Calm

Whew. You would not believe the swirl of activity, the disasters narrowly averted, and the incredible marathon of manual labor that the last week has been. Last Friday we closed the sale on our house and promptly left town for a wedding at the mysterious and sublimely beautiful Bohemian Grove (the wedding was fabulous, by the way, and I made the hats for the entire wedding party -- in all the spare time I've had lately). We came home early Sunday morning and set to work painting, cleaning, and assembling furniture in the new place, not quitting until late into the evening. For the next 3 days, Mark would spend all day working on the place, and as soon as I got home from work I'd change into my grubby clothes and we'd continue working until close to midnight.

All this effort was because we had already booked our first renter for Thursday, so we had a definite deadline for completing all the work. It was an immense effort but we pulled it off, and despite a couple of near misses with our furniture deliveries, everything worked out in the end and the place looks great.

Last night we finally allowed ourselves to relax a little, cracking open the bottle of champagne that our realtor had given us at closing (which I'm finishing now by way of a mimosa -- ok, my third mimosa). In the meantime the new job has been great so far, and I'm starting to settle in and get a feel for my new responsibilities. I'm looking forward to next week, when I won't be burning the candle at both ends.

Oh, and it's Fleet Week here in San Francisco, which is one of my favorite times of the year. On Thursday my new coworkers and I watched the arrival of the Blue Angels from our office building which sits perched above downtown on the 16th floor, a perfect vantage point that looks out over Telegraph Hill and the bay. This weekend Mark and I will be able to watch them from the window of our living room, or while enjoying the pretty fall weather out on the front deck.

Things are calm again. I'm taking a deep breath and spending a moment enjoying the city again. I spent the morning cuddling the dogs, and now I'm drinking mimosas. Life is good.

Jacket: La Redoute
Top: Ann Taylor
Pants: Cynthia Steffe
Necklace: Rhapsodia
Earrings: Leslie Danzis
Shoes: Bettye Muller
Bag: Foley + Corinna

Cropping Up

Well, I warned you that these cropped pants would be, er, cropping up again soon. A weekend had intervened after the last wearing of them, I was at a different conference, and since aside from me there was virtually no overlap in attendance among my colleagues, I figured no one would be the wiser if I wore them again. This time I paired them with an equestrian styled blazer and leopard print blouse. The open-top shoes with bare feet proved to be the absolute wrong thing to wear for the soggy day it turned out to be, but other than that it was a great semi-professional outfit to wear on the first day of a conference.

I feel like red shoes would've looked better with this outfit, but I was lacking the correct red shoes to do the job, so I stuck with taupe. I did go with red earrings though.

Top: Forever 21
Blazer: Karen Millen
Pants: Cynthia Steffe
Shoes: John Fluevog

At the Crossroads

Yesterday's sweater dress wasn't the only gem I found at the Crossroads Trading Company; when I spotted this blazer I just knew it was going to fit me perfectly. I fell in love with the 40's-style wide lapels and beautiful tailoring in both the front and the back, and at $40 it was an amazing steal for a designer piece that's in perfect condition.

The blue sweater ended up being more hidden than I intended it to be, but the v-neck just left too much skin exposed for as cold as it was, so much of it was by necessity covered by the scarf. The sweater is a basic cashmere one and has been a wardrobe staple for many years; it was nice to bring it out again and layer it under this gorgeous blazer, and I like the way it picks up the subtle blue stripes in the skirt's pattern.

Blazer: Karen Millen England
Scarf: Banana Republic
Sweater: Nordstrom, ages ago
Skirt: La Redoute
Boots: Scoop in Copenhagen