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Loneliness and subconscious busyness
The past two weekends in a row, my husband had been gone (first weekend: Santa Monica biking with his Canadian pals, and this weekend he went to NYC to run the half marathon). Truthfully I was a little nervous being on my lonesome for the first time, since my Dad passed away. Usually when I’m bored, I called my Dad for a chat in the evenings, since my Dad stayed up much later than my Mom. Well, now that he’s not here any more, I knew for sure I would get a little stir-crazy in the evenings and feel the loneliness kick in.
While I think it’s okay to mourn and be sad, I don’t want to live in a state of sadness or sink into a slump. Sure, I have heavyhearted moments where I shed a few tears, thinking that I won’t see/speak to my favourite person in the world any more (in fact writing that made my eyes tear up a little, geeze). But like I said I had made big plans for the two weekends, and kept busy.
I’m in the process of editing some photos from when Lauren and I went to Fort Funston off leash dog beach with our two pups, and our two Lexus cars to review, I had a blast, and literally had to cross my legs because I thought I was going to pee from laughing so hard. Lauren is hilarious, and I love that she moved closer to where I live. That means we can hang out as often as possible. Yay! By the way, I can’t wait to share the photos from Fort Funston with you guys. It’s coming! I got a new phone and don’t really know how to get the photos off it yet. Technology is hard.
Since I had the Lexus RX 450 to review for a week, I spent a full day having a bit of me time and drove to San Francisco to explore the city a bit, and browse some areas I was unfamiliar with. I scoped out Japan Town, shopped some art stores, went to a cool coffee spot, and then had an acai bowl at a place just around the corner from Dolores Park (which by the way, I witnessed a truly scary fight a few minutes after relaxing in the park. And ya knows now, this lil’ newfie got the eff out of there as soon as THAT happened. Because: guns are allowed in ‘Murica, and I’m frightened to death lol).
ANYWAY. I had a grand ol’ time in SF, and even watched the sunset on the drive home. I mean, really. When is the last time you sat on top of a gigantic hill, and watched the sun set? It’s so relaxing.
Another thing that kept me busy was Snapchat. Do you guys have it? Add me if you do: spiffykerms. When people asked me if I had it last year, I was all NOWAI, isn’t that for hooking up? But apparently it’s all changed now and it’s fun and not weird. I’m addicted to it, and I think it’s so hilarious. I don’t even need friends on there, I just laugh at MY OWN snapchats all day long. It’s ridiculous.
Then oh my gosh I compiled all my makeup, skincare, body care, hair care (you name it) into one big ol’ pile, bought some famous MUJI acrylic drawers, realized I had an embarrassing amount of items (because I get PR samples all the time, and apparently don’t go through them enough to declutter), and decided to keep a tiny bit, donate (Shauna, Krista — You coming down for a visit here any time soon? I’m keeping the bag just for you two to go through!) a shiz-ton, and throw out a few old pieces. I’m quite happy with the smaller size of makeup I now have, and it doesn’t overwhelm me any more. I blurred the photo because I think I want to do a blog post about it. I filmed a YouTube video on it, which I’ve yet to edit/upload — stay tuned if you’re interested.
So all-in-all I would say I had a decent two weekends in a row. I did get lonely at times missing my husband, but that’s what phone calls, bike rides, solo-runs with Alfie, and voice notes to Megan were all about. Staying in touch, verbally! It helped.
How have all you been doing lately?
Bliss and Bale | Serenity Box
Don’t let gift giving stress you out people! In fact, I’m a huge fan of gifting presents. I LOVE it and often go all out. Shopping for unique/cool gifts that you know your friends/family would love? So fun.
I wanted to showcase another crate/box from Bliss and Bale (see the Valentine’s Day box here). Andrea Cwik is a small business owner located in the San Francisco Bay Area. She selects items for her boxes from other local businesses and partners with the best small batch artisans.
This one is called Serenity Box, filled with all sorts of nice goodies, like a really sweet mug, loose leaf tea, yummy mini waffles, candy and a candle. Andrea ships her products worldwide, so anyone can customize (email her for customization) or select a box from her website and send to a loved one. I’m sharing her products again, because hello? Support Local! And, Andrea is just the sweetest — we met up for coffee late last week and chatted for two hours!
See? E, from Apis Floral also joined us at yummy Chromatic Cafe. Good lattes there ;)Â 
Love the details Andrea puts into her boxes, like sealing the boxes shut with her logo + social media information provided! It’s really well done, I have to say. Bliss and Bale caters to all sorts of people whether you’re one person, or a large corporation looking for multiple gifts and she is happy to customize the gifts working with any budget, which is so nice! You can read more about including your own promo-items in the gift boxes too.
Check out the boxes she has available for sale, and on Instagram the boxes she’s put together for other clients … see what I mean? So impressive, with gorgeous pieces, and equally gorgeous photos to go along with. I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but I want to work with Andrea and customize one of her new baby boxes for a pregnant friend of mine back in Canada (hopefully she isn’t reading)!
You can just tell, from the moment you meet Andrea, that she absolutely enjoys what she does over at Bliss and Bale. I wish her all the success — and I can’t wait to go for coffee with her again. Here’s to new friendships thanks to Instagram! :)
Give Bliss and Bale a follow on social media:
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European vibes at Santana Row’s Hotel Valencia
Whether it be opening the french doors to a balcony over looking a courtyard, or the beautiful architecture outside and in. Hotel Valencia is a place I definitely want to spend another few nights at.
Out of the four hotels Jenna and I stayed at, Hotel Valencia was both our favourite places. If I’m so daring, I would say it was most likely one of the favourite hotels I’ve ever stayed at in my life.
You can have valet park your car for $24 overnight, or you can grab a parking pass from the Valet crew outside, drive your car around the corner and park it in the garage and walk back to the hotel with your belongings, which is clearly what we did.
This was our private balcony overlooking courtyard, beauty views. Quiet rooms, and not because the hotel was empty. The place was happenin’ wiht the grand opening of Cielo, which is a roof top bar. Unfortunately it was drizzling a little bit outside so it got bumped to the inside, to V Bar.
While it had both luxurious feeling to it, it wasn’t stuffy feeling. I didn’t feel as if I was in a hotel room at Hotel Valencia, while it looked rich in taste in the room, it still felt like a gorgeous apartment. Perhaps it was the added touches to the room, with the vibrant cushions on the bed, the leather club chair and a full-length mirror, perfect for outfit of the day selfies in my “wallpaper pants” as my husband likes to refer to them as. We were even greeted with some vodka cranberry left in our room — how did they know this was my favourite drink?!
We grabbed quite a nice meal at Citrus, also inside Hotel Valencia.
Appetizers from the chef, and I also grabbed a lobster salad app – didn’t realize how huge the portion was going to be. It was amazing none-the-less.
Jenna ordered the grilled lamb which was served on bucatini pasta, squash and green olive. I opted for another seafood dish and got quick smoked wild salmon, red curry cous cous with pistachio tahini. So good! I want to go back, and lucky for me Santana Row is just a short drive away.
We both decided on the speculoos caramel chocolate tart for dessert. It was espresso cremeux, milk jam, praline cocoa nib tuile, topped with chocolate chai ice cream. So caramely and brownie-like, it was incredible. Jenna said she wanted to re-create it at home for her boyfriend, it was that good.
After we came out from supper, I went around the courtyard taking photos of the patio at sunset. I kind of just want to live here. Forever.
The courtyard is a great place to people watch. Wondering if I can come up here without having staying at the hotel and enjoy an afternoon coffee with these types of views. It’s so breathtaking, and relaxing with their waterfall and flowers in bloom.
Since Cielo wasn’t open for us to check out due to the rain, we headed over to V Bar and stayed for a few minutes.
This place also has a balcony overlooking the Santana Row shopping area!
Isn’t the front desk area gorgeous? Hotel Valencia has a few hidden-nooks/half dome shaped rooms for their guests to have on sight meetings in the front lobby. I hadn’t seen anything like that before. I snapped a few photos of it but they didn’t come out as well as they looked in person, so you’re just going to have to trust my opinion on that one ;)
The next morning we checked out of the hotel, and had our complimentary breakfast (with a really large selection!) back at Citrus restaurant. I think it’s safe to say we both enjoyed ourselves the most here, with the beautiful European vibes Hotel Valencia has, and all the beautiful landscaping, balconies and gorgeous views.
Hotel Valencia
355 Santana Row, San Jose, CA 95128
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Disclaimer: Many thanks to Hotel Valencia for hosting our stay and meal at Citrus!Â