I think I can, I think I can.

How is it possible that I still don't have a good grip on time management and planning ahead? I mean, theoretically, humans are supposed to have been developing the ability to track time and days since birth, with the concepts of clocks and calendars to have sunk in by age 10 (according to this one site). And yet, I am constantly overloading my to-do list, constantly overbooking, constantly taking on more than I know I can handle. Are you all stuck in this same pattern or is am I alone in this?

I had grand intentions of gifting handmade items over the holidays; sending out loads of glorious packages across the nation to genuinely show how much I love you all. I had ideas flagged, materials purchased, and even mapped out a general schedule to enable a timely delivery. 

and.then.it.all.went.to.crap.

grrrrr.

At the very least, I was able to complete two items and although they arrived well after the holidays, I'm hoping they'll be well-enjoyed by a couple of lovely ladies in my life. As for the rest of you? Eh...maybe by 2045, I'll get my sh#t together.

for the 50s mom living in modern times.

loves cream, loves chickens, loves dots:

year-round kitchen chic.

chicken feet are so cute in pictures.

real life chicken feet creep me out.

one crisp pleat down the middle.

I used this FREE online tutorial that I had flagged last fall. 100s of people submitted their products to a contest, but I didn't get these done in time. See: opening paragraph of this post.

I actually had a delightful time with these two aprons! The tutorial is easy to follow, the cutie-patootie fabric showcases nicely, and although I was initially paralyzed by the choice of trim and bow, it became fun to play around with the combinations. Definitely add it to your loong list of things to do (bwaahahaha, I'm evil).

for the urban, loft-dwelling mom.

doesn't give two rats if you catch her wearing a Christmas apron in July:

and who appreciates an apron gift even if she has never been spotted in one.

elephant with earmuffs? adorbs.

gotta love the giraffe with scarf. 

it must be tough to have a long neck in the winter.

Material from the genius, Purl Soho.

Ribbon and rick-rack from another of my favorite spots in New York: MJ Trimmings.

The Wheels on the Bus Go...

 notable alum:  alice waters, kimberly williams, jeri ryan
....seriously? jeri ryan??

It's been almost10 a few years since college, so Peen did an awesome thing of gathering a BUNCH of alpha phi alums to reunite in San Francisco last weekend!  Folks spanning 5-6 years came out from all over and although there were obvious  aging maturities life-changes, I would like to think that we have grown up to become some mighty sophisticated classy refined....um...ladies!  Although, why we decided to stay out so late the night before a b.cancer walk, I'll never understand.  :)

And for the record, we sorely missed all of the out-of-towners who couldn't make it to all festivities this weekend.

peen - me - jen - jocelyn

some ordered mojitos, some ordered martinis. 
i signed up for....NACHOS!!

mmmm...nachos.

we met our cable car operator...
amber promptly renamed this guy "Cher"....  
(the main driver's name was Sonny)

...and hopped on our cable car party bus.

it played fun music and took us to 3 or 4 bars/clubs all over SF!

bus came with a built-in bar.  woohoo!
bartender = worried face all night long.

cheering Peen as she announces remission status!!

jen - andrea* - me - anne - amber

anne - jen - me

protesting bad music at a bad club.

kourtney + tony

these kids are getting married in jamaica next year!

michelle - jen

"this place sucks!"
and i lied when i told you guys i wouldn't post funny pictures of you.

jen - andrea*

"oooh, at least they have good reading material."
*i TOLD you i'd hyperlink the crap out of you! :)

All in all, an absolute terrific time.  

I'm basically the same height as Jen and Michelle who are making zero efforts at squatting like they're supposed to.
Can you tell how hard I'm JUMPING to be in the shot? So.much.effort.

There were so many highlights of this evening and I shall attempt to summarize them in bulleted form:

• Feeling like I hang out with Andrea everyday even though we hadn't seen each other since she graduated a year before me (NINE years ago?).  All because of her awesome blog.  
• Increasing my Facebook friend load by 400%...yesss.
• Singing those lyric-evasive drinking songs that I love so much.  Why did I never learn the words correctly?  Why is Jen the only one of us all that knows them?
• Watching Jocelyn still play the role of "freshman" during our drinking songs.  Poor girl.
• Realizing that I am so lucky to consider myself a part of this amazing group of established women girls.
• Instigating a four-phone-call marathon to Becca who wasn't out with us that night.  Rounding it off with a 3am belligerent text that surely woke her from sweet slumber.  U love us!
  
• Peen rocking her over-the-knee boots.  Can't help but feel like they'd look like upside-down-capri-pants on me (think about it).  She rocked them...hard.
• Reacquainting with some of the older girls who intimidated me so much back in the day with their coolness.  After all, they were wise + twenty-one while I was a newly out of high school 17 year old!  This time around, I felt much more equipped to be on the same page and feel all bondingly and affectionate about these ladies.
• The debauchery accompanying girls+alcohol+needforexposure.  Tee hee. 
• Realizing that there is no improvement to the post-bar slice of pizza you grab on your way home.  Pizza Orgasmica (actual name of actual place with actual pizza). 
• Confirming my invitation to hang out with all the children of my college friends:
• Oh, you live in Monterey??  An ocean view, you say?  Fine, twist my arm.  I'll come stay with you for a few months.  Oh, you cook dinner at home every night?  Fine, twist my arm.  Jamie and I will be there on Monday.
  
• Let's teach them "MINE!" and "NO!" and "DAMMITALLTOHELL!!"  It'll help them with their protestation voices in college.  And their political careers.
  
• Then we'll jump on the beds and learn all the wrong sounds for animals.  I'll ask, "what does a cow say?"  Kid will learn to respond, "woof, woof."
  
• Finally, we'll definitely be drawing on the walls with crayons.  You mustn't squash their creativity at such a young age!  Murals are so artsy and I think your kid could be the next Michaelangelo (hey, he painted on walls, didn't he?  ok, fine...ceilings.) or something.
  
• Oh...you're moving?  This weekend?  Bummer.  Maybe next time then.  

Sign me up for next year, ladies.


-- and for those of you following the jamie's "omg, there's too much estrogen in here" saga,  he's healed quite nicely from the week's revelries.  come on back whenever you'd like, friends!  --

BunnyHopping to Fight Cancer.

The Amazing Kristina Pineda.

aka Peen!Diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer in 2008.
Today...remission!!

Heck ya!

Weekend preparations included making sure guest quarters were as adequate as possible, setting out some baked goods, bathing the dog, and making sure there would be plenty of football on tivo for jamie. The estrogen levels were about to get off-the-hook in our household! Oh, and setting out some jogging pants for Sunday morning, double-checking availability of bunny ears, and stocking my "race bag" with water, hair ties, safety pins, chapstick, wallet, and my camera.

I went to bed feeling mighty prepared for the SusanGKomen Anti-Cancer Race!!!!

Then, dreams about our Oprah shirts woke me up at 6:30am and I jumped out of bed to whip up some last-minute shirts specifically for our friend. AHEM...I'd like to that this time to point out that it was SIX THIRTY IN THE MORNING!! This was after we didn't get to bed until 4am. For those of you who have yet to see me in the morning, this is a notable achievement as is noted by Jen + Devon below:

It was all worth it to see Peen's face when she walked up to the four of us, looking like this:

jen, michelle, ME, jocelyn

Tons of folks showed up in support of Peen over the weekend. Her friends from college, from work, from the SF medical community, and a big contingency specifically from our sorority! Many of us had been on a cable car party bus until all hours of the night (more on this later); plus some of us had house guests who insisted on partying all night long! Needless to say, nothing could stop the folks who wanted to walk proudly with our survivor. Not.a.thing. She has one more surgery on the books (huzzah!) and as this photo shows, we will always be there to stand by her side:

Team Bunny!

New Balance showed up to film Peen throughout the whole walk. She practiced her line, "I MOVE THE WORLD!" with us all night long and was super excited to be wearing her pink NBGear while cruising the 5K along SF water's edge. They followed us along the route and filmed us cheering, bunny-hopping, rounding the corner at PacBell Park, and they even stopped us right before the finish line to film us crossing over to the end. Are you kidding me, guys? Oprah AND New BalanceTV in less than 30days? I'm about three steps to becoming a self-proclaimed, natural reality-tv-star....teehee.

one of our practice shots.

The best part was witnessing Peen meet up with fellow survivors and other patients she had met and become friends with over this past year. They have fought and cried and gotten angry together, but race day allowed for smiles and happy tears and more smiles. The second best was the ability to catch up with some of our friends some of whom we hadn't seen in almost 10 years!

andrea.
anne.
my dog was sleeping in.
so, i tortured this one instead.i'm laughing on the outside and
"still-feels-so-early"-ing on the inside.
becca + baybridge.
baby bunnies.
new balance bunny.
me + jen.
captain bunny.

--This cancer is going to have NOTHING on our Kristina.--
I love you so much, friend.

for full set of pictures, click here.

All the King's Horses...

jen mailed us these AWESOME tchochkees (sp?),
but they did not survive the US Postal Service.
so.sad.
it's ok though, folks.
Gorilla Glue to the rescue.
back to original form...
well, pretty darn close.
it's a shoutout to my people.
holla back at the samurai guy and geisha girl.
aren't they a great engagement gift?? luv.
the soon-to-be mr&mrs benihana mugs will live on this shelf.
they're happy here.
*quick shout-out to annie for helping us put these together!
oh, ps...
we put up shelves and moved plates and stuff here.
feeling much better about this wall.

Enjoy with your pancakes.

took this while jen heckled me from her car.
"leave that flower alone!"
sorry, friend. i liked the light.

Antique-tack-toe.

There's this antique store down the street from our place. It sat there, inviting, but unvisited by me for years. Then, all of a sudden, I stepped in and became immediately addicted. Old school fans, filing cabinets, lighting, piggy banks, HUGE lamps? I wanted to bring all of it home.

Now, my experience with "antiquing" and thrift stores is mixed at best. I grew up in strip mall county with our nation's highest grossing shopping mall (revenue of about 1.5 billion dollars per year). My thrift store went by the name of Urban Outfitters and otherwise we drove up to Venice to stare at old hats and shoes. Then camp happened and I got my hands on some beautifully "unique" tees and other random goodies; triggering a small, but distinct love for this ritual.

Don't worry, folks. I'm baaaack.

Ohmega Salvage

2407 San Pablo Ave
Berkeley, CA 94702-2010
(510) 843-7368

toilet tank tops.
aren't they beautiful??
weird thing is, i totally needed to pee.
reminded me of Big.
should've picked them up...wish they weren't $135.
faux George Michael sighting.
his name was sergio...i kept calling him sergeeorge michael.
my booty.
colors to glaze your clawfoot bathtub.
tons of windows and doors.
jumping for junking!
REALLY should've brought this home.
homage to my roots.
lines were too long because of the back-to-school sale in Oakland thrift.

Stay tuned for our BEST find of the day!