four on friday.

ah, finally. it's friday. time to shut down the work computer, finish up my homework and curl up with "grey's anatomy."

or not.

sadly, it's now the end of my san francisco week on the blog, and friday officially waves good-bye to the rest of my sanity. the best friend and i will be moving out of our sweet little apartment later this week, which is so sad/hard. it was wonderful to have time with just the two of us, and i am going to miss our pizza nights/movie mornings. ah, well. onto the next thing, i suppose.

are you doing anything fun this weekend? i bet it beats goodwill runs and packing boxes... ;)

 {dusky twilight}

 {sneaky mirror photos at this neat restaurant}

{ghirardelli hot cocoa for the chilly ferry ride home}

let them eat... italian pastries.

north beach is a small district in san francisco that is recognized by it's italian heritage, marked by small flags on every light pole. it runs mainly along columbus avenue, which you can see here. this is where you'll find city lights books from this post, the yummy piazza pellegrini, and about a million tiny pastry shops. after running from the crowds of tourists around pier 39 and fisherman's wharf {overrated}, the best friend and i caught sight of oh so many pretty pastries in the window.

after drooling for a {very} short time, we decided both of us were simply ravenous and only a cannoli and scoop of spumoni gelato would do. i wish i could remember the name of this place, because it really was fantastic! if you visit north beach before i do, be sure to let me know! ;)

i might have a teensy bit of a sweet tooth, so italian delicacies really make me nice and happy. especially spumoni. it reminds me of my grandpa, who made his italian roots very clear with consistent trips to his favorite local italian resaurant {which is now closed :( } both he and my grandma were regulars for many, many years. maybe the love for carbs/spumoni rubbed off a bit on me, too.

the poetry room.

 

one of my favorite places to go in the city {san francisco} is city lights books. it's an independent bookstore that consists of three stories of eclectic, sometimes downright crazy bits and pieces of the written word. located on columbus avenue in the heart of north beach, you'll be able to grab a yummy cannoli down the street in a hidden italian pastry shop and browse hundreds of books in a creaky, extremely satisfying store.

i first visited when i was eighteen, as my feet will show you.

you can tell by the converse {which i still own/love} that i had just recently graduated high school. this past visit, i thought it was about time to change up the photo. i'm sure you can tell i've changed a bit.

i'll always love this little piece of north beach literary heaven. my eighteen-year-old self, as well as my twenty-year-self, tells you to GO. and take a picture with my favorite poetry room sign. it makes for a neat picture, if i do say so myself ;)

visiting seattle grace.

you all are going to laugh at these photographs, and i am sorry. but this was just so exciting! how do you NOT blog about a visit to seattle grace, of "grey's anatomy" fame? even though it is only in LA, not seattle...and closed on the weekends. it's the sepulveda ambulatory center, and it's fairly far north of the city in {wait for it} north hills.

i'm not crazy about going to movie sets or anything, and i don't stalk hollywood boulevard for all those premieres that go on and on and on. since i do have to plan around oscar/emmy traffic, however, i think it's okay to have my fill of the entertainment industry every once in awhile. here are a couple of pictures from this pretty little hospital on the hill, i hope my other "grey's anatomy" fans are with me when i say that this made for an incredible saturday morning.

i think you all know what i will be doing thursday night.

{remember these benches?

 {an alzheimer's clinic? this might have made me very happy because of this}

solvang.

last week, i was serving at church in the children's worship band, when one of our members came in with little donut-hole shaped pastries with powdered sugar and jam. he called them...aebleskivers.

funny word, hey? i thought so too.

he said they're what the little town of solvang is known for, and due to the fact i hadn't been there, i needed to go. solvang is a tiny town about a half an hour outside of santa barbara, and it serves as a little piece of denmark in california. there are quite a few tiny shops filled with yummy, calorie-laden pastries and pretty buildings that look like they're straight out of a storybook.

we got to try the aebleskiver pastry here, and walk around on streets where fall leaves were already rustling on the ground. there were statues and book rooms dedicated to hans christian andersen, people who smiled and waved and shops that smelled sweet with homemade soaps and perfumes. it was such a sweet saturday, one filled with winding roads and lots of laughter. there's nothing like driving along highway 1, and enjoying the beauty of the ocean and the oak and pine trees in the mountains on the same day.

have you been to solvang? or am i missing out on another hidden gem in this gorgeous state?

too many plans.

so...i went to work on my second, "make it your own" post. but then i realized that best friend had sorted laundry all over the floor, my closet was a mess and the trash was still in it's place. i don't think you want to see that ;) i'll be posting the next in my little baby series next monday, when my home is once again clean and photo worthy! for now, i've made this space my own with some clutter. great.

instead, i decided to do a blurb on san francisco. i'm headed back next week to spend some time with my grandma {shh! she doesn't know yet!}, and to spend some time in that gorgeous city by the bay. i've always loved it, and my heart catches when i see the bay bridge, think of powell street or the embarcadero. i'm sad that i live so far away now, but it's neat to know that there are so many other cities out there to explore.

i first visited when i was four months old, which was fitting, because i would be a bay area kid for roughly ten more years. after we moved {and i moved out}, i started making trips. it wasn't very far, and the theaters called my name. i ate lunch under the golden gate, and walked crissy field. i was introduced to amazing street vendors and tumbled my way down the filbert steps of telegraph hill. tip number one? throw away your map. i found these stairs by accident ;)

i've run up and down the hallways of city hall, toured a million coffee shops and had the best pizza in the richmond district. my camera fairly exploded with pictures of the golden gate, and i've lost myself quite a few times up and around all of those crazy hills {in a stick shift, no less}. san francisco was the place where i went to clear my head in college, and after the move to LA, where i took those who had never been. somehow, it never gets old. it's a place that's different every time you go.

what about all you lovely people out there? i left my heart in san francisco, but where have you left yours?

 {go here.}

 {bring your walkin' shoes.}

 {don't be afraid of the parking}

{change your life here}

i can't take photos.

you probably think i'm kidding with my post title. well, rest assured. i'm not. i am not a trained photographer, or even slightly gifted in that area, so you're going to see quite a few amateur photos/posts. my best friend on the other hand? is pretty much a natural. ah, so frustrating! ;) as you know from this post, i was recently looking into a camera investment.

well. it has been done. 

i feel like a proud mom with my big, seemingly professional camera. it's name is canon rebel t3i and i'm oh so very in love. i bought it on a saturday {on sale!} and snapped dorky pictures of food/jewelry/painted nails for the rest of the night. the best friend and i headed out to a bridge by our apartment on a sunday afternoon {forgive the lighting} and snapped a couple of crystal clear photographs in the fading sunlight. we're a little goofy, but until i take my photography crash course in october? 

this sweet family addition is going to be busy being silly. 

sprinkles.

have you made a trip out to beverly hills lately? if not, then i highly recommend it. once you push past the tourists ogling the rodeo drive sign, you can make your way to the line of people that stretches down santa monica boulevard. they wait for good reason.

sprinkles cupcakes is considered the, 'first cupcakery,' and caters to us LA people who have a sneaky sweet tooth. the bakery has since gone gone nationwide with beverly hills as the flagship store, which...just recently opened up an ice cream parlor, as well.

um, yes please.

the ice creams are extremely flavorful {try them first!} and intense, while the team puts together a 'cupcake sundae' that pretty much became my lunch/dinner. it was just as full of decadent goodness and calories as you may imagine. but it was oh-so yummy.

the store switches out ice cream and cupcake flavors daily, so you don't have to worry about this being any old cupcakery. instead, you can look forward to chai or dark chocolate or coconut...it just depends on the day of the week. make sure to pick up a calendar before you leave! {we promise. you will be back.}

**we got a dark chocolate cupcake with mint ice cream. what kind of sundae are you going to create?

 {ice cream recipe}

{love the fun layout!}

 {a sundae from heaven.}

{sharing}

{it didn't last long..}