Mini Marquee Sign with Lights

We made this giant marquee sign last summer and I loved making it so when I saw these Mini Globe Lights I knew had to make a mini version. I actually made this project last month but forgot to take photos. So when I pulled them out of the bag the letters were a little bent after being ignored. They are made out of paper so if they are on a shelf they’ll be fine but from experience I just don’t recommend cramming them in a paper bag. This would be cute for a birthday party or even a Christmas party. Depending on how many letters have it takes 1-2 hours. The key to making this project go smoothly is getting the right glue. See instructions and photos below.

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Eiffel Tower Costume

This Eiffel Tower Costume is really simple and you probably have everything you need to make it at home right now. You could even add battery operated lights to make it sparkle if you wanted to get fancy. (This little costume makes me miss my old apartment.) You can see all of our Homemade Halloween series right here.

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Pop Up Dinner Party under the Golden Gate Bridge

The hardest thing about living in San Francisco is that people are always leaving you. Our good friends Christian and Brooke are moving away and Brooke mentioned she wanted to do some sort of special party for their friends. We talked it through and decided on doing a 20 person pop up dinner party on the beach under the Golden Gate Bridge. I have never done a dinner party outside for that many people (see my first dinner right here) so I called in for reinforcements. I asked my genius friend Andrea Pimental to do the food and so I just had to worry about logistics (ie: carrying tables and 20 chairs, and dinnerware all the way down to the beach.) It was a pretty epic party and a really special night. The weather was beautiful, the food was amazing, and it consoled our broken hearts a little to be able to toast our friends and say goodbye.

We held the party at Kirby Cove. We rented a picnic spot for the day which gives you permits for four cars. We had guests park at the top and then shuttled people back and forth down to the beach. Brooke’s sister Kelly chose the tablecloth to match the Golden Gate Bridge (it was perfect) and did the flowers and Brooke and Colleen made these photobooth favors for all the guests. They were little boxes with macarons and then they copied a photobooth photo they had and tied it around with twine. So clever, right?

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Summer Garden Party

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One of the reasons we loved this apartment (even though it is tiny) is it has a backyard. Our neighbors are gardeners and do an amazing job of growing a garden and maintaining all the beautiful plants. We love having a place we can be outside smack in the middle of the city. I’ve been excited to throw a party back here for a while. My friend Aubrey just returned from a long trip away all summer so it was a great opportunity to host a little dinner party in the backyard to celebrate her return. It was a really simple party. All I did for decoration is hang these cheap party lights. I also rented a tablecloth (it was $10) because sometimes it makes clean up a lot easier to just rent. It was the perfect summer party with twinkly lights and lots of salads and fresh produce. I hope we can have more this year before it gets too cold out.

Moving to Paris: Part 1

I am missing Paris this week. We have been home three months now and I have been trying to process the whole experience. I wanted to write down my thoughts on the subject before I forget everything. Moving abroad was definitely one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. Before we went Paul and I had always talked about moving abroad like a lot of people do. But the motivation really came when I was at a photo shoot for Anthology Magazine and the photographer and the artist (whose home we were shooting) were talking about the time they each had spent in Paris. And it sort of clicked, I realized that a lot of creative people I knew had “done their time” in Paris. I don’t think moving to Paris is necessary for being creative but I decided if there was any way we could make it happen, we should try.

We started to research about visas and we realized if we could both keep our jobs and work remotely from Paris then we wouldn’t have to go through the challenges of finding a job and getting a work visa (very difficult). We were also happy to find out that rent in Paris is cheaper than in San Francisco. Our two bedroom apartment in Paris which was in a nice neighborhood and had a small view of the Eiffel Tower was about $2500/month. In San Francisco a two bedroom in an equivalent neighborhood would be more like $3200/month. If you don’t live in a city that probably sounds like a lot but all the New Yorkers reading this I’m sure are rolling their eyes about how affordable it is! (On a sidenote, my sister moved to the French countryside at the same time and they have a huge Farmhouse for about $1500/month. She covers all of that in this post.)

The financial aspect for me was the most frightening. I don’t get nervous very often but it was terrifying putting ourselves in a place where we weren’t sure how much we would make (as freelancers our income is always inconsistent) or how much our monthly expenses would be. Sometimes people use words like “lucky” about us moving to Paris, and I know we are. But I want to sit them down and explain to them how scary it was moving to France. It put us so far out of our comfort zone in every way possible. We didn’t speak French, we didn’t know a soul, we didn’t even have a place to live, or (continue reading below)

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