Search results
83 results found.
Mosaic Staircase in San Francisco
When my husband and I drove to San Francisco the other weekend, I wanted to make sure we had a few fun things lined up after he was finished racing. Including an outfit of the day. Hehe!
Rightfully so, people assume California is hot and sunny year round. While I thought that too, upon moving to the sunny state I was a little incorrect. Yes, the sun certainly shines what seems like 360 days out of the year, but it’s not always a warm day — especially if you head up to San Francisco.
Now living here almost a year and a half I can tell you what Northern California’s weather truly is like. I find that the weather rarely goes above 25-28*C during the summer months, and it certainly cools down in the winter. This winter I did an outfit of the day on an unusually warm day back in January. I was roasting. But for the most part you could easily wear a hoody layered under a lightweight jacket paired with some comfortable Uggs. Basically, my uniform.
Since it’s warming up I thought I was overdue for another outfit of the day. More of these coming soon, since I miss them so much! Hope you enjoy as much as I enjoyed putting this together for you guys!
As for the photos of me hanging around right outside someone’s house in San Francisco, posing for pictures next to this super colourful flower vine thing growing around their garage. No biggie. This was just the street we parked on for my husband’s Escape From Alcatraz triathlon. But when you find a primo parking space at 3:30 in the morning, you grab it and look for a coffee shop, not look around your surroundings and see what’s pretty.
But when you walk back to the car, you’re all like. Whoa hey, didn’t see that this morning. Let’s take a picture here before heading to the hidden staircase! Then you’re husband is all like “really? In front of someone’s house? What if they come home?” Pfth, they’re not going to … c’maaan. And just as we were finishing up, the owners of the house opened their garage and pulled in. Not that it matters I was posing, I wasn’t inside their house robbin’ it or nothin now.
Google and Yelp are a fantastic resource for us, especially living in a new country. Google’d the heck out of “hidden secrets of San Francisco” and it came up with this mosaic staircase on 16th and Moraga.
Which, mind you… was not so hidden, nor secret. By the jeeze I swear everyone and their mother was out taking photos of this set of stairs that Sunday afternoon.
And that’s when my layers came off. It was super chilly obviously before the sun rose and I was down by the water watching my husband race. Once the event was done, and we were walking around a bit more I only ended up needing my jacket and a tee underneath.
We had patience, and waited until there were either a few or zero people in the photo, and snapped away. All while apologizing, Canadian style, while people waited for us to take our snaps, then it was their turn. “Oh so sorry! Sorry, let me get out of your way!”. Ha!
Anyway! Onto a few more pictures and outfit details.
What we didn’t expect was a nice trail up the street from the hidden stair case, with incredible views of San Francisco. A little foggy, but that’s the City for you.
Me and my fancy pants, and a final picture in my true form, just to make you laugh or smile :)
Outfit details
 Sunnies: Ardene | Jacket: Bench Canada | Top underneath: Costco
Sneakers: Nike | Leggings: Bench Canada | Backpack: The North Face
Have an awesome rest of your day!
Disclaimer: Bench Canada gave me a gift card to shop on their website and that’s where I picked out the jacket and leggings!
A catch up + Newfoundland bloggers
Been about a month since I really sat down and blogged on a daily basis. Frig b’y, time flies don’t she.
After flying home to Newfoundland for a few weeks and getting my first black eye of my life (my nephew did it accidentally when I was teaching him to skim rocks in the pond) I came back – having the next day be my birthday …Â a big one. Number is old, I’m not ;), and the day after that having two sets of visitors overlapping each other, a long time friend, and my sister-in-law! My SILÂ just left, and we spent the day in San Francisco on her last day here. Of course we had to hit up Ghirardelli Square and go into all of their shops in the square and get free individually wrapped chocolate samples. Score x 100 when they’re you’re favourite flavour. Hooyeah. I was told I wasn’t allowed to put our photo together up on Facebook and tag her, but I wasn’t told to keep it off Instagram, heh heh. Here’s our selfie together at Ghirardelli Square after eating ice cream. Yummo.
So I thought it’s due time to get back to reality and update you guys on what’s going on in my life. I mean, if ya wanna know and all. Spose ya do, if you’re here right?
The weather has been kind of crummy here in California as of late. I told my friend to pack shorts – because: California. She was cold the entire trip. Don’t blame her. Up in Canada it was way hotter than it’s been down here the past few weeks. For those that speak celsius it was about 15 degrees here and 30+ in Ontario. Regardless of that, we still had fun gallivanting through Northern California, checking out everywhere from Sonoma, to Carmel and everywhere in between. Those posts will be coming in fast and furious, but I don’t want to just blog about that – more beauty posts will be coming (I’m doing them every Tuesday) and more Pomeranian Friday’s to come. Have you missed our little pup?
Having a few weeks off blogging felt good. I’m back in the groove of things and have a lot to talk about, a lot to share.
I also went shopping. A lot. While my friend was here. I saved up all my dolla dollahs and splurged on many items that were on my wishlist for YEARS. Maybe I should do a little haul. But here’s a little look-see.
I made bagels!!! Then the next day I made bread.
Bagels (half batch was blueberry and the other half was garlic + flax seeds) turned out wicked good with the help of my friend. Then I was left alone to make bread. The recipe was so confusing to a newbie bread maker such as myself telling me to do something with 8 cups of water. So I added said cups of water to my batch. Then it turned to soup. Threw it out, and quickly googled an easier recipe to follow and made two successful loaves of bread. I didn’t get a picture because the bread was gobbeled up so quickly. Maybe on my next batch I’ll snap a picture. The recipe called for me putting a pot of water underneath my pizza stone while the bread cooked, and since I knew pyrex sometimes blows up in ovens, I decided to use a bread pan with 2 cups of water in it and it worked out perfectly to steam the bread and create a perfect crusty crust.
This post is going to be all outta whack and over the place. Just like my brain is. Not sorry.
I’m also a teensy bit jealous that my old job and co-workers in Ontario has created a blog (and I’m not there to blog with/for them). My ex-coworkers and still, close friends… are so hilarious. So check them out.
OH! How could I forget! There are multiple Newfoundland blogger’s + Youtubers out there that I found online since being back here in California. Well here, check them out when you get a chance:
. : N E W F O U N D L A N D Â B L O G G E R S : .
- Jessica & Steven: They quit their jobs, and started travelling the world + blogging about it! Â Blog |Â IG | Twitter | FB
- Samantha:Â Love her makeup videos, she’s so charismatic. (Reason #1 I quit my youtube channel: I can’t string together a coherent sentence on camera haha)Â YouTube |Â IG | Twitter | FB
- Melissa: Love a fellow newfie who loves to travel and blog about her trips. Her guide to Newfoundland slang is right on. I laughed so hard at her buddy and missus. Blog | IG | Twitter | FB
- Leanne:Â A lifestyle blogger similar to my website here. I’ve known Leanne for more than a handful of years online. We finally got to meet face-to-face a number of times when we both ended up living in Ontario. Until, I moved to California. I love her blog so much, and I want her to blog way more often! Â Blog | IG | Twitter
- Jessica: Food blogger living in St. John’s. Talking about all the delicious eats my home city has to offer. Blog | IG | Twitter
- Holly: I love her humour. You’ll love her blog about makeup, and every day life. Blog| IG | YouTube
I’m wondering how many more of yee are out there. I want to meet all my Newfoundlander buds.
I have so many fun reviews too. And don’t skimp over that simply because it’s a review you know. I hope you can trust my opinion, because there has been many a time where I’ve been brutally honest about products I’ve been sent.
Speaking of sharing. I went to Los Gatos today and grabbed an iced coffee and sandwich after my Doctor’s appointment after reading some reviews on yelp at this hole in the wall type of coffee shop – I’m definitely going back. They have this blended espresso drink (NOT on the menu) called CPR. The man serving me told me it’ll bring me back to life. HAHAHAHA. I haven’t had more energy in my entire life. Hence, I guess this huge long blog post that I should clue up now. Guess that means so-long until I blog next.
I’ll be back tomorrow. So check in again then :)
Thinking Out Loud Thursday #8
Whoa. I haven’t done a Thinking Out Loud Thursday post since October. Better get on that more often, they’re so fun to do — and get all my brain thoughts out on paper screen.
So, let’s get started.
I love the freedom I have with this blog. If I take a break, it doesn’t bother me (for instance that week break in early March when we had a visitor). But when I do let my work pile up, that’s when I start to get a little frazzeled. I’m still trying to think of a really quirky unique way to showcase a couple of products I received for review. I still have to review our huge king sized bed that we were sent to review (hint: we love it).
Want to see some stuff I bought recently from Muji? So during the weekend of our San Jose staycation I discovered that this was attached to the Fairmont hotel in downtown San Jose, and I didn’t have a chance to pop in because the weekend was packed. But I did keep it in the back of my mind to pop in when I was back from my climbing trip (which I have to tell you guys about still. The entire trip was so W E I R D!). I heard one opened up in Toronto and I was so gutted because I didn’t realize we had one down here in California (let alone more than one in the state alone!).
Basically my excited dance when I stepped in the store. I’ve been told I dance like a weirdo, this was the closest representation I could grab from the interwebs. And I’m taking Megan there today, too since she’s coming down my way for a visit!
My friend and I were there for a good hour browsing around, so here are my goodies I picked up. I’m still eyeing a couple of other items but I want to wait to see if I really need them. You know, limited budget over here.
I’m a sucker for simple design and useful packaging. Oh, and pens!
Look how they write! Just writing a list for my trip back home to Newfoundland, preliminary thoughts of what to pack though, this isn’t the only stuff I’m bringing. That list will get much longer :)Â 
If you don’t already know this about me I’m a huge stationary fan. Plus, these pens were $1.50 each. At other stores in the Bay Area for pens this tiny they cost 3x as much. I love needle point type of gel pens, thinner the better. The ones I picked up are 0.38 & 0.3, I prefer even smaller at 0.25. Enough with the geek speak. But I’m excited to show you how I style the toothbrush holder in our guest bathroom, that’s what the little while donut shaped thing is, along with clear toothbrushes. Ugh. Perfection.
I’ve been looking for a coin purse, and I thought I’d pick up this little clear one that was suggested to be used for beauty products (scissors/tweezers etc) but it works great for coins, and I don’t have to keep them jumbled up in my purse.
And lastly (I can’t believe how much talking I’m doing about these products I bought lol) I got a clear sliding plastic case for important documents. I have a ton of these around the house from Chapters back home in Canada, but I needed a couple of more for our Taxes 2014/2015.
One more thing because I bought them a few days ago. I randomly strolled through Target, and of course I had to take the escalator up to the second floor (I know. It’s a HUGE Target and I love it) to the shoe section, and I came out with two pairs. Which ones do you like better? Here’s something weird. Last summer I was a 9 in their sneakers (these one’s from my Instagram) and now I’m an 8. To be fair, I’m a true 8.5, but these shoes are a bit snug and the 8.5’s just slipped right off my heel. Anyway. I bought them. I’m happy!
These black one’s are knock off’s of the new Vans sneakers. I like ’em, and I like the $24 sticker price.
Then I got a pair of fake converse. I’ve been eyeing converse sneakers for years in white, but they make my feet look ginourmous. So I setteled with these, and!? they’re on sale for $16. Pshyeah.
What have you guys been up to lately?
Bought anything cool? Checked out a new store/coffee shop?
Or even tell me what you’re doing later on this evening!
Whatcha cooking for supper?