REJUVENATION

I love visiting my daughter in San Francisco.

 What KC and I do together is SHOP.

We stopped on Fourth Street in Berkeley before heading into the city on Saturday.

We found a new store - REJUVENATION

and were lured into the store by these signs.

EVERYTHING in the store was great.

It is a good thing I was flying and was traveling only with a backpack - no luggage to stuff full of fun finds.

An old camp ground table beautifully aged reminded me family vacations.

Oh, those jadeite dishes!

And, hanging lamps - perhaps the yellow over my dining room table.

A bottle rack filled with old bottles made into drinking glasses.

Beakers wired together, old tools, vintage stamps.

Vintage baskets full of twine spools, stools and another table aged to perfection.

An oversized ice cream and rusty old fencing for my garden.

Industrial carts and tables filled with vintage odds and ends.


I could spend a fortune in Rejuvenation.

I do not have a fortune and I don't have space.

I settled for a funny little metal bottle opener that looks like a ruler.

KC does not possess a fortune either.

She does have the space.

She chose one of the glasses made from old pop bottles, the CHEERS sign and a red book

and kept her fortune by allowing me to pay.

When I got home, Steve showed me some old rusty metal that we will be rejuvenating.

That's a project for this weekend - can't wait!

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I am partying at

Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson - Share Your Cup Thursday

Ivy and Elephants - What's It Wednesday

Savvy Southern Style - WOW Us Wednesday

Mother's Day Came Early

KC loves living in San Francisco.

But, she wishes that we lived closer.

Most of her friends have family close enough to visit on the weekends, but it is a 6 hour drive for her to visit us.

This year, she bought me a ticket to fly to San Francisco for a "mother-daughter" day.

I had to leave my house a 5:00 a.m. - which came early after a long week at school.

I had a 7:00 a.m. flight and was in her car and headed into the city by 8:15.

In our zeal to share everything that has been happening to both of us lately, we missed the turn off for the Bay Bridge and ended up in Berkeley.

We decided to get breakfast on Fourth Street and look at all the fun shops, but it was too early and only a little coffee spot was open.

I really wanted to check out the stores on Fourth Street, but that will be another trip.

We ended up just picking up muffins and heading into San Francisco.

KC was in Miami last weekend for a bachelorette,  had a "rah rah" inspirational 3 day training this week at work and was exhausted.

She texted me yesterday and said, change of plans - wear yoga pants and running shoes

She was dog sitting this sweetie for the weekend 

and said instead of a day long shopping spree, we were going to get some exercise.

We did a six mile walk from her apartment to Fort Point underneath the Golden Gate Bridge.

It was wonderful to walk, talk and have KC all to myself.

We ate lunch at a little outdoor restaurant on Chestnut Street and then looked for the "clock" store.

I saw this display in a storefront on Union Street on our last visit to San Francisco, but the store was closed.

Today,  the store was open, but the red clock faces were sold.

The owner said another red oval is on order, should be in soon, and amazingly is in my price range!

KC promises to keep an eye out for it and keep it for me until our next visit.

As we walked, we passed the amazing houses of San Francisco and I snapped photos of doors and gates that caught my eye.

      

 

 I love that in the city, people carve out gardens in the tiniest spaces.

The original plan was a shopping spree for KC's birthday to buy some clothes for a very special week in the Hamptons in June.

A dear friend is getting married and there is a series of events scheduled.

We unwisely chose to shop downtown at Bloomingdales - as did every other person visiting and/or living in the city at this time.

What a zoo!

We found 2 darling dresses at Bloomingdales and still had a little time to spend before I had to leave.

I managed to find

orange pants and beads at J.Crew and polka dot shirt at Madewell.

At my favorite shop - Anthropologie - all I found were these cute paper clips.

I arrived at 8:15 a.m. and by 4:00 p.m.  I was on a train back to the Oakland airport.

I was back home by 8:00 p.m. and Steve whisked me off to The Cave for dinner.

Mother's Day might be tomorrow, but I had a pretty special day today!

A Road Trip - Short & Sweet

We left home yesterday at 12:30 p.m. and returned at 5:30 p.m. today.

We made a quick run (6 hours each way) to San Francisco for the night.

KC had asked for some of the furniture we kept in the attic.

Yesterday morning we gathered together all the requested items:

 a blue trunk (which until this week was pink and full of JP's old baseball cards) sitting in the attic

 a little drop leaf table - an old family piece that I love, but just don't have space for

a wine rack

a sailboat which Steve bought at a maritime museum that was selling off all their boats

her old Doc Martens

a beautiful cherry wood rocker that I forgot to photograph

and some odds and ends

We can never just leave the house when we go away because we always hire a sitter to stay with Dorje.

 I have to change the linens, dust and vacuum.

We arrived in San Francisco at 6:30 and only had time to change because KC had made dinner reservations at Maverick.

We caught a cab and left Cow Hollow for a delicious meal in a warm and friendly environment in the Mission.

KC chose the restaurant because she thought the menu fit Steve's style of cooking.

He got some good ideas for fixing rabbit and lamb.

After dinner we walked to Bi-Rite for ice cream (didn't need it, but yum!)

The evening was surprisingly warm - we all wore sweaters and left our coats behind.

We awoke this morning to the sound of rain and heavy wind.

Our plans for a walk to the marina were altered so we did our usual and ate across the street from KC's apartment at Rose's Cafe.

When we were pulling out of our drive, my neighbor, Judy, asked me to bring her a loaf of sourdough bread so I picked this up for her at Rose's after breakfast.

KC lives above 

on the third floor of this building

with great bay windows.

I discovered this little shop next door

and thought I would like to check out the red table

and the white quilt with red, yellow & blue, but the store wasn't open.

That is why the pictures show reflections of cars - I had to take them through the window.

I asked KC if she ever went into the shop.

Her comment was, "I can't figure out what she sells.  It would be like you putting all the things in your house out to sell!"

That must be why I was drawn to the little shop.

I got these photos as we walked for our cab last night, but I took them through windows so they didn't turn out great.

I can't wait to go for my annual Mother's Day visit with KC to look in this shop.

I love all the interesting doors, windows and awnings in San Francisco.

If we had not been on our way to dinner I would have picked up some flowers for KC.

After breakfast, in the rain, we took all the furniture and odd bits out of the car and ran them upstairs to KC's apartment.

Then we headed off to Sports Basement to find ski overalls for Steve for our upcoming ski trip .

We drove through the Presidio and this was our view when we pulled into the parking lot of Sports Basement.

It was a gloomy, rainy day, but the Golden Gate Bridge is still a beautiful sight.

I got a few pics of KC's place and then it was time to leave- we were parked in a 10 minute space!

It doesn't really show, but her apartment has 10 foot ceilings with the most beautiful molding.

This is the ceiling molding in her bedroom.

She just picked up the 17th St. sign at an antique shop on Union Street.

The lighting wasn't great, but I just love her bay window.

She put the drop leaf table at the side of the chair for now until she figures out where all of her new pieces will work best.

My last view as we walked to the car was of the lovely San Francisco architecture.

Quintessential San Francisco - bay windows,

flowers in bloom on the street,

and colorfully painted buildings.

We are home for a total of 36 hours until we take off again - this time for skiing in the Sierras.

Thank goodness for spring break!