Ali Z

mood board: how do you do April!

After way too many days of rain the sun has finally come out and warmed up San Francisco. Could it be that spring is here? In celebration of all this sunshine, I've made a little mood board for the month. This April, I'm feeling neutrals and gray with a pop of orange. I'm also loving the combination of lace, stripes, and polka dots. What are you feeling this month?

the perfect Sunday: magazines and a scone

This morning I had some quiet time to finally catch up on my growing stack of magazines. I made my way through them all including the new issue of Anthology that I picked up last week. I love the format and cover stock, but I'm always a sucker for a nice matte finish. My other favorite was the Toast home catalog. Toast does an amazing job creating something that's much more than just a catalog. Their images tell a story and are impeccably styled. Topping off my favorite way to spend a Sunday was snacking on my favorite scone from an adorable bakery called Vanilla Moon. I'm so happy to finally have a decent bakery down the street from my house. I hope your Sunday was filled with some of your favorite things.

{ In my stack from the bottom up: Lucky, Sunset, Nylon, Marie Claire, Anthology, Toast Home, Toast Spring 2011. }

Fernando finds: vintage cookbooks

I'm introducing a new column to my blog this week, everyone meet Fernando, the new star of "Fernando Finds". He's a tiny little bird with a great eye for finding unique goods, which is no surprise because he was a gift from a friend who shares his great taste. I thought what better way to bring you fun treasures than through the eye of little vintage Fernando, but I also apologize if you end up with the Abba song stuck in your head, or lady GaGa's song for that matter. Fernando's first finds are some sweet vintage cookbooks. Although these books are old, the illustrations inside are still contemporary and inspiring. Have a look at a few of Fernando's favorites:

project file: flower arrangement

I'm taking the "Blogging Your Way" class with Holly from Decor8 and Leslie from A Creative Mint. My project for the weekend was to arrange and photograph some flowers. This was the perfect project for me right now because I'm in full spring fever mode and going shopping for flowers was just what I needed. I'm a beginner at this photo stuff, but I'm happy with how it came out. I kept the props simple, though I actually made the vase they are in out of a plastic whole foods container and some pretty grey lace paper I found on one of my trips to Japan Town. Thought I'd share it with you. How do you think I did?