a visit to ye olde Curiosity Shoppe

Yesterday I had one of those "I love my job so much" days, where I HAD to drive in to SF on this gorgeous Spring day, I HAD to meet two awesome women for lunch to talk about a super fun wedding over delicious Mexican food, I HAD to wander around the beautiful SF Ferry Building Marketplace on one of the most gorgeous days of the year, I HAD to drive around one of my favorite cities to visit a rad friend I haven't seen in years, etc etc... You get the idea.



I know, poor me! : )


I got to talk with Meeghan and her sister about her wedding and it was one of those meetings where I would catch myself thinking, "am I talking to much? This is so fun that I just can't seem to shut up!". They were great lunch dates, and I am so excited to return to the Outdoor Art Club for Meeghan's fall wedding! It's always a treat for me to work with couples who grew up in the North Bay, too.




If you haven't been to the Ferry Building, I can't recommend it highly enough. I love taking the ferry over from Marin and snacking on the marketplace's artisan breads, cheese, chocolates, meats, produce, olives, caviar, wine, pastries... Heavenly.

Yesterday I tried one of Mijita's delicious Quesadilla Mijita, and a Lime-Cucumber aqua fresca. It was... interesting. It tasted mostly like pickles but in a really unique, refreshing way. Still, a whole cup of it was a bit much.



After our meeting, I drove over to Bernal Heights to visit with my friend Lauren of
the Curiosity Shoppe. I called her spontaneously to say, "hey, I'm in SF and haven't seen you since your wedding in 2004 - what are you doing today?". She said, "it's my birthday!", so of course I had a fabulous excuse to buy cupcakes from Miette. Yum!















(by the way, Lauren, I forgot to tell you - on the way over, I heard on the radio, "If you're celebrating your birthday today, you share it with Janet Jackson". How exciting!)

It was lovely to catch up. She let me photograph the cupcakes to my heart's content before we dove into them. The one that kind of looks like a boob had a marshmallow frosting that was actually yummy (not gross like marshmallow can be), and the "nipple" was not a red hot as suspected - leading me to say for probably the only time in my life, "if you can believe it, the nipple was a Boston Baked Bean!".













Lauren is the big sister of my family's family friends (did that make sense) going back to when I was teeny tiny. Her younger sister is near my age and my older sister was in the same class as Lauren, so I always looked up to her as a big sister. I remember being about 9 and Lauren saying, "check out this cool new video on MTV!" (hey, it was the 90s). She's always been the coolest big sister-type.





Anyway, she and her awesome husband recently opened their online store, The Curiosity Shoppe. The best part is that I've had several friends email me the link, like, "check out this awesome shop I found!" and I get to say, "they're my friends, I know! It's great!"

These photos are just of the office, since their store exists only online:





And, really, it is great. They have the coolest stuff! I tried to narrow down my favorites (still quite a few):

Ceramic Party Cups

Acorn and Leaf Necklace

Porcelain Log Vase

Countertop service Bell

Winging It Notecards (don't be surprised if you get one of these from me!

this gorgeous Antique Crown - please get more, I need it for, um, a prop, yeah, that's it...

Mechanical Music Box kit - write your own music for a music box...

Pinhole Camera Kit

Sunprint Kit (remember these from elementary school?

Matchstick Garden

Okay, I've gotta leave a little room for you to explore, but, seriously, check out the shoppe! It's so fun.

They also have a great blog at http://smartsandcrafts.com/.

Thanks again, Lauren: