And yes, Sting is still hot.

Last night we saw Elvis Costello and The Police at Shoreline. It f'n rocked. If you can believe it, Elvis was the opener! It was a bit sad, actually, him up there playing while it was still daylight, people milling around, not taking their seats, chatting and eating nachos while up on stage it's ELVIS F'N COSTELLO! I mean, come on. He deserves better than that. Sting popped up on stage with him for a duet during "Alison," then Elvis finished up with "Peace, Love, and Understanding."

Once The Police got up on stage, all the uber fans started going apesh*t. Everyone (all 12,000 of us) were standing up and dancing around, even the peeps on the lawn (who I think end up having the most fun, if all the funny smoke wafting down was any indication). They played all their classic hits, including my faves "Don't Stand So Close to Me" and "Every Little Thing She Does." Overall, a pretty MF epic concert. Weee oohhhhhh!

Happy 5th of July!

Mmm. There is no tastier way to celebrate the 5th of July than with cherry pie. Emma made these gorgeous cherry pies from scratch. Twelve pies in three days (oh, all while taking care of her three-and-a-half-year-old son and three-month-old daughter). She's so fancy in the kitchen. Knowing better than to attempt this on my own, I stuck to what I'm good at: tasting. And man was it good! Thanks Em!! (As I write this, the BF is currently on his second piece...)


I will leave you with a shot of Ocean Beach taken today--surprisingly not foggy!

RyanBaby Turns One!

My nephew Ryan celebrated his first bday last weekend. It was a good ol' fashioned bbq/picnic in the park. Lotsa other kids, friends, and eats makes for a good time! Here he is just before he decided to wear his birthday cake. Later, it was a dip in the pool to cool off. I don't mean to sound like some deranged, biased auntie, but Ryan really IS the cutest baby ever, don't you think?

OK, so to commemorate his passage into single-digits, I decided to stencil some tee shirts, you know, big boy tees. That's right--no more onesies! Since the whole fam loves soccer (and they have a foosball table), I decided to create a foosball stencil. I found an image of a little foosball player online and printed it out 3x to sort of hobble together a basic picture. From there I took some artistic liberties and created a stencil. As usual, I used shirts from American Apparel. Even got fancy with my crafty self and used three colors this time!

Now, birthdays are special moments worth celebrating, and this got me thinking, what does a baby wear on those more formal occasions? You know, like when he really needs to impress the ladies? Well, then it dawned on me: a stenciled tee with a gold chain and clock a la Flava Flav! Obviously.

In the same way that I created the foosball stencil, I found some examples of chains online and a picture of a clock. From there I put together my own drawing, making sure to draw the chain so that it fit around the neck hole. Of course, for the full effect, you can't forget to do the back of the shirt! So, am I crazy? Please fill out the poll!

Sprucing Up in the TP

It takes a lot to get me out of bed before 9am on a Saturday. Hell, me being up before noon on any given weekend is just shy of a miracle. So if I'm going to get up, it had better be good. And for a good cause. And I'd better get a free bagel out of it too, dammit. Well, every so often, the unlikely happens and I wake up early. Through Hands on Bay Area, the BF and I get a chance to do good and spruce up our neighborhood. Twin Peaks is the second highest hill in SF, draws a lot of tourists at the lookout area up top, and is literally our backyard. HoBA volunteers team up with REI and the SF Recreation and Park Department to clean up and restore the hilltop, which is the indigenous home to lots of plants and wildlife, but most notably to the endangered Mission Blue Butterfly. Basically, we spend about 3-4 hours pulling weeds. The first time we did it, it was cold, wet, and extremely windy. My hands and feet were frozen and my knees were soaked and muddy. This last time was the polar opposite. It was unseasonably hot weather and, tugging at those roots, we were sweatin' big time. The BF even busted a shoe. It sounds miserable from the way I've described it, but it's actually a lot of fun. We learn a lot about the local animal, bird, and plant life, and we get to meet cool people who live in the area too. It's a pretty satisfying feeling--toiling away and then taking a look around you. You get to see how much you've accomplished and how different the landscape looks. Definitely worth getting up early for on a Saturday morning.



1. Snapped a few of the other volunteers; 2. Tugging at those pesky radishes; 3. Filet of sole (the BF's busted shoe); 4. Looking up the hillside.

Show Time

Let's just get this out of the way first: Wow, I really suck at keeping a blog. A lot has happened in the last month. I'll be playing catch-up over the next few entries.

May 17-18: The jewelry show was a huge success. It took place at the BF's family residence where his mom also displayed her art work--she sold six paintings! And I sold about 20 pieces and got a couple of custom orders. The turn-out was pretty good and remained steady over both days. It was great to see so many familiar faces (and meet some new ones). Many thanks to the friends, family, and neighbors who stopped by on the hottest weekend in the history of the planet. I think we all know what it's like on the surface of the sun now. I really need to thank Isabelle and Greg Sr. for being great hosts and for providing such a beautiful venue, not to mention all the tasty eats and cold drinks! Thank you!! Below are a few pix of my jewelry at the show. The last pic is of a little work station I set up for some on-the-spot sizing and demonstrations.

We also finally launched the SugarCube web site (http://www.sugarcubejewelry.com/). And yes, there are typos in there, egad. I need to update that too. Sheesh, a blog and now a web site? How am I ever going to keep up?

Armed and handy

I've been trying to get organized for the upcoming jewelry show. It's hard to believe it is little more than one week away! After months of procrastinating, I'm starting to feel the heat now. I have enough inventory as far as the jewelry goes. Too much. Hence the show. Now I'm concentrating on my set-up: how to display the pieces, how to dress up the table, business cards, mirrors, baggies, Zzzzz.

A couple weeks ago, I decided that I had to come up with a new way to display my jewelry--so I put the BF to work. It was swelteringly hot that day in the south bay--perfect time for some manual labor! With A LOT of help from the BF's fam, I was able to use some flea market frames and turn them into padded displays to hang jewelry off of. Here are some before, during, and after shots. Not bad for $30 and a liter of sweat. Thanks to the fam for the hard work, power tools, and brave faces when I was wielding the staple gun!



1. Ply wood and a flea market frame. 2. Cutting out the batting and linen. 3. Watch those fingers. 4. The fruits of our labor!

Just another day in paradise

Oh boy. It's been WEEKS since my last posting. So I have a lot of catching up to do. A few weeks ago, the BF and I spent 4-5 days in San Diego. It was awesome seeing old friends, soaking in the sun, and visiting our old stomping grounds/watering holes. All that sun! I loved it. Just a few hours on the hotel patio and I was golden. The BF on the other hand... well, I think he managed to tone down his San Francisco glow without too much sunburn!

Now onto the REAL highlights (according to the BF anyway):


I mean, the sun, the beach, our friends...yeah they're all right too! But sadly one of the perks about going back to SD is the Mexican food. SF has the Mission and all, but the Mex food we've found up here really can't even compete with San Diego's. Perhaps food just tastes better on the beach and with old friends. Some gutbustin' good times from our trip include Pizza Port, Porkyland, Point Loma Seafoods, breakfast burritos from Taco Surf, and beers (lotsa beers) at Cass St. with our old regular crew of crusty alcoholics. See how happy it makes the BF?! At least Hefeweizen is served with a slice of lemon--a great source of Vitamin C. That night we easily got 100% of the RDA of Vitamin C...