to Kinkos to enlarge the patterns. I loved the "A is for Apron" book, but when I went to the copier, they said that each pattern would be about $9.00 to copy. There are nice pillow patterns, aprons and other French inspired home decorating in this book. If you don't know of "The French General" then go here and check out the other goodies that you can buy.

Well, I have and update on the poor tree sitters from my last post. As of last Friday, they started cutting down the trees! The sitters are still in one of the redwoods though, and they refuse to come down. I'm a bit worried for them and hope that nothing bad happens to them. I'm sad that they didn't win their fight.

Save the trees!

This is a stand across the street from the tree they are up in.
If you click on this you can see the contraption that they are sitting in
More banners high up in the trees
I just added this little fellow because he was so darn cute out in my back yard.It was so darn hot that day, that prior to me taking this photo of him he was completely flat lying on the cement patio!



We go to Berkeley almost every weekend, mainly for delicious eateries. I kept forgetting to bring my camera on some of these outings,and wanted to snap the Berkeley tree sitters. These guys are trying to protest the cutting down of a grove of trees for a sports training center, that the University of California Berkeley wants to build in its place. I applaud them, but sadly, I don't think they are going to win in the end. They take turns sitting up in the tree that you see pictured with the homemade tower, and fellow tree sitters help them by pulling up food etc. I really can't believe they have been at it for close to a year now. Who said that activism is gone!! There have been many stories about them and their cause,but long and short of it, they want those trees to stay put, and so do I.
Go hippies of Berkeley!!!!