Weekends are for fun

This past week/weekend were a string of events based around spending time with a friend who is moving from Northern California to Southern California.  We had a group dinner and also went down to Laguna Seca for a weekends worth of fun.  I also tried to squeeze in some decompressing time and I have some more photos from my DSLR of the past events to share this week.  Until then, here’s a few iPhone photos.

Being silly at Lacey’s dinner send off in North Beach.

I’ve been checking out rock climbing/bouldering and I really enjoy it.  It’s like figuring out a puzzle and getting a work out, what more could you ask for? 🙂

We went to Laguna Seca for the Moto GP this weekend and it was AWESOME.  I have some photos to share from that.  The bikes fly around the course.

With Nicky Hayden in the Oakley Lab.

The good stuff!  I’ll be sharing more action photos some time this week 😀

Large city, empty streets

Last night on the way to a friend’s going away dinner, the streets seemed more quiet than normal.  Sometimes in one of the largest cities, you can have an incredibly peaceful moment.

Have a great weekend!

DIY Outdoor Wire Chandelier

Chels and I were perusing some stores the other day and free people had these amazingly, unexpected chandeliers hanging all over the store.  We started really looking at them and realized they could be easily made.  Since I’ve been working on my outdoor space little by little, I thought this would be a fantastic addition to that area.  I found this chandelier to be the perfect mixture of delicate and interesting.  This DIY is made of things that are subject to change depending on your taste but the staple things I needed were:

Wire (I used jewelry wire because I liked how thin it was)
Hot glue
String or fishing wire to hang
Floral arrangements and/or Beads, Feathers, etc.

I picked these two pieces out of the floral section of the local art store.

I cut the flower heads off of the bundle with about an inch of stem.  I then twisted the wire around the remaining stem and placed hot glue along the stem and wire.  I spread the flowers out evenly.

I then went through and twisted the jewels (which I cut with about 2-3 inches of string so they could dangle at different lengths) in between the flower sections.

The wire started out coiled so I pulled it apart so it was this sort of whimsical twist.

I twisted the two ends of the wire together and hung it from the post of my overhang.

This took maybe 10-15 minutes at most after collecting the pieces to create this outdoor chandelier.  I love it and when the weather starts to turn, I’ll just bring it inside and hang it somewhere inside 🙂

Comment with any questions and I’d be glad to help!

Summer Peach

I’m the type of person that mainly drinks water.  Lots and lots of water.  My main exception to this rule is coffee and the occasional glass of wine or beer.  I don’t love soda or juice very much but with these recent scorching days, I’ve been craving something a little more refreshing than just water.  Yesterday, I hit the store to try to concoct something refreshing to drink outside in the warm evening and highly enjoyed what I came up with so I thought I’d share 🙂

Ingredients: Peach concentrate (or juice of your choice), bubbly water, and a splash of coconut water (only if you enjoy it on it’s own).  I also added some fresh slices of peach because they are in season and I love summer fruit.

I did about 3/4 glass of peach concentrate and 1/4 of bubbly water with a splash of coconut water.

It’s a great summer refreshment that I thoroughly enjoyed on the porch last night.  I hope everyone had a great weekend 🙂

Spaces and Places

I find this city so inspiring in so many ways.  So many creative minds in one place.  I love taking photos of spaces and places all over San Francisco.  Below are two of my favorites lately.

This is Chelsea and my secret hide out.  When we are feeling a little overwhelmed at work we go to this spot and snack on ice cream.  I guess cats out of the bag now 🙂

Brie invited my over to her work office for a documentary night and I was in love with her company’s office.  It’s so modern and beautiful.  Not to mention, they feed their staff gourmet meals, host special nights (like the movie night we went to), and have a pet friendly environment – cute dogs everywhere!

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!

I always find myself back here

So many things going on lately, I’ve been too busy to ride for a few weeks.  Being busy has been a wonderful thing except for the fact that I couldn’t squeeze in some barn time.  I can’t go too long without getting out to the barn and no matter what, I always find myself back here.

Life lessons

#Dunlapwedding

I’ve known Fiona now for 8 years and I have to say, she is one of the kindest human beings I’ve ever known.  Throughout time I’ve seen her on the search for love and although I never thought she’d find it in Vegas, it’s in true Fiona fashion to have it fall upon her in one of the wildest cities in the world.  Being that Chris (Fiona’s now husband) is from the East Coast, he brought a whole group of new friends into our lives.  The union of not only their love brought new friends and family to all and it could not have been a better weekend.  It was one of those weddings where I felt like I could talk to anyone and not feel uncomfortable that we’d never met before.  Not to mention, it was in the middle of the Redwood Forest in Northern California.  It was beyond beautiful and we kept tagging everything #Dunlapwedding on social media sites so I figured, what else could this post be titled?!

The weekend ceremony and getaway was at the Ralston L White Memorial Retreat.  Gorgeous.  You curve back on these extremely tight one lane only roads that are canopied by some of the tallest trees in California.

The babies!

Heart shaped lawn.

Cruising the gardens!

BEAUTIFUL!

The Dunlaps!

Love them.

Their cake was beautiful and extremely delicious.  Also, their cake topper was made specifically for them and it was crazy how much it looked like them!

Friends 🙂

Father/Bride dance, so moving.  This is my favorite photo I have from the wedding.

Chico table 🙂  Where beach cruisers used to be our main means of transportation, I miss those days *sigh*

We danced the night away but the dj never did the bouquet or garter toss so we did them the next morning 🙂

The boys decided instead of tossing the garter, they’d battle for a frisbee which would be equivalent to the garter.

Winners, one from the West one from the East.

Fiona and I re-enacting the wedding for some silly reason.

Breakfast in Mill Valley.

After the Dunlaps took off to pack for their Hawaiian honeymoon, we took the East Coast boys to see some Northern California sites.  We packed the cars and headed to the coast.

Sarah, me, Shannon and Kimmie.  Friends since college!

Overlooking Stinson.

Classic jump photo.

I really do love living in Northern California.

🙂

Sarah ❤

Muir Beach Overlook.

Group shot 🙂

Overlook.

There’s nothing I love more than spending time with friends and watching the happiest day of their lives happen.  Fiona and Chris are such a great match and I loved nothing more than seeing them tie the knot.  It was a great weekend and I look forward to many more like it with old and new friends!

My city drive and street driving, on another level

With the drop of the amazing Gymkhana 5 video that Ken Block released yesterday, I thought I’d share his video and my rally pictures from X-Games.  This drive Ken Block does at the beginning of the video into the city is my exact drive to work (if I were to drive and not take the train).  All of the Gymkhana videos he has made have been AMAZING but this one is extra special since it was made in my city 🙂  I’ve also been introduced to the rally/autocross world over the past few years and find it to be very fun.  If only you could rip around a car with no worries of wrecking it and the city blocking off streets all over for you.  Oh yes, and helicopters following and filming.  They really go large scale to make these videos that are nothing short of incredible.  Watch and welcome yourself to San Francisco!

At X-Games, the cars would open their doors and drive slow after a race lap.  I’m sure to let all of the heat out and/or get some fresh air running through.

Getting ready.

In the pits.

Subaru.

Design your own car!

View from the pits.  The hot wheels loop and downtown LA.

Cool down.

The pits!  You could walk around and check out all the cars and crews.  Pretty cool to see it all up close and personal.

They sectioned off a bunch of LA streets to create a street rally course in downtown.

We got dangerously close for a bit.  You can see a bunch of the tire tracks from practice.

Crowds lined the entire street course to see the crowd favorites Ken Block and Travis Pestrana.

Gold – Sebastian Loeb, Silver – Ken Block, Bronze – Brian Deegan.

Behind the scenes – to walk around to get to different parts of the X Games there were all of these back walkways to get around the crowds with special access.  I thought this was awesome, you could walk, skate, bike, moto, or anything with wheels.  Not only were there stairs everywhere but ramps.

X-Games VERT!

Massive.

Jamie Bestwick was majorly impressive and made it look effortless.

A few spills but everyone was OK.

HUGE.

Medal Ceremony.
Gold – Jamie Bestwick, Silver – Vince Byron, Bronze – Simon Tabron.

The elevated balconies in the middle is where I got all my shots from.  Media access is AMAZING.  Talk about incredible views all around.