...hello, Cow Hollow!

... well, it has been 3 weeks and Jeff and I are getting settled into our new place. So far, so good! We really like it!!

... we recently moved from the South of Market area of San Francisco (SOMA) to the Cow Hollow area of San Francisco. Our new neighborhood is pretty residential, our place is a block away from the Presidio, and we are close to a bunch of great restaurants and shops. I am most especially excited that there is a Paper Source within walking distance!! Yippee!

... Our new place is a two bedroom old-school San Francisco apartment. I LOVE it! It is bright and airy and has tons of built in storage. I finally have a special place to display my china, and our everyday dishes look great in our glass front cabinets. We have beautiful hardwood floors and a great walk in closet. Our baby will have it's own room, and I can't wait to decorate it! We are still getting everything set up, but I have some pictures from our first weeks in the new place. Enjoy!

First of all, this is a Shreve Gurgling Fish Pitcher. It is a very traditional gift in New England. I happened to receive 2 for our wedding, and I have them proudly displayed on our built in hutch. Gotta have little touches of home here in SF!

A view of our bedroom... we are still settling in, so excuse the sparseness!

I have managed to get some of our framed pictures displayed. These are some of my favorites that are in our bedroom.

A view into our bedroom from our living/dining room. I LOVE the colors, the lightness, and the french doors.

Our built in hutch in the breakfast nook. I love it! It has a SURPRISING amount of storage, and I was able to get ALL my china, crystal, small appliances, serving plates, and various and sundry other kitchen items in this space. Plus I just love how clean and bright it is. (Note the gurgling fish pitchers on the right!)

Our everyday dishes, bowls and mugs found a home in the glass front cabinets. I love the way the green looks against the white. The picture does not do it justice.

And then there are the great details. You probably noticed the moulding on the walls and maybe even the dark wood border on the light wood floors. This moulding detail is one of two that is found on the archway into our kitchen. Beautiful!

And finally, I have to day welcome to our 12 new large everyday plates. They have found a home on our hutch. They replace our old 12 large everyday plates that were dropped by the movers (it was clearly an issue of poor packing. They were packed last and hastily. A box of china was dropped at the same time, and all items were in perfect condition when unpacked!). All 12 were broken. That was the only casualty of the move, and thank goodness! Aside from this mishap, the movers were fantastic. We would highly recommend them.

We are still settling in the other areas of the house, so I'll update when everything is picture ready!

Enjoy your weekend, I hope it is nice wherever you are. Here in SF it actually feels like a New England summer, sunny and warm, and even a little sweaty! :)

...goodbye, Loft...

... goodbye funky neighborhood, goodbye 15 minute walking commute, goodbye badly ventilated kitchen, goodbye freeway grime on my windowsills, goodbye train...

... my husband and I currently live in a loft in South of Market (SOMA). For those of you who know me, you know that I have a love/hate relationship with the loft. I love it because of the large kitchen (albeit badly ventilated!) it has and wonderful counter space. I love it because it is a cool space with lots of light. I love it because we have a spacious bedroom. I love it because we have a parking space. I love it because SOMA tends to be sunnier and warmer more often than other areas of San Francisco. I love it because we are 4 blocks from Giant's Stadium. I love it because of my fabulous 15 minute walking commute. Most of all I love it because this is where Jeff lived while we were dating, where I moved to while we were engaged. It is where I spent hours planning our wedding, and where we spent our first Christmas together. It is where we've hosted New Year's Eve parties with all of our friends, toasted other friend's engagements, celebrated special birthdays and hosted baby showers for others. From dinner parties to lazy Sundays eating eggs and toast at our kitchen counter, we've made a lot of memories here, and for these reasons, I will miss it.

... on the other hand, there are reasons why the loft is no longer a good fit for us. There are the everyday characteristics I "hate" (such a strong word!): the train that likes to blow it's whistle at 5:00am every morning waking me up, the same train that at 11:00 at night sits outside our window with the generators on while they do maintenance in the train yard. I severely dislike the grime that comes from the nearby freeway and covers my windowsills with a gritty gray dust that is IMPOSSIBLE to clean! It even gets on my beautiful white laptop, which now has a dingy aura to it. Not having a door to close to a private room while talking on the phone can get tiresome. I don't like having to huddle in the bathroom with the fan on to have a private conversation with my sister-in-law about her boyfriend (my husband would rather not know! Typical older brother!). It never gets TOTALLY dark at night while trying to sleep. Then, there are the 4 flights of stairs I have to walk up everyday at the end of a long day just to get to our place (although this has helped to keep me in shape, so I will now become a massive blob of flesh...). But aside from these everyday annoyances (which I've actually grown accustomed to and will probably miss in some weird way), the loft just isn't practical anymore. We are in need of another bedroom, and a place with doors to create a quite place for a little one to sleep. I can't continue to walk up those four flights of stairs over the next 4 months as I get bigger. It's just not the best place in which to welcome Baby T. So, we are off to begin a new chapter in our lives...

...therefore, today we are moving out of the loft. We are moving on to bigger and better things! Well, actually not that much bigger, but better and we have a whole extra bedroom to get furnished and ready to go. We are moving to a magical place in San Francisco called Cow Hollow, where there are trees on the street, and I have a backyard called the Presidio, and a front yard called Marina Green. There are shops and restaurants and people walking and general pleasantness! Although it is foggier over there and my commute is now 3 times as long, it is a great place in a beautiful part of the city, with no train and few stairs! We are putting the loft on the market, keep your fingers crossed for some generous offers! We will be in this place for a couple of years before we look at buying again... let the fun begin!

... so, Loft, I bid you farewell! Thank you for all the memories you have staged here for us, and for the great kitchen. Although I gripe about you, I WILL miss you...

... and to our new place: I'm so excited to arrive, and I can't wait to get to know you!

Happy Saturday, everyone!

Sarah

...teaser...

... A sneak peek of the latest wedding programs I have completed... a shot of the production...

... more to follow!

...Is there something in the water???

... I know about a zillion people who are pregnant! Maybe it's just my group of friends and my age, but I think maybe the recession is coming to an end and everyone is getting on with their lives, including making new ones?

... Anyway, I find this so wonderful, I love seeing friends happy and ready to start a family. In fact, one of my best friends has officially started her maternity leave! She is due at the end of May, and starting tomorrow, she is home until September.

... A few weeks back, a group of friends and I threw this friend, Roxanne, and her husband a co-ed baby shower. It was a lot of fun. It was in the evening, and we had such delicious food and cocktails (and "mock-tails" for the mom to be!) and of course, great company. It was a great evening and a fun event. Even the guys were into it! I think they were just relieved that there were no poop-y diaper games or measure-the-belly with toilet paper activities.

... As my contribution to the party, I agreed to make the invitations. I really, really, really had a lot of fun making them. Roxanne really liked the idea of a "Sweet Pea" theme. I had been dying to use some of my round cards, so I took the opportunity and ran with it! Two different shades of green, along with a whimsical yellow polka dotted paper lining the enveloped sure enough created the desired effect. It was lucky that I got a die-cutter for Christmas, as it allowed me to create the small peas for the pod, as well as the round white piece for the party information. This as another work created by layering pieces together to get the final result. Take a look!

Congratulations to Roxanne and Douglas, I can't wait to meet Baby Franco!

...Programs and Favors and Cards, OH MY! Part 2!

... some photos of the First Communion work that I did. I layered a pretty Japanese flower blossom paper over a card, then layered another pink card on top. The cross is hand cut using the Japanese paper and shimmer white cardstock.

... The favor tags incorporate the Japanese flower blossom paper and are attached to a white toile bag of candies.

Congratulations, Emily!

Programs and Favors and Cards, OH MY!

Hello everyone! Hope you are enjoying this beautiful time of year that is the early spring! It is one of my favorite times of the year, I love to get outside and enjoy it!

Just checking in to say hello and let you all know that I have not fallen off the face of the Earth!

I have been keeping my self busy these days with a number of projects. As I mentioned in my last email, aside from the wedding stationary that I featured, I have been working on some programs for the San Francisco Chi Omega Eleusinia luncheon. I just finished those up at the end of last week and sent them off to the event. I was unable to attend the event, so I hope it was a success, and I hope everyone followed along easily with the aid of their handmade programs! I hope to have pictures soon.

I'd like to give a HUGE shout out to my sister-in-law and friend Courtney, who not only provided beautiful assistance on this project, but unfortunately suffered a badly sprained ankle in the process. I mean, what says dedication more than twisting your ankle while running to the car to get to your sister-in-law's house to help punch holes in paper? Nothing, in my book. I just hope the Chinese food we got for dinner was an acceptable token of gratitude! :)

I am also currently working on some favors for a college friend. Her daughter is about to make her First Communion on May 7th! I designed the invitations to the First Communion and was then asked to help out with the favors that will be given out at the party following the ceremony. Again, I will have pictures soon, and I want to say, "Congratulations Emily!"

Wedding season is in full swing, and I can't be more excited! I loved planning my wedding, and threaten my husband with huge anniversary bashes just so I have another great event to plan! I think for now, that will have to wait for a significant anniversary, but until then, I am happily helping others make their days special. I am very excited about a project I am working on right now. I am creating programs for a wedding that will take place in Fresno in May. The bride had some GREAT ideas, and we came up with something so simple but so beautiful, that I cannot WAIT to produce all of them! Amanda, your wedding is going to be fabulous!

Whew! It's projects galore around the Tarantino household, and life continues to swirl all around that! We have been traveling, working, and apartment hunting in the past few weeks and life has been hectic! But, we are very excited to move to a beautiful new apartment, one that has lots of storage to keep all my papers and bags and fun stuff!

I will post pictures of my latest projects in the next few days, and as always, if you need any help with a special event, just let me know! I do stationary (cards, invitations, programs, etc) and custom gifts (bridal shower favors, baby shower favors, out of town wedding guest gifts, etc.)

Happy Spring, everyone!

a-LO-haaaaaa!

...well, you might be wondering where I've been for so long! Well, before you get the wrong idea, I haven't been on vacation for this whole time, but I HAVE been busy, and I DID just get back from a fabulous little trip to Hawaii for a friend's wedding.

... I also have been extremely busy with a plethora of projects lately. I just finished some invitations for a friend's daughter's First Communion, some favors for a bridal shower, and programs for the San Francisco Eleusinia. But, the thing that has been keeping me really busy for the past few months is working on the stationary for this fabulous wedding we just went to in Hawaii! I've had so much fun working on this project, and I was very pleased with the way everything turned out.

... Kina and Zach live on Oahu. Kina grew up in Oregon, but is half Hawaiian and moved back to Hawaii after business school. Zach was born and raised on Maui. Since they live on Oahu and most of their families are still on Oahu or Maui, Kina and Zach decided to have a very Hawaiian style wedding on the island of Oahu, in an area called Waimanaolo. The wedding overlooked the ocean, and the breezes were just right. The tables were adorned with plumeria and lauae leaves. It was beautiful.

... The Lauae leaf was the theme that ran through the stationary for the wedding. I used it in the invitations, along with lines of a Hawaiian song about Waimanolo. We then brought it into the programs, table names, seating cards, and tags for the favors. Below are some pictures of the event.

... the invitations...

... response cards...

... programs...

... seating cards...

... table names...

 

... the room all set up...

... Kina and Zach saying their vows...

... in BEAUTIFUL Waimanolo...

Mahalo to Kina and Zach for introducing me to the beauty of a Hawaiian wedding, and until next time...

... ALOHA!!