Habitual Rearranger | Leslie Davis's Blog

San Francisco – Take 3!

February 25, 2012 in Out of Town Adventures with 1 Comment

Bradley and I took advantage of a freelance business trip of his to San Francisco to spend a week with my sister and her husband. This was our third visit out there (it makes trips so much more doable when you have a place to stay:) and we tried to find new things to try instead of revisiting past adventures. In the city, we went to the California Academy of Sciences and the Conservatory of Flowers (free admission with our garden membership!). The first was interesting, but the insane number of children left us exhausted and frustrated. The conservatory was really nice – I only wish we would have been there at the right time for one of the guided tours.

We also wandered around the Mission district a bit and ate at Tacolicious, the Bi-Rite Creamery and Delfina Pizzeria. There were quite a few cute local shops to browse in this district and it is not touristy at all.

My sister had some friends over for game night while we were there and baked up some pizzas we had gotten the ingredients for at Zachary’s Chicago Pizza (third trip, third time eating Zachary’s – what can we say, it’s that good!) One night we ventured over to Berkeley for some southern/Louisiana cuisine at Angeline’s Kitchen. We were a little wary of trying southern food in San Francisco, but we were very pleasantly surprised. I would highly recommend it to anyone planning a trip to the area. Another new experience for us was an Off the Grid meetup of food trucks!

Angeline’s Kitchen

Food Trucks at Off the Grid

Salted Caramel at Bi-Rite Creamery

We decided to revisit Sonoma since it has been over three years since our first time there. After checking some Yelp reviews, we ended up at a small winery’s tasting shop in downtown Sonoma instead of taking a tour. Westwood offers tastings of five wines that are slightly older than what we usually receive on tours. One of the appealing things about their tasting was that it offered a 2005 Pinot Noir. For a few years, we have been wanting to buy some wine from the year we were married to save and enjoy on milestone anniversaries. We knew it would be more fun to have a little back-story of how we got the wine than just pulling it off the shelf at the grocery store.

For two days, we went south to visit Monterey and Big Sur. Our first stop was Point Lobos Natural Preserve. This was a really nice park – we saw Sea Lions, Harbor Seals and Sea Otters, all playing in the water and resting on the rocks out in the ocean. We took a free guided tour that pointed out a lot of vegetation in the park – native and non-native. We also drove the 17 mile scenic drive at Pebble Beach.

The Monterey aquarium was wonderful – we enjoyed watching the feedings for the penguins, the open seas tank, and the sea otters (adorable!). Big Sur was our biggest disappointment. The park has very few signs posted to direct you to trails and attractions. Several of the bridges were out and ultimately we were unable to find the Gorge nor the Waterfall that we were looking for.

Point Lobos

17 mile drive

Big Sur

Secret Lives of Seahorses at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

A final stop on our trip was the Company Store at Cupertino. It is the only place to find Apple logo merchandise. In addition to shirts and other novelties for Bradley, we picked up a little souvenir for our niece!

Find info from our previous San Francisco adventures here:
Visit 1
Visit 2

Helpful Ideas Courtesy of Pinterest

February 8, 2012 in Pinteresting Things with 0 Comments

I have found some more useful ideas and websites courtesy of Pinterest.

An easy way to know if something you find while you are out shopping will work in a room of your house is made easier if you take popsicle sticks and dip the ends in your wall paint color. Clip them together on a metal ring and carry them in your purse for quick reference.

Martha demonstrates a creative way to store jewelry inside a cabinet door. A small dowel rod and plain s-hooks organize necklaces and bracelets behind the scenes.

Martha’s cute lemonade bottles are available in inexpensive bulk prices at this website.

The bows on these gifts reminded me of the long skinny scarves that I sometimes come across at Goodwill. Cute idea for future gift-giving!

Speaking of gifts, here is a tutorial for making peppermint lip balm:

*I try to always link the pictures in my posts to the original source. If you
would like to link to any source, simply click on the picture in my posts. If
you would like to pin a linked picture, please pin from the original source *

Pinteresting Stairwell Art

January 25, 2012 in My Projects, Pinteresting Things with 0 Comments

Last summer I came across this Pin from Decor Pad:

It immediately made me think of the large wall of our stairwell landing. I love this look and thought maybe someday I would enjoy doing something like this. Over time, I came across some fun prints that I thought could be used to make a memory wall of the places we have traveled. I wasn’t sure how they would look though compared to my orignal inspiration – which is all black and white photos.

To my surprise, I came across a photo this week on Houzz.com of this exact type of print in collage form in the home of an architectural photographer! This look strays from my normal style with so many different colors only being tied together with a similar theme. But I like it!

I still haven’t decided if it is something I should try. I feel like I have been working in some small variations of style into our home over the past year, but to do something on such a large scale is daunting. Not to mention, it would be a lot of work lining them up so perfectly and using a ladder is not my idea of a good time…

Orange Creams

January 21, 2012 in Inside our Home with 0 Comments

I first learned about “snake flowers” or Orange Creams last April when Bradley sent me a photo of a potted flower he came across at Sam’s Club. When he actually took interest in a flowering plant, I took notice! After researching it and consulting my mom, I felt like it would be a good candidate for indoor container gardening. I found an online source for the bulbs and placed it on our wishlist. Our wonderful sister-in-law gave me a pack of ten bulbs for Christmas!

Imagine my surprise when I realized that the bulbs needed to be planted at least 6″ apart. So I began keeping an eye out for small, inexpensive pots since one container large enough for all 10 bulbs was unrealistic. Target clearance rack to the rescue – the leftover Christmas Amaryllises came with small pots and soil! I got the bulbs potted up and they have been living on our dining room table for now. I noticed yesterday that a few of them have popped through the top of the soil! I can’t wait to see how they do!

Pinterest Wishes

January 11, 2012 in Pinteresting Things with 0 Comments

This week on Pinterest, I’ve gone a little overboard pinning things to my Dream Home Wishlist. I sometimes daydream about what our next house will be like – hopefully not a builder-grade box on a postage stamp lot like we currently have! Something with a little character (or at least suitable for adding character) and a bigger, more established piece of property. The two biggest desires I have are for a true 2-car garage and a basement.

This past week I have also been researching finishing details to try and figure out my likes/style when it comes to things like light fixtures. I have tried to be very frugal and not do much to our current home because I have always known it wouldn’t be forever. But to actually think about what I would use for real, for a lifetime – woo!

So what have I come up with…well a huge mishmash of styles and finishes. Geesh! I think there is a common thread, I just don’t know what it would be called.

In the silver family: