Sunday, August 30, 2009

how cozy does this look!?

makie jacket


this makes me want to hang out somewhere cold.

women's down jacket on sale from makie

Thursday, August 27, 2009

everybody and their mother is talking about it.

gabe just told me about this. it's funny shit. go read it.


this is my favorite:

"Love this Mrs. Dash. The bitch can make spices... Jesus, Joni (my mom) it's a joke. I was making a joke! Mrs. Dash isn't even real dammit!"



Sunday, August 23, 2009

my dad's sister, my aunt kathy, has lived in her house for years and years - longer than i've been alive. she has a great backyard with a pool that's perfect for entertaining. there are plenty of places to lounge while visiting, relaxing and eating.

there used to be two change rooms in the back yard: a his and hers. i clearly remember the smell of the hers room; it smelled of chlorine.

i have so many memories dating back years and years that took place this backyard.

i don't know why i remember this, but the first time i ever ate two cheeseburgers in one sitting (from burger king i'll have you know) was in this back yard: kathy had me over to take me shopping for my ninth birthday and her son, my cousin kevin, who's four years older then me, got two cheeseburgers so i did the same. and duh, i ate them both.

i remember when i was eleven (or maybe even twelve) my mom took me to nordstrom and bought me a lavender and white flowered bikini. i wore it for the first time in his backyard.

there used to be a diving board and a slide. i remember jumping and sliding and diving.

i remember my nonna would never walk under the slide, because she was worried she'd be cursed with bad luck, since it was kind of like walking under a ladder.

and my nonno who was a larger man would do cannon balls off the diving board and splash everyone on the patio to the delight of all of us grandkids.

and my nonna who never learned to swim would wade in the shallow end and always look somewhat nervous while she was in the water.

twenty years ago we basked in the sun all day. i want to tell you there was more drinking and i definitely know there was more smoking. these days, it seems there's less drinking and no one smokes and we hide out in the shade.

this past 4th of july kathy hosted us at her house.

my uncle steve came with two bottles of gin and tonic and limes. people who normally don't drink a whole lot were sucking down the g & ts well into the night. we took off early, at about 7:30.

after we left, it was decided that there would be a colla family rafting trip. thanks to my sweet cousin katie, this happened this past weekend.

twenty of us met in sacramento saturday morning loaded down with beers, waters, snacks, sunscreen, and other goodies. we rented 3 rafts and split up into groups and floated down the sacramento river for 3 hours.

my folks came up and watched ollie while we floated.

it was so lovely to relax, float, drink beer and eat chips and visit. and laugh.

at the end of the rafting trip we ended up at a park. katie arranged to have a company cater our arrival, with bbq. it all tasted so good, after three hours of floating in the hot sun.

my folks came with ollie.

afterwards we all headed to the hyatt in downtown sacramento, where we hung out, rested, visited and finally slept.

we've decided to make it an annual thing. and that there will be t-shirts next year. something like, the collas: we float.


Thursday, August 20, 2009

project runway

i'm not so sure what i think of the new project runway cast. i'm only 5 minutes in but it kinda feels like i'm watching the surreal life with out the "celebrities." i keep waiting for charo and brigitte to show up.


ollie update

ollie's 10 months old and not really a baby anymore. he's more like a man.

here he is in his first (and really, i hope last) muscle t, courtesy of his father, who claims it was a mistake:
photo.jpg


photo.jpg

waving goodbye before he crawled away:
photo.jpg

listening to music:
photo.jpg

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

latte

when i was pregnant i started drinking a latte every morning and now i can't stop. i'm in love with the foam.

anyway, this morning i went to starbucks on my way to the office and the barista, who i've seen around the neighborhood handed me my latte.

i thanked him and he said, "it'll be the best you've ever had." and then he winked at me.

Monday, August 17, 2009

happy

sunday morning walks to the farmer's market with my guys.
blueberries from the farmer's market. they taste like candy.
leonard cohen, live in london. yes. (on tv.)
an unexpected gift in the mail from a friend. thank you, christina.
an upcoming family rafting trip. watch out river.
seeing friends and family.
watching my brothers hang with ollie.
amano jembrana milk chocolate.


Sunday, August 16, 2009

kate spade

loving the following items from kate spade:

katespade1

katespade 2

katespade3





images from kate spade

Saturday, August 15, 2009

one thing leads to another

the lovely shauna posted this on her blog a while back:



image and item available here.

while checking out the rockett st george site out, i also found this lovely bracelet:

pretty, yes? also available here.

Friday, August 14, 2009

do you wanna come over and sit on my patio tonight?


come over around 7. it's so nice out, you probably won't need a sweater.

oh, what can you bring? absolutely nothing! just yourself.

we'll have some wine and snacks. it'll be fun!


oh how i wish. (for the weather AND the chairs)
available here. photo from the vintage supply co.

cheese

i ate cypress grove's humboldt fog with a fork the other day.


Thursday, August 13, 2009

when i was young

when i was little my aunt sandi had a drawing on her wall, which was a figure study of a nude woman in three different positions. she told me the woman in the drawing was her and for years i really believed the woman in the picture was my aunt. and i thought she was a little weird for having naked drawings of herself hanging on her living room wall.

another time, when i was little, i was at a cousin's birthday party. there was some sort of game and i lost. another aunt, my mom's sister kathy, told me i would get a booby price. i thought i was going to get a prize that had something to do with a boob.

as a kid, when i was at a stoplight with my dad, he would count until the light changed. he always said "change light," right when it changed. i thought he was magical. (yellow lights!)

my mom never spanked/hit us. one time though she was taking me to school. i was sitting in the back seat of our silver buick being a little shit. she yelled, "if you do whatever you're doing again, i'll spank you harder than you've ever been spanked." so i did whatever it was i'd been doing. and she reached around from the front seat and slapped my bare leg. it was hard, because it left a handprint. and - i'm cringing as i write this - i laughed and said, "that's your hardest?" she drove me to school in silence.

anthony, my brother is 2.5 years younger than me. we were home alone one day combing through the pantry looking for something sweet when we noticed some unsweetened hershey's chocolate. we decided to "make" chocolate. we pulled out a pan, put it on the stove and then proceeded to add the chocolate, a couple of eggs and sugar. we scrambled the chocolate up and served ourselves each a plate. then we sat down at the kitchen table and both choked a few bites down.

another time we were home alone, again going through the pantry and we decided to make clove cigarettes. we took a piece of binder paper, sprinkled (whole) cloves in it, rolled it up and scotch taped it closed. then we lit it on fire. it burned quick and was near impossible to smoke so we ran it under the kitchen faucet and scratched that idea. my mom got home soon after and asked us why the house smelled like something had burned. we explained that we'd made clove cigarettes. she told us not to that again. she also said be sure you do not tell your friends about this.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

it's sweet

maegan from family tree chronicles sent me this:

http://wellknowwhenwegetthere.blogspot.com/2009/08/sincerely-john-hughes.html





Tuesday, August 11, 2009

extasia jewelry

i fell in love with these rings when i saw my aunt kathy wearing one after a trip to italy. then, while we were in austin, i wondered into the shop maya star and saw an entire case. i bought one.

available here
i want to wake up and see the perseid meteor shower tonight.


image found here and here.

blog love

i feel sort of silly (obvious?) for posting about maggie mason because i'm pretty sure everyone knows who she is.

if i saw her out and about in san francisco i'd probably gawk at her and try really hard to act all smooth and nonchalant, and really end up being creepy.

but, maggie mason is someone you should be reading if you aren't.

i particularly love the mighty closet posts, however, there's lots more to see here, including maggie's mighty life list, travel stories, design, and more.

she also started the very useful mighty goods, mighty junior and mighty haus sites. i've used them more than once for gift ideas for gabe. (it's extremely difficult for me to find presents for gabe, which really sucks because the guy gives the best presents.)

Sunday, August 9, 2009

rody

while in austin we saw the rody at at a fun toy store, toy joy.



we initially thought we'd order the rody online, however, when we realized we were carrying back tons of other crap we decided why not buy the rody.

i can't wait for olls to try it out!

picture from here. available for purchase here.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

what we did in austin

all week g, o and i have been in austin, texas for the american cheese society conference.

we came early so we could see some of austin and hang with some special peeps.

four of those peeps included g's uncle and aunt, who reside in houston but were in austin for the first three days of our stay. they're super cool people, and their two beautiful kids are smart, funny and all around good kids. i wish we got to see them more.

we also got to see our old friend christina, who used to live in sf. she moved here a little over 3 years ago. since then, she's married a really sweet guy and had a gorgeous little son, who we got to meet. oh boy is he sweet and cute. seriously, i don't know how christina says no to her little guy. he's got big brown eyes, gorgeous sun-streaked hair and a smile that melts your heart.

we got to see some of austin, though after looking at the list below we mostly ate our way through austin. and shopped...

barton springs? there's nothing like it in san francisco. it's plain cool.

going on christina's recommendation we checked out uncommon objects on south congress. such a cool store. there are little (for lack of a better word) "stalls" that have little vignettes of rooms created. furniture, letters, glassware, pictures, shirts, jewelry...they have it all. i could've spent hours in here.

queso? i know so! i mean yes, please. if it weren't so hot here i would've bathed in the stuff. it's magic.

shandies by the pool at the hotel san jose?
hello, relaxing! and tasty, too.

i mentioned the torchy's in a previous post, but i'll say it again: fried avocado tacos. hells yeah.

jo's coffee, located in the parking lot of our hotel. i think we ate here almost every morning. their espresso is just right and their breakfast burritos hit the spot.

Friday, August 7, 2009

blog love

if you know me well, you know i am an avid blog reader.* in fact, since ollie was born 10 months ago, blogs are pretty much my favorite book.

(really the only books i've read since o was born have been parenting books. mostly because i like to obsess and worry. i'll save that for another post.)

anyway, i was thinking i'd start sharing some the blogs i read regularly here.

i thought i'd begin with whoorl and work my way up the list (alphabetically speaking). whoorl is best known (i think) for hair thursday. i highly recommend you go read this post though. when i first read this last summer it made me laugh so hard i cried. even rereading it last night i was laughing hysterically.

* how dorky does that sound? avid blog reader. avid blog reader.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

food and drink

today i had a fried avocado taco (okay, TWO fried avocado tacos) from torchy's tacos that were so yummy.

can i just say it again? fried avocado.

it's been 7 hours and i'm still basking in the afterglow.

after eating the tacos i sat in on mexican artisan cheese tasting seminar. imagine how full i was after.

also, gabe bought shiner bock smokehaus beer at whole foods tonight.

shiner smokehaus

we each had a sip and then poured our beer out. oh well.

here's the description from the shiner bock site:
Enjoy Shiner's Smokin' Sommer Bier!
Brewed with pale malt that's been smoked with native mesquite in the backyard of our little brewery in Shiner, Texas (pop. 2,070), this refreshing Helles-style beer has a smoky flavor that goes great with all the flavors of summer.



i personally wouldn't have picked up mesquite flavored beer, but gabe is a sucker for this kind of thing. usually his curiosity is limited to the potato chip and chewing gum arenas but not today. the beer got him.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

it's not pretty

something happened yesterday that made me think of this bukowski poem. i looked it up last night and thought i'd share it here, too:

i met a genius
by charles bukowski

i met a genius on the train
today
about 6 years old,
he sat beside me
and as the train
ran down along the coast
we came to the ocean
and then he looked at me
and said,
it's not pretty.

it was the first time i'd
realized
that.

(if i could recall just exactly what it was that happened yesterday, i'd totally share that, however, i can't.)