We had a wonderful time in Sonoma last weekend. Hot air balloons are neat.

…and I love horses.

Afterward, we had breakfast in this beautiful garden. It was basically a scaled up version of my dream garden. There were separate mini gardens within it for various cuisines: Italian, south american, etc.

We also visited a very nice winery and had dinner at an adorable little restaurant in a converted old pullman train car. It was a pretty fancy birthday.

{more photos on flickr, if you’re interested}

We drove down to LA last weekend for family things, and I think it was one of the best LA visits ever. It almost made me love Los Angeles. I guess visiting all your favorite old haunts within a couple days will do that.

I didn’t particularly like living in LA, mainly because the sprawl is awful and the traffic even worse. Unlike other cities I’ve lived in, you can’t just walk outside, wander down the street, and find something to do. You have to find something, make plans, and drive 40 minutes. Always.

But LA has its magic, it’s true. There are undiscovered places not crowded with hipsters, beaches and sun, quirky neighborhoods, incredible art, and classic cars. I even like the seedy ruptured glamor of hollywood, in a way. There is some truth to the crumbling fairydusted LA sketched in Francesca Lia Block novels, but like a lot of things, you have to step away for a while to see it.

Here’s what I did:

• Baked a giant red velvet cake for my mom’s birthday, which was amazingly delicious. My brother said it looked like a cartoon cake.
  
  
  
  
• Visited Acres of Books, one of my favorite places on this earth
  
• Had cocktails at Yamashiro high up in the Hollywood hills, looking out over all of Hollywood at sunset

  
  

• Ate yummy vegan food and spent a day wandering around Silverlake
  
  
• Walked around Echo Park and saw baby swans in the lake!
  
  
• Saw some incredible homes in Los Feliz
  
  
• Had Chai and soup at The Bourgeois Pig, sitting in the back room which has been made into a crazy dark enchanted forest room (not pictured), while they played Nick Cave
  
  
• Drinks at The Dresden and Boardners
  
• Hanging out at a friend’s loft in downtown LA and eating homemade veggie tacos with pretty skyline views
  

Pretty hard to beat that for a fantastic weekend.

It’s been a busy busy week for me, so I’m very glad I had last weekend off to hang out in Portland with friends. The weather was gorgeous (mostly), we had some great food, and got to explore several different neighborhoods.

One of the things we did is visit Seaplane, which I’ve been meaning to do for a while. It completely exceeded my expectations. Seaplane carries pieces by a selection of small local designers, and the clothes had a super feminine, frothy, deconstructed sort of look. I really wanted to wear everything in that store. Alas, I am still under my no-new-clothes pledge (month nine!), though I think some of these clothes would probably fall under the handmade exception, seeing as some of them can also be found directly on Etsy.

I did, however, buy a pair of gorgeous heels by Biviel. They are super soft and comfortable and go with everything.

I’m off to magical Portland for the weekend! This will be a nice little vacation to one of my favorite cities.

I’ve recently started working in a new location, which completely changes my commute. I’ve been using a combination of BART and my bike to get to and from work almost every day. This is fantastic because few things make feel more free than being on a bike, and it’s a great way to end my day and really put some space (literally and figuratively) between the work day and home.

But this sort of changes the way I need to dress a bit. Jeans, hoodies, and chucks are awesome, but I am a girl who likes dresses and high heels once in a while, so this gets a bit tedious every day. I feel most comfortable in dresses, and I do think they’re the most flattering on me.

So I think I have found a happy medium, thanks to the magic of leggings. Normally, I do not like to wear short skirts. I just feel sort of exposed in them. But I’ve discovered that a short dress with leggings is both incredibly comfortable and absolutely perfect for bike riding. My legs stay warm, I’m not exposing myself, and the dress is short enough to stay out of the way on the bike.

These are some of the cute, comfy-looking dresses I’m eyeing on Etsy:

Obviously, this is a pretty perfect specimen, from Vital Industries

I’ve been looking at this one for a long time, from nice face.

And this one from PrettyRacoon clothing is awesome because it references surrealist designer Elsa Schiaparelli, who rocked Paris in the 1920s with her trompe l’oeil bow sweater. Plus, it’s just awesome in a sort of debbie-harry-meets-japanese-lolita way.

A girly one from reddoll.

I am in love with this one, though it’s quite a bit more than the others.

And this is my personal favorite from Lucha Workshop. In fact, I had to buy it.

Dressing for activities like biking is a challenge, but constraints breed creativity. I never thought I’d be entertaining the idea of knitting legwarmers, that’s for sure. Speaking of which, this article on biking in skirts and heels at the SF Bike Coalition has some great tips, including using old fashioned leg garters to keep your skirt from flying up!

I’m back from South by Southwest! Austin is a pretty cool city, full of neon signs, tons of music clubs, very weird weather, and dirt-cheap thrift stores. I came home with much more than I left with, thanks to my beautiful and super-hospitable cousin Danielle, who really showed me around. I will definitely be back to Austin, though perhaps at a less crazy time of year.

The conference was pretty good too, with some super inspiring panels that really got me thinking and itching to create. The panel on High Tech Craft was somewhat interesting, though I would have been much more interested in hearing about how crafters are connecting and innovating online than about crafting with high-tech components. Or why there is this crossover between tech and craft/making. Perhaps that means I need to do my own panel next time.

Check out this rainbow of vintage dresses, all $5 or less! I picked up a handmade bright emerald green silk number from this rack.

{the rest of my photos of Austin on Flickr}

I adore Portland. We took a trip up with some friends this weekend and stayed at the very stylish Ace Hotel, which also has the benefit of being conveniently close to Powell’s.

Not even the rain and wind (and snow!) could put a damper on my love for this city. It’s everything San Francisco is not: laid back, clean, affordable, and open late. We’d move in an instant if it weren’t for the pesky fact that I have a very very good job here.

Leonard Cohen lyrics on the wall… it doesn’t get much cooler than that at a hotel.

Bundled up in argyle and wool.

I’m back! I hope you enjoyed some of my old project posts while I was gone.

The wedding went better than I could have ever hoped. It was absolutely lovely, filled with so many of the people I care about. I can’t wait to get the photos back so I can inundate everyone.

Italy was gorgeous, particularly Capri. It was magical, and I mean that in a very real way. All my life, I’ve had such a fascination with the Mediterranean, and to actually swim in that historic blue blue blue sea was just incredible.

People seem to act as if I should be depressed coming home from such a place, but that isn’t the case at all. Despite being dead tired, I was absolutely blissful after we returned. I suppose traveling always gives you this fresh perspective on your life and priorities, but this time in particular, I just felt so incredibly relaxed and blessed and had this giant surge of creative energy. There’s so much I want to do and accomplish now, and everything feels so ripe with possibility. Not to mention how lucky I feel to have such incredible friends and family.

We took many many photos! Take a look:

More photos from Naples

More photos from Pompeii

More photos from Capri

More photos from Sorrento

More photos from Amalfi

More photos from Atrani

Our wedding was just about perfect. More details on that after the honeymoon!

I’m off to Italy’s Amalfi Coast for a couple of weeks! sigh.

I’ve lined up some posts on past projects of mine while I’m gone. I hope you enjoy! But please understand if I don’t answer any comments or email as I will actually be as far from computers as I can get. ;)

On our getaway, we stumbled on a place called The Fig Cafe in Glen Ellen. We had a wonderful brunch: “Fig Royales,” made of sparkling wine and fig syrup; spiced french toast with fig maple syrup and seasonal berries; and eggs florentine.

It was as delicious as it looks.