Original Hem...

Being short, I have to get most of my pants and skirts altered, as well as the sleeves of long-sleeved shirts, jackets, etc.

Jeans are particularly chellenging, since a lot of cute jeans have distressed hems that complement some distressed detail on the pockets, legs, butt, etc. Also, jeans always have contrast stitching (traditionally yellow-gold thread), and if you cut off some of the leg and sew the hem, the thread is never going match the original thread quite exactly right.

The solution is to take the jeans to an excellent tailor who is expert in what they call "original hem". They remove the original hem, shorten the leg, and put the original hem back on. If the jeans are either flared or tapered, they also have to manipulate that little bit of hem so it fits back on just right. When done well, you can't even tell that the jeans were altered. I cheerfully pay twice as much for original hem than for regular shortening because it makes the jeans look so much better.

I like Walnut Cleaners near my home in San Francisco. Of all the places I've tried (including Nordstrom) they do the best job.
Their tailor is amazing; the hems are perfect.

Check out my photos. Inside out, you can see the Frankenstein amputation and reattachment of the fabric, but from the outside, you can't even tell anything was done!


Walnut Cleaners
2211 Chestnut Street
San Francisco , CA 94123

(415) 921-0495

Beard Papa's Green Tea Creampuff

I might be the last person in San Francisco to have tried a Beard Papa creampuff.
Beard Papa is a Japanese brand of French creampuff (ah, globalization!) that landed first in Manhattan and is spreading to major and minor cities via franchises. Luckily, though we are a minor city, we have some Beard Papas here in San Francisco.

The creampuffs come filled with either vanilla custard, chocolate, or a rotating special flavor, like green tea custard or coffee custard. They also come as an éclair; the éclair is the vanilla creampuff topped with chocolate. The outer shell of the creampuff is crisp and flaky and the inner shell is sort of soft and chewy, and the custard is delicious and not super-sweet. After having my first one, I now realize what all the fuss is about.

But I still think that if you're going to consume some egg-filled, high-cholesterol custard-y dessert it should be crème brûlée!

The Supernatural blah de blah

My foundation has sunscreen in it, but I only apply it to certain parts of my face, and very lightly, usually. I'm not the most religious about sunscreen, although I always aim to be. I try different ones constantly, looking for something that has a light texture, doesn't smell like sunscreen, and doesn't make my skin feel like it's been been daubed with a beignet.

I kind of like Neutrogena "Dry Touch" sunblock--it's got the light texture and a matte finish, but it really, REALLY smells like sunscreen (a sweet-ish, bug-spray, deodorant tampon sort of fragrance). Plus Neutrogena is just so... drugstore.

One of my co-workers (well, technically an ex-coworker. She left to go to college) let me try her Murad oil-free tinted sunscreen , and I was pretty close to buying that the other day. I even had it in my hand. But a salesperson or beauty expert or associate or whatever they are called at Sephora showed me Philosophy's the supernatural tinted SPF. It's oddly peach-colored, but the peachiness disappears almost as soon as you apply the cream. I'm extremely wary of "one tint fits all" cosmetic products, but I have seen peach work better than white in several instances, most notably this Bliss cuticle cream that I think Bliss discontinued. It was peachy-brown and made dry white cuticles disappear.

The Philosophy stuff is very light and non-smelly, and the very subtle tint disappeared on both DD and me. I'm going to try to get into the habit of wearing it on my face, chest and backs of my hands every day. My mom was a middle-school PE teacher for many years (now she's a science teacher). She worked outside, and we lived in the desert. She looks great now, except for her leathery, prematurely-aged skin. I can't let this happen to me!

Read about the peach sunscreen stuff...

Heelys - Not Just For Kids... Really.

One of the great athletic pleasures of my childhood (and adolescence, and heck, my adulthood) was skating. First there was rollerskating, at which I and every other kid my age was a whiz. The difference for me was that my mother (a PE teacher, volleyball and basketball coach, and killer on the tennis court) was never the "be careful, honey!" type. No, she was more like Bela Karolyi with a ball. Harder, faster, and more daring was her motto. I recall her on a ladder pounding volleyballs at me and bellowing "SACRIFICE YOUR BODY!" as I dove here and there to bump the ball. I still wake sweating on occasion thinking BUMP SET SPIKE! I think I was in fifth grade, being coached two years ahead of time to try out for seventh grade volleyball. Goaded by my mother's athletic ethic, which I feared more than falls and scraped knees, I rollerskated, rollerbladed, skateboarded and cycled like a fiend. Rollerskating and rollerblading were probably my favorite things, and I spent many a day ditching college classes and rollerblading from Will Rogers State Beach to Redondo, past the Santa Monica Pier and Venice Beach somewhere in the middle. Oh, Southern California! Anyhow, I love skating of all types.

The reason people my age still skate and baby boomers don't is because when we were kids, skates were already pretty good, and when boomers were kids, they were rickety pieces o' crap which you had to, like, unlock with keys and whose wheels would barely turn. Bad sports equipment sets you up for failure. Kids these days won't stand for lesser ball bearings than ABEC 7s in their wheels.

There are two rather strange and futuristic-functional types of shoes I've been coveting for some time. One is a pair of expensive, hella-ugly walking shoes from Bliss Spa that are supposed to really shape your legs and butt up fast as you walk around in them. I want them, but it's hard to spend so much for something so ugly, when you're not really 100% sure they're any better than a regular good walking or running shoe.

The other, much more affordable shoe I've been wanting, and just got, are Heelys. Heelys have a little wheel in the heel of each shoes. I've enviously watched everyone's kids rolling and walking around in these things, and I finally got a pair for myself. Heelys are quite different from regular skates, so it takes some practice to understand how to use them. I got them yesterday and spend the greater part of last night rolling around on my hardwood floors. I'm sure my downstairs neighbor loved it (if she could hear it over her blaring TV). Then I spent the greater part of this morning rolling around the smooth floors at Ross Dress For Less, looking for discount shirts.

They make Heelys in adult sizes, and they're well under $100. I wish everyone could be on wheels, all the time!

Crystal Pave Skull Necklace

DD gave me this necklace for my recent birthday--it's a pave skull and crossbones, with Swarovski crystals. It's Tarina Tarantino. I've been pining for the thing for months. I love it so much that I've worn it practically every day since then.
The ultimate reaction to this accessory was my CEO's disapproving comment, "A jeweled skull?!" A fashion criticism coming from someone with an iron-gray bowl haircut and lots of fleece--I'll take that as a compliment.

Two things have gotten me really into red, white and blue (and neither of them is the American flag):

One is my Blackletter calligraphy teacher, Ward Dunham. From him, I learned that Blackletter calligraphy is always, well, black and white, unless an accent color is added, and that's always a beautiful vermillion red. If a second accent color is added, it's always ultramarine blue. I've looked at pages and pages of old Blackletter texts (reproductions) and all that black on white, with red and blue imprinted itself mightily on my brain, apparently, for I'm now crazy for red and white, blue and white, black and white, stripes, pirates, skulls, and, uh, espadrilles.

The second influence was the film Blood Tea and Red String. If you can find this charming, dark, disturbing and sweet handmade stop-motion animation fairy tale at your local independent video store or Netflix or whatever, you must watch it, and you'll see why. The colors are saturated, primary and beautiful, and there's a lot of red and white stripes, red spider silk, white porcelain tea cups filled with blood tea, and an unfortunate blue bird.

Smallest Coolest Starts 4/9!

Apartment Therapy's Smallest Coolest contest starts today.
YAY!
People who have cool living spaces 650 sq feet or smaller enter photos of their home style, decor, small-space solutions and overall design cleverness. The prizes are various furniture gift certificates. It's fun to look at the photos, but even more fun are all the bitchy comments from the peanut gallery-- everyone who follows the contest, looks at the photos daily, and viciously critiques the entrants. They also rip apart everyone else's comments. It's great fun and I enjoyed lurking around the 2006 Smallest Coolest Contest, although I never commented.

it's at Apartment Therapy.

The Itoya Paperskater

My latest pen of choice is the Paperskater by Itoya. It's a rollerball-y type pen, with super quick-drying ink. The ink just flows out very smoothly, and the line is fine and crisp. Even my left-handed Dear Daniel uses them, with no smudging problems so far.
There are some people who enjoy a pencil cup that's filled with several of the exact same pens (or pencils), and I am one of them! For some reason this makes me happy and calm, and I feel that things are orderly and abundant when all the pens in my pencil cup are of the same type. When I worked at the front desk at my work, I used to try to keep the pen cup there filled with matching pens. Customers would use the pens to sign their invoices. But the pens would always disappear, and worse--much worse--my coworkers would deposit different, unmatching pens and pencils and Sharpies and paperclips and gum wrappers into the customer pencil cup all the time. It was never going to be the way I wanted it, so I had to force myself to give up. I still get a pang every time I see that pencil cup (usually either empty or with two or three decrepit, unmatched pens in it).

Home is a different story altogether! Home is where one can have a pencil cup with seven or ten of the exact same pens, all of which write, none of which have been infected with the latest flu virus.

Whimsical Drawings by Hayes Roberts

I used this drawing of bees with their hive for my company newsletter, which I design and lay out. It's called the Bee, and each issue has a different bee on the title page. The artist is extremely friendly and easy to work with, his license fee is ridiculously reasonable, and he responds to queries right away. If you need whimsical drawings of insects, animals, forests, or dinosaurs, check out bluebison.net.

Black Paper, Gel Ink

I have about a hundred different Gelly Roll by Sakura pens; the Gelly Roll Metallic and Gelly Roll Moonlight show up beautifully on dark paper. I really like Strathmore Artagain recycled black-fiber paper for doodling with these pens. I like Gelly Roll's amazing range of colors, but Sanford Uniball Gel Impact Metallic pens have a broad, 1.0 mm tip and lay down a consistent, heavy flow of silver or gold ink. DD mentioned to me that the art department at his workplace uses them for signing posters and photographs, and last year's holiday cards, which were done on dark brown paper. Apparently they come (or used to come) in a range of metallic colors, but I've only been able to find silver and gold widely available. If you need silver or gold ink for whatever reason, Sanford Uniball Gel Impact are the best.