Clover and I had the pleasure of spending Sunday afternoon hanging out in San Francisco’s Mission district with the ever lovely and stylish Anne, fellow blogger, mama, and thriftophile, of A Cup Full of Sunshine and her adorable youngest son Shane. I guess you could say she brought more than a cupful of sunshine up from Southern California too, because it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful San Francisco day!
When Anne emailed me regarding a giveaway I won on her blog a few weeks ago, and mentioned a pending trip to San Francisco and the possibility of a meetup, I was totally excited to get the chance to meet her in person and I’m so glad I did. She was gorgeous, of course, laid back and mellow, very down-to-earth, based on first impressions, I got the feeling she was a lot like me, which put me at ease pretty quickly and I felt like I was maybe even more chatty than I usually am when I first meet someone (yes Anne, that was me being chatty ;)
Of course, blogger meetups (this being my second) are interesting because you do already know quite a bit about one another and are meeting in the first place based on the fact that you share common interests. It’s surreal in the sense that it feels like you’re first meeting someone that you already know fairly well, which is weird, in a good way.
As for the outfits… first off, if we look a little awkward standing next to each other in the above pic, that’s because we weren’t (standing next to each other, that is)… with just the two of us and the kids, we didn’t get any pictures together so I photoshopped (pretty obviously so) pictures that we took of each other against the same backdrop, ha! I wanted to show our outfits side by side though, because I love how they sort of compliment each other and look as though they could have been styled by the same person.
Our little stroll down Clarion Alley made for some fun photo-ops amongst the murals. How cute are Shane and Clover together? They were such good sports about it too!
My skirt, which I’m pretty sure is a Gunne (the tag was cut out), and Clover’s sweet little dress were both finds from half-off day at the Salvation Army on Friday. As for those creatures behind us, Clover insists they are kangaroos, though I‘m gonna have to go with llamas.
Local color abounds in the Mission, and I love how Anne’s vintage Mexican dress fit right in with the cultural flavor!
Speaking of cultural flavor, we stopped for burritos and a beer at a little Taqueria, and chatted about our natural childbirth experiences among other things.
Diversionary tactics are key when thrifting with toddlers!
Knowing Anne’s love of music and vinyl, especially the good ol' classic 70’s stuff, I like the way this picture of her browsing the record section at Community Thrift kind of captures her in her element :)Sadly, there were no thrift scores for either of us, probably in part due to the fact that thrifting in the city can be pretty hit or miss especially in an area like the Mission where things get picked over pretty quick, and in part due to the fact that it can be really distracting to try to thrift with small children, especially in a new place.
Not to mention when mom’s blogger meetup just happens to cut into naptime… poor Shane had a bit of a rough time. Lucky for me Clover slept most of the drive down and was in pretty good spirits, otherwise I could have just as easily been in Anne’s shoes, I’m very sympathetic when it comes to that sort of thing!
Both kids were having a blast when we hit the bin full of nasty old sunglasses though!
Other shopping excursions included stopping in at Paxton Gate’s Curiosities for Kids, which was full of super neat stuff for young and old alike. I got a set of these cool vintage reproduction hand shadow cards to use for décor in Clover‘s room.
Then we walked down the street, to the magical store that is the original Paxton Gate. If you’ve got yourself an empty curiosity cabinet and want to fill it fast with amazing "treasures and oddities inspired by the garden and the natural sciences," then this is the place for you! It was definitely the place for me, I especially loved the plants… sea creature-esque bromeliads, succulent terrariums, and a little hothouse full of the most amazing array of carnivorous botanical wonders!
Unfortunately, a store filled with interesting little things to grab and touch and potentially break, as it turns out, is not ideal for browsing with toddlers, ha! go figure, especially when said toddlers aren’t at all stoked on the idea of staying in their strollers… luckily they had this lovely little zen garden area out back so we were able to release the kids into an enclosed area where minimal damage could be done :)Jeez, based on the size of this post, you’d think we spent three weeks together, not three hours! I go overboard sometimes, I know. Well, this was the point anyhow where naptime for young Shane could really be put off no longer, so Clover and I bid our new friends a fond farewell and headed off for one final destination…
… which involved walking past this amazing building (were you wondering where I was going with that?)…
… and ended with one of these, yum! Overall, a Sunday afternoon well spent I’d say! Anne, it was so lovely to finally meet you in person, I wish you lived closer so we could do it again sometime soon... maybe just not at naptime ;)P.S. If you don't already know Anne, I highly recommend checking out her blog and her Etsy shop full of vintage lovelies, she's got a shop with adorable vintage for kid's too!
