Hi friends! It’s been a week or so, a few exciting things have happened, but still no house. Probably the most exciting is that Dan and I hung curtains in my office over the weekend and I am OBSESSED with them. We also went to one of my favorite restaurants in SF, and to hot pot, and to lunch at another place, and I went out for a GNO drinks sesh!
Ok first, the curtains. If you follow my insta stories (which is probably all of you because that’s how you find out I have a new post), you likely followed along with us as we went through one of our biggest relationship challenges. LOL, wow, compared to actual relationship challenges we’ve been though, that’s laughable, but still, it was a task. Apparently there’s a vertical stud anywhere there’s an outlet. Also, apparently you can get a screw into a stud, you just need to push a little harder, and going to Home Depot is not always necessary, though it was a nice break from each other for a few haha. I got the pink curtains on super sale at Anthro a few weeks ago and they’re sold out now, but they’re called the “Ardello” curtain, just in case they come back in stock, but these are similar. This is the curtain rod, and these are the white sheer curtains. Pain and suffering, included with every purchase. Also just felt inspired and ordered myself a laptop riser so I can remove the lotion boxes from under my laptop. Only took two years to do these things…
Before (yes that is a pillowcase I hurriedly hung up one day before a meeting to block the sun from my face, and also don’t pretend like your office isn’t this messy looking too!):
After (I’m also trying a new floorpan that does make the room look smaller but I actually love how I can see the whole room now). Next up is a cute new chair!
Next, I discovered this restaurant called Barzotto back when I first moved to SF four years ago. I took myself to lunch here one day before I knew anyone and really loved it – they even gave me a free dessert. I love it so much, that this is where I asked Dan to take me for my birthday dinner when we first started dating. We’ve been a few times since then, and most recently when we were driving home from a day full of open houses. It was delicious, as always. Then stopped at Target for laundry detergent.
Just got these Spanx leggings and I quite like them. They’re tight and a bit shiny so I do kind of feel like my legs look like a tightly saran wrapped sausage, but I don’t care because I love my legs and my husband loves my legs, and I just wear a little longer of a top. This top happens to be a turtleneck, I’ve been feeling them lately!
And amen for natural hair. Here’s a link to this post to the process of how I do my hair and link to another older post that includes the product I’ve been using for a loooong time – posts from 2014 & 2015! Also, LOLing really hard, because I got the tank I’m wearing in the first post in SF in like 2013, and it says “I Can’t Afford SF” which is just the prelude of a lifetime, and also of a lifetime.
Here’s a few (non-affiliate) links if you want to check them out!
- Treasure & Bond Turtleneck Sweater (wearing size small)
- Spanx Faux Leather Leggings (wearing size large)
- CDG Converse Sneakers
- Levi’s Sherpa Trucker Jacket (faux fur isn’t online anymore)
Another day last week it was just too cold to cook, so we went to one of our go-to hot pot places, iPot. We have a few favorite places locally that we alternate between, and this one has been one of my favorites for a while, partially for me because I can practice my Cantonese with most of them. And also because the food is good – they have lots of things Dan likes, but also lots of things I like, like crab rangoon and broccoli lolol. Dan will 100% always pick hot pot over anything in life. I also never realized how much my clothes smell like food after leaving some restaurants, hot pot is the worst of them all. Like, to the point that we wear clothes that we will wash that night, and I always need to wash my hair – look at all that food-smelling steam!
On Saturday, we woke up too late to eat breakfast, so we skipped right to lunch. I mean, honestly I’d eat breakfast at anytime, but Dan has a thing that he can’t eat breakfast past like 11, and if by 3pm we haven’t had lunch, then we will wait until dinner. Very adult-like of him, but I guess it keeps us from eating dinner at like 10pm like we would if he didn’t keep us on track. Anyways, it was very chilly out, yet again, so I wore my oldest, warmest sweater with another turtleneck. I mean chilly, like 50 degrees. I’ve gotten soft.
Finally, If you’re hosting this holiday season, may I recommend this homemade air freshener that will happily take up one burner on your stove for the duration of the entire day. Take these measurements with what you will, it’s what I remember, but I honestly don’t measure anything.
- 1 orange, slides like 1/4 inch thick with skin
- 1 cup-ish of fresh cranberries (no need to wash)
- 1 tbsp or so of vanilla extract
- 1/2 tbsp of whole cloves (apparently not safe for cats FYI)
- a few sprigs of fresh rosemary
- a few inches of water, will evaporate throughout the day, see pic below
Stick it all in a saucepan and turn the burner on low and let sit all day. Also, don’t use a wooden spoon to stir because the cranberries will stain it.
That is all for me for 2021! I’m happy to be back and look forward to seeing you all in the New Year. We have some exciting, but also truly nerve-wracking travel plans. We have lots and lots of masks and hand sanitizer packed, but I’m so excited to finally be taking a trip to my favorite place 😉
Happy holidays and I wish you all a safe and healthy New Year!
Steph
The Fashion Broad 