Friday Fifteen

This face.

Sidewalk dedication to Kristen Schaal. Because, why not?

Henry smiles.

These pillow cases by Sensitive Boyfriend.

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Family visits. My Uncle Robert, Aunt Jeannie, and cousin Max were in town this week. And my parents arrive for the weekend tonight!

More beautiful days in SF (seriously I don't know what we did to earn this July but something tells me we're going to pay for it come winter).

Pug art.

The new Helen Diller Playground at Dolores Park. I somehow failed to take photos of it so this one is from their website, but it is AMAZING. I can't wait for Henry to be big enough to play there. My aunt and cousin had a lot of fun going down the slides.

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This cookie. It was a sugar explosion in my mouth. Sometimes I still choose cookies like a 3 year old. Sprinkles! Sugar! Color! 

This papercraft alphabet from digitprop. I doubt I have the patience to construct these and I wish the H was something cooler than "handshake" but in general I am amazed that someone did this with paper.

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Sleeping sitting up. Because sometimes you're just that tired.

This sign spotted at Fillmore and Haight.

Having my first glass of wine in 10 months! It was very tasty. And, after 10 months, one glass of wine is just perfect. Two would have been too much. Hooray for the return of light weight status (being a light weight is awesome - it's cheaper, less caloric, and less work)!

Aimee Wilder Robots Wallpaper. I want to incorporate this somewhere in Henry's room. Which I still need to take photos of and blog about.

Renegade Craft Fair

This weekend was the San Francisco Renegade Craft Fair. I haven't been in a couple of years (see my last post on the fair here) due to other events, so I was excited to go this year. Didn't hurt that it was a GORGEOUS day in SF so trekking out to the Marina was down right enjoyable. The Renegade Craft fair features independent artists from all over the country selling their jewelry, clothes, art, etc. It's basically like shopping Etsy in person. Since the last time I attended it was crazy crowded, we decided to go early and skip the stroller. Henry napped in the front carrier while my sister, Scott, and I browsed.

Some of the fun things we saw:

girls can tell sells fun housewares, gifts, and onesies with diagram illustrations, like this one featuring San Francisco structures. We were also a fan of the robot print. 

We got a kick out of the Leafcutter Designs booth. I ended up getting a set of cocktail dice. Basically you roll the dice and then make a drink out of the ingredients you rolled. 

Woolbuddy sells great handmade fuzzy creatures (and kits to make your own) but we were naturally attracted to the huge R2D2.

We loved pretty much all of the art from Petit Collage and ended up buying these two robot prints for Henry's room. We almost got this San Francisco print and I kind of wish we had now since it was on sale at the fair. There's always this, more affordable version. 

Anna Todaro had some fun paintings, including this one of Spock. We also enjoyed her rendition of Yoda. 

Gnome Enterprises sells whimsical, handprinted apparel like these onesies. 

Our mutual love of rooster sauce almost necessitated purchasing this onesie from new skool. 

I got a kick out of the wood ties from Wood Thumb, all of which are from reclaimed wood. 

Alyson Thomas of Drywell Art creates "quality meat art." I particularly enjoyed this San Francisco print. 

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Scott was enamored by the art at Peaceful Traveler Wicked Wanderer and we ended up getting this print of the periodic table to hang in the living room (if we ever get around to painting the walls in there). 

Of course with over 250 booths, this is just a sample of what the Renegade Craft Fair has to offer. My sister and I enjoyed checking out all of the jewelry booths but a lot of it was far too expensive. I did end up getting a cute pair of vintage heart studs from Diament Jewelry. I also have to give a shout out to Krust and her awesome bags. I own one of her oversized clutches (in a houndstooth print of course) and I love it. I also have my eye on the Everyday Chevron purse, but since I'm pretty much glued to my diaper bag these days, I don't have the need for a new bag. 

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Since it was a gorgeous day, and Fort Mason has great views of the bay, we decided to a few shots outside.

I love the panorama feature on the Galaxy Nexus

We finished up the day with a late lunch at Barney's Burgers before saying good bye to my sister and heading home. All in all a great way to spend a Saturday!

Bonus shot (can't remember which booth was encouraging photos with these fun cardboard cutouts):

Macarons: 1st attempt

This weekend my friend Fraser and I took a stab at baking French macarons, aka probably the most temperamental cookies you can ever bake. Normally I am not a fan of attempting anything that is finicky or very precise or labor intensive. Macarons are all of the above, yet I decided I was up for the challenge. It also helps to have a friend along for the ride. Especially when she can take over while you tend to your crying baby. Our first attempt (well, my first attempt, Fraser has tried before) was not too bad, but there is plenty of room for improvement. And I'm definitely game to try again! 

We tried following the (very detailed) instructions of Ms. Humble of Not So Humble Pie. Before we got started, I had to procure a few special ingredients: dried egg whites (not meringue powder) and almond meal. Our goal was chocolate, strawberry, and lemon macarons. We first ran into trouble when we realized my kitchen scale, which is not digital, measures in increments of 10 grams. Which makes weighing 28 g of dried egg whites a bit of a challenge. But we did our best. Note to self: buy a digital food scale.

The next problem was during the piping stage. Our batter was a little runny and as a result some of our cookies ran together.

Next was after baking when we lost about a 3rd of our cookies trying to get them off the silicone baking sheets. We think we didn't leave the batter for long enough after piping. San Francisco is humid so that extra time may have helped set the cookies a bit more. Since we ended up with not many yellow cookies left, we decided whipping up lemon curd was probably too much effort so we ended up using the strawberry jam with the yellow cookies as well. Fraser even put some of the pink and brown cookies together for a little non-traditional chocolate strawberry macaron.

Our last error was eating the cookies the same day we baked them. Ms. Humble says to wait 24 hours so the cookies can regain some of their moisture, but we were too impatient. I saved some of them overnight in the fridge and I can definitely say they are MUCH better today.

I'm actually surprised with how well my first batch turned out. They're no where close to the cookies you buy in a bakery, but I think I'll get there eventually. Since I actually expected my first attempt at macarons may be an unmitigated disaster, I'm pretty pleased with the results and motivated to give it another go. Especially since we think we know where we went wrong. Plus now I have all of this almond meal and dried egg whites to go through!

Side note: We did decide to make one uber cookie with two of the cookies than ran together. I thought he deserved his own photo. Plus I wanted an excuse to use my awesome little plate from CB2.

Smile!

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we have our first smile! Scott discovered that Henry seems to be a bit ticklish on his cheek & chin. He doesn't smile every time but we've been able to reproduce it so we don't think it is a fluke!

Friday Fifteen

I can't believe it's Friday already. I feel like the weeks are just zooming by. 

Some of the things making me smile this week...

Steel blue eyes and cheeks for miles.

Gorgeous San Francisco days.

This video. It's been circulating but I have to re-share because it's just too amazing, especially when you view it side by side with the original. 

Trips to the farmers' market for delicious summer fruit.

Henry's various sleeping positions. 

An adorable card from friends we don't get to see enough. 

Five seasons of the wire told in 4 minutes in Lego. Awesome. 

Plugged in, hand over head, out like a light. 

Flowers. I couldn't resist buying one of these flowers from the farmers' market. I'm not sure what they are called but they look like purple haired pineapples. 

This print from Luckythirteen Design. 

Henry's business attire. Onesie courtesy of Grandma Georgia.

Mad Men. I know I'm about 5 years behind, but I'm officially obsessed. Scott never liked the show so I didn't watch. But now that he's at work, I've been watching while I feed Henry. And since I feed him a lot I'm already half way through season 5. I'm continually impressed with how good of a show it is. 

That this happened. And that someone got it on video. At Comic Con Zachary Levi sold a kiss for $1000 to a fan (proceeds go to charity). Apparently Nathan Fillion and Adam Baldwin wanted in on the action. Love it.

The gobble club sandwich from Squat & Gobble. I've had this sandwich 4 times in the last 3 weeks. It doesn't have as much bread as your standard club sandwich and there's cranberry. I've managed to get Scott and his mom hooked on its deliciousness as well. Nom.

Photos by Hanah

A few weeks ago my friend Hanah came over to take some nice photos of Henry. I sadly did not put a ton of thought beforehand into what exactly I wanted and Henry was over the whole experience pretty quickly (he doesn't like a lot of man handling) but Hanah managed to get some beautiful photos despite all of that. Here are a few of my favorites:

Thanks, Hanah!