this week i've been...

Viewing...

Pieces from the Masterpieces from the Musee National Picasso exhibit at the De Young Museum. This current exhibit has on display Picasso's personal collection. The paintings, drawings, and sculptures featured are pieces that the renowned artist kept in his private collection, seen only by his close family and friends. In fact, it wasn't until his children donated the collection to the Musee National after Picasso's death did the public have the privilege to view these works of art. I was absolutely moved by this exhibit because of how personal it really feels. Being his private collection that he held onto until his death, you feel a connection with the artist because it almost feels like a glimpse into his personal life. An absolute must see. 

Welcoming...

Madeline Isabella

My cousin Patricia who was 37 weeks pregnant gave birth to her beautiful daughter, nicknamed Maddy, this past Friday morning at 2:38am. My whole family has been excited and anxiously waiting her arrival  because she is the first grandchild (grandma is my Mom's sister) on my mother's side of the family. The picture on the left is me with Maddy on day one, and the picture on the right is me with Maddy on day two. Maddy is just the sweetest little thing. She's the spitting image of father according to his baby pictures. I'm so excited for my cousin and her new family. I can't wait to snap more pics of Maddy. I feel incredibly privileged to be able to see this wee little one from day one and looking forward to her growing in the many coming days to come.

Taking...

Pictures! Lots and lots of pictures to be exact. Sunday morning my friend Joy asked if I could take pictures of her and her daughter Sidney. I happily obliged. We headed to the small and foggy beach town of Pacifica in search of the perfect place. The fog lifted around noon and although it made for beautiful weather, the bright noon sun really wasn't helpful in regards to taking photos. That said, we hung around anyway and managed to produce some beautiful photographs. However, I was eager to take more photographs of this gorgeous mother/daughter duo in better light, so I've scheduled another photo session that I'm really looking forward to next Sunday. This time around we'll be frolicking about San Francisco early in the morning. Sooooo looking forward to some more time with my favorite mother/daughter duo. 

Missing...

Lots of things. I finally got around to updating my iPhone and I've finally added new pictures and deleted some very outdated old ones. Looking through them I felt the pangs of nostalgia because most of the pictures are from my travels. So here's a sampling of some of my favorite iPhone "camera roll" pictures. 

• First picture is of souvenirs being sold in Paris found in small permanent carts along the Seine. This absolutely makes me miss being on vacation. I miss shopping for hidden and unique items to bring back home. I miss bargaining with street vendors for souvenirs. You figure you're not going to see them anytime soon, so you might as well take the piss out of them and annoyingly bargain as hard as you can. In my case, any money saved went towards sweets for my later consumption. 
• Second pic is of me with purple hair and short bangs! My hair was like this for nearly two years, 2009-2010!! I miss it but I'm so lazy I got tired of the maintenance. My current hair is just dark brown and currently sports severely grown highlights that haven't been retouched in 6 months! 
• Third is a picture of me holding my favorite combo of strawberries & butter pecan gelato. The particular serving I have in hand is from Holy Gelato. I have eschewed carbs at the moment and although I don't find it too difficult to avoid them, there are just some moments when my mood can ONLY be improved by some form of sweet creamy frozen dairy. 
• Fourth,  I miss checking out well dressed men.... especially in London. Why you ask? Because there are many well dressed men in London. You know the cardigan, plaid shirt, fitted jean, leather loafer wearing type of man that you can just imagine possesses insanely great taste in music (aka same as mine) with at least a dozen tattoos. Okay... a tad specific there and not necessarily a rarity in San Francisco & Chicago (places I currently both call home), but they just don't possess proper British or European accents. Which when it comes to dating men, is a prerequisite in my book.