HAPPY WEEKEND

the weather is supposed to be hot this weekend. i hope everyone lathers up on sunscreen and enjoys the sun. have a great one!

as for me, it's my weekend to work. darn you nurse job! oh well, someone's gotta take care of those sick kids. i'll leave you with a photo i took on a hike/run this week. can u believe i live less than 10 minutes from this place?!?

disclosure: it's usually foggy here. but on that day it was glorious!
i got the tan lines to prove it.

Neapolitan Pizza Challenge. Gialina.

what is it with carbs that make it so darn filling?? i am stuffed. this challenge is going to be the death of me.

ok, back to gialina pizzeria. first off, we ordered it to go (NBA finals people!). our picks were the margherita + pepperoni, yukon gold potatoes with bacon, red onions, thyme & gorgonzola, and the chocolate hazelnut dessert pizza. J and i both liked it. in our opinion it was better than zero zero. the pizzas were light, even the one with the potatoes. the crust was thin and tasty, but not soggy, which i prefer. my only qualm was that while the crust was not burned on the margherita pizza, the cheese was over done. it almost dissipated into the crust. as for the dessert pizza, one cannot go wrong with dough, nutella, and sweet cream. now that was heavy, but oh so deliciously decadent! i think it's time for pictures.

see what i mean about the cheese?

you can barely see the potatoes, but they're there!!
this one did not have sauce, but i
couldn't resist potatoes and bacon...could you?

nuff said. period.

once again, as a caveat, i chose the restaurants based on yelp. each contestant had to have >500 reviews and at least 4 stars.

Gialina Score according to J and I

on a scale of 1-5, 5 being exceptional

crust: 3 (could be too thin for some folks)

sauce: 3 (just a hint of spice. nice saltiness and herbaceousness)

cheese: 1 (disappeared into the crust!) 

freshness of toppings: 4 (menu is seasonal)

SF experience: 3 (glen park/diamond heights area. great SF neighborhood feel.)

total score: 14

p.s.

next up: delfina, tony's, tommaso, pizetta 211, gialina, and berretta, zero zero, pizza hacker.


p.p.s
i meant to add pizza hacker to the other post.

Bob. You know, the haircut.

my hair is stick straight. it's nearly impossible to curl, let alone have the curls stay curly. so, after some internet research, i decided to get a digital perm from star east hair and beauty. and so began the love affair with digitally permed hair, which occurred twice a year for 2 years. after those awesome 2 years of having perfectly wavy hair, my hair felt alarmingly a little thinner! so, after a frantically frenzied deliberation within myself i came up with the solution of cutting all of my damaged hair off. i bit the bullet and got a bob cut. surprisingly, i really loved it...and so did everyone else, apparently. literally i would be talking to someone and they would interrupt me to tell me how much they loved my hair. go figure?! here were some inspirational pics that i pinned on pinterst. all pics were taken from google images.

this one's my favorite

i also really loved this one

and here's another front shot

not that you care, but i have decided to grow out my hair. this post is more of a reminder for me to not cut it when it gets to that "in-between" stage that is just hideous. i'm hoping my hair will look more like...

this...

or this...

or even this!

but alas, i'm no heidi klum or jennifer anniston. so my hair will probably be up in a ponytail looking more like a nubin, being held together with a ton of bobby pins.

here are 3 of the best hairstylists in the bay that just 'do the bob (no pun intended...lol) so well: joanne encarnacion (she's a genius, but doesn't cut hair anymore), daisy barajas @ shampoo dolls), and ivette @ rain salon.

have you cut your hair really short and then decided to grow it out? i'd love to hear about some ways to get me through that "in-between" stage.

On waiting.

i wonder how much of our time is wasted on waiting? waiting for my shift to be done. waiting for my food to be cooked. waiting for J to get home. waiting for class to be over. waiting, waiting, waiting...

it's that TIME. you know the TIME. i'm just waiting...and i really hate waiting.

on a much happier note, congrats Matt Cain on pitching a perfect game!

From pinstagram.co

4 Grandchildren. 5 Dogs. 1 Lifetime.

2 of my friends and i met at hoover park in palo alto late this morning for a dog play date. all of our dogs, hunter, kirby, bubba, and joey were playing together and mingling with the other dogs while us girls were talking and mingling with the other dog owners. the owner of the cute golden retriever, jess, was ready to leave and as he was saying goodbye he said something that stuck..."i have 4 grandchildren and have had 5 dogs in my life. and it has gone by like a blink of an eye. so treasure every moment." wow, deep for 11am!

his profound, yet simple statement made me think about this blog. i'm hoping to faithfully document my life and thoughts so that i will be able to go back and remember, remember what i was feeling on this day...on that day...so that when it hits me, that life has indeed gone by like a blink of an eye, i'll be able to go through this dear 'ol blog and remember.

and now for some pictures!

hunter and kirby. don't let hunter's size fool you. he's the sweetest
rot, i swear! plus he loves joey. 

kirby the corgi

it's so hard getting these dogs to stay still for pictures. hmmm...i wonder if
toddlers are just as difficult?

Neapolitan Pizza Challenge: Zero Zero

i, unexpectedly, got a day off the other day. J (hubs) was off too so we decided to take advantage of it and go out on an afternoon date. movie and dinner it was. we watched think like a man. coming from a gal that is a huge fan of black cinema, particularly Tyler Perry movies (why did i get married, why did i get married too, diary of a mad black woman,  daddy's little girls, etc) this movie didn't do it for me. i was expecting it to be piss-in-my-pants funny, but it fell short. at least i was able to see gabrielle union and meagan good =)

let me get back to the main point of this post. after the movie i was talking about this blog and how excited i was about finally getting the courage to start it. after my ramblings, we both agreed that we were hungry and the idea to start a food challenge dawned on me. i'm not claiming to be original, or being close to anything cool like that, but i thought it would be (a) fun to write about and (b) give J and I an excuse to go out to eat. so with that new exciting purpose we headed back to SF and decided on zero zero. luckily, we got really close parking AND there wasn't a wait. so we sauntered right in and got a table. we ordered their arancini appetizer and their field greens salad. J is a meat man so we decided on the castro pizza.

as a caveat, i chose the restautants based on yelp. each contestant had to have >500 reviews and at least 4 stars.

Zero Zero Score according to J and I

on a scale of 1-5, 5 being exceptional

crust: 1 (it was soggy people!)

sauce: 2 (needs more flavor)

cheese: 3

freshness of toppings: 4 (menu is organic and seasonal)

SF experience: 3 (close to freeway, in SOMA, fresh ingredients, nice atmosphere)

total score: 13

p.s.

next up: delfina, tony's, tommaso, pizetta 211, gialina, and berretta.



Gosh, i love stripes.

anyone who knows me, knows that i am a obssessed with stripes. i seriously could wear a striped shirt every single day. i just think it instantly brightens an outfit, making it more chic and glamourus without being over-the-top. stripes are timeless, just ask the parisians! here are a few pictures that show why stripes are just darn right absolutely perfect.

From wellanddapper.tumblr.com

From peacockfeatherevents.blogspot.com

From theglitterguide.com

witanddelight

...and little 'ol me. Pardon the bare feet. No shoes are allowed in my house (it's an asian thing).

Accent Pieces. Part 2.

let's continue, shall we? i was a bit obsessed with pillows when we first moved in. luckily our old couch fit right in in our new space, but it needed a bit of sprucing up. i had always admired the pillows at crate and barrel, CB2, and z gallerie, but my wallet couldn't stand the price. i mean, really, $50 for 1 pillow?! so i searched good 'ol etsy and ikea and found a few sellers that made awesome decorative pillow covers, like decorate23 and fabricjunkie1640.  a little tip, sometimes the sellers have deals during the holidays, so take advantage. i know i did! i scored the actual pillows at Joann's for dirt cheap. tell me whatchathink =)

one thing that was important to me was that the covers needed to be washable.
after all, i do have 2 dogs that are allowed to hang out on the couch.

i adore the orange border with the grey trellis design. one of these days, i plan to use this pillow
as an inspiration to decorate a room.  but for now, it's on a chair in the guest room.

i loved the green (one of my favorite colors) and i thought the animal print was cool.

here are a few table top accent pieces that caught my eye, so i had to buy them.

this glass green vase is in the same room as the green animal print pillow.
in my opinion, they both complement each other
very well.

i bet you can guess i'm into white. i love both of these pieces.

i fell in love with this mirror the minute i laid my eyes on it. i just knew it was the perfect mirror to be placed on top of our fireplace. the asian outdoor stool was a splurge. but joss and main had it, and it was the cheapest i've ever seen it, so i took the plunge and ordered it.

and the piece de resistance..and if you can't tell, i am very proud of this particular one...

thanks younghouselove for the awesome tutorial.

and there you have it, some accent pieces that made my rental a home. for those of you that rent, how did you make your rental feel more homey?

No SLR here! Not even an iPhone =(

before i start posting more pictures (because that's what blogs do. and it's one of my favorite things about blogs) i have to warn you: i do not have an SLR camera. what i do have is a handy dandy DROID X and a few camera and photo editing apps. sad to say, i even just started using instagram and am addicted to it...lol.  you may see some overlap of pictures if you follow me. so i apologize in advance. bear with me as i save up my pennies and convince the hubs that we need an expensive camera. in the meantime, let me leave you with a quote:

my aunt gave me this, and it's my absolute favorite.
do you see how i'm trying to be fancy? i took the picture from the side =)

Accent pieces. Making a rental a home. Part 1.

we short saled our house late last year. the rental gods were with us, because we were able to find a beautiful, fairly new, 2 story house that accepted dogs.  yes, that's right people...ACCEPTED DOGS.  if you have never rented before, having dogs is a big red flag for the owners or property managers.  plus, my credit was shot because of the short sale. luckily my husband's credit was stellar. so the sweet owners took a gamble with us!

so we packed up all of our stuff. hired movers of course, and off we went. just to the neighboring city of south san francisco. and we love it! better weather, nice community, close to public transportation, and super close to costco, trader joe's, and bart. what more can anyone ask for?

our new house feels soooooo much bigger than our previous one. but, the only extra piece of furniture i had to buy was a kitchen table ( i went for a round white one + white chairs from ikea, by way of craigslist. gotta love craigslist).  i'm no interior designer, and i love to buy things on the cheap (ie Marshall's, TJ Maxx, craigslist, and Home Goods), but i really wanted to make this rental a bit more homey, without feeling cluttered. so here are a few of my fav accent pieces that i feel made a small difference in making our rental a home.

here we are in the kitchen. in hopes of organizing our travel magnets, i decided to place them strategically on the skinny side of our fridge vs on the front side.

we're still in the kitchen. this is a cool shelf corner by our sliding door that leads to the backyard. i love the owl figure and the small cookie jar on the top. and to bring it home, my cute niece's picture is here so we can see her every morning. i placed some cookbooks by the owl to anchor the whole "display".

those flowers are fake. i envisioned a pitcher being used as a vase with white flowers. thanks home goods and ikea!

what are your favorite accent pieces in your kitchen? tomorrow i'll take you through a few more of my favs. till then...

Happy Birthday dear 'ol blog

i'm jumping. eyes shut. heart wide open. i've been wanting to start a lifestyle blog for quite some time now but never had the courage to do so. i mean, who really wants to put themselves "out there" for the whole wide web to see. my plans for this blog are unknown. i guess it'll be about me...my thoughts, my likes, my wants, my experiences, my dreams. i'm hoping my voice will evolve and my purpose will surface. until then...Hi!  My name is Leia.  Nice to meet you =)

as an aside, today is a gorgeous day! but what am i doing (besides writing this post), or shall i say what i am supposed to be doing...writing my thesis.  HAPPY WEEKEND.