It is time to write, and rename

My friends and readers -  I have realized I no longer identify with the name of this blog. It simply isn't who I want to be. I love the goal of simplicity, and I love the fabulousness of the idea of being a diva, but somehow the name feels inauthentic to who I ultimately want to be. I want to be fabulous - I don't think I am a diva. (I just google searched diva - these are not the images I think of for myself. I was expecting fabulous women and mostly saw those girls that hold up signs at wresting matches. Maybe my google search is bonkers, but it just doesn't feel like me. I mean Beyonce is a fabulous diva, but do i really remind you of Beyonce?)

I also want to write and not liking my blog name is creating writers block (or just another excuse for it, if you look back at the 4 years of this blog I have a bunch of posts on writers block, maybe I am just lazy). Anyway, I want to write. I am taking on the task of an intentionally "low" budget wedding and I want to share that adventure and everything it means to me to both be engaged and be careful about celebrating in a responsibly extravagant way. I am halfway through my CPE program and I want to share everything I am learning from being in a multi faith setting surrounded by faith leaders who teach me so much. I have about 2 months left of my no purchasing of clothes for a year and I am happy to say I only cheated once and it was a $15 cheat to keep me warm in Italy over Christmas. Did I mention that I got engaged in Italy?

I am pretty sure that most of the people who read this talk to me often enough that you don't need a blog to tell you about my life, but in recent weeks I have realized the much of my creative energy is getting lost to the ether and I might need a blog as a tool to keep me engaged.

So, please join me in the next few weeks as my blog and I go on an identity seeking adventure. Hints on the new name are welcome.

be blessed,
Sarah

Day 64: Yesterday was Free Day at the Zoo

So, considering how AMAZING SF is, the SF Zoo is kind of, well anti-climatic. It isn't bad and after 5 and a half years I am glad I finally went. I went alone and was instantly surrounded by children off from school for the summer. Overall the place made for a fun stroll an some good photos. 

I have been being a HUGE slacker on the outfit photos- but I haven't been buying clothes. So, I win.

Day 56: Free Museum Day

I love that I live in a city where I can do so many wonderful things for free.

Today was free admission at The De Young, The Legion of Honor, and the Conservatory of flowers. My bike lock is missing and I wasn't in the mood to be on the bus- yes, I am that lazy, so I skipped the Legion of Honor and stuck to the De Young and The Conservatory of Flowers. 

I love the De Young and go less often than I would like, but often enough that 30-45 minutes roaming the permanent collection is just enough to bring joy to my heart and allow me to be inspired by beautiful art.

This is my favorite piece. Grape Juice and Sandwiches.
It was inspired by the artists time volunteering with the homeless.

Despite my LOVE for the white building that is the Conservatory of Flowers, today was the first time I went inside. My love for the building has grown, even if it is a bit suffocating. 

I wore a vintage red dress, but the light was bad when I wanted to take a photo.

Follow on Bloglovin

In case you didn't notice the billion emails from Google Reader letting you know they were shutting down- umm, you were supposed to switch to bloglovin yesterday, but I just did it today, so maybe you can too!

Day 55: Bangs & Shampoo

Saturday morning a glorious thing happened- I got my bangs trimmed for free by my friend Hannah. She is an exceptionally talented stylist, as in: she is the first person ever to be able to give me front bangs that don't fly in random directions and don't insist on being swooped. If you are in SF looking for someone to cut your hair I have 3 friends I can recommend- Hannah is the one that has most recently been willing to cut my hair for free and I am so grateful for her generosity!

Also, worth noting along with my bangs are my vintage earrings from Tantrum.
I love them! 

Speaking of hair, a few months ago I was in Houston staying with a friend and she had bulk containers in her shower in the place I expected shampoo and conditioner to be. When I asked her about them she said that she uses baking soda and vinegar mixes instead of shampoo and conditioner- with a rotation of shampoo and conditioner mixed in every few weeks. She also told me about washing her face by simply massaging the right kinds of oil into it. She has great hair and great skin. Before you think she is hippy and granola- she works in a corporate office, she is working on a law degree, she has amazing tastes in all areas art, food, culture- she does cares deeply about the environment. She also is clearly doing this for reasons other than being broke (see corporate job and law school above).

Her reasons: it is better for her hair and better for the world. Using these DIY products creates less waste and uses less chemicals.

I was already on board for using less shampoo- a few years ago I took on a Shampoo Simplicity Challenge inspired by GOOD and it worked out pretty well. I still only wash my hair every few days but I am always excited to find ways to consume less. (In general the less we consume the less we participate in global markets of exploitation- and sadly if you are not intentionally purchasing fair or community trade items it is likely that the farmers sourcing your goods are not getting a fair wage for their work- that includes your personal hygiene items.)

So, today I made the little shampoo mixture and washed my hair with it. Because all of the ingredients are things I had in my house- baking soda and water- and I used an old dish soap bottle the whole things was free, but most importantly: It works!

One table spoon Baking Soda per one cup water = clean hair.

I am currently collecting a list of DIY home and body ideas on Pinterest. I would love to hear your ideas.

Finally the daily outfit post:

Day 55

Day 54: A post about hiking on Friday

It is Pride weekend and if I was a good San Franciscan I would have photos of Pride. However, I don't love crowds, especially not crazy ones. I also really wanted to go to church today and it was my friend Elaine's baby shower.

Since I skipped the Pride festivities, I have instead chosen to share some pictures of my hike of Mt. Sutro. My friend Christy (often named here as the giver of clothes) and I went hiking on Friday. I was inspired to hike more by Oh Happy Day's post on urban hikes. We kind of did the Historic Trail but ended up following other trails along the way. Depending on the path you follow it can be fairly flat, but we had to hike uphill to get to the park. We both wanted the challenge of the inclines so we did choose to wonder  from the Historic Trail and climb some hills. 

Steep inclines and descends aside, the best park of this hike is that it is beautiful! I loved being in the city and so far from homes and paved streets at the same time. The woods are just dense enough that you really don't feel like you are in an urban area. It looks like you are in the woods. It felt like a much bigger adventure than it was and I was grateful to spend my Friday pretending like I wan venturing into the unknown. When we did come upon civilization it was unexpected and fun to look up at Sutro Towers from beneath it and then view it again from the top of one of the twin peaks.

I also get pretty excited about any view of the Golden Gate Bridge and this one was really fabulous.

There were multiple warnings about poison oak, and that meant I couldn't take my dog. Luckily, I didn't get poison oak. Overall the trail was amazing and I think I want to try to go running there as I start to train for a 10K trail run this fall.

In the next few weeks I plan to try out Mt Davidson and this week I am back-packing on the Lost Coast. I am loving that hiking and camping can be pretty inexpensive ways to enjoy life.

As for the outfit update, it has been fabulously sunny and I have been living in dresses.  

Day 53: I wore this yesterday as I sat in the sun at Dolores Park.

 My dress today was also amazing- I sadly forgot to take a photo of it in good light. 

Day 50: Tennis Lessons

Today marks the beginning of my third effort to learn to play tennis.

Once upon a time in High School I discovered that despite being in the top percentage of my class, I was not going to graduate because I was short a PE credit. So, I gladly dropped my AP German class and signed up for tennis.

After my first six weeks I received a B in the class. I was livid! I march up to the coach and expressed my anger and he informed me that only real athletes deserve to receive an A, and real athletes are not in PE they are in the athletics class. Needless to say I stopped participating and received the same grade the following six weeks. I also failed to learn how to play tennis.

In college I was again faced with the need to complete PE type electives for the purpose of graduation. I wanted to say some money and pay $40 for my PE class instead of $400, so I signed up for a class at the community college.

Each day of class my instructor would rail on about how community college students are slackers and a total waste of time to teach. A few weeks in I walked over to the registrars office, dropped the class and filed a complaint on the instructor. I then ended up paying way too much to take 3 PE classes at the university I was enrolled in and again did not learn how to play tennis.

Somehow despite these two experiences, a few weeks ago after running past the tennis courts at Golden Gate Park I felt the urge to ask Facebook if anyone had an extra racket and the desire to teach me to play tennis. My good friend Tom messaged me that he both had a racket and would teach me.

This morning I had the most helpful and patient tennis lesson I have had in my life! I obviously have a long way to go before I am not a terrible tennis player- in fact we didn't even get to the part where I played tennis, but it is so exciting to learn. I am also so grateful for someone who will teach me for free and I am that the game is free and almost every city in the US has free courts.

Once I am any good I think I am going to make it a goal to hot up all the courts in the city.

What is one thing you have tried and failed at before, that you wish you would try again?

This is what I am wearing today:

Day 50

The sun is out in SF

And one last thing before I go: 

I am so proud to be in SF right now and so HAPPY that the SCOTUS overturned Prop 8!!!