Festive for Friday-Fall

One of the things I was most worried about when I decided to move to California was the year round temperate climate. How can it be fall without all things pumpkin and apple flavored? How weird is it going to be when the leaves don't turn and fall? (although I'm pretty pumped that there will be NO leaves to rake!) It's September and so fall (at least in my mind) has just begun. It also turns out that September (and October so I've heard) will be two of the warmest and most glorious months in this fine city. AKA it's not foggy ALL THE TIME anymore. And I haven't turned the heat in my apartment on in weeks. Two things helped me feel fall this week, despite the heat.

A tree near my apartment was dropping little bits of red pollen onto the sidewalk, completely filling in the street name etched into the cement. I may not have red leaves, but I have red pollen! 

The discovery that I can get a Pumpkin Spice Latte Frappucinno! I had a hot one earlier this week, but it was when I was in the a cold building during a meeting. I knew that that wasn't going to fly if I wanted to get anything done in Starbucks (another part of operation leave the house). This is pretty much the awesomest thing ever. The cold pumpkiny flavor with the whip cream and the dash of pumpkin spice on top made it taste JUST like a piece of pumpkin pie with a cold dollop of cool whip that we had every Thanksgiving growing up. I can tell this is going to be my go-to drink for this fall season...

What made your week festive? 

Weekend Recap

Oh weekend. You were so lovely and yet you went so fast. I again kept pretty busy this weekend, with running, sewing, working on the book and drinking coffee.

Pieces from my current quilt in progress! 

My favorite adventure of the weekend (which is also a continued part of operation "leave the house each day" was exploring Clement Street. Referred to on Yelp as the "new Chinatown," Clement Street in Inner Richmond and is full of shops, restaurants, cafes and bakeries. There is a decidedly Asian feeling to the street in terms many of the restaurants, cafes and produce shops. It was a warm afternoon when I wandered through, and as Yelp predicted there was the occasional strong whiff of fish, too.

My most exciting find was definitely Green Apple Books! This store came recommended to me as a must-see by a colleague at work and I was NOT disappointed. They have both used and new books, as well as music and DVDs. And let's not even talk about their collection my greatest weakness: notecards, memo pads and blank journals.

Unfortunately (or fortunately for my wallet?) I stopped by when I was heading back from a run so I only had the emergency cash that I keep stashed in my phone with me. So I clearly will need to go back with a large bag and my credit card, starting with these two gems...

When I got home from my adventure I was super pumped to see that this had arrived in the mail!

My Zip Car Card! I have a friend coming to visit in November and we'll need a car to get down to a hockey game in San Jose, and since Fluffy is still back in Indiana this was definitely the way to go. Now to just get over my fear of parallel parking...

How was your weekend? Any adventures? 

#goalsatchoice-Update #1

A quick update here from my first week doing #goalsatchoice with Coach Krissie from Committed Coaching. 

1. Self Care: Doing pretty good with my daily meditation with the Headspace app. 

2. Health: Work out plan is more or less on track for September. Only got in one day of yoga last week, but ran four times. I have fewer work obligations over lunch this week (when I go to yoga), so that should go better. 

3. Space: I remain constantly amazed at how much I can get picked up each night in just five minutes. I also remain amazed at the amount of mess I can manage to make each day considering I'm at work all day! 

4. Stretching: So of all my goals, this is the one that was (and still is!) the scariest for me. It's also been the one I've been super successful at during the first week! I've written letters, written emails, gone out to lunch with family and colleagues, skyped, gone to a new book club and gone bowling! And what do you know, I've actually had a GREAT time meeting new people. It's taken a lot of staring at meetup.com to convince myself to sign up for things (the bowling and book club this last week), but I've had a nice time at both events. 

It's been great having Coach Krissie check in every couple of days, just to see how I'm doing and prompt me to think about how I can find solutions for any hurdles I run across. Excited to see how the rest of the month goes! 

Festive for Friday.

Happy Friday! Nothing is more festive than the Friday of a short work week! This week I bring to you five things about living here in San Francisco that make me happy.

1. Trader Joe's. More specifically, these Coffee Latte and Cream Bars. They're like my super sugary and creamy morning coffee but frozen. And served for dessert.

 2. I can't even remember where we saw this, but I took this picture the first week I was here when the N-boy and I were out exploring the city. Since the Momcat and Daddo are scientists I was amused.

 3. Celebrating Baby Brother's 25th birthday back at the beginning of August. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've been able to celebrate with him in person since I went to college (aka a long time ago).

 4. Being able to walk to work. The boys are pointing down the "hill" (since it's technical name is Lone Mountain I question calling it a hill) to my apartment, which is visible when it's not foggy. What is slightly less festive is climbing these 160 steps (yes, I counted) each morning when I've only had one cup of coffee.

5. Food. So I'm pretty sure food will make this the list of all things festive each and every. This was at the Corner Store for brunch. 

What made your week festive? 

Labor Day Weekend.

Let's just take a moment to reflect on the awesomeness that three day weekends are. I had an absolutely wonderful weekend. The weather in San Francisco has finally turned into days of gorgeous sunshine and perfect temperatures. If this weekend, the traditional first weekend the start of the fall season, is anything to go off of, I am going to be very happy here come, oh mid February. 

This weekend I...

Consumed a LOT of coffee. 

Worked on sewing at home with this guy watching over. A friend sent him to me as a surprise last week and he's so cute and sparkly. Now he just needs a name...

Went a little bit crazy at Papyrus buying notecards. I HAD to. All of mine are back in storage in Indiana and I need cards for #goalsatchoice. Ad they were on sale!

Drooled over this catalog that randomly appeared in my mail slot. I tend to get a lot of random catalogs from previous tenants. Even though I do everything on my phone and ipad i still love looking at paper planner.

Worked on testing the directions for projects in our book!

How was your long weekend?

#goalsatchoice

Happy September! In my mind today marks the official start of fall. And fall is my FAVORITE. I'm a bit nervous to see what it feels like here in San Francisco when the change of seasons is not as dramatic as in the midwest, but everyone has promised that there will be plenty of things pumpkin and apple flavored, including my friend the Pumpkin Spice Latte.

I feel like I'm starting to settle into the city a little more, although of course I won't be fully settled until the N-boy and the cats join me, along with all of my stuff. And when I'm not subletting. But BESIDES all of that, I'm feeling pretty good! To keep the good going I'm super excited to be undertaking an accountability self challenge in September called #goalsatchoice with Coach Krissie at Committed Coaching.

I found Coach Krissie through one of my favorite blogs ever, Cassie at Back to Her Roots. Krissie has guest posted on Cassie's blog a few times and when she offered BTHR readers the opportunity to enter for a free discovery session I put my name in right away. And I was chosen! Woohoo!

I REALLY liked talking with Krissie on Skype about where I am in my life, and what small things I could change to make things even better. She really helped me lay out and understand that I've had a lot of very, very big changes in a pretty short amount of time (new job/promotion, selling the house, moving across the country, being apart from the N-boy and the kittens, writing a book). Although I've been trying to settle into a healthy and mindful routine here in SF, some days it's hard.

For #goalsatchoice I skyped again with Krissie to set four goals for the month of September, one in each of four areas: self-care, health, space and stretching. We have an adorable printable made by none other than Cassie herself, and Krissie will email/text/checkin with each person as we go through the month. A "perfect" score is only 25/30 days for each goal, so there's room for flexibility. My plan is to check in once a week here to share how it's been going.

1. Self-Care: 20 minute meditation every day through the Headspace app.

2. Health: Figure out a plan for each week that includes three days of running, two days of yoga, a bonus day, and a day to rest/plan for the next week.

3.Space: Spend five minutes picking up the apartment each night before I go to bed. A five minute Room Rescue ala Flylady.

4. Stretching: This isn't about the act of physically stretching, but about choosing something to do each day that's hard or that I'm a little bit scared of. For me, this is keeping in touch with friends and family while making new friends here in SF.

I was selected for the free discovery session with Coach Krissie through the entry on BTHR, but I'm doing #goalsatchoice with my own time, money, heart and soul. 

Big News.

So I'm pretty excited to publicly share some big news about a project the Momcat and I have been working on.

We're publishing a book with the American Quilter's Society! 

We submitted a proposal for a book about making containers out of fabric using our nifty English Paper Piecing technique. And they accepted it for publication! Woohoo! Our manuscript is due in November, and we're hoping the book will be published in Spring 2014. 

I wrote a longer post on our new website www.prairiesewnstudios.com. We're (well, mostly me!) a bit nervous and anxious about this adventure, so any support or comments on the new website would be much MUCH appreciated! 

Off to keep writing and sewing!