Birthday Boy

Today is my sweet husband's birthday, and we celebrated with his parents yesterday. The birthday boy requested lunch at his favorite sandwich shop and his mom made his favorite lemon poppyseed cake. The Noodle did all the decorating at home. There was a birthday banner and crepe paper streamers hung from each blade of the ceiling fan, which was promptly turned on in turbo mode (of course).

Daddy was a good sport about wearing the hat, don't you think?

Happy birthday Mister Blue Eyes!

The Prettiest Tree

This is the prettiest tree I have ever seen. Honestly, truly, ever. I made Jeff pull over while I dashed across the street with my camera, heart racing, to capture it forever. And boy am I glad I did, because today?

Today needs the prettiest tree on earth.

88 Howard Street, San Francisco

I apologize for being MIA yesterday, I had my little guy home again and I chose to be the devoted mama instead of being present here. He wasn't very sick, a low fever with no other symptoms so it was not the worst illness to deal with by any means. We even went out to the market and stopped along the way for a long walk in the spring sunshine.

I'm here now to share the rest of the photos of where I lived with my dad back in 1990-92. Let's start off right with the amazing view from our apartment and the tower that we lived in.

Pretty sweet, huh? I knew enough at 21 to enjoy it as much as possible. I remember saying to myself regularly, "I may never have an eight-block commute again in my lifetime." Here are some of the things I saw every single day: looking up, walking in, walking by and shopping in.

I had a lot of classic adventures from my home base at Howard Street. You could find me clothes shopping at The Embarcadero on the way home with a fresh paycheck in my pocket, eating and drinking margaritas on Fridays at TGIF or Chevy's with friends, eating lunch either at the Far East Cafe around the corner from my office or a sandwich on the steps of Old St. Mary's. Trust me, margaritas at Chevy's were just the appetizer for someone who just turned 21 and lived in San Francisco! (Am I right Lyn?) 

I would regularly give all the cash I had on me to almost all the homeless people I passed. Usually small amounts but once I gave $40 to one man and he proposed to me in return. When I told my dad about that one, he gave me a little talk in a slightly exasperated way as if he couldn't believe how UN-street smart I was coming from a hardened New Yawker like him. I would take Bart all around, thrilled by the way the ticket got sucked in by the turnstile. I gleefully ran any and all errands needed by the law firm that I worked for and I especially loved visiting the library and Superior Court. 

I have nothing but fond memories of my time in San Francisco. Thank you for letting me share some of them with you. Please, I would truly love for you to leave a comment with your favorite memory of San Francisco on this post!

My April Fool's Tutorial for Mac OS X

Good morning! I wanted to be playful and play a trick on my blog but in the end, I decided to play a trick on my suspecting husband. I say suspecting because my trick was computer oriented and for Mac OS X but when I walked by his laptop this morning, I saw he was booted into Windows which messed up my plans. I was unable to hide my reaction so when I got home from school drop-off, he had kindly rebooted into Mac for me. Ha! What a good sport!

If you want to play this trick on someone on a Mac, this is a really good one. My husband is a web developer/software engineer and he was impressed by my trick! It is a classic screensaver prank but I took it one level deeper than simply replacing his desktop wallpaper. I will do it to myself to show you how to do it.

Step 1. Take a screen shot using apple-shift-3. I named the file "april fool."

Step 2. Open Preferences and make the screen shot the desktop wallpaper.

Step 3. Open the Terminal utility.

Step 4. Hide the real desktop icons

Type the following two lines in your Terminal window: "defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool false" and hit enter. Then type "killall Finder" and hit enter again.

This is the key component of this prank. Quit Terminal and what you should have is a desktop that looks just as your victim remembers it, but when they go to click on their folders and icons, nothing will happen! This is the part that impressed my husband. 

Of course, this impressed him because I am not an engineer and he was surprised I could find Terminal, let alone enter some code that would do anything tricky. Also he didn't know this particular code to hide his desktop icons so I got a double score. I have two pieces of advice for this prank to succeed: 1) know thyself and know thy victim; 2) don't let a lot of time lapse between your prank and the discovery if at all possible because the time stamp will give it away. 

Step 5. When the laughs are done, restore the icons. 

Open Terminal again and type "defaults write com.apple.finder CreateDesktop -bool true" and enter. Then type "killall Finder" again and hit enter. Don't forget to reset their original desktop image to be polite. I got the instructions for this trick via OSXDaily.

If you're really feeling tricky, maybe just maybe you mess around in the system prefs right after you restore their desktop image. Just sayin' maybe their trackpad is moving at a different speed now?

Happy April Fool's Day!

100 Photos: No. 8

I did a few other fun things during my time away, including spending some time with Pola. We went to Walnut Creek and Danville so I'm happy to say I have a few images lined up to add to my One Hundred Photos project.

A Fine Spring Day

Here's a little 100 Photos link love: the blog where it all started, the Flickr pool and one of my personal favorite participants, pretty life photography.

Refreshed!

Good morning friends! I am back and feeling loads lighter and better after a few days of rest.  While I was gone (and a huge part of my stress), I had a PET/CT scan. I'm very relieved and happy to report that it showed that I'm still in remission. Talk about a woohoo moment! We celebrated the great news with a little bubbly last night.

Also while I was away, I finished my first amigurumi. My hunch was correct that it wouldn't take me three years, which makes for a much more gratifying project than that darn three-year blanket. But what made it the MOST gratifying project was my son's reaction when I wrapped it up and presented it to him at bedtime one night.

I'd like you all to meet Sally (or Bun Bun, we're not sure which yet)

He cooed over her and even shed tears of joy! He told me it was "the greatest gift he had ever received." When I stepped away to get my camera, I overheard him singing you are my sunshine to her. I will never forget it. I'm working on the baby bunny already.

Thank you all for the well wishes while I took a few days away. I am happy and inspired to be back and have lots of good posts planned for us this week. How have you all been lately? I missed you!

A Little R&R

© Gigi Thibodeau 

Friends, I'm not feeling very well physically, mentally or emotionally. This photograph is called A Cure for What Ails. For me, this means a little break from my Sweet Eventide to rest & recover. I will be back on Tuesday, and I hope you'll understand.

I won't be gone altogether though. You can find me at the Green Phone Booth tomorrow for my regularly scheduled guest post, and I'll be there again on Monday with a bonus post.


P.S. In the meantime, do visit Gigi's photostream and blog, The Magpie's Fancy. She has such lovely images and she's a very kind Flickr friend to me.

Super Spirograph

I scored a giant hit of happiness at the school rummage sale this weekend. Remember my swirly designs from last year? I am going to be taking it up a notch now with my vintage Kenner Super Spirograph set.

...feeling like an 8-year-old again.

I am making myself a map of sorts of which wheels make which patterns, so pardon my scribbled notes. Also I need to learn how to use my scanner too, parts are cut off and the "red" is clearly orange in real life. But I want to spiro everything now (and so does my Noodle) and I have blank kraft Moleskins that need decorating. :)

The Winner!

Good morning! I have just clicked my winner! Random.org chose number 3, Gina from Hettle of ruffled pillow fame. Congratulations sweet friend!

I really enjoyed Gina's comment for the giveaway and would like to share it here.
She described the essence of what keeps me so connected to my camera when she said her favorite post was... "your SF post, b/c it reminds me of why I truly enjoy your photography, it has a found along the way kind of beauty in the little things..." I tried to describe this idea in an interview that was published yesterday on the Art Wall blog, but I think Gina summarized my style much more succinctly than I did.

I want to thank all of my sweet readers for coming to keep me company five days a week here at Sweet Eventide. Putting together pretty posts for you truly brings me joy. I look forward to another year together!

100 Photos: No. 7

Good day friends! I am thrilled to announce I discovered my Polaroid package in my mailbox a few minutes ago. I've been waiting for this package and guess what? It was in my mailbox since Thursday and I was clueless! I have a P.O. Box where I receive most of my mail and I guess I thought they would leave the package on my porch.

I am very happy that my 100 Photos project is back in business. I think this is a great birthday gift for my blog, don't you?

a surprise Easter treat: Canel's chewing gum (like Chiclets)

Apparently the Easter bunny came with the Polaroid bunny to visit my mailbox. Look what I found inside with my two packs of Polaroid 600: yummy gum and a cute bunny postcard from a sweet friend. This empty white shelf is an awesome score from our school rummage sale over the weekend. I got so many goodies you wouldn't believe it. The school raised an astonishing $31,000!

Don't forget to enter the blog birthday giveaway, I found a special goody at the rummage sale that is going in the package as a bonus. But you have to trust me because it's going to be a secret for now, although I will give you a hint: I have mentioned it here on the blog in the past six months.

Blog Birthday!

Happy Friday! I just realized that Sweet Eventide was born one year ago tomorrow. To celebrate the birthday and the arrival of spring, I've decided to have a spontaneous party.

I am going to give away one of my photographs. To enter, please leave a comment with a link to your favorite post of mine from the past year (archives are to your left) as well as which image you would like from my shop. Edited: If you don't see something in the shop that you like, but you've seen a photo on my blog or Flickr that you want, let me know and I'll make it happen. The print will be either an 8x12 or 8x8 (if you choose a Polaroid). 

You can enter until midnight on Monday, March 22, 2010. I will pick the winner using Random.org. Good luck!

Sometimes I am a Girly Girl

I know I said last week that my eye is not naturally drawn to purple, but while I was out taking purple photos, a pair of purple sandals did catch my eye. And they have not left my mind since so I am dedicating a post to them. I am unleashing my girly girl.

1. drifting by dress, Anthro
2. gabrielle purple hair clip, Just Josie's Etsy shop
3. flirty girl lip gloss Philosophy
4. purple crinkle flower t-straps, Gap

Okay now I am off to skip down a sidewalk and meet a friend for a glass of chardonnay! ;)
Have you gotten your mind stuck on any spring pretties right now?

I Smile for Sun Flares

I saw this photo yesterday on kris atomic, and I cannot get it out of my mind's eye. Between the sudden weather shift here and the way it has elevated my mood, it all seems to come together in this image.

"sunset" © Saga

Aren't you smiling too now?

By the way, I am the teensiest bit obsessed with sun flares lately. It all started with this post on Michael Bailey Gates, remember that one? Did you notice that I experimented with them in SF? I wonder how long this phase will last. :)

Spontaneous San Francisco

I had a fever yesterday, yes. But I also had a sunny day, a six-year-old, and a print order to pick up.

There was a carousel, a giant spiral slide, amazing architecture, walking hand-in-hand, a new hat (or two), a new secret sketch book + a red glitter pen, and a taxi ride. This was our soundtrack.

Plum Tree at Eventide

I hope I don't oversaturate the blog with images of my plum tree, and bore you all to tears, but I have fallen quite in love. It is the first house I have ever lived in with a fruit-bearing tree and to see it blossom in spring is quite the amazing experience.

last night

last week

How was your weekend? Mine kicked off Rockette style with my discovery of this Apartment Therapy post with my Apothecary photo dead center. It was just a wee bit exciting for me. :)

Otherwise, we are doing well besides a little virus running back and forth between me and my husband. The Noodle's school is closed today but I'm going to take advantage of our first 70+ degree day and go somewhere, even if I don't feel my best.

Art Wall: Kitchen

Art Wall is a curated gallery started by Katie Stephenson to marry her "love of art with her background in display and visual merchandising." In case you haven't heard about it yet, please read the great press it has been receiving since its launch in November 2009. Read how it all began in the very first blog post.

I am so proud and honored that I was invited to be a part of Art Wall in the Kitchen, which opened today. Read all about the other artists in the kitchen with my sweet dahlias.

Thank you Katie!


P.S. I am sad to report I did not really try anything new this weekend, but I'm not going to give up altogether. My son did lose his first tooth yesterday and the tooth fairy left him a Sacagawea dollar which I had never seen before. So that was new. ;)

This Weekend, Try Something New

I get *really* hungry after I swim so today on the way home, we stopped at a sandwich shop and I resisted a soda. Yes I did. I tried something new!

It was delicious. I think I even went so far as to say to my husband, "it's so yummy, it's like a party in my mouth." No HFCS either. Now I want to try other new things this weekend. Kind of like how Erin buys a new weird veggie every time she goes to the grocery store.

I'm also thinking along the lines of things not related to food and trying something that's not necessarily conducive to my personality, like singing my way out of a bad mood. While I was at the pool earlier today, I saw a flyer for an upcoming "try it with a friend" capoeira class. Or maybe I'll try something from my list like merging my email accounts finally or dusting off that old guitar or saying a lot more "yes" or learning how to make a cheesecake. Maybe I will take a baby step like this peaches and cream cheese cake from Sam at Inklore instead.

So I'm full of ideas and I'll report back on Monday to hold myself accountable a little bit. Have you tried anything new lately?

Gone Swimming

I'm going to swim laps with my sweetie but I'll be back later with another post. Until then, hopefully these cherry blossoms will make you smile. I took it on the way home from volunteering at the Noodle's school this morning. Toodle-ooo!

Paper Source for Spring

I think everyone knows that Paper Source is a wonderland for paper lovers like me. I actually love being on their email list. I have to share a few of their new spring goodies today as I continue to anticipate and wait for spring to arrive in 16 days.

how to make paper egg cups

These candy coated almonds, pistachios and sunflowers make me want to toss my no-food-coloring rules right out the window. Speaking of sunflowers, oh my do I love their new stamp.

That's $7 + $6 of happiness right there. I want to stamp a sunflower on white linen fabric and make a napkin. Does that sound fun to anyone else?

What about this super cool grass edge paper punch from Martha? Aren't you immediately hosting a spring tea party right now in your mind? Or is it just me? Of course my invite will have that sunflower instead of a mum.

Gosh I'm still looking for a part-time job. I think I should just beg my local Paper Source to hire me. :)

Seriously Cute Crochet by Ana Paula Rimoli

This is the book that inspired my intro to the world of crochet over the weekend. Each critter is adorable beyond words, easy enough for a beginner to attempt and I'm pretty sure it won't take me three years to make one, unlike a blanket.

Imagine my delight when I found out that Ana has a blog, thriving Etsy shop, Flickr photostream and she's tweeting too.

Ana is seriously sweet and nice. Read her Etsy Success Story from 2008. I ordered her Moms and Babies pattern set and I'm working on the bunny. I promise to post a photo of the finished project. I am using Lion's Brand organic cotton yarn that I was thrilled to find at Michaels for $7 a skein.