Oh the Cuteness!

How-Tuesday time! This week I have a fun camping dessert, a cute bag to sew, and a site full of photography tips. These campfire hobo eclairs look fun and delicious! Learn to make them here .  This super cute tote bag is a free pattern on an adorable blog! Check it out here.   This site has tons of photography tutorials for all levels of people. Go try it out here.

I adore classic cars. My first car was an all-original 1965 Thunderbird and she was a beauty. It's a shame they're so expensive to keep up and drive, but the moment I can afford one again I'll use it as a weekend car. Paso Robles has an amazing cruise night and classic car show every year on Labor Day weekend, and when I happen to be in town for it I head downtown to the park with my dad. He used to restore classic cars when I was a kid and has an encyclopedic knowledge of them all, and I love hearing all the cool little things he knows about these beauties. I snapped these photos at the last event and they're finally processed so I thought I'd show them. There's a ton more on my flickr, here . And if anyone out there is interested in purchasing prints of these I'd be happy to oblige, just send me a message!

Hi all! I'm spending the week in Tahoe on a Woodcut Maps work retreat, so I thought I'd share the photos I took of the new workshop kitten when my bosses first found her as filler and also because she is the best little kitten ever! Oh Bandit, how I love thee. These were taken when Cat and Gabe first got her from a friend who found her on the street. She's big, fat, happy, and healthy now, and the most loving kitten I've ever met. I think she knows how lucky she is to have a good home now and is super thankful for it.

This is a little flash-back to the summer, but I really wanted to post it and spread the word about my favorite food festival, the Eat Real Fest in Oakland. It's in Jack London Square every summer and has never failed to impress me. Johnny and I went and were able to try nearly everything that sounded good, and we managed to photograph each thing too. So presented here, for your foodie pleasure, is a microsampling of the best food festival around. Pickles from Forage SF. Fermented goodness!  Chow Fun Spring Rolls from Rice Paper Scissors. Spicy and amazing! Steamed buns from Chairman Bao. Coca-Cola pork and Spicy Chicken.  Egg and bacon grilled cheese from S+S Gastropub. Nom. Beef empenadas from El Porteno. Best pastry. Yerba Mate' infused colas from Taylor's Tonics. Amazing flavors!  Gelatin flowers from Sweets Collection. That is made from Jello?! Whole roast pig from Chop Bar. Dear God yes. Grilled cheese from The Grille...

Well, the holidays kicked my butt yet again this year but they were, as always, completely amazing. I had tons of work to do between  WSPS  and  WCM  this year, as well as getting ready for the  RAC's  holiday fair (which went REALLY well, photos to come), hence the posting drought. But, as part of my new year's resolution I'm going to focus more on my own business and crafting, as well as a huge project I've had in the works since last year, and as part of that I'm continuing to play catchup on here. Anywho, on to the holiday at hand: Thanksgiving! As some of you may know I host a Thanksgiving dinner every year and invite all my friends who can't make it home to visit their families. I started it 3 years ago when my parents decided they didn't feel like celebrating it anymore.  The original had 7 people ,  then there were 12 , and this year there were 18 in all! It was so big I couldn't host it at my place anymore, but my best frien...

In the first part of this post I told you all about the good times and creepy fun I had exploring the abandoned amusement park next door to our campground. Little did I know that when I returned to the campground Vanessa would have yet another surprise for me. She said there was a neighborhood of abandoned houses just outside the campground, and we should go check it out. *Swoon* I couldn't get out there fast enough! And they literally were right next door. We had to climb over a tiny fence to get into the neighborhood, and I couldn't believe what I saw. About a dozen houses, all in various states of decay. Their styles and colors and the objects strewn about placed them as being built in the 1960's. Some were nearly perfectly intact on the outside, while others were flattened. It almost looked like the whole group had slid down the hill in a weather-related catastrophe, and that's the only theory we have going because I couldn't seem to find any information on t...

Probably my favorite adventure/party of the summer was my friend Glen's birthday camping trip. Every year since he was pretty young he's been going to a strange little independently operated campground near Guerneville on the Russian River called Camp Outback . This place is magical for so many reasons. We got a huge campsite with a ton of people, I got to rent some amazing camping equipment for free, we stayed up all night playing games around the campfire, and we spent the entire second day kayaking on the river. Could it get any better? Turns out, yes. I don't know if too many people know this about me (Hello, internet!), but I've always wanted to be an urban explorer, and I love photographing abandoned buildings. But I've never been brave enough to go traipsing around private property, and finding abandoned spaces that are open to the public is pretty rare. But not at Camp Outback. After we got back from the river we got to go explore the abandoned amusemen...

The Plaid Barn, a really cool closeout craft supply daily deal company, is giving away a Fuji Instax with 5 rolls of film! I entered, so wish me luck, and if you want to enter too here's the link:  http://www.theplaidbarn.com/giveaway/ The giveaway ends August 10th so do it soon!

Here in Oakland we have a monthly event downtown we all affectionately call First Friday. It's when all the galleries are open late to debut the new collections, and over the years it has become quite the place to be, especially for hipsters. We like to go for the people-watching as much as the art. Parking is a pain so we decided to ride down instead, and we were invited to my favorite local bar for happy hour beforehand by my dear friend Vanessa ... Needless to say we never made it downtown. We spent the whole evening at the Heart & Dagger Saloon , munching on goodies form the nearby restaurants and having a super goofy time. Dennis always makes me laugh so hard when he takes my photo. Actually, he always cracks me up. Anywho, this is one of my favorite outfits. I tried doing my hair up, but it just wasn't working so I let it be. The dress is old from Target, the belt was on sale at Urban Outfitters for three bucks, the scarf and sweater are from my mom, as well as...